Paladin of Ragathiel Back Story Advice


Advice


Hello everyone,

Need some advice on a back story I am developing for my current Paladin of Ragathiel, Urtog Silvereyes. Here is the part I am stuck on, trying to define what drove Urtog to become a follower of Ragathiel (and his LG allignment). My initial idea was due to revenge against a Hellknight but now I am thinking it could be any specialty class from Cheliax that has devils at their disposal (Urtog vehemently hates devils). I would like to keep within the lore of Pathfinder and want to have a compelling and accurate back story for Urtog to justify his path to vengeance as a chosen of Ragathiel. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

-Tireless


What background do you have so far? What race? Where did Urtog grow up?


Here is the outline so far:

•Conceived during a violent act on mother.
oOrc father and human mother.
oMother was from the northwestern plains between Aspodell Mountains and Five Kings Mountains.

•Mother died during child birth which was common for human mothers giving birth to half-orcs.
oKnowing she would likely die during child birth, his mother prayed to Ragathiel to give her son strength to avenge the impending death of herself and her village kin. (Urtog does is not aware of these prayers).
oFeat - Sacred Conduit.

•Grew up in an orphanage with other Half-Orcs (of similar circumstance).
oOrphans were trained as soldiers to defend the frontier (wilds & Chelaxian).

•Orphanage was set-up by the, now vanquished, Baron Galdur Vendikon (recent Baron of Piren’s Bluff) (Post Tower of the Last Baron Pathfinder campaign).
oOrphanage is a holdover from his reign.
oOrphanage currently presides a few miles outside of Piren’s Bluff.
oOrphanage is known throughout the land as an acceptable place of refuge for people in this situation.
oResidences respect and accept these orphans as members of their society and feel their mission is a noble cause.
Following Andoran principles of freedom and democracy for all.
oAfter 5 years of service the orphan if can leave the state service to pursue personal goals. However, it is uncommon for anyone in the service to leave.
oSmall part of the overall society.
oTrained to be highly skilled with martial weapons and armor.
Feat – Armor Expert.
Martial Weapon Expert (Paladin Skill).

Should have added this from the beginning. I am now trying to workout his start of adulthood just before he leaves his 5 year service.


If Urtog is unaware of his mother's prayer, what is his reason for choosing to follow an empyreal lord instead of a god, and that empyreal lord specifically?

The article I'm reading says that Ragathiel constantly struggles to overcome his baser instincts- perhaps that can be a recurring struggle with Urtog, and he feels a kinship with that empyreal lord. This leads to him trying to find a method of self-perfection in his struggle.

Also, I really dislike the idea that half-orcs are commonly the result of orc-on-human rape. For one, it's cliched. For another, it's distasteful. Perhaps his father and his mother were both half-orcs that fell in love, or one was half-orc and the other human. You can still kill his mother off if you think it's necessary, but why not have the half-orc father raise his son to always use his strength for good (which leads into the need to overcome your baser instincts)?


Thanks for the feedback thus far. To be honest, I think I asked the wrong question... here is the simple question I would like advice from the members of this board about regarding the lore.

Are there either devils (acting of their own volition) or a specific devil aligned class (Cheliax or otherwise) with power over devils that could be wandering or traveling through northern Andoran (perhaps on other business) that would have no issue attacking a group of say 24 half-orc orphan fighters?

Thanks in advance.


TirelessFiver wrote:

Thanks for the feedback thus far. To be honest, I think I asked the wrong question... here is the simple question I would like advice from the members of this board about regarding the lore.

Are there either devils (acting of their own volition) or a specific devil aligned class (Cheliax or otherwise) with power over devils that could be wandering or traveling through northern Andoran (perhaps on other business) that would have no issue attacking a group of say 24 half-orc orphan fighters?

Thanks in advance.

All of them, really.


Wrong John Silver wrote:
All of them, really.

LOL! That is what I am asking... who is all of them? What classes are you referring to? (I am new to Dnd). Can you elaborate what classes / types of devils to choose from?


TirelessFiver wrote:
Wrong John Silver wrote:
All of them, really.
LOL! That is what I am asking... who is all of them? What classes are you referring to? (I am new to Dnd). Can you elaborate what classes / types of devils to choose from?

As far as the classes are concerned, you only need to know Wizard, Cleric, and Sorcerer. Wizards learn and cast spells, Clerics serve gods and get their spells that way, and Sorcerers have magic innate to them. But any of these can call forth devils and work with them.

As far as the kinds of devils, my recommendation is to grab a Bestiary, or check out the PRD online, turn to the Devils, and start reading. See what strikes your fancy.


Here, read about Dispater. Click around from there.


Sounds good! Thanks for the advice. I had read some pathfinder information on another website about infernal binders but didn't find any detailed information on them and thought I would ask here about it.


Since you're looking for background, the specifics of the class aren't that important. An infernal binder, for example, is a kind of Wizard. There are many ways that a wizard can work with devils, though, so it's more important to come up with the narrative than it is to determine whether the specific background person was an infernal binder or a different sort of wizard.


Since it sounds like you're playing in the PF world of Golarion, how about changing your hatred from devils to Demons?

This would allow you to do something with the whole World Wound and the Demons that habitat it. In PFS, this is the year the Demons have broken out of the World Wound borders and have been raining destruction down on the adjact nations. But leading up to this major event there was hints of plots of cults being lead/helped by Demons.

Which could be where your. Character developed his hatred of them.


Actually, changing to Demons is a good idea. Didn't realize this until following the advice of Wrong John Silver and doing some research on Devils. The current campaign I am a part of one of the members is a tattooed sorcerer (LN alignment) with an imp familiar. Didn't realize imps were only devils, so hating demons would be a way to tie our two character's path together. Additionally, we have vanquished a number of demon's in our travels.

That said, I know Cheliax is aligned with devils, but who is aligned with demons? Can the same basic casters listed above can summon demons just as easily as devils (if aligned properly)?

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