This is the character profile for my character Kalen “Shadowbane” Dren, hero of the Shadowbane series. I will update it from time to time as new books are released and his specifics are updated. 
Without further ado . . .
Kalen “Shadowbane” Dren
Kalen is a thief-turned-paladin, sworn to the Threefold God (a heretic amalgamation of Helm, Tyr, and Torm), who turns his shady skills to a one-man war against evil. He suffers from a spellscar that deadens sensation in his body: it makes him stronger and tougher than ordinary men, but it will also kill him one day. He has sworn to follow his god’s path in the time given to him.
Appearances: “The Last Legend of Gedrin Shadowbane,” Downshadow, “Chosen of the Sword,” “A New Purpose” (inc. in ebook bundle), Shadowbane, Eye of Justice (September 2012)
Race/Class (during Shadowbane)
4e D&D Build: human male (age 25 in 1480) pursuit avenger 10
3.5 D&D Build: human (Chondathan) male rogue 2/paladin 4/shadowbane inquisitor 4
1e-2e D&D Build: human male dual-classed thief/paladin 10
(As a novel character, Kalen defies easy classification in terms of class and powers. I originally conceived him as Shadowbane Inquisitor from 3.5, but I wrote him for a 4e book before the 4e core rules were published, so I couldn’t really build him before he appeared. I called him a paladin before avenger appeared, which is a much better build for his abilities. You’ll see him get more settled into that class during Shadowbane. He’s basically a dual-class character in the old 1e/2e tradition.)
Alignment?
Alignment is one of those things I don’t make super clear in my novels, but Kalen falls somewhere around the “lawful neutral” axis–sometimes he’s closer to Lawful Good, sometimes to True Neutral. An actual statblock of Kalen would probably list him as “unaligned.”
IMO, the 4e “unaligned” concept basically incorporates the “neutral” alignments of previous editions (NG, LN, TN, CN, NE), saying that a character who is partly “neutral” isn’t committed enough to have a specific alignment and is thus “unaligned.” I consider “good” to be the translation of “chaotic good” (i.e. you don’t give a fig for whether it’s legal or not–it’s the right thing to do) while “evil” is basically “lawful good” (devils, organized evil, etc). Not everyone will see it that way, but that’s how I think of it.
Notable Possessions/Powers
Vindicator is a shard of Helm’s lingering divine power. The sword originally appeared in 1384 after a young Night Mask named Gedrin Thalavar (or the Westgate noble family) saw the god Helm dueling the god Tyr. The god of guardians fell to the god of justice, but his power flowed into Tyr and into the sword he wielded, which was in Gedrin’s hand when he awoke. The young thief chosen by Helm became a paladin and created the Eye of Justice organization out of the ranks of his fellow Night Masks.
Mechanically, Vindicator is a Vigilant Blade bastard sword +3 (modifier scales with a chosen wielder’s level), with as-yet not fully revealed additional powers including glowing with bright grey flames, a variant of the Swordmage’s swordbond class feature, and burning a would-be wielder who is not worthy to hold it.
Kalen has a Spellscar that diminishes pain and makes him strong, tough, and fast. He barely feels strikes, though his body suffers the damage and he doesn’t always know when to back down from a fight. His numbness applies to all tactile sensation, including kisses, caresses, and the like. The debilitating spellscar also seems to get worse at times, almost completely immobilizing him under certain conditions, and Kalen believes it will one day kill him.
Notable Relationships (before Shadowbane)
Myrin Darkdance (good-aligned human wand/orb wizard [spellscarred harbinger]): A young amnesiac wizard, whose safety Kalen took upon himself when they met in the novel Downshadow. Myrin clearly has strong feelings for Kalen, though he can’t quite identify/reconcile how he feels about her.
Fayne (chaotic evil eladrin (fey’ri) female fey-pact warlock): A con-artist and professional scandal-maker, whose illusion/disguise powers have earned her the moniker “The Trickster of Waterdeep.” She serves at the whim of her patron and father, Lilten Changecloak. She and Kalen have an on-again/off-again toxic romance.
Araezra “Rayse” Hondyl (good human female fighter [MC warlord]): A Valabrar in the Waterdeep Guard and Kalen’s (former) commanding officer. She and Kalen had a romantic relationship in the past, but have since become good friends instead.
Cellica (unaligned halfling female psion): Kalen’s adopted sister from Luskan, she helps “Shadowbane” with his war against evil.
Arrath “Rath” Vir (evil dwarf male monk): An infamous assassin who clashes frequently with Kalen as Shadowbane.
Lady Ilira “Fox-at-Twilight” Nathalan (unaligned eladrin [moon elf] female rogue/assassin): A retired adventurer turned silk merchant/stylist in Waterdeep. She and Kalen share a dance in Downshadow, and while it is clear there is a connection between them, she soon flees, accused of the murder of her best friend.
Vaelis (unaligned human male avenger): A young broadcryer Kalen encounters at the end of Downshadow and takes as an apprentice.
Backstory
Bloody Days in Luskan
Born a street rat on the mean streets of Luskan, city of thieves, in 1455, the boy Kalen learned quickly to beg, steal, and occasionally murder to survive. Kalen is the younger of two siblings; his 5-10 years older half-sister Eden, who left Luskan after seeing their shared mother (Drenna of Luskan) allegedly died of a broken heart when Kalen’s father, a Silverymoon knight, abandoned her, leaving Kalen more-or-less alone.
