Dorian Draken, once known as Dorian the Daring, owns the Dancing Sword in the Hearth Wall of Argentum. He is one of the three adult children and heirs of House Draken, and is famous in the city as a retired adventurer.1

Description

Appearance

Dorian is a human man who looks to be in his late thirties or early forties, but carries himself with youthful energy. He is very handsome in a classic way, lithe, with some tone. He keeps a neat, salt-and-pepper goatee, and his black, salt-and-pepper hair is slicked back into a tight ponytail.1 He dresses exuberantly, in rich purples and golds, and wears an expensive cologne, not overdone.1 At his side he carries a very beautiful, elegant rapier.1

Personality

Dorian is a showman. He told the party he had slain a dragon with a dancing sword beyond the edges of the Silver Vale, and that he had survived the Sorrow by superior fortitude and a nobility of purpose. He said all of it loudly enough for the whole tavern to hear, and apart from Luma, nobody there believed him. Hazel and Rhysaene saw no obvious sign that he was lying, but found the claims preposterous and the bravado and theatrics thick.1

Dorian is courteous and free with compliments. He greeted Hazel and Rhysaene each with a bow and “madame”, praised Rhysaene’s sense of style and tailoring, and called himself a humble servant of the people.1 When Hazel told him she had heard enough tall tales and walked away, he was unbothered, smiled, and bowed after her.1

Dorian plays along with a pretense. When Luma hid in Rhysaene’s shadow and had Rhysaene ask her questions, he glanced round at Luma but went on answering Rhysaene.1

Dorian is careful about others following his example. After telling Luma the Sorrow could be resisted, he leaned in and warned her not to go out into it on his word, since he did not know her fortitude.1

Biography

Background

Dorian is said to have adventured in his youth, as Dorian the Daring, and to have retired on treasures found in ruins and dangerous places, supposedly outside the Silver Vale. Nobody in the Vale is an adventurer, and his claim to fame is being a retired one.1 His family, deeply invested in the arts and culture of the city, saw his adventuring as a betrayal of its legacy.1 He is not on the best of terms with his siblings, and his mother does not look kindly on his choice of profession.1

He says that in his youth he had to forage in the wild to survive, and that he has grown used to luxury since. His reflexes, he says, are not what they were, so he prefers to leave his sword sheathed.1

Session 11

The party found Dorian measuring the stage of the Dancing Sword and chalking marks on the floor at midday on 30 Coldrise, 1714 PSF. He was preparing for a musician who was due to play that night and was very particular about where her things went.1 Rhysaene knew him by reputation.1

Hazel walked onto the stage and sniffed him, told him the scent he wore was not for her, and gave him a sprig of rosemary, which he liked.1 He told her the inner circles of Argentum were their own kind of wilderness.1 He told Rhysaene that his sword danced, that he had once slain a dragon with it beyond the Vale, and that he had found it in the City of Ghosts, many miles beyond the eastern edge of the Vale.1 To Luma, he said the Sorrow is not instant death but a slow-acting toxin one can steel oneself against, and that the sword was allowed him as a grace by the ruling council of the Synod for his years of heroics.1 He would not let Luma hold the sword alone, but let her touch it.1 When the party’s food arrived, he had a word with the bartender and left.1

Session 14

Reading Emeric Vael on 1 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, Temerity found arrogance in him, but none of Dorian’s bravado.2 That evening Luma remembered that Dorian had put the City of Ghosts in the east.2

Relationships

Character Information

Notable Items

Appearances and Mentions

Quotations

References

Footnotes

  1. Session 11 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26 ↩27

  2. Session 14 ↩ ↩2