Ashrám Wegnard

Ashrám Wegnard, originally Barn , born Égas , is a Lich Death Knight.

Biography
The names of fallen people, servants of darkness, are rarely recorded in chronicles written in curly letters. After all, who cares about the name of someone who betrayed their king, lost a battle, or made a deal with evil for selfish reasons? Every sentient creature needs heroes, role models they can look up to, and whose stories they can read to venture into distant worlds. However, the names of the fallen are rarely recorded, who appear in every story as villains, and whose imagination makes children shudder for centuries. There are few of them, and therefore the hatred against them is much greater. Mothers frighten their children by saying that they will come for them if they are not good, and skilled bards sing about their despicable atrocities, which every listener almost trembles upon hearing. They are the perfect contrast to heroes, representing unprincipled evil and contempt for life, at least in stories. There are very few who try to put themselves in their shoes and understand their motives, but what they would find would be a surprising result.

Early Life
The first years of this villain's life were rightfully considered idyllic: playing in the fields, listening to the frogs, crickets and the capricorn beetles chirp, trying to catch butterflies... A real childhood idyll in the rural Southern Etrand filled with blossoming colourful flowers, beautiful red and edible berries, lush green forests and plains, lacking the so-called "diseases of civilization" people in Grandfolk had to endure. It all began on the 519.2280584915: there was a great celebration in a border village of South Etrand, as the son of the village leader was born, who was given the name Égas by his parents. The people of the village lived in abundance in a fertile area, and their landlord was not a tyrant, so the villagers lived in great prosperity. No one bothered them, so Égas lived relatively peacefully and received the education due to the leader's child, thus becoming literate. However, this peace lasted only until he was eight years old, when a band of orcish raiders broke through from the neighboring territories to loot and pillage.

It was summer, and Égas was playing with the other children near a stream close to the village when the raiders struck. They approached the village from the west, behind a hill, while disguised goblins waited to attack the fleeing villagers from the east. Although the men tried to resist with improvised weaponry - their agricultural tools -, they had no chance and were all slaughtered. The goblins hiding in the fields then attacked the fleeing villagers. It seemed that their sole purpose was wanton destruction, as they burned down the thriving village buildings and took everything of value. Their main objective, however, was to take slaves, so they captured the terrified children by the stream. They did not want adult prisoners, as they were much harder to adapt to slavery, while a child's mind could be trained to accept their servitude, even considering it natural. The collected children were taken with them towards their tribal territories, but they never reached them. A group of knights pursued them and caught up with the raiders. This event had a great impact on Égas. Although he did not remember much of the events later, he never forgot the moment when the orc carrying him fell dead from an incoming arrow, and shortly after, a knight in shining armour picked him up and galloped away from the battlefield. He had never felt as safe as he did then, and this is the reason for his later obsession with helping others in the same way.



Although they didn't become slaves, all of their family members were dead, so the knights took all the children with them to the headquarters of the Order of the Blood Red Light to raise them as future squires, stable boys, and other helpers. However, the knight who saved Égas was fond of the boy and did not want him to live his life as a simple assistant, so he took him in and raised him as his own child. The knight's name was Tason and he was of noble descent, so the adopted child became noble as well. Accordingly, his education continued and he was taught many things during this period. When it became apparent that he had a very sharp mind, Tason decided to have him trained as a knight. Thus, he sent him to learn among the knights, since he himself was very young and could not teach him as much as the older, veteran knights could. Égas proved to be very receptive to magic and quickly became adept at swordsmanship, so several of his teachers saw a promising knight in him. After six years of study, at the age of 16, he underwent his knight's trial, which involved eliminating a group of bandits. Égas traveled through the bandit-infested road at night, where he was attacked by a dozen of them, but he skillfully killed them all, then took their leader with him and presented him to the Order. He was then knighted and, upon entering the Order, took the name Barn.

Life as a Knight


After the knighting, Barn actively started participating in his knightly duties, spending most of his time assisting others. When ever missions came up, he was always among the first volunteers, and very often acted on his own initiative, investigating for robbers and bandits, or just simply helping ordinary people in mundane tasks.

