Raza Shad Zogby's page

About Raza Shad Zogby

Description:
Light brown short hair and brown eyes with peach fuzz beard and mustache. Of Qadiran descent. Pale skin for one from Qadira. Just slightly shorter than average with a wiry frame. Fairly non-descript with an un-smiling, serious demeanor. Pale tan leather armor with brown leather backpack. Light crossbow hangs from leather tongs at waist along with a rapier on the opposite side, and a sheathed dagger near where the crossbow hangs at his right side. Pale olive loose-fitting shirt beneath leather armor, pale green loose pants, and white cloth-wrapped feet.

Background:
Raza Shad was born to a young father (Shad Nazih Zogby) and mother (Shahrizad Yunus Zogby) in the mountainous lands north of Gurat in Qadira. His father had some dealings with the Pathfinder Society in his very early adulthood, but chose to settle down with his wife as a shepherd to start a family after he tired of the Society and city life. Raza Shad's father died of a virulent disease that swept through the lands when Raza Shad was an infant.
As a widow with no living family members on either side, Shahrizad Yunus was taken in by one of the area families with her infant son after her mandatory period of mourning. Their flocks were assumed by this family as payment for taking them in. The widow and her son were not mistreated, but neither were they accorded the respect of full family members. Raza Shad's mother found her place as a nanny to the children of the family and helped with other household chores and labor. Raza Shad became trained to care for the sheep as a shepherd boy as he grew out of young childhood.
When he was eight years old, outlanders came into the village searching for his father. His mother was slain by these foreigners, and it is suspected that it had something to do with Shad Nazih's prior Pathfinder Society dealings. Normally, an orphan would be handled by the local religious authorities as a charity case, but due to the Zogby family's admittedly non-religious views, the fact that he had an adopted family to care for him, and that his adopted family appreciated the boy's shepherding skills (fearlessness and superior talent with the sling for driving off predators), he was allowed to remain in the care of his adopted family, the Totah family.
As his mother and father were before him, he has an atheistic world view. If there were truly gods, then would they allow the atrocities of the world that he had experienced in his life? While the Totah family were dedicated in faith solely to Sarenrae, as Raza Shad grew older, he increasingly distanced himself from the religious ceremonies and traditions that they celebrated.
Raza Shad is not vengeful. He holds no ill will toward the Pathfinder Society, but rather, he is intrigued by this shadowy world that his father was once a part of. He also sees it as a means to gain greater wealth and stature within the world.
Upon the age of majority, Raza Shad was released by the Totah family to do as he pleased with himself. There were no tearful goodbyes as he left his homeland of 16 years for the sights and wonders of Absalom.
Raza Shad has a rather animal-like view of ethics and morality. Those who have strength, speed, and cunning take what they need to survive from those who are not their equal. There are no gods, magic is full of mystery and to be desired for the power it can bring, wealth is a means to ends as well as status, and sometimes things happen for no good reason at all. Things just happen.
While he doesn't go out of his way to proclaim his disdain for religion, he also doesn't believe there to be any difference between divine and arcane magic. To Raza Shad, they are one and the same, and those who claim to be using divine power are only fooling themselves, either accidentally or purposefully.
He deals with all adversity as best he is able to cope with it with the talents he was born with. No one can take care of Raza Shad better than Raza Shad. Since those talents include a fairly strong body, superb speed, excellent agility, and a keen sense of awareness in both surroundings and personal motivations of others, he has taken easily to the life of a rogue in the city of Absalom as he seeks for membership in the Pathfinder Society and the wealth and status it will bring him.