sooo what's the story of caden's return? I need to know. What has malakay been up to all this time
Caden was born in a small village in the hills, into a peasant family. He made himself known when at 16 he managed to chase away a vampire spawn that had been oppressing his fellow villagers for months. Having become a small local hero, he defended the village from other attacks by little monsters until he was 20, after which he left to become a soldier of the Flaming Fist. During the military service his dreams of doing something good were soon destroyed: many soldiers only aimed at power, making money, they didn't care too much about defending others. The straw that broke the camel's back was seeing one of his legion companions beat the hell out of a boy slightly younger than Caden.
He abandoned the hood and decided to return to his origins: son of farmers, the land and nature are our greatest assets and we must preserve and protect them. He became a paladin of the ancients - venerator of Chauntea. He led his happy life for many years, protecting the druid coven of Emerald Woods, but he also realized that his life was limited. Being human, he could only help them until he was 70 at most. Seeing his friends elves, gnomes, dwarves, halflings not age like him brought him a sense of sadness and anger towards himself, his nature. He decided to do something crazy: he made a pact with the hag from the nearby forest.
He asked her to have the chance to live forever and never grow old again. The hag agreed at the price of adding another purpose to Caden's life: fighting for someone he loved. The human was surprised. That's all? Fighting for someone he loved? But he was already fighting for his friends in the woods and his loved ones at home. The crone replied: "It's not enough. You have to have someone, a favorite person and fight for them too." However, he didn't have a favorite person, he had never bothered to cultivate love as he was too busy defending nature. And he didn't even think he had a chance with other people. The hag spoke "there is no problem - I will find them for you. But you will have to swear to fight with soul, mind and body for them"
Caden did not understand the gravity of that request and accepted. The person the hag chose was a devil who had recently stolen 4 crow's feet from her: a certain Malakay Avaritia.
Malakay until then had lived a normal life in Cabrafè, together with his family. He met Caden when he was 20. He found the paladin more of a nuisance than dangerous: annoying at best. He never hurt Mala, but it was creepy and kinda weird. At 24 Mala met Octo for the first time and fell deeply in love (he would never admit it). So much that he left home to follow the god. Caden was devastated and began roaming the world to look for Malakay, while also following his paladin path.
Mala has travelled for centuries with friends and lovers, and has now bought at home in Porto Veneno, where he lives with his 3 husbands and 2 children. As for Caden we are still cooking up something for him.