Despite his hot-headed and restless nature, he turned out to be a mighty and dedicated warrior, for which many of his comrades predicted a bright future for him - in fact, many saw one of future leaders of the order in him. Barn tried his best to take part in all of the more important missions, which enabled him to make acquaintances with a lot of people during his travels. It was during one of these occasions that he found a hot-blooded young man, who was a Knight just like him. They quickly became good friends, fought together on many occasions, and during long travels, it was natural that they slept in the same tent. Barn was unwilling to admit that he felt more than just friendship for the man who was probably the same age as him, and was called Keshú. When ever they had to bathe together in a lake, Parn was always quick to hide, to avoid having his "perverted nature" from being found out from his natural reactions, which are deemed sinful and may warrant the capital punishment.

Despite this, Barn and Keshú eventually got over their fears of sexuality and began their secret relationship - the first time Barn ever had a taste in sexuality in his life. The lovers began spending even more time together, completing missions together, and spending nearly all of their free time together. Still, when ever there were other people around, they were as discreet as possible about their forbidden love. Despite their best efforts however, a knight found them out - a lazy, good-for-nothing knight who was aged thirty years old. The two were blackmailed into completing missions for the man, lest he tell about their relationship to the superiors, who in the best case would force them to drink sodobane and/or expel them from the order, or in the worst case, have both of them executed for sodomy and murder.



The two knights reluctantly agreed and kept the deal for half-a-year, until something unexplainable happened. The man who blackmailed them was very close to getting the promotion he always wanted, but he wanted more. Then all of the sudden, he died mysteriously. From the wounds, he was stabbed in the back.

To Barn, this was a great relief, but for some reason, from that point on, Keshú always had a worried look on his face, grew more paranoid, and his ability to use his Clerical Magic declined. One and a half year have passed since the murder of the blackmailer, and Keshú personally went to the grandmaster of the order, and confessed everything to him: the forbidden relationship between him and Barn, the blackmailing fraud, and the fact that he killed the man, as he was unable to bear the situation anymore. Desperate to avoid a scandal, the grandmaster sent off Keshú to the countryside to serve for an indefinite time "until he can find the light again", while Barn was left alone.

Barn felt infinitely lonely, and once again devoted himself to work fully, to the point of overworking himself. After all those sleepless nights came an occasion in which he was tormented by exhaustion so much, that he fell from his horse. He was riding the horse alone, but to his luck, it wasn't thieves who found his unconscious body. As he woke up, he found himself in a rather tidy forest cottage. A Wood Elven woman was bustling around him, making him rather surprised when he woke up. Even though Barn never felt attraction towards women, he admitted it to himself that he found the elf rather pretty. Much to his surprise, she spoke Etrandish fluently, guaranteeing that they will be able to speak to each other - and so they did. Although Barn returned to his travels the next morning, later on, he became a frequent visitor to the hut, where he was given pleasant company. The elf was called Dídlet - or rather, humans like Barn called her Dídlet, a distortion of her actual name, Téterite -, making her living by collecting medicinal herbs and making potions out of them.



Although Díd never asked for money, the local villagers were grateful to her and donated food and other everyday products to her. Barn became fond of her helpful and meek nature, and as they spent more time together, he eventually came to fall in love with her. When Barn was twenty-four years old, he got promoted and received a stone house in Grandfolk. Almost immediately, he went to Dídlet, asking her if she wants to live with him, to which she said yes, moving in with him to the city. Nearby the house, the elf began taking care of the green space, planting important medicinal herbs, which made her a renowned apothecary in the city.

Six years passed without much happening, without any problems, allowing Barn and Dídlet to live a happy de facto married life, even though they never wed or even engaged. However, one day, an old friend came back, re-admitted into the order after atoning for his crimes...

Fighting in the frontlines for long years, his body got hardened, filled with scars. He looked at least ten years older than his real age. He was happy to hear that his long-time friend Barn became a man of power, but it also came into his ears that he was living together with an Elven woman, who may not have been his de jure wife, she was much more to him than just a maidservant. That is why he did not start looking for Barn immediately after returning - fate would still ensure that they meet by accident. Barn felt that Keshú felt hurt by the situation. He still loved the man, so they scheduled a meeting in his house. On the day of the would-be-meeting, Barn was unusually busy, so he was delayed. Instead of Keshú, he found the lifeless body of Dídlet, in the middle of a pool of blood...

The Path to Decay
Barn immediately assumed that it was Keshú who killed his beloved Dídlet, so he took his weapons to himself and rushed to Keshú's house. He forcefully broke in the door, only to find a visibly sad Keshú sitting on the floor. Barn accused Keshú of murder, but the man claimed that there was an accident, provoking Barn to charge at his former lover with anger. Even though his opponent seemed much more durable, he still restrained himself, allowing Barn to defeat him. After a twenty-minute long duel, Barn eventually delievered the final stab, killing his former friend. Keshú's last words pierced into Barn's heart like a dagger, as the dying man still claimed to love the person who just killed him.

