CRB is a repository of all the creative things that float through my mind about the RPG Pathfinder. Two major features are random character generation and building characters based on the god they worship. Anything that seems like it adds to the creative aspects of the game will pop up from time to time, including location descriptions, adventure ideas and even short stories. CRB won't just be my own creativity, it will open the floor to anyone who has an idea sparked by what I present to you.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Character 56 - Janzin Uth Pentracest

The results of this week’s random rolls: A charismatic, wise, and durable fetchling from the land of Nidal. He is the youngest son of noble-born knights who now live in the frontier of their shadowy land. Working through the stats and random bits of information as well as the harrow reading, we piece together the life of our new character. What class shall he be? How did he become who he is? Today we answer those questions.

Harrow Interpretation

Signifier Card: The Marriage, which represents the character himself, shows the progeny of the salamander and the water weird. It can represent a new power brought by both parties or it can show ruin. In this case I see it representing both. On the one hand the characters parents brought him into the world, but on the other his birth is what caused them to be banished to the frontier.

Card One: The Rabbit Prince often represents younger members of royalty or other powerful households. It can also show how combat isn’t always pretty. Since this represents where the character comes from both meanings are true. He is both the youngest son of noble knights and his parents probably trained him in the art of combat. This most likely means he would become some kind of combat class, although possibly underhanded combat.

Card Two: For the card that represents an event that affects the character, we have The Eclipse. It represents both self-doubt and a possible loss of faith. Although this character has a patron deity, I can see it as a loss of faith in the state religion. This also adds to his attempts to blackmail the clergy. He lost his way but has since found it in his new patron. This also goes into his influential associate, a pariah. I see this as someone from outside the church, a heretic perhaps.

Card Three: The character’s power or talent is shown to us by The Foreign Trader. This card represents a spy or peddler, people who can trade in information and make bargains, to which he usually ends up on the better end of.  Both a combatant and a deal maker, I think this helps guide what kind of class the character might take.

Card Four: The Peacock shows astonishing beauty frozen like a cockatrice’s statue, but instead of beauty I see this as representing this character’s drawback, a desire for reputation of fame. He wishes to be immortalized by his own reputation. And the cockatrice itself I take more literally and it cements the idea of a combat class from card one by being a cavalier of the order of the cockatrice.  In this case continuing with the idea different or underhanded combat I’m going to go with both the luring cavalier and the musketeer archetypes.

Janzin Uth Pentracest


Janzin’s family has always served the Umbral Court as caretakers of the lands to the south of the Usk Wood. His father is himself the youngest son one of the current Shade Barons of the region. With his older brother set to become next Shade Baron, Janzin’s father became a warrior of the court, a shadow knight.

Before Janzin was conceived his family lived well. His father married a daughter to another minor fetchling noble. The family was also blessed with two children, a son and a daughter, before the birth of Janzin. But Janzin’s conception was seen as a bad omen, for what reason he’s never learned. Regardless he was born and in allowing this his parents were banished to the realm of the horse farmers.

In Atteran Ranches, Janzin and his family lived on a small estate mostly keeping to themselves. The farmers had for generations been allowed to police themselves. His although his older brother would follow in their father’s footsteps and become a shadow knight, Janzin too was trained in the art of combat. Unlike the honorable knights of other realms, the Nidalese warriors were taught to win by any means necessary.  He was trained not only with sword and lance, but also to slide a dagger into an opponent’s back.

Life in Atteran Ranches changed over time. Rumors of a cult of Desna worshipers spread and once more the knights of house Uth Pentracrest were called to service. The farmers still looked to face this threat on their own, not wanting the Umbral Court’s overseers involved. But when Janzin was stolen away in the Desnan’s failed attempt to ‘free’ him from the wicked life of his Zon-Kuthon worshiping parents, there was nothing to stop his family from getting involved.

Although his rescue came swiftly, a posse of farmers actually returning him to his parent’s home, Janzin himself began to have doubts. A life of worship of Zon-Kuthon seemed dreary and dour, and the young fetchling wished for something more. Being the youngest son of a youngest son he feared his life would end in obscurity and Janzin hoped to be something bigger.

One of the things that led to Janzin’s crisis of faith was that he felt it was the state—and thus the church’s—fault that his parents had to live out in the boondocks. However there was never much he could do about his feelings until he on a trip home with his parents and he found evidence of his grandfather embezzling money from the church of Zon-Kuthon. The Kuthonites don’t take kindly to these sort of things and his grandfather had no choice but to deal.

If nothing else Janzin excelled at bartering and for his silence his grandfather would let his family return home. The deal, however, said that Janzin could not return with them. The patriarch of the family thought he had won a victory here, but in truth the young fetchling had no wish to return to the fold of the Kuthonites in his home city.

Janzin did feel oddly about having to deal with his family so harshly, another reason he knew the faith of the Midnight Lord was not for him. As an act of contrition he told his father what he had done and admitted his acts against the family. The elder fetchling just smiled. The edicts of Zon Kuthon might not have been solace for his son but now the father had the ammunition he needed against his own progenitor.

Alone in the world with no family, no faith, and not yet any fame Janzin struck out across Nidal toward the lands of their ally Cheliax. Along the way he found a man travelling the roads alone too. The man claimed to be an outcast knight seeking fame and fortune. Janzin, seeking the same, attached himself to the warrior. From him he was inducted into the order of the Cockatrice, a group of warriors who seek to leave their mark on the world.

The ways of the order were not the only lessons Janzin learned from this masterless knight. Worship of the archdevil Zaebos proved something the fetchling also took a liking to. Although he steered away from the truly evil, Janzin’s own noble birth and growing ego meant many of the structures of his hellish patron rung true in his heart.

Janzin eventually left his mentor’s side. He now roams the lands of Cheliax, Nidal, and Varisia in an effort to increase his notoriety; leaving in his wake battles won and women bedded.  Maybe one day he will return home, but that day is not today.

From jumbled bits of background I have lured forth the tale of Janzin Uth Pentracest. But mine is not the only story that could be molded here. What class would you have chosen for this character? Why does this does this fetchling choose to worship Zaebos? How did you interpret the harrow reading?

As Janzin comes from the shadows and tries to bring his name to light, so too does the CRB illuminate the world of gaming. If these characters shed some light on the dark recesses of your imagination, please consider donating to my Patreon. Looking for more from the CRB? Come find me on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. My inbox is open for questions and comments on all platforms.

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