Malaroth Deucalios

Appearance

Malaroth stands at just over six feet in height. Though he has been in Myrken Wood for only a short period of time his appearance has changed considerably. He first arrived sporting the clothes of a nobleman, along with the heavy armor of a mounted knight and a blade of similiar quality. Now he sports a long gray coat that he wears open. Beneath the heavy outerwear he usually wears a cream-colored, fitted doublet and dark blue pants tucked into black leather boots whose cuts and caked grime speak of long journeys. His blonde hair is long and thin, often falling about his haggard features in thin wisps although lately they have become streaked with silver. Similarly his countenance, an angular construction softened by a rounded nose, while always pale now bears a slight ashen coloration. And yet he only purports to have seen twenty-four winters.

Where he once bore a weapon now rests only an empty olive-colored scabbard. The sword has been replaced with an iron-shod staff that he takes everywhere. He also carries a length of chain coiled on his belt that he dislikes commenting about. He is known for slouching, scowling and sighing - gestures that have earned him the nickname "Malaroth the Miserable."

Before Myrken Wood

The man speaks willingly enough of the past although usually only to remark that his memory is not entirely clear. This has changed in recent days though he has not said why. Malaroth readily claims to serve as a nobleman and knight in service to King Malcolm II of Zachea - a theocratic nation ruled by the Priest-King that also dominates one third of a large island some distance across the "Great Sea." His duties largely consisted of keeping the borders safe from the marauding elves that dwell in the neighboring wasteland and from the tyrannical magocratic Kingdom of Leshgaul. He has also claimed to have stood toe-to-toe against a dragon during a bloody siege upon an important Zachean city, and that he is a widower.

Myrken Wood

For undisclosed reasons he left his country behind and began a perilous journey towards a place called "Myrken Wood" although he had never heard of the land before. The name came to him via strange dreams and imaginings that struck him as memories - though they were of things he knew he had never said, thought or done.

He soon fell in with Councilor Aloisius Treadwell and calls the man a friend. It was this friend who lent him the money to purchase his new clothes after he was left tied to a tree and assaulted by a flock of hungry crows. He has never mentioned who visited this wrong upon him or why. When a cry for supplies went out to help the wounded left in Madame Swinton's Tea House following a riot, it is rumored that Malaroth gathered many supplies on his own and that he spent his last coins to do so.

Malaroth was briefly connected with the slaughter of twenty cutpurses, brigands and thieves in Myrkentown as his sword was found at the crime scene. Although he was cleared of the charges the blade, which he claimed was stolen, has evidently been stolen yet again. This latest theft, as well as his being left as carrion food, has wrought a melancholy but also hopeful change in the apparently listless foreign nobleman. He is known to stay at the Priory of Stonebrook, to possess a semblance of honor and compassion, but also an occasionally violent temper.

Currently, he entertains founding an order of knights to help bring and perpetuate peace for the citizens of a province that strikes him as somewhat beleagured by villainy. He also searches for a sword called "Deliverance" that he says was brought here approximately eight years ago although he is loathe to discuss why.