The Dusk Penitent

Reborn / Paladin

Submitted character story

The Dusk Penitent was an oathbreaker before he died. He knows that much. Divine power has dragged him back into a body that is half decayed flesh and half exposed bone, but it has kept the rest of his past from him. His greatsword still carries a weak radiant glow. The broken amulet at his throat gives him no answers.

He first remembers waking on a ruined battlefield and finding a wounded scavenger hiding beneath his cloak. The boy expected to die when the skeleton moved. Instead, the Penitent carried him through the ash to a roadside shrine. Brother Edrin offered them shelter and asked no questions until the boy was safe. That small kindness gave the Penitent something he could understand. Whatever he had been, his next act could still help someone.

Now he travels between forgotten graves and the villages built beside them. He records the names of the dead in a little journal, takes the dangerous watch, and gives enemies a chance to surrender. It costs him. He has mistaken a practiced plea for real remorse, and Edrin's shrine paid for that mistake. Someone recently left a rubbing of his broken amulet on its door. Beneath it were the words, 'You remember less than you owe.' He wants the missing half of the inscription before its writer reaches the shrine.