Essentials: Syndrina Kaldraiv

Beautiful commission by the super-talented , my favourite Latter Day Saint!


"I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's only me, and I walk alone...

I walk this empty street
Down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Here, the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind
On the borderline
At the edge, and where I walk alone...
Read between the lines;
Once fucked-up, then everything's all right
Check my vital signs:
I know I'm still alive and I walk alone..."

Green Day; 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'


From our 'Three Worlds' game, here are two more of the female characters (yeah we have male ones, I might actually draw them myself some time!).

Meet Syndrina Kaldraiv, dark heroine and Gloom Hexblade. Hexblades are warrior/warlocks who make pacts with warlock patrons for dark powers and bound weapons. Syn here turned to the unseen, whispering entities of the Shadowfell and the Underdark, who granted her power and a soul-weapon in exchange for her service. This is very much a business arrangement, as opposed to the relationship between a priest and a deity... But it is an arrangement that has thus far been mutually beneficial.

Syn is practical and pragmatic enough to know her patrons are sinister beings, but thus far they have asked nothing 'evil' of her, and have never as much asked for a piece of her soul. They send her on quests and to recover artefacts like any other patron, and her missions have aligned nicely with the interests of more wholesome heroes. Syn hopes that she won't have to choose between them eventually - it is difficult enough to win the trust of the others when her entire being pretty much screams 'evil- beware!'

In truth, Syn (the name isn't winning her any friends either, despite her resolute insistence on not changing it) is pragmatically neutral - she's happy to kill anyone who comes at her with a blade, but she sees no glory or honour in harming innocents or betraying her fellows. The dark elves, she feels, must find their own space and future as free people, not as slaves of evil powers. She appreciates the irony in having chosen to walk a dark path herself, but she points out that 'dark doesn't mean evil'.

As a Gloom Hexblade, she has earned precious gifts from her dark patrons, the most notable being her 'Scourge of Exquisite Agony', a blackened flail that writhes like a steel serpent. (And yes, she kind of wishes it was called something else!). This is a spirit weapon, bound to her soul, and she can summon it at will. It becomes stronger as she rises in power and builds her legend. She also has a number of curse spells, and can summon a dark creeper, a shadowy assassin of a cloaked race that serves her patrons.

So for now, Syn quests with the uppity high elves, distrustful Tuathan humans (the sun priestess is especially swift to make her distrust known) and the stuck-up Vryloka vampiress. She's not certain what the future will bring, but imagines it will all work out for the best...