Respite has had many names. He was born as Mazes Riverrun, so named by his Tiefling mother, Lexibis Lexibis never intended to have Mazes, and his conception made her life rather difficult, being that she worked in a brothel deep in the smoky heart of Melvaunt. Upon realizing she was pregnant, Lexibis told herself that she would settle down and find better work somewhere else in the City of Swords—but choices were slim for an untrained Tiefling of her age, and she could find nothing other than slaving away in the factories. The whorehouse paid better. Thus, as soon as Mazes was born, she returned to work at The Hearth & Heart.

Mazes was raised in a house of debauchery. For the most part, the prostitutes were very kind to him; spending time with the cute Tiefling baby, tail too big for his britches and horns still just stubs on the top of his head, was a welcome change for many of the workers. Mazes was of course closest to his mother, and although they struggled to make ends meet, Lexibis never let it affect her relationship with her son.

Even so, Mazes grew up witnessing not only lechery, but cruelty of the highest magnitude. With crime so rampant in Melvaunt, the prostitutes were often at the receiving end of violence from cruel customers. Mazes would see his mother come home covered in bruises and scars, and he was told to pay them no mind. “They’re the burden I bear,” she would say. “Pain makes us stronger—it makes me stronger for you, little one.”

The ideal never sat right with Mazes. As he aged, there were many occasions where he attempted to defend his mother and the other workers from abuse, though he would be scolded for doing so. It seemed that everyone in Melvaunt expected pain simply from living. It shattered his heart, seeing suffering so thoroughly worshiped—and he felt it made him weak. He couldn’t be weak. His mother needed him to be strong.

It was through his desire to conquer pain that, at eighteen years old, he found solace in the Resting Place of the Whip, a temple dedicated to the Maiden of Pain, Loviatar. He learned from the whipmasters that pain was the personification of strength, beauty, and love. Pain and suffering fostered fortitude. Mazes’ outlook on life shifted: the bright-eyed child he had been in his youth morphed into a calculated, cold young man who embraced pain not only as a necessity, but a decadence.

Mazes became an acolyte of Loviatar, whereupon he changed his name to Calx (in standard Tiefling fashion). He served as a Taystren of the temple for many years, earning enough gold to support both himself and his mother. Lexibis disapproved of Calx’s newfound faith, and she would reprimand him every time Calx returned covered in bruises and burns. “I bore my pain so you wouldn’t have to,” she would say. “I never wanted such a life for you.”

But Calx was too entrenched in Loviatar’s teachings to heed her pleas: pain made him strong, and he liked it. He had never been strong before, and through the Maiden’s teachings, he became cunning and dexterous. For the first time in his life, he felt powerful—and oh, it brought him such joy.

Calx served as an acolyte of Loviatar for eight years, until he was twenty-six. During this time, he was whipped, burned, branded, scarred, slashed—and did far worse to others. He learned to love pain as intimately as a lover. He worshiped it, craved it. It brought him power, it brought him joy. It was enough.

It was enough, up until one of the human whipmistresses of the temple, Sorlan Foebrand, gave Calx a special task: the extraction of information. Calx had tortured people before, but they had always been consenting worshipers of the Maiden—they loved suffering as much as he. This was different—he was presented with kidnapped sages of various deities and told to coerce them into revealing the locations of their secret temples by any means necessary. “This is your chance to ascend to a Brother in Torment,” Sorlan had said. “Make our Mistress proud.”

But Calx couldn’t do it. He looked at the battered and bruised prisoners and saw pain without purpose, without pleasure. Their pain did not make them strong, and Calx realized, then, that he wouldn’t be stronger for inflicting it. Having a change of heart, Calx decided to sneak the prisoners out under the cover of darkness.

Impressed by and thankful for his kindness, one of the prisoners—a halfling by the name of Finbin Flathand—revealed himself to be a Joydancer, a sage of the goddess Lliira. Finbin told Calx of the location of the hidden order enclave (despite that being the exact information Calx was meant to torture out of him) and added that he was free to seek sanctuary there. Calx denied the offer and returned to his temple, knowing he would be punished for his weakness—but he could not imagine the ramifications. It was not he who the whipmasters decided to torture for his insolence, for pain was no punishment for Calx—rather, Lexibis was brought before the temple, and Calx was forced to witness his mother’s torture at the hand of tormenters. Lexibis was tortured for seven days and seven nights, when upon Calx was given the choice to prolong her suffering or spare her—with a knife through the heart, wielded by his own hand. He chose the latter.

Calx had had enough. He escaped from the temple and fled into the city. Not knowing where to go, he headed for the temple of Lliira—and to his surprise, they welcomed him with open arms. Despite all of his past cruelties, Lliira and her worshipers showed Calx great kindness. They stitched his wounds with golden thread and blessed his burns with soothing balm. They asked for nothing in return. “You’re free,” Finbin said. “You’re allowed to be free. You don’t need to earn it through pain and suffering. Just be, and be merry.”

