Rogast Dicio

Rogast was born into a cult of lizard worshipers.  The entire church lived in a tiered temple built to worship Attor, Lizard God of Venoms.  He apprenticed under his father as the cult’s resident magic user.  The entire congregation fell ill due to some sinister power gained by Rogast’s father on his latest expedition into the mountains.  When he returned he was changed and carried with him an aura of sickness.  He gathered the cult leaders and demanded that they gather all their weapons and prepare for a battle.

That very night a demon of unimaginable terror skulked into the temple.  It was giant yet tiny at the same time. Its body was an affront to nature; existing in spaces that man could never understand. Lengths of tubes extended from its pulsating body spraying disease onto the walls and Rogast’s family.  Rogast could hear this beast whispering wickedness in his head, urging him to kill his father and friends.  He fought for hours along side his family, battling this tormentor.  Rogast used all of the spells he had prepared for the day, then resorted to firing arrows from behind a toppled table.

Men were strangling their children and wives.  The sickness was expanding.  People were vomiting and their skin was almost falling from their frames.  The gore and viscera was more extreme than Rogast has ever seen and very well may ever see again.  The siege lasted for 32 hours.  He had to kill his own father after he had attempted to drag Rogast to the beast as a sacrifice.  Rogast’s brother had walked willingly to the demon and was flayed, melted, then devoured.  Rogast was the last man standing.  He heard the sickeningly demonic voice in his head utter the words, “It is you.”  This unearthly animal slithered backward out of the temple and left him the gift of a small ebony gem.  Rogast named it the plague diamond.

Rogast’s mental facilities were a bit broken from that moment on.  He no longer feared the darkness and the unknown.  He made a vow to himself to search out the demons like the one that destroyed his childhood.  He was not vengeful.  He didn’t want to destroy them.  He wanted to control them.  Rogast has devoted his life to the study of other-worldly beasts.  He has focused his magic arts on controlling the uncontrollable.

Rogast has joined with any adventurers willing to delve into the insane pits of despair.  Through his journeys he has attempted to control beasts from this world and others.  He has recently taken to forcing dominion over intelligent creatures not of this world.  He has them called to his will through elaborate rituals.  He wants to learn the secrets of other planes and of creation itself.    He is frequently attacked by his own summoned creatures and because of this has suffered many horrific scars.  His face is an encyclopedia of beasts that most men have never even heard of.  He wears these scars like a veteran in the wild, but in populated areas he prefers to wear a mask and hood.  It is hard to not draw attention to himself with either visage, but the mask lends itself to mystery…everyone loves a mystery.

Rogast is not interested in material wealth accept to purchase resources to further his research into the abysmal creatures that exist on the fringe of man’s reality.  He keeps a hand written bestiary and ample notes on his discoveries.  He dresses as a borderline pauper – simply. He wears a brownish-red hooded robe, tarnished from his travels.  His backpack bulges from containing all he owns in the world.  He has a medallion of Attor that he wears around his neck as a memento from his past, but he no longer worships any deities.  Rogast’s goal is to understand, and then manipulate the maddening forces of the unknown.