*** I don't actually think I write that well, but I assume I do well in contests more because my roles are unique, easy to read, explains the character well and is relatively short. So don't expect anything too spectacular.


To tell the story of Derv, we must take a step back into the past. Derv's father was once a great Warrior, a Maran of the Holy Brigade, sworn to defend the light and destroy any who threatened it. He was a hard man, and meant well, but being a good Maran and being a good father rarely go hand in hand. Derv's mother died giving birth to him, and left all responsibility with his father. Knowing nothing but war, Derv's father expected his son to follow in his footsteps, and knowing all too well what evils lurked within Thera he showed no mercy when it came to his son's training.

Derv may well have become the man his father wanted him to be, but his father left out one vital aspect to his training; love. Of course Derv's father loved his son, but he never showed it. Derv's childhood was one of discipline and vigilance. Never able to relax, never able to just enjoy life, and never seemingly able to please his father, Derv grew angry, bitter and rebellious. He hated his life, and gradually came to hate his father.

At the age of 16, Derv ran away from home. He fled to the giant city of Galadon, a place of opportunity, where he could start his own life.

------

Derv was never a good man, but he was not always evil either. He was selfish, rude, an alcoholic and greedy, but he was also in love. Ever since he laid eyes on Kara he knew she was the one, it was the way she moved, her smile, that mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Whatever it was, it was not long before Derv had her before a Priest, and bound in wedlock.

For a time, Derv was happy. He finally had what his father could not provide; love. He labored as a lumberjack by day, drank most of his nights away and took care of his Kara. Life was simple, life was good, but it was not to last.

Kara worked at a rather rough tavern, Derv did not like it, but employment was scarce. Late one night an argument broke out between an out of town Dark-Elf mistress, and a regular trouble making Fire Giant. An angry, drunken Fire Giant means trouble, and the bouncers rushed to subdue him, but the Dark-Elf was true danger. Her honor insulted by the great oaf, the Dark-Elf uttered one of her more powerful incantations; the few that survived described it as a cone of icy death. Unfortunately, Kara was not one of them.

Derv did not hear of her death for several hours, Kara often worked late, and Derv had passed out in his usual drunken stupor. He was brutally awoken by banging on his door; the Tribunal had come to deliver the news.
At first, Derv felt nothing, then slowly but steadily it came. Anger began to trickle through him, fueled by the drink, it quickly turned into a flood of rage. Kara was gone, his Kara, his life, his everything. Killed by a filthy Drow bitch. His father was right, they are evil, and they must be destroyed. Bottle in one hand, and worn logging axe in the other, Derv stumbles out into the night. He heads towards the residence of a nearby Dark-Elf nicknamed Dor by the locals, and outcast by his own kind.
Hefting the axe, Derv slams it into Dor's front door, hacking at it with only the power a seasoned lumberjack could provide. Stepping inside, he looks around for his victim.

"Halt!"

Turning around, Derv sees a young Tribunal watchman, armed with a poleaxe, and behind him Dor, holding a kitchen knife. At the sight of the Drow all the pain and grief of Kara's death washes over Derv. Rage boils up like nothing he has felt before, and he charges at the Drow. Subconscious reflexes honed from years of training suddenly take over, and Derv parries the watchman's thrust. Spinning quickly he returns the blow and decapitates the teenager's head. Advancing swiftly, he closes in on the Drow, and focuses all his rage into one mighty blow.

The first on the scene will see a headless Tribunal human, and a bloody mass mashed into the ground. Hardly recognizable as another corpse. They would not find Derv though, having fled town. Derv had a new goal in mind, he finally understood what his father was trying to teach him; that all evil must be destroyed!