Garth Grimhammer

Garth was born in a family of half-orcs in Garmark. Garth did not see eye to eye with his father Gork, who tried to push him into a military career to honor the family tradition. Garth, being the young bright half-orc that he was, despised his father's old brutish ways, and saw his mindset as exactly the thing holding their people back. And he saw that the violent orc culture in Garmark was mainly a play by their human high rulers to manipulate his people into serving as pawns in the ruler families' ambitions.   Garth came to look down on orcs and humans alike. He dreamed of shaping the world and its people to the better, and of gaining the power to do so. He wanted to understand how the world works, so he could better affect it. But he did not know the way there, or exactly how the result would look—yet, he thought.   Garth had contemplated breaking the chain to this life and walk his own path for a long time, until one day the opportunity presented itself. It was on a trip to Vilamond , accompanying his father, who in turn served in the protective detail for a wealthy merchant, when he decided to escape. In the cover of a cloudy night, he sneaked away from the moored ship and into the city.   He used his sharp wits to establish some basic income, and managed to get a steady home, barely scraping by. He wasn't interested in extravagance—what he was interested in though, was the free access to the Royal Library of Vilamond the citizens enjoyed. As long as you could behave yourself and keep quiet, all the books and scrolls of the world, so to speak, was at your fingertips, and Garth made good use of this privilege for many years. However, the more Garth read, the more it fueled his hatred for the rulers of the world, and thus further fueled his desire for power to change it.   From the many texts he read, he picked up a minor magic trick, an illusion cantrip. While familiarizing himself with it, he caught the eye of a—for him anonymous—old aloof man he'd seen in the library now and then. The interest was however cold, for now.   Garth had gotten a taste for the texts on magic, and started delving deeper and deeper into the library's more shadowy areas. As the years went by, the old man got more curious about Garth's development, and at last broke the silence when he found Garth practicing newly learned life and death cantrips. They started discussing magic in the library halls over whispered breath, and the old man—by the name Protax Kadmion—found himself becoming a sort of mentor for Garth. Protax started to have a strong influence on Garth, and Garth was a diligent protégé.   Protax gave Garth increasingly challenging tasks, one of which was taking a journey to Blauthafvn and study under a colleague of his. Garth found it odd that Protax had a colleague in Blauthafvn, but knew better than to question it. The colleague, Zorris, was an eccentric 97 year old tiefling with a short mohawk and green eyes. He carried a tangible calm and radiated silent magnificence through his presence. Zorris made an artform out of insulting people, and was harshly critical against anyone who displayed laziness or came with bad excuses. These were the traits that drew Garth to Zorris.   During Garth's studies under Zorris, he started to understand Zorris's darker and crueler sides. Zorris worshipped Asmodeus, devil lord of the ninth hell, and explained to Garth how there is an order, purpose, and power to the devils' cruelties.   Garth enjoyed his time in Blauthafvn, where power wasn't hidden behind two-faced hypocrisy, and he enjoyed the research opportunity of occasional stolen artifacts and forbidden goods that ended up on Blauthafvn's shady market.   During Garth's last days in Blauthafvn, he found Zorris brutally slain in his chambers. Apparently he had tried to perform a difficult summoning ritual that had backfired. Among Zorris's possessions, Garth found a letter—addressed to him. At this moment, the whole event left a bad taste for Blauthafvn in Garth's mouth, and he decided to head back to Vilamond.   He managed to get a trip on a leaving ship on short notice, where he spent the following three days sailing over dangerous waters towards Vilamond. During this time he met "Shiv", who was trying to make a quick coin transporting illicit goods. Garth figured that if he wanted to step up his research, he needed a large budget. Maybe working with Shiv could bring him the capital he needed?