I post him a lot. If youโve been on my blog for any amount of time for the past year, youโve seen him. But who IS he? Whatโs his DEAL (or, more accurately, his problem(s)?) Iโm so glad you asked.
Note: in this post certain words will be hyperlinks to art of the characters and scenes that Iโm referring to
This is going to be a very long post, but Iโm trying to keep it as clean as possible โ buckle in!
Fae is a dnd character Iโve been playing for a little over a year now in a game called Overlooks and Owlbears. We meet bi-weekly on Fridays, and most of the weeks we donโt play Iโm still thinking about him. I fully initially considered him a more โgimmickyโ type of character, mostly built to be easy to slip into during roleplay with not *that* much going on. His concept was pretty simple: I wanted to play an evil character, and I wanted to play an old character. That was it. Everything else came directly from โevil old manโ and spun out of control into the man he is today.
Fae is largely inspired by some of my favorite Latino characters from popular media, as well as my own family. When I play him he has whatโs functionally a more masculine, lightly hispanic accented version of my own voice, but in my head he sounds like this
Art Gallery / Vibes Playlist / Backstory Playlist / Pinterest Board
At a Glance:
System: D&D 5e (2014)
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Rogue (Swashbuckler subclass)
Alignment: neutral evil
Sexuality: Bi with a strong preference for men
Age: 100ish
Pronouns: He/him
Personality: Sarcastic, mocking, I would go so far as to say โmeanโ. Calculating in social situations, impulsive in combat. Thinks of himself as more fun-loving than he really is. He strives to come off as devil-may-care and some of that may be genuine but deep down he is very task-oriented and will take control the moment it seems like things might even kind of go off the rails.
General Backstory:
Faedril โFaeโ Silvarin is the son of two heads of separate crime families - the elven Kaemarises, and the mostly-human Silvarins. Faeโs mother, Camila Silvarin, was prepared to raise him without involvement from his father, but Llewel Kaemaris surprised pretty much everyone in both families when he decided to claim Fae as his own, and gave him responsibilities and authority within the elven side of his family as well. Not all the elves were super thrilled about this, but Fae was able to uncover a coup against Llewel and leveraged that to build himself a small group of loyalists and gain respect on that side of the family. On the Silvarin side, his authority is innate, and heโs never really struggled with itโฆ which is part of the problem.
Fae is a half-elf, so he ages slower than the human side of his family, and faster than the Elven side. At about 100 years old at time of the gameโs start, Fae had seen a lot, and he was kind of tired of it. Without exactly knowing his own motivations to do so, Fae dipped out on his life of crime and leisure and decided to try his hand at adventuring on his own. All he knew was that he was tired of his reputation and wanted to start over, as just โsome guyโ out in the world. This has had mixed results.
Faeโs Family:
Faedril/Fae Silvarin: Our man in question (he/him)
Llewel Kaemaris: Faeโs dad, an elf, head of the Kaemaris crime family (he/they)
Camila Silvarin: Faeโs human mother, former head of the Silvarin crime camily (deceased) (she/her)
The Party:
Celosia Poincarรฉ: Fire genasi artificer. Shares Faeโs mommy issues. Has a sick gun, Fae wants her to make him a sick gun. Member of the party heโs closest with. He understands her the best, though he doesnโt know how to express it. He knows they were both raised by people who ignored their autonomy. Whether he wants to admit it or not, heโs attached to her and wants to help her turn out better than he did. (She/her)
Laurence of Abury: Human fighter. Complete good-aligned teddy bear from a family of criminals who want him to take up the family business. Dating Celosia. Fae initially thought of him as โmuscleโ that he could order around but now he admires the guyโs carefree mindset and slight naรฏvetรฉ (He/him)
Scrip: Kobold cleric of a god of mercantile. Do NOT leave him and Fae in a room together they will start a pyramid scheme. Has saved Faeโs ass in combat MANY times. (He/him)
NPCs:
Goggles: a deep gnome who recruited the party to help as body guards for diplomatic missions. Still alive, despite several failures to protect him on our part (he/him)
Drow/Drider Assassin: I think itโs fair to call this guy Faeโs rival. Fae has killed him multiple times and he keeps getting resurrected. Wants to kill the party real bad.
Madame/Priestess Bitch: a drow priestess, formally the Driderโs partner who now has turned on him and become the partyโs ally.
The Sphinx: A sphinx librarian that, as of now, has stuck his neck out for the party on more than one occasion. Has a personal library that includes multiverses, as well as access to an infinite library
Faeโs Parents:
Camila had Fae fairly young, shortly after becoming the matriarch of the Silvarin family rather unexpectedly when her own father passed away. She had turned to Llewel Kaemaris for advice on how to command respect the way that he did โ but obviously, that relationship developed into something more. After Fae was born, Camila often wondered if Llewelโs affection for her was genuine, or motivated by power. That never fully became clear one way or another. Though he both claimed Fae as his own son and engaged with Camila in discussions about potentially merging the two families she was never really sure if those were signs of respect and love towards her, or shrewd chess moves towards absorbing the Silvarins into the already-powerful Kaemaris family.
