Roog

In the dark from whence the end is found, new beginnings are born.

## Summary

Roog is the demi-god of Demise and Reincarnation created by Katharsos and Kalmar during the Age of Monsters. As a demi-god, Roog calls the sphere of Galbar his home and has spent the vast majority of his time on the continent of his making, Kalgrun. Roog was born from the energies given freely by Katharsos and Kalmar to the nascent soul naturally formed in the severed eye of Fenris. As a creature born from the soul ash of Katharsos, Roog is a staunch supporter of the God of Death's methods. He is known as a thoughtful god, slow to action, and is the progenitor and patron of several species of both sapient and non-sapient life. Above all, Roog prioritizes active opposition to cruelty towards the mortal races from all sources and seeks to benefit or assist mortals as often as possible.

## Parentage

It was from the lost eye of Fenris, taken in battle by the beast known as Vakk’s Hunter, that the creature that would be Roog was created. Though the eye was inert upon its finding, a great deal of power had been poured into the beast from whence it had been lost and where power resides, creation can persist. This potential surprised and interested the Hunter-God of manly shape, so prodigious he was in the creation of the life that now flourished across the continents of the Center Sphere. The beat of something deep inside that lost eye called to him, promising potential in its depths like no other. It was from this eye that Kalmar formed life in the body of the young wolf to be born.

Despite his considerable power, the ability to bring life from where there was loss was a difficult thing; a life forged from corpses is, in many ways, not life at all. But the empty vessel had seemed to pull to it great power and within the period of its creation the body of the young wolf had filled with a soul notably different from those that entered the hearts of the other creatures in Kalmar’s creation. Even as the young whelp drew its first breaths its body shuddered and form gave no thanks to its creation, rebelling against the life it had been granted. In a desire to not only protect this new life he had created but, as well, to assuage his own curiosities, Kalmar brought the small life to Katharsos, Lord of the Sky of Pyres.

In the eyes of the Prince of Astral Fires the vast soul of the wolf-to-be blazed with potential; in this creature Katharsos saw purpose, potential that aligned well with future plans. A blaze of cleansing, divine flame entered what would be Roog and burned him from heart outwards as his very veins were inflamed. The cleansing nature of that divine spark mixed with the power of Kalmar’s blood so offered as sustenance, coalescing into a divine essence unique and distinct from its parentage. His birth came as a blast of black flame, singing hair and scorching the sky. Thus was Roog born, mighty and aware, and with one name burning in his mind.

## Portfolios

### Demise

With panicked minds and hearts racing, all things dread the end. Roog, Eye of Fenris Wolf, Progeny of Katharsos and Kalmar, personifies such an end in the eyes of sheep and shepherds alike. In the vein of his illuminated father, Roog stalks the mortal coil as a figure of death and a herald of endings. Unlike his heavenly father, however, Roog does not simply guide the dead. As the wolf he was sired from or the man-god who gave his blood, Roog is ultimately one who brings death and who ends lives prematurely.

His Portfolio is Demise, the end that all things must one day suffer. But in the eyes of the great wolf, what he heralds is mercy. He is the merciful end of the elderly, who’s joints creek and eyes falter, and whom burden their families with their frailty as no creature wishes. He is the final sight seen by the wounded and sick, who’s life before them begets only pain. He is the end of wailing babes and weak children, who would spend their lives in agony before winking out in their mother’s arms. Roog is the finality of a cycle born of nature, with no amount of cruelty borne by its solemn purpose.

In that way, Roog’s portfolio relates not to the afterlife, but the moment before the end. Where his heavenly creator is a protector of souls, Roog is a destroyer of lives. His strength is violence and destruction, as is the way of Kalmar’s wolves, and his movements are swift and silent before his inevitable arrival. He is empowered in acts of death, particularly the ending of life in swift and merciful ways, and has a distinct connection with souls and entities of their ken. The young wolf is, above all things, a creature of struggle and endurance as all strong creatures in nature must be, prone to conflict and resistant to suffering of all kinds.

