Damian

Damian's story begins long before he was actually born. Want to guess?

Perhaps a fated encounter brought his parents together?
This did happen, but no.

Are we talking about when he was conceived?
Ha, no.

No... Damian's story begins in another world entirely. A normal guy, living a normal life.

That's right, this is an isekai.

Don't worry, it gets better.

Fortunately, you don't need His story. All you need to know is that He did in fact die prematurely. Before he was 30, even. The how, what, and why doesn't really matter to you, dear reader. All you need to know is that He perished... and gave an outer god an opportunity.

An outer god, defined as a god from outside of our reality... the one you and I know, dear reader.

The god, seeking an opportunity to balance out a particular world's events but unable to openly create a champion, sought out an otherworldly soul that might allow her to bypass her agreements with the other gods of the universe. As such, with His passing, she transported His soul to her realm to make Him an offer.

She could grant Him a new life in this new world, but could not interfere. As she is a god, she could line up some events to allow for His new life to have some aspects that he wished for. A good family, fortune, good genetics, things that could be established by nature of birth into a good family.

But He had greater ambitions than this. He asked for several things, of which He would willingly pay the respective price for if he had to.

Power. Potential. Education. Upbringing.

Because He understood what kind of world he was going to be entering. He knew that he should ask for everything he could think of, even if it cost him. Because if He didn't...

He would die.

Naturally, all of this came with a cost to Him. He would give up a lot for His wishes. No... what he gave up was almost everything. His memories and soul were the cost. The vast majority of His memories of His past life would be lost, along with the parts of His soul that contained them.

But this wasn't taken as tithe by the Outer God. No... the reason this cost so much of Him was because the things he asked for simply required his soul to be reshaped, and even added to. She had the power to give Him what he asked for at no cost, but she listened well to Him and his thoughts, His wishes. She understood why He was willing to 'forget', no... entirely lose His past.

It was not a happy life that He had lived.

So this arrangement was acceptable to Him.

And thus He went to sleep. The next time he woke, He would be in the new world.

His memories were the first to go. Almost all memories of his past were taken, leaving only his hard, useful knowledge and learnings, as well as many of his miscellaneous thoughts that would lend well to His creativity in the new world. But the Outer God was careful not to leave any of His past intact in his mind. If she did, He might suffer confusion at the strange memories. He was already going to be somewhat confused at the knowledge he had despite having never been taught the information. The issue did not need to be exacerbated.

The next thing that was done to Him was the reshaping and condensing of His soul. He had asked for power, and had offered up his memories as the payment. This wiped most of His soul clean for re-use. So she used the now-blank portions of His soul and used it to strengthen the portions of His soul that remained.

But it wasn't enough in the Outer God's mind. She was asking much of Him, and even ripping Him from his original world, to ask Him to be her guideless agent within this world. She did owe Him something, because helping Him would be the same as helping herself.

Remembering His request for potential and power alike, she crafted an empty draconic soul of different elemental attunement than His own and grafted it to His soul. She did this for numerous reasons, including the different attunements. It would make His life difficult, and add to the hardships He would inevitably face. But in the end, it would make Him stronger, and further add to His potential.

All that was left now was to choose a family for him to be born into.

Damian was born a noble, to the Esburn family. More than just a family that owns land, but a known family of nobles with repute and honor. The Esburn name meant something, to both the common people and to other nobles.

A long line of hardy warrior-scholars, some with magic and some without, the Esburn family was well-known for skill with the sword, and tactical flexibility during warfare. They were known for surviving nigh impossible situations, and often claiming victory in spite of odds stacked against them.

But aside from their feats in battle, they were also known as collectors and scholars. Young Esburns were known to spend much of their life traveling and learning, to eventually return to the family to shore up their coffers with money, artifacts, and line the shelves with new knowledge and wisdom. Lessons to pass down to the next generations, and even to help the last one. Even the older family members sometimes still went out on adventures for this very reason.

Strangely though, older tales of the Esburns seem to describe them almost inhumanly powerful, and sometimes quite large.

To the common people, and especially to their vassals, the Esburns were known as benevolent but stern rulers. If you lived upon their land, you were expected to earn your keep and/or enrich their land or people somehow. In turn, you had their protection. Who or what you were didn't matter as long as you weren't trying to cause trouble. And the Esburns were even rumored to accept refugees into their lands as long as they brought something worthwhile, and weren't actually a problematic person.

This was Damian's family. Born to Leonard Esburn and Saralina Esburn, Damian also had three siblings. One elder sister, two older brothers.

Eleanor Esbern was the eldest, and was Damian's one and only sister. She was the fiercest of Damian's siblings, and the most skilled with the sword, as she wanted to follow directly in her father's footsteps.... to travel far and wide, spreading the Esburn name's fame once again.

Eric Esburn was the second-oldest, and Damian's eldest brother. He was only about a year younger than Eleanor. Skilled enough with the sword, but actually more focused on academics than anything else... Eric wished to attend a mage's college at some point. What he learned there, he wished to bring back to the Esburn family, and expand their knowledge on magic, as well as any other subjects that caught his interest while he was there.