Before the Game:
Fae grew up mostly-loved by his parents, though Llewel did put him through some trial by fire to help him find his footing within the Kaemaris family without falling victim to the label of โnepo babyโ. He was always closer with his mother, though. Fae really loved his mom, total Mamaโs boy โ he was her right hand man, and the two brought the Silvarin family into something of a golden age. He always knew heโd outlive her, with plenty of time to spare, but he had determined to make the most of the little time he had. Thatโs why it was especially shocking and hurtful when she died when he was still very young.
At the time Camila died, Fae and everyone else thought it had been an unknown health issue, but over time he became increasingly convinced that it was foul play. Specifically, he decided she had been poisoned. But by who? Camila was a crime lord with a lot of enemies. After a decade of trying to investigate, Fae let the trail go cold, though his interest in poisons remained. His thoughts on the matter are complicated โ itโs been around 70 years since she died. If the person who did it was human, theyโre long dead, and finding out who they are would do little for Fae except open old wounds. If they arenโt deadโฆ heโs not ready to think about what that means.
In fact, heโd more or less thought that his anger over her death had died out completely โ that it was a mystery heโd never solve, even though his old habits refused to die and he continued to test poisons to see if, just maybe, heโd be able to use their effects to determine at the very least the method of her murder.
After Faeโs mother died, most looked towards Fae to lead the Silvarin family, but he refused. He gently guided them towards another human leader and chose to take a more subdued role. this is a move he doesnโt regret in the slightest. No part of him ever desired to be in charge of an organization like that. In fact the longer that he worked as muscle for his dad and advisor for the Silvarins, the more his enthusiasm for organized crime in general seemed to wane until it all but completely vanished.
Fae was sick of diplomacy, sick of the way the Elves treated him like a weird elderly child on the brink of death, and the humans treated him like some legend beyond their limited mortal scope. It was a frustrating line to walk. Above all, he didnโt feel like a real person to either group. He finally gave up on changing that when he decided to leave without warning either side of the family, disappearing overnight to become an adventurer.
During the Game:
Fae met the rest of the party when an inn they were all staying in was attacked by monsters that escaped couriers of the wizardโs guild, an organization responsible for both experimenting on monsters and also transporting those monsters from place to place. After successfully assisting in keeping the in from being *completely* destroyed, Fae and the rest of the party agreed to hunt down the remaining couriers who had failed at their job, and were now legally required to be killed for their failure. After following the couriers to a cave full of more imprisoned monsters, the party did their job and also found an entrance to the Underdark via territory owned by a Drow organization/family that had someโฆ less-than-friendly history.
The party wisely decided against going down that route.
We also, during this initial adventure, found out about an element called Delirium that has powerful magical qualities, and can be fashioned into weapons (we did acquire some here)
After a few more adventures, the party was approached by a Deep Gnome who goes by Goggles or Mr. Red. Goggles asked the party to escort him into the Underdark to where his nomadic people were settled at the time, emphasizing that there were some Drow who might be after him due to a long-standing blood feud between the two races. The party agreed, and off we went.
On our way to the Underdark, we stopped at a transition town still in the Overworld. In this town there was a library owned by a sphinx, where we discovered books from the real world (namely, Romeo and Juliet, and later I wrote a fic that retroactively brought in Call of the Wild and used it to frame Faeโs feelings about his role within his family). Fae also picked up some knives that had poison chambers in them, and then we were off to the Underdark.
On our way into the Underdark we were ambushed by a drow assassin and a drow priestess, who kicked our asses a little bit but we ultimately won! We left their corpses behind us, sure we would never see them again.
We managed to get Goggles to his people underground, and they contracted us for a little more work in return for refining the raw delirium we had acquired. During our work we found a Skinweaver (who made Fae some sick armor out of hook horror leather) and a cult of Kobolds worshipping a dragon that slumbers on veins of adamantine. While investigating the Kobolds, who the fuck should we find but THE REVIVIFIED ASSASSIN AND PRIESTESS who we killed a second time, and Celosia and Fae reached the conclusion that to keep them dead, weโd probably have to remove a body part. We settled on their jaws, which Fae collected.
Our last task the deep gnomes hired us for was to transport Goggles to the Duergar capital to ask them to ally with the gnomes. On the boat journey over, Fae recognized a member of his dadโs organization. Though he tried to play it off at first, he did eventually seek the man out โ only for the man to be murdered seconds later. As the party scrambled to find out who had murdered the guy, they were approached by none other than Llewel Fucking Kaemaris, who said heโd come to the Underdark to try and form a partnership with the Drow (who, you may remember, donโt really like us all that much). Fae told his dad that uhhhh the drow donโt like us very much rn, and Llewel was less than thrilled. He also tried to pick Faeโs brain on one other mystery โ why Fae had left the family in the first place.
Fae answered as honestly as he could. He said he didnโt know.
Fae and his dadโs relationship is complicated. No parent should have to outlive their kid but itโs even worse when you also have to watch them age and get elderly at a rate you can hardly imagine happening to yourself. Because of that, Llewel canโt possibly understand Fae completely. Fae knows that โ doesnโt mean he doesnโt still resent the guy a little.
