Ildere Torunne

Ildere was once the court librarian back home in his isolated dwarven kingdom, happily married to his childhood sweetheart and man of his dreams, tucked away under the stone for the foreseeable future. All of that changed when the kings warriors returned with a scroll of great power, and the task of translating and recording the dark tome was presented to Ildere. The dwarf quickly became obsessed, going days without blinking poured over ancient writings that always fell just out of his reach to comprehend. His husband tried to convince him to rest, but he snapped at his love and pushed him away. Finally, when the day came that he could read the words aloud, the unthinkable happened. A demon emerged as he spoke, a chaotic deity of great power. It murdered dozens, Ildere's friends, family, all who had gathered. The king himself was nearly killed, but the demon's bloodlust had been sated. It turned to Ildere, and cursed him one last time, with the gift of magic. The demon vanished, and Ildere was banished to the surface, never to return. 

Now an unwilling sorcerer, Ildere became afraid of knowledge. He could not read even a storybook after the incident, afraid of losing track of time in the fantasy world, afraid of the feelings that so easily drove him to obsession. He retreated to a small, disheveled town, with nothing to his name but the clothes on his back and his and his husband's wedding rings, which he was forced to pawn. He now lives in days in as close to a drunken stupor as is possible for a dwarf drinking human ale, making small amounts of coin as the town mage, completing menial tasks and wallowing in his own self-hatred.