Pathfinder Iconics – Part 2

Continuing on from the last post in this series, this time we’ll talk about the characters representing the 8 classes planned for Player Core 2! Feel free to take a look at that post again if you don’t remember the rules here.

Hollowed Deadnettle, the Alchemist

Hollowed Deadnettle is a Kholo, and physically speaking, a below average one. She’s not particularly strong nor particularly fast, and more than once, her ineffectiveness in hunting and ambushing cost her tribe their prey. The Elders of her tribe tried to place her into another role, that of artisan or caretaker, but she was adamant that she wanted to be a huntress. Unable to reason with her, the Elders told her that she needed to go off on her own and learn to find her true strength. She was ordered not to return until she was a benefit to the tribe, and not a burden.

Being eminently practical, like most of her people, Deadnettle accepted this and left. Her first thought was to hire herself out as a manual laborer, hoping the constant work might strengthen her body, but a chance discovery of a shop selling alchemical items piqued her interest. She visited the shop frequently, asking many questions of the proprietor, who had very little answers for her as he was a merchant, and not the alchemist who created the inventory. He finally had enough and bade her to come speak with his supplier once he arrived again.

She would do so and finally begin getting some of the answers she had sought. The alchemist, a former student at the Citadel of the Alchemist and no stranger to odd alchemical students, realized the Kholo had a truly sharp mind, and offered to teach her in compensation for her aid in producing more items to sell. She agreed, quickly devouring all of the lessons her new teacher presented to her. While she had much success with all manner of alchemical items, she found a particular fascination with mutagens, choosing to specialize in them. Items that could alter the form, removing the weaknesses of one’s body, even if only temporarily, sounded like the perfect solution to her exile in the first place.

It would not be long before her teacher declared that she had learned all she could from him, and that she would have to use the knowledge he had given herb as a foundation, and would have to learn more on her own. He encouraged her to journey into the wider world, locate the many plants, minerals, and other materials that alchemy could make use of. Deadnettle reasoned that though she could return to her tribe, she knew there was more to learn, and so she set out on the path of the adventurer, work that would provide her with both places to gather materials and a testing ground for her concoctions.

One day, she will return to her tribe and enrich it with her knowledge. For the Kholo are an eminently practical people, and though it is not normally their way to augment their strength with alchemy, she knows they will not turn it, or her, away.

Edit (3/18/24): Monster Core is out now and the Gnolls have been renamed to the Kholo, so I updated this entry to reflect the correct name.

Bruzik, the Barbarian

Bruzik is a lizardfolk warrior who belonged to a simple and small village in the southern part of the Sodden Lands. Normally wont to avoid trouble, his tribe did not participate in the activities of the Terwa Lords or any of the raiders who routinely attacked the Shackles. Bruzik himself was a simple warrior and scout, part of the villages hunting teams who provided food for the tribe.

Bruzik returned from one such venture to find his village reduced to melting buildings and lakes of gore-filled acid. A powerful black dragon had attacked the area, claiming a number of villages before being driven off by the more organized forces of the Terwa Lords.

Utterly despondent, Bruzik’s patience, something a Lizardfolk normally has unending amounts of, shattered. He roared in anger, forging a connection of hatred and fury to the very beast that had taken everything from him. In his fury he ran for days, trying to catch up with the Dragon, but only found a small number of its offspring. Joining forces with the other Lizardfolk battling them, his fury helped bring them down. He cemented the connection to his Instinct by bathing in their blood, walked away from his home, and never looked back

Bruzik now wanders the land in search of evil dragons to slaughter, especially black ones, and trading his strength and fury for information on where other dragons might be. He is especially keen for information on other dragonslayers, knowing that as powerful as he might be, killing big dragons requires help, and few forms of help are as motivated by a furious desire to kill them all as he is.

