Ferssi

Imagine you've been marching in the Catha Desert for days on end. Your supplies have long run out, the sun has scorched your flesh raw, and your tongue feels as though it will crumble apart in your mouth. On your last legs, you notice a lone figure approaching through the heat shimmer, softly promising aid. Indeed he does offer reprieve...temporarily. Be wary of the one who walks in two worlds... the healthier he makes you, the tastier you'll be. Like the other Scalekin of the Catha Desert, a nightmarish terrain of shifting sands, searing heat, treacherous Fire Serpents, and skirmishes with the horrifying Eternagons to