Roland, the Forsaken

Major content spoiler. This is the public visible plot for the novel concerning Roland, my Immortal. We will discussing major plot points, highlights and potential outcomes of various key scenes. Also we discuss relationships between different characters and potential strategies and/or tragedies.
If you want to read ahead, you were warned. And if you dive willingly into the plot: have fun. :)

Part 1 - A blacksmith with a sword

What we do for love

In the past of the world there was a blacksmith called Roland. He was very normal for a human and somehow got to know the High Elf Althaea and both fell in love. They had a normal, more or less happy life because Althaeas parents weren't too thrilled to have a "generic" human in their family. But they were High Elves, so they had time. More time than a human could ever have.

On a supply run Althaea was killed by a troll and Roland did what every human with a common sense would do: he tried to get her back. This is written here if you want to take a look: Roland - What we do for love in Tales of Koria .

A man waiting to die

Roland and Althaea lived a good life after her resurrection. Yes, there were a few things which were odd, to say the least. The amount of ghosts all over the Daveldare Mountains which had to be brought back to their afterlives by the Spiritfarers. The Eternal Death had forged a new afterlife for them, but that was a thing the mortals weren't concerned with.

They were concerned with that Roland, despite being now 90 years old, still looked and moved like he was in his early 30's, 32, to be precise. They were even more concerned with his ability to survive illness, broken bones and an arrow to the lungs (someone was jealous, thats another story). Roland never told them what the Eternal Life said to him and what his assumption was. He told them what he had to do and what he learned and theorised that his adventures were the reason for his long life and immortality.

Nobody was sure about it and even scholars and medical personnel couldn't grasp what was going on with the human. Then Althaeas parents died and the experiements stopped for a while. He lived with Althaea still near the Daveldare Mountains and made a name for himself and them until they retired and made themself ready to die. Althaea, not Roland.

As they died, a thing in Roland died with him. A large chunk of his heart. He grabbed his things, put the medaillon around his neck and burned the smithy to the ground.

A gaping wound

Roland has lost everything. His smithy - okay, that was his own doing - his beloved partner, the love of his life and everyone he knew and hold dear was gone. Dead, dust in the winds of time. He was trying to feel something or to die. So he tried various measures. Eating the spiciest food, diving to the depths of lakes, angering a Djinn, trying to battle an entire army or jumping into a volcano.

At the end of the day he had to admit defeat. Even when he was burned to a crisp or entirely vaporated, he came back. Sometimes where he dropped dead, sometimes at a different place, sometimes with his clothes or without them. His various fruitless attempts at recreating the ritual to make contact with other gods, or even the Eternals, failed spectacularly. So he tried to feel or forget in the city of Xandoria, the pleasure city of Prívía. There he bought splendour, luxus, people. He made a living with blacksmithing, magical trinkets and picked up goldsmithing until he somehow was caught in the Underground.

Roland made a spectacular living, honed his skills in smithing, sword fighting and magical abilities until he caught the attention of Xandoria. Which was not too bad, but the god was not so amused that there was another undying being in the city, so Roland gave them his business and left the island. He wasn't banished, but wouldn't return so fast.
As a last attempt for even a bit of feeling that is not pain he ventures to the Garladans, let they capture him for their experiments. After a time he had enough of their aimless experiments, burns down the labs and leaves Chanvilesia.

