Help with a character: Gyrandurin “Gyr” Goss

[Havard]

I am creating characters for the Age of Id Rogues, Rascals and Regents thread. This character is named Gyrandurin “Gyr” Goss. Although the character is my creation, he is linked to two characters in the D20 Blackmoor line. Gyr is the father of Mithgyllivyr and Raddam Goss. Mithgylllivyr was a great planar explorer and founder of the Ordo Elementarum. Raddam was a half-elf by a human mother and ended up becoming a genocidal maniac.

Although it was the sons who were remembered in history, it would be interesting to find out who the father was. My current idea is to make him a kind of archetypical Elven Elementalist Mage. I also want to make him a bit of a womanizer to explain his affair with a human woman to produce a half-elf child long after the Age of Id.

What do you think? Suggestions for where to take this character?

-Havard

[Havard]

Any further suggestions to fleshing out this brand new character?

-Havard

[aldarron]

This won't be very helpful, but, to me, Gyrandurin sounds very Dwarvish. It's a good name, but isn't the character supposed to be an Elf?

I would imagine Raddan's family to have had some kind of trouble and faced hard times. Like perhaps his grandfather was a smuggler or something.

[Havard]

This won't be very helpful, but, to me, Gyrandurin sounds very Dwarvish. It's a good name, but isn't the character supposed to be an Elf?

Not married to the name neccessarily, but also wanted to avoid having every elven name end with "-el". How about Gyrianduin instead? Removing the "r" makes it sound more reminiscent of the River Anduin. I wanted to keep the "Gy" in there since both sons have this two letters in their names.

I would imagine Raddan's family to have had some kind of trouble and faced hard times. Like perhaps his grandfather was a smuggler or something.

Elven smuggler? I have never heard of of that concept before. But I suppose since they do have Merchants, they would have to have smugglers as well. Moving illegal goods, or perhaps just dodging taxes.

Not sure this would make too much sense for this character though. His eldest son, Mithgilliwyr went on to becoming a pioneer in planar exploration and the founder of the Ordo Elementarum. It seems a bit odd that he would come from such a background? The younger son, Raddam, is certainly a bad seed of the family. If we want a psychological explanation for his insanity, then perhaps some kind of tragedy involving his mother could be part of it? It is interesting that Raddam did keep his father's family name, suggesting that his father did not abandon him.

I also realized that it might be because of his brother that Raddam allowed some of the Ordo Elementarum to escape to other planes before destroying the Blood Wood.

-Havard