Demise, as a portfolio, imparts considerable power to end lives; increased skill in individual combat, the ability to sense the suffering and dying, and the ability to calm and ease the passing of those he finds. Beyond these more direct abilities, Roog's portfolio provides for more esoteric powers. Roog may bless objects to me more deathly, such as imparting a painless end through a glass of water. As well as these more physical qualities, Demise allows for Roog to interact with souls easily. The recently departed may be brought back temporarily, to communicate to their loved ones or the demigod himself, or even perhaps be returned to a body temporarily to recount their tale. Other such powers over souls exist to Roog, but none are permanent and last no longer than several days without considerable effort by the deity. Much like Katharsos, Roog can actively perceive souls both occupying mortal forms as well as those released from such constraints.

### Reincarnation

Through intentional and considerable effort, Roog has sought to detach himself from the singular directness of his nature. Over a century of life has instilled a better understanding of mortality than Roog had first been granted upon his creation and time spent alongside mortals has only exacerbated this awareness. In seeking to understand his own existence and desiring to experience life and death in ways his mortal ken could, Roog endeavored to end his own life prematurely as befitted by his nature as a God of Demise. In committing this first act of divine suicide Roog's soul was afflicted by visions of an oblivion alien to his own expectations and of an unknown entity, later revealed to be the self-extinguished deity Seihdhara .

This experience shaped Roog's outlook on mortality considerably and drove him down a path of self-reflection and introspection. These acts, alongside the creation and shepherding of the Vallamir, drove Roog to change his conclusions on the nature of life. In doing so, Roog experienced the lives of mortals in a way that further increased his understanding and cemented his belief that life, though fragile and eventually destined to end, was singularly unique and deserving of existence. A further realization of the cyclical nature of reality drove Roog to adopt an assumption of reincarnation, positing that the life currently experienced by all entities on Galbar was one of many to be lived on the path to enlightenment and the eventual disillusion of the self.

Through countless acts of introspection and divine action Roog fully adopted the portfolio of Reincarnation into his deific powerset. The portfolio of Reincarnation deals with the act of bringing something that has died back to life in a completely new form or the ending of life so new life can begin. Reincarnation, limited by the philosophy Roog ascribes to, cannot bring back the dead as they were and specifically creates a distinctly different entity than the one that passed on. In addition, the act of reincarnation innately alters the spiritual makeup of the entity involved; the soul that leaves the world will never be returned fully the same, having taken on more soul dust and fundamentally altering the identity of the deceased.

## Persona

At the point of his creation Roog began his life with a dour sense of purpose, directed as it were by the god Katharsos. Though initially relying on numerous instincts inherited from his lupine blood, Roog grew out of this stage of his life swiftly. A natural curiosity born from his man-father's own personality drove Roog to create life, first among them being the Wargs, with an outright desire to create a race similar to his own nature. Through his time spent among the Wargs Roog learned more of the nature of mortals, shaping his outlook on the world. With his part in the creation of the Vallamir Roog discovered a deep passion and admiration for sapient life and has since endeavored to support the growth of the Vallamir species through active effort and passive teachings.

Roog is typically cool tempered and patient, prone to observation over action in most cases. Cruelty for the sake of itself is anathema to him and the wolf deity looks on most living things with a level of sympathy for their plights. Most notably, Roog carries much of his two creators’ personalities within him. It is from Kalmar that Roog’s more naturalistic bend emerges, providing for a sense crude, animalistic honor and a strong sense of right and wrong. From his heavenly creator Katharsos, Roog receives much of his deference for life and death as well as his considerable respect for what he perceives as the natural order of things and the creatures that occupy it. To Roog, the entire cycle of life and death that persists between organisms unmoderated by the actions of deities is one of continual creation and destruction, characterized by eternal rebirth and regrowth of all things. From Roog’s perspective, life is perpetual and defined by this apparently necessary cycle.

