Bugg
The Bug who Bears the Light
Bugg—an unassuming name that does not conjure images of torture, civil wars or divine intervention. Yet, Bugg has been a victim to all these things. Despite this, he stands firm, moving from place to place. Fate seems to wish him exterminated, yet he reemerges to life again and again...almost like a bug.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
It was the night after his lantern consumed those poor innocent souls that Bugg claims Pelor himself came to him in the form of a firefly and gave him this message:
BE NOT THE RAGING FIRE THAT BURNS AND EATS AND SUFFOCATES. BE THE HUMBLE BUG THAT GLOWS AND LIVES AND EXISTS IN HARMONY WITH NATUREAbandoning the lantern and his old name, Bugg now spreads Pelor’s light with his rotting log crawling with glow-worms. While it is an unorthodox symbol, none deny that powerful energies surround the glowworms.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
With a portly belly and wispy hair, you could be forgiven for thinking he is at least a decade older than he actually is. However, while a life of hard labour and war ages anyone, it also toughens them. He is a capable combatant with few hindrances.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Raised to be a farmer in the Dwarven Reach, this hill dwarf had other ambitions—to see the lands beyond the “Iron Wall” of his nation. And so, he took to the cloth, becoming a travelling life cleric of Pelor. His travel plans, however, were interrupted by the onset of the Warring States Period. During this time he was forcefully recruited by the military to be a field healer in a particularly vicious band of dwarven warriors.
During one brutal raid he protested, refusing to provide his aid. For his insolence, the captain tossed his lantern—his divine symbol of Pelor’s light—into a temple of innocents, burning them all alive.
And so, he was beaten, chained and tortured by fire. They dragged him from battle to battle, forcing him to heal their wounds, torturing him more if he refused to do so, and feeding him just enough to survive.
It was one night of pitch-black when Pelor came to him in the form of a firefly and gave him this message: "Be not the raging fire that burns and eats and suffocates. Be the humble bug that glows and lives and exists in harmony with nature."
Bugg was born that night.
Abandoning the lantern, Bugg now spreads Pelor’s light with his rotting log crawling with glow-worms. And, vowing never to be taken advantage of again, he makes sure that he’s always fairly-compensated for his healing.
Education
The dwarf who would become Bugg was raised to be a farmer near the [Pax Nevarrum border. Here he tilled land, was shepherd to live stock and lived a simple copper-ringed life. Yet, being close to the border ensured he would meet with traders from Neverra who would share stories of far off places, grand temples and beautiful locales.
Inspired by these tales, he went to the only place he knew which could lead him such a path of adventure: the humble local Pelor shintai (Dwarven for temple). Here he began learning medicine, healing magic, and the Lumieds of Pelor, embracing the third tenet to heart.
The Light provides warmth, warmth provides the crops and thus everything comes from the Light.However, the simple life of a wandering healer was not his lot in life. The warmth of light would soon become the flames of war.
Employment
The dwarf who would become Bugg spent his youth working as a farmhand before becoming trained in Pelorian ways. After becoming a priest, he was conscripted into a clan army where he served begrudgingly as a medic and healer.
Mental Trauma
During the Dwarven Civil War, Bugg served as a company medic for a particularly brutal lord. He hated military life and repeatedly attempted peaceful protests but was brutalized for his insolence and disloyalty to his lord.
One particularly vicious raid would seal his fate, however. His lord and officers cornered the last remaining opposition soldiers in a temple which housed much of the surviving villagers. Bugg was pressed to tend to the wounds of his fellow soldiers, but he insisted that the civilians inside required aid first.
Furious at this dishonourable rebuke, the lord stole the lantern which had served as Bugg's holy symbol and threw it to the thatch roof of the temple. The small candlelight, meant to channel Pelor's light, instead grew into a voracious flame and consumed the holy site. When the screams of the women and children finally quieted with the flames, the lord simply said "They require no aid."
This is the night that haunts Bugg and this the reason why he never looks directly at fire.
Morality & Philosophy
The bureaucratic ways of the hill dwarves are difficult habits to break and Bugg is no exception. He despised his pressed service as a healer, being paid with little more than the bare minimum of food and his own life. Since taking his freedom, he is extremely diligent in ensuring that he is compensated for his services. He will rarely, if ever, do a task for free or pro-bono.
Social
Religious Views
Bugg is a devout, if unorthodox, Pelorian. Using glow worms as his holy symbol, many would not even recognize he is a priest of Pelor. While he doesn't speak of it openly, he believes he received a vision from Pelor. The ramifications of this vision are distant and unknown at this time.
Species
Ethnicity
Age
35
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Sunken brown
Hair
Wispy black with heavy grey
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
4' 6"
Weight
180lbs
Aligned Organization
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