Anthony Davis
Blizzard Entertainment
Many people know of Deckard Cain, the wizened old wise man, who while proclaiming to be interested in defeating the evil that lurked under Tristram, all the while his true interest was charging 100 gold to the brave adventurers risking their lives, for his knowledge and lore.
But Before Deckard Cain was the curse on many an adventurer's lips, he was a young (well... youngish) Lorekeeper in training in a far away land. Join us now as we take a look back at the people and events that helped create the wizend, greedy, pain in the ass we know today.
Stay awhile and listen as we explore his background, next on Age of Decadence!
Too lazy to be a merchant, too frail to be a warrior, Lorekeeping was an obvious choice for a man who was convinced that the world had not realized how great he was... yet. Lorekeeping allowed him to satisfy both his lust for knowledge, and his desire to lord his knowledge over everyone. Of course he would share those secrets, at a 100 gold a pop.
Let's take a closer look at young man at he was then.
Attributes:
5 Strength - less than average
8 Dexterity - above average, even considered good.
5 Constitution - less than average.
6 Perception - average.
10 Intelligence - Exceptional.
6 Charisma - average.
Combat Skills:
4 Dagger - Due to the frequent beatings his smart mouth and bad attitude would get him into, Deckard began to carry a knife, and he actually got quite decent at cutting and marking people who crossed him. A Dagger skill of 4 represents the entiriety of Deckard's martial training, the rest being untrained.
Civil Skills:
4 Lore - His early years were filled with studying and reading.
2 Disguise - His early years of cosplaying pan out into a rudimentary understanding of disguise.
2 Etiquette - Tea Parties with his older sister pay off with a beginner's knowledge of which fork and spoon to use for which course of the meal.
2 Persuasion - Begging to be a part of his older sister's tea parties, as well as talking his way out of any real work have shown the promises of being persuasive. Deckard makes a note of this.
2 Streetwise - Having to slip away from so much trouble his big mouth gets him into helps Deckard realize from an early age that not everyone is on his side. Every man for himself.
The Background:
: Your adventure starts in Teron - a small, crumbling town far away from the main tracks of travellers and caravans. It's been dying for the last hundred years or so, kept alive only by the combined efforts of its inhabitants. Broken stonework has been replaced by makeshift wooden construction, creating the impression that new town is slowly emerging from the ruins of the old one.
Much like Teron, the Noble House controlling the town has seen better days. Before the war that toppled the Empire and the devastation that ensued, House Dartan was one of the most powerful houses, but that was then and times have changed. Today, it barely has enough strength to maintain its hold over the local guilds.
As a child, you loved listening to stories about the old days, filled with gods fighting alongside men, power-wielding mage - more demigods than human, and monsters conjured by the cowardly Qantari. So when an opportunity presented itself, you signed up as an apprentice to a local loremaster named Feng.
Loremasters have always been in demand. While the future offers little, the past is rich and ripe for the taking. You just need to know where to dig and what to do with the it, and that's where loremasters came in. To master thei
craft, they dug through the ruins, copied ancient manuscripts, often without understanding them, traded bits and pieces of pre-war knowledge, and appraised anything that looked old. While the magi are long-gone, the machines they built still remain and loremasters are the only ones who have the knowledge to bring them back.
TLDR: Lorekeepers pray on the hopes and dreams of hard working people everywhere. Deckard Cain is no different.
Chapter 1 Another Day on the job... or is it?
Chapter 2 Master Feng might be a dick...
But Before Deckard Cain was the curse on many an adventurer's lips, he was a young (well... youngish) Lorekeeper in training in a far away land. Join us now as we take a look back at the people and events that helped create the wizend, greedy, pain in the ass we know today.
Stay awhile and listen as we explore his background, next on Age of Decadence!
Too lazy to be a merchant, too frail to be a warrior, Lorekeeping was an obvious choice for a man who was convinced that the world had not realized how great he was... yet. Lorekeeping allowed him to satisfy both his lust for knowledge, and his desire to lord his knowledge over everyone. Of course he would share those secrets, at a 100 gold a pop.
Let's take a closer look at young man at he was then.
Attributes:
5 Strength - less than average
8 Dexterity - above average, even considered good.
5 Constitution - less than average.
6 Perception - average.
10 Intelligence - Exceptional.
6 Charisma - average.
Combat Skills:
4 Dagger - Due to the frequent beatings his smart mouth and bad attitude would get him into, Deckard began to carry a knife, and he actually got quite decent at cutting and marking people who crossed him. A Dagger skill of 4 represents the entiriety of Deckard's martial training, the rest being untrained.
Civil Skills:
4 Lore - His early years were filled with studying and reading.
2 Disguise - His early years of cosplaying pan out into a rudimentary understanding of disguise.
2 Etiquette - Tea Parties with his older sister pay off with a beginner's knowledge of which fork and spoon to use for which course of the meal.
2 Persuasion - Begging to be a part of his older sister's tea parties, as well as talking his way out of any real work have shown the promises of being persuasive. Deckard makes a note of this.
2 Streetwise - Having to slip away from so much trouble his big mouth gets him into helps Deckard realize from an early age that not everyone is on his side. Every man for himself.
The Background:
Much like Teron, the Noble House controlling the town has seen better days. Before the war that toppled the Empire and the devastation that ensued, House Dartan was one of the most powerful houses, but that was then and times have changed. Today, it barely has enough strength to maintain its hold over the local guilds.
As a child, you loved listening to stories about the old days, filled with gods fighting alongside men, power-wielding mage - more demigods than human, and monsters conjured by the cowardly Qantari. So when an opportunity presented itself, you signed up as an apprentice to a local loremaster named Feng.
Loremasters have always been in demand. While the future offers little, the past is rich and ripe for the taking. You just need to know where to dig and what to do with the it, and that's where loremasters came in. To master thei
craft, they dug through the ruins, copied ancient manuscripts, often without understanding them, traded bits and pieces of pre-war knowledge, and appraised anything that looked old. While the magi are long-gone, the machines they built still remain and loremasters are the only ones who have the knowledge to bring them back.
TLDR: Lorekeepers pray on the hopes and dreams of hard working people everywhere. Deckard Cain is no different.
Chapter 1 Another Day on the job... or is it?
Chapter 2 Master Feng might be a dick...
Last edited:
Awesome.
