A tale of woe - the chronicles of Dodahar the Paladin

That peace ended in fire and steel. Marauders descended upon Dragonspire, slaying Rygarth after a brutal battle. Myra and Dodahar were seized as curiosities—“dragon‑hoard spoils”—and kept in chains. Their captors saw no people, only trophies

Salvation came in the form of Arak, a paladin of Thalros, who led a strike force that annihilated the marauders. He returned Myra and Dodahar to her birth village, where celebrations erupted—so long as the paladins remained. 

When Arak’s party departed, the truth surfaced. Myra was branded impure, tainted by her years with Rygarth and the marauders. Dodahar, half‑dragon and wholly misunderstood, became a symbol of her “sins.” The village that had cheered her return now shunned her. Months passed. Myra tried to rebuild her life, but hatred festers easily. Her former fiancé, Julius, returned with a mob convinced they were delivering justice. They dragged Myra into the square and executed her in a display of cruelty meant to “cleanse” the village. 

Dodahar was forced to watch. When they turned on him, he broke free long enough to hurl himself off a cliff into the river below. The current carried him away from the nightmare. 

Dodahar washed ashore half‑dead. Imult, a cleric of Veridia, found him and brought him to the temple. There, Dodahar found something he had not known since Rygarth’s lair: acceptance. He trained as a cleric, learned discipline, and forged friendships with Sharif and Sari. His trauma seemed to fade beneath years of calm routine. 

On the eve of his inauguration as a novice cleric, a raiding party of the Veridann Empire stormed the temple. The massacre was swift and merciless. Dodahar fought, but he was still only a student. As the killing blow fell, Arak intervened once more.  He recognized Dodahar instantly. And in that moment, the memories Dodahar had buried erupted like a broken dam. He swore vengeance—not only for the temple, but for every life stolen from him. 

Arak took him in, training him as a paladin. Dodahar’s demeanor became calm, controlled, almost serene—but beneath that surface simmered an unyielding rage, a cold and focused hunger for justice. He learned to channel his fury into purpose. He learned to wield his pain as a weapon. 

Years later, Dodahar returned to the ruins of Rygarth’s lair. The dragon’s bones still rested where they had fallen. As Dodahar approached, ancient magic stirred. A hidden vault opened—Rygarth’s final legacy. Inside lay Storm’s Righteous Gaze, an ancestral warhammer forged for a champion of draconic lineage. When Dodahar lifted it, he felt Rygarth’s presence—not as memory, but as destiny. 

Dodahar left Dragonspire with a vow carved into his soul: 

To bring justice to the wicked. To avenge the fallen. To forge a future worthy of both dragon and mortal.