Darius is a brawny dwarf with skin the color of deep granite and a flaming copper beard woven with bronze rings. He wears heavy chain mail that has seen better days but is meticulously oiled and clean. His blue soldier's tabard is frayed at the edges. He carries a massive steel shield and a warhammer that looks like it has cracked more than a few skulls.

Darius is surprisingly jovial for a soldier of fortune. He treats every traveling companion like a fresh recruit in need of a good meal and a sturdy lecture on footwork. He has a booming laugh and an even louder voice when he sees someone being bullied. He prefers action to planning and tends to charge in where others hesitate.

Darius served twenty years in the Iron Hills Vanguard, rising to the rank of sergeant. He was a perfect soldier until the day his company was ordered to burn a forest village to clear a line of sight for the king's siege engines. Darius looked at the terrified families and realized his oath to the crown had become a cage. He refused the order, held his ground against his own captain to allow the villagers to flee, and was subsequently stripped of his rank and exiled. Since that day, he has carried his tattered soldier's kit as a badge of honor. He found that the fire in his heart burned brighter when he fought for people instead of politics. He now wanders as a knight errant, following a higher law of compassion and bravery that the military manuals never taught him.