Garen Hearthheart

Garen Hearthheart
Official art of Garen, by Hannah Friederichs.
Type	Player Character
Actor	Matthew Mercer
Character Information
Pronouns	he/him
Also known as	Saint Garen (by Nez Pilch)
Creature type	Humanoid
Race	Dwarf (Mountain)
Age	More than 200 (biologically, during the Divergence)
Languages	Common
Places	Uthtor (formerly) Rybad-Kol (formerly)
Family	Dwarven relatives
Connections	Moradin, the All-Hammer (deity/divine self)
Profession	Stonemason
Status
Status	Alive (in the Divergence)
Stats
Level	0
HP	13
AC	7
DC
Str	18
Dex	4
Con	14
Int	14
Wis	10
Cha	10
Appearances
First seen	"Give and Take" (E4x01)
Last seen	"By Heart Alone" (E4x04)
Stream	Exandria Unlimited: Divergence (4 episodes)

“

I'm not a fighter, I'm a maker.

”

– 

Garen

[!h]

Garen Hearthheart is a dwarf stonemason played by Matthew Mercer in Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. He was a mortal incarnation of the All-Hammer.

Description

Just before the defeat of the Strife Emperor, Garen was elderly and, due to his time in prison, looked older than his years, with tangled, gray- and white-streaked hair. His beard was scraggly and burned at the tips. He wore a loose vest over simple, gray, dirty clothes. His left arm had been amputated past the elbow, cauterized, and capped with rough iron slag as a punishment.

His years of captivity and mistreatment had left Garen deeply cynical that any change in the condition of the world was possible, although deep down he still retained his old ideals, valuing community over safety.

Biography

Background

"The hand that holds." Fan art of Garen Hearthheart with the world he shaped in his hands, by GalacticJonah.

The strongest proponents of the Divine Gate were the Platinum Dragon and the Lawbearer; the Prime Deities developed the idea before taking mortal form, decades ahead of the time when they would bring down the flying city of Aeor. The All-Hammer, arguing that anything a god did another deity could undo, incarnated as a mortal dwarf to begin laying the foundations of the Gate with mortal hands. The Moonweaver was supposed to help him hide with her magic, but the Lord of the Hells learned about it and cursed her miracle, so that no god would know about the All-Hammer's new identity, not even himself; he lost his memories of divinity.

Garen appeared on Exandria without knowing he was an avatar of a god. Around a century before the Divergence, he was captured by the forces of the Betrayer Gods and was brought to the fortress prison of Rybad-Kol, allegedly becoming its first prisoner. During his time there, since he was a skilled stonemason, he was forced to participate in several modifications of the prison, although he purposely introduced vulnerabilities into the stonework. While working on a basalt block, it fell on him and crushed his left arm, which had to be amputated. After many years working and suffering there, Garen's mind deteriorated and he couldn't properly remember his life before the imprisonment. What he did recall was that he had been part of a close-knit, prosperous dwarven family (whose surname he didn't remember) in Uthtor, who had been stonemasons for generations and had friendship with other dwarven settlements, such as Torm's Hill, which he visited at one point; he occasionally got visions and daydreams about his relatives and friends speaking to him.

"Give and Take" (E4x01)

As the final battles of the Calamity were about to begin, after Garen saw the vampire lord Azmog killing a prisoner for worshiping the Changebringer and being hopeful, he returned to the Pit, working the stone there; however, he was exhausted and fell asleep, dreaming of a celebration with his family a long time ago, and then a moment of them being worried while their kingdom was in danger.

He was woken up by jailers who started hitting him; the prison's nurse, Rei'nia Saph, tried to take charge as soon as possible so that Kuzzle (a goblin torturer) wouldn't hurt him too much. She brought Garen to the Mop, the prison infirmary, and his dwarven constitution helped her treat his injuries. Shortly afterwards, however, one of the resident warlocks, Barbithrix, appeared with his gnomish servant, Rufus, to inspect the wounded and determine how long each should be allowed to stay before they became a liability; Nia clarified that Garen was almost completely healed (and Rufus himself admitted that his ability to work the stone made him valuable).

