Hrüg

The feel of soft flesh bending under one's fists, the acrid scent of blood that's been freshly released from its bodily confines, the satisfying crack of snapped bones singing in one's ears... These are all sensations that give me a great deal of pleasure, but they are not the whole of me.

I hail from the monastery on Mt. Tolthor, deep in the dusty Central Mountains. There I learned that pain given and pain received are one and the same, and I gloried in both. We were a small group in my early years, but we did grow, and under the watchful eyes of our masters we trainees acquired prowess in physical combat tempered by a strict regimen of mental discipline. It was the latter that our masters prioritized, but it was the former that came most naturally to me.

Many years into my training I learned what I was, the circumstances of my accidental discovery by one of our order, and why my fellow trainees tended to shy away from me. All of this motivated me to push myself even harder, which I suspect was the intended effect of my being taught these details. If my comrades would not give me their respect then I would it take it from them, grudgingly or not. And this I did.

I am a monk of the Order of Tolthor now, and I serve no god nor mortal. All in the Ten Planes is linked into a single whole, and all flows through that whole in a continuous cycle of change. I stand here as I am now, but I tell you that the death of this form will only spur the birth of another. Destruction and creation are one and the same, and chaos is just as necessary as order. I champion neither, nor even the balance between them. I have been sent by my Order to wander the lands, walking the path I have been taught and teaching it to others who may want to learn. In time I will return to my temple and report on what I have learned, but for now I am content to travel with you. My name is Hrüg, and I thank you for the opportunity to take and give lives together.