Stephánus Tavilrond

Stephánus Tavilrond a Human Knight from Grandfolk, who serves as a plot-central character in the Ways of Darkness franchise, almost a mascot of it. He is a member of the Knights of the Blood Red Light. He also has three non-canon versions: Stephánia Tavilrond (female), Dark Stephanus (evil) and Dark Stephania (evil & female).

Early Life
Stephanus's early life was marked by a mysterious and uncertain origin. He was said to have been born to unnamed homeless parents in the city of Grandfolk in the late 809 AEKE. No one knew anything about his parents, and they were never mentioned again. It was unclear whether they had intentionally abandoned him, lost him, or even died. Stephanus always assumed that his parents had simply left him in the trash to be picked up by wandering knights. Fortunately for him, the Knights of the Blood Red Light found him and adopted him, giving him his first name.

As an infant, Stephanus was fostered by various female maids serving at the order until he was deemed old enough for training. The order raised him to become a knight, teaching him how to ride a horse, fight with a sword, and use Clerical Magic. Stephanus was considered a child prodigy by his teachers, and the masters adored his humility, discipline, and lack of arrogance.

Teenage and Training
As he grew older, Stephanus began his formal training as a knight, with a crusader named Hlaford Paratus as his mentor. Hlaford was only 15 years older than Stephanus, and the two shared many similarities, with Paratus also having been a child prodigy - who better to raise the child prodigy, than the grown up child prodigy himself? Hlaford recognized Stephanus's potential and chose him as his apprentice.

During his first missions with Hlaford, Stephanus had to confront the harsh realities of violence and killing for the first time in his life. Although he was considered effective, he was often scolded for being overly reckless and indiscriminate in his actions. Stephanus's upbringing as a knight from infancy made him less hesitant than others to resort to drastic measures to solve problems. However, over time, he learned to use and prefer non-lethal alternatives - none the less he developed a relentless phobia towards bandits and other vagabonds who preyed on the weak and defenseless, compelling him to show no mercy towards violent criminals. His friendship with his master Hlaford Paratus, his master's friend Bourn Garbald and his companion monk Ladislaus Dominus - with whom he was often paired during his missions - also helped him cope with the emotional toll of his duties.

It has been long-established tradition that, at the age of 14, each knight in the order was supposed to receive their first sword. However, Stephanus had already found a magical sword in a cave before then, which he still uses. Later, he received his proper equipment, such as armour. Stephanus was only 15 years old when he first encountered the forces of true darkness, meeting a necromancer named Ria Baeni who nearly killed him. However, he managed to escape. At the very young age of 16, he was ready to take the Trials of the Knight and succeeded, becoming a paladin and receiving his horse. After this, he received even more dangerous missions that put his skills as a paladin to the test, determining if his early promotion was truly worth it.

Ascension to Crusaderhood
Stephanus was just 19 years old when he was considered for promotion to the rank of Crusader, while other knights of his age were still preparing for the Trials of the Knight to become a Paladin.

However, his happiness was short-lived, as he had a brutal encounter with some old enemies. The same necromancer he met when he was 15 years old, Ria Baeni, accompanied by a vampire Death Knight named Héli Calbae, appeared again. During the ensuing battle, Stephanus's master Hlaford perished, but Stephanus survived and emerged victorious, carrying the corpses of his deceased master and defeated enemies back to headquarters.

Following the battle, the council convened, and before Hlaford's funeral began, it was decided that Stephanus would be promoted to the rank of Crusader, while Hlaford was posthumously promoted to the rank of Master. Stephanus was now free to take an apprentice for himself, but so far, he has decided not to, under the belief that he still has much to learn - though, that justification doesn't stop his fellow knights from teasing him for it and accusing him of laziness, but Hlaford would have been proud of Stephanus's humility and dedication to self-improvement.

