Rythern is a two-fold member of the underclass in Talingarde. First, he is a traditional worshiper of Asmodius and has been for the entire century he has been alive. Second, he is of a rare and dangerous race which has been labeled inhuman, monstrous and an abomination before the sight of Mitra: the result of an unholy yet consensual union between a woman and a wakened corpse.
With his mother a devoted worshiper of Asmodias throughout her entire life, Rythern grew up being told that he was the product of prayer and faith, his mother describing how she prayed for a son who would champion their dark Undergod, a man of men who would only go from strength to strength and eventually kill Mitra with his own force of will. He was told bedtime stories of how she sought the wilderness for a being that could provide that son to her. How she hunted for her predatory prey until her patient following of rumour and superstition brought her to the feeding grounds of a being so foul and so cruel that even hardened warriors fear the lanes these beasts tread —a vampire. She told her infant son how she risked her life carrying a dead baby inside her and waited patiently for the tiny body to breath, eventually occurring 4 days after the birth.
Therefore, as the rise and fall of Houses and kings flowed around his extended life span, Rythern learned to interpret it all in a very specific way, that nothing was achieved through the fictitious “will” of Mitra yet everything by Asmodius, the all powerful Father-Below who rewards and seeks to test the faithful.
As Rythern’s sorcerous power began to manifest as he matured at just over 100 years of age, he came to believe that he was at least partially responsible for bringing about justice in what he saw as a shameful and embarrassing world under the current tyranny of Mitra. However, what he is not aware of is that his magic does not stem from his undead father as he supposes, indeed it comes from a much darker, older and more perverse source of power as old as the gods themselves. There is something hereditarily alien about Rythern and whether that stems from his fathers line or his mothers or perhaps even pure fluke, Rythern can never truly know the horrific, aberrant well he has begun to draw dark waters from.
The would-be theological activist saw so much oppression and injustice levied against his own spiritual-brothers and sisters, so much intolerance and racial hatred towards the “lower races” that stem from demonic and undeathly heritages. He would design his own utopia if he could and populate it with selectively bred citizens to demonstrate the “nobler” traits. He would tear down the blasphemous edifices and spires that have been raised for a dead god, “the Shining Lord” and he would build a city and forge anew the faith that runs as a tsunami through the lowest Circles of Hell. His ideal dream is to set up a perfected Church of Asmodius and oversee its manifestation and dominion over a world that currently quivers pathetically and unknowingly in a leprosy-like ignorance and heresy.
As he grew older, his anger grew louder and eventually he could stand his silence no longer and publicly denounced Mitra and rejoiced in the coming of Asmodius’ wrath. So loud and flagrant was his demonstration of faith and verbal revulsion of the “injustices and contradictions” of Mitra that he was quickly arrested for blasphemy and brought before the magistrates and holy experts of the Faith. Even before the judges of his sin, Rythern argued passionately for the systematic rape and century long evisceration that awaits Mitra at the hands of Asmodius’ minions in remarkably foul yet controlled language that included many curses in Infernal. With his judges appalled at the stench of his heresy and blasphemies, Rythern was rapidly sentenced to await his punishment in Brandescar Prison where he was happy to burn for it meant that the governing authorities were truly terified of the potential damage he could cause if he were left alive. His death sentence was a medal of recognition, so Rythern thought… yet now there are greater achievements to accomplish