Fan art of Garen's new friends, by Lyadrielle.

Fiedra Marrow, a halfling from the kitchens, arrived to tell them that the dragonborn in Rybad-Kol were going to be sent to serve as the soldiers or the food of the Scaled Tyrant; while they talked about how to save them, Garen noticed a mouse and helped it climb to a hole in the wall, and heard several of them inside. He also noticed a long and thin root growing through the stone, surprising him because it was the first sign of plant life in years. He asked Fiedra for some bread and she gave him the best she had, although she got a bit annoyed when she saw he was offering it to the mice; while they were talking, two weird shiny fleas came from the tiny animals and bit them. When she remembered that the old dwarf had worked in many places of the prison, Garen shared that he knew of a weak spot in the stone of the Wandering Walls.

While Garen waited for Fiedra to return from serving dinner, out the window he noticed two corvids flying in the distance and felt a strange nausea; knowing that something strange was about to happen, the dwarf went outside, but returned when he saw the glowing form of the Strife Emperor himself approaching Rybad-Kol. He reunited with Fiedra and Nia and they went to the weak point of the Wandering Walls, which Garen knocked down with a hammer blow (he also helped save Nia after she almost fell through the floor). A guard noticed them, and they jumped inside the wall. When the guard tried to follow, Garen killed them with the hammer, using their body to block the access point. They all moved through the tunnels to a locked door, and as they tried to open it, a cataclysmic battle of the gods outside shook the entire prison. At one point an army of mice ran past them without hurting them, and one of them stopped for a moment and left a piece of bread for Garen before joining its kin.

When they finally got free they found everything destroyed, although with signs that most of the victims were followers of the Betrayer Gods. After finding some survivors, they debated for a bit about what to do next: Erro insisted that the larger their group, the harder it would be for them to move, while Garen prioritized finding more people and taking care of them, and proposed to follow the roads. In the end they agreed to move with the twelve survivors northward, staying hidden under the trees, and willing to bring with them any child that they found, since Garen considered them the future.

They traveled for days, and the more they moved, the fewer provisions they had and the more tired they were. At one point, shortly after one of the survivors, Starmian Fiddleflask, died of dehydration, a storm was unleashed, brought by the Stormlord as he walked across the land. The Prime Deity announced to their group that they were witnessing the last miracles, and that the age of deities helping them directly was coming to an end.

"Seven of Them" (E4x02)

After an arduous journey of several days the group finally arrived at Torm's Hill, and Garen was happy to see so many free people living together. Vaguely recalling a time in which he had been in that town, he walked through the area until he found a dwarven monument that hid a pantry with beer and salted meat; crying with joy and invoking the name of the All-Hammer, he drank a little and after saving some beer for himself, he went to warn a local woman, telling her about that pantry. She was very grateful, since they didn't know those resources were there. After sleeping soundly for 4 hours Garen woke up the next day much more restored, and decided to help the community by helping them make a dam, since the Larksbrook (the local river) had burst its banks (causing one of the local matriarchs, Nez Pilch, to call him a saint). He chose the available rocks and instructed people about how to work with them; he also taught Bulray, a bugbear, how to lead others so that he could do so without his supervision. They also built a new bridge to cross the river, and when Bulray told him he had been working miracles, Garen simply stated that everyone had helped; they talked for a bit, and the bugbear told him a story of an elven woman carrying the symbol of Moradin, who taught him the difference between a leader and a ruler.

Shortly after seven soldiers of the Strife Emperor arrived in Torm's Hill, killing people and demanding the others to return to subjugation. However, when Erro used his fiery breath against one of them, people started gaining courage to fight the intruders. Garen stepped forward and told people that if he fell, they had to take his place and continue; after seeing Crokas unleashing the power of the storm and touching his hammer with it, and after seeing Luz (a local cleric and a friend of Nia) falling to the ground, the dwarf hit the enemy captain with his hammer, making him fall so that Nia could kill him. Garen managed to kill another soldier, but when he saw that another was about to attack Nia, he stepped in, taking the blow and giving Erro a smile before falling unconscious. He had dreams about his family until Nez healed him, once the battle was won.

