Roakkad Shrikkir-tsha's page

Summary
A refugee hailing from the Shriikirri-Quah of Northern Varisia, Roakkad's fate led him to the impossible city of Kaer Maga. A prince among his people, he trained with the druidic cults of that ancient fortress. Now, a dying augur's portent has ushered him to the provincial village of Sandpoint for purposes unknown.

Detail
One of few survivors of an Ogre raid upon Shoanti lands in northern Varisia, Roakkad Shrikkir-tsha was pulled, screaming, into the world from the womb of his dying mother. Lightning cracked and thunder roared across the sky as the people wept, but the Shoanti midwife immediately recognized the mark on his chest as the sigil of Gozreh. His people revered his birth as a sign of hope from their god after the decimation of their tribe.

Starving, the refugees found their salvation in a decrepit river barge that transported them downstream to Roderic's Cove. There, they were ostracized, left in the streets as the weaker among them succumbed to starvation and the elements. Many believed they were doomed to perish.
It began as a rumor, a fairy tale, mere whispers on the wind. In the ghetto of an unforgiving town, a despondent ethnic minority heard tales of a city without judgment. Kaer Maga. Then rumors turned to plans, and so they went together, as all who go to that city, to the foot of the great cliff and up into the fortress above. It was a hard journey. Several among them died. It was a true miracle that the infant Roakkad survived.

In Kaer Maga they found other Shoanti like themselves, shunned and exiled. Among this group there was a priestess of Gozreh, greatly revered--a venerable troll woman named Galjit. Galjit held the gift of foresight, and she commanded that the Shriikirri tribe be brought forth. The baby Roakkad was presented before her. It is said, upon seeing the leaf birthmark on his body, she performed her strange augury then and there. It is unclear to this day what secrets Gozreh whispered to her, but she immediately commanded that the baby be taken to the preeminent druidic temple in the city, the Great Sky Spire.

The Shoanti were terrified, but none dared question the command of the wise woman. And so Roakkad was taken to this impossibly high stone tower, home of Gozreh-worshipping druids who lived among the clouds. He was presented before these strange, birdlike beings. They whispered among themselves in a forgotten tongue. They ordered the Shoanti remain in the temple as they took flight to the top of their sanctuary.

That night, a tempest battered the ancient city. For another full day and night the storm raged as the shrieks of the bird-beings echoed down from the heights of Great Sky Spire. The citizens of Kaer Maga trembled in their homes, while the faithful among them murmured that Gozreh had surely come.

The baby Roakkad slept peacefully.

By morning the storm had ceased. Their strange communion complete, the druids returned. They proclaimed Roakkad a true scion of Gozreh. They bowed to him in unison, an unprecedented tribute. They welcomed him, a hatchling among their flock. They gifted him his name.

And there he was raised, in that city of contradictions with its fluid, patchwork populace of conjurers and schemers, of diviners and augurs and wizards and all manner of strange magicks. To the druids of Sky Spire he was a pupil, sent to learn the raw, untamed magic of the Old World. To his tribe he was a savior, delivered to them by Gozreh herself and destined to lead them back to the wilds. He was a kiradtch, the fabled divine reincarnation. The troll priestess Galjit counseled him and even gave him his first tattoo.

On the day he reached ten years of age, the leader of the sky druids, Matlaihuitl, called for him. "Sky Father has summoned you," was all the druid said.

Transformed into a giant eagle, Matlaihuitl bore Roakkad on gilded wings up, up to the very top of the spire. He left him there, on a platform high above the city, to await a sign from Gozreh. Two days passed, and Roakkad felt sure he would die. Weak from thirst, poisoned from the sun, he woke on the morning of the third day to the shriek of a bird. At first he thought that Matlaihuitl had returned for him, but it was something more. A she-hawk had come to him. Fierce eyes gleaming, with razor claws, she was the very color of glory. Roakkad thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

And then, staring into her eyes, he understood. She was sent by Gozreh to teach and guide him. For Gozreh had chosen him. He, born into sadness, born from ashes, would rise like a cinder storm to champion the cause of the Wind and the Waves. He knew that Gozreh had sent him to the druids to learn the Old Ways. He knew, too, that this would not be enough. He would need to master the elements themselves to overcome the foes he would face. In a horrid vision Roakkad saw them. He saw villages burn, animals slaughtered, plants wither. He saw the whole of Varisia shorn from the world as a page from a book. He saw the world end.

