Just over three hundred years prior to the reign of Empress Reichsha of Slothjemia, a well-to-do family of merchants in the Archduchy of Gyepekmark in Geldenreich were blessed with the birth of another son. This was the Balmorh family who had risen to distinction as weaponsmiths of tremendous distinction in providing arms to the legions of elite mounted warriors of the Archduchy. The child was named Victus. Although the course of his life was already charted by his family, they would find that Victus was not the type of person who allowed others to meddle in his destiny. Victus from an early age determined that God alone would be his guide.

As a young man Victus was apprenticed into the family profession and was a quick student and skilled artisan who was soon to be seen as a gifted worker of steel. He was also a religious young man who came to believe that his skills and talents in making swords was a divinely gifted set of abilities, and that only in the service of the Almighty Lord could his life calling be made manifest. His devotion drew the attention of several Church leaders in the Bishopric, and after a time his name was inevitably submitted to the local chapter of the House of the Sword & Scales, one of Geldenreich’s premier paladin lodges. As his trial for entry young Victus was charged with making his own longsword which would then be blessed by the Church and given power by the lodge of paladins to enhance its usefulness to the initiate paladin as well as to amplify his own abilities in the service of the order.

It took Victus three months to craft his sword, fully three times longer than it would normally take to make that type of weapon. However, Victus took his time and made sure that not only was the sword blemish free and exquisite in form but also that there wasn’t the slightest hint of imbalance in the weight and proportions of it. Even his mentor was amazed by the finished product, declaring it the finest non-elven longsword he had ever laid eyes upon. When presented to the Bishop for his blessing, the weapon was christened Victoria Victus.

For the next ten years Victus served the paladin lodge as it helped Geldenreich in its ongoing wars against the undead rulers of the Diosian Lodge in the realms to the south. When the liches allowed the establishment of a new realm within their borders that was governed not by undead but a swamp orcish Count instead, Victus was the first to suggest that the paladins send him there to try and win the goblinoids over to Geldenreich’s way of thinking. After giving it some consideration the paladins agreed and figuring they had nothing to lose in trying they dispatched Victus to Slothjemia to see if he could influence the swamp orcs into joining against the Diosian liches.

For the remainder of his long life Victus Balmorh worked with the swamp orcs, shadow elves, and hundreds of thousands of monstrous beings to try and persuade them away from supporting the Diosian Lodge. In this work Victus was surprisingly effective. Not only did the Slothjemians break free of the Diosian Lodge almost immediately, but they fully embraced a militant Church based on the teachings introduced by Victus. Travelling the entirety of the Slothjemian coreland as part of his mission Victus was able to persuade virtually everyone that fealty to the ruler of Slothjemia was a key aspect of their duty, and that the second aspect, fealty to the Church and to take up arms to defend it, was equally important.

Everywhere the paladin went he took his sword, and having been made by his own hand and blessed by the Church it began to absorb more and more of Victus’ faith and the strength of his personality. When he lay dying on his deathbed he clutched the sword to his chest and prayed that the bearers of the weapon be as well guided in their pursuit of the divine destiny that he himself had been given. As a gesture of the old paladin’s strength in duty and devotion his sword was given a share of his soul to give it a sentience and will of its own upon his passing. No longer was it Victoria Victus, but it called itself simply “Victus”. It was taken with loving care to the safety and security of the Slothjemian Church and for the next two hundred and fifty years the sword has itself chosen which aspiring paladin from among the realm’s three lodges would bear it. The sword almost never chooses a full paladin to be its bearer, but rather a devoted warrior who would fail to ascend to the full status of a paladin due to not meeting one or more of the strict requirements.

This is how it came to be that Victus chose a brilliant young warrior to be his bearer. Not allowed to become a full paladin because of his mixed blood heritage, Trey was nonetheless a perfect candidate for the job. Nobody knew it better than Victus.