Alathos Nevben's page

Alathos has never known anything but the church of Iomedae. He was brought up in the church, told that he was an orphan of war and that not much else was known about his parents. All he knows is that he was brought to the church anonymously as an infant.
Being raised in the church of Iomedae, he was always pushed towards the ideals and physical practices of the order’s revered paladins. He would train with the other initiates, study with them, and even spar with them, but he never felt he was one of them. The sword was always heavy in his hand, the armor too stifling. As he grew older and gained in skill, he would use less and less armor, and practice with fewer weapons. Eventually, he began training completely unarmored using nothing but a wooden practice sword. The simple stick was the only weapon that felt “right” to him.
One day, a passing group of monks partook in the hospitality of the church of Iomedae. After long conversations with the monks he found them to be following the teachings of Aroden himself. Alathos was very familiar with the stories of Aroden from the perspective of the church of Iomedae, but this new outlook shook off what he felt was the heavy hand of the paladins of Iomedae. By the end of the night, he had struck a deal to begin his training with the Monks of Aroden and leave the Church of Iomedae on the day of his 16th birthday.
When the day finally came, Alathos was so excited, he left all of his belongings behind and walked through the night to the mountain temple of the monks. Over the next months of his training, he found that the life of honor did not need to come from heavy armor, thick shields, and valorous battle. He found his way was different. He found that he could inspire others to greater ability with his words alone, and that armor only slowed him down. Over the next year, he trained with the other monks. He excelled with every weapon given to him, but much to his surprise, he actually began to yearn for the swords of his younger years. After much searching in the armory of the temple, he found a single battered sword. Although different from the longswords of his youth, it fit his hands perfectly. The weight and balance was such that he could move freely and effortlessly, unlike the heavy and straight longsword. Coincidentally, he was nearing his graduation from trainee to the rank of Monk of the Order or Aroden. Upon graduation, he chose not to stay with the temple, but instead to travel and bring order and justice to the outside world.
During his travels he encountered many who sought to bring chaos and disorder to the world of Golarion. He had a variety of traveling companions over his early years, ranging from paladins to the offspring of devils, but always with those who upheld the ideals of law and justice. Eventually, he found himself feeling that there were better ways to handle situations than by simple combat. He could stop corruption at that time and save the lives of those immediately around him, but he felt that there was an unlimited number of corrupters and only one of him. It was this thought that gave him his single greatest spark of inspiration of his life. Pursuit of law and justice did not need to limit him to the flowery words of diplomatic action. Instead, he found that he could better serve his goals with a correctly timed deception and achieve even greater success. Even more, he found that he could weave his vast understanding and personal willpower into deceptions far more effectively than even the most silver tongued charlatan.
This change in ideals marks the second big change of Alathos’ life. He began seeking out scrolls and magical texts to better bolster his crusade. He found himself innately attuned to magic the more he used it. He felt his connection to his childhood teachings of Iomedae strengthening, but in a different way than the holy texts. He felt that one should “read between the lines” in order to better understand the true desires of the gods. He could and should do everything in his power to stamp out evil, but there was no reason he had to do it in the manner of the paladins. Alathos had found his true calling as an inquisitor of the church.
Alathos has never felt the need to report to any individual of the church, or ask permission of a bishop. He uses his personal conviction to Iomedae and Aroden to guide his path. Over the course of a decade, Alathos has stamped out evil in every corner of the globe. He has at many times worked directly with the pathfinders, but until recently, never felt to truly be one of them. He knows that he needs alliances with others to function at his best, but finds himself bouncing from one group of individuals to another as his quest for justice draws him to a new den of corruption.
Alathos has been drawn back to his homeland of Taldor. He finds himself traveling with a female Nagaji named Salrann. He feels drawn to her eclectic mix of monastic training, shapeshifting, and spellcasting. While she does not have the conviction towards justice of Alathos, he finds that that goals of the pathfinders bring him resources that he would otherwise never have access to. Additionally, he and Salrann are only sent on the most dangerous missions for the pathfinders, and those types of missions are typically brought about by exactly the type of individuals Alathos seeks to eliminate.