Garvus

Bastard son of Ustalav nobility, out to prove himself a worthy scion of the noble court while desperately fighting to maintain control over his savage ancestry. The classic gothic 'gentleman-monster', Jekyll/Hyde, "blood will out", and all that. Plus, he's tragically fond of melancholic verse!

Meticulously groomed, fashionably dressed, cultured and urbane -- at least to all outward appearances. Garvus works hard to cultivate a genteel demeanor, despite the fact that wild orc's blood rages just below the surface of his green-hued skin.

Garvus' father, the elderly and esteemed Lord Voldavian of Ardeal, has a secret fetish for romantic dalliances with females of orcish flesh, a perverse obsession fueled by some strange mixture of morbid shame and macabre fascination leftover from Ustalav's dark history with the savage race. Garvus is the unintended progeny of one such illicit encounter.

The scandal of the minor noble lord's bastard son should have never come to light. Lord Voldavian's 'conquests' are swiftly and surreptitiously abandoned across the border in some desolate region of Belkzen without knowledge of how to get back -- assuming they would even want to.

Well, Garvus wanted to. He grew up among the orcs, and was raised on bitter curses from his mother about the human man -- 'rich' and 'old' being about the only two descriptors she ever used of him -- who had impregnated her against her will and left her alone with a hungry half-breed brat to cook, clean (as orcs sometimes do) and care for.

By the time he was an adolescent, young Garvus had heard enough. He left his harsh home and his hateful mother and traveled east to Ustalav in search of his father. Whether in the hope of adoption or revenge, he himself was not completely sure -- but he soon learned that he would never succeed in finding him if he didn't make an effort to adapt to the local culture. The brutal ways of his savage homeland would not get him very far in the orc-hating lands of his father.

And so, Garvus began to cultivate his human affinities -- observing and adopting the manners and mannerisms of the human nobility of Ustalav. He spent many years growing ever more civilized, and searching ever more diligently for his father. Eventually, he even convinced a certain Professor Lorrimor to do a bit of research into his ancestry -- a favor which the shrewd professor noted would one day have to be repaid.

Thanks to Lorrimor's records, Garvus eventually tracked down Lord Voldavian. By then, any thoughts of revenge had been replaced by the desire to be acknowledged as noble-born and treated accordingly by the upper classes of Ustalav. However, such privilege is not easily given, and Garvus is still in the midst of the seemingly endless quest to prove, defend, and receive the rightful honors of his legitimate, though as yet unacknowledged, claim.