Molgorath Vermintide

The rodent whisperer himself

## Appearance

Unnerving, ugly, maybe terrifying? Words fail to explain just how this creature appears. Like a regular ratfolk, he is of short stature, covered in greasy fur, and has jagged teeth, but this one is different. Everything about him screams that there's something amiss. It could be the mottled, patchy, black fur unevenly growing across his body, caked with grime and filth; It could be the sickly way he smirks when he hears something funny; It could be his blood red eyes that stare straight into your soul. Any of those things would be quite strange, after all, but it's probably the boils, scars, and lesions that fester across his form, never healing.

Even still, looking past all of that, there are his monstrous companions to strike fear into the hearts of onlookers. Harbinger, his mount and closest companion, is quite a sight to behold. Covered in muscles and having a pale blue coat, this towering riding rat has clearly had some questionable "enhancements" done to it. Unusual as these differences may be, the claws and teeth stained red by blood speak to the effectiveness for themselves.

His other two accomplices, his loyal dire rats named Pestilence and Plague, follow in his wake like the disease-ridden monsters they are. Pestilence, the male rat, has a presence that seems to suck the life out of everything around him. His impossibly dark black fur seems to steal the very light from his surroundings, while his blood red eyes sunder the hopes and any semblance of joy from onlookers. Plague, the female rat, appears to be a failed biological experiment. With glowing, oozing green lumps and a foul-smelling drool coming from the mouth, it's a wonder this rat hasn't caused an epidemic.

## Personality

Whatever his brutish, ugly appearance may imply, Molgorath is a prime example that appearances can be deceiving. Yes, he can certainly be described as evil, even insane, but not in the way one would think. Though he looks like a psychopathic killer, his brand of evil is much more calculated, taking more risks than some others would dare, but still remaining rational in his decisions. For example, while he certainly would kill a pleading civilian in a dark alley, he would not do so in front of witnesses, unless he also planned to kill them.

In the same light, he is very confident in himself, to a point of narcissism, but he does not underestimate the skills of others. If a large warrior who looks like he has just slaughtered an army comes in his way, he will try several means to avoid violent confrontation. This is not because of any doubt it his own ability to destroy the man, but simply because it would be much easier to coerce him through words than risk injury fighting such an opponent.

Speaking of words, Molgorath is in fact quite good with them. Lying, charming, and scaring creatures of all sorts comes naturally to the ratfolk, despite his nefarious demeanor. When need calls, he could sell ice to an Eskimo, scare away a paladin, or even buddy up to the likes of Asmodeus. Of course, as evil as he is, all this talk is idle, fake nonsense existing only to further his rodent empire.

On that topic, Molgorath's main goal in life is the advancement of rodent-kind, especially ratfolk, to what be believes to be their rightful place over all lifeforms. He wants to conquer the surface for those who have lived underground far too long, eliminating all who oppose him. For non-rodents, he has a simple outlook: Those who seek to stop him, he seeks to eliminate; Those who are neutral, he seeks to enslave; Those who help him, well, they will see what underground life was like for those they oppressed.

## Backstory

### Birth

Molgorath was born to a family of rather wealthy ratfolk, in fact, one of the few ratfolk families to live comfortably surface-side. The lap of luxury for a newborn of his kind, and he was in it... for about a day. See, Molgorath's uncanny features weren't all results of a life of evil; he was born with many of the disturbing qualities of his appearance. His parents, deciding they did not want their place of comfort jeopardized by such a child, abandoned him in the sewers of Absalom. After all, yet another rat in those sewers would go unnoticed by society at large.

Yes, there were plenty of ratfolk living under the city at the time, and many would pass through the sewers from time to time, and a good number certainly would have seen the infant Molgorath alone and destitute. However, underground ratfolk are a very busy, poor sort of creature, none of them having time to care for another child, so, naturally, he was left to rot. Luckily for Molgorath, a baby ratfolk is quite small, and very easily mistaken for an especially large dire rat infant. As such, the infant was eventually taken in by a wandering pack of dire rats. They fed him, sheltered him, and, over time, raised him.

### Early Life

As a ratfolk who'd spent all his life being raised by actual rats rather than his more human-like kin, Molgorath had a strange childhood. Like a human child raised by apes, he developed a very strong bond with his rodent-kin, learning their ways and even their language. However, he eventually started to spot differences between himself and his surrogate family. Not only was he beginning to get drastically larger than them, but he was the only one able to walk on two legs.

It was only a matter of time before his developing mind put the pieces together that he was in fact one of those giant, two-legged rats he'd been seeing in the sewers, and not actually a dire rat. This news hit him hard. Everything he thought he knew about life had to be reformed, and the person he once thought he was was now entirely different. The only fact that he could take solace in was that he was at least still technically a rodent.

That's when it clicked. RODENT. That's what mattered! Nothing else. If he kept telling himself that, he could maintain himself. And so he repeated it, and repeated it, and repeated it. It allowed him to integrate himself into the ratfolk society and stay in dire rat society without worry. It gave him purpose. What was at first a half-hearted truth became his new reality; it became the new central core belief to shape him. Rodents were all that mattered, and he would proclaim it to the world.

### Rise From the Sewers

Growing up underground, Molgorath would hear stories of the surface world and its splendor, but he would never really grasp the idea until, one day, he saw it for himself. On a normal day spent better integrating himself into the new society he now knew he was part of, he found a passage leading out of the underground. This blindingly bright light signed his eyes even stepping near it, but he was as curious as he was ugly, so he charged through.

There it was: Absalom in all its splendor. Merchant stalls, real houses, and extravagant goods caught his eye, but the most splendorous of all was the Ascendant Court in the backdrop. A beautiful, magnificent part of the city that he soon found to be contrasted by its intolerable residents. Snooty, aloof, and drugged with power, these surface-swelling beings disgusted Molgorath. The more of humanity he saw, the less he liked it. Eventually, it got him to wondering why his kind were not up here, experiencing this wealth, but instead toiling away in tunnels below. Wonder turned to resentment, and resentment... to action.

He went back to the sewers, grabbing his a few of his most trusted companions, and set out upon the world, at every turn trying to cement rodents as the true ruling race they deserved to be.