The Butcher had a troubled past. Born within a cult in Avistan, he was born, bred, and raised as a warrior. With other spawn of the world wound like himself he terrorized the countryside at the behest of his
mothers. Their coven was one that followed a patron... something that dwelt within the worldwound. They did not entirely understand its desires or commands, but the power it gave them was undeniable. Periodically one of them would be called to travel out into the wastes alone. None ever spoke of who or what they encountered there, but when each returned, she was with child. The butcher was one such child.
Butcher was among the force sent to destroy one of the Wardstones in an action that led to the Fourth Mendevian Crusade. When the invasion of the Storm King was repulsed, those responsible were rounded up, and Butcher was among those captured, though he did not go peacefully, and the capture was not without the shedding of blood. After his capture, a startling revelation came to light, that the Witches of the Coven, his mothers, called so because he was never told which one had actually birthed him, were found to have been using compulsive magic to win many of their warriors over, some had been subjected to the magic for years. The Butcher ended up in a circumstance where he became honestly confused about whether he had been a willing participant in the attacks or not.
Given the doubt around their complicity, Butcher and other warriors, particularly the children and young ones, they were given over to the church to be assessed, observed, taught, and if necessary, contained. Many could not overcome their training and conditioning. These escaped, or attempted the same, and either fled into the Worldwound or found some place to carve out chaos and death. Death or imprisonment was the usual result. Guilt overwhelmed others, and they either languished in it, or joined forces with the defenders, effectively changing sides. Butcher found a mentor; a priest of Erastil who was able to give him a new perspective. While unaware of whether he had been in charge of his actions during the Crusade and before, what he had learned of the world, and the Worldwound convinced him that he did not want the Storm King to succeed. Confusion gave him the desire to get far away from Avistan and the Worldwound and create a new life.
He found a town and worked hard to be respected there, despite his demonic visage. He found he believed in the tenets of hard work and self reliance taught by Erastil, and that he wanted to contribute and make something. However, he found the only skill he had was with blood. He was not squeemish in the least, and knew well how to hew muscle and bone, and found he could adapt these skills to learning how to butcher animals. Now his name, given to him originally to inspire fear and loathing, was now a simple description of what he did. He met a woman, married and had children. Like any faithful of Erastil, he worked hard with skill and pride, and created a home.