The group rested for the rest of the day, recovering from the fight. Erro and Garen sat together, both feeling old. The dragonborn thanked him for helping freeing the dragonborn back in Rybad-Kol, and Garen admitted that he felt somewhat small with all that was happening. In response, Erro told him that although he didn't trust other people easily, Garen had had his trust from the very beginning. Later Garen invited Fiedra and the Roaches to share his beer; he told Fiedra that she was a survivor, and had given others part of that spirit that day, to which she responded by admitting she had found purpose. They drank until dusk; then, while the gang was in a meeting, Nia stayed with the old dwarf to thank him for saving her life. They talked about Luz, who had died in battle, and Garen comforted Nia by telling her that even if she was gone, she would be able to watch the change coming to Exandria from the moonlight of her goddess; as he was saying that, the dust in the sky started clearing, and for the first time in centuries, they saw Catha shining upon them. When he finally went to bed, the old dwarf remembered his life in Uthtor, and how they valued the teachings of the All-Hammer as a god of creation and crafting; thus, he decided he wanted to bring some of that spirit to the world.

"Mirror and Key" (E4x03)

Before he and his group left Torm's Hill, Garen took a moment to say goodbye to Bulray, who promised him that he would remember his lessons. He and his friends traveled until they reached Snowgrave Pass, where they found an obsidian tower with only one soldier: Gubbling, a former follower of the Strife Emperor, whom they convinced (after Erro told him that his god had fallen) to abandon his position as the last defender of the tower, sending him to redeem himself in Torm's Hill, with Garen assuring him that he was already on the right path (since apparently he had never caused any actual deaths in the name of the Strife Emperor); as the goblin was leaving, Garen thought that even though it wasn't very threatening, he could be forced back into the evil path if followers of Bane found him before he arrived to Torm's Hill. They spent the night inside the tower and took some gear (Garen chose a breastplate and spent some time removing the symbol of the Emperor); while he was exploring the dwarf recognized a basalt rock as the one that had caused him to lose his arm back in Rybad-Kol, and following sudden inspiration he carved a hammer-like symbol before going to bed. The next morning they arrived to Erro's former home, next to a lake, and Erro told his friends about his former partner, Donaea (killed there), and about his own past as an Issylran refugee, and how he had given up, crying a bit. He was comforted by the others, and Garen carved "Change is coming" in a stone to honor Donaea, wondering how long the changes she caused (by touching Erro's life) would last. Before they left, Erro told his friends to try the water of the lake, and when Crokas started swimming, Fiedra got scared and Garen smiled so much his face started hurting. They kept traveling until they found a promontory in which Fiedra (despite Garen's concerns about her methods) revealed a secret sanctum filled with trinkets, documents, and magic items. Garen was very surprised to find Hearth's Hammer, an old weapon that had been wielded in his own family in the past (although he had already forgotten by whom); he then wondered if maybe they had all died and the wonderful relics they had before them were some sort of illusion. While they were there Nia finally found her sister, learning that she had been a mortal incarnation of the Moonweaver all along, and that the cleric, through their loving bond, had to be an example for other mortals, showing them that their divine magic and connection with the deities would remain even if the gods left Exandria; thus, the group decided to travel to the coast, with Vasselheim being their next destination, although Garen pointed out that eventually he would want to travel north as a last journey, wanting to return home. When he insinuated he didn't have much time, Nia told him not to say that, since they still had a lot to thank to each other. As they were leaving, the old dwarf declared that one of the items made Crokas somewhat disturbing by increasing his intelligence, but he changed his mind almost immediately and grew amused when the young dragonborn started commenting out loud about how weird Kephekedriel (one of the prisoners of Rybad-Kol) had always been.

