Ralthor, the rebellious favored soul
Ralthor was a legendary hero of the the Red Era. Like most figures from the Red Era, exact details of Ralthor's life are hazy at best, kept alive mostly via the sometimes contradictory tales of troubadours.
All accounts, say that Ralthor was a great warrior. Most accounts have him being skilled with Augmentation and Wrath divine magic. He probably lived during the Warlord Era.
Ralthor was a staunch protector of the weak who believed in harshly punishing the wicked. He fought many literal and figurative monsters across large swaths of Scarterra. He was especially vengeful against slavers and rapists.
it was long suspected that Ralthor was blessed by Zarthus or Hallisan, but he was actually a favored soul of Maylar, a fact he tried to hide for years.
Protecting the weak instead of destroying or exploiting the weak is a direct contradiction of Maylar's creed and Ralthor ended up fighting a lot of Maylar's worshipers, spirits, and pet monsters.
Scarterran theologians have long debated on whether or not a favored soul is capable of acting against his or her divine patron or not and Ralthor is an example that is brought up often. The question arises whether or not Ralthor truly opposed Maylar or whether he merely helped further Maylar's objectives in an indirect fashion. Maylar's priests and priestesses preach that conflict makes people stronger and Ralthor certainly created many conflicts.
Ralthor slew a great many brutal and rapacious warlords, but the never seemed to stick around afterwards to help the realm rebuild leaving power vacuums in his wake that could have easily allowed new brutal warlords to rise up in place of the old.
It also rumored that at least one of the many innocent children that Ralthor rescued from either a life of slavery or a brutal death grew up to be a great villain affiliated with Maylar.
Other theologians speculate that Ralthor did not really exist at all, or if he did he was most certainly not a favored soul of Maylar.
Comments