Character 100 - Beldar Seven-Toes

Sometimes random rolls have a certain flow to them, this week’s were all over the place, which made this character a bit of a challenge. An orc unlike his people. A follower of a god of deductions with a low wisdom and middling intelligence. Many people suggested a kind of Sherlock Holmes but that stats and the background – to me at least – did fit that and I had to find something that did.

I had ideas, of course, but finding a class that fit with my ideas was the first challenge. I looked through many and decided that somehow linking to the past while giving him abilities – magic and class features – that could aid enhancing his deficiencies at the things his god held dear was where I wanted to go. I went with the medium specifically the relic channeler archetype from the Occult adventures book. He could use the spirits to bolster himself and the relics could be his connection to an older time.

Beldar Seven-Toes

Above the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, between the Winterwall Glacier and the west coast of Golarion, live some of the toughest orcs on the face of the world. These winter orcs exist in some of the most brutally cold climates and manage to survive and in some cases thrive despite their harsh environment. Although some of the orc tribes move out of the frozen wastes or the Stormspear Mountains to live in the slightly less frigid lands of the Ulfen, they are still just as tough and cold as the winds that blow across the Crown of the World.

Although still considered uncivilized and barbaric these orcs are far less chaotic than their southern kin. They have an intricate set of laws and taboos which get passed down from one generation to the next by storytellers around the fires during the endless night of winter. Every orc knows these stories by heart and looks to add their own name to the stories that future generations will hear.

Beldar was born into a clan that lived among the forested hills of Hasanalit. In times of plenty his people actually traded with the native human population of the Erutaki tribes. When times were lean, which was far more often, they would raid those same peoples to build up their stores for hibernation during the days of endless light. The one rule was to avoid trade on the Path of Aganhei, lest they bring the wrath of many nations upon them.

Brought into the frozen world by parents who were lowly ranked in the tribe Beldar, and his family often slept on the outside of the communal pile on cold nights. They didn’t have it as bad as many of the half-orcs of the tribe but before he was ten the young orc lost three of his toes to frostbite. Life was never easy for the winter orcs and even less so for Beldar and his family.

Compared to his other clanspeopleBeldar was weak. He didn’t exhibit the strength that most of the other young orcs did. He was just as durable and survived many winters, but that came down to his flabby layers of fat which was just one more thing he was ridiculed for. His peers were cruel and Beldar fought back by trying to ingratiate himself. This only made his bullies even more apt to take their anger out on him. “An orc doesn’t plead,” they would say.

Things got worse the winter his parents died. The bullying turned into outright terrorizing and Beldar was driven from the tribe into hills alone. His hatred toward his people brought him to the attention of a sorcerer who made the mountain region her home. She took him in and cared for him and helped stoke his anger toward the tribe.

Not stupid by any means, but quite oblivious, Beldar didn’t realize he was being used. The sorceress became his lover and both taught and manipulated him. She had her own reasons for hating the orcs and she used Beldar to weaken them. She helped him harness the power of the spirits of his ancestors through sacred relics he would steal from his former tribe. What she didn’t count on was that eventually these spirits would lead the young orc to the truth.

Beldar never regretted making his former tribe suffer, but he swore to never be fooled again. He knew his own acumen for deduction was weak, but the spirits he channeled and the power they gave him could enhance his poor ability. He took to the worship of the goddess Erecura to beseech the deity to aid his cause.

Abandoning his lover and his tribe left him with no home, so Beldar chose to travel out of the frozen reaches and into the slightly warmer Lands of the Linnorm Kings. Although orcs were not always well received Beldar had a certain presence about him, and an ability to articulate many of his brethren did not. Bolstered by the power of his ancestors he managed to find a place for himself as a soothsayer of sorts, using the knowledge of the ancients to aid those in the present.

Adopting the ancient dress of his tribal people Beldar has become a fixture in the Ulfen lands, traveling from town to town to peddle his abilities. Occasionally he even takes on with adventurers if the spirits give their blessing. Living by his own strict code, he has overcome in many ways the stigma of his people as savages and looks to live a full life as his own man.

And so is born the orc channeler of the past, but what did you make of him? Which class did your character become? Who was his lover? Why was he bullied? How did he come to join forces with an evil spellcaster?

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