RHAEG
"And as the echoes fade
From that final fusillade
Remember
The promises you made"
- Roger Waters, Wait for Her
Origin: Dragon Beach, Luskan, Sword Coast North
Age: 68 (born approx. 1289)
Race: Half-orc (Illuskan and Mountain Orc heritage)
Sex: Male
Patron Deity: Misotheistic, but sympathetic to certain tenets related to Ilmater, Eilistraee, and Talos.
Former Patrons: Mask
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Classes: Rogue, Barbarian, Bodyguard, Frenzied Berserker
Profession: Anarchistic Firebrand; Baldurian Commons Bloc Speaker
Languages: Common, Chondathan, Illuskan, Cant, Orcish, Elven, Oillusk
Height: 6’11” (211cm)
Weight: 330lb (141kg)
Hair: Grey, medium-long; formerly dark brown
Eyes: Steel Grey, rheumy, sunken; sickly pale Yellow while frenzied
Distinguishable Marks: Scars on almost all exposed skin; Recent Abyssal lacerations on chest (eldritch injury), missing small left toe (frostbite)
Skin: Light
General Health: Robust considering age
Base Attributes:
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 15
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8
BBC layout inspired by Nyssis AND RHIFOX.
"And as the echoes fade
From that final fusillade
Remember
The promises you made"
- Roger Waters, Wait for Her
Origin: Dragon Beach, Luskan, Sword Coast North
Age: 68 (born approx. 1289)
Race: Half-orc (Illuskan and Mountain Orc heritage)
Sex: Male
Patron Deity: Misotheistic, but sympathetic to certain tenets related to Ilmater, Eilistraee, and Talos.
Former Patrons: Mask
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Classes: Rogue, Barbarian, Bodyguard, Frenzied Berserker
Profession: Anarchistic Firebrand; Baldurian Commons Bloc Speaker
Languages: Common, Chondathan, Illuskan, Cant, Orcish, Elven, Oillusk
Height: 6’11” (211cm)
Weight: 330lb (141kg)
Hair: Grey, medium-long; formerly dark brown
Eyes: Steel Grey, rheumy, sunken; sickly pale Yellow while frenzied
Distinguishable Marks: Scars on almost all exposed skin; Recent Abyssal lacerations on chest (eldritch injury), missing small left toe (frostbite)
Skin: Light
General Health: Robust considering age
Base Attributes:
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 15
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8
BBC layout inspired by Nyssis AND RHIFOX.
Biography
(To be completed, can be found out in-game!)
APPEARANCE
"You can take a man out of Luskan, but you can't take Luskan out of a man." While intended to refer to a Luskaner's larcenous and often self-serving habits being difficult to unlearn, it apparently may be used in reference to the Illuskan accent that chased him all his life.
His is an acquired image; the underbitten tusks, piggish nostrils situated just above, steel-grey eyes all slashed and dashed by wrinkles and scars. Heavy, sleep-deprived bags complement the bloodshot sclera, themselves having borne witness to far, far too much blood.
The old man looks riddled with regret and fatigue - but not frailty. Even bearing a brutal and unhealing eldritch wound across a melted chest, power and fortitude ripple through his stance. He appears to actively shun efforts to appear both 'wealthy' or 'primitive', refusing to be seen wearing hides or extravagant finery both; even his regularly-worn mithril lamellar is dusted with soot or dust to dull its gleam.
That is, of course, when the mud and grime of travel and travail aren't concealing the bloodstains.
Personality Profile
A joyless, antisocial, foul-tempered being under all but the best of circumstances, Rhaeg's waking moments are fraught with frustration and misery from the time he wakes, to the time he sleeps. He finds fault and frustration is almost everything - ironically, he's only ever expressing a fraction of the thoughts and stimuli that actively distress him at a given moment.
His standoffishness and bluntness is prone to proportionately increasing when in an encounter with a "lawful" authority figure, even if their aims are genuinely goodly; he is prone to being outright emotionally hostile to those of an aristocratic bent, particularly if they're also noncombatants.
The opposite is true of people who appear to have been hit with hard times, or towards those who appear vulnerable and unjustly maligned. To them, he is as gentle, accomodating, and empathetic as his personality can allow, bottling up the anger from witnessing folk in such a state; likely to be later unleashed upon those responsible.
Habits/Hobbies: Reading, Napping, Grumbling, physical and mental exercises.
Strengths: Indomitable Will, exceptional pain tolerance, nigh-fearless.
Weaknesses: Envious, spiteful, asocial, sardonic, impulsive, uncompromising.
IDEOLOGY
Rhaeg is Chaotic Good, leaning vaguely closer to Neutral on the Law/Chaos spectrum. The reason for this is because unlike most beings of similar alignment, Rhaeg zealously dedicates himself to a personal code - but one that explicitly promotes a Chaotic Good agenda; and one advocating profound systematic upheaval, at that.
He is opposed to Hierarchy as a metaphysical concept in many of its myriad, power-based forms; for example, he loathes the divides between peasant and aristocrat, mortal and immortal. He has ample reason to believe that such haves and have-mores justify and enforce their stations through force; and selective "tastes" of their power and authority.
Rhaeg views "law" as nothing more than a redundancy used to justify the true mediators of what IS; Currency and Force. He draws upon an unusually scholastic interpretation of Faerunian sociopolitical theory to back up this ideology.
