Kalla Oloore was born into a village very nearly off the map. It was a community formed from the outcast and exiled; nearly every race was represented in the population. Kalla’s mother, Ada, a human, was outcast from her hometown after a tiefling forced himself upon her. The impending tiefling offspring was an unwelcome presence.
Ada always thought of Kalla before she thought of herself, borrowing tales from a bard in an attempt to distract her daughter from her infernal heritage. Her gifts came mostly in the form of regaling stories, songs of epic fantasy, and history books rife with heroes, heroines, and their tales. Kalla’s imagination was fed by the feats of legends. She yearned to be taught the ways of the wizards – they were her favorite!
The spells enchanted her. But none among the villagers could teach her even the simplest of cantrips. Magic was validated by her elders, but they feared teaching her even the simplest sleight of hand lest her nature take over. Magic remained nothing more than myth to Kalla.
The same bard visited a couple of times a year every year, and came to know and even love the horned Kalla. He always made sure to bring with him that which would satisfy her wizardry fixation. On her fourteenth birthday he brought her a ragged, incomplete volume of spells and cantrips, but even two years later she had not managed to successfully cast a single one. “It seems I’m meant for nothing more than sowing and reaping,” she resigned.
But Kalla’s attempts at magic rang like a soft bell throughout other planes of existence; inaudible to most of the inhabitants, but unmistakable to others. Tigerion the False Appeaser, an ancient fiend, suppressed Kalla’s natural magical ability, knowing that in doing so its power over her might only increase.
Before, magic had been an infantile infatuation with the mysterious…but now it had grown in Kalla to be that which she wanted more than anything but believed she could not have. The perfect time for Tigerion to make his offer had come.
He came to her in a dream, offering Kalla the power she had had all along but that he had kept from her (of course she remained unaware of his meddling). The facade of bestowing that power gave him the influence he desired.
When Kalla asked why she had been chosen, Tigerion leveraged her love of legends to weave for her an irresistible tale: One in which she would have stories, songs, and books of her own. His plan was simple (it always was): Give mortals their heart’s greatest desire and make it break their heart. He knew no greater satisfaction than the ruin of a dream.
On her own, Kalla might have been able to light a fire with a spell and have been completely satisfied with that small feat. Now, with Tigerion’s help, she could grow to set fire to the world, and if he gets his way that is exactly what she’ll do. Oh, she’ll have her stories, songs, and tales…only she will not be the hero.
My 1st Level D&D 5e Warlock
Now that Tigerion the False Appeaser had ceased suppressing her tiefling heritage, Kalla found that she could easily cast cantrips and spells that before were beyond her ability. Her years of practice, though fruitless, had still managed to pay off. She was no novice; she was a budding Warlock.
Without even the barest of efforts, she found she could cast the cantrips
- Thaumaturgy (part of her tiefling race perks),
- True Strike (grants insight into target’s defenses granting advantage),
- and Eldritch Blast (1d10 damage, highers levels grant up to four beams, and a prerequisite for a large number of Eldritch Invocations).
And with the right materials and a bit of focus, she could also cast the spells Witch Bolt and Armor of Agathys.
As an impoverish daughter of an exile, the only weapons she’d ever had access to were simple weapons, of which she favored the quarterstaff. Incidentally, because it is a versatile weapon, she can strike while grasping it with two hands for 1d8 damage or while grasping with only one for 1d6 – leaving her other hand open to rummage through her component pouch her any material she might need to cast a spell.
Playing My D&D 5e Warlock
Kalla will be an interesting play. Her alignment is Lawful Good as a result of her infatuation the heroes and heroines of old. However, Tigerion the False Appearer is most definitely Chaotic Evil, and he has tremendous influence over Kalla. He is essentially the gatekeeper of her power; granting it when he wishes and suppressing it when Kalla does not act in accordance with his wills. I foresee two possible narrative arcs for her:
- Tigerion allows Kalla to make her own brazen mistakes in the pursuit of the heroism of her tales, songs, and books. He realizes that she only has exposure to a hero’s success and never the true trials and failures. He knows disillusionment is imminent, and with it the heartbreak he desires. Sure, he might pull a string or two here or there, but he knows through experience that the time will come when heroism looks nothing like the fables she clings so tightly to.
- Tigerion doesn’t go for the slow burn. He easily tires of his underlings and servants, so he burns through them as quickly as their lifespans allow; possibly even sending them to early demises. So he does his dead-level best to overcome her benevolence with his violence until he molds her into the angry villainess of his own design.
At 3rd level, the Warlock can choose one of three pacts. All of them are sexy, and I’m not sure which I would choose! It’s a genuinely difficult choice from among:
- Pact of the Chain which allows you to summon a familiar which can attack enemies at the cost of one of your own attack actions.
- Pact of the Blade which allows you to create a “pact weapon” in an open hand which you have immediate proficiency with and “counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.”
- Pact of the Tome which permits you to pick any three cantrips (from any class), write them down in a book, and so long as the book remains on your person you can cast them at will.
Ugh, after putting the time in to Kalla Oloore, I’m really wanting to play as her! I managed to get her Charisma score up to 17, granting a +3 to her magical attacks. And it is not only her mechanics that draw me to her, but the potential of her narrative arc. Her devolution would make her play style dynamic. A solid DM taking the reigns of Tigerion – getting into his headspace and pulling Kalla’s strings – would be frustrating, but also extremely intriguing! I’m hooked already.
Thanks for reading Nerds on Earth. If you are interested in creating your own characters, you can pick up the Player’s Handbook from Amazon.
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Tabletop Takeaways: Tips for Dungeon Masters with a Narrative Spin