At an early age, he suffered from an illness that diminished the amount of pain that he felt from external stimuli (similar to CIPA) which resulted in scars around his lips and fingers (where he gnawed constantly as a child). As a boy, he met (by chance) the halfling twins Cellica and Toytere, who had been captives of a cult sworn to the Demon Prince Graz’zt. He forged a close sibling relationship with Cellica and a rivalry with Toytere, who was a member of a gang called the Dead Rats.
In 1463, at the age of 8, Kalen met Gedrin “Shadowbane” Thalavar, who bequeathed him the fabulous sword Vindicator, which was the founding blade of the Westgate-based guild called the Eye of Justice. He instructed the boy to follow the path the blade set for him and not to run from it, then boxed him on the ear so that he would remember his charge. Gedrin perished shortly thereafter, betrayed by his closest ally into the hands of a vampire lord called Kirenkirsalai, who was apparently an old enemy. (This tale can be found in “The Last Legend of Gedrin Shadowbane”—a free short story download.)
Soon after, Kalen hawked the blade for enough coin to flee the city, along with his adopted sister Cellica, but they were betrayed and almost killed. The pair escaped, but not before Kalen had fallen prey to unrestrained Spellplague energy. The result put him into a statue-like coma, from which he eventually with Cellica’s help. The lingering scar exacerbated his numb sickness and would ultimately prove fatal. Kalen decided to follow the path of the Threefold God that Gedrin had blazed and vowed to get the sword back.
The Birth of Shadowbane
In 1470, Kalen (and Cellica) arrived at the headquarters of the Eye of Justice in Westgate, where he demanded to be charged with the task of recovering Vindicator. The sword had been missing since 1460, when Gedrin had quit the order, which he called unrecognizably corrupt and morally bankrupt. The council agreed with Kalen’s daring demand, offering membership in the order should he prove successful. Kalen met Gedrin’s adopted daughter Levia Shadewalker (a half-elf priestess/spy in Westgate), who quickly became his second trusted ally when he revealed to her that he had, in fact, had Vindicator all along.
She began to train him in the ways of the Order, hoping that one day he would redeem the Eye of Justice, which had fallen from its lofty ideals. In turn, Kalen attempted to reconcile the brutal thief inside him with the noble paladin Gedrin had taught him to be. Unfortunately, Kalen ultimately broke with the Eye of Justice, much as Gedrin had before him. When he had to deal with assassins sent by his own organization, which feared his growing power and popularity, he left in disgust after five years of training.
In 1475, Kalen went to Waterdeep, where he took a commission in the City Watch by day, whilst punishing those criminals the law couldn’t touch by night as a vigilante called Shadowbane. He became a master of the underworld neighborhood called Downshadow and began building an infamous legend as a mysterious “black knight.”
On the surface, his valor as a Watchman quickly caught the eye of then Shieldlar Araezra “Rayse” Hondyl of the City Guard, with whom he struck up a casual and ultimately doomed romance (though they remained friends). When she was promoted to Valabrar, Araezra requested Kalen be transferred from the Watch into a position under her command. Ostensibly was suffering badly from his numbness affliction, Kalen was kept out of active physical duty, though in truth, he was pushing himself extra hard as Shadowbane.
The Scourge of Downshadow
(The following story can be found in the novel Downshadow. If you haven’t read that novel, be warned of spoilers!)
In 1479, Kalen met (by seeming chance) an amnesiac girl with blue hair and numerous tattoos called “Myrin,” to whom he was immediately drawn. It seemed Myrin was a wizard of some sort, but without knowledge of her past, the true scope of her powers was hidden from all. Myrin immediately gravitated to the heroic Kalen and forged a close friendship with Kalen’s adopted sister, Cellica. As her powers continued to manifest, she seemed to have a knack for absorbing magic and memories from those she touched. All the memories she absorbed were memories of herself, and whenever she saw herself casting a particular spell, she would remember how to cast it. A remembered spell manifested on her skin as a tattoo.
Unfortunately, Myrin’s presence also drew the attention of Fayne the Trickster, a fey’ri warlock and professional scandal-maker, who sought to acquire her by any means necessary. (Fayne worked at the behest of anyone with coin, but particularly her mysterious and powerful patron, Lilten Changecloak.) These included the hiring of the dangerous Arrath “Rath” Vir, a dwarf monk and assassin, who became bitter rivals with Kalen. He betrayed Fayne and sowed chaos in Kalen’s life, including the murder of a high-ranking priestess of Sune (Lorien Dawnbringer), the ruination of a merchant queen in the city (Lady Ilira Nathalan), and the slaying of Kalen’s sister, Cellica. Myrin was herself kidnapped along with Fayne, though it appears the fey’ri was complicit in Rath’s dealings (or at least knew how to escape). Kalen fought Rath through Downshadow and had a final showdown with him atop Waterdeep’s clock tower.
Thinking Kalen would give in to his internal monster and kill Rath, Myrin left the city, though not before she absorbed some of Kalen’s spellscar, extending his life. Kalen spared Rath and arrested Fayne, who promptly escaped the Waterdeep prison. In the process, Kalen also met the boy Vaelis, in a manner similar to his own initial meeting with Gedrin Thalavar. He determined to train the boy to take up the mantle of Shadowbane, in part so that he could leave to follow Myrin.
Do you want to know more?
I think I’ll produce some statblocks for use in your 4e games. But in the meantime, go check out:
“Chosen of the Sword,” which tells the tragic tale of Kalen’s first apprentice, Vaelis.
The Rath vs. Shadowbane twitter duel, where the rivals meet in the contested city of Neverwinter.
“A New Purpose,” the short story included in the Shadowbane e-book bundle.
Then, of course, the novel Shadowbane.
Cheers