Calx was so touched by the kindness of the Joydancers that he sought forgiveness from them. Lliira and her worshipers saw not only great potential in Calx’s resolve, but in his knowledge of Loviatar (and his drive for revenge). He was accepted into the faith and trained in the Order of the Scarlet Mummers, where he was able to put his knowledge and understanding of the Loviatans’ customs to use in hunting them—which he was more than happy to do. The physical training he had undergone as a Loviatan served him well as he learned the art of the Mummers’ blade-dancing. He abandoned the name Calx and instead took the title Respite, the Reaper of Golden Thread.

Respite trained with the Scarlet Mummers for three years. During this time, he unlearned Loviatar’s teachings and sought new understanding in Lliira’s. Pain does not make one strong—one has no need to be strong. Joy and freedom are deserved by all people, and it was the Mummers’ responsibility to ensure that everyone had the chance to experience them.

Respite’s mentor in the Scarlet Mummers, Madelaine of Meadows, kept Respite close those three years, perhaps not trusting his devotion. However, she and the rest of the order have finally decided that Respite has proven himself enough to venture into the world on his own. Now twenty-nine, Respite travels the Sword Coast to liberate people from bondage, spread joy, and thwart pain itself.

Joydancer. Respite believes heavily in Lliira’s values: everyone deserves to experience joy, freedom, and kindness. He will always go out of his way to do the right thing, make people smile, and share the word of his goddess. As a Scarlet Mummer—a more martial sect of the faith—Respite is also willing to fight in order to deliver freedom to the disenfranchised. Even so, violence is his last resort: he will always attempt to understand different beliefs before dismissing them, and he believes in redemption over vengeance.

Revenge Served Hot. Respite has a vendetta against Loviatans. It’s the Scarlet Mummers’ sacred vow to eliminate Loviatar’s evil from the world, and Respite believes in this completely.

Fall in Love, Every Day. Respite falls in love easily. He idealizes anyone who shares his beliefs or has unique beliefs of their own. Even so, Respite rarely stays in one place for long, and while it hurts him to leave people he loves, he believes his duty lies with Lliira. Despite this, Respite is incredibly well-adjusted, and rather than moping over what was lost, he’s instead grateful that he was ever able to experience it.

Animal Fact Kid. Respite loves learning about the natural world. He keeps a journal full of fun facts about animals and monsters, and he’s happy to share them—often at inopportune times. He has a straw-colored fruit bat familiar named Mango.

Crouching Masochist, Hidden Sadist. His many years of Loviatar worship left permanent scars on Respite’s psyche, and despite his best efforts, he still enjoys physical pain and inflicting it upon others. His fellow Scarlet Mummers have noticed the wild look in his eye he gets during battle, and many of them don’t trust him, believing that he may be at risk of returning to his Loviatan worship. Respite struggles with this part of himself, wondering if he’s truly worthy of Lliira’s forgiveness. He does his best to subdue this part of himself—unless he’s in the bedroom, where he lets himself go crazy. Respite has a lot of sex and is happy to educate others on kink safety and kink culture.

Mama’s Boy. Respite loved his late mother and will not take any slander towards her or the type of life she lived. He has great sympathy towards sex workers. This is a major trigger for him, and can often result in those “sadist” tendencies described above. “Hells help the man who insults my mother.”

Respite is a kindhearted if not intense man. He can find beauty and joy in anything, whether it be in a dance or going to bed hungry. He is always positive, no matter the odds.

He seeks to spread joy wherever he can, though he doesn’t believe his actions are solely capable of it. He believes that people need to seek what makes them happy: he considers it his responsibility to help them find that spark of joy and cultivate it. He’s less of a flashy bard seeking smiles and more of a gentle pastor. Even among worshipers of Lliira, the Scarlet Mummers are intimidating, and Respite fits that M.O. to a t thanks to his scary face—though he’s really quite a sweet man once given a chance. He actually has a habit of oversharing and perhaps being a bit too “open”, having grown up surrounded by less-than-proper people.

Respite sometimes struggles with his faith, having spent so long as a Loviatan. He has trouble with the concept of pain: part of him still enjoys it, and an even darker part of him enjoys inflicting it on others. If it brings him joy, is it not still holy? He isn’t certain. In battle, it’s obvious that wounds do not phase him and instead seem to fuel his fire. He justifies this to himself by saying that, since pain brings him pleasure, it does not conflict with Lliira’s teachings—and smiting those who stand in the way of said teachings is necessary for joy and freedom to flourish (though he tries to fight how much he enjoys the smiting). It’s not a sex thing. Correction: it’s not entirely a sex thing.

Respite fights with bladed boots and delicate, deadly dances, as taught to him by the Scarlet Mummers. He also fights while commanding a considerable amount of fire. During his worship of Loviatar, he used fire to sear, wound, and torture—and he was quite good at it. Yet through Lliira, he has learned that fire can be used to mend and warm, as well as cull evil where it arises. He feels a kinship with the element and keeps it close to his heart.

Respite is trans. He transitioned early-Loviatar worship (having lived a lifetime feeling uncomfortable in his own skin), which the Loviatans more than graciously allowed—though it was a violent process. The Lliirans mended those wounds as well: his top surgery scars are accented by the same golden stitches that snake across the rest of his body (he did not seek bottom surgery). He looks similar enough that Loviatans he worked with would still be able to easily recognize him.