As of the Age of Lords Roog had become a more assured of his own, personal ideology. Roog adheres to a strict belief in the cycle of life with an emphasis on reincarnation. Through his interactions with the Gods and mortals of Galbar, Roog has concluded that all life, including the immortal lives of the gods, is destined to end and begin again, anew, through the process of reincarnation as typified by Katharsos' pyres. Roog insists that the eventual goal of all living things should be an escape from this cycle of reincarnation through the attainment of enlightenment in which the perception of the self would eventually be extinguished. This eventual complete cessation of self, often referred to as oblivion, was to be desired rather than feared as the beginning of a new existence through oneness with the universe.

Roog holds a particularly unique perspective on the Gods, referring to them as First Born rather than as Gods. Over his lifetime Roog has garnered more information regarding the Gods, learning for himself or being taught directly of their behaviors. Through this knowledge, Roog has determined that the Gods (including himself) are not fundamentally different from mortals and have simply been giving considerable power rather than truly deserving it. As such, he views all deities other than the Architect as very powerful, immortal beings equally capable of poor judgement as any mortal.

## Appearance

### Wolf Form

At his core, Roog is a large, black wolf. As a young spawn of Fenris-Wolf, he stands considerably higher than natural wolves but considerably smaller than the flesh from which he was born. At the withers Roog measures just over two meters, with a length from nose to the tip of his tail at around five meters. A mane like collection of fur jostles from the middle of his cranium, down to where his neck meets his back, and circles down into a gentle tuft of fur at his neck. These hackles appear to move as flames would though remain jet black, giving off no light. His eyes flash golden bronze in color, though they are only reflective and emit no light of their own. In his veins black blood flows, an oily liquid that produces a sheen of light as if his illuminated creator had begat some of his brightness into the beast’s blood. Wounds on the creature burst into licks of flame while his blood boils forth, and his ichor often sets ablaze in the black flames of his bodily harm.Two ears both stand tall and proud, unbowed by command or lash, and each stretches long and pointed, even for a wolf. A maw of fangs, uncomfortably white, seem to produce a pale, white light akin to that of the moon and bathe his face in a baleful, pale sheen when his muzzle remains opened. Though capable of full ranges of speech, Roog does not manipulate his lips, tongue, and teeth to speak as would mortals. Instead, Roog’s mouth opens even partially and the sound simply pours forth from his throat, filling the air with surprising efficacy.

### Valla Form

The first of Roog's additional forms, attained through his initial suicide, is his Valla body. The initial nature of the body was related to the Vallamir that he resided with in the North. Fittingly, Roog's body bares the typically "Roogish" features certain Vallamir possess, with black hair, bronze eyes, and pronounced canines and nails. During periods of intense emotion, Roog's black hair and beard appear as living, jet black flames just as his hide does in his lupine state. As a Valla Roog stands as tall as he would otherwise as a wolf, standing six foot one when measured to the top of his head. Due to the nature of his assumption of different forms, Roog typically wears nothing at all or simple robes acquired after his reincarnation. Since the blessing of ash gifted to the Valla, Roog's form now bares ashen grey skin.

### Sea Eagle Form

Roog's second form attained is that of a large Sea Eagle. Much like his wolf form, Roog's feathers behave visibly like open flames. Each feather appears to be a separate fire, flickering with the wind, and remain jet black just as they do. As a Sea Eagle, Roog's talons and beak emanate a pale, moonlit glow. Roog is notably larger than a normal sea eagle, with a wingspan of sixteen feet when fully opened and a body length of six feet and one inch.

