Purvan Suul

Purvan Suul
Fan art of Purvan Suul, by Lap Pun Cheung.
Screenshot of Purvan Suul, by Titmouse from "Those Who Walk Away (LoVM)" (LVM2x04).
Type	NPC
Actor	Brennan Lee Mulligan (ExU: Calamity) Matthew Mercer (The Legend of Vox Machina)
Character Information
Name	Purvan Suul
Pronouns	he/him
Also known as	The Champion
Creature type	Humanoid
Class	Ranger (Beast Master)
Age	More than 120 (before the fall of Aeor)
Languages	Common
Places	Avalir Sunken Tomb of the Champion, Marrowglade Loch (final resting place)
Connections	The Raven Queen (deity) Emhira (protegée) Galdric (companion)
Status
Status	Alive (in the Age of Arcanum) Deceased (in 811 PD)
Appearances
First seen	"The Sunken Tomb" (1x44) (stream)
Last seen	"Downfall: Part Three" (3x101) (stream)
Stream	Campaign One (1 episode) Exandria Unlimited: Calamity (1 episode) Campaign Three (2 episodes)
Television	The Legend of Vox Machina

Purvan Suul was a follower of the Raven Queen during the Age of Arcanum. After ritualistically giving his name to the Raven Queen when he swore himself to her service, Purvan preferred to be called simply The Champion.

As an NPC in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity and Downfall, he is played by Brennan Lee Mulligan. In The Legend of Vox Machina, Season Two, he is voiced by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance

Purvan had long dark hair and light brown skin. On the eve of the Calamity, at an event in the city of Avalir, he wore a mantle of feathers and mud-caked leather boots. Notably at the gala, he was not wearing any armor. His expression was grave and severe.

More than a hundred years later, he accompanied the Matron in her human form as Emhira when she was in the camp of Hawk's Hill waiting for transport to Aeor. At that time, he looked much older and tired, but was still wearing a mantle of raven feathers and was accompanied by Galdric.

In The Legend of Vox Machina, when fighting, he was shown using a sword, his vestige and a skull-like helm.

Biography

"Excelsior" (E3x01)

Purvan was tasked by the Raven Queen to speak with the city leadership of Avalir during the pre-Replenishment gala. He arrived at the party with his wolf companion Galdric, but despite being stewarded by a member of the Ring of Silver, he was met with derision by the magocracy for his devotion to one of the gods. Before leaving, he was able to impart a warning concerning the unknown whereabouts and actions of Vespin Chloras to two members of the Ring of Brass, namely Loquatius Seelie and Zerxus Ilerez.

The Calamity

Fan art of Purvan, the child Emhira, and Galdric, by Sabira Langevin.

During the Calamity that followed, Purvan's actions as the Champion of the Raven Queen grew to legend that would be known in the Post-Divergence era. At some point, he gained a set of powerfully enchanted leather armor, the Deathwalker's Ward, which would be later known as one of the Vestiges of the Divergence.

Less than three decades before the fall of Aeor the champion received a vision according to which he had to find and protect a young girl, Emhira. After he found her and told her parents, he spent the following years guiding her and protecting her, and she grew up to become a warlock understanding her purpose as the mortal incarnation of the Raven Queen herself. When Emhira was 29, Purvan and Galdric escorted her to Hawk's Hill, where she and others like her would take a ship to Aeor on a mission to prevent the city's deployment of their god-killing weapon. The champion bade farewell to her, and she invited him to join her but he responded, "I would do anything you asked of me, and I will only say before you ask it of me, long or short, we all must decide how we want to spend our lives, and I think in some ways we have to decide how we want to spend our death. It has been the honor of my life to protect you." She thanked him sincerely for all he'd done for her, and before she left with her team, she gave him a final mission he accepted: to escort Haylie, Topher, and Amaris (the family of Trist, mortal incarnation of the Everlight) to safety. That same day, however, a devil army sent by Asmodeus attacked the town, and the Champion and Galdric fought to protect the people there, alongside warriors such as a bloody werebear and a burned dryad. They got additional assistance when Haylie and Topher used their demigod powers to summon divine light that repelled the fiends.

