How does a paladin-warlock make any sense in your campaigns?
I haven't nor will I ever get a chance to play my build (alas) so I haven't made any background information.
But just thinking of the combination of powers chosen and background lets make up something now:
The Cursed One never received a name. His mother died hours after his birth due to a fatal hemorrhage. The midwife attending her said that she didn't speak a word during those too short hours, after she saw the horrible scarlet birth marks that disfigured his face, hands and arms, she also refused to hold him. It was the same day that Farmer Frank's milk soured mysteriously and a wild dog massacred Polly Baker's best egg laying hens. It was the same day that Roy Smith was kicked while shoeing a horse and Aaron Butcher discovered all of his meat was riddled with strange luminescent worms. A terrible wind howled through the village that same day destroying the Orchard's prize cherry trees and tearing the chapel bell tower down upon the statue of Margot Volffenstein, the town's proud founder. And that same fateful night the star appeared in the sky above the village.
The villagers of Volfftain of course blamed this ill fated events upon the child, saying that surely it was a demon sent to meddle and harass them, a punishment brought upon them by his heathen mother's sinful lifestyle. Lord knows, no one even knew who the father was. After a town meeting it was decided that the child was a burden that noone in the town was prepared to suffer a moment longer. The child was sold for 12 silver pieces to a travelling knife salesman who left the town early the next day with two pints of sour milk donated by Farmer Frank. That next evening the star fell from the sky, obliterating Volfftain from the map and killing every townsperson within 3 miles of the impact site.
The knife salesman, seeing the flash caused by the tremendous impact from his hilly vantage point, saw a great business opportunity and returned to the charred remains of the village to aquire as much metal from the fallen star as he could safely stack on his knife wagon. The unnamed child's cries of hunger grew strangely quiet as Jack Knife stacked the metal up next to his improvised crib, comforted by the eerie whisperings that entered his head.
Jack the Knife grew ill and died months later after selling the metal for a tidy fortune in Watersdeep. The child was found wailing in the back of Jack's knife wagon out on the outskirts of town near the gypsy tents. He was sold for 30 gold pieces to the local assassin's guild.
As soon as he learnt to talk he was sent to the streets to beg. His training in the art of death began at the age of 7. While not a complete incompetent, he was not gifted. This lead to many severe and cruel beatings at the hands of his masters, frustrated by his inability to progress. He never made friends. The other children he trained with were scared of him, his strange eyes, his magnetic presence that made the hair on their arms stand on end. They'd never heard him speak to anyone, but he was constantly whispering in a hushed tone to himself. The beatings finally ended after the boy received a particularly severe beating from one the the strictest and most feared masters, Ren Twofingers. Quite suddenly the boy turned to face his master, his eyes glowing with an intense radiant fire and screamed -Stop! All the boys who were witness to the event said that Twofingers left the room shaking, without saying a word. The next morning Twofingers was found dead in his bed, his heart had stopped. Every person who had witnessed the confrontation grew chronically ill and died within a week. The boy was sold to Harekk Hellfire, a tiefling of the Crimson Legion, a month later for the handsome sum of 1000 gold pieces.
The Cursed One, that is what he had be called when sold, and Harekk thought that the description was a fitting one. He told the boy that he should wear the insults of others proudly and that the day would come when when he would find a name, or a name would find him. For the first time in his life he was offered acceptance, patientience, friendship and guidance. His innate powers, connected with mysterious, alien powers originating from the fallen star, were known to the brotherhood. The star was connected to Ulban the Messenger, who marked the child as a Key Piece, one who would play a hand in ensuring the continued existence of the Cosmos. These powers were slowly and carefully brought under control and nurtured. His training with sword and heavy armour instilled in him a strict discipline, a code to follow and use to focus his wandering mind. While his body was not strong, his desire to achieve his benevolent teachers' approval was such that he mastered the weight of his weapons through sheer force of will, which burned far brighter in the boy than most. Kord strengthened his arm, Ioun enlightened his mind.
When then time came that his teachers became brothers and peers, the Cursed One set forth into the world in search of a name.
