Aldric Thorne
Aldric Thorne
“If the gods will not protect this world, then we shall wear their burden in steel.”
Race: Human
Titles: Grandmaster of the Order of the Silverbrand, The Brightblade of Varya, The Last True Paladin
Born: 568 PR
Affiliation: Order of the Silverbrand – A knightly order devoted to divine law, radiant judgment, and the defence of the mortal world against infernal and divine corruption
Homeland: Fort Varya, near the Shining Vales
Reputation: Feared and revered; both a beacon of divine justice and a controversial zealot
Family Lineage: A distant branch of the ancient Thorne bloodline – cousin to the main line of Reyn and Rheana Thorne
The Child of Oaths
Aldric was born to Ser Vellan Thorne, a disgraced Silverbrand knight, and Maris of Vaelbrook, a war priestess who died defending a monastery from demonspawn when Aldric was just a child.
Raised within the walls of the Silverbrand Citadel, Aldric was forged in the cold heat of discipline, divine law, and eternal vigilance. He was a prodigy of both sword and scripture, but rarely smiled.
He took his vows at age 15, swearing to uphold the Trium Code:
“Let mercy be the wound of gods, not men. Let justice be cold. Let the blade speak when the heavens are silent.”
War and Revelation
By age 25, Aldric had led three campaigns against cults tied to the God Hands, personally executing over a dozen marked prophets. He gained the favour of Archon Lysendral, the Silverbrand’s former Grandmaster, and succeeded him after his martyrdom at the Siege of Balheim.
But it was Aldric’s battle at the Whispering Crossroads—where he led a hundred Silverbrand knights against Zelistra’s summoned remnants—that changed him. Though victorious, Aldric saw entire towns burned, innocents caught in divine backlash, and the absence of the gods he served.
Afterward, he was said to have stood in a ruined chapel and declared:
“If the gods are just, they shall understand our defiance. If they are cruel… we will make them bleed.”
The Silverbrand Reforged
As Grandmaster, Aldric reshaped the Order:
- Rooted out internal corruption, banishing over 30 Silverbrand knights tied to political powers.
- Declared the Excommunication of the Chained Pantheon, forbidding worship of the God Hands, even in whispers.
- Forged pacts with Tymira's faithful, though he often questioned the goddess's "soft hand."
- Reclaimed lost holy relics, including the Blade of Judicium and the Shield of Arvala.
Aldric became a living symbol of Silverbrand purity and severity—a man feared even among allies, for he saw compromise as the first step toward damnation.
The Thorn of Regret
Aldric carries deep, buried guilt for his father’s disgrace, and it shapes his need for perfection in all things. He maintains a distance from the main Thorne bloodline, though rumours whisper he once sought to recruit Reyn Thorne into the Order.
He views the Unchained as “good souls playing with fire.”
He views the God Hands as a sickness that must be burned out—at any cost.
The Blood Moon Prophecy
Aldric is one of the few living mortals to have read the original Eclipse Verses, hidden in the catacombs of the Citadel of Tears.
He knows:
- The Blood Moon Eclipse will tear the veil between gods and mortals.
- The God Hands seek to walk freely, rewriting mortal purpose.
- And that a champion of radiant wrath must stand at the centre of the storm—or the world will fall.
He believes he is that champion. And if he must become a monster to stop monsters, so be it.
Quote – Aldric Thorne
“I do not care for thrones. I do not kneel to crowns. I serve the blade of truth, and if it must strike the gods, so be it.”