When the Champion eventually died, he was interred within a tomb in Issylra nearby to Vasselheim. He was buried wearing the Deathwalker's Ward. His still-living companion Galdric was sealed within his pendant, Raven's Slumber, and interred alongside him. At some point, the tomb would sink beneath the water of the Marrowglade Loch.

"The Sunken Tomb" (1x44)

Fan art of the Deathwalker's Ward entombed with Purvan Suul, by David Rodrigues.

In late 810 PD, Vox Machina sought the Vestiges of the Divergence in order to combat the Chroma Conclave. The first Vestige they recovered was the Deathwalker's Ward, plundering Purvan's tomb and defeating the kuo-toa and beholder that had taken over it with the aid of Kima of Vord, Kashaw Vesh, Zahra Hydris.

Purvan's tomb was protected by a necromantic trap which killed Vex'ahlia when it was triggered by Percival. During the resurrection ritual, her brother Vax'ildan pledged his life to the Raven Queen, becoming her next champion and passing Purvan's title onto him.

Relationships

Emhira

During the first century of the Calamity Purvan received a vision of a child he was meant to protect. That girl, Emhira, ended up being the mortal incarnation of the Raven Queen, meant to join a mission against Aeor when the time came. Thus, the champion spent the following years guiding and protecting Emhira, and even when their time together was coming to an end he cared about her and declared it had been an honor to do so; however, when the warlock offered him to join him on her mission, he politely refused, explaining he didn't want that to be his final service to the goddess. He, however, did accept her request to protect two children as a final favor.

Character information

Fan art of Purvan Suul, by Toby Sharp.

Notable items

• Raven's Slumber
• Deathwalker's Ward

Appearances and mentions

• Campaign One: Vox Machina
  • "The Sunken Tomb" (1x44), corpse
  • "Race to the Tower" (1x102), mentioned only
  • "The Chapter Closes" (1x115), mentioned only
• Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
  • "Excelsior" (E3x01), first living appearance
  • "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02), mentioned only
  • "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03), mentioned only
• Campaign Three: Bells Hells (Downfall)
  • "Downfall: Part One" (3x99)
  • "Downfall: Part Three" (3x101)
• The Legend of Vox Machina
  • "Those Who Walk Away (LoVM)" (LVM2x04)

Trivia

• The accidental homophony of Purvan's name with perv is a running joke:
  • When Matt Mercer originally introduced Purvan in "The Sunken Tomb" (1x44), the players raucously made fun of Matt for the name choice, with Marisha and Liam pointing out it sounded like "perv on", Sam joking that his last name was "Pedobear", and Taliesin saying, "We're running out of good names, aren't we? We've finally gotten to the end of your list of good names." Matt jokingly responded, "You guys are cruisin' to a TPK today."
  • In "The Frigid Doom" (1x64), Seeker Assum said, in reference to his own name, "It's all right. It's not like my childhood friend Purvan." Matt later clarified on Twitter that this was only a joke, Assum not having lived in the same era as Purvan.
  • In "Excelsior" (E3x01) Loquatius Seelie said to Purvan, "Free advice: Change your first name," to which Purvan responded, "It's normal where I come from!"
  • Similarly, in "Downfall: Part Three" (3x101) Purvan responded to Amaris's incredulity at his name with: "It's normal where I come from."
  • In "4-Sided Dive: Oh My Gods" (4SDx26) Brennan joked that if Purvan could meet Vox Machina, he would say, "I want to tell you all the people that are named 'Purvan' in my family. It's a very common name. It's extremely common. Purvan, Uncle Purvan, my cousin Purvan, Purvan II…"
• Purvan's name is erroneously given as "Purvon Kol" on page 51 of Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting. The error was fixed in Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn.
• Lieve'tel Toluse was in possession of the pinky bone of Purvan until it was stolen from her by "Bob" and lost in "The Search For Grog" (Sx42) and "The Search For Bob" (Sx45).
  • It is unknown if the pinky bone has been a relic since before Purvan's entombment or if Lieve'tel visited the Sunken Tomb at some point after Vox Machina.
• He was already an adult man when the Calamity started, but he was still alive one century later. It is unclear if this is due to his lineage, his position as a divine champion, or the fact that he is a servant of the goddess of death.

References

Art: