Leopold the Undying – Cursed Paladin

In the streets of Sundestra during the final days of the Dragonblight Plague, Leopold, Paladin of Erdrydion, was one of the few survivors still making a stand against the eldritch abominations that had been amalgamating the corpses of plague victims. He had managed to scrape by, saving survivors where he could and gathering them in the few safe havens across the city. As the final battle with Hendrak raged on in the grotesque spire of flesh above the city, the abominations below began their own assault on the survivors in a bid of desperation.

Leopold made a valiant stand against them, alongside a ragtag group of fighters and remnant guards and soldiers. They were mercilessly slaughtered, their bodies beginning to be formed into the eldritch biomasses which would reinforce Hendrak in his final battle. Yet respite came, an ear shattering thunder and blinding light erupted across the city from the spire. The eldritch beasts perished in their place, though Leopold’s wounds were too dire, and his life slipped away. For what seemed like aeons he dreamed: a life as a wanderer, walking upon windswept plains bathed in an azure moonlight. On the horizon a warm orange glow called his name, yet as he began his journey towards it, he awoke.

Washed upon the shores of Draksborne’s arm coast, he found himself, bound still in his same armour, his sword embedded in the sand before him. The world he awoke in was five days after Hendrak had been defeated, and he quickly saw the destruction left in the wake of Dragonblight. His mind was rattled, had he truly perished? Or had the abominations inflicted some poison on his mind that took so long to recover from? Soon he found his answer when he reunited with a sect of Erdrydion clergyman who were travelling to Sundestra to aid in its purification. They told him of the destruction of Namneri’s Chalice, and Leopold thus realised his soul was now bound for purgatory in death. This was confirmed to him soon after, for he volunteered to search for these shards of Namneri’s Chalice alongside many of his kin. Leopold’s search drew him to a small chapter of cultists hidden in the ruins of Eredel, where they had been coveting a shard to prevent its reconstruction. They took Leopold by surprise when they learned of his quest, riddling him with stab wounds and leaving him to bleed out in a patch of dirt in the city’s outskirts.

The same dream took him, and he awoke again five days past, washing upon the shore of a river, with all his armour and weapons still bound to him. He stormed the cultist stronghold, where they were taken aback to see him. Each one of them was cut down without hesitation, and the shard recovered, brought back to Sundestra as another piece of the puzzle was slowly put together. Yet the Church of the Tharameni demanded more of him, and he was sent back into the darkness to retrieve pieces of Namneri’s relic. Half a dozen times he perished in pursuit of these shards: assailed by beasts, crushed by an undead ogre, mauled by werewolves. Death had become a routine for him at this point, and he quickly grew tired of it. He knew that when the Chalice was finally completed, he might have his final rest.