Xenk Yendar

Xenk Yendar was a human paladin and adventurer from Thay in the 15 century DR. He was briefly a fellow adventurer of Edgin Darvis, Holga Kilgor, Simon Aumar, and Doric,   but was renowned as a holy warrior, healer, and hero in his own right. "In those instances when faith wanes and doubt waxes, I recall the tenets of the ancients, which teach us that—"

- Xenk

Description
A handsome and muscular man, he had an altogether striking appearance. He had a tattoo on his forehead that marked him as a Thayan and was the symbol of Szass Tam.

He wore ornate half-plate armor trimmed and emblazoned with gold designs, over blue-green attire and under a fine cloak.

Personality
The very image of the knight in shining armor, of the resolute paladin, Xenk embodied what it meant to be a heroic divine warrior against all the odds. He had sworn an Oath of Devotion to help the innocent and uphold justice and he had a reputation for kindliness, honor, and integrity. His longevity gave him a farther perspective and more experience than most, yet it could also be a burden upon him. Xenk regretted that as a boy he had taken fright and ran and not been able to save his parents from becoming zombies in service to Szass Tam.

He endeavored to inspire goodness in his companions. He believed weapons and magic alone did not make one a hero; rather, anyone could be a hero if they but fought for goodness. He was always ready to share his knowledge and wisdom with others, but all too often, those others were not willing or patient enough to listen.

Xenk dealt with every issue with complete dedication and conviction, which made him seem too serious to others. He willfully refused to deal with colloquialisms, but he was known to make a slight smile at the reactions he provoked in other people. He was the kind to walk a straight line and go over a boulder rather than around it and he would even pronounce 'svirfneblin' correctly.

Abilities
Xenk had an aura about him that helped protect those near him from harm. With his cleansing touch, he could not only heal a fellow creature's wounds but also cure what ailed them as with lesser restoration. He was capable of other divine magic and had great prowess as a warrior, and could cause his blades to strike with a radiant energy. He could sense the presence of evil by smelling it.

Despite his holiness, Xenk's close brush with undeath left him aging slower than a human otherwise should. This gave him great longevity—he grew to be more than a century old. He also possessed darkvision.

Possessions
He wielded a unique daggersword, a longsword that could come apart into both a dagger and a shortsword, making him a very versatile warrior. With this, he could fight with the longsword&mdash;which he would imbue with radiant power&mdash;or he could dual-wield both shortsword and dagger to pick apart his opponent's defenses. Furthermore, he could launch its blade like a spear at an opponent with enough force to skewer a target and knock them down, and still leave him with armed with the dagger. Shortly after, the blades would magically reattach. On its blade was inscribed, in the Celestial language, the legend "Neither Virtue Nor Blade Shall Break," ironically enough.

He wore half plate armor.

Activities
"Cothin al napeai!"

- Xenk's battle cry when charging into the fray

Xenk spent his days traveling the realms of Faerûn in search of villainy to oppose, innocents to protect, and good deeds to do.

He was athletic and insightful, and was learned in history and skilled in survival, and also had keen hearing.

Relationships
He was an old enemy of the undead Thayan assassin Dralas.

Early Life
Xenk grew up in the land of Thay, in the Thaymount tharch as a subject of the Zulkir of Necromancy, Szass Tam. His parents were downtrodden subjects of the Red Wizards of Thay.

As Xenk would recall, when he was a boy in the mid-1370s DR, Szass Tam called all the other zulkirs and all the people of Thaymount, Xenk and his parents among them, to a grand celebration atop the Citadel on the eve of the summer solstice. A few of the common people carried sun symbols. But it was all a lie—instead, Szass demanded all Thayans abandon their mortality and serve him in undeath. Then Szass used the horn of beckoning death to invoke a terrible red smoke that consumed their souls, thereby creating an army of undead under his control for his coup and conquest of Thay. All who tried to flee were slain or trapped within by the Red Wizards. He saw a girl his age, Ishira, standing alone and lost in the panic. In their fear, Xenk's parents tried to force their son into the ritual, but he refused and ran away. In his recollection, he had lacked the courage to save his family when they most needed him. Xenk evaded the Beckoning Death, but only barely, and the mark of Szass Tam on his head glowed with a magical connection. He lost a part of himself to the ritual and was left changed by the necromantic magic. From then on, he would age slowly and live through the next century.

