Overview
Garrik of Kaldaryn leads Kaldaryn, after beginning life as a prince of the Blackcrag Dominion, and takes charge of the Order of Thalion Zenith after Isaac disappears. He commands Kaldaryn's coalition across western and central Valrindor, working to enforce peace, stop surviving Malverand threats, and oppose enemies such as Eremion, Raphael, Gabriel, and Azarion.
Appearance
Garrik has blond hair and teal eyes. He is born around 5208 AX through the secret Blackcrag-Theryssa/Thiravos bargain, making him about 160 by 5368 AX. The iridescent shard given to him by Isaac extends his life across more than a century and a half and leaves him looking like a man in his late thirties to early forties. His divine essence can blaze with bright golden light, especially when he raises massive shields or fights at full strength.
Garrik wears red and gold robes during his early travels after leaving Blackcrag. During the Maraveth War, the Siege of Omberion, and the Battle for Cyndarel, he also wears brown leather armor, Kaldaryn-style clothing, and neutral robes when he conceals Kaldaryn allegiance.
Personality
Garrik is controlled, strategic, dutiful, and focused on enforcing peace across Valrindor. He dislikes pointless slaughter and often chooses caution when casualties would be pointless, but he also uses overwhelming force, occupation, and political pressure when he believes peace requires it.
He keeps Order matters, Malverand history, and his shard closely guarded. When Thalena offers to face Eremion herself, Garrik accepts the practical choice and sets his personal history with Blackcrag and George aside for the confrontation with Eremion at Maraveth.
- Core Traits: Strategic, disciplined, pragmatic, secretive, protective, duty-bound.
- Motivations: Create lasting peace across Valrindor, protect Kaldaryn, destroy the surviving remnants of the Malverand Empire, and stop immortals such as Eremion from controlling the world.
Abilities, Skills & Magic
Garrik is an exceptional divine mage with wall-like shields, swift healing, body and ally enchantments, and battlefield command experience. He repeatedly forms massive golden shields, heals wounded people, and directs divine mages under battlefield pressure.
He is also a powerful earth mage. With earth magic, he reshapes walls, raises defenses, seals terrain, reinforces Kaldaryn, and fights physically against Eremion, Gabriel, and Zorath. In army-scale engagements, he combines divine and earth magic for battlefield-scale protection.
Garrik's iridescent shard is a second-generation god core. It enhances his divine and earth magic, heightens his perception, and extends his lifespan. The shard lets him stand against threats such as Eremion and Gabriel, though he can still be badly injured in the hardest engagements.
Background & History
Garrik is born from George's secret bargain with the Pelagia consuls: Lucilla carries the child, Nero fathers and delivers him to Omberion, and George publicly names him the queen's newborn son, Prince Garrik. Garrik is raised as the prince and expected future king of the Blackcrag Dominion. Ulrich tutors him in governance, while Astrid teaches him divine magic, engineering, skyships, and practical survival.
As a young prince, Garrik participates in Blackcrag governance and diplomacy. During a mission to Morindel, Astrid acquires the crystal heart that restores Eremion. Garrik grows suspicious of Eremion's control over Blackcrag after George's death and refuses to become a puppet king. He steals a skyship and flees on the evening before his coronation; Astrid follows him, and sabotage strands them outside Blackcrag. Eremion later takes power in Blackcrag as regent and then king.
Garrik and Astrid spend years traveling while seeking answers about Tianlei, Malverand, and Eremion. After meeting Isaac, Garrik swears loyalty to the Order of Thalion Zenith. Isaac gives him the iridescent shard and assigns him a long mission: gather an army, bring peace to Valrindor, and defeat Eremion.
Garrik's goal expands from saving Blackcrag into enforcing peace across Valrindor. He joins forces with Khoradyn, Kren, Zhang, Astrid, and others, building an army that gathers survivors and defectors while opposing the shapers of Shroudvale. Khoradyn later insists that Garrik take formal leadership, and Garrik names the new city and nation Kaldaryn.
Over the following years, Kaldaryn grows into a power across western and central Valrindor. Garrik builds alliances and protectorate relationships with leaders and regions including Borovia, Drozhvenya, Skarnheim, Morozkaya, Thundermarch, Hengvaris, Linsothar, and Shaoying. His forces control much of western and central Valrindor, making him a peacekeeper to allies and a warmonger to enemies.
Garrik leads Kaldaryn through the Maraveth War, the struggle over the Malverand vault, Blackcrag, and the Siege of Omberion. He recruits Eira, Kaelion, and Jin into the Order after they face Eremion in Maraveth. During Raphael's offensive against the returned Order and Garrik's coalition, he commands Kaldaryn forces against Raphael, Gabriel, Azarion, and Rahmavir's allied commanders. After the Battle for Cyndarel, he regroups in Kaldaryn and directs the city's defense while the surviving allies plan their next moves.
Relationships
- Family: Nero and Lucilla are Garrik's biological parents through the secret Blackcrag-Theryssa/Thiravos bargain. George is his adoptive father and the man who names him heir to Blackcrag. Through Lucilla, Garrik is the grandson of Nerissa and Isandriel.
- Allies: Astrid, Khoradyn, Kren, Zhang, Rhalyn, Isrynn, Eira, Kaelion, Jin, Virel, Aldar, Astheron, Brynor, Lysander, Thalena, Splin, Kaldaryn commanders, and allied leaders.
- Enemies/Rivals: Enemies include Eremion, Raphael, Gabriel, Azarion, hostile Blackcrag forces under Eremion, and the shapers of Shroudvale.
- Isaac, Ulrich, and Vianna: Isaac recruits Garrik into the Order and gives him the iridescent shard. Ulrich tutors him in Blackcrag. Vianna marches with Garrik's army after their first meeting among the Hengzhou survivors during the shaper attack on Hengzhou, then later leads Morozkaya alongside Kazimir and Kyrana.