Ebron Stavros, Lawful Good Warder 6 (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=682580)<div class="floatright">(http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/13201397/images/1292681451777.jpg)<br/></div><br/><br/>At first glance, Ebron looks to have stepped straight from the verses of a bardic epic. He is tall, muscular, and handsome, blue of eye and gold of hair. Clad in shining steel plate and sporting a beautifully embossed spiked shield alongside his sword, he seems every inch the epitome of a devoted holy warrior. But it's the second glance that most people remember, when they look behind him and see the shadow he casts; a hulking, misshapen brute laden with horns and spines and wicked claws. Nor does it passively copy his movements, instead putting a malicious twist into them wherever it can - an open hand becomes a brandished claw or obscene gesture, and a concerned lean turns into a menacing loom. Only in shadows, and darkness, is he free of its presence, for it is the only betraying sign of his true heritage. Ebron is not the human he appears, but a tiefling, with ancestry tracing back to some very powerful fiend - believed, in fact, to be Asmodeus himself.<br/><br/>That, at least, was the belief of his parents, themselves tieflings and members of an infernal cult worshiping the Lord of Hell. They were, all of them, wicked to the core and willing to stop at nothing to serve the interests of their devilish masters (and to earn their favor). When their child was born a seemingly normal human baby, devoid of any sign of his infernal heritage, it was taken as a great loss and dire omen. Only by offering up the child in death could the cult restore their status, and so Ebron's own mother had readied a sacrificial knife over him on the altar. His salvation came in the nick of time, in the form of a aasimar warrior sworn to follow the Empyreal Guardians. A cult of holy warriors, they held to the teachings of a renegade Solar, Al'asadriel, and his doctrine to protect the weak and innocent from those who would harm them at any cost. In search of their missing idol, this warrior - Samothar Stavros - had been tracking the cult to their lair, interrupting the ceremony and rescuing the baby he found. Taking the child as his own, the aging warrior taught the boy everything he knew about defending and protecting others, including the secret mystic arts of the Silver Crane passed down from Al'asadriel himself to his disciples. In the process, he instilled young Ebron with a belief in the power of redemption that went to the core of his soul; a tainted and fiendish soul only expressed in his shadow, but as he had been shown mercy in darkness, so could he bring light and justice to the world in spite of all he was meant to become.<br/><br/>In practice, Ebron takes to the faith of his cult with a decidedly cheerful and almost irreverent attitude, though when steel is drawn, his actions support his beliefs with deadly seriousness. Oaths mean a great deal to him, and honesty - yet when honesty is present, he embraces life, love, and goodness with all of his generous heart. He is first into the fray of battle, and last to retreat, putting those he deems friends and allies, or those he considers encompassed by his vows, first and foremost above his own health or safety. In post-battle celebration, he takes to a round of celebratory drink with equal fervor; and if the circumstances are right, he won't turn down companionship for the night either.