Gawen

Summary
Gawen was born in Evermeet 327 years ago. His family fled Evermeet for Faerun during the chaos of the Sundering. They eventually settled in Neverwinter. Gawen longed for the sylvan paradise of Evermeet and so he struck out as an adult to Neverwinter Forest.

He spent his adolescence with a human woman named Egna, another wanderer. She was a devote follower of Sune the Goddess of Love and Beauty. They and other followers of Sune lived in a village near the forest where they established a temple. In the 100 years that Gawen looked on, this project prospered, stagnated and collapsed. Egna grew old and frail and passed away. Later, after infighting and heartbreak led to the abandonment of the temple, the eruption of Mt. Hotenow destroyed what was left. At the time of the explosion, Gawen had already left for the depths of the forest, resolved to a life of solitude, away from the violently short tumult of human lives.

He discovered ancient elven ruins there and declared himself their caretaker. Years passed as Gawen spent his days in a timeless reverie among the eternal structures. In the unchanging climate of the Neverwinter forest, Gawen inhabited a world locked in stasis. Thusly, he acquainted himself with the forest and Shandahar, the one-time capital of the Ilyabruen Empire.

One fateful day, the ancient portal to the Feywild glowed anew with magical energy and the ancient elves made their return to Faerun. Shocked to see their city in ruins and sorely disappointed to discover that the only clansman to receive them had traded their Elven gods for a human one, they accused him of profaning their lands and banished him from the forest.

Though his stewardship may have been not up to their exacting standards, Gawen did everything in his power to maintain the sanctity of those places. Today, he has sworn revenge on defiling creatures and all of their ilk, hobgoblins, human treasure hunters and the like.

The years living alone in a forest haven't disturbed Gawen's sense of sociability. Having watched his solitary life dissolve to dust in the forest, he has bemusedly taken to life among humans again. His time in the forest has made him a little out of date.

In Evermeet, Gawen's family revered Milekki, Goddess of the Forest. Gawen observes some of her customs but remains dedicated to Sune. Since emerging from the forest's depths, he has heard Sune more clearly. The first night he spent without the boughs of trees overhead, he dreamed of a giant rose, rising from a lake. It opened in bloom and inside rested the goddess Sune. He doesn't know what to make of this dream.

He carries a greatsword that was given to him by someone he deems to be a great defiler and enemy. Beautifully made, inlaid with black and white metal, he could not bring himself to destroy it. He purified the blade of the curse it carried and has sworn that one day the giver shall choke on his generosity. He has named it Bitter Gift.

He dresses simply but elegantly, often wearing a fine green tabard and brown hose. Subtle threads made of gold and copper form silhouettes of fallen leaves. He favors an elaborate metal fastener for his belt made of twisted golden wires, wrapped around precious stones formed in the shape of a red rose, a gift from Egna and a relic of his days at temple.

Since becoming an adventurer, he is more often seen wearing a full-plate metal set of armor. It was the work of skilled gnomish artificer named Natorp, who supplemented it with with a byzantine system of whrring clockwork gears and spring-loaded parts. Gawen is content with the performance of the armor, indeed he has never owned anything finer, but he is very worried that something in its complicated machinery will break, or worse, that a cleric of Sune will see this decidedly utilitarian garb and doubt his devotion.

Gawen is dogmatically inflexible on several points. The sanctity of ancient sites is certainly one of them. He feels less obligated to protect evil locations but can not brook the disturbance of other sorts of historic or holy places. He is also convinced that physical beauty is a mark of Sune's favor and ugliness, her scorn.