Sir Damien

Sir Damien

Gallery

Sir Damien
Art by Mikaela Buckley
Details
Pronouns	He/him
First Mentioned	Bonus: The Revenge of the Janus Beast
Status	Alive
Age	Younger than Talfryn
Aliases	Honeysuckle (Arum) Poet-Knight of the Citadel Sir D (Sir Marc)
Location	The Swamp of Titan's Blooms
Occupation	Knight of the Crown (formerly) Poet
Affiliations	The Second Citadel
Family	Unnamed Father Unnamed Mother Hyacinth (Daughter)
Relationships	Rilla (romantic partner) Lord Arum (romantic partner) Sir Angelo (close friend)
Species	Human
Voice
Voice Actor(s)	Matthew Zahnzinger
First Heard	Second Citadel - Knight of the Crown, Lord of the Swamp (Part 1)

Sir Damien the Pious, known later as simply Damien the Pious, was a knight of The Second Citadel, and remains a poet. He has sworn an oath of pacifism in the name of his Saint to never slay a monster again. He is also very close with his fiancée, Rilla.

He is named after Saint Damien, a major figure in the mythology of the Citadel, and often calls upon the Saint as a way of trying to calm his many anxieties.

Early Life

As a child, Damien studied the holy texts of St. Damien "day and night." His father told him he would amount to nothing, for he was often ill and often bullied. After some other children threw him in a river, knowing he could not swim, Damien heard St. Damien speak to him. He survived and was inspired by the experience to pursue knighthood so he could help others as St. Damien does.

History

Sir Damien was first introduced as having been pushed down the stairs by Sir Caroline so that she could take part in a mission he'd been assigned. Days later, he fought off a basilisk while in bed with a broken leg, maintaining his tie with Sir Angelo.

He is joined by his fiancee Rilla in the low-stakes duty of guarding the Queen's (empty) chambers during the Festival of Three. The two shmooze, and Damien retells an abridged version of the legend of The Three Saints in an attempt to convince her to move up their wedding date to coincide with the festival. She is amused but unmoved. After she departs Damien worries himself over whether he's pressuring her until he is pulled from his thoughts by a commotion in the Queen's chambers. He encounters a lizard monster wearing a regal purple cloak. The two enter an erudite conversation about poetry and architecture, then begin to duel. The lizard pretends to have set the building to collapse in attempts to get Damien to run, but he is not fooled and pins the lizard. He pauses, and instead of dealing the killing blow binds the one hit he managed to land on the lizard with one of the Queen's headscarves.

He decides to spare the lizard's life. He first cites the fact that the fight was unmatched, but the lizard does not buy it. He then honestly tells the lizard he found something human in his eyes, which the lizard is very offended by. The lizard still agrees to a rematch duel, this time on the lizard's terms. Before the lizard departs, Damien introduces himself by name, and the lizard introduces himself as Lord Arum.

The second duel plays out, and Arum, in turn, spares Damien's life. Arum hears Rilla coming as he has Damien pinned to the ground and departs. Damien has a crisis as he realizes he has feelings for Lord Arum and feels like his heart is betraying Rilla. He does not tell Rilla this, only that he is having conflicted feelings about a monster he is supposed to kill. Rilla tells him she trusts him and that he should follow his heart.

Just before Damien and Arum's third duel is scheduled to begin, Damien is interrupted by his best friend Sir Angelo, who tells him Rilla's house has been broken into and she is gone. He produces the only evidence that he found at the scene, a scrap of purple cloth. Damien is heartbroken and betrayed and vows to slay Lord Arum.

He is sent along with Angelo and Sir Caroline on a quest both to rescue Rilla and to find the source of the monsters' new weapons, which are thought to both be related to Arum. He spends the quest in deep emotional turmoil about the nature of monsters and their conflict with humans. He is told Lord Arum is already dead when he reaches Fort Terminus.

He finds him alive and expresses relief, then a more heightened version of that deep confliction. He expresses intent to kill him himself, but Rilla intervenes. Damien is confused and then betrayed at the clear affection between Rilla and Arum. Arum is struck down with pain as his Keep is attacked. Damien prays to his Saint and invokes a miracle, which transports Arum back to the Keep.

Damien and Rilla have a brief argument about what has transpired since they last saw each other, which ends with Damien storming off into the Fort.

After the destruction of the Fear monster, Damien, Rilla, and Arum all reconcile and decide to try a polyamorous relationship. Damien and Rilla move into the Swamp of Titan's Blooms, but as the weeks go on tensions begin to run high between the three of them, Arum feeling his other two partners are closer to each other than to him and feeling ignored as Rilla focuses on her experiments and Damien focuses on his religion and, to Arum's perception, the killing of monsters. 

Rilla's brother and Arum's friend, Sir Marc, arrives at the swamp to ask Arum to babysit Olala, a half-human half-monster orphan he encountered in rounding the border of The Western Wastes. Arum agrees, much to Rilla's chagrin, and Damien insists he go along with them to protect the child. Olala pushes Damien and Arum to communicate their differences and upon returning to the Swamp, the three of them have a long conversation about their relationship, where Damien reveals that he has resigned as a Knight of the Crown, and thus given up the killing of monsters.

Roughly five years later, while preparing for the Petrachorus with his lovers, Damien's retirement from knighthood is interrupted by Sir Tristan the Cold, who has been sent by Sir Absolon to attempt to return him to the Second Citadel's forces. This ends in Sir Tristan blackmailing Damien to return to the Second Citadel with him after he spies on Damien and Lord Arum together.

