User:StarSword/Saladin Dyferras

Saladin Dyferras is the current Grandmaster of the Order of the Lanceboard, and a priest of the Red Knight.

Description
Saladin Dyferras is tall and burly, standing 6'4" and weighing over 200 pounds. Despite his age he is physically very fit.  He has a craggy, scarred face, ruggedly handsome, and balding silver hair and blue eyes.

He gained the nickname "Old Stormy" from one of his students whom he caught skipping class. He is normally calm, cool, and collected, but as the moniker indicates, when angered he rivals Talos. He can be Machiavellian in his diplomatic dealings, but has a great deal of compassion.

Early Life
Though of Tethyrian descent, Dyferras is Chessentan by birth. Born in the port city of Airspur, he joined the city army at age 15 and fought in a number of minor skirmishes against Cimbar. However, he grew disillusioned with the military dictatorship and emigrated to Tethyr in 1355.

He briefly joined the Tethyrian army but was infuriated by the rampant corruption and resigned his commission. Short on gold later that year, he joined the Order of the Red Falcon, then an adventuring company under Lady Kaitlin Bloodhawk. During the Godswar, the Red Knight's avatar possessed Bloodhawk and led the Red Falcons against a horde of monsters. After her apotheosis, the Red Knight came to him in a dream and granted him the ability to channel her power directly, declaring him a favored soul. (In actuality, the Red Knight had marked him for this in his childhood, but as she was at the time merely an aspect of Tempus, his divine power was too weak to channel.)

From Order to Order
In 1359 DR, Saladin had a brief affair with Lady Bloodhawk, but the pair broke up after a major argument over a security contract. He left the Red Falcons and traveled north to Waterdeep, where he met Esmerelle Patten, then the Grandmaster of the Order of the Lanceboard. She asked him to join the Order; though at first wary, she convinced him. She trained him and taught him many esoteric variants of the tactics he already knew, which made him an unpredictable - and therefore more effective - military strategist. He was sorry to see her leave the Order in 1360 DR, but understood that she was no good as a paladin while consumed by grief.

Saladin's uncle, Lord Darvin Dyferras, a captain in the Tethyrian army and the Count of Harascar, willed his sword and title to him in 1369 DR, making him a noble in his own right. Saladin prayed and managed to unlock the sword's latent power with holy oils.

The Grandmaster
A year later, Belmara Crownshield selected Saladin to succeed her as Grandmaster of the Order of the Lanceboard. She stepped down and took a post in the Order's new garrison outside Calimport.

Later that year, Saladin met Kalir Patten, Esmerelle's daughter. She had come to Nehr'bak to train as a paladin. She offered to pay him for his lessons, but he refused, saying, "I never paid your mother for mine." That was all he ever said on the subject, no matter how often Kalir asked. Following her promotion to Novice in late 1373 DR, Kalir left Nehr'bak and returned to West Harbor. In the War of Shadows, the Order provided military assistance to Waterdeep, halting the spread of undead from the Mere of Dead Men in a massive battle near the Kryptgarden Forest.

When the Spellplague hit, the Order knew it immediately, for it disrupted most of the portals between the various garrisons. The Order was contracted by the wounded Lords' Alliance to provide backup for their relief efforts.