Sage of Red Faith

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The **Sage of Red Faith** or **The Blood Sage** is an antagonistic secondary character, beginning in book 7, Uncrowned. By book 10, his character and backstory has taken shape. He is increasingly hideous in appearance, mannerisms, and behaviour. He is obsessed with Yerin Arelius and teaches her after he dies and becomes a remnant.

## Brief

The **Sage of Red Faith** or **The Blood Sage** is the founder and leader of Redmoon Hall, one of the four Dreadgod Cults. His disciples follow in the wake of the Dreadgod dubbed the Bleeding Phoenix, feeding off the misery and carnage it causes. Red Faith is best known for cloning his Blood Shadow. Before founding the Redmoon Hall cult, he was a genius scientist / soulsmith. He researched Dreadbeasts and spirits.

## Descriptions

The **Sage of Red Faith** or the Blood Sage looks like a skinny white scarecrow. He is one of the oldest Sages on Cradle. He’s crafty and sly and obsessively driven. He is without conscience, willing to sacrifice the entire world for his research into the blood shadows from the Bleeding Phoenix. He is a tall man with white hair to his knees and red lines down from the corner of eyes like red tears. His speech is strange, sometimes able to clearly express himself and other times ranting. The Sage considered it ridiculous to offer servitude to the Bleeding Phoenix and insulted the creature calling it a "fat mutant swollen with power". He is quite analytical and lacks care for the feelings of others and he greatly dislikes his blood shadow who gained its own independence, Redmoon. Red Faith was more willing to kill himself, to throw his soul into the Void, than to be a slave to Redmoon. Red Faith looks down on compassion and believes in cold logic.

> **Red Faith, as seen by Min Shuei, the Winter Sage:**
> The Blood Sage, founder of the Bleeding Phoenix’s cult, looked as though he had no blood in him at all. His skin was as pure white as his hair, which was so long that it reached down to his bare feet. His black-and-red clothes were tight enough to reveal his skeletal frame, and lines of red paint ran down his cheeks from both eyes like tears. He perched on the windowsill, hunched like a monkey, chewing on his thumbnail and staring at her with unnerving intensity. She felt nothing but disgust for this creature. At some point in the past, he was supposed to have been an accomplished researcher, pioneering investigation into dreadbeasts and the nature of spirits.
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> **Red Faith talking to Yerin:**
> The Sage focused on the blood slowly filling the syringe. “I say what I say and do what I do without any regard for the opinion of others...” He pulled the syringe free and dabbed at her skin. “...at all. It has always been strange to me that others don’t do the same.
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> **Red Faith's revelation on why his blood shadow failed to submit to him:**
> In the end, he couldn’t deny the pattern he was seeing. The idea the Blood Icon resonated with, telling him that it contained truth. He didn’t fail because he created an imperfect copy. He failed because he created a perfect one. The Sage of Red Faith had never subordinated himself to the will of others, which he had thought would create an iron will in his Blood Shadow. Instead, it created a Shadow unwilling to work with him. Anything he wanted, he took, because he was working for a higher goal and could put it to better use. He had expected his Shadow to understand the nobility of that purpose, but instead he created a copy that took what it wanted without any consideration for his ambitions. Point by point, the facts became clearer until they were inescapable. The Sage of Red Faith had failed, not because of insufficient preparation or intellect, but because of who he was. This was the knowledge he had sought for most of his career, and now he had it. With this, he could develop a training method that would result in the more reliable creation of humanoid Blood Shadows.
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### His Blood Shadow

#### The Herald of Redmoon Hall

Red Faith carefully fed and nurtured his Blood Shadow. He used this sustenance as a carrot, to control it. When it was strong enough, it escaped and advanced to Herald. It appropriated the name Redmoon. Then it returned to the Sage. So now Red Faith’s clone is an arrogant sot at Herald rank, and not loyal to the Sage.

> The Herald of Redmoon Hall had developed a disastrous ego that fully blinded himself to practicality. For instance, the Herald insisted on being referred to as “Redmoon.” How needlessly confusing.” (Reaper, chapter 6)
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The Sage's Blood Shadow is said to be an exact copy of himself, in reverse. The Herald is red where the Sage is white. He’s worth an extra ally in battle. He created this by feeding blood to his Shadow, as well as his own life madra. It has all the same skills as himself, recreated with blood madra. This is said to be the most powerful and most dangerous use of the Blood Shadow, as it is not fully under one's control, but cooperating because of the provided food.

> Red Faith to Yerin: “In my youth, I devised a method to fuse with my Blood Shadow instead of my own Remnant to grant me the power of a Herald. When I became a Sage, as I knew I would, I could then ascend to Monarch as easily as slipping on a new robe.” His face contorted like it was being pulled in three different directions. “But the treachery and selfishness of my Shadow knew no bounds. It fled from me until it had become a Herald in its own right, so we could no longer become one. “Hear me, girl: feed your Shadow, but do not trust it. Use this aura for its nourishment that it may become a potent weapon, but your will must remain dominant. And do not fuse with it until you become a Sage. Your will is not developed enough, so the blending will result in an imperfect fusion when your Shadow fights you.” (Wintersteel, ch 18)
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## Stalking Yerin

The Blood Sage is fascinated by Yerin and her Blood Shadow, Ruby. He insists on training her. He is completely obsessive. It wouldn’t be surprising if he tries to kidnap her. Yerin, for her part, wants nothing to do with him.

> The Blood Sage ended with, “I have the right to train Yerin Arelius. She has cultivated her Blood Shadow with a technique I created myself. She is, in a sense, my disciple.”(Wintersteel, ch 6)
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> He took one step closer to Northstrider, hopping from one foot to the other like a bird. “Yerin Arelius has laid the foundation for something extraordinary. This could be a breakthrough, not just in our understanding of the Phoenix and Blood Shadow advancement, but in how we all reach Monarch. We have an opportunity here to revolutionize the sacred arts, and I know you are not the sort of fool to let politics blind you to that chance.” Northstrider nodded once. Then he punched the Blood Sage. (Wintersteel chapter 6)
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## Path

The Sage of Red Faith is on the Path of Red Faith. He is a sage with a connection to the Blood Icon and he has demonstrated the ability to bypass Malice's authority. The sage's Path uses blood madra. Red Faith's techniques could not be performed by less skilled sacred artists. Red Faith can heal rapidly so an enemy would have to annihilate him to completely destroy him.

 Forger
 Enforcer

 Ruler
 Blood Icon

## Equipment

### Daggers

Red Faith had a set of nine floating daggers that he stored in his soulspace. Red Faith controls the daggers with his mind. Red Faith controls these daggers in complex patterns.

### Cauldron

Red Faith has a cauldron that is large enough to curl up inside. It is carved with images of spiders, centipedes, snakes, and other crawling creatures. It had been carved from ancient natural treasures soaked in the aura of death and venom. The cauldron was turned into a launcher construct and Red Faith added power to it for years until a shot from the cauldron hits like a monarch. It releases green and black blasts of venom and death madra. Forests die where the blast passes.