Artie
Artrin Dearnas (a.k.a. Artie)
Gold dragonborn man who once served as Bahamut's physical vessel on earth. Last year, he found himself wandering into the forest in winter with no memory of how he got there. He feels like someone other than Bahamut has hijacked his brain this time.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Artie lost a lot of weight during the time that Bahamut was intermittently taking over his mind. He has gained some of it back, but he's still too skinny and his scales have not fully regained their luster.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Artie was raised in Mornaug, a city in the Northern Mountains composed almost entirely of metallic dragons and dragonborn. His parents were both clerics in the temple of Bahamut and Artie was happy to follow in their footsteps. He had always had a simple desire to help people and saw the Temple of Bahamut as the best way he could do that. In addition, Artie fervently believed in the inherent goodness of Bahamut and his teachings. In fact, Artie's faith was so unshakeable that other clerics would often go to him to talk through their own crises of faith.
Throughout his time at the Temple, Artie volunteered for every social program he possibly could and rarely told someone "no" if they asked for help. As a result, Artie frequently had to be forced to take breaks (Vyzzyg had the best luck with this). His efforts were quickly recognized and he was made the manager of the volunteer program only three years after he graduated from the junior cleric program.
Many people expected that he was working so hard in order to become the High Cleric when the current one retired, but anyone who knew Artie personally also knew that he had no such ambition. Artie loved his work just as it was and had no intention of taking on the High Cleric position, which involved a great deal of political duties that didn't appeal to him at all.
All this changed very suddenly when Artie had the sudden impulse to travel to the Western Reach. Artie justified this by saying that he felt like there was more good he could do outside Mornaug, but his friends still thought it was a strange change in attitude. Vyzzyg especially discouraged Artie, feeling as if Artie would work himself to death if Vyzzyg wasn't there to look out for him. Nevertheless, Artie was adamant that he had to go to the Western Reach and in a few days he teleported to Neverwinter.
Once in Neverwinter, the impulse that had driven Artie to this point weakened and Artie found himself at a loss for what to do next. His first stop was obviously to the temple district of Neverwinter, but he found the Bahamut temple there to be far too snobbish for his taste. Their idea of social programs involved fancy parties thrown to get the rich nobles to donate money and then passing (most) of that money on to other charity groups. Artie tried to set up direct assistance programs a few times, but was unsuccessful and received a few scoldings from the High Cleric as a result.
It was around this time that Brynn Redspine happened to hear about the dragonborn man who was making trouble at the Bahamut temple. She immediately arranged an "accidental" meeting with Artie and struck up a friendship with him. After meeting him a few times and hearing his frustrations with his current temple, Brynn suggested that Artie move to Rockport instead. The Unity Temple wasn't solely dedicated to Bahamut, but it ran extensive social programs, all of which were sorely needed in Rockport.
This led Artie to his current situation as cleric at the Unity Temple. His experience in managing volunteers made him very welcome at Unity Temple and Rockport's general attitude of cooperation and community support appealed to him. This time, when he was offered the position of High Cleric, he accepted.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Bisexual
Education
Artie has completed what is essentially a master's program in theology and divine magic practice. He is essentially a level 20 cleric that didn't take any offensive spells.
Employment
Artie is currently the High Cleric of the Unity Temple in Rockport. He is in charge of about 15 other clerics and about 100-odd volunteers. He also is in charge of the orphanage and homeless shelter, though he has assigned other clerics to handle the day-to-day matters related to those.
Mental Trauma
Artie had about five years of peace in Rockport until, suddenly, he began to lose time. At first, it was only a few minutes at a time, happening randomly throughout the day. Then, the periods of lost time got longer and longer until he began to lose entire days. During the lost time, people would say that he acted listless and forgetful, but generally would just keep working on whatever he was doing at the time. As the problem got bigger, however, Artie started wandering off.
As Vyzzyg predicted, Artie was not great at taking care of himself without his lifelong friend keeping a watchful eye on him. When the problem was small, he chose to ignore it and hoped it would go away with time. Even when he was losing multiple hours at a time, Artie would brush it off as "getting older" and didn't tell anyone that he wasn't actually conscious during the times he appeared forgetful. His colleagues at the temple and Brynn suspected that Artie wasn't telling them the whole story, but Artie insisted he was fine and no one felt comfortable forcing him to get help.
Then, Artie lost a full day starting in the middle of the night and, rather than going about his day, he vanished. He didn't come to work at the Temple and, when his colleague went to his apartment, she found the front door ajar and Artie gone. Brynn and Brilies arranged a search party immediately and started scouring Rockport. They eventually found Artie walking back to Rockport, still in his pajamas, with a story about how he had found himself in Phandalin with no memory of getting there.
From that point, Brynn put a round-the-clock watch on Artie when he wasn't actively working with other people. He had several more incidents after that, but was never able to wander off again.
However, this period and Artie's capture by an evil asylum owner caused Artie to develop a fear of going outside his house. The later revelation that Bahamut was the one hijacking his brain for his own purposes caused Artie to question the very root of his being. He struggled with this even after Bahamut promised not to use him again, and he started to get back to his normal life, when he had another incident that felt different from the times Bahamut had taken over his mind. Now, he is trying to go about his normal routine, but the fear of it happening again always lurks at the back of his mind.
Morality & Philosophy
When Artie was younger and living in Mornaug, he had a strong belief that Bahamut's teachings were right and it was good to follow them as closely as possible. Now, he's less inclined to say that all of Bahamut's teachings are right, though he still finds value in a lot of them, regardless of his feelings towards the diety himself.
Personality Characteristics
Likes & Dislikes
Artie loves tea. He collects many different types of tea and enjoys trying as many as possible. He especially enjoys drinking tea with his friends and trying to find the perfect tea for them.
Also, he hates pickles.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Vyzzyg has known Artie since he was a baby (Vyzzyg was about 70 years old when Artie was born and Vyzzyg was a close friend of Artie's parents. Vyzzyg knows Artie better than anyone currently alive (Artie's parents died a year before he left for Rockport) and it is often the case that only Vyzzyg can successfully convince Artie to take a break. Usually, this involves Vyzzyg sitting in front of Artie's front door until Artie goes back to bed. They have a sibling-like relationship and Vyzzyg definitely sees Artie as his little brother.
Brynn Redspine is Artie's closest friend from Rockport and the person who initially brought Artie to Rockport. Brynn is often very concerned about Artie and uses her resources to try to take care of him when he'll allow it. She admires his attitude towards community service and will be the first to brag about Artie's improvements to Unity Temple. Artie sees a kindred spirit in Brynn and finds her laid-back personality soothing to be around.
Brilies has relied on Artie a lot since becoming mayor and even more since the apocalypse. She values his input on the city's problems since she knows that he feels the same as she does about trying to help as many people as possible without exception. Artie worries that Brilies will burn herself out, but he also thinks that she's the best person to be Mayor. He tries to support her as much as possible and take things off her plate when he can.
Wealth & Financial state
Artie has never had much money, but between his housing and most meals being covered by the temple and support from his community, he's never wanted to anything.
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