One night, Erro noticed treants moving near them and told Garen, mistakenly believing they were giants; when the tree-like beings revealed their identity and confirmed the group wasn't evil, one of them, Kamatua, told them about their mission in the south (to heal the land), and after expressing surprise when Garen explained they had seen Melora defeat Bane, gave them some magic nuts before leaving. Days later, the party ended up in the middle of a battle between armies of Asmodeus and Corellon, and during the fight Garen was knocked unconscious and had to be brought back with one of the magic nuts by Nia; he immediately used his new hammer to attack a devil's crotch, and eventually killed it in a savage manner, remembering the cruelty of fiends in Rybad-Kol. When the battle was over they were approached by unicorns, and the old dwarf asked one of them, Lumia, about how to reach Vasselheim, getting indications of how to find a decent port; when the celestial creatures left, Garen and Nia shared a moment of gleeful excitement, having interacted with actual unicorns. Eventually the group arrived to a village near a road, where they got a guide (Tristan, a seemingly part-merfolk young half-elf) to the area of the coast in which they might find a boat. When they finally arrived there was nothing there (and Garen suggested they could travel north following the coast), but next morning (thanks to the intervention of Fiedra's new key) an Issylran vessel arrived, and a very old friend of Erro's family, Grenalin, announced that they were looking for survivors. He agreed to take them to Issylra, and when Garen told his friends that he wasn't sure if he had enough strength for such a journey (despite Nia wanting him to come with them), Erro assured him that he did, and that he would personally help the dwarf get to Uthtor after their current mission. With that, the five members of the group left Gwessar together, although the old dwarf admitted that part of his reluctance was because he did not like the sea, and he held on to Crokas as they climbed aboard.

"By Heart Alone" (E4x04)

After days of journey the group arrived to the Dawn City, and both Garen and Crokas were impressed by its size. When they all visited the Shadowbrook neighborhood and Nia approached the clergy of the Moonweaver, the dwarf and the dragonborn intervened, to persuade High Priestess Eldanwyn to listen to her; when Nia explained the situation regarding Sehanine and the Divine Gate, Crokas showed Eldanwyn the memories recorded inside his orb as proof, and that convinced her to bring them all to the Runekeep, to help Far-Seer Volsting, who had fallen ill. There Nia offered her help, and her friends supported her, with Garen and Erro mentioning how she had survived under the rule of the Strife Emperor; the dwarf also made eye contact with Morgana Thundershield, a follower of the Allfather, and they had a moment of understanding due to their shared religion and ancestry. After Nia healed Volsting they all talked about the deities and how they were leaving, and mentioned that the Platinum Dragon and the All-Hammer had been silent for a time; Morgana jokingly asked if they had found any mystical obelisk containing a sealed deity, and Garen joked that they had found several. Nia agreed to help people learn a new form of divine magic, and as they were leaving, Garen whispered to her that she had done great; when she argued that she had no idea of what she was doing, he responded that no one really did. Shortly after, back in the streets, Nia reunited with Casimir and Marsa, her parents, and hugged them; since it was a big coincidence, Garen looked at a raven eating trash nearby and asked it if it was responsible for that situation, but the bird merely cawed.

While Nia caught up with her parents, Garen decided to visit the Brightforge neighborhood, and asked a young dwarf with some donkeys if he knew anything about Uthtor; the man, Desmond, confirmed that he left the city as a child, several decades prior, and that only recently had it been discovered to be free from the forces of the Crawling King. Desmond told the older dwarf that he and other survivors intended to return to Gwessar in two weeks to rebuild their home there, and Garen admitted he was interested; when he was asked for his name, he distantly recalled his surname too, and called himself Garen Hearthheart. After that he visited a temple dedicated to the All-Hammer, in which people from long before had written texts and verses in stone; the mason considered going inside, but something kept him out. Instead, he focused on tablets near him, and when he noticed that one of them originated in Uthtor, he spent some time restoring its runes so it would be legible again. A dwarven woman with some children noticed the restored tablet and encouraged one of the kids, Doric, to read what it said; as the child did that, unnoticed to Garen, a Hallow spell was cast from it. He instead focused on the boy and explained to him that stone could erode over time, and it was their responsibility to care for it so that it would last for generations to come; after seeing Doric's proud reaction, Garen left, saying goodbye to the other dwarves. When he returned, he and his friends found Crokas with an injured Fiedra, so they brought her inside Nia's parents' home and the cleric cast Healing Word on the halfling; Crokas immediately reproached her for her actions, since she had almost died chasing Lord Callister and had lost her Infiltrator's Key. After Nia Communed with the Moonweaver, they confirmed that Lord Callister wouldn't leave Vasselheim for the time being, and that while they tried to locate him they should also try to find the avatars of the Platinum Dragon and the All-Hammer; although Crokas was angry and impatient, he reluctantly agreed after Garen comforted him.

