Florens

Florens (a.k.a. The Spectre)

Left on the doorstep of a Claezen temple as a baby with no idea who his parents were. Raised by the temple priests and acolytes in and around the temple. After years of training, he was named a Paladin and then devoted his life to being one. Florens met Helvia Calatina. She was a human woman. Over the next year, they fell in love. Evil priests kidnapped Helvia and Florens had to find, kill them and save Helvia. He was too late. Before him High Priest Dannicus was holding a bloodied knife and at his feet was the body of Helvia. Florens was knocked unconscious and imprisoned. Meanwhile, Florens was framed for Helvia's murder. Florens was rescued by his old mentor Elwin. Elwin told Florens to flee and come back when he was strong enough to get revenge. Florens refused and hunted down Helvia's killers straight away. Florens found and killed High Priest Dannicus and got his revenge. Having no proof of Dannicus' wrong doing, Florens was now wanted for double murder. Florens fled Icudo to Otholia and joined the Seers of Summershield.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Left on the doorstep of a Claezen temple as a baby with no idea who his parents were. Raised by the temple priests and acolytes in and around the temple. At the age of 20 once reaching maturity they started training him to be a Paladin and he started training to use a variety of weapons. He was trained by an elf Paladin named Elwin who also taught him Elvish and was his mentor. After 5 years of training, he was named a Paladin and then devoted his life to being one. This meant his role at the temple changed from helping with rituals as an acolyte to focusing completely on his training and doing other things such as guard duties. Being a Paladin gave him more freedom and he was allowed to leave the temple freely whereas before he was only allowed to leave when High Priest Dannicus allowed him to do so. Given this freedom, Florens quickly started exploring the local area whenever he could as he was required to be at the temple most days.
Whilst spending time away from the temple, Florens met Helvia Calatina. She was a human woman in her early 20s. Over the next year, they spent as much time together as they could and fell in love. Helvia then revealed to Florens that she wasn't born in Icudo. She was in fact from the Otholian Empire. Her father was a merchant who lived in Otholia but he, his wife and their young daughter fled the county when they declared war on the Nafu. They ended up hiding in Ravenna and gave themselves a new identity but they still worshipped the gods of the Otholian Empire. Being in love, this didn't bother Florens but he knew the zealous High Priest would not stand for it. He condemned People in his temple from being in relationships let alone with someone from another religion. Knowing this, Florens and Helvia made a plan to move away from Ravenna to the city of Viroconium Cornoviorum. Flornes could easily transfer to the temple there as it was the largest temple in the area and needed a lot of Paladins. Helvia helped her father in their family shop and started saving her money, Florens was also given a small wage from the temple for being a Paladin so he saved this. After a few months they had collected enough money and in the dead of night planned to leave.

Florens left Helvia on the edge of town to go and collect the horse he had bought. When he returned she was gone and all that was left was their bags which had been torn open and discarded. His first thought was that bandits had attacked her but he found an amulet on the floor by the bags which he recognised as an amulet only a senior acolyte from the temple would have. He guessed that High Priest Dannicus had found out about everything so he went to the temple as quickly as possible. When he arrived there were no Paladins on guard which was unheard of. He burst into the main room where all the rituals took place. He was too late. Before him High Priest Dannicus was holding a bloodied knife and at his feet was the body of Helvia. Florens rushed forward but was grabbed from behind by two people. Two more appeared from behind the High Priest who stripped Florens from his armour and put him in chains. He was then knocked unconscious.

He was woken up by the feeling of water hitting his face. As he came too, a big splash of water hit him. He sat up with a jolt and looked around. He was in what appeared to be a makeshift prison cell. Elwin was standing before him holding an empty bucket. Florens remembered what had happened and jumped to attack Elwin. The chains on his wrists and ankles kept him just out of reach. Elwin then explained that he had no part in what had happened and was horrified. Human sacrifice was not part of the Claezen religion. Elwin had had suspicions about the High Priest since he first arrived at the temple. He decided to find out some more information about the elf. He contacted the temple in Viroconium Cornoviorum which is where he came from. He showed Florens the letter which they had sent to Elwin. It detailed the reasons why Dannicus was deemed unfit to lead the largest temple in the area. He was seen as overly zealous, almost to the point of being a fanatic. He was sent to the temple in Ravenna partly as punishment and also to keep him from getting any more power without making his ideals public which would reflect badly on the religion. Elwin said that he had sent word to the Cornoviourum temple of the sins committed by Dannicus and his senior acolytes whom he had fantasized about and hoped that they would send paladins to come and help him arrest them all. Elwin then pulled a key out once Florens believed he had no part in the murder of Helvia and unlocked the chains.