Romulus Esburn is the second-youngest of Damian's siblings, about a year behind Eric in age. Unfortunately, his and the other siblings' mother passed with his birth. And while none of the siblings, nor even Leonard blame him for it... this does unfortunately taint Romulus' relationships with his father. Romulus is no less intelligent than his older siblings, so he is more than aware that if he hadn't been born, his mother would still be around.

And now onto Damian, the youngest. As stated before, he was born to Saralina Esburna nd Leonard Esburn. However, Saralina is Leonard's second wife... and Damian is her only blood-related child among the Esburn family. And she is an elf.

She and Leonard met during one fateful day, during an encounter with a wounded and rampaging metal dragon.

And despite Dragons being a revered species in Arda, nobody could just sit and watch as it killed countless people. Leonard couldn't... and neither could Saralina. And so they fought together, and slayed the dragon. After a brief dispute on how the remains should be handled, Leonard managed to convince the elf that it would be best if repurposed to serve countless generations in his family.

Then he hit on her.

Eventually, the two were married, and Damian is the result. But things don't end so smoothly.

His birth had... complications. Saralina was strong and healthy, and had (relatively speaking) little trouble giving birth to Damian. But Damian himself was born... unwell. Damian, born with an amalgamated soul and fully-matured consciousness, could not hope to properly survive the power of the soul his tiny, newborn body was forced to contain once he was born.

But more than that, Both Leonard and Saralina had expected their child to be an elf. But instead... his skin was slightly darker than his parents, his pointed ears shorter than his mother, and his hair color was... mixed. White and black alike. And his eyes were neither the orange of his father's, nor the green of his mother's... but a topaz color, shining with all the brilliance of the gem as well.

His odd traits aside, he was unlikely to survive to the end of the year if nothing was done.

Countless doctors visited to assess the child, but none could really figure out what was wrong with the boy. By all means, he should be healthy, they couldn't figure out what the problem was.

Until a witch visited. She took one look at the child and told the Esburn family that this child was of deeply mixed blood, and his soul was even stranger. His body was strong, but not quite strong enough, and if the family wanted to save their child, they would have to break the laws of nature, and introduce mutations to the boy. Should he survive, he would never be the same, he would never be normal.

Her recommendation? A dragon-based mutation. One drawn of the blood of a metal dragon would be best, as the boy seemed to have a soul that resembled that of a dragon's. These kinds of things should match, and she theorized this was why the boy was in such peril... his soul was out of place in his body, strong as it was. She could even create the mutagen, if the family could provide the materials. She would not charge them though. The witch felt that what she was doing to this child was a terrible thing... and he might not even survive. She wouldn't feel right taking money for such a deed.

Of course the Esburns took the deal. What choice did they have, if they wanted to save their newborn? They would provide the witch their full support, as long as she could save their child.

So the witch got to work. First, the creation and administration of the mutagen. An alchemical agent that, when given to a person, would alter a part of their body permanently by means of re-writing the genetic code of whoever took it. While science in this world wasn't advanced enough to fully understand genomes and DNA, some level of genetic rules were understood. But a mutagen utilizing the remains of a dragon... was unheard of, and this was still unexplored waters. There was no telling what changes this child would undergo after the mutagen was administered.

But it was his best chance at survival, and as such, the Witch spent the next several days carefully watching over the child to see how he responded to the mutations. There was no telling, exactly, what parts of his body would change or how since she was giving the boy a mutagen to strengthen his whole body.

However... the boy took the changes well. The only outwardly visible changes were his eyes, which when the pupils shrank, narrowed to vertical reptilian slits.... and his left arm. It was hard to tell what exactly would change as he grew, but during the days the witch spent observing the boy, the skin on his left arm got tougher... and his arm got a little bigger. Those were the only visible changes, however. But it brought something to the witch's attention, that she had not considered before.

This child would be a calamity, to the family, to himself, and to the world, if she didn't do anything. There was simply too much power in the boy.

So to save his life and in an attempt to spare him suffering, the witch cursed the child. Not once or twice, or even three times. But a total of nine curses upon the boy. Two curses for the heart to restrict and contain his life force so he did not have the aura of a dragon. Two curses of the body to restrict his strength so that he did not have the overwhelming might of a dragon. Two curses of the soul to restrict his magic so he would not lay waste to the land around him. Two curses of the mind to restrict his senses of the world and himself, so he would not understand how different he was from others. And the final ninth curse woven under it all to restrain what was left. Should the boy ever free himself of these curses, he would truly be unleashed.

And with the final curse laid upon the boy, the Witch's work was done. The boy could live a normal life with his family. His life was saved.

And so she left. Despite the Esburns offering to let her stay, even offering them permanent employment. But she did not wish to remain, and did not wish to see the face of the boy she had altered and cursed, even if it had been to save him. But she did not speak of the curses to the family... afraid that she may incur their wrath, even if she had done it to spare the boy his own strength. They weren't meant to hurt or kill him... only restrain him. For his sake.

Nobody was any the wiser, to Damian's condition.

Growing up, Damian was considered a little... strange. And very troublesome. Intelligent and extremely curious, Damian was wandering around and investigating anything he could as soon as he could move. If he had to crawl, he would crawl. And he learned how to climb early too. Just so he could get into things and investigate.