And then, he knew only darkness.

He awoke several days later in the care of Galjit. He did not remember the vision, but he knew the hawk that accompanied him still. "You are my sister," he said. And so he named her "Tsharat," the Shoanti word for the same. He knew she was a gift from Gozreh, and that they, together, had much learning to do.

And so they began.

There, in that curious amalgam of power in the heart of ancient Varisia, Roakkad's potential awoke. The druidic teachings saturated his soul, but did not satisfy him. For in his dreams, Gozreh gifted him visions of the Great Library of Kaer Maga, and he knew he must go.

Read, whispered the Wind.

Vested with an unquenchable appetite for knowledge, and now possessing an almost preternatural intelligence, he voraciously studied everything he could find. He could not understand many of the arcane scribblings, but Tsharat understood, and whispered in his ear. He practiced his invocations with her day and night, and his arcane prowess grew. He read about Gozreh too, of course, memorizing the entirety of Hymns to the Winds and Waves. He found comfort in this book, for it made him think of his people. He imagined his family he never met, the life he never had, and he vowed to Gozreh he would find a way to help his tribe.

Years later, Galjit, on her deathbed, summoned Roakkad to her side. Now a young man, he came alone. She gently touched his leaf-shaped birthmark with her withered hand. She gazed upon him with blind eyes. She whispered that he was the chosen of Gozreh, that he would bring great change to the world in the name of The Wind and the Waves. And with her dying breath she issued her final commandment--Roakkad would leave his people. He would travel far to the west, to a small human village on the Lost Coast, and there await a sign from Gozreh.

Roakkad was afraid. Kaer Maga was his home. His people were his lifeblood. It was all he knew.

Go, whispered the Wind.

Go, whispered Tsharat.

And so he went.

Two months passed as he made the journey, his faithful hawk at his side. But still he waits, preparing for a threat he does not yet understand, uncertain what the gods have in store for him. But the wind has changed, foreshadowing a great challenge ahead.

Roakkad is driven by the exile and apartheid of the Shoanti people. Since the nations of the Inner Sea turned their attention to Varisia only a few centuries ago, its natives have been driven back from their verdant homelands, ever deeper into the burning sands of the Storval Plateau. Despite this history of ashes, Roakkad his tried to live in both worlds. But he is torn. His heart belongs to his history and the people of his quah, yet his fate has brought him into the heart of Strangers ("tshamek"). The Shriikirri elders believe he is destined to herald in a great change of fortune for the Shoanti, restoring them to their former glory.

One thing is clear: Roakkad was born for greatness. Gozreh has shown him this. Perhaps his destiny lies in the small, provincial town of Sandpoint, which as of late has experienced such unpleasantness. Yet whether his travels lead him with the tshamek or beyond, he shall be a servant of Gozreh. He shall be, forever and always, a Shriikirri-Quah.

Roakkad is thus a dual-natured being, torn between his ancient Shoanti heritage and the inevitability of imperial conquest. He is something between a true Shoanti, a refugee, and a modern citizen of Kaer Maga. Even his developing magic is haunted by the spirit of his mother, his father, his brothers and sisters, and even Galjit the troll priestess. He might have loved them all. How can he let them go? He prays to Gozreh, still, for the power to forget. But always, the wind blows, carrying whispers from the Wind and the Waves, that the past is immutable, while the future is ever-changing.

This tribal looking young man appears torn from a page in a book. Roakkad is tall, approximately 6'3", with an average build. His tan skin and dark eyes suggest Shoanti heritage, while the intricate tattoos adorning his neck and hands confirm it. His face lacks any such ornamentation, though it wears a thoughtful and discerning expression. He is completely bald. Garbed in a simple, dark green tunic, he carries a long wooden spear at his side. Around his neck you see a choker of animal teeth and, hanging lower on his chest, an enormous bone amulet adorned with bird feathers. His shoes are simple leather sandals, appropriate for the balmy coastal weather.

All of this you observe in an instant, for your eyes are swiftly drawn to the fearsome bird of prey perched on his shoulder.