Derrick Berg

Derrick Berg is a young survivor of the City of Silver who becomes the Tarot Club's Sun and ultimately leads his people out of the Forsaken Land of the Gods. His wish to “become the Sun” is literal pathway ambition and a social promise: in a civilization without daylight, he wants enough power to dispel corruption and find a future for everyone, not merely escape alone.

Biography

The City of Silver and the Tarot Club

Derrick enters the story after killing his parents when their mutation forces the City of Silver's law upon him. The act leaves him grieving, isolated, and determined to find a power that can prevent the same fate from consuming others. When a ritual brings him before The Fool, he asks for the Sun pathway rather than changing to a safer local option. Its light and purification embody what the City lacks, and Derrick states the goal plainly: he wants to illuminate the darkness and dispel the curse. The Tarot Club gives him the Bard formula, while his knowledge of ancient history and the Forsaken Land gives the other members information unavailable in their world. (Chapters 137–146 and 219)

Derrick is initially honest to the point of vulnerability. Alger Wilson repeatedly teaches him to conceal details, recognize unequal exchanges, and avoid displaying unexplained knowledge before the City of Silver's council. Those lessons become a survival skill when Derrick returns from an exploration carrying Amon's parasitic avatar. Following the Tarot Club's instructions, he behaves normally, prepares the required ritual, and invokes The Fool's power to purge the Worm of Time. The successful deception saves Derrick and warns the City, but it also marks him as anomalous to Elder Lovia and the council. He learns that honesty of purpose does not require revealing every means to a possible enemy. (Chapters 313–409)

The Club accelerates Derrick's advancement through trades rather than gifts alone. He earns City merit, exchanges local formulas and materials, obtains weapons, and carefully repays what he owes. His insistence on explaining delays and preserving his reputation shows how seriously he takes obligations. Progress through Bard, Light Suppliant, Solar High Priest, and Notary increases his value on patrols and exploration teams; at the same time, the knowledge he receives about the seven gods, the cataclysm, and outside civilizations steadily dismantles the City of Silver's assumption that the ancient Creator will simply return to save them. Derrick does not abandon faith. He redirects it toward The Fool because that relationship produces verifiable help and a path his people can act upon. (Chapters 290–341, 488–625, and 680–716)

Explorations and the Giant King's Court

Derrick's first major expeditions test whether an inexperienced youth can turn outside knowledge into communal value. He brings purified weapons, cautions teammates about shapeshifers and corruption, and uses Sun powers to reveal, weaken, or destroy creatures that thrive in darkness. The missions through abandoned settlements and Afternoon Town expose ancient murals, repeating destinies, and traces of the True Creator. Derrick contributes discoveries to both the council and the Tarot Club, making himself a bridge between groups that cannot contact each other directly. His growing competence changes the council's response from suspicion toward conditional trust. (Chapters 409–466 and 625–716)

Nois City and later reconnaissance deepen the cost. Derrick advances to Sequence 6 Notary and joins a compact, high-level team because shapeshifers can weaponize trust inside a large expedition. His powers help authenticate statements, strengthen allies, and counter corruptive creatures, yet the journey also shows the limits of a narrow pathway system. He realizes that the City of Silver's warriors and Sun Beyonders lack many control and escape abilities common outside, so Sealed Artifacts and Tarot Club intelligence are not luxuries but compensation for structural weakness. He reports this honestly instead of turning each successful purification into proof that faith alone is sufficient. (Chapters 666–716 and 898–961)

The Giant King's Court becomes the final route out. Derrick participates in the preliminary explorations, reports the Silver Knight guards and the dangers beyond them, and accepts that even the City of Silver's strongest members may die before opening the way. He also locates a Sun-pathway relic corresponding to Sequence 4 Unshadowed, giving the council a demigod route suited to the court's corruption. Colin Iliad delays the decisive expedition until multiple preparations align; Derrick learns from that patience that leadership is not the same as charging first into every darkness. (Chapters 1039–1159 and 1216)

