Roland Hartbane
Half-Elf Paladin — Knight of the Light — Son of the White Stag
| Player | Nathan |
| Class | Paladin, Oath of the Ancients |
| Race | Half-Elf |
| Background | Knight |
| Alignment | Good |
| Origin | Cottage on the outskirts of the Verdant Realm, Greno |
“The dying knight looked at me, a beaten child covered in mud and blood, and called me the White Stag. I didn’t know what it meant then. I’m still not sure I do.”
Background
Roland was born of an elven mother and a human father. His parents met during an alliance of humans and elves formed to crush a horde of orcs. According to legend, no humans survived the battle, but Roland was conceived during the war. His father, whose name he doesn’t know, wore armor bearing the sigil of a white stag.
Threatened with exile for bearing a half-human child, his mother sent Roland away. He was left with a cottager on the outskirts of the Verdant Realm. The cottager was a drunk who beat him and starved him. Roland grew up alone, unwanted, and unloved in the middle of nowhere.
The Shrine Battle
One day, after a particularly bad beating, Roland ran. He fled into the forest and stumbled straight into a battle between knights and orcs who were despoiling a shrine to Amareses.
In the chaos, Roland tripped over a dying knight. The knight looked at him, seemed to recognize something, and called him “the White Stag.” Then he died.
Roland didn’t run. He stood over the knight’s body and defended it until the battle was over. He was barely twelve years old.
The surviving knights saw what he did. They took him in as a squire.
Who was the dying knight?
He recognized Roland. He knew the White Stag sigil, or the man who wore it, well enough to see it in a child’s face. Was he one of the knights who fought alongside Roland’s father in the orc war? A member of the same order? Someone who made a promise to look after the boy? Brandon’s call.
The Knights
Roland was raised by the order. His mentor and the knight who eventually dubbed him was Llewyn Fellwater, a knight errant. The knights roam the world protecting all that is light, adventuring and fighting where the darkness gathers. This is not a court order or a political institution. These are wanderers who swore to preserve what’s good and to be the shield between it and what would snuff it out.
Roland swore the Oath of the Ancients because it was the oath sworn by every knight who took him in. The oath of the order. It wasn’t a theological choice. It was a family tradition, the only real family he’s ever had.
On his name day, Roland was knighted and pledged to find out whether his father, the White Stag, yet lives.
Why Orcish
After being abandoned by his elven mother, Roland decided that what elves despise can’t be that bad. He learned Orcish to judge orcs for himself and find out if they were truly as hateful as elves always said.
They are.
But now he’s trilingual, so there’s that.
Faith
The shrine battle happened at a holy site of Amareses. The knights he fights beside protect shrines like that one. The Oath of the Ancients aligns naturally with Amareses, the god of harvest, renewal, and the quiet resilience of nature. How deep that devotion goes is up to Nathan.
How devout is Roland?
Casual follower of Amareses or serious believer? Does the shrine battle carry religious weight for him, or was it just the moment he found the knights?
At the Table
A knight with real training and real scars, not from battle but from the years before he was found. He’s charismatic (CHA 17), can talk or intimidate his way through most situations, and carries himself with the weight of someone who was given a second chance and is determined to deserve it.
His quest is personal: find the White Stag. Find out who his father was. Find out if he’s alive. And figure out what it means that a dying stranger recognized his face.
The retainers
Knight background gives 3 retainers: NPCs loyal to you who handle camp, carry messages, make introductions. They won’t fight and leave if mistreated. Who are they? Where are they? Did they come with you or are they waiting somewhere?
Prepared spells
4 prepared slots plus Ensnaring Strike and Speak with Animals (always). Nothing is written down yet. Good starters: Bless, Cure Wounds, Shield of Faith, Command, Wrathful Smite.
Personality
- Traits: A knight forged from an abused child. Carries himself with earned dignity. Protective of the vulnerable because he was one.
- Ideals: Protect the light. Be the shield. The oath is everything because the people who gave it to him are the first people who ever cared.
- Bonds: The White Stag, his unknown father. Llewyn Fellwater, the knight who raised him. The order that gave him a name and a purpose.
- Flaws: TBD — but a kid who was beaten and starved and abandoned by his own mother carries that somewhere. The question is where it shows up.