Miltiades

Miltiades was an ancient and legendary death knight who was punished by his deity, Tyr, into the undead existence, until the paladin redeemed himself circa 1372 DR in service of the Church of Tyr and was restored to life as the reward.

"Well, Miltiades, I don't understand what Tyr may have set aside for you, but you've been a good friend to all of us. If we have anything to say about your fate, I know we'd all agree that you've served with faith and honor."

- Ren o' the Blade

Description
He was a tall man. As an undead, Miltiades appeared armored in heavy plate mail and a closed helmet that hid his skeletal form, empty eye sockets, and withered skin. His undead form radiated unsettling cold chill and had a dusty aroma reminiscent of a cemetery.

Personality
Zealous in his beliefs and morals, Miltiades was a stoic man with a keen battle sense, intelligence, and discipline. The paladin spoke seldomly, but welcomed conversation with it was offered. He as a courteous man who followed etiquette and chivalry. Miltiades was always ready to walk first towards danger if it meant defeating evil or protecting his allies.

Abilities
As a death knight, and later as a regular paladin, Miltiades had the ability to see auras of creatures that revealed their true nature to the paladin. The ability was not tied to sight and even in complete magical darkness, the auras were visible.

Possessions
Miltiades' enchanted equipment included the holy shield of Tyr, adorned with the holy symbol of the deity and glowed with commanding blue radiance, while the god's symbol glowed with gold. His magical war helm hummed with protective magics. The paladin's enormous runic sword of Tyr was enticed end to end with magical runes and glyphs and was the sizes of a two-handed blade that Miltiades wielded with ease with a single hand. Each strike of the massive sword created a shower of blue sparks.

The paladin owned a figurine of wondrous power dated back to his mortal days. The item was an ivory-carved steed that turned into a noble snow-white creature, Eritophenes, with a mere command word. The steed was not a living creature and did not need to breathe, allowing its undead rider to travel underwater as if on dry land.

"Fair sorceress" Evaine gifted Miltiades an enchanted brooch of her own making. The magical trinket, effectively a variant of sending stones, let her communicate with the paladin across any distances. It was a small gold item with a single diamond-clear crystal at its center. Later, after the couple wed, she created a ring of detect poison for Miltiades.

History
"In all honor, I must tell you my story first. When I take off my helm, do you all promise to let me finish my tale?"

- Miltiades, the Death Knight of Tyr Miltiades grew up in the city of Turell on the Moonsea North. He was one of the first to worship and follow Tyr's calling. The paladin was venerated as Turell's steward and champion. Due to his service to the Church of Tyr,, he was given the holy shield of Tyr, a magical war helm, and a runic sword of Tyr. For fifty years, he faithfully guarded the city, until the warrior-wizard Zarl attacked. Turell was besieged for a year, during which he personally slew many of Zarl's greatest warriors. Zarl never challenged Miltiades, and continued to exhaust Turell's resources and more. Desperate, as the city was facing ruination, Miltiades snuck into Zarl's camp under the cover of night and murdered him, the act considered dishonorable by the Maimed God. Miltiades did not survive as he was swarmed and slain by Zarl's troops. The outrage drove the surviving army of the battlemage to push into Turell, ransacking and destroying the city left without its protector. Tyr Grimjaws refused to let Miltiades die and bound his spirit to his slain body, transforming the disgraced paladin into a death knight as punishment. Miltiades' body was buried at the cemetery several miles south from destroyed Turell, surrounded by the most powerful and loyal servants of the warlord. Even though Zarl's body was return to his homeland, the warlord's spirit lingered by Miltiades's own body.

A thousand years later, in the, the city of Phlan, along with several other cities of the Moonsea, disappeared, taken by minions of Bane, Lord of Darkness. While the cities were taken from the Prime Material plane, Phlan was captured by the Red Wizard Marcus of Thay and the pit fiend Tanetal and placed into a massive cavern underneath his tower. Phlan became besieged by Tanetal's demonic creatures, corrupted servants of the god of rot Moander and other dire creatures.

