Reizuil Gloryhammer

A Story by Purban

My backup bard character for when one of my characters dies during an adventure.

Reizuil Gloryhammer
A short story by Ruben Potthoff

The Gloryhammer clan

Ancient tales tell of how the Gloryhammer clan came to be, forged by the hands of one of the mightiest dwarven bloodlines. The founder of the Gloryhammer clan is said to be Araznuk Gloryhammer, a legendary blacksmith and warrior of ancient times. He was said to have started his life as a mere slave, being forced to wield a hammer and forge weapons for his cruel masters. However, as the years passed, his skills continued to grow. Forced to craft weapons day after day, year after year for over a hundred years with barely any time to rest made even the heaviest of hammers feel light as a feather to Araznuk. As his skills grew, so did his hatred. One day, however, other slaves dared to rebel against their masters. However, they stood no chance against the giants calling themselves their master. Araznuk picked up his hammer and decided to forge a new fate for himself, aiding his fellow dwarven prisoners in attaining their freedom and sealing the fate of their cruel masters. The liberated slaves, however, had nowhere to go as they had been enslaved for generations. They found a leader in Araznuk, who forged a new clan with his glorious hammer and it became known as the Gloryhammer clan. The years passed and the clan produced many great blacksmiths, as well as warriors who specialized in wielding great warhammers to honor the founder of their clan.

Valdrean and Bassaehulda Gloryhammer

Valdrean Gloryhammer was a renowned blacksmith, well respected in his clan. As his clan focused mostly on blacksmithing, being a talented individual in this field gained him a lot of respect by his peers. Having made many a great weapon, he also attempted to wield his weapons in combat. However, he was a lot less talented in wielding his weapons than he was in making them. While it greatly saddened Valdrean, it did not affect his reputation as a great blacksmith in the slightest. Bassaechulda was a female dwarf of the Gloryhammer clan, employed as a guard to watch the gates of their great halls. It was a boring task, but it earned her enough money to live a fulfilled live. As fate would have it, she was provided her gear by Valdrean. As she visited his smithy regularly, they slowly got along better and eventually got together and formed a family.

Tharfoug Gloryhammer

Firstborn son of Valdrean Gloryhammer, Tharfoug displayed little to no skill as a blacksmith. However, trained by his mother Bassaehulda, he was well versed in the traditional ways of combat of the Gloryhammer clan, wielding warhammer and shield into battle. He was insecure about his lack of talent at the anvil, but because of his ability in combat he was a well-respected member of the clan. He had two little brothers and a little sister, whom he all held dear. He went into the same field of work as his mother, and guarded their clan. Whenever Orcs, Goblins or other potential enemies of their clan were discovered he went with the extermination party and greatly aided them with taking out their foes, which is part of the reason he was so respected in the clan

Fisuline and Hakkuri Gloryhammer

The firstborn daughter of the couple was named Fisuline, and while she displayed neither skill in battle nor with the anvil, she was quite beautiful for a dwarf and with her beauty she also increased the fame of Valdrean and his kin. Her beauty did not cause her to become arrogant, thus she was beloved by the entire clan. The second son, Hakkuri, was the first of the children of Valdrean to take up the smith’s hammer. His combat prowess was lacking, but his skill at the anvil surpassed that of his father at young age. The entire clan was certain that this child would become a legendary blacksmith, known beyond the circle of their clan. He forged many great weapons that would be used by the hands of their clan and gifted to only the greatest allies of this dwarven clan.

The Fourth Child

Reizuil, fourth child of Valdrean Gloryhammer, noticed as he was growing up that all his siblings were greatly respected by most of the clan. He tried become as great of a warrior as his eldest brother, but he did not nearly have as much strenght as Tharfoug. He could wield the more elegant weapons with quite a bit of poise, but this small amount of poise could not compare to the glory of his brother’s figure in combat. He also attempted to train in the art of smithing with his brother Hakkuri, but the mastery with which his brother forged weapons and armor soon made Reizuil realize he could not compete in this field either. He was also unable to naturally attract attention without having talent like his sister for obvious reasons. Of course, he was still held dearly by his family but he felt out of place in such an abnormal family.

A Strange Visitor

While he was nearing the age of 30, still quite young for a dwarf, Reizuil was growing ever more concerned with his lack of talent for anything other than recounting tales of ages long since past. Because of his impressive siblings he had to save face somehow, and he managed to do that quite well by being good with words. He could convince people of many a thing, and was also reasonably good at telling the tales he’d read to the smaller children and entertaining them thusly. He was unaware that this was quite a useful talent, and continued to assume he was talentless. Around that time a halfling entered the halls of the Gloryhammer clan, claiming to be a simple traveler wanting to buy some supplies and spend a few nights.

Entertainment

The traveler, as travelers often do, went around the halls of the Gloryhammer clan to see if there was something interesting going on anywhere. When he didn’t see anything interesting nearby, he dicided to grab his little flute and play a few songs on it. He attracted quite a bit of attention as expected, and managed to obtain a bit of coin in the process. When he was about finished, he noticed a dwarf approaching him. The dwarf introduced himself as Reizuil, and asked about the traveler. The two continued talking for quite a while, and eventually parted ways. The next day the traveler gave the dwarf a flute as well, and thought him the basics. Reizuil enjoyed playing, and they continued to perform the next couple of days as well. After a while, the halfling told the dwarf that he was planning to leave soon. The dwarf felt as if life had finally given him something he enjoyed, entertaining people. He decided to depart along with the halfling, to which his entire clan protested but they could not stop this stubborn young dwarf.

A Hidden Purpose

The duo continued to travel and perform for a couple weeks, and Reizuil had become reasonably good at singing, playing joyful songs on his flute and had been given a viol by the halfling, on which he could not yet play anything meaningful. One day, however, the halfling told the dwarf that he was not just a simple entertainer. He was a bard working for The Harpers, an orginazation aiming to keep the world fair for the poor and weak. His purpose was to procure information about what was going on across the world, and he was doing that while traveling around and talking to various groups of people. Reizuil offered his help to this cause as well, and so he became part of The Harpers.

Alone

After traveling with the halfling for a couple more years, Reizuil had become adept in playing the viol, flute and drums. Information gathering had been a lot of fun and Reizuil felt as if he had finally found his true calling. This was when he had gotten his first assignment to go on alone. The halfling told him that it would be a good experience to do something on his own for once, and Reizuil agreed with this. His first assignment was to aid a nearby party which had recently lost one of its members, as The Harpers owed them a debt. Thus, the 135cm dwarven bard weighing about 80 kilograms, with brown hair and blue eyes departed on his first mission alone.