Escaping the lich-ruled nation of Thay, Xenk was forced to live in exile as a wanderer of the Realms for the next century. In his time, he performed many great and heroic deeds.

The Quest of the Helm
Circa 1400 DR, Xenk arrived amidst the Battle of the Evermoors as it raged between the Uthgardt Elk tribe and the Cult of the Dragon, together with their black dragon master, Rakor. Hoping to save lives, Xenk ran into the fray and found a dying warrior with a vital mission—Ven Salafin, who was struggling to get the helmet of disjunction away from the cultists. Xenk inspected his wounds and found he could not help him, but promised to keep the helmet of disjunction safe. Believing him, Ven gave up the helm and expired. In the end, all he could save was the helmet.

Having inherited this quest, Xenk hastened to Waterdeep, where he found the mage Mordenkainen from the world of Oerth. Though he had first crafted the helmet of disjunction, he wanted nothing to do with "the accursed thing" and sent Xenk away. Xenk later clashed with the Cult of the Dragon and a dracolich who sought again to claim the helm from him.

Looking for some deep dark place to hide the helmet of disjunction, Xenk ventured underground, into the Underdark itself. There, he was soon assaulted by a mind flayer, which wished to give the helm to his master, the elder brain Zuphelithid. Though it tried to eat his brain, and got as close as sucking on his head, Xenk prevailed. The battle left him close to a deep gnome settlement near the ruins of Dolblunde, and he heard a voice crying out for help. Naturally, he ran to render aid, but two svirfneblin sisters, Trick and Trap, true to their names, tricked, trapped him with an earth elemental, and stole the helm of disjunction in order to liberate their people from the mind flayers' thralldom. Soon enough, Xenk caught up with them and heard their plight, but he didn't think it wise for them to risk using the helm. So the sisters demanded he liberate their family from the mind flayers instead, but Xenk hardly needed to be asked.

Xenk found and confronted the illithid overseers, demanding their surrender, but was surprised by the elder brain Zuphelithid and a pack of intellect devourers. He battled through the walking brains and resisted the psychic assault that reawakened his old regrets about not saving him family, until a mind flayer enthralled Trick and took her the helmet of disjunction both. Xenk got Trap to safety before she could be caught too. They healed up and created a new and ingenious plan. This time, Xenk challenged Zuphelithid to a compelled duel to the death. But it was a ruse, and Xenk fought and kept the elder brain in place long enough for Trap to drive a drill-headed mining machine into it, and Xenk split it in twain with his sword. The remaining illithids escaped and the svirfnebli were liberated.

Afterward, the deep gnomes thanked Xenk and wished to repay him. He asked only that they conceal the helmet of disjunction within the ruins of the hanging city of Dolblunde. They fashioned a mechanical locked vault inside a statue, and declared it to be "the last place anyone who values their life would go." Trick and Trap and all the deep gnomes waved Xenk farewell. He departed them and emerged from the Underdark in the region of Neverwinter.

Later Heroics
On one occasion, Xenk worked with the Emerald Enclave, an order of guardians of nature, to thwart the destructive schemes of the church of Talos, the Storm Lord.

On another, he fought battles in the desert of Anauroch beside a warrior of the Elk tribe; this man, a cousin of Holga, vouched for him as a good man.

Once, Xenk even held back a beholder with nothing more than a sharpened gourd, or something else sharp, at least according to Simon's uncle.

Working with Thieves
By the late 1490s DR, Xenk was operating out of the village of Mornbryn's Shield on the River Surbrin, not far from the old Evermoors battlefield, where he was now working with the Harpers. At that time, the would-be thieves Edgin Darvis, Holga Kilgore, Simon Aumar, and Doric arrived to ask Xenk Yendar about the fate of the helmet of disjunction, just in time to witness the paladin rescue a tabaxi baby that had been swallowed by a monstrous fish and return it to its mother, and then make a donation to a dragonborn beggar. Edgin was scornful, thinking all Thayans were killers corrupted by the evil Red Wizards of Thay and disgusted by Xenk's righteousness. Nevertheless, the others gained Xenk's interest by speaking of their desire to rob and bring down the corrupt and tyrannical Lord Forge Fitzwilliam of Neverwinter and of his connection to a Red Wizard, Sofina. In a Harper sanctuary beneath Caldreth's Pickles, Nuts, and Foods, Xenk told them of the evil of the Red Wizards and Szass Tam's takeover of Thay and the turning of its populace to undeath. For his assistance in finding the helmet of disjunction, Xenk required that the thieves share any stolen riches with the Neverwintan people, to which Edgin very reluctantly agreed, swearing it on a Harper book at Xenk's demand.

