Character 89 - Brogru

Illustration by Luis Perez

With every character I make there is always a hook, something for you to latch onto and get stuck in your craw. This week was no different. I didn’t settle in on the stats, there wasn’t one background bit that caught my eye and made me go “aha”. It was the randomly rolled deity that really drove this character to its final form. The Infernal Duke of language who collects tomes in dialects that have never existed. So looking through all the choices – and there were a lot with this spread of stats -  I went with the occultist. In particular I choose the tome eater archetype, and from there the character just flowed.

Brogru

Most of the citizens of Irrisen can trace their lineage back to either the original Ulfen inhabitants or back to the children of Baba Yaga herself. Although those are the most dominant bloodlines in the region they are not the only ones. On the border with the Realm of the Mammoth Lords reside quite a few families that can trace their families back to the tribes of their eastern neighbor.

Brogru’s family are some of those Kellids that have lived just across the border of their homeland for generations. The Jadwiga consider these tribesmen citizens and like any other residents of Irrisen they are not allowed to cross the border. These Kellids now inhabit the frontier between the town of Bosorka and the town of Isseld.

When Brogru hit puberty and changes came upon him it was not the typical growth spurt into the mountain of a man his parents expected. The young Kellid’s hair began to turn white, and his skin tone paled a bit. His aging slowed and there was obvious evidence that he was touched with the blood of air elementals.

Brogru would often spend time trekking from his family’s homestead to Isseld. The town was gaining a name for trading in the carved fetishes and talismans of his people, so the sight of a Kellid – even one touched by the wind – was not uncommon. It was here that he fell in with a bad crowd.

Illustration by Luis Perez

Isseld may have only been a minor stop on the Frozen Road, but it was a trade stop nonetheless. The thieves and scoundrels which he called friends would often rob from merchants traveling up the river road. Although Brogru had no qualms with theft and extortion, violence was never something he enjoyed. When his cohorts killed a merchant he was appalled and locked them in the small cabin on the boat and set the thing ablaze.

Borgru was captured by the authorities and imprisoned. At his trial he was sentenced to exile. It is not often that a citizen is allowed to leave Irrisen but the young sylph was brought to the border of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords and told never to return. With no way to go back, he had no choice but to move forward into unfamiliar territory.

The tribes of the Mammoth Lords actively shunned him, some even tried to kill him, so he could find no home with cousins of his own people. He was adrift and alone out on the frozen tundra. He would have frozen to death in the first year if had he not stumbled upon a ruin close to the border of The Worldwound. He took shelter here during the harsh weather and was kept alive and out of the bitter wind.

What was in the ruin would change who and what he was. Locked away in a stone case, wrapped in cold iron chains he found a book. The book appeared perfectly preserved and seemed to be in a language that not only could he not read, but he was almost sure didn’t exist. The book called to him to skim its pages and every night in that ancient place he had dreams of manor house in a fetid swamp, and scaled wings fluttering by.

After a week within the confines of the ancient structure the wind and the snow stopped and Brogru took the opportunity to move on.  With no place to call home in the lands of his ancestors he skirted the border of The Worldwound and then followed the river from the Tusk Mountains and through the Shudderwood into Ustalav. By the time he arrived in more civilized lands he was ravaged by the elements and near starvation. The only thing that kept him going was the book that was now tied to his waist with the very cold iron chains in which it had once been bound.

Brogru found some succor. He was given a warm place to sleep and a hot meal in a small temple of Desna, but the food could not sustain him. He had a need for something more. He left the temple and began his search, he knew not what for, until he came upon a small bookshop. When he entered he felt the tome at his side call to the other books until it found the one it wanted. Brogru plucked the volume from the shelf and opened it. He felt the sudden urge to tear out the pages. As he did this the paper became subsumed into his own body and he felt sated. The shopkeep noticed this odd behavior and ran him out, screaming for him to never return.

The book filled his hunger the way no food could but it also opened his mind to the true nature of the codex he carried with him. The book allowed his mind to touch that of the being known as Crocell, the Infernal Duke. He was now a servitor of this power and it was his task to find other lost folios to add to his master’s collection. For this he looked to sign on with adventurers who would be heading into other ancient ruins where he might find volumes lost to the sands of time.

How did you piece together your character? What class did you think best suited this Sylph? Why did he commit arson? Who were the people he murdered? Why did he take up the worship of Crocell? Tell us in the comments.

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