Part 2 - To be a War Mage

After he left the island he visited the Caves of Joy a few times, did a few errands, rescued the child of one of the owners and figured, that he could rely solely on his magic. So Roland offered his skills to the highest bidder and that were always a group of mercenaries.
Battle followed battle. He made a living and opened various accounts where he put his money. He didn't need it most of the time. He couldn't and didn't want to settle again and besides his pipes, materials, and clothing he only needed provisions. Immortal or not, being hungry or thirsty was not fun.
He made himself a name and was known as the War Mage because he seemed to be at the spot on the battlefield where the chaos was the greatest and the need of assistance the highest. Which caused his rate to spiral up, which made the mercs very happy and their reputation shot up by a good amount. This generated a lot of contracts and one time they had to hunt down a dragon and another time to defend a city against a Garladan raiding party.
Roland became the Mountain Friend, the Fjallvinur, as he defended Bjarghjarta against an army of Dragonborns, Dragons, Orcs and Goblins. He defended the city with his life and nearly "died" there. The reason for this strange army was that an unknown raiding party raided the main vault of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management and framed the Stonekin dwarves for it. Why? Because the raiding party wanted to have what the dwarves had: more gold. With these accusations Horifax the Golden sets up a meeting where the Dwarves were flabbergasted and he assumed they were lying. So he made a contract with his distant cousins the Dragons, asked the Orcs to be the main force and contracted three large Goblin clans to "support" the Orcs which meant that they were the cannon fodder to exhaust the ammunition of the defenses.
But they hadn't made their calculations with Roland and his mercs. Whatever was going down there, brougth him the title Fjallvinur, the Mountain Friend.
During his time on the battlefield he was with a group of mercenaries where he fought and eat and loved and grieved. One of those stories is already here: Roland - Lives fade in & out in Tales of Koria
His last assignment was brought to the mercs and him via messenger from the Seven Nation Alliance. A Demigod - they called them a monster - was leveling and depopulising villages in some kind of unholy ritual and they are the best of the best. They find the Demigod - a child of Idur and a poor woman - in the remains of a village where it helds the people hostage and drains their blood. Which also happens to the mercs and Roland needs his entire ability, strength, will, and magic to kill the Demigod.
Which puts an end to the merc Roland. Now he is just the War Mage, the Fjallvinur.

Part 3 - Witches and Spirals

After this endeavour (did he die?) he had a run-in with the Inquisition and a few Witches. Apparently the Inquisition - or this particular Inquisitor - thought, that the Nox Vael was some kind of demonic ritual and wanted to halt it. Roland intervened with words and actions and showed the Inquisitor that the Nox Vael was a just and cheerful event. Since then he had the opportunity to come to every Nox Vael as guest of honour.
Roland roamed around the land. He was too tired for large tasks, too awake for dying and he didn't want to kill and get money anymore. He even fought with the Magmakin dwarves against the horrors beneath the Emerald Planes in the caves. It wasn't as satisfactory as he hoped it would be, but the Dwarves liked him and welcomed him as an honourable warrior. Even when he didn't fight with his bare fists.
Then the Spiral appeared. Roland did everything in his might to kill as many demons as possible. And he killed a lot, but it wasn't enough to make a great difference in the sheer amount of foes. He was killed again, this time by a very nasty Outsider. It hurt like nothing else, but he came back. He fought alongside Dwarves, Elves, various armies and as the Black Fortress was done and secured, he left, ventured into the wilderness and tried a different thing: living.
And now the Electorial Congregation is summoning him so he can make a threat assessment sixty years later after the Spiral Incident. It needs a bit of convincing, but he agrees in the end.
To fulfill his task he as the secure armies from the Seven Nation Alliance, which leads him at the end to Vraitha and ultimately to Vrinis. She greeted him with open arms and a bare chest - which was a tactic she was running - and promised, if he came back, he had an army.
So Roland ventures into the Spiral. He fights his way down into the Crimson Chamber and even to the other side into the other dimension. There he notices buildings, armies, a different sky and the absent of... everything. His magic, his prison, the weight of his years, the weight on his soul. That has to be it! Here, in this dimension, the Eternals couldn't do a thing. He could finally die!
But then he saw the eyes of Vrinis in his mind. Her lovely voice, her smell, the way she looked at him. And he had some kind of hope. So he returned to Vraitha and confessed that he wanted to die, but she was the reason he came back. She laughed, because it was so silly and hugged him.
Now we are here, at the start of the relationship between Vrinis and Roland. They do have their problems (Roland with his life and mind, Vrinis with her mother Vraruka) but they develop a plan to bring down the Spiral, in combination with the Seven Nation Alliance, the other large nations, the Electorial Congregation and the Mortal Gods.
And now... lets write.

Related Characters

• Eternals
• Idur
• Roland
• Vrinis

Related Organizations

• Electorial Congregation