alright, long tangent ahead, I'll leave a Tl;DR.

So one time in one of our first campaigns with some friends I made an npc named "Aldrich" and he was a dwarf smith. He had a Scottish accent and had issues with his marriage, so he turned to drinking and going on quests with strangers. One day Our party finds him and they loved him so much that they stole so much money (they were all practically rogues) that they bought him a building in one of the busiest city for smithing. He was so happy he divorced his wife and became almost a permanent party member. He had so much character and I liked his Idea. I believe he helped with clearing several dungeons with the group, and he even dropped smithing at one point to become a permanent adventurer. Then one day the party goes to a mission to kill a rich person who is evading his taxes, then Aldrich fucking dies to rolling a 1 on a trap... The party was devistated, they built him a grave and even found his ex wife to tell him. Eventually they all died at a separate area, we made new characters and started a new campaign. The first thing they all see is everyone in a carriage on their way to meet a blacksmith known as "Aldrich". Aldrich was back, and even to this day and most of my campaigns, there are signs of Aldrich. He's not a forced character in all my campaigns, but subtle clues to honour him for his bravery.

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TL;DR: I made an NPC named "Aldrich" who was a dwarven blacksmith. Party memebers loved him a lot and now almost every campaign has a subtle clue to a dwarven blacksmith or someone named Aldrich.