Dredgen Bog

**Afa Kashaf**-- known better by the sobriquet **Dredgen Bog**-- was a human Hunter, erstwhile member of the Shadows of Yor, and nominal leader of the Shadows of Salvation. Driven into a spiteful hatred of the Traveler caused by a collapse of faith in the Light, Bog was a venomous enemy, notorious for his sharpshooting skill. He rarely let his face be seen, as his face had been disfigured by a hideous scar that had festered and refused to heal. Dredgen Bog met his final death during the Battle of Eventide at the end of Shin Malphur's Golden Gun. His Ghost's name is **Djinn**.

#### Appearance

A tall, dusky-skinned human male, Kashaf had dark hair and dark eyes, with unshaven stubble across his jaw. He notably sported a crescent moon tattoo around his right eye, and a tattoo of the Shadowsmiths' sigil on his left forearm. However, more noticeable were his scars. He had a burn scar on his chest from a Hive Shredder, but more infamously a scar left by a Hive Cleaver above his left eye and going back across his skull. This latter injury never properly healed, despite every effort and multiple death-resurrection cycles, and over time, began to fester. By the time of his final death, the wound had sunken further into his skull, leaving his eye discolored with scleritis and causing the flesh on the left side of his face to begin to sag.

Bog, during his time in hiding or on the run, frequently changed up his armor to avoid notice, but had a tendency to prefer wearing helmets with masks that resembled gasmasks, eventually settling on a Skerren Corvus Mask. Regardless, he rarely took his mask off, sensitive about his disfigurement.

#### Personality

Kashaf's early life as a Lightbearer left him plagued with doubts about his role as a Guardian and doubts about the strength of the Light. This was borne out of repeated tragedies, with several settlements that he came upon during this time period being wiped out not long after his arrival. These doubts started to wane as he reached the Last City and found some purpose as an acquisitions expert for organizations such as the Praxic Order, showing a talent for hunting down and retrieving artifacts and books for their collection.

However, his doubts returned after the Battle of Burning Lake, where he suffered his injury, and after hearing of the Great Disaster. He began seeking solace in some of the books of the Praxic Archive, until he read the *Umbranomicon*. The writings of Toland within the book exacerbated his concerns, possibly due to confirmation bias, and his faith in the Traveler was shaken greatly. It collapsed completely after Red War Lightloss, and whatever stabilizing influence that his friend Damon Geist might have given him was gone following his capture and execution. This left Dredgen Bog a nihilistic madman with no real direction, lashing out with no real end goal, though it was suspected he intended to use Magda-9's paracausal superweapon to destroy the Traveler.

Bog showed a great antipathy toward the Fallen, unsurprising given their culpability in the destruction of the settlements he tried to protect. Likewise he had a hatred for the Hive after his injury, though he had no compunctions against using their ways or their tech to further his own power. Similarly, there was a dislike for the Cabal after the Red War, but it was nowhere near as strong as his hate for Fallen or Hive.

#### History

Afa Kashaf was Risen in the vicinity of the Arabian Marshlands. Anecdotes collected concerning his activities indicate he had moved from settlement to settlement, guided to protect them, but most of these settlements were later targeted by Fallen raiding parties and subsequently wiped out, with only Kashaf surviving, due to his Ghost hiding until the Fallen had moved on. This is believed to be where his persistent doubts in the Light began. He eventually made his way to the Last City, where he found purpose in helping to scout the nearby regions for enemy presences, learning how to wield the Light more effectively. He distinguished himself during the Battle of Six Fronts in helping defend the area of what would later become Botza District, preventing this from becoming a beachhead for the Fallen forces.

Kashaf later took part in the Battle of Burning Lake, one of the first major offensives against the Hive on Earth, and it was here that he suffered two injuries which would leave scars. He took a shot from a Hive Shredder in the chest that staggered him and left him to fall to a Hive Cleaver. Hive magic had gotten in through the latter wound and left him restricted from the Light for a prolonged period, and as a result, he did not take part in the Battle of Luna. He later recovered his Light and was able to begin taking fieldwork again, but now the doubts had returned.

It was during this period that he began taking contract work for the Cryptarchy and Praxic Order, recovering books and artifacts. He showed a propensity for seeking ones that were considered proscribed, and it was during this time that he showed an interest in Hive artifacts. It is presumed Kashaf may have been looking for a way to undo the curse which was preventing his head wound from properly healing. It must be noted that few people were aware of the issues he was having, as he was showing the typical Hunter 'lone wolf' mentality and eschewing socialization.