The enraged knight locked himself in his house, refusing to come out for weeks - both Dídlet and Keshú were buried in his absence. He began contemplating various things, such as the meaning of life, and even considered suicide. He went as far as placing his sword near his torso with the intention of tripping into the blade, but then he had a vision. Even he barely understood what he saw, but what he made out of the vision he had, is that something greater than him, something untouchable was offering him great power, the ability to create a perfect society, the gift of godhood. After being tormented by the grotesque visions, he was left with a book that was written in a language not belonging to this world - yet Barn could understand everything written in it. He was illuminated.

In an unsuspicious night, Barn killed all of the household servants and asked for audience with King Hereric II of Etrand, but one of his servants escaped, alerting the local knights. Before Barn could even get near the King, he was assaulted by Knights, and despite his best efforts, he was beaten. Barn was taken to the dungeon, and he had no doubts about his future - he would be executed. This, however, was the luckiest even of his life - he met a man who was imprisoned for heresy, his greatest crime however - Necromancy - was unknown even to his prosecutors. Feeling the darkness radiating from Barn, the mysterious man began teaching the former knight. Weeks passed, and on the day Barn would have been executed, they attacked the guards together, let out many prisoners, and escaped during the confusion that ensured afterwards.

The necromancer named Kreghon continued teaching Barn. They stayed in Grandfolk for a long time, in the sewers, or hiding among the poor. Barn came back to his former home for only one day, to find the strange book. And alas, he would find it at the place where he left it. He took the book with himself, and together with Kreghon, they left the city. They found out that the book was written in an ancient, long-extinct language, and was about Dark Magic. Barn exchanged his former knightly breastplate for coal-black scale mail worn by stereotypical mercenaries, and changed his name to Wegnard, to avoid being recognized.



His necromancer friend quickly realized just how big was the magnitude of the power the book had - Wegnard in turn quickly realized that Kreghon wanted to take the book for himself, so one night, he remained awake, and sliced his partner's throat. After that, he continued to roam Continental Artograch for almost a decade as a mercenary. In the first few years, Knights and Inquisitors continued to hunt for him, but as years passed, their willingness to pursue him became nonexistent. Wegnard could have lived the rest of his human days as a traveller, but his visions did not let him rest. He believed that he had to be the one who creates the perfect world, in which there is no sin, there are no wars, only prosperity and happiness. A world in which no one is born poor, sick or an orphan. Etrand however was too strong, and not even sacrificing the rest of his life would he be able to defeat that monster.

That's why, the 40-year old Wegnard made up his mind to travel to Keldorn to study the ancient language the book was written in, and Dark Magic. It took him at least ten years until he found out the secret the book held - the "recipe" of lichdom and a good deal of destructive spells.

New ambitions


Wegnard knew that it would take him centuries to prepare for the realization of his plans, and even more time to actually create the good world. He imagined himself as a god, who puts his own life on the blade just to materialize his ultimate creation, then reign over it for ever, to correct its ways. This however needs a lot of time, so he went through the procedures of becoming a lich. It was unimaginably painful, as all life left his bones, but he knew he has to make sacrifices to realize his plans. New looks induce a new name, but he did not want to throw away the old one - as such, he added a new name to his old one: Ashrám Wegnard.

Then finally, in 831, he has decided that it is time to set his plans in motion, to return to Continental Artograch and realize his plans. He is planning to conquer the smaller states first, then finally slaying the most oversized dragon of all - the Kingdom of Etrand.

The original FRPG
Ashrám Wegnard joined the Hungarian version of the forum on the 21th of July, 2011, but took part in only one adventure: Ashram's Arival.

Trivia

 * Ashrám Wegnard is influenced by three characters from Records of Lodoss War - Parn, Ashram and Wagnard.
 * In the original FRPG, his names were Aegas, Parn, Wagnard and Ashram Wagnard, but they were changed to Égas, Barn, Wegnard and Ashrám Wegnard to better suit Etrandish pronounciation, and to avoid having the exact same names as the RoLW characters who inspired him.
 * The character's birth name, Égas comes from the Aegean Sea.
 * Ashrám Wegnard is bisexual. Before the introduction of King Bryant I of Etrand, he was the only LGBT and bisexual character in the franchise.