It was very quickly understood that Damian was something of a prodigy. Without anyone teaching him, and when nobody was looking, he had grabbed a book somewhere and begun to read. The first book he had picked out was a book on magic theory. At first, Damian's parents and his siblings thought he was only staring at the words and pictures, but it was actually Damian's sister that figured out that he WAS reading. This, of course, made the Esburns happy that they had a genius in the family, and the mother and father alike resolved to teach him well as he grew.

And he did definitely grow. A bit on the shorter side in stature despite both his parents being tall, but he definitely grew. But as he did so, his unusual traits became more and more prominent. His left arm got bigger and bigger, growing larger than his right. It even grew mettalic scales on the outside, much like the dragon Leonard and Saralina had slain all those years ago. It was a remarkably similar limb to that of a metal dragon's. They would remember all too well. Despite this, he was still their son, and they loved him despite his deformities.

And he absorbed knowledge and skills like a sponge. From his sister and his father both, he learned how to use the sword, incorporating the strength and durability of his arm into his learnings. From (and with) his first brother and his mother, he studied and learned about the world, beasts, and magic theory.

But from his second brother, he learned to be wary.

You see, as Damian grew, he got much attention from his parents and his siblings alike. And Romulus hated it. More accurately... he was envious of it.

What made Damian so special? Why was he, the only son of his father's second wife, more loved than he was? Why did he get all this attention and focus from his family? Why hadn't he been doted on like that? What made Damian, this originally sickly child, better than him? He would have died shortly after birth if he hadn't been saved, so why was Damian being treated better than him and the other siblings?! Why did he have to live in the shadow of his younger, and only half-brother?!

On Damian's fifteenth birthday was when Romulus finally made his move.

A planned assassination and hostile takeover of the family during the celebration he hated most, and on the special day for the rest of the family, especially Damian. Everyone would be there... meaning that as long as everything went according to plan, nobody would be alive to contest him.

When the whole family was gathered in one place, the dining hall... Romulus launched his attack. Assassins and mercenaries he had hired crashed in through windows or charged in through various entrances to attack the family at Romulus' command. Their intentions? To kill everyone, save Romulus, as that was what they had been paid to do. They were even to kill the people loyal to the family (other than Romulus) as they would also try to fight and protect the family. And to set the house on fire, to make the whole thing easier for Romulus to cover up.

Of course, the family fought back. Bewildered at the betrayal, but unwilling to simply die, everyone fought back to protect themselves. Even Damian tried to fight back, he didn't want to die either!

Nobody had expected Romulus to do this. In fact, the rest of the family had often tried to help him with how he felt, but it hadn't changed Romulus' mind, and only served to make the evil thoughts in his heart and mind fester. He had thought that the others were mocking him. This was his misguided revenge on a family that had deeply cared for him. Even if the rest of the family survived this, everyone would be hurt.

Damian however, was still young. There was no way he would survive this, right? Wrong.

Saralina, unwilling to let all of the family die in this betrayal, risked mortal wounds and burns alike to herself as she rushed to grab Damian and throw him out a window, with the two most important gifts that had been prepared for his most-important fifteenth birthday, all while chanting something for a spell. What had she grabbed for him? A sword, made from the scales of the metal dragon she and her husband had killed so long ago. The same dragon used in the mutagen that had saved his life as a baby. And a hand-crafted 'adventuring journal', a book that contained maps and important regional information about Arda, and even other realms, with space for additions by the carrier. It was tradition in the Esburn family for an up-to-date one to be given on an Esburn's fifteenth birthday. Those were the two things he would need most, and the only two things she could grab in time.

But after throwing him from the burning home, Saralina was stabbed in the back by an assassin... whom Saralina took with her into the afterlife by throwing the both of them back into the flames of the building... as she had used every last ounce of her magic to create a portal to somewhere else in the country, and she had little to know means to fight back anymore. But at least this way, her son would not be so easily found.

As for Damian himself? He fell, of course. Long enough for him to see how an assassin ran his mother through with a blade. Chances were, the last thing Saralina heard were her son's pained and fearful cries for her... abruptly cut off once the portal closed.

Damian emerged the other side of the portal deep within a forest in an unknown location. And for a time, all he could do was cry. Cry in fear and in anguish alike, at having lost his family and knowing there was nothing he could do. At the very least, he knew his mother was dead. And he knew Romulus well enough to know that he was smart, and he would not have done this unprepared. He doubted there would be other survivors.

Even so, Damian had escaped, at great cost. He shouldn't let this opportunity go.

And so, with hatred for his own kin burning deep within the young man's heart, he picked himself up. He would have his brother's head! If it was the last thing he did, he would avenge his brother, sister, mother, and father. And he would make Romulus tell him why he had done it...

Maybe you'll meet him? After all, about a year after the Esburn family faced 'unforeseen and unknown' calamity, there is also talk of a young one-armed swordsman working for coin. As capable as he is mysterious, he can do most forms of work, from slaying monsters to clearing bandits to simple escort missions.

Though... he never seems to stay in any place for long.