The Forgemaster
The Forgemaster is a fairly one-dimensional character in the mold of the classic "cult leader" villain archetype. Characters will probably interact more with his story than the man himself, and GMs who wish to actually bring him "on screen," should do so with great care.
The main purpose of the cult from a storytelling perspective is to ground the reality of the daily lives of frontier citizens as both perilous and bleak. Perilous because the cult is just one of the many dangers on the frontier. Bleak because what does it say about a society when any significant number of its members find such an ideology compelling? PCs who condemn the cult out of hand and wonder why anyone would join can be introduced to settlers in extreme poverty, and captured cultists can make the case that before they joined, their lives meant nothing and had no real hope. It's a sobering reminder that there's more to the world than adventurers living the high life.
There is little concrete evidence on where the man known as the Forgemaster originated. What is certain is that fifteen years ago, a group began gathering in the southeastern wastes that was initially dismissed as a cult. The high concentration of Wrack energy in the area has been known to lead to all sorts of mental illnesses and bizarre social structures, and those who thought of him at all probably assumed the Forgemaster would be killed by the wastes or fade into obscurity like so many before him.
He continued to grow his organization, however, a group most refer to as "The Cult of the Inferno." As its leader and prophet, the Forgemaster preached that this life was merely a test to measure the power and dedication of souls before they transcended mortality and moved on to a higher plane, and that the measure of each person is defined by what they burn. Material possessions, forests, animals, people, all just property to be claimed in the next life by whichever enterprising soul first manages to set them alight and reduce them to ash.
At first the Forgemaster preached a sort of reluctant coexistence with others, confining himself to call for followers to burn small amounts of their own property as a down payment on their coming glory. A few border towns even began to recognize the movement as a legitimate religion, the largest of which was the town of Hensbarrow.
One fateful day, the town council officially approved the Forgemaster's application to build a church in Hensbarrow. Whether this act actually triggered what followed is much debated. It seems unlikely that a religious zealot like the Forgemaster would have cared about the council's approval, but perhaps sensing that his power had reached a previously undreamt of threshold, the Forgemaster began his crusade.
Most of the cult's members converged on the town and burnt everything: its fields, its people, its livestock and every flammable structure or building material. A few escaped to warn neighboring settlements, as the Cult of the Inferno are not a careful or meticulous group. Those that couldn't escape were faced with a simple choice: convert or burn. The Forgemaster's ranks swelled considerably, and in a remarkably short period of time the new recruits began fervently spreading the religion, and its destructive flames. This has led some to speculate that the Forgemaster has some supernatural method of controlling people, but that is largely speculation, and the very real possibility that ordinary people could become fanatics given the right environment is too awful for most to contemplate.
The Cult of the Inferno is no longer welcome in civilized lands, and outlying settlements on the Eastern frontier have grown increasingly frightened that they too, could someday soon awaken to the smell of something burning.
Age
Unknown. Presumed to be mid-40s based on anecdotal reports.
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Coal black, with reddish orange pupils. This is one of many things he points to as a manifestation that the flame has "chosen" him, claiming that his eyes changed when he found the faith.
Hair
None.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Ashen grey, or perhaps he's just literally covered in so much ash that it's hard to tell
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