Juandice

ABOUT

Juandice is one of the few (and the most dedicated!) members of the rot cult, a very small cult that worships rot, decay and mushrooms. He roams the land knocking on doors and preaching the gospel of the rot, in hopes of recruiting more people to the cult.

Juandice is very optimistic and cheerful despite following a cult centered around morbid beliefs. He’s not very used to dealing with people, which often makes him come off as odd and creepy. He is very faithful to his beliefs, and because of his inexperience in socializing, sometimes too trusting of other people, which makes him someone very easy to fool.

He’s determined in trying to recruit new members to his cult, but unfortunately his excessive determination and energy often leads to him being overly-persistent and scaring people off... he can’t help but sulk sometimes, but always manages to keep his chin up and continue on with his mission. Life's too short to be sad! 

Whenever he does feel sad however, he has the (bad) habit of headbutting a tree repeatedly until he forgets what he was sad about. This has led him to be rather forgetful at  times.

BACKSTORY

Juandice was born in a remote village near the mountains, son of a shepherd father and a pianist mother. He was raised to take over his father's job eventually and continue their wool selling business. As a child he was very energetic and liked to wander off on his own, specially whenever he was taken to the fields, much to his father's dismay. 

One day, one of his father's sheep went missing, and after a day of searching for it to no results, his father decided to call it a day and search for it in the woods in the morning. Little Juandice who was a small child with no concept of time, thought there was still plenty of sunlight time left to search in the woods still, and went on his own wanting to make his father happy when he found the sheep. Instead he quickly became lost, and fell down a ditch where he found the sheep, foul-smelling, dead and rotting, covered in maggots and flies. The sight greatly traumatized him and triggered a fear of death in the small goat, who panickedly roamed the woods in circles until he was found hours later by his (very worried) father.

At some point in Juan's childhood, his parents had another child, named Pipsqueak, who was born too early, having a frail and sick body. Juandice immediately became very attached and protective of his younger brother, as did his parents, which may have resulted in them being overprotective and spoiling Pipsqueak a little too much. When Juan was 14, Pipsqueak became mysteriously ill and died in a matter of days. This uncovered his phobia of death once more, and Juandice became fearful and paranoid of the mortality of his loved ones and his own, barely ever leaving the house and becoming antisocial. 

Hearing about a troubled youth in the village, a local cultist named Father Rot came to visit Juandice, claiming to have the solution to his fears and worries. Juan was introduced and recruited to the Rot Cult, a cult that worships the process of rot and decay, believing death to be a form of giving life back to the earth by allowing other creatures to flourish, forming an endless cycle of life and death. Juandice became obsessed with the cult's liturgy down to an unhealthy level, and while he no longer felt fear or terror of death, he continued his antisocial tendencies as he preferred to pray by himself for long periods of time.

His parents, worried that their son would never go back to being the happy goat he once was, lied to him that he was given a special mission by Father Rot to travel and recruit more members, hoping that by doing this they could distance him from the creepy mushroom cult and that by meeting new people, he could finally clear his head and return as a changed person. However, Juandice took this mission to heart, and vowed to not return until he had recruited enough members to make the cult and his family proud, believing himself to be a disappointment if he didn't.

Considering his poor social skills, creepy cult background, and overall being really annoying, he hasn't been able to recruit a single member yet, which surprises exactly no one.

LIKES                                  

• Mushrooms (not for eating though!)
• Chewing on things
• Friendly people
• Salty foods
• Climbing on high places

DISLIKES

• Winter
• Getting doors slammed on his face
• Overly dismissive/skeptical people
• Being fooled or lied to
• Shirts that don’t have buttons (his horns won’t fit!)
• When people harvest mushrooms for eating

TRIVIA

• Not a picky eater, but prefers other foods over meat. Will eat moss if he has to.
• He considers cremating the dead and consuming mushrooms blasphemy.
• He’s very good at balancing things, and balancing himself on things.
• Good mountain climber
• Keeps a knife in his boot, it has a hand-carved wooden handle. It used to belong to his little brother.
• His mother taught him how to play the piano, but he’s out of practice.
• The cut in his ear was made when his little brother got a hold of a pair of shearing scissors.
• If one slams the door on him before he’s finished speaking, he WILL stand outside their window ominously for a very long time.