Belgar Stonebreaker, Dwarven Warlock
Some time last week, I had an idea for a new D&D character that just wouldn’t let me go. Those of you who are writers probably have some inkling of what this is like. Suddenly, I was hit by character background, common phrases he would utter, appearance, cultural history — essentially everything I would need for a really detailed character background. After days wasting brain cycles on this thing, I eventually had to commit the character to paper.
Belgar is definitely a player character. I have no desire to “waste” him as an NPC when he strikes me as really fun to play. He’s very definitely a 4e character, but I’m tempted to fire up some kind of 3e warlock if we start lowbie characters sometime soon in my Gainesville gaming group.
Does this write-up inspire you? Feel free to use Belgar in your game. Heck, feel free to play your own version of Belgar. I certainly wish I were.
The Story Thus Far
In the early days of the world, when the world itself was still cooling from being forged by the hammer of Moradin himself, the Primordial Chaos was always one short breath away. Looking with boundless love upon his dwarven children, the Soul Forger gave unto them the mountains filled with sturdy stone, precious metals, and the finest of gems. Unto us he gave the bountiful stone and the wisdom to harvest the mountain’s bounty and even the sacred runes to inscribe the song of the earth itself. One thing he did ask of us: Delve not into the secret core of the mountain for that knowledge is not for mortal minds to keep.
If history were merely a record of the greatest deeds and most frightful tragedies of a people, then the tale of the Hammerforge clan of dwarves would be on the lips of every mortal alive. In their efforts to uncover ever more pure veins of precious metals, those ambitious dwarves delved too deep, opening a portal into the very Elemental Chaos that the gods had pushed aside to order the world into the realm we know. There in that realm of madness, the Hammerforge dwarves made the acquaintance of an eldritch being built from purest, most draconian evil. With honeyed words, the fiend convinced the dwarves to exchange their servitude for the power to drive the giants away from their mountain homes. Thus were born the first of the dwarven warlocks.
When the church of Moradin saw the success of Clan Hammerforge in their campaigns against the storm giants, they began to inquire into the sudden and overwhelming victories. When the bishops detected the brimstone stench of devils upon the Knight Generals of Clan Hammerforge, however, the mountain itself was torn into a vicious civil war. The church emerged victorious in the end and systematically purged all records of the Hammerforge Clan and even of the war itself.
Belgar Stonebreaker was born in the mountain halls that marked the ancestral home of his clan for countless generations. However, at a young age, his family was chased out of their caverns after a siege by frost giants and settled in a predominantly human township. His family, indeed a large number of his clan, maintained a close-knit dwarven culture in the town, creating something of a dwarven ghetto. The humans gladly took the dwarves in, viewing the weaponsmiths and gem-cutters as a welcome boon to trade with the neighboring settlements. The cross-cultural relationship over the years has been a strong one born of mutual benefit.
Belgar was always an apt pupil in the subject of history, looking to connect with the dwarven heritage that he felt deprived of. He spent nearly every spare moment in the temple of Moradin, digging through old birth records, military histories, and census data. The dusty tomes and delicate scrolls became a refuge for young Belgar, a home that no giant could ever drive him away from. The lay priests welcomed Belgar’s dedicated efforts and came to depend on the bright young scholar’s efforts to categorize the mountains of information that the church had become the caretakers of.
In leafing through a shipment of uncategorized tomes sent from a distant temple, Belgar stumbled upon the tragic tale of Clan Hammerforge, a legend that gripped his heart in a way that wouldn’t leave him. The fascination quietly became an obsession, and Belgar kept an eager eye open for any scraps of forbidden knowledge related to the Hammerforge Pact. His search eventually led him far afield of his town and his clan and into the libraries of the larger cities. After two years of searching, he found the keystone that pulled together all of the secret knowledge he had gathered thus far. Belgar had found a timeworn ritual that claimed to be the exact rite that the Hammerforge clan had used to bind the infernal powers to do as they bid. Secretly gathering together all the materials for the rite certainly proved to be an ordeal, but Belgar’s obsession wouldn’t leave him until he at least tried the binding.
In dark shadows of the mountain he believed to be the exact mountain the marked the genesis of the Hammerforge Pact, Belgar scribed all the right ritual circles, chanted all the right liturgies, and burned all the right herbs as incense. When the apex of the ritual beckoned, convinced by the swirl of arcane energy he could feel coursing through his spirit, the dedicated scholar thrust his left hand into the very embers of the ritual fire, expecting that the magical energies would certainly protect him from harm.
Since that day, Belgar commands infernal forces as a warlock of the Hammerforge Pact. No being has contacted him to collect on the bargain, but Belgar now understands that ritual bound him to service and not the other way around. Belgar remains committed to the side of ordered civilization and dwarven virtue, but he knows full well the danger of the powers he has dealt with. He intends to use evil’s own power against itself, and if he has to sacrifice himself to save the world, he’s willing to go down fighting with a dwarven curse on his lips and the taste of ale in his throat.
Mannerisms and Minutia
- Belgar has been away from his clan for going on three years now, but he maintains strong ties with his family and with the remnants of his larger clan. His letters home, entrusted to caravans and merchants along the road, tell of the faraway places and interesting cultures he encounters in his travels.
- Belgar always wears a pair of black leather hand gloves that he uses to hide the lingering scars on his left hand from the binding ritual that gave him his powers.
- Like all members of his clan, Belgar is trained in the use of warhammers and chain mail.
- When Belgar inflicts an enemy with his warlock curse, a ghostly pentagram appears on their foreheads.
- The infernal forces that power the Hammerforge Pact are bound to the lower planes by Moradin’s own hand. In order to affect the world, they can act only through the warlocks that serve as their agents. The fiends depend on their warlocks who in turn depend on their devilish patrons for the power to affect the world.
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