The closest real-world analogues to Rhaeg's personal sociopolitical beliefs are in Makhnovian Platformist Anarcho-Communism, with the ideas of Nietzsche's Superman and Stirner's Egoism reinforcing his personal will and Cassus Belli to see his cause through. In short, he views himself as holding a personal responsibility to use his amassed power "responsibly"; meaning, to strong-arm the Powers That Be into being unable to interfere in the creation and preservation of this hypothetical, more equitable world.
Rhaeg's ideology is substantially flawed; these flaws will be addressed in a supplemental post. He is aware of some of them, but is forced to accept most as consequences of such radical change.
CLASSES
Rogue: As a “successful” urchin formerly of Luskan, Rhaeg secured his survival on its mean streets by abusing and exploiting every weakness and opportunity he could find. He went from stealing scraps and learning to pick open simple locks as a child, to forced entry and mugging as an adolescent, to outright gang warfare as a young adult. By the time he had met his soon-to-be wife, he was practically a master of irregular combat, combining cunning thoroughly unbecoming of what many expected of an orcblood - and an incredible strength and brutality that many a fully human rogue lacked.
Even in advanced age, Rhaeg’s combat experience, quick thinking, and raw power permit him to be an immediately fatal danger to the majority of Faerun’s denizens expecting a more orthodox opponent. He can sunder the bodies of many opponents in mere seconds, and even foes without discernible weak points or vulnerabilities reel under the hammer-blows of his strikes, should they land.
He epitomizes the versatility that roguekind is infamous for, using and abusing wands and scrolls that he barely understands, weathering explosions with nothing but singed hair and - While no halfling thief - being distressingly good at moving soundlessly, able to go completely still and flat against a shadowed wall in the span of a heartbeat - All despite his size and weight.
Barbarian: To his utmost chagrin, Rhaeg’s orc ancestry causes him to be particularly prone to fury, anger, and adrenaline. Long years spent travelling the tundras of Icewind Dale, the Spine of the World, and the Silver Marches caused his long-distance endurance and speed to strengthen appreciably. As he came to loathe orcenkind more and more over the years, his own anger at a common heritage ironically strengthened the fury stemming from it. His lack of formal combat training, however, caused his swings to be undisciplined but unpredictable.
Accustomed to wearing only light armor and nowhere near as agile as the traditional heroic rogue, Rhaeg’s somewhat meager defensive skills necessitate being able to hit and run. To aid both, one of Rhaeg’s most prized possessions is a large gauntlet with a forearm buckler - A weapon in all but name, amplified by his anger. At a full sprint, he is capable of serving a practically cavalry role on a battlefield, outright trampling frailer forces to the ground and striking like a tiger at a particularly important target.
Bodyguard: While precocious for a half-orc, Rhaeg’s cynical attitude, bitterness, and general lack of charisma hindered his efforts to establish a revolt in the Marches. Self-conscious about the hypocrisy of many a leader sending waves of subordinates to die for their own personal glory and gain, he was often at the very frontline of many pitched battles in the region.
He resolved to shore up his deficiencies in leadership by “Leading by Example”; to ask nothing of anyone that he wouldn’t have also done himself, to bodily shield the vulnerable if need be, and to coordinate larger battles over as much terrain as possible. More than once, an orc horde sweeping down from North of the Marches found Rhaeg and retinue smashing through their ranks like a battering ram, led by a tall figure who bled but refused to fall.
Frenzied Berserker: For most who would pridefully bear the title "berserker", ideology and purpose are tertiary to the drug-like craving for combat and blood. For a wishful philosopher like Rhaeg, this "training" is both a practical and what passes as a "spiritual" necessity for him to fight for his goals.
Rhaeg's open scorn for the hierarchy-imposing divine and refusal to bend knee to any established power has granted him a force of inner will rivalling that of the most devout paladins; being that he only has his own personal attributes fighting for the ideology he has given so much for, a "Frenzy" is the natural progression of attempting to weaponize his mortal shell for this "immortal" goal.
Of course, tapping into such an endless font of inner fire is amplified and eased along by that orcish heritage so prone and given to such expression.
The more Nietzschean aspects of Rhaeg's inner frenzy, however, carry another darker undercurrent. The adage that "those who gaze into the Abyss are gazed into in turn" was embodied in the horrors of Orcus' hordes crashing against the Boareskyr Bridge. Few souls could be beaten down by so much pain, darkness, and planar evil without dire consequences - especially to those souls so emotionally cut off from other positive interpersonal influences as his.
(Formerly) Guild Thief: Rhaeg’s March Insurgency borrowed many skills he’d honed during his Luskan gang days; namely, the value of using fear and force against opponents unswayed by reason or benevolence. He had made a small name for himself among Baldur’s Gate’s underground as someone who could exact an intimidating justice against those on either side of the law who might prey upon the city's many disenfranchised.
He eventually abandoned this skillset in favor of more martial inclinations after Orcus' onslaught. Given the options of subtle skullduggery and political intrigue - or hewing through a dozen foes in a single frenzied swing - the preferable choice in such trying times was obvious.
Convinced that both sides of the Heartlands region's "establishment" would likely work in concert to prevent his particular ideology from gaining traction, it is likely that Rhaeg might put even greater emphasis on the brutal violence that comes so easily to him, should his efforts resume.