## Creations

1. Wargs - The first of Roog's creations using his deific powers, Wargs are a species of wolf-like creatures created during the Age of Monsters. Created with the specific intention of making something as kin to himself, Wargs bare a number of qualities related to Roog. Wargs enjoy the unique status as the first mortal species that Roog spent any considerable amount of time with, forming his initial thoughts of mortals.
2. Vallamir - The Vallamir were Roog's second notable creation, made alongside the gods Kalmar, Li'Kalla, and Arae. They were the first sapient species Roog interacted with and their creation generated an intense sense of duty in the Wolf God. Roog would eventually take a number of Vallamir northwards, assisting in their migration to the north east of Kalgrun and becoming the patron god of that subset of the Vallamir population.
3. Cenekyn - During the tumultuous period of the migration, Roog sought out volunteers among the Vallamir to safeguard their people and defend them during the journey. Since the completion of the migration, the Holy Order of the Cenekyn has become a major influence on the lives of the Valla and has even become the core of a burgeoning proto-state known as Eis Laen.
4. Valla - The Valla are the altered ethnic group of Vallamir that reside in the north east portion of Kalgrun. The Valla were created through a blessing to the Vallamir of the North East safeguarded by Roog and possess the Blessing of Ash, gifting them with grey skin and a small number of enhanced abilities over their normal kin.
5. Yn-'e-Kynweir-Alwyld - Named Where-Heavens-Meets-Nature in the Valla tongue, Yn-'e'Kynweir-Alwyld was created by Roog by hand as a monastery to train and house the Cenekyn. Since then, the Monastery has grown and changed to house large numbers of faithful Valla as well as formed the center of the growing civilization of the Valla on Kalgrun.

## Relationship with other Deities

1. **Katharsos** **-** Roog's relationship with Katharsos is parental in nature; Roog perceives Katharsos as one of his two primary progenitors, the other being the Cthonic God Kalmar. In his early stages of life, particularly directly following his creation, Roog had little in the way of perspective by which to judge Katharsos' actions and ideology. As such, as Roog learned more of the world to which he was created his beliefs surrounding Katharsos would no doubt become increasingly complicated. With Katharsos' passing from the world to attend to the Sky of Pyres, Roog was left without his guidance for the majority of his early existence.
2. **Kalmar -** Just as he perceives Katharsos as a father, so too does Roog see Kalmar in the same light. At his creation, Kalmar represents much of the natural world in the eyes of the young wolf. Much like his Celestial father, however, a great deal of Roog's perspective on Kalmar is limited to the knowledge in born to him during his creation and his relationship with his Cthonic father was fated only to become more complex. Although their relationship proved distant and difficult at times, Kalmar served as the primary source of Roog's knowledge of the world beyond Kalgrun and many events of Roog's early life revolved around the Hunter God. Roog mourned Kalmar's death and has since endeavored to honor the deceased god's memory.
3. Seihdhara - Although having never met the departed goddess, Roog has had numerous visions of Seihdhara during his meditations. The first, seen during the period after Roog's suicide and eventual reincarnation, set Roog on the path of self-discovery to determine the meaning of Seihdhara's presence in his dreams.
4. Arae - Arae and Roog first met through Kalmar as the deities gathered to confront Azura for her acts involving the crystallization of souls. They worked together further during the creation of the Vallamir. Roog considers Arae a fair and reasonable god, one of the few he has met or learned of, and respects the Mother of Families deeply.
5. Li'Kalla - Roog and Li'Kalla have met but a single time during the creation of the Vallamir. Though their time together was short, Roog developed a distaste for Li'Kalla's mannerisms and ideology of purity.
6. Azura - Roog and Azura's first and only meeting occurred when Roog accompanied his creator, Kalmar, to confront Azura for her continued crystallization of souls. Throughout the experience Roog found Azura to be highly distant and has since been marked by Roog as one of the gods that thinks little of mortals beyond playthings for her own considerable powers.
7. Chopstick Eyes - Chopstick Eyes holds the singular position in reality as the only entity to utterly disturb Roog. Due to her overall behavior, appearance, and ideology Roog considers Chopstick Eyes to be particularly detestable and has endeavored never to meet with the creature unless unavoidably necessary.
8. Karamir - Though having spent little time alongside Karamir, their single meeting generated a sense of familial closeness with the Vallamir god. Roog identifies Karamir as a brother, having both shared Kalmar as a creator and father figure, and has offered an oath of loyalty to Karamir to honor their deceased father.
9. Orvus - Roog knows of Orvus through Kalmar, having been warned of the God's malicious nature among a list of several others noted by Kalmar as being dangerous and intentionally cruel. Although an incorrect assumption, Roog blames Orvus for the invasion from Veradax due to the last communication he had with his late creator.