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Name: Da’ud Aldhy la Yuqtal
Age: 30
Sex: Male
Species: Human
Place of Origin: Al-Mashriq
Weaponry: Carries a khopesh sword, but no other arms.  
Magic: Da’ud’s magic is in the form of charms and ritual.  
[i]Tamimat Alaliha[/i] is a string of amulets, each devoted to one of the gods, and each bearing a power.  The material of the amulets is unimportant, Da’ud’s are made of smoothly polished carved wood.  He wears them around his waist over top his sash.

Tamimat Anu is a central amulet, the largest and the first in the chain.  It must be invoked first, to show respect for the God of gods.  Since all of the amulets are invoked through the first, only one acts at a time.

Tamimat El is the second, and it and all subsequent are the same size.  It is believed to guide the breaking of a Darda’i’s armor and therefore the course of their penance.  When invoked, it sharpens the blade and speeds the arm that swings it.  It can only be called upon if another is in mortal danger.
El is the main source of a Darda’i’s magical power.  They fight in twirls that produce wind and kick up dust and sand in clouds.  He can ride the wind to glide short distances like a Jinn.  

Tamimat Marduk is the third.  It strengthens the bones and protects the wearer from grievous harm.  Like Tamimat El, it will only give the wearer patronage if their cause is just.

Tamimat Ea is the fourth.  Ea’s dominance of agriculture ensures that the Darda’i never goes hungry.  

Tamimat Ba’al is the last.  Though the Darda’i reject war, they worship Ba’al for his lordship of change, and of death.  When invoked, this amulet gives a voice to victims of violence, calling them to the land of the living to commune with the ascetic who wears the tamimat.  


History: One cannot aspire to become a Darda’i.  The first step in their path is in the wrong direction.  The Darda’i are a sect of warriors who have rejected war, and so the only way to join them in earnest, is to have first(in equal earnesty) been a fighter and killer of some description.
For Da’ud, this was in the form of a mercenary.  He was no prince or knight of great pedigree, fighting for his beliefs, he was simply paid to fill the ranks of various armies.  This was a roll he played since he was very young.  Younger, indeed, than it should be considered right to have recruited him.  But recruited he was, nonetheless, and so he found it to be a good way to earn money.  He worked in this way, free of loyalties or moral scruples, for years.  
These freedoms came to weigh heavily on Da’ud, and so it was with a sense of relief that he betrayed his last employer.  His reputation by that time made him a well paid member of a raiding party sent to by a warlord to silence a village that was dissenting from his rule.  When Da’ud and his comrades drew their weapons upon entering the village, they found a small number of Darda’i standing between them and the villagers.  They had weapons, but they used words first, and against Da’ud that was enough.  He knelt on the ground, his weapon lying before him, and allowed the battle to play out.  When it was over, one of the ascetics bid him to rise and join them, and he did.  
Appearance: A tall man shaped by violence that he has put behind him.  His face is calm and pleasant, with a beard that is full, but cut short, much like his hair.  His mustache curls up at the corners handsomely.  His hair is curly, but well controlled with biweekly cutting.  
He wears a hauberk of metal plates, held into a single garment by chain mail.  It is notably quite damaged, with several splits and a large swath of the mail missing on the front right corner.
His groin and the outside of his thighs are protected by a similarly scaled garment, and he wears bracers of leather with metal plates sewn in on his left forearm(the right side has been broken and abandoned) and calves.
His head is adorned with a spiked helmet that reaches down over his ears.  The front has a visor that is wrought in an artistic rendering of Da’ud’s own face, split down the middle and hinged at the ears so that it opens like a cabinet.  Under the helmet is a shawl that extends down to his shoulders.  

His under clothes consist of gray linen, and his sword is tucked into a wide blue sash that is tied over his hauberk.  


The Darda’i believe that the only way one can rightly choose to reject violence, is to have already lived by it.  You cannot preach against war, they say, unless you have fought one.  They give up fighting for power or for money, and choose to lift their weapons only in the defense of the weak.  

As penance for their time as killers, a Darda’i wears the armor they fought in at all times.  Only one day a week are they permitted to remove it, on which they will typically spend their time cleaning themselves, cutting their hair, and ensuring that their armor remains as comfortable as possible for the week to come.  At the same time, however, they do not maintain, or acquire new armor.  As their armor wears down and breaks in the defense of the helpless, they become free of it.  They believe this process is divinely guided, and that they will wear the armor for as long as they deserve.  
This particular practice varies widely in strictness depending on the individual practitioner.  Da’ud believes just as there is a [i]day[/i] of rest, that the time after sunset is meant for rest, and so he allows himself to remove some pieces of his raiment at night.
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