In the final push, Derrick advances to Unshadowed and fights beside Colin, Lovia, and Klein against the forces guarding the divine court. Lovia and Colin die ensuring the survivors can continue, and Colin's last words transfer more than office: Derrick becomes responsible for carrying the City into a world its dead leaders will never see. He rejects Klein's proposed instant transfer with the Staff of the Stars, choosing to walk the opened road so his people can experience and remember the passage from two thousand years of darkness into sunlight. Their suspicion of his dealings with an outsider ends when the path proves real. (Chapters 1252–1270)

Elder of the New City of Silver

On the outside, Derrick must transform a survival culture into a community capable of peace. He organizes scouting, food, settlement, and contact with the Church of The Fool, then returns to bring the rest of the City across. Sunlight, ordinary crops, and varied food are miracles to his people, but Derrick responds with the same caution used in monster territory: he separates tasting groups, verifies safety, and makes wonder compatible with procedure. The New City of Silver becomes a home because he preserves the discipline that kept the old city alive while allowing its citizens to trust a wider world. (Chapters 1267–1298)

Alger later entrusts Derrick with church affairs and the integration of the Sea God identity into The Fool's faith. The appointment confirms Derrick's movement from protected junior to religious and civic elder. He does not become politically subtle in Alger's style, but his sincerity becomes an asset when backed by experience: believers can trust that he distinguishes service from personal advancement. By the end of the first era, he is mature enough that Alger says there is no advice left to give, though Alger still warns him not to sacrifice himself automatically if a disaster exceeds his ability. (Chapters 1391–1394)

Years later, Lumian's visit to New Silver City shows Derrick still serving on its six-member council and managing access to dangerous relics and historical records. He helps outsiders investigate because the knowledge may protect humanity, but custody remains with the city; cooperation does not mean surrendering the community's resources. During and after the apocalypse, Derrick remains one of the Tarot Club's Major Arcana holders. On an interplanetary journey, Fors has to remind him not to spread The Fool's faith among a foreign civilization—a humorous sign that the orphan who once searched for any real god has become an enthusiastic, durable guardian of his chosen church. (Chapters 2318–2324 and 2610)

Appearance and personality

Derrick is introduced as a broad-shouldered City of Silver youth with light hair and blue eyes, already close to 1.8 meters in a population shaped by generations of Giant-pathway characteristics. He grows to about two meters and carries the solid build expected of an experienced explorer. On expeditions he wears practical City equipment and bears heavy weapons such as axes or hammers, while his Sun abilities surround him with warm or brilliant light that sharply contrasts with the Forsaken Land's lightning-lit darkness. (Chapters 137, 625–666, and 1216–1267)

He is sincere, dutiful, compassionate, and initially naïve about deception and prices. Derrick wants to be worthy of trust, so even minor trading delays trouble him; over time, Alger's coaching adds discretion without producing cynicism. His courage is communal rather than self-dramatizing. He advances by remembering the parents he had to kill, walks the road out so the City can own its liberation, and accepts leadership because Colin and Lovia's sacrifice would be meaningless if no one carried the survivors forward. (Chapters 290, 364–409, 584, and 1265–1298)

Pathways and abilities

Derrick follows the Sun pathway through Bard, Light Suppliant, Solar High Priest, Notary, Priest of Light, and Unshadowed. The pathway combines inspiration and support with sunlight, purification, fire, contracts, and the removal of supernatural traits. It is especially effective against undead, evil spirits, corruption, and powers associated with darkness, but the relative level of source and target still matters: ordinary sunlight cannot simply erase an angel, and indiscriminate purification can destroy beneficial mystical effects along with hostile ones. (Chapters 137–146, 488–625, 867–937, and 1039–1267)

Bard through Solar High Priest

Bard strengthens Derrick's voice, courage, and ability to inspire allies through songs and praise. Light Suppliant adds direct affinity with sunlight and purification, improving resistance to dark or corrupting environments. At Sequence 7 Solar High Priest, Derrick can summon holy light, create purifying water, produce a Sun Halo that strengthens companions and suppresses darkness, and invoke broader solar effects. These powers consume spirituality and are shaped by environment and target level; in the Forsaken Land, Derrick often combines them with artifacts because the ambient darkness and ancient monsters exceed what a young priest can cleanse alone. (Chapters 137–146, 341, 488–625, and 666–716)