Xenk led the party into the Kryptgarden Forest, where an entrance to the Underdark lay, in a deep hole that he termed "the orifice". On the way, he asked about Edgin's past, why he had left the Harpers and Zia's death, whilst warning that Zia may not be willing to be resurrected. He also tried to improve Edgin's views of Thayans by sharing his own tragic past.

After venturing down into the Underdark, the party passed uninterested intellect devourers and arrived at the ruins of Dolblunde, wherein Xenk had hidden the helmet of disjunction long ago. After negotiating the trapped collapsing bridges, that is triggering and collapsing them before Xenk could finish explaining the intricately complicated technique needed to cross them, Simon noticed that Marlamin's walking stick was in fact a Hither-Thither Staff, and they used it to cross into the city. Finding and opening the gnomish mechanical box, Xenk retrieved the helm. But that was when a band of undead Thayan assassins led by Dralas showed up, having been sent by Sofina to find and kill the thieves. Xenk and Dralas taunted one another; it was not the first time they'd clashed. They fought valiantly, with Xenk handily taking down the whole squad of assassins and impressing the others, as his companions provided a little aid but mostly just watched. At last, Xenk dueled and defeated his old enemy Dralas. But the undead did not stay dead for long; their wounds regenerated and they gave chase. Then they were all interrupted by the surprise appearance of the red dragon Themberchaud, far from his home. He took care of the undead assassins, by simply eating them, but then turned his attention to the others, chasing them around the ruins and its bridges and breathing fire. At one point, unable to fly up, he pushed a bridge down, causing Edgin to slide down toward his maw—stopped only when Xenk heroically leaped overhead and thrust his sword into Themberchaud's head, though with no serious harm done. Recovering, Themberchaud chased them into a narrow cave, but could not get his head through. The damage caused seawater to leak in. In the end, though, Edgin actually made a plan that worked, organizing his team and getting Themberchaud to breathe gas and create an explosion that would open a water channel and free them. Xenk was pleased with Edgin returning to the heroic ways of the Harper.

Some time later, with the helmet of disjunction in their possession, they emerged in the Sea of Swords and swam to shore, where they rested on the rocky beach. There, Xenk said his farewells; though they asked him to stay and assist them, he preferred to let Edgin, Holga and the others use what they had and rise to the occasion themselves rather than for him to keep carrying them himself. He departed down the beach, heading off for adventures anew.

In time, Edgin, Holga, Simon, and Doric would save Neverwinter, and Edgin even kept his oath to Xenk about distributing the wealth among the people of the city. Afterward, Xenk encountered the fugitive Forge Fitzwilliam in a forest one night and returned him to face justice; he was incarcerated in Revel's End.

Background
Xenk is played by actor Regé-Jean Page. He was confirmed to be a paladin class via a promotional video played at the San Diego Comic-Con 2022's Tavern Experience. He is described by producer Jeremy Latcham as the "ultimate paladin, holy, smart, on point, just very, very determined, and does not love the vibe of some of the other people in the group because he's a very moral man. He represents the player who takes it too seriously." His full name was revealed in an interview with writer-directors Daley and Goldstein on January 23, 2023, but the spelling is unconfirmed. Daley said, "He's a Paladin with this traumatic past. He's an adept fighter. He's incredibly serious and in many ways, the antithesis of the rest of our group of thieves. He's got zero sense of humor and feels like he was plucked out of another fantasy film that obviously creates a delicious rift between him and Chris Pine's character who is equal parts threatened and baffled by him." Goldstein added, "We always find it funny when someone's taking things very seriously and has no sense of humor at all." Producer Jeremy Latcham also stated that in earlier versions of the script, Xenk's role in the plot was going to be fulfilled by popular Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'Urden, on the instructions of Wizards of the Coast, and that it would be Menzoberranzan, not Dolblunde that the Thieves would visit in the Underdark. However, due to a controversy involving Drizzt, his character was replaced with an original one.