However, Kashaf's interest in Hive artifacts and any kind of power he could get to try to heal himself brought him into contact with Callum Sol (aka Dredgen Cull), who would recruit him into the Shadows of Yor, among whom Kashaf would adopt the moniker **Dredgen Bog**. This in turn brought him into contact with Damon Geist (aka Dredgen Teufel), who would become one of his few friends and stabilizing influences. That being said, as stabilizing as Teufel might have been, he was also a corruptive influence, as he nurtured Bog's gradual nihilistic mindset and encouraged him to continue to plunder knowledge from the Praxic Archives.

This led to Bog accessing and reading the *Umbranomicon*, after which his behavior underwent a noticeable change. He stopped attempting to hide his more reckless tendencies, even flaunting the use of a Thorn replica during Crucible matches. Bog shared his newfound knowledge with Teufel and the rest of his cohort, including Magda-9 and The Ruiner, as they began to radicalize and splinter away from the Shadows of Yor.

The Red War and the Lightloss that came with it made tracking Bog's activities difficult, but it was within these months that Shin Malphur began his purge and hunt of the Shadows of Yor, including his vigilante execution of Dredgen Cull. The stresses of the Red War Lightloss and the loss of a mentor figure did not improve Bog's mental instabilities, especially after the Praxic Order tracked down their cohort (now calling itself the **Shadows of Salvation**). Several of them were captured, including Teufel, who expressed no remorse for his actions and refused redemption, leading to his execution and Final Death.

Left now in command of the Shadows of Salvation, Bog went to ground again, only surfacing to attack non-civic settlements ("Wilders"), unaffiliated Eliksni camps, and Reefborn outposts, as well as to raid storehouses and various ruins of import. Magda-9 had been orchestrating this, using Bog and his propensity for finding things to collect materiel and resources needed for her own experiments and manufacture of Weapons of Sorrow, including Bog's custom linear fusion rifle, the Huntsman Longbore. Following the arrival of the Black Fleet in the system, Bog would finally surface frequently enough for the Praxic Order to begin tracking him again, beginning with his infiltration of the Loyalist Cabal ship *Glykon Volatus*, where he extracted a component of the Crown of Sorrow for Magda, for unknown purposes. He was sighted numerous times across the system following this incident, perpetrating various thefts and burglaries from various sources.

Investigation of these incidents led to the conclusion that Magda-9 may have been building a weapon which could pose a threat to the Traveler, resulting in a fireteam being assembled by Wahei Ohr to track and take down the Shadows of Salvation, ultimately accomplished within the ruins of Eventide upon the Jovian moon Europa. Bog fell in his Final Death after a protracted conflict with Ohr's fireteam, with the death blow coming via Golden Gun from Shin Malphur himself. His Ghost was captured by Donovan Morgan and turned over to the Praxic Order.

#### Abilities

**Golden Gunslinger:** Kashaf had studied most permitted Hunter teachings, but favored the art of the Gunslinger first and foremost, opting to wield the Golden Gun. He showed a talent for this ability that has only been noted by a handful of other Hunters, in that he was capable of casting his Light into his weapon, rather than 'drawing one from the Light itself,' as most Hunters do.

**Poison Gunslinger:** During the Battle of Eventide, Kashaf demonstrated the capability of combining his Golden Gun talent with the use of his Thorn, making the shots deal additional corrosive damage.

**Exploding Knives:** Kashaf was also capable of wielding the Burning Knives, infusing them with explosive force.

**Lost Bladedancer:** Though he preferred the style of the Gunslinger, Kashaf was not incapable of using other forms of Light, having called upon the style of the Arcstrider, though he showed he still recalled how to draw upon the Arc Blade of a Bladedancer.

**Stasis User:** Kashaf was a known Stasis wielder, using it to call up whirling clouds of ice crystal and fog to obscure his movements to evade capture and flank his opponents.

**Tracking Expert:** As a Hunter, Kashaf was an expert tracker and had a knack for running down items requested for bounties and contracts, going into ruins across the system to find them.

**Sharpshooter:** Kashaf was an expert marksman, capable of landing shots from considerable distance, favoring long-distance exchanges of fire than up-close combat.

#### Equipment

Dredgen Bog had a variety of weapons that he was prone to use, but he favored long-distance precision weapons, being a sharpshooter. This included scout rifles, sniper rifles, and linear fusion rifles, though he also favored hand cannons, as a Gunslinger. These are two of the more notable weapons in his arsenal:

**Thorn:** Bog wielded a replica of the infamous Weapon of Sorrow, crafted for him by Magda-9. This was his preferred primary weapon, and he could infuse it with Light from the Golden Gun, so the "Golden Thorn" shots would deal extra corrosive damage.

**Huntsman Longbore:** A bespoke linear fusion rifle made by Magda-9, crafted out of a Hive Boomer. Its rounds would also deal poison damage and could punch through light cover.