Even when the story begins, heroes in the world of Dungeons and Dragons are just that - heroes. What forces shaped them? What destiny guides them? Meet the players, and find out.
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Player: Fran
The bundle on the doorstep could have been called many things. A mistake, perhaps - the inevitable culmination of too much wine or lust. A shame, maybe - yet another unwanted burden on a struggling city. Unwanted? Abandoned, certainly, and unwanted at least by his mother. But to the Sisters of Mercy who took the tiefling newborn in that night, the bundle - like every other child that found its way to their door - was a gift, and so that is what they named him.
In fact, the sisters gave the name "Gift" to every child they took in. It was a suggestion to each orphan that their name and who they could be was up to them to determine. Each was rechristened as he found his place in the world. But from the beginning, the young Tiefling was set apart from the other children.
Against the odds, Gift was adopted by a wealthy human family. He also never received a new name; "Gift" suited him and his new life. He grew up in the wealthy neighborhoods of the city where he played Adventurers and Goblins with the other children... but also among the myriad books of his parents' library. His appetite for knowledge was voracious. His parents' wealth and station gave him the opportunity to attend the Imperial University, where he dove into the study of history and the Arcane.
As human as they can be, Tieflings are a race of inevitability. Perhaps, therefore, it isn't surprising that Gift began to chafe at the restrictions and protocols that governed the University. He left the school, but continued his study of the world's magics through any means he could find. The Fey in particular fascinated him, and he delved deeply into the reckless, primal magic of the Feywild. Whether the portal he created was intentional or the result of an incantation gone wrong, Gift will not say. Either way, he passed through and found himself deep in the Feywild, cut off from the familiar world of his youth.
His knowledge of the Feywild was his salvation, and he eventually found his way to one of the great Eladrin cities. He spent years there, learning of the ancient powers that shaped the world and how to bend them to his will. Eventually he found a Crossing and returned to the mortal realm, but the power he gained there remains in his soul - twisted once by his Tiefling birthright, and again by his pact with the Fey.
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