Personality

Sir Damien was one of the top monster-slaying knights in the Citadel, having spent years tied for the position with his best friend and rival Sir Angelo. Early on in the story, it is shown that he has a slight ego and considers himself to be above others such as Sir Marc or Talfryn, which he originally perceived to be cheaters and scoundrels.

Damien is very prone to anxiety and panic attacks and has trouble unlearning the internalized prejudices he grew up within the Second Citadel. When he's feeling anxious, he tends to try to rationalize the situation to calm himself down.

He finds it highly difficult to navigate his complex emotions towards Lord Arum, frequently doubting himself and calling upon Saint Damien for advice. He rarely receives an answer.

Abilities

Sir Damien was one of the best knights in all of the Second Citadel, rivaled only by Sir Angelo. He is renowned for his monster-slaying skills, particularly archery. He has also demonstrated proficiency with a dagger and hand-to-hand combat, as seen in his first encounter with Lord Arum.

Additionally, Damien is a skilled wordsmith and poet, frequently speaking in flowery and dramatic language, and has written several poems for his fiance, Rilla. He appreciates a good story and is lauded for being an excellent storyteller. He appears to be interested in literature, reciting The Battle at World's End verbatim for the nymphs' competition.

Relationships

Lord Arum

Sir Damien and Lord Arum are rivals, deadly foes, and desperately attracted to one another. Initially, Lord Arum looks down on Sir Damien for being human and Sir Damien hates and is revolted by Lord Arum's being a monster, but they quickly come to appreciate each other's combat ability, intelligence, and physical form. Lord Arum gives Sir Damien the nickname "Honeysuckle," originally a derogatory reference to his delicate poetry, which Lord Arum claims to hate, and later to his human fragility. Sir Damien works to pretend his feelings for Lord Arum are those he would have for a rival, but eventually cannot deny his attraction. He is preoccupied with the violet color of Lord Arum's eyes. Each spares the other's life after gaining the upper hand in a duel. Sir Damien sees "something human" in Lord Arum's eyes, and Lord Arum notes "something monstrous" in Sir Damien's. When preparing to fight their third duel, to the death, Sir Damien cannot decide whether it would be worse to die, leaving Rilla alone, or to kill Lord Arum, who he describes as a part of his heart.

Their relationship changes when Sir Damien hears that Lord Arum has kidnapped Rilla, and learns that as of late there have been a series of monsters with the power to manipulate human perceptions and emotions. He then blames his feelings for Lord Arum on a magical illusion he accuses the lizard of casting and embarks on a quest to save Rilla and slay Lord Arum. He is wracked with obsessive guilt, an upswing of which is triggered by any mention of anything vaguely lizardlike.

When Sir Damien finally finds Lord Arum, he is clearly still attracted to the lizard and admits that when he'd been told Lord Arum was dead he'd essentially been heartbroken. However when Rilla arrives and he sees the level of familiarity between her and Lord Arum, he dismisses everything as an illusion, casting aside his earlier doubts entirely. He plans to slit Lord Arum's throat. However, Rilla convinces him not to by hastily explaining the feelings she also has for Lord Arum. Damien allows Arum to escape but plans on leaving Rilla and Arum despite having feelings for both of them, because he feels betrayed by Rilla, saying "Stepping back into a life where I was once loved... It is very painful, Rilla, to be loved too." He wishes Lord Aum and Rilla great happiness together even as he leaves. However, Lord Arum challenges him to a duel and during the fight manages to convince Damien to stay and try a relationship between all three of them.

Amaryllis of Exile

His fiancee and doctor, she has a calming effect on Damien and has helped him manage his anxiety. They're so in love! Damien writes her lots of poems! It's cute as hell!

They met when Damien, as a knight-in-training, had become so hypochondriac the rest of the Citadel's healers had grown reluctant to examine him. When he finally was genuinely ill, with Spider Queen venom, he turned to Rilla, who fell in love with his "beautiful, and so funny" storytelling, and then with him. He told her at least one thinly veiled story about an extremely beautiful, and even more intelligent, doctor.

Sir Angelo

Best friend and rival, Angelo and Damien have a tremendous affection for each other, and continually push each other to better themselves as knights and individuals. When Damien breaks his leg after Sir Caroline pushes him down a flight of stairs, Angelo gifts Damien with a “get well tree” . It is yet unknown how Angelo feels about Damien's decision to resign as a Knight of the Crown, nor Damien Angelo's decision to defect from the Crown and hunt ex-knights.

Five years on from these decisions, Damien expresses that he knows Angelo has left knighthood and the Second Citadel but does not know where he is, nor what he is doing.

Sir Caroline

Pushed him down the stairs one time to take his assignment, and their working relationship has not improved since. Caroline does not like Damien and thinks he whines too much, and wanted to leave him behind in Silvershore. However, they both develop a mutual respect for each other, especially as Damien overcomes his initial biases.

Sir Marc

Sir Damien brushed Sir Marc off initially, but gradually learns to respect his skills as a knight and challenge his initial biases. They still butt heads, but they become closer as faux brothers-in-law. Damien expresses scorn for Sir Marc when he refuses to quit being a knight before the invasion of Silvershore, but once he does Damien is overall understanding of him.

Trivia

• Lead writer Kevin Vibert has stated on several occasions that Sir Damien is one of the characters he relates to most.^{[source needed]}