Dorian Storm

Dorian Storm is an air genasi bard who appeared in Exandria Unlimited and Campaign Three of Critical Role. He is a member of the Crown Keepers and Bell's Hells. He is played by Robbie Daymond.

Appearance
Dorian has sky-blue skin, crystal-blue eyes, and jet-black hair that falls in an ombre finishing in white and sky-blue just past his shoulders. He is 6'1" and more lightweight than he appears. Most of his clothes and his lute are sunburst blue, but the inside of his cape is colored the oranges and reds of a sunset. On his chest is a metallic plate in the shape of wings, and it's unclear whether it's purely ornamental or armor. As an air genasi, he moves with a lightness that could be mistaken for confidence.

For his return to Marquet, Dorian was uncharacteristically clean, spotless and shined.

Personality
Dorian is well spoken and charismatic. He seems to have come from a very secluded place, and likes to see different kinds of people living together. He desperately wants to prove himself. Dorian appears to have left home to look for a better life, but he often dodges questions about his past, seemingly uncomfortable when talking about it.

When Poska said Dorian seems to come from money, Dorian nervously brushed it off and claimed to just be a humble bard.

After his conversation with Lolth and his offering to give her Poska in exchange for power, Dorian's alignment switched from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Neutral.

Background
Born as Brontë Wyvernwind in about 816 PD, he is the second son of the prominent and wealthy Wyvernwind family and is second in line to the family inheritance. His home was among the tents of the Silken Squall, where he lived "a very cloistered life". Growing up, when he was caught trying to lie, his family would hire someone to cast Zone of Truth on him to force a confession.

Around Misuthar 842 PD, he left home and took the name Dorian Storm, later saying of "Brontë" that he "left that name behind". His travels away from home started in Marquet, where he spent at least one night in a hostel in Jrusar and had his purse strings cut overnight. Seven months later, around Quen'pillar 842, he was playing music gigs in Emon on the continent of Tal'Dorei.

When camping out for the night, Dorian had a dream where he saw Fy'ra Rai being pulled into the darkness and tried to push against it. The dream began to shift as he called out to the Spider Queen to bring back his memories from the past week, in exchange for him handing over Poska. While this caused a shift in his alignment, Lolth kept her promise and gave back his memories.

Between campaigns
Following the events taking place in Exandria Unlimited, Dorian returned to Byroden and accepted the mission from Keyleth. She sent Orym and his friends Fearne and Dorian to investigate the source of the attack on Zephrah. Keyleth used Transport via Plants to sneak them to the skyship port in Emon, on which they eventually traveled to Jrusar.

Campaign Three
As soon as he stepped on the ground of Marquet, Dorian found himself responding to a mysterious attack of animated objects in the streets, fighting alongside Ashton Greymoore, Fresh Cut Grass, Imogen Temult, and Laudna, and they attracted the attention of Bertrand Bell, who promised to make introductions to high-placed people in the city.

Dorian, with his friends, wanted to know more about Oshad Breshio. They went to Krook House to see if they could find more information from Anni Aughta. After some bantering, Dorian entered into a musical contest with her, which he ultimately won when one of the strings of Anni's fiddle snapped. Later that day, when the party was investigating the Dreamscape Theater, Dorian was approached by a figure cloaked in a hood, eventually revealing themselves to be Cyrus Wyvernwind, Dorian's brother. While exploring the connection between Armand Treshi and Ira Wendagoth, the party fought Emoth Kade, almost catching her. As they saw Emoth go, the group heard Cyrus's voice outside in the hall, protesting that "they" had the wrong person. Dorian and Laudna ran out and witnessed the shackled Cyrus being escorted by a guard and two Green Seekers.

Dorian threw a smoke grenade, dashed into the obscured area, and bumped into one of the Seekers holding Cyrus. He successfully Charmed him, but the other one was holding Cyrus's other arm. Using his cane, Lord Eshteross whacked her on the head, and with a natural 20, Dorian convinced the Charmed guard to let them go. Toward the edge of the smoke cloud, he cast Invisibility on Cyrus and they succeeded in reaching the carriages unnoticed.

The rest of the party joined them, and with a very tense Lord Eshteross they traveled to his manor. Once there, Cyrus explained that one of the Hubatt Corsairs occasionally worked for Lady Emoth, who had worked with Dugger for a while. Emoth hired him to help her steal things at the ball in return for part of her "great treasure". Emoth often had spoken of a business partner she worked with, referred to as "Mother". When Cyrus was arrested, however, the guards thought he had been involved with the recent destruction of the Moon Tower by the party. The group realized the authorities were confusing Dorian and Cyrus.

Eshteross offered his skyship to smuggle Cyrus to Emon, but pointed out that the guards still would be looking for "a certain type of person", staring pointedly at Dorian. In addition, Dorian also realized that due to the way he last left Emon, they really shouldn't go there, but reluctantly agreed to accompany Cyrus. As the carriage holding Dorian and Cyrus pulled away, Dorian's toy airship was left floating via Levitate. A child on the street ran up, snatched it, and ran down the street.