Zaravis Ashurka, the Champion

Zaravis is a cambion (a variety of nephilim that is possessed of a devilish heritage, something formerly known as a Tiefling prior to Paizo’s attempt to remove as much D&D content licensed via the Open Gaming License as possible) who was born in Cheliax. where Cambions are an oppressed second class of citizenry. Having taken part in a number of small rebellions in the nation, he was imprisoned for much of his adult life, bitter and angry. A quiet breakout by insurgents from one of the nearby Shining Kingdoms saw his freedom and escape from his homeland, but freedom was equally disquieting in many ways. What was he to do? He’d never really had a choice before.

It would be in worship of the deities where Zaravis would find his own redemption. Though he learned much of many of the good-aligned Gods of the Inner Sea, his own faith would soon be found in the combined worship of Sarenrae, Desna, and Shelyn, collectively known as the Prismatic Ray. The turning point in his life would come when he was asked if he believed that the redemption the goddesses spoke of could truly be applied by anyone, even the rulers of Cheliax. He was shocked to answer that he believed it could, and that he actually meant it, Right then, he swore the oath of the holy tenets to become a Champion of the three-goddess pantheon, undertaking the cause of the Redeemer.

Zaravis now travels the lands of Golarion, spreading the love and redemption offered by his goddesses and undertaking causes that would aid the oppressed.

Khor Oril, the Investigator

Khor is a Tengu who witnessed entirely too much corruption in his youth, specifically people with wealth who were able to buy off particular members of law enforcement and get away with all manner of crimes as a result. He hit his breaking point when his mother got injured thanks to one of said wealthy people’s carelessness, and when the local law refused to do anything about it, claiming that it had clearly been his mother’s fault, Khor swore revenge. He watched the wealthy human daily, documenting all manner of shady activities, illicit meetings, and money changing hands. He collected evidence, documented numbers, and deducted conclusions that were able to lead him to even more evidence of corruption. Finally, he collated and summarized all of the information and hand-delivered it to the captain of the guard, proving his underling’s guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The corrupt officers were immediately taken into custody, the wealthy businessman who had injured Khor’s mother was likewise imprisoned and his earnings seized, a sizable portion of which went to pay for the care of the people he’d harmed. The captain, incredibly impressed with Khor’s work, took him under his wing, teaching him the finer methods of deduction and investigation, with the hope that he would join the guard when he came of age.

Khor did join the town guard for a time, dedicating himself first and foremost to rooting out corruption in their ranks, but soon realized that while his own captain might have been willing to work to clean up his own organization, there were plenty of places throughout Golarion where justice could not be found in those trusted to write and enforce the laws, places where innocent people had no such protections.

In his heart, he could not let this stand. And so, once he was satisfied that the final root of corruption had been dug up from his home city, he tendered his resignation and set out on the open road, intent on taking his training and dedication to help others find justice wherever he might end up.

Khor has gained a reputation as a gruff, no-nonsense tengu who is relentless in his search for the truth and for justice, but he lives for the moments of success when the guilty are caught and the innocent spared, as they are a balm on his fears that his efforts are often not making enough of a difference.

Haemanthus, the Monk

For most Ghoran, life is a twenty year cycle of living, producing a seed, regrowing their body from said seed, and beginning the process all over again, having been this way for thousands of years.

For the Ghoran known as Haemanthus, however, everything has changed. Because Haemanthus is not a normal Ghoran. He is a dhampir, a half-vampire, which means he is aging far more slowly than he ought to, his formerly vibrant treelike body now appears as a tree decaying in the autumn season, and the seed within him is far overdue for growing.

Haemanthus is terrified of what this portends. He has no idea how he became a half-vampire, as Ghoran do not reproduce like other races do, nor does he know how to guarantee his survival. His rebirthing process is long overdue to have started, much less actually commenced, and he fears it may never come, or if it does he will be forever altered by what has happened to him, unable to start over in the next life.

Hoping that the focus on honing his body might one day lead to a solution in where he regains control of it, Haemanthus gave himself to a monastic order. In time he became a highly proficient combatant, wielding a bo staff as a natural extension of himself, and while it has mentally helped him feel more grounded, a cure for his condition has not arisen out of it, and so now he journeys the land to seek out more information on dhampirs and what options there might be to cure himself.