Miltiades was summoned by Tyr and tasked with Phlan's recovery. Despite his undead existence, Miltiades still served his god and obeyed. The death knight found himself surrounded by the undead, risen out of their graves by the evil magics of Bane. The heavily armored knight faced the undead in battle and serendipitously, Heroes of Phlan, Ren o' the Blade, Evaine, her powerful feline familiar Gamaliel, and the druid cousins Androlson and Talenthia. came across the scene of battle. The paladin came face-to-face with the ghost of the man he slew ages ago, battlemage Zarl, who commanded his army of undead. The heroes joined forces and helped Miltiades to end Zarl once again, but the holy shield of Tyr was destroyed in the process.

Miltiades and his new companions eventually returned Phlan to its place on the northern shores of the Moonsea. Along the way, Miltiades defended his allies against two werewolves who took on a guise of innocent travelers, and a park of their wolfweres. One of the lycanthropes, Artur, was killed by the death knight's hand. It was revealed that the creatures were servants of the group's evil target – Lord Marcus, Red Wizard of Thay. In the process, Miltiades and mage Evaine bonded over their prolonged lives and developed respect, and later feelings towards eachother. For a brief period of time, Miltiades and his allies stroke a bargain with a cunning succubus Lunlaa, collector of men, who wanted to see her enemy, Tanetal, fail. She advised the group of the Red Wizard's weaknesses. Soon after, the group faced a gang of shapeshifter abishai that served Tanetal. The undead paladin also bonded with his fellow Heroes of Phlan, and along with Evaine, helped pregnant Shal Bal deliver her child who was later named Kern Miltiades Desanea, after their strange new friend and ally. Miltiades entered a peaceful slumber, but not before sharing a prophecy from Tyr that Kern the Hammerseeker would retrieve the relic Hammer of Tyr, retiring Phlan to prosperity after a period of strife and darkness. Still undead, the paladin was content with fulfilling his deity's decree.

Two decades later, in the, a new threat revealed itself to Phlan and she wanted to used the pool of twilight to revenge her father's death, the infamous Red Wizard. Shal used powerful divination magics to uncover the villain's identity, but received a near-death arcane feedback. Contemplating the prophecy, Kern Desanea ventured into the Valhingen Graveyard to meditate in vigil in the shrine dedicated to the legendary hero Miltiades. That was when Tyr once again raised Miltiades to help Shal's and Tarl Desanea's son to find the legendary artifact of the temple of Tyr in Phlan, claimed by Bane a decade earlier – the Hammer of Tyr. If successful, Miltiades was promised eternal rest and well-deserved afterlife. Along the way, Miltiades guided young Kern. He dispensed the prophecy bestowed onto him by Tyr and led Kern to assemble the new Heroes of Phlan including the living spell in the form of an elf Listle Onopordum, ranger Daile Redfletching, her father – old ally Ren o' the Blade, and sorceress Sirana who secretly was the threat to Phlan and Marcus' daughter. As the quest continued, Miltiades reunited with Evaine reigniting their affections for eachother.

With time, Sirana the wild mage started to unnerve Miltiades through her words and the fact that she did not radiate an aura of any sort visible to paladins and the death knight of Tyr. Instead of a color, Sirana radiated nothing. Miltiades was right to not trust the sorceress, her end goal was to claim the powerful Hammer of Tyr and she needed Kern to retrieve it. Recognizing Miltiades as a major obstacle, Sirana tasked her hamatula servant Hoag with the death knight's destruction. Eventually, Sirana revealed her true fiendish nature and used the pool of twilight to power her hellish magics. In a fierce battle, the half-fiend villain was defeated and sank into the pool of pure magic that in turn, was destroyed by Evaine.

At the end of the successful journey, on Hammer 11, a fellow paladin of Tyr named Trooper the group met along the way, willingly gave his soul to his patron deity, restoring Miltiades to life. Soon after, Miltiades and Evaine consummated their platonic affections and became wed.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Pools of Darkness &bull; Pool of Twilight &bull; The Abduction &bull; The Paladins &bull; Errand of Mercy &bull; Conspiracy &bull; Uneasy Alliances &bull; Easy Betrayals &bull; The Diamond
 * Realms of the Dead
 * Realms of the Dead