Davrek Valzorwyn was a half-elf mercenary, spellcaster, and longtime member of the Brass Blades. He survived the destruction of the Brass Bastion in 8751 SE, rebuilt the company around a new group of adventurers, and later became Blade Commander. After the Harrowing, he founded the Aegis Regnum while remaining with the Blades.
Early Life
Davrek grew up in poverty. His father, Elfinas, worked as a sailor and deckhand but was absent for long periods and brought little stability home when he returned. He drank heavily, was repeatedly unfaithful, and abused Davrek’s mother, Kazira. Davrek resented both his father’s violence and what he saw as his mother’s unwillingness to resist it, though he continued sending Kazira money after leaving home.
As a child, Davrek discovered both a talent for magic and a few gold-colored scales on his lower arm. He used simple magical tricks for entertainment and small cons, first to help provide for himself and his mother and later as a way to survive on his own. At seventeen he left home, determined to make a fortune and put as much distance as possible between himself and his childhood.
Phelps and the Brass Blades
Some years later, Kazira told Davrek of an unwanted half-elf infant who needed a home. Davrek took responsibility for placing the child, Phelps, in an orphanage and paid toward his care. He never considered himself prepared to become a conventional parent, but he remained a recurring presence in Phelps’s life and eventually came to regard him as an adopted son. Davrek’s absences and risk-taking meant that he was not always the guardian Phelps needed, a failure that weighed heavily on him as they both grew older.
Davrek spent part of his early adulthood running small cons, performing at parties, and entertaining people on the streets of Elgaard. He became friends with the mercenary Kippy Calhoun, who introduced him to the Brass Blades. The company offered Davrek something he had rarely experienced before: dependable comradeship, shared purpose, and the chance to earn substantial money. When Phelps later became involved in theft and paid killing, Davrek brought him into the Blades as well.
Davrek often met prospective clients and had a reputation for accepting dangerous contracts when the potential reward was high. In 8751 SE he accepted a contract conveyed through Brenton Woolfe on behalf of Darieth and the Ariessus family. The Blades were to find or plant evidence connecting Luther Mortanas to the disappearance of Relvan Ariessus. The job proved far more dangerous than Davrek understood. Mortanas destroyed the Brass Bastion and killed most of the members involved in the operation. Davrek and Phelps were the only Blades on the job to escape.
Reforging the Blades
Davrek and Phelps fled to Trinswood, where an attack on the local inn brought them together with Abendigo, Chan Kong-Sang, Tusky, and Darieth. What began as a group of survivors and strangers became the core of a rebuilt Brass Blades. Their pursuit of Mortanas eventually expanded into conflicts involving Zhaken Amberheart, the Clockwork Heart, the Rift Spar, the wars in the Djozanates of the Kenai Mountains, and threats connected to the Nascent Expanse.
Davrek eventually assumed the title of Blade Commander. Under his leadership the company established a new base near Trinswood, including a keep and mining enterprise, and recovered surviving members such as Bozas Dask and Zackon Truehelm. Davrek’s appetite for risk never disappeared, but the rebuilt company increasingly made him responsible for the lives of people who trusted him to bring them home.
The Harrowing and Aegis Regnum
During the final confrontation of the Harrowing, Phelps intended to make the sacrifice required to destroy the Aspect of Othrazhul. Davrek refused to allow his adopted son to die. He used Wish to force the other Brass Blades to safety, remained behind, and drove the Rift Spar into the Aspect. The resulting release destroyed the Aspect and Othrazhul’s moon-like manifestation, forced the greater being back beyond Creation, and killed Davrek. He was later restored through True Resurrection.
The catastrophe convinced Davrek that Kor Sirok needed an organization dedicated specifically to identifying and countering threats associated with the Nascent Expanse before they became world-scale disasters. He founded the Aegis Regnum for that purpose but did not leave the Brass Blades to command it. His lieutenant Zurok became the Aegis’s first Grandmaster, while Davrek remained Blade Commander and continued to advise and cooperate with the new order.