In Search of the Laypriest Kal Karagoz

[memoriesofprey]

Kal Karagoz' past can firmly be traced by the very inquisitive to
Waterdeep. He was born Kal'rath Aloran to a master cooper and a shy,
thin wife who did not survive childbirth. What they may not find is that this wife always wore a wimple to hide her shaved horns- blatant
signs of foul blood in the veins. And no, it wasn't the Calimshani
blood.

His father, thankfully, did not define his wife or his son by those horns,
and was a good man. Such a good man that he constantly gave much of his wealth away, and trusted every man like a brother. This didn't work well for his business, and after being cheated left and right by numerous
associates, his cooperage finally crumbled into debt and ruin.

Forced to sell their humble town home, Daveed Aloran looked for work
from village to village, forced to take jobs he was overqualified for.
All the while, he had to raise the toddler and look to his own
ailments- which arrived at his wife's death and grew worse every moon.

With every coin put forth to shelter, care, and feed for his small family,
Daveed didn't have the wealth to pay a priest to look after himself. When
Kal was ten, his father finally succumbed to the illness. Kal was convinced
that his benevolence killed him, and it was a mistake he would never make.

The year on his own was spent scrounging, doing whatever it took to feed himself. It didn't matter if it meant someone else would go hungry. Until, of course, Kossuth found him. Or at least, his followers did- taking him into their monastery to indoctrinate him in the ways of The Firelord.

They spoke of fire. Nothing but fire and the purification of flames, of the
end of the world in a ball of fire that would renew it. The Disciples of the
Salamander believed in doing whatever it took to serve their god, and the burning of petty 'criminals' was constant. The burning of their own, however, was a privilege- a privilege that they never conferred to Kal, and one his peers mocked him for.

Tired of the fanatical cries for purification and total destruction, he took
matters into his own hands: at fifteen, he stole a sacred chalice and vanished into the night. How he escaped was a mystery, but he realized he enjoyed it. And that...led to his new god. A god he could believe in.

One that didn't ask for blind faith, but a deal. A deal between mortal and man, and this? This Kal could believe in. Taking the name Karagoz, he continued to do what he could- and soon learned how to serve his new god.

By serving himself.