Callahan

This guy. THIS GUY. THIS GUY.

Callahan! It's Callahan!! my dearest punching bag whom I love and adore <3 <3 <3

A kindhearted knight from the cordial land of Alafir who is plagued with visions and destined to rot in a ditch.

Fairly skilled in combat, but is dreadfully foolish and far, far too trusting for his own good.

Callahan was an only child, his mother having had endured a long string of miscarriages until, after many prayers, blessings and a visit from the local priest, Callahan was born happy and healthy. overjoyed that by the grace of the gods she was at long last able to give her husband a child, Callahan's mother piled on the religious teachings and stifling coddling until he left home at the ripe old age of 11. Encouraged by his father, a burned-out mercenary captain, Callahan became a squire, then eventually a (particularly low-ranking) knight. pretty standard stuff. Spent most of his time as a guard and, aside from a few incidents when he was squire, is largely unfamiliar with large-scale battles or war.

When he started receiving messages from the gods he was in no way unique in that aspect, as it was considered somewhat of a developing plague to the people of Alafir. It was widely considered best to leave those afflicted to their own devices and to set them off in pilgrimage to wherever they were called to. And so, Callahan set off on a wacky adventure full of pain and suffering and deteriorating mental faculties accompanied by Vaughn, a mercenary who worked under Callahan's father and had been paid handsomely to ensure his only son didn't get himself instantly killed. Unlike most roused to action by the siren's call of the gods, Callahan faltered very early into his journey, feeling unworthy of the privilege of serving them.

after much despair, he comes to the conclusion that he must have upset his gods somehow to have caused such a crisis in faith. he eventually decides that to earn back their favour and the right to serve them, the best course of action would be to travel the lands on a chivalrous quest to do good and help where he can.

the gods themselves (who were mostly indifferent to Callahan beforehand) are less than pleased with this development. despite this, Callahan remains steadfast in his judgement and sets off on a wacky adventure full of pain and suffering and deteriorating mental faculties.

he has a turbulent relationship with death; for various reasons he frequently finds himself despairing and suicidal, sometimes overwhelmed by his religious visions or left crippled by melancholy, and other times simply unable to understand how he could fully serve the divine while suffering among the living. Yet despite how much he may yearn for death and the afterlife, he fears nothing more than the possibility of an eternity damned to hell.  

when Rolomag hijacked his pilgrimage, Callahan soon convinced himself that the only way someone so wholly vile and evil as Rolomag could come to be would be as some form of divine punishment for Callahan's shortcomings... or, as the revelation eventually came to him, a test that if passed could have the God's smile upon him once more. what better way to show his devotion than to bring salvation to one who has utterly dedicated themselves to depravity and sin?

predictably enough, things don't go well.