The Knight Who Bled for Peace
Before the ash. Before the oath. He was just a man too loyal for his own good. That’s what killed him. Not the war.
After the Peace, There Was Ash
Ser Varn Hollowbrand was once a man of honor. That part is true. But honor wears thin, and silence weighs heavy. What you see here is the knight before the fracture. Before the silence swallowed the songs. Before the oath burned cold.
If you want to know what that oath became, read this:
The Knight of Ash and Oath
But know this.
He did not die with his sword drawn. He rose with his memory sharpened.
CHARACTER STATS (Pre-Fall Ser Varn)
Character Type: NPC
Build Type: Balanced, Roleplay-heavy
Build Role: Tank / Strategic Leader
Mike’s Ramble: “Oaths Ain’t Meant to Outlive the One Who Took ’Em”
Let me tell ya something they don’t put in the bard songs, lad.
Ser Varn Hollowbrand — back when he still had blood in his veins and mercy in his voice — wasn’t no cursed monster, no lich-lord from a necro’s fever dream. He was the kind of knight who should’ve died a hero. Problem is, the realm let him. Let him rot in silence, with his name misspelled in ledgers and not even a dog at his grave.
But here’s the bit that haunts me beard more than any banshee — he never forgot his oath. Not once. Not even when he had to twist it. Not even when he broke it on purpose. Some say betrayal comes from greed. Varn? He betrayed his own code because no one else was left to remember it.
Ser Varn Hollowbrand — Before the Ash
Race: Human
Class Template: Fighter (Commander Variant)
CR Equivalent: ~8–10
Alignment: Lawful Good → Lawful Evil
💥 Stat Features
🗡 Voice of Command (3/Day):
Once per round, Ser Varn can bark a tactical order at an ally within 60 ft. That ally gains either:
+2 AC until the start of their next turn
A 15 ft movement without provoking opportunity attacks
Advantage on their next saving throw
🛡 Hold the Line:
If Ser Varn is within 5 ft of an ally, both gain +1 AC and can’t be flanked. He may also take a reaction to intercept damage meant for an ally within range.
⚔ Oathbound Steel (Longsword):
This blade grows in power when Varn is protecting others:
+1 normally
+2 when defending someone who cannot fight
+3 when he’s the last one standing
(See also: The Emberhook Blade — possibly reforged from the same forge as his final weapon.)
🔥 Heavy Plate of Cindermere:
A relic of his station — and the last gift his Order gave him before disbanding.
Halves all fire and necrotic damage
Emits a faint hum near deception or cowardice
(Companion Link: Stonehearth Grudgeplate)
💔 Never the First to Strike:
Varn gets +1 to saves and attack rolls against any creature that attacked him first. He never drew first blood — only answered it.
⚔ Unyielding Will:
Once per long rest, when reduced to 0 HP, Ser Varn can roll a DC 15 CON save. On success, he returns to 1 HP and takes an immediate action. (This becomes a twisted echo in his Lich form later.)
🧠 Personality & Visuals
Stoic, unsmiling, but carried grief like a crown.
Never drank until the dead were buried. Never buried them without naming them.
Spoke with words like forged iron — brief, heavy, and cutting.
Once told a king to shut up. Got promoted for it.
🪓 How to Use Him in a Campaign
As a noble quest-giver whose decisions grow darker each session
As a memory NPC — a vision, journal, or statue that shows the man before the monster
As a mirror to another PC who’s about to walk the same road
As a flashback encounter in Ashtrail Field
As a tragic anchor — a man who broke the rules to keep the promise
Some oaths weigh heavier than chainmail, lad.
👉 Got a character who’s walkin’ the same path as Ser Varn? Or maybe yer buildin’ a campaign 'round fallen heroes and twisted vows? Swing by the tavern — I’ll help ya patch it together before yer players break it.
Contact Mike’s Tavern if you want to turn yer ideas into session gold.
Or sharpen yer lore blade with the Emberhook Blade, forged for fire-walkers and oath-breakers alike.
And take a peek at The Paladin Who Can’t Lie — one of Varn’s brother-knights. Still fights the truth every session.
What Burns First Ain’t Always the Body
Some say betrayal happens in a flash — a poisoned dagger, a snapped vow, a sudden turn. Not with Varn. His betrayal came slow. Heavy. Intentional. Like settin' fire to yer own homestead just to keep the wolves out.
He never wanted lichdom. Hells, he studied it like a surgeon studies plague — not for hunger, but to understand what he’d have to become if no one else kept the line.
It weren’t one thing that broke him. It was silence. After the war, there were no thanks. No letters. No clemency for the captured. Just reassigned lords, vanished orders, and empty halls where honor used to echo. Cindermere Hold rusted quiet, the forges cold, the mess hall dusted over with scrolls from a kingdom that didn’t even send a damn flag.
But Varn never dropped his blade. Not really. He just started carrying it differently.
The Ashen Oath — Varn’s Undoing and Immortality
The Ashen Oath wasn’t a spellbook. Wasn’t a ritual scroll. It was a vow he reforged into something cursed — an oath made in the dead tongues of justice, sorrow, and spite. He didn’t bind himself to a god. He bound himself to memory — to the idea that so long as the fallen were forgotten, he’d keep walking.
And the fire? That came later. Cold-burning oathfire, they call it. It don’t warm. Don’t cook. Just reminds things they’re dead.
Varn’s final letter to the Bound Flame wasn’t signed in ink. It was burned into the stone wall of Ashtrail Field. Just one line:
“I did not break the oath. I became its last truth.”
Foreshadowing the Fall — Where to Go from Here
Ashtrail Field is where he was left to die. The ground there still burns cold.
(Coming soon: “Ashtrail Field: Where the Oath Was Broken”)Cindermere Hold still holds his portrait. His true armor. His last forged weapon. But the ghosts train there now. Endlessly.
(Coming soon: “Cindermere Hold: The Fortress that Burns Cold”)Knight-Captain Breya was the only one who begged him not to fall. She failed. And now, she hunts others who run from their duty.
(Coming soon: “Knight-Captain Breya: The One Who Broke First”)And of course… the man you once knew? He’s gone. All that’s left is the thing we’ll meet soon.
(Coming soon: “The Knight of Ash and Oath”)
By Grabgar’s hammer, lad — loyalty don’t mean nothin’ if it kills ya first.
👉 If yer buildin’ a campaign 'round broken codes and cursed legacies, ya better have a backbone stronger than mithril. Start where Varn ended:
Contact me here and I’ll help ya twist the knife just right.
Study up on Eyes in the Wine Cellar — they still whisper Varn’s name in the wrong tone.
And don’t forget the damn FAQ, unless ya want to explain to yer players why their sword’s cryin’ again.
FAQ
Q: Can I use this version of Varn as a quest-giver before turning him into a villain later?
A: That’s the best use of him, lad. Let the party trust him. Let ’em miss him when he turns. Then the ash’ll sting more.
Q: Can players break the Ashen Oath or redeem him later?
A: Breakin’ the Oath? Sure. Redeeming him? Only if they remember the man better than he remembers himself.
Q: What’s the best moment to reveal he’s turning undead?
A: Don’t show it. Let ’em feel it. No warmth in his touch. No breath in the cold. No shadow at sunset. That’s how ya haunt ‘em.
