TROTH
Troth awoke in a barren mountainous area in the Greenrock Mountains of Demoria. Confusion overtook him as he noticed he was laying on the ground, holding the severed split-hand of an Eldrazi spawn, with his arms covered in Eldrazi blood. He quickly jumped on his feet and checked his surroundings for any signs of other Eldrazi enemies. The area seemed clear and free of enemies. He pocketed the severed Eldrazi hand and started climbing to a higher spot on the mountains to reorient himself. Troth realized while climbing that he was losing energy while climbing much quicker than usual.
When Troth reached the top of the nearest peak he waited until caught his breath to look around in all directions, where he did not see any of the peaks or features he recognized. Far off in the distance below, he noticed what appeared to be a female elf in what looked like leather clothing carrying a wooden staff. He pulled the war hammer from his back, which felt much heavier to him than usual. Sensing the elf may be a magic caster, he waved his hand and attempted to cast an antimagic field aura around himself for safety. He could feel the spell being cast, but nothing happened. He tried again, and again nothing happened. He felt different, and it was at this point he realized he was no longer on Zendikar.
Troth was raised in a small nomadic tribe of Kor in the maze of canyons known as the Makindi Trenches of Ondu on the plane of Zendikar. His early life was spent learning to climb and master the use of ropes on the canyon walls. The Makindi Trenches had raging rivers and sheer cliffs, which meant he had to stay strong and dexterous to maneuver the canyon’s surfaces and escape, or fight, the occasional hordes of goblins.
He was raised to worship Heliod, God of the Sun, and raised to use the white magic of the Kor clerics. Troth would venture on several pilgrimages to the ever-shifting, floating plains of Emeria, the Sky Ruin, and the volcanic human settlements of Affa on Akoum. While he was raised to be religious, he never fully took to religion, even though he became a powerful cleric as an adult. He was more aligned with the teachings of Heliod’s usage of white clerical magic.
When Troth reached adulthood, he was tall and muscular, but very lean from years of hunting, climbing, and using ropes on the cliffs. His skin was a light bluish grey, and he had white painted shapes of the Zendikar Hedrons on his arms and face, as did the rest of his tribe. He had barbels on his chin that resembled a full beard of a human. He wore a light chainmail armor that didn’t cover much of his arms to keep them free for climbing and fighting. He carried a war hammer that was forged by a powerful Stoneforge Mystic and a small shield on his back. He also had with him a necklace with the white magic symbol, the symbol of Heliod, God of the Sun, as well as a hand-crafted pan flute which he would play while out on solo adventures.
Troth was on what would become his final pilgrimage when he met and joined up with Munda, the squad leader of the allied forces under Gideon Jura. He helped Munda in the battles against the Eldrazi, and helped capture one of the most powerful Eldrazi, Ulamog in the Aligned Hedron Network. Troth gained experience in many battles with the allied forces under Munda and became a powerful cleric himself. He could protect himself and his squad members with powerful clerical healing spells and spells that imbued his Stoneforged war hammer with powerful magic. He was even powerful enough to evade several large Eldrazi attacks with magical spells that would teleport the squad and himself into the Astral Plane until the danger was over with. Troth eventually learned to harness clerical magic to become resistant to damage from most sources, which let him rush into battle and destroy Eldrazi enemies with his war hammer.
During the battle of the liberation of Sea Gate, the continent of Tazeem’s largest city, Troth was assigned to a small group of Kor soldiers to scale the sea wall and attack the enemy when they least expected it. Gideon Jura and Munda had not anticipated the power of the Eldrazi attacking Sea Gate and were forced to retreat. Troth and his squad used their ropes and climbing skills to gather up survivors and get them to refuge on Sky Rock, a massive floating hedron near Sea Gate that the Eldrazi could not reach easily. After this battle, Troth decided he needed to return to the Makindi Trenches of Ondu to see if his tribe was still safe from the Eldrazi.
Troth made the journey back to Ondu and spent days searching for his tribe only to find a small handful of remaining survivors. The rest of the tribe had fallen to a strong attack by a large group of Eldrazi drones. Troth spent the next year helping the survivors of his tribe rebuild their strength and cache of supplies. It was during this time that the demon Planeswalker Ob Nixilis had travelled to Zendikar and awoken the powerful Eldrazi, Kozilek, the Butcher of Truth. Ob Nixilis had used the great power of Kozilek to break the Aligned Hedron Network and free Ulamog from his prison.
With these powerful and huge Eldrazi monsters awake and free, Zendikar began falling to the Eldrazi. During the time Troth was helping his tribe rebuild, the city of Sea Gate had completely fallen, as well as most of the continent of Tazeem. Out of curiosity, Troth travelled to the Astral Plane to see if he could catch a glimpse at the progress of Gideon, Munda, and the Allies. Instead of seeing progress however, he saw the destruction caused by Kozilek, Ulamog, and their thousands of drones and spawns. He immediately left the Astral Plane, re-entered his body, and started prepping for his travels back to battle for Zendikar. Troth generally was not a fan of travelling on Windrider Eels, but time was not on his side, so he mounted one of the tribe’s eels and returned to Munda as quickly as he could.
In the battle against the returned Eldrazi giants, Munda’s Kor squad fought alongside the elves of Murasa and the merfolk of Guul Draz. Troth had trouble communicating with the Merfolk, as he didn’t speak their language, and the Kor rarely communicate verbally. He was able to speak with the elves, because as a child his tribe had taken in several elvish refugees who taught him their language. He was fighting a medium sized Eldrazi spawn alongside several elves and Mefolk soldiers. The eldrazi spawn looked like an amalgamation of many creatures, with two stretched out arms that split into four sets of fore arms and hands. The creature had tentacles on the bottomside of its head and a shapeless, featureless face. The bottom half of the creature had the resemblance of a large insect, with several spider-like legs with many spikes all over.
During the battle against this Eldrazi spawn, Troth was unaware of an incoming blow to his head from one of the spawn’s forked arms. One of the Merfolk soldiers tried to warn him, but Troth did not understand the warning and was thrown back several feet. The Eldrazi spawn advanced on him and pushed him back until he felt alone in the fight against the beast. One of the arms tried to grab him and Troth grabbed the wrist and tried to evade. In this moment a flash of intense blue light surrounded Troth like a wall around him. He didn’t have any time to comprehend the plane shift that was happening to him, or why it was happening to him. The Eldrazi spawn’s now severed hand went with him as Troth unknowingly left the battlefield and shifted planes to Demoria.
After Troth’s antimagic field spell failed upon seeing the female elf, he retreated down the hill away from her. He spent the next several months setting up a camp and getting the lay of the land. Troth was a skilled hunter and gatherer from his life with the tribe, but he had become even more proficient in hunting and survival skills since he appeared in Demoria and had to do even more on his own. He would occasionally see other beings and go into hiding or sneak around and follow them to learn more about the nearby villages and encampments. Troth did see the female elf several more times and eventually decided she was not an enemy when she also saw him briefly once and did not run away or attack. Troth was still uneasy about the elf and quickly disappeared out of sight.
Troth gathered his belongings, including his warhammer, his handmade pan flute, and the severed hand of the Eldrazi spawn. He decided he would search for the female elf and follow her in hopes he would find answers about how and why he was teleported to Demoria. He looked around at the surrounding Greenrock Mountains, tucked his Heliod’s Sun necklace into his chainmail, and set off to follow the elf…