Balasar

Balasar Turnaroth is a reserved and independent Silver Dragonborn, and participant in the Llorvanian Civil War (C.P.). He is a founding member of the Llorvanian-Dragonborn Unity Group (L-DUG), the armed wing on the political faction, the Dragonborn National Club of Llorvania (DNCL), being one of the first to be recruited after the 822 Krilgriog Massacre. After the outbreak of the civil war in 829, he lead a small guerrilla unit in the Draconic Mountains before being reassigned to the L-DUG Foreign Brigades, in which he assisted in the Destruction of the Lower Vozkan Bridge.

Childhood
Balasar hatched on June 23rd 789 C.P. in a small farming community about twenty miles south of Krilgriog in the Turnaroth clan. His mother, Bolintha, was born during the Turnaroth Insurgency of 754, and his father was a respected community organizer that lead an underground program to re-teach written and spoken Draconic to their region after it was banned by the government of Llorvania.

Balasar was the youngest of five children. His parents registered his date of hatching as 789 with local offices, however the national census has him as the same date in 790. This was intentionally done by his parents to postpone his anticipated conscription into the army.

His father died when Balasar was 3 years old, of a lung-related disease. Poor sanitation and improper healing facilities in the region likely contributed to this. Afterwards, his family fell into poverty and became reliant on other members of their community for basic resources. Balasar became employed as a shepherd at his neighbor's farm after he started primary school at the age of 7. At 12, he moved to the outskirts of his community to become employed on a wealthy estate. By this point he had dropped out of school.

When he was 15, Balasar started a painting apprenticeship. At 16, he left the estate he was working on and moved back in with his mother to become employed at an ironwork that was near her house. It was in this new workplace that he became influenced by revolutionary pro-Dragonborn politics. His mother had instilled a strong sense of Draconic pride into him from an early age, however it wasn't until he began conversing with his coworkers at the ironwork that he began to learn how to articulate this.

Life in Krilgriog
When he turned 17, Balasar moved to Krilgriog to become employed in a steel mill to pay for his mother's failing health. There he joined a local Dragonborn liberation group. He was arrested six months later for committing petty vandalism on government property, but was acquitted from this charge.

Two years later, at the age of 19, his mother passed from an unknown disease. Grief-stricken, Balasar blamed the Llorvanian kingdom for killing his mother by refusing to provide his community with adequate health resources. A month later, he organized eight of his fellow members of the local Dragonborn liberation group to launch a raid on the regional capital building. They stormed the legislature room while it was in assembly, and held the regional politicians hostage for almost two days. During that time, Balasar and one of his co-conspirators held a banner from the top of the building that read "An Elf ruler is a bastard, and a Dragonborn one is even worse," referencing how he despised many of the kingdom-appointed Dragonborn bureaucrats who did more work to oppose Dragonborn independence than to support their communities. Just before the Llorvanian army broke down their barricades on the second day, Balasar and his eight teammates attempted a group suicide, however they were captured before anyone could shoot themselves with a venom-laden crossbow.

Balasar and his teammates were subsequently captured, given mock trials, and sentenced to public execution. A high bail was set for all of them, however only Balasar's was able to be paid, as it was from a combined donation of his four siblings. His eight co-conspirators were executed in the late afternoon of March 15th, 808, by public immolation.

Balasar was arrested about a year later for attempting to steal food from several fruit vines growing on a wealthy estate. Because of his record, he was sentenced to life in prison, and was held in a jail on the northern outskirts of the city. This time there was no bail set.

Krilgriog massacre and the L-DUG
Balasar was in prison for 13 years before his escape. During that time, the young Dragonborn became good friends with his cellmate, a historian named Udokax. As an intellectual, Udokax introduced Balasar to concepts of philosophy, reality dichotomy, and the history of the Turnaroth clan.

In early 822, just before Balasar turned 33, the Krilgriog Massacre occurred. During the uprising, Balasar's prison was stormed by Dragonborn vigilantes, and after a long series of deadly skirmishes with the guards, he and Udokax were freed. They then joined the group of vigilantes and headed westward, where they freed the inmates of another Dragonborn-majority jail that was primarily used for political prisoners. Originally their numbers were around 1,200, however approximately 800 of the original members opted to flee into the countryside rather than to join the other 400, who were more politically motivated, in their mission to storm the city and to oust the Elven rulers. Balasar and Udokax were among the latter group. The riots had died down for about a day prior to this, but the sudden arrival of the former prisoners sparked renewed civil unrest. Very little information was recorded on the progression of events in the second wave of riots, however it is suspected that it was Balasar's group that was responsible for setting fire to, and later destroying, numerous temples to Corellon Larethian. Balasar escaped the city some time after the incident, as did many of his comrades. Only 172 of the 403 political prisoners were recaptured after the event.

Balasar's group, about 230 in numbers, hid out in the fields to the north of Krilgriog for several months. They split up numerous times to avoid bounty hunters, however when they arrived in the city of Irla to the east, they were in the same sized group as they were when they left Krilgriog.

The ex-prisoners, after coming to Irla, were invited to the signing of the charter of the Llorvanian-Dragonborn Unity Group, which was attended by representatives from all of the Dragonborn clans of Llorvania, officials from the DNCL, as well as several dignitaries from Wysonia and Enerbellum. All of the escapees, including Balasar, were given honorific titles by the newly fromed L-DUG, and were inducted as the first batch of non-dignitary members.

Balasar and Udokax spent the coming years as trainees in the Tiefling-populated countryside to the southwest of Irla. In 825, three years after they had escaped from prison, Balasar joined the 1st Regiment for Dragonborn Liberation, the first armed division in the L-DUG that was organized since its inception. It was created in conjunction with 50 other regiments, each consisting of anywhere between 30 and 80 people. Balasar's consisted of approximately 55. Udokax and Balasar parted ways at this point, as Udokax opted to take the role of the L-DUG's chief historian.