Unbeknowst to him, Haemanthus’ condition was caused by his seed being exposed to the powerful shadowy form of the strigoi, one of the very few of the ancient ancestors of vampires who still exists today.

Podo Helmer, the Oracle

Podo’s family were once enslaved in Cheliax, until a fire broke out in the building in which they were imprisoned. They managed to escape in the confusion and made their way into the Shining Kingdoms, specifically Andoran, where they built a new home for themselves. None had any idea how the mysterious fires that led to their freedom happened, but from that day onward, Fire became a central figure of worship in their homes. Any deity or elemental lord which was said to govern fire was venerated among their family.

One day, another fire started in their new home, and while it was put out before it could cause too much destruction, there could be no doubt that Podo had been the source, having inadvertently emitted the magic flames from his body. His superstitious family believed him touched by one deity or another, arguing amongst themselves over which one and trying to force him into various rituals to atone for various imagined actions. The stress of this caused his powers to continue manifesting. His grandmother, matriarch of their family, finally banished him, telling him to return only when he had made peace with the gods that had freed them from bondage.

Through sheer will manifested out of desire to survive, Podo has gained some level of control over his mysterious powers, but is still beset by uncontrollable sensations of smoke and heat. He often sees flames that are not real. Podo would like nothing more than to understand the nature of his powers and to appease whatever deity of flame has beset him with his curse, but for now he makes a living as an adventurer.

Life in Decay, the Sorcerer

Life in Decay’s body was made from a colony of mushrooms that had grown on the corpse of a human raised into undeath before being destroyed again. What possessed the creature who fashioned it to use such a material is anyone’s guess, but the Leshy awoke with an alien appearance, a mouth full of sharpened fangs, and the ability to wield necromantic magic via spores.

Decay believes that death is as natural as life, and that corpses are natural resources that should be used and not left to waste in the dirt. This perspective, along with an appearance best described as “scary”, has not endeared them to many, but Decay does their best to educate with an endless patience of a long-lived being. They know their deeds will bear the truth of their beliefs to light, and so use their necromantic magic in service of causes of good.

Rattlejaw, the Swashbuckler

Rattlejaw is a skeleton, raised by a necromancer who was found out and killed by his neighbors before he could put any kind of awful plan into motion. They believed that all of the undead the necromancer had conjured were destroyed. They were wrong. Rattlejaw’s reanimation hadn’t quite completed before his would-be master had been killed, and he “awoke” some time later, free-willed and with little inclination to mindlessly murder the living, but with little memory of who he might have been beforehand.

All he knew was how to fight, how to fight dirty, and that he really enjoyed doing so, but without much idea as to why he liked to fight or where he’d done it. He also knew that being recognized as a skeleton would likely be a quick way to ensure his destruction, so he swiped some clothing, including a thick hooded cloak, covered as much of his body as he could, and set out to find a place for himself in the world.

Unfortunately, at least at first, most of the people he encountered were decidedly not friendly towards the undead, but overtime he managed to find work as a sword for hire, so long as his employers didn’t ask many questions. Over time he built up a solid reputation with the local adventuring guilds, so well was he regarded that many eventually overcame their shock when the truth about him eventually was revealed. Many had grown rather fond of his acerbic wit, the flair with which he wielded a blade, and his reliability and easy going nature. They gave him the affectionately teasing moniker of “Rattlejaw”, a name he’s gone by ever since.

Rattlejaw has been told by more than one occasion that he has the fighting and speaking styles of a pirate, and he now suspects he might have been one. He seeks to one day find a spellcaster of some sort that can hopefully divine information about his past life, and maybe find out if he is that person inhabiting his bones or if that soul is at rest. In the meantime, he’s quite content to be the loudmouthed quipping blade that bandits and other threats to civilization don’t quite expect to deal with