His progress also strengthens his body and gives fire-like or feather-like signs during advancement. When the Solar High Priest potion threatens loss of control, Derrick anchors himself in the pain of killing his parents and the hope created by The Fool. The scene establishes the pathway's psychological requirement in practice: light is not merely an attack element but the conviction that darkness can end. His acting therefore advances through exploration, support, and visible hope rather than private prayer alone. (Chapters 584–625)

Notary, light, and collective support

Sequence 6 Notary gives Derrick powers centered on witnessed declarations, validation, and strengthened rules. A Notarization can reinforce an allied effect or statement, while invalidation can weaken lies or hostile supernatural conditions when the level difference is not too great. Used inside an expedition team, this makes Derrick a force multiplier: he does not need to deliver every killing blow if he can make an ally's defense, weapon, or commitment more effective. It also fits his temperament, but personal sincerity does not guarantee mystical success; wording, evidence, authority, and Sequence all constrain what can be affirmed. (Chapters 867–937)

Priest of Light further increases the scale and intensity of solar attacks, purification, and the ability to make an area resemble daytime. Derrick's exact advancement scene is not narrated in the supplied corpus, but he is a Sequence 5 member of the Tarot Club before becoming a demigod. His field pattern remains consistent: reveal concealed corruption, create safe space, strengthen the formation, then apply concentrated light against what cannot survive exposure. (Chapters 937–1039 and 1101–1159)

Unshadowed demigodhood

At Sequence 4 Unshadowed, Derrick can generate demigod-level sunlight and purification, strip supernatural powers or characteristics from a target, and suppress shadows, concealment, undead states, and corruption within range. The pathway's incomplete Mythical Creature form and enhanced body make him formidable at close range as well as in ritual support. The same authority can be dangerous to allies carrying corruptions, spirit contracts, or useful mystical transformations, so Derrick must identify what to cleanse and control the scale rather than flood every battlefield indiscriminately. (Chapters 1033–1039 and 1252–1267)

His demigodhood is tested immediately against powers far above Sequence 4 in the Giant King's Court. Derrick contributes purification and support but cannot overcome the Dark Angel alone; Colin, Lovia, and Klein's participation remain decisive. The encounter demonstrates both his latest explicitly named rank and its limit. Later chapters establish continuing senior authority and survival but do not name a subsequent potion, so the article does not infer a higher Sequence from elapsed time or office. (Chapters 1252–1267 and 2318–2324)

Power progression

Relationships

• Colin Iliad: Derrick's chief, commander, and model of guardianship. Colin tests Derrick's reports, accepts the dangerous alliance with The Fool, and dies after placing the City's future in the younger demigod's hands.
• Lovia: An elder Derrick distrusts because of her connection to the True Creator. Their final expedition reveals that suspicion and loyalty can coexist; her sacrifice helps open the road Derrick must complete.
• Alger Wilson: The Hanged Man teaches Derrick secrecy, bargaining, and political caution, later handing him church responsibilities when Derrick has grown into an elder.
• Klein Moretti: The Fool answers Derrick's prayer, purges Amon's avatar, and gives the City a path; as Gehrman Sparrow, Klein fights beside him and makes the promised outside world tangible.
• Amon: A parasitic avatar infiltrates Derrick and turns his unexplained Tarot connection into a mortal danger. Purging it is Derrick's first successful use of carefully controlled deception.
• Emlyn White: Their Tarot Club trades connect two isolated peoples and supply both with formulas and materials they cannot easily obtain at home.

Items

• Axe of Hurricane: An early weapon obtained through the Tarot Club. It increases agility and running speed, gives a struck target a chance of being numbed, and can produce lightning—with a much higher activation chance during a thunderstorm. Its mystical effects have a limited useful life that heavy use can shorten. (Chapters 274, 399, 455, and 768)
• Unshadowed Crucifix: A Sequence 4 Sun-pathway artifact that Klein identifies and uses in preparations connected to Derrick's advancement. It demonstrates Unshadowed purification, but it is not established as Derrick's ordinary personal possession.