Appearence
Stephanus has azure-blue eyes, chest-length (or slightly longer than shoulder-length) brown wavy hair. His skin is rough, war-torn and has a few scars - there are a few scars on his face too, which make him look somewhat older than his real age.

He is somewhat muscular too, but those are real, natural muscles, therefore, may seem rather small and unimpressive. Muscle-wise, he does not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or any modern-day bodybuilder, but rather someone who has genuinely spent a lot of time fighting, and training for fighting, like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Long story short, those are not body-builder muscles, but martial artist muscles. His arm muscles are slightly more pronounced than the muscles on his other body parts, which is understandable, given how his favoured weapon is the sword.

Despite being a medieval person, his teeth are all in perfect shape, and completely white.

His voice is deep, bassy, even somewhat throaty and guttural, making him sound older than his real age, just like his face.

Equipment
As clothing, in his native, Medieval Fantasy setting, he wears loincloth as underwear, and over that, he wears brown leather trousers and a white linen shirt. His favoured legwear is black leather boots - he seldom wears socks, only during the cold winter, when boots are not enough to keep his legs warm. Other than his belt (which has a scabbard on it, containing his sword), this is all what he wears when having casual times.

When he is on duty, or has to be prepared for fight, he wears an addition layer of clothes (and armour) over his casual clothing - a wool gambeson/aketon, steel chainmail armour over the gambeson, and finally a white tunic over the chainmail, having the logo of his knightly order on it. More often than not, he also wears a helmet, completely concealing his face. Depending on the occasion, he may or may not wear a red cape too, in addition his armour.

Stephanus owns a magically enchanted steel longsword which enhances the destructive spells used by its wielder.

Stephanus's Horse, Cathrin
Stephanus's own equine companion is a female white horse named Cathrin, whom he has had since he was 16 years old.

In the original FRPG
The FRPG is the only place where Stephanus appears in his fully canonical form, with his horse and magically enchanted longsword. He was first created on the 27th of December, 2009.

Stephánus Tavilrond took part in the following adventures: The First Play, Stranglehold, Welcome Back, Vampiress, The Priest, To Go Underground, Tax Collection, Hot Pursuit, Brother-Brothel Showdown, Message in the Trees, Dungeon-Crawlin' in the South, Makesh's Curse, Cradar's Head.

In the Alternate World


An older Stephanus makes an appearence in the Artograch Arc. There are no mentions of his magical longsword or his horse. Rather than the character he actually is, Stephanus considered the "future self of Gnarog", implying that the Stephanus that appears in the game is not the actual character, but - just like Gnarog - an alter-ego or avatar of the game's creator.

Stephanus is the first person person to find Gnarog, who was waking up from his 3-year coma, and after a briefing, decides to help him. After rescuing Nemezish and Ildor from the cave up north, the player is free to arrange the party, meaning that keeping Stephanus is no longer mandatory.

In the end-game credits, it is said that he married Arnelia (then non-canon character, later canonized).

In the 2012 game


In the game, he was voiced by Zsolt Tóth.

He has the exactly same personality and backstory as in the original FRPG, though there are no mentions of him having a magical sword here, since it does not exist in the game. His horse is never mentioned either.

Stephanus is a comrade of the protagonist, if the protagonist is a knight. If the protagonist is not a knight, Stephanus does not know him/her originally, and two are only introduced later. Nemezish mentions that Stephanus and Ladislaus were childhood friends, though none of the two actually ever mention that. But since they do not deny it either, it is implied that it's true.

Stephanus seems to be in the good graces of the grandmaster of the Knights' Order, Gaius, most likely due to his exceptional talents.

Stephanus is also used to difficult - even seemingly suicidal - missions, as well having been through a lot of hardships, of which sleeping in mud was probably the least problematic.

Stephanus also acts as the bridge between the team (Protagonist, Gnarog Dougfral, Nemezish, Ladislaus, Ildor) and the Knights Order.

In the 2013 game


Stephanus was planned to appear in the game, but as the game never made it beyond planning stage, nothing was produced.