Meet the Player Characters: Jarrus

Jarrus Sunleaf - Half-Elf Fighter

Like just about every other character in the party, Jarrus is a complicated man. The son of Correal Sunleaf, an elven cavalier in the order of the Knights of Luna, and a human noblewoman, the identity of whom he has not yet revealed. Both of his parents were once part of an adventuring crew that went by the name "The Company of the Heartstone," which signified the artifact they quested for. Many of the members of that party were children of nobles who used nicknames to hide their true identities. When Jarrus' mother became pregnant, she and his father left the adventuring party, a few years before they achieved their quest - which was probably a good thing, and the Heartstone proved to have some disastrous effects on several of the party members.

Two major events would shape Jarrus' life in the coming years. The first was that when Jarrus was very young, his mother's older brother died suddenly, leaving his mother as the heir to the family holdings in Furyondy. Due to political turmoil at the time, she deemed it necessary to go take her place, and she knew that having a child out of wedlock, especially a half-elven child, would be an impediment to effective rule. While she did not want to leave those she loved behind, her sense of duty required it. The second event came after the Battle of Emridy Meadow, in which Jarrus' father fought with the Knights of Luna. Queen Yolande forbid the knights from joining in the fight against the temple forces, but Prince Brightflame, who leads the independent order of knighthood, ignored her orders and took the knights into battle anyway, where their presence helped turn the tide. As punishment, the angry Queen Yolande banished the knights from Celene permanently. While some of the knights stayed together and moved into the Urnst states, others dispersed throughout the world. Correal Sunleaf, having spent his whole life training to be, or acting as a knight, knew of no other way to live. And so, with young Jarrus as his squire, Correal wandered the countryside of Verbobonc, between Celene and Furyondy, helping those in need. Though no longer a member of any order, Correal adhered to the strict tenets of knighthood, insisting he would teach his son the importance of virtue.

And so Jarrus followed his father, Correal Sunleaf, former Knight of Luna, across the countryside, from village to village, taking care of the people. Correal kept only enough money to feed himself and Jarrus, always giving excess to charity, and partaking of the charity of others only when absolutely needed. For the most part, Correal dealt with humanoids harassing farmers, as the humanoid population was larger than normal in this area due to the previous activities of the Temple of Elemental Evil. Such humanoids were never a challenge for a veteran knight like Correal, who hoped to teach his son to be a knight like him one day, spending every morning practicing with the sword until Jarrus was a very capable fighter.

But while Jarrus learned many martial skills from his father, he never quite accepted the tenets of knighthood. He rejected the noble duties that were so important as to take his mother away from him. He saw the lack of appreciation his father received at the hands of the queen he served. In the end, Jarrus grew-up to be a conflicted and bitter young man. But his respect for his father never faded, and he stayed with him, assisting in his quest to help the peasants of Verbobonc. And in this capacity, the pair gained some amount of notoriety from the still active temple. They may not have realized it, but they were slowing down the temple's ability to grow by preventing the humanoid agents from raiding for equipment, supplies and slaves. Realizing it needed to stop, the leaders of the temple sent out one of its trusted mages with a group of bugbears to ambush and capture Correal and Jarrus. 

The plan worked, and the two have been imprisoned for the last couple of months, until the party found Jarrus and freed him. Jarrus agreed to join the party in order to look for his father, who was imprisoned in another part of the temple.