Grum Augur

PERSONALITY:

Grum is a egotistical, unpredictable, rude, selfish, animalistic and scheming. He is a skilled manipulator who has very little concern over other people. Life has kicked the young man down since he was a child, which ended up raising him completely crooked. He lacks empathy and is socially unstable, completely oblivious to other people's feelings. Grum is an extremely proud person and does not tolerate being insulted or hearing his skills belittled. He also is surprisingly smart, very ambitious and curious, almost in a childlike sense, but doesn't know how to use these qualities rightfully and it ends up leading him into a dark path in his life. In summary, with a good childhood and compassionate surroundings he could have become a very good person, but instead he grew up twisted and crooked.

BACKSTORY:

Most of Grum's lore was created with many other people while roleplaying in written form. I'm forever grateful for all of those who participated in making this character what he became. I want to note that everything after the first paragraph has happened in rpg and while there would be so, so much more details about what this character has gone through, I tried to summarize everything as simply as possible.

The RPG setting for this character was a rural glacier island that was habited by viking-like tribes of human shapeshifters. Shapeshifters were of different monster species, and Grum's species were shapeshifters of cervid creatures.

Born in very poor and abusive conditions, Grum never learnt any proper social skills. He became an orphan around the age of 10. The feral child was found and taken into the care of an older hermit known as Volk. He was a healer and an alchemist of sorts, talented and feared by locals and known for preying on the locals as a wolf-like beast. The boy would become an apprentice to this cruel man who only saw him as a tool to gain more power and control. Grum would learn the man's macabre ways and at that cost, become an outcast just like him. And Grum grew up, growing in this twisted environment, becoming even more bitter against the outer world. He started to despise the happy people in the local village, secretly being jealous over their normal lives.

Grum was never as obedient as his master would have wanted. After growing up, the young man started to rebel against the rule of the older man. There were mixed feelings between the both of them - hatred, disgust, anger... mostly growing from a place where neither of them knew how to handle their feelings. At the same time Grum hated how Volk treated him - almost like a filthy pet and a minion, but at the same time the young apprentice felt deep for the man. Volk was his only family, someone who held the keys for Grum's success in the world. And at random times, the master would treat him better; tending to his wounds, trying to apologize for their numerous violent fights... and all of those moments were like a drug to Grum, who held tightly to every kind gesture as they were incredibly rare in his life. To Volk they were confusing, and the older man would even feel regret for their tangled relationship. So, tender moments would quickly turn back into violence, confusion over their own feelings surrounded them both and the two men never found a way to live peacefully together.

After massive and bloody fight with his Master, Grum found a reconnection with a like-minded soul. They both were alone in the world, and would face it together. This woman, Ravana, was Grum's only connection to his original family and life before becoming an apprentice. She herself had grown bitter towards the surrounding world after many hardships, and meeting Grum after so many years it felt like they both had found something to hold on in the world. There was a confrontation between them and Volk, which was the final wound to the apprentice's and master's relationship. Grum sided with Ravana, and they agreed to travel far away, leaving their past life behind. But it turned out that all of it was too hard for Grum to let go.

Grum had always been hungry for power. He had always been the one controlled, belittled and ordered around. Grum had built a massive ego for himself, he wanted to surpass his Master's work and become accepted and admired among his people. But as fate would show, he never learnt the proper ways to find acceptance with others. He was so ignorantly sure of his own skills and talents in the art of healing, magic and alchemy, that he even abandoned his Master's warnings of laws of Nature. Grum twisted them, thinking that he had found ways to become unstoppable, a messiah who could heal anyone from anything, maybe even death itself. In truth, he had no idea what kind of powers he was messing with, and all of his unnatural tests started to turn to worse. He had used magical healing powers of rare crystals and corrupted them into something dangerous.

But for now, the reputation of the young man grew. Grum took the name Augur as his own, calling himself a priest for their people's old goddess, healing people in her name. Soon there even were followers, a small but quickly growing group of people who disagreed with their home village's current leader. Grum had his own twisted views of their religion, views that would coincidentally depict him himself in a better light. He was the one who would bring their people back to their old worshipping ways, and they would become stronger with his help. The quickly formed cult started to take form, and so did the hunger towards power and authority in the Augur's mind.

The final twist of fate was the death of Grum's master. The late apprentice had returned to his home, to confront his master once and for all - to show what greatness he had achieved. But there was a grim sight of blood on the outside stairs of his former home. A strange man claimed that the villagers had finally turned against the old hermit, who had become a frightening character in the local tales. Grum was in turmoil - he had wanted to overthrow his Master, but now he felt intense sadness and bitterness over the loss of the man who had taken care of him all those years. He didn't even know which was worse, the fact that Volk was dead, or the fact that he himself was robbed of the chance to kill his master himself. But this would not stop him, on the contrary, it was a push that finally started the real chaos.

Grum's research over the divine magic of his homeland had turned into grim theories of immortality. Finally, Grum and Ravana decided to perform a dangerous ritual of blood and alchemy. A corrupted magical gem was embedded into both of their bodies. As Grum and Ravana thought that it would make them into gods, its power would grow out of control, twisting both of their bodies as time passed. The gems would heal and regenerate their wounds, but it was too powerful. Volk had warned Grum to use the gems carefully - they should've always been removed after healing was finished, but Grum was arrogant. He didn't see the warning signals of the corruption. 

Then there was a revolution. After making a deal with a local tribe of old bear-blooded soldiers, Grum's cult took over the village. There was a bloody fight, half of the village burning down in a fiery blaze. After the bloody night, Grum crowned himself as the king, thus starting a dark era in the local history. The cult's rule was cruel and bloody, the young king was growing even more deluded, completely drunk with power. He was despised and feared by the locals, and as time passed on, it all took its toll on Grum. He grew paranoid, even angrier and violent than before. The young man would wander the halls of the cold castle, talking alone, wearing the horned skull of his deceased master as a mask. 

Finally Grum had turned against even the closest people in his life, banishing them from his life. The rule of the mad king was weakening quickly and the cult's numbers started to crumble. Grum only had Ravana left by his side, their twisted relationship continuing to fuel each others' delusions. After crowning Ravana to a queen to rule alongside of him, the villagers had started to fight back. Grum's rule was slipping away. The point of no return arrived in a night of cold winter, when an old friend of Grum's returned to the castle to challenge him. The corrupted magic within the mad king's body had weakened him into a monstrous shadow of himself, and if it wasn't for Ravana, Grum would have died by his friend's sword. Instead queen saved him, and they fled. Only to be followed by one of Grum's closest servants, who wasn't ready to let them get away alive. He had seen the cruelness of their rule, their ways, and was determined to stop them. He was the one who had lied to Grum about his master's death. He had blamed the village, and witnessed how far Grum was ready to go to punish them.

In the end no-one would be able to become the king's slayer, nor the queen's. Their escape lead to a frozen lake in the wilderness. For a moment it seemed like Grum and Ravana would be able to escape with the current of the lake, but the ice beneath their legs started to crack. As their eyes locked in with each other, they knew what would happen, and how there was no more escape. The curse of the land finally lifted, and the lake would be known as the grave of the two cursed rulers, whose bodies finally sleep peacefully in the bottom of the freezing lake.