Dariax Zaveon
Dorian has referred to Dariax as a friend, which Dariax appeared touched by. Dorian told Poska that "if he doesn't like someone, I don't like someone."

Fy'ra Rai
Dorian was a little hesitant in trusting Fy'ra Rai originally when she joined the party given the amount of time he has spent with Orym, Dariax, Fearne, and Opal. He gradually respects her more as she proves trustworthy on their journey south of Byroden, and into Niirdal-Poc, with her strong urge of protection over the group.

Orym
Dorian's feelings were hurt when Orym expressed alarm about Dorian holding onto the Circlet of Barbed Vision tightly because for Dorian it wasn't so much about personal power but about ensuring that their party collectively kept stewardship of the evil artifact. By the time of Campaign Three, Dorian considered Orym their small group's leader.

Exandria Unlimited stats
Dorian's character stats were rerolled between Exandria Unlimited and Campaign Three. His original stats at level 2 were:

Notable items

 * Winged Boots, passed down through his family
 * Moon-Touched Scimitar, kept hidden beneath his lute by an extra tuning pin
 * Handaxe, with a handle that detaches to be a flute; the flute is a fipple flute in the style of a Native American flute: two-chambered with an external block
 * Immovable Rod
 * Six smoke grenades
 * Caltrops
 * Bag of ball bearings
 * Bertrand Bell doll made from chicken bones and Bertrand's hair (gift from Laudna)
 * A sending stone given to him by Orym after its twin was given by Dorian to Cyrus Wyvernwind

Former items

 * A sending stone loaned by Ashton and given to Cyrus
 * A wooden airship with "S.S. Bronte" carved into it from Chetney Pock O'Pea. It was left floating in the street by Dorian on his departure and was snatched by a child.

Abilities

 * Limited Blindsight

Genasi abilities

 * Subrace: Air Genasi
 * Unending Breath
 * Mingle with the Wind (Cast Levitate 1/Day)

Feats

 * Magic Initiate: Sorcerer
 * Chromatic Orb (1/day)
 * 2 Sorcerer cantrips

Bard abilities

 * Bardic Inspiration (1d8)
 * Jack of All Trades
 * Song of Rest (1d6)
 * Bard College: College of Swords
 * Bonus Proficiencies
 * Fighting Style
 * Blade Flourish
 * Font of Inspiration

Cantrips

 * Minor Illusion
 * Thunderclap

1st level

 * Charm Person
 * Cure Wounds
 * Dissonant Whispers
 * Thunderwave

2nd level

 * Invisibility
 * Shatter

Behind the scenes
Robbie Daymond named Dorian after the Dorian musical mode, in reference to his youthfulness through a connection to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and after his first pet, a Great Dane. Brontë Secondsun Wyvernwind was chosen for its similarly thematic connections: Brontë being "thunder" in Greek for a weather theme, and Secondsun in reference to him being a second son. Dorian's stage surname "Storm" was chosen because he "wanted a cheesy stage name" and for its thematic relation to Brontë.

Dorian's character was developed specifically to contrast with Robbie's self-described extroversion and social confidence. He sought to play a bard opposite to his own comfort as a musical performer and to the type of bard Scanlan Shorthalt from Campaign One was established as. Going into Exandria Unlimited, he drew from being a new cast member and sought to "find a character that is competent and charming, but also nervous". He found "a bard with stage fright" and "high charisma with social anxiety" to be a fun, complex character.

Dorian was brought into Campaign Three as a guest character after Liam and Ashley chose to play the campaign with their Exandria Unlimited characters Orym and Fearne, who started as initial Campaign Three concepts, leading to Dorian being a "perfect fit" to bring with them. His stats, which were originally determined using the standard array method, were re-determined under the same rules as other characters in Campaign Three and in prior campaigns: using the rolled method in the Player's Handbook with a homebrewed rule that if the sum of the scores was less than 70, they could reroll the scores.

'Quotations

 * "Mm-hmm. Sorry, bacon lips."
 * (While being grappled so hard he can only deal half damage with Dissonant Whispers:) "Joke's on you—I love hugs."

Trivia

 * Unlike the rest of the party in Exandria Unlimited, Dorian's race was not clearly indicated in . Instead, Robbie confirmed it in a Tweet a day after the initial broadcast.
 * Matt cosplayed Dorian in the sponsor segment of.
 * The animation on his Campaign Three stat card features a ripple effect, similar to wind disturbing the surface of water.
 * Dorian has appeared in more consecutive episodes in a main Critical Role campaign (and in the CR production in general) than any other guest character.
 * Dorian is the second guest character from a miniseries or one-shot to appear in a main campaign, after Arkhan.