Galleri d'Deneith — Chris Michael Moore

Human, Mark of Sentinel

DENEITH (SENTINEL) The Mark of Sentinel presents on humans descended from the Deneith bloodline and is tied to protection and martial ability. Both during the Last War and through the present day, House Deneith is the most reputable source of personal protection and mercenary services in Khorvaire. House Deneith controls two major guilds: the Blademarks Guild, the largest provider of mercenaries on the continent, and the Defenders Guild, specializing in personal protection. A third branch of House Deneith is the Sentinel Marshals. These elite law enforcers are drawn from the most trusted members of the two previous guilds. The Sentinel Marshals were empowered by Galifar, and now again by the Treaty of Thronehold, to cross national borders in pursuit of criminals.

Cleric of Order (Aureon)

AUREON is the god of knowledge, order, and magic as a tool for the good of mortals. He is also invoked when a difficult decision must be made, especially in regard to the law or the morality of pursuing arcane secrets

Born in Thrane and in Thrane on the Day of the Mourning.

THRANE Thranes are a religious, devoted, and kind people that shun materialism and other vices. This theocracy is officially led by Jaela Daran, Keeper of the Flame—an eleven-year-old girl with a powerful connection to the Silver Flame. The vast majority of Thranes follow the faith of the Silver Flame, and while few led to become bold warriors rooting out supernatural evil, they are all called to lives of goodness and faith. With its fertile lands bordered on most sides by rivers and greater bodies of water, Thrane was the only nation to retain all its territory in the Treaty of Thronehold. It also maintains control of the once-Aundairian city of Thaliost it seized near the end of the Last War, and many citizens of both nations hold bitter resentment toward the other.

Was an Brelish Deserter (Hermit) during the war.

BRELISH DESERTER. During the final years of the Last War, you’d had enough. After so much death and destruction, you needed to escape the madness of endless destruction. Unable to go home because of your status as a deserter of the Brelish army, you needed to hide. You made your home on the border between Cyre and Breland, dodging patrols of both armies and living alone in the wilderness. With the Last War now over, you find that your knowledge of Cyre’s border is coming in handy.

Galleri has a secret! (BETRAYAL)

>>SPOILERS<<

Galleri was born to two members of House Deneith (dragonmarks are genetic and inherited), but early in the war both were called away to service and he was left with his unmarked but House Deneith member Aunt Jennah who lived just north of Vathirond, on the Thrane side of the Brey river. A hot spot in the war, the town was overwhelmed and he became separated and an orphan. Taken in by the orphanage to the southeast run by Father Eustace of the Sovereign Host, he learned to appreciate the wisdom of Aureon, and learned to love reading. One night, around 10 years old, he was visited in a dream by an angel who woke him. Not sure whether it is was in a dream or not, he got out of bed and wandered to a hidden passage in the orphanage he had never seen before leading to stairs that went down deep under the sanctuary. Quietly descending you saw the Father turn into a half-man, half-boar, wearboar. Father Eustace infected one of the other orphans tied to an altar and forced them to drink a potion turning the child fully into a pig, and then fed the pig to a demon. The half-sleep fell away, and Galleri snapped awake and ran away.
Making his way back to the city of Vathirond, Galleri lived on the streets, and did well for himself. As he hit early puberty, the Mark of Sentinel appeared, giving him the ability to sense when there was a chance he would be watched, making him do exceptionally well at avoiding capture even as Galleri took care to live by a strong moral code of not taking from anyone except those that could afford to let him borrow from them until he could pay them back. Unfortunately he was so successful in living off of what he gleaned from more important persons, and had a pattern of returning to the local library often to borrow and return books, that he was very easy for Armundus d’Deneith to track down, having been called in on account of the dragonmark. Armundus took Galleri under his wing, and as a dragonmarked heir of the house, he had no need to scrounge any more. Galleri d’Deneith had become an upstanding and rightful member of society with a position of respect. He did his best to pay back what he could to those he remembered having taken from earlier, and grew to appreciate how well his faith in Aureon fit with House Deneith’s role as an international and neutral police force. Many of his lessons involved not only a combat role, but in being a beacon of justice, and Galleri spent time within House Deneith being tutored by Sentinel Marshals engaged in field investigation as well as with the in-house clerics of Aureon, god of justice, law and order.
At 16, Galleri was given his first field assignment a crew of House Deneith mercenaries. House Deneith’s other wing in addition to the Sentinel Marshal law enforcement side of the house, was also to supply mercenary companies to all sides of the war that hired. This was Galleri’s first time assigned outside of the Sentinel Marshal part of the house, and his troop was led by Glamorgan d’Deneith. Glamorgan was also on his first real field assignment having been tutored by Endira d’Deneith, and together were put in charge of a group of goblinkin mercenaries from the Deneith holdings in Darguun. The looser handling of legal matters by both the goblinkin mercs and Glamorgan didn’t set right with Galleri, and at some point he couldn’t handle their excessive cruelty and pillaging in the execution of war. Galleri confronted Glamorgan, and Glamorgan, being the senior officer had him written up. Galleri took his reprimand stoically, but after a short period of reprobation was sent back to the front with the same troop of mercenaries. Only this time, their actions were even further unrestrained. The correct thing to do would be to report further up. But their actions truly disgusted Galleri including rape, theft and violence against civilians. Having been accused before of insubordination, Galleri couldn’t trust the chain of authority to do the right thing. At a key moment in a major battle, he walked away, leaving troops entrusted to his command to die when he could have saved them. And later, the overall loss of the battle was determined to be because Galleri’s position on the line fell. The way it was told, he was singularly responsible for the deaths of over 100 mercenaries, Breland soldiers and even House Deneith dragonmarked heirs.
Galleri never imagined his moment of weakness would result in such loss. He disappeared, ashamed of his own moral weakness, guilty before Aureon even before he faced the awaiting court-marshal. The war ended mere weeks later. He retreated into the wilderness near his aunt’s old home north of Vathirond hoping one day to make peace with his shattered conscience.
It was four and a half years later, when Armundus sent Galleri that fateful letter and called him back into service...