Rake Ashtongue

[Rake]

First Name: Rake
Last Name: Ashtongue

Appearance:
Race: Tanarukk
Age: Unknown, approx 17 - tanarukk, like most orcs rarely live past 40 and are considered adults by age 12.
Height About 4'11"
Weight: Approx. 150 pounds.
Eyes: Blood red
Hair: Jet black
Facial Hair Style: Moustache and beard

Personality Profile:
General Health: Healthy ; back scarred from the lash
Deity: Gruumsh - 'He-Who-Watches' - Carries a small stone eye-totem.
Initial Alignment: Neutral Evil
Profession: Bounty Hunter, Mercenary
Base Class & Proposed Development: Fighter/Necromancer, likely to become a Warrior of Darkness
Habits/Hobbies: Pipe-moss smoking
Languages: Abyssal, Undercommon, Arcane
Weapon of Choice: Currently, a greatsword, but anything serrated or otherwise designed to cause pain, barbed arrows, poisons, fell magicks.

Background:
Rake Ashtongue's parents are unknown. Spawned to the thrall population of tanarukk in Sshamath, Rake quickly learned he was very different from most of his brutish kin. Though possessed of the same physical power, Rake found that he understood concepts which seemed incomprehensible to other tanarukk. Having a particular talent for manipulation and cruelty, Rake quickly distinguished himself from his brethren in the eyes of his dark elf masters, being extremely effective at subduing unruly tanarukk or lesser slaves.

One day, after killing some escaped slaves, Rake found a rolled up parchment. It was a simple arcane scroll, but Rake felt a peculiar compunction to open it. Stuffing it in his belt it was intially forgotten. Later, in the filthy orc pens, he would pore over the scroll, memorizing the intricate tracings and eldritch lettering. At some point, something changed - Rake found he could understand the symbols. His practicing of the cantrip was eventually detected by a nearby dark elf, who quizzed him on his knowledge and was taken aback when Rake replied that he had learned from a scroll, without being taught. Conferring with others, they released Rake from servitude, muttering something about his infernal heritage.

Now, a free tanarukk in Sshamath, Rake claimed a hovel in the outlander slum after beheading the previous occupant. He divides his time between prowling the nearby tunnels looking for escaped slaves and practicing his magicks. The slaves serve his appetite for inflicting suffering, as well as providing him with a small income from selling the remains. He is often to be found in a tavern, smoking a weathered pipe and drinking to excess, or else in the shadows of his hovel, studying scraps of parchment purchased at the bazaar.

Goals:
Knowing the short life of his bloodline, and envious of the dark elves long life, Rake seeks to extend his existence by whatever means possible.

Rake is most interested in power. Wealth appeals to him only as a measure of the power it could provide. He is aware of all the eldritch knowledge concentrated in the drow city, and knows that gold is the key to unlocking it.

Joining an organization which wields power in Sshamath appeals to him, but he knows within the city that opportunites are limited due to his race. This infuriates him; with no other choice, he listens carefully in the shadows, and seeks to know the dark of things.

He has few appetites other than the noxious pipe-moss always on his person and for magical power. Rake has a prounounced temper, but is often restrained, waiting until a more opportune time to take his revenge, often for a perceived insult.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:

Rake is not fond of spiders. Not a phobia, per se, but he kills them when possible - not when a dark elf is around.

It is rumoured that Rake got his name from ripping out a goblins tongue, then roasting it over a fire and consuming it in front of his victim.

Rake despises his simpler kin, seeing them as brutes suitable only to die for the whims of others.

Amongst the dark elves, Rake is respectful, as he must be - but secretly he holds many of the drow in contempt, considering them soft, weak things addicted to sensations of the flesh.

In the long term, Rake will seek out ways to extend his life, via alchemy or even necromancy. He is also interested in the origin of the tanarukk and his demonic heritage.

In feverish dreams, Rake sometimes sees Sshamath ablaze, her wicked spires toppled and in ruin, with a host of his kindred and lesser demons pillaging the remains and himself at their head, the dread lord.