For almost two weeks the group investigated, and Garen spent time in Brightforge asking people about a dear human friend of his and his young son; during that period of time Garen also got new dwarven-made gear (being happy to throw away the armor used by the followers of the Strife Emperor), and he used his Awakened vestige to enchant a sword for Nia. Eventually, they located Lord Callister in an empty chapel of the Moonweaver, and even though there was chaos in the streets (since the fall of Ghor Dranas had just been announced), they decided to face the warlock. As they arrived to the chapel, devils started appearing, but Garen's hammer entered its Exalted State, and he used it to break a column, crushing one of the fiends with the fallen debris. Although Crokas killed Lord Callister, the devils kept fighting, as the Lord of the Hells himself, through a planar rift, commanded them; Nia used Healing Word on Garen, but the enemies kept surrounding him, and at one point, one of the devils noticed something and told Asmodeus in Infernal. The Betrayer God, suddenly interested, greeted Garen and started chanting to move him towards the rift; in response, the dwarf blasphemed in Dwarvish. The Lord of the Hells seemed particularly interested in killing Garen, but when he cast Fire Bolt, Erro moved to interdict the fire and was killed; as he fell, he whispered thanks to Garen for freeing him from prison. Crokas took the body of their fallen friend, Garen took his shield, and their group left as the Moonweaver, through Nia's Major Image, closed the rift, leaving the Lord of the Hells locked in his infernal realm. Outside, the Platinum Dragon arrived to the Dawn City to announce the Divergence.

Later life

Fan art of Garen's sunrise, by dungeons n drawings.

Erro's body was brought back to Gwessar to bury him next to Donaea, but Garen decided to create a monument for him in Vasselheim, working for days with stone and completely forgetting about Desmond and his dwarven caravan. The old dwarf sculpted a statue of the fallen dragonborn with Honor's Last Stand affixed to it, and left it inside the reconstructed chapel in which they had fought, without telling anyone; he purposely made the Vestige difficult to take from the stone, so that only those worthy could attempt it. Only then did he return to Gwessar, and after much inquiry he located Desmond and his people in their new home where he joined them, and slowly, Kraghammer took form. Even though he was getting older, he had become a trusted member of his community, so when Desmond asked him as a favor to help some dwarves trying to settle in the K'Tawl Swamp, Garen agreed, although he finished the archway in the entrance of Kraghammer first. In his new destination he helped the local community, and although there were some criminals, that allowed him to reconnect with Fiedra and the Roaches. At one point, while he was working, an expositor asked him about the name of the town and misunderstood Garen's answer, making him indirectly responsible for its new name: Stilben.

Official art of the All-Hammer, by Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons.

Years after the Divergence, while the old dwarf was working on a keystone, Erro appeared before him, just as he looked the last time his friend saw him; the dragonborn momentarily manifested two spectral wings on his back, identifying himself as the Platinum Dragon, and told him that although it had taken him an entire lifetime to find him, the time had come for Garen to come with him, and to leave the world in the hands of their children. The old dwarf then came to the realization that he had been the mortal incarnation of the All-Hammer all along, and declared that Exandria would be fine, although he wouldn't mind living there again in the future. As a last gift, under the guise of an enormous gold dragon, Erro/Bahamut showed Garen/Moradin many beautiful places across Exandria, places he had helped shape as the god of creation. Then they returned to their bodies and the Platinum Dragon, after explaining that an entire life of mortal work would be the keystone of the Divine Gate, left the world, followed by his brother.

