Beryl Freid

Beryl is my DnD character for a campaign in a setting called Wickmuth. Many details of his character are setting-influenced, and may be a bit tedious to understand without the setting's details.

Any person found using magic without affiliation to one of the the major organizations that employ spellcasters will be hunted down and either imprisoned or killed, depending on their resistance and on the dog and leash who took their case. 

That's what Beryl does: he is a "leash" for the Government Arcanum, hunting down rogue magic users to punish them in whatever ways necessary. The Arcanum employs a buddy system of sorts. All hunters working for them come in sets of "dogs," trained Arcanum spellcasters, and "leashes," physical attackers who hold a weapon able to disrupt any use of magic with so much as a light tap. 

Beryl began leash training at ten, making him older than many of his peers at the time. He had been recently orphaned by his criminal parents' abrupt deaths, and was desperate to not be caught in the hopelessness of the average orphanage. He passed the aptitude test to become part of leash training, and through eight years of determination, angry resolve, tight discipline, and intense self-criticism, he managed to be part of the 1/4 of those in training to survive to become real leashes. 

He was assigned his dog directly out of graduation. Ilica was a kinderfolk woman, almost 30 years old, and two became rapidly close. They began to rely on each other for everything, for basic functioning. The two couldn't and wouldn't name it themselves, but they were codependent and deep in The Shit. They were an amazing pair, synchronized and affectionate, but more and more insular by the year. Ilica became paranoid of any interactions Beryl had outside of her. She began to pull him away from his friends, afraid they were shit-talking her behind her back, afraid Beryl would abandon her if he believed them. She became crueler, less patient and more critical of him with each passing day. Nevertheless, Beryl did his best to please her, and only wanted to make her happy. 

And then, almost a decade after they were assigned to each other, Ilica's body was found dashed on the rocks beneath the Growlit cliffs. There were no witnesses to claim someone had pushed her, there were no scuffmarks in the dewy morning grass to mark how she may have slipped and fallen, and there was no note to explain if it was intentional. Beryl's only friend, his light, the only person in his entire life, that gave him meaning and companionship -- well, she was just gone now. And he's not going to be okay any time soon.

Almost a year later, Beryl still grieving, attends the funeral of Ilica's old friend in her stead.