Elwin told Florens to leave quickly and get far away. He handed him some basic armour consisting of a chestplate and some leggings and a sword. Florens hesitated as he left. He then grabbed Elwin and shoved him into the makeshift cell. He slammed the door shut and locked it. Elwin tried to convince Florens to just leave and that he would take care of Dannicus but it fell on deaf ears. He made his way up from the basement into the main ritual room. The six most senior acolytes were cleaning the room from Helvias blood. Her body was nowhere to be seen. Florens didn't hesitate, he rushed forward and after a flurry of slashes, there were six bodies in front of him. He looked at what he had done and felt no remorse. He then headed towards the High Priest's room. When he entered, Dannicus looked at him in pure fear. Flornes was covered in blood holding a sword still dripping from it. He stood up to try and run but Florens was too quick. He dropped the sword and tackled Dannicus to the floor. He pounded his head into the floor several times until the High Priest almost lost consciousness. He then put his hands around his throat and squeezed. He wanted to make sure Dannicus knew it was him. The High Priest stopped breathing after a short while. Florens then grabbed his sword and cut his throat to be sure. He then stood up and looked around. He saw himself in the mirror and was horrified at what he had done. He believed those he killed had deserved it but this was a sacred temple in which he had spilt holy blood. Whether Dannicus was innocent or not, he was still a high priest.

Florens looked around and saw a leather pouch on the desk. He recognised it as the one he and Helvia had used to put their money in. It looked like Dannicus was counting it. A drawer at the bottom of his desk was open, Florens looked inside and found more gold. There must have been more than double what Florens and Helvia had saved. Even a High Priest should not have this much so Florens guessed he had been taking his share from the money donated to the temple. Florens collected it all and made his way to the small weapons room. He exchanged his bloodied armour and sword for clean ones and made his way out of the temple. He knew what he had done was punishable by death even after Dannicus' crimes. He had plenty of money and knew he had to get far away. He went to where him and Helvia were supposed to leave from and found his horse was still there. He got on it and headed in the opposite direction from his original plan. He was unsure of where to go and rode south. he knew there was a dwarven port nearby so he headed there. He had enough money to get some dwarves to smuggle him somewhere no questions asked. When he arrived at the port he found a merchant vessel heading for the Kingdom of Kretus. Florens thought this was good enough. He paid the dwarves their gold and waited for them to leave. During this time he visited a local smith. he was surprised to find that some of the armour was larger than what would fit a dwarf. The Smith explained that was because this was the largest port in the area so a lot of 'bigger' people came through the area. Florens sold his horse and used the money to buy some boots and bracers and also a dwarven shield. he then returned to the merchant ship and they set off on their journey.

The vessel docked at Sidi Okfroun on the west coast of the Kingdom of Kretus. From here Florens decided to head towards Summershield as this was where Helvia had apparently come from. He joined another smaller trading vessel heading through the elven rivers towards Kirkwall. Once docked at Kirkwall he was running low on funds so had to walk the rest of the way to Summershield. He had just passed the village of Hempholme when he heard the sounds of battle. He got his weapons ready and headed towards the sounds. He saw a small caravan party of around 8 people fighting a group of bandits of at least 12. There were six members of the caravan doing most of the fighting. They looked a lot more heavily armoured and had better weapons. The other two were the ones driving the two caravan wagons and only had small daggers. The 6 fighting were outnumbered at least 2:1 so Florens decided he had no choice but to help them. He knew that in the eyes of his gods, he had sinned and he would fight for his forgiveness by helping those in need, he had prayed to Zaelia, the goddess of forgiveness every night since the murders. Florens rushed in killing 2 bandits before they even knew he was there. The bandits had very little armour and training. Florens had spent years training and although this was his first real battle he dispatched three more bandits with relative ease. The remaining few bandits then turned and ran, but no one gave chase. The fight was won. Florens noticed one of the drivers had been wounded so he healed him as best he could with what he had. One of the mercenaries came over to Florens and thanked him for his help. He explained that he was part of a mercenary company who were hired to protect the caravan from Kirkwall to Summershield. Given that Florens had saved the party or at least stopped anyone from being killed, the mercenary said he had earned a share of their payment and offered Florens to stay with them for the rest of the journey.

After reaching Summershield, the mercenary told the leader what Florens had done. The leader gave Florens a choice. He could either have 20% of the earnings from the job or he could take 5% and be given a job. Florens decided to take the job. He was looking for forgiveness and if the job involved more good deeds such as protecting caravans then he would do it.

Florens, born 5th Ignivara 988 in Viroconium Cornoviorum, Icudo. Died 7th Solara 1013.

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Alignment

Lawful Good

Age

25

Date of Birth

5th Ignivara 988

Birthplace

Viroconium Cornoviorum

Gender

Male

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pasty Green

Height

6ft 1'

Weight

180lbs