Relationships

While imprisoned in Rybad-Kol, Garen had a dream of having a big family he was very proud of, wanting them to continue their traditions. However, those dwarves, although members of the Hearthheart clan, of which Garen thought himself to be a member, were actually the mortals who had prayed to the All-Hammer before and during the fall of Uthtor, and he (due to a curse of the Lord of the Hells) remembered those prayers as conversations with relatives. The dwarves seen in his vision included:

• Dari, his son.
  • At least one son, Garen's grandson.
• His brother.
  • His children, might include Asha (Garen's niece).
    • His grandchildren, might include Yari (either his or Garen's grandson).
• Oghman, a relative of unknown degree.
• At least one cousin who didn't value brewers.

Character information

Official art of Garen (cropped from a larger image), by Hannah Friederichs.

Notable items

• A set of stonemason's tools
• A massive stone-working hammer
• A breastplate from the weapons store at the black watchtower, later removed
• Dwarven armor from Vasselheim
• Dwarven shield
• A metal cap at the end of one arm
• Hearth's Hammer

Abilities

• Challenge rating: 1/8
• Wisdom of the Earth: Gains a d12 inspiration die for ability checks in Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, or Perception related to terrain and structures

Dwarf abilities

• Darkvision
• Dwarven Combat Training
• Dwarven Resilience
• Stonecunning
• Tool Proficiency
  • Mason's Tools and/or Brewer's Supplies

Background

• Clan crafter

Feats

• Alert

Appearances and mentions

• Exandria Unlimited: Divergence
  • "Give and Take" (E4x01) (first appearance)
  • "Seven of Them" (E4x02)
  • "Mirror and Key" (E4x03)
  • "By Heart Alone" (E4x04)

Quotations

• (to his family, about their home) "We built Uthtor strong, it'll hold."
• (to the people of Torm's Hill) "Some wait for miracles. But we make them with our own hands!"
• (after finding the rock that caused him to lose an arm) "Well, if fate just ain't a bitch."
• (to Asmodeus, in Dwarvish): "Get fucked."
• Expositor from Vasselheim: "What's the name of this town? Sorry, we're, the maps are all higgledy-piggledy."
  Garen: "Ugh. It's still Ben. It's always been Ben."
  Expositor: "Stilben. Thank you!"
  Garen: "No, it's—"

Trivia

• His name means "yarn/thread" in Dutch.
• Garen's identity as an avatar of the All-Hammer was a secret kept from Matthew Mercer, since Brennan Lee Mulligan wanted to make him the literal god of creation in the miniseries as a surprise, to honor his role as the creator of Exandria. Liam O'Brien was helping him with that aspect of the story, so he knew all along about the identities of Erro and Garen; since his character didn't, Liam made an effort to keep it secret, while occasionally adding subtle hints in his roleplay.
• Brennan Lee Mulligan said, "If the god of smiths is working his magic on the world, his left arm is, in spirit, holding the world like tongs—his left arm is left in the Divine Realm to hold the world still while he works this thing."
• He is the only known mortal avatar that incarnated as an adult person, instead of going through all the process of birth and growth other incarnations used.
• The name of his alleged son, Dari, resembles that of Dariax Zaveon, the Divine Soul sorcerer dwarf Matt played in Exandria Unlimited Prime, Exandria Unlimited: Kymal, and some episodes of Campaign Three.
• When he lived in Uthtor he drank a lot.
• Garen has the lowest Dexterity score of any player character so far.
• Matt had two classes in mind if Garen had chosen to level up, either a Fighter to defend those he now wanted to, or a Paladin of the All-Hammer, which in hindsight, would've been funny given that Garen was the avatar of the Prime Deity.

References

Art: