Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tales of D&D: "Azazel, the Devil-Goat"

Azazel is the bastard child of a his demon father who raped his Ibixian mother. The tribe was going to destroy the child but his mother would not stand for it. She was one of the strongest in the heard and thus her words had great sway and eventually convinced them to let the child live. She gave him the cursed name Azazel meaning impurity. When he was young he was sickly, the demonic half fighting the good inside of him. Because of this he quickly became outcast among the youth. Once he reached puberty his demonic powers began to fully surface and he grew quickly in strength and stature to where he could rival some of his elders in the herd. Evil thoughts plagued him constantly. Like all Ibixian he would pick fights to show off, but he began to bully the weak and fought without mercy. The adults began to fear for the safety of the herd and finally banished him and his mother. At this time his mother contracted a fatal illness and died, this fueled Azazel's hatred. He eventually went mad one night and attacked his old herd. He found a girl he used to have a crush on and dragged her off intending to have his way with her. However the leader of the herd blindsided him and four more adults pinned him to the ground. That is when he heard the words that would forever change his life.

"Child, what are you doing? Why do you give in to the evil inside you? Do love the father that brought your impure existence into being so much you would do the same to your own kind? Or do you love your mother who protected you when we wanted you killed? Choose now child, are you demon or are you Ibixian."

With that the elder headbutted Azazel so hard he passed out. When he woke up the herd had moved on. Azazel sat there dazed for a day startled at seeing the demon he was becoming. Finally when hunger brought him out of his trance like state he swore that he would fight the evil within himself and do good. But first, he needed revenge for his mother. So, Azazel set out to find and kill the demon who rapped his mother so many years ago.

It took him two years but he eventually found the demon he thought was his father and managed to kill him. Azazel took the scythe demon held as his own. But the hands of fate were cruel to Azazel once again and revealed that the demon he killed was not his father at all. So, from that day onward he has been traveling from town to town  taking on various mercenary jobs as he searched for his real father. His reputation grew when he slew a black dragon and took it's skull for a helmet. Now the name Azazel is feared among men and he is sometimes referred to as the Devil Goat.

He was once asked why he wore a black tattered robe, he replied "cause it's freaking bad-ass, that's why!" and proceeded to headbutt the drunkard into the wall. As a kid he had seen a play in a city his herd visited during the city's annual harvest festival, and in that play there was a character dressed up representing death who held a scythe, wore dark tattered robes, and had a mask that looked like a skull. The figure gave Azazel nightmares for weeks when finally his mother told him to go and fight with death in his dreams. He did and that nightmare never returned to him again. So now he wears the same outfit in memory of his mother.

He is covered head to hoof in his tribe's unique blue tattoos and even his grey wings have patterns drawn in them. This was part of the right of passage for males in his herd who would take an oath to honor the ways of the tribe and fight as a true Ibixian.

He live by a saying he heard once, "Neither to be oppressed nor to oppress."

Despite his good nature, he cannot help but get in a good bar fight. It is the Ibixian way after all.