Baltus Hearthwood

Baltus Hearthwood (he/him) is a character played by Cole (they/them) in The Battle of Brightgleam Peak. He is a human oath of watchers paladin, and a knight of solamnia (order of the crown).

Description

Six feet tall, sturdy, barrel-chested, broad-shouldered, straight-backed and all-around knightly as they get. He’s got ear-length wavy brown hair brushed back, a neatly-cropped goatee, tanned complexion from a life on the campaign path, and pale gray eyes. He wears heavy armor adorned with ribbons and revelry indicative of his order and he keeps it clean, dents from intended usage aside. He wields what could generously be called a heavy flail, if you could call a chain wrapped around a massive naturally quartz-studded chunk of stone a flail. He always projects when he speaks out of habit.
A beacon of boisterous camaraderie typical of his knightly order, but tinged with an persistent paranoia of otherworldly forces. He’s quick to trust those who prove their mettle in battle alongside him though. He hides it, but he is prone to brooding and bouts of melancholy when he is not hunting some foe or feeling like he’s somehow contributing to the endless resistance to the forces of darkness (even if he has to go looking for trouble).

Backstory

Baltus was pretty much raised by the Knights of Solamnia. His parents were poor innkeepers and when he wanted to run off as a young child to play hero, they didn’t stop him. After training throughout his childhood and adolescence he was inducted into the Order of the Crown and embarked on several campaigns (some less well-defined than others given the disorganization of the all waning order). While questing, he formed a close bond with his comrade in arms, Marten. What started as compatriots evolved to friends and then to lovers. They fought by each other’s sides for years, saving the life of the other on numerous occasions.
Until one fateful day, when Baltus returned to camp to find it razed with Marten and the rest of his small detachment nowhere to be found. All that remained was an uneasy energy to the air, bizarre and unnatural scorch marks indicating a struggle, and a strange scent that Baltus could not identify and has not experienced since. This led him to believe that some vile force beyond his plane of existence was to blame. And so, with little hesitation to his conviction, he took on the Oath of the Watchers and swore to stand guard and fight against otherworldly enemies, both for the righteousness of the cause and for the hope that he may find Marten again… or at the very least avenge him. His sometimes off putting newfound paranoia combined the absentee leadership of his order have left him with relatively free reign to quest and pursue news of unearthly entities across the lands.

Trivia

• Any crystal is a banishing crystal is a banishing crystal if you swing it hard enough! He gained a fascination with the mystical properties of gems and rocks after taking up arms against all things malevolent and unnatural, based very loosely upon folklore and superstitions he was taught as a child. In reality, it’s his direct line to the divine and prodigious strength that makes the magic happen, but he’s convinced that the rocks help and they make him feel better.