We managed to solve the mystery โ it was that fucking Drow assassin and priestess who we had killed TWICE already at this point. Because we stole their jaws this time theyโd been reincarnated which was why we didnโt recognize them. When we foiled their plan this time they managed to escape, unable to kill Faeโs dad (or him) like theyโd wanted to. But they kept their jaws this time!
Upon reaching the Duergar capital we learned the man who had invited us, the prince, had disappeared while looking for a mythical library made of chalk. Using the delirium weโd acquired we were able to dig him out โ but, this is where shit got unfortunately real for Fae.
In this library there was a cluster of Flumphs, psyonically powerful creatures with tentacles. And in the center of this cluster of Flumphs was a glowing red crystal.
Weโd seen crystals like that before, and the party had been able to calm aggravated enemies by removing the crystal from their presence, so Fae thought it would be a good idea to just. Grab the crystal.
It was not a good idea.
Upon touching the crystal Fae was overcome by pure rage, got smacked with the mental image of his dad bleeding out, and was barely able to pull himself back together with the help of the cleric, Scrip. Even now the rage bubbles just under the surface but heโs doing his best to cope with it.
After the rage had simmered the party did as much research as they could in that library, and found that this particular gemstone houses a very, very angry dragon โ one of three who have all been hidden away from the world for the worldโs safety, though itโs said that one was hidden against its will.
Now attuned to the dragon in the gem, Fae has hung onto it since. Heโs not the biggest fan of myth, fate, magic and dragons, so initially he wasnโt super thrilled about the situation, and he was determined to find a way to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Having rescued the lost prince and secured an allyship for the Duergar and the Deep Gnomes, we headed back the way we came. On the boat again, Goggles disappeared. We found a ransome note telling us to come to the front of the ship at 2am. When we did, we saw Goggles bound in spiderwebs, and Fae was surprised by a NAT 20 ATTACK from the SAME GODDAM ASSASSIN AS BEFORE, who was now a Drider, having asked Lolth for the power to fuck Fae up. โThis time, Iโm going to fucking kill you.โ
He did not kill me. But damn! He got close!!! Fae was pretty much consistently at 1 health for the entire fight until he finally went down. But Fae lived, and he stole the guyโs jaw again, Iโm sure thatโll be the last we see of him.
It wasnโt the last weโll see of Priestess Bitch, though, who showed up and told us that she was tired of fighting with us and had decided to help us, informing that there are other drow on the gnomeโs side, and telling us how to find them.
That night, Fae had a dream.
He dreamed that he was someone else, trapped inside a person, a person who was slowly dying. A person who he was KILLING. In the dream, whatever he was snapped and became enraged. Putting two and two together, Fae realized that in the dream he was the angry dragon โ and the person who heโd been killing was his own mom, unaware of what was happening to her, or how to stop it.
As he woke up, Fae managed to get one last thing from the dream, and that was a clue to who had killed his mother: the symbol of the wizard guild.
Now with a personal attachment to the rage within the draconic gem, Faeโs priorities have shifted. Heโs not sure exactly how everything connects โ he had given up on finding his momโs killers and now he has a serious lead. While he continues to help the party and the gnomes with their goals, his own thoughts lie heavily on the dragon and what it means for his past and his future.
AND NOW WEโRE ALL CAUGHT UP TO THE PRESENT!
Heโs afraid of bugs
He doesnโt like fish
His full name is Androbal Marques Faedril Silvarin. Yes I have practiced saying that out loud in his voice repeatedly, itโs actually very fun to say when you get the hang of it.
His backstory wasnโt initially based on Hamlet but at some point I realized what was going on and decided to lean into it.
People have compared Fae to a lot of other characters and people, notably Pedro Pascal, โLesbian Waluigiโ, and Dorian Pavus
Itโs rly funny that one of his inspos is a character from Sons of Anarchy, a Hamlet adaptation, but the inspo character is NOT the Hamlet analog
I run 5e game on Wednesdays called Illusa, and Fae is an NPC in that world! His backstory is a little bit different to adjust for a world I have full control over - he has a full-elf half brother named Lysander, who is the rightful heir to the Kaemaris empire. He also has Dove, a silent masked elf who is by his sides at most times. Besides that, what elseโฆ oh yeah I killed his dad! His dad got poisoned during a political event and now the party is investigating Llewelโs death. I canโt wait to see how that plays out for them ehehe
In Illusa, in addition to common, Fae speaks a fantasy version of Spanish I call โQueรฑoโ! Iโve actually built a whole hispanic culture within that world that heโs a part of, and I had a lot of fun fleshing out that side of him since I had the ability to build the world around him in this one.
The Illusa version of Fae has a slightly different personality, too. Iโd say probably less prone to redemption than O&O Fae, but honestly itโs still pretty early to make that prediction. Again, canโt wait to see what my players do to influence his life and the world he lives in!
And thatโs it! I probably wonโt update this post until the game makes significant progress, so until then, hopefully this is enough context for the art I make from here on out. If youโve made it this far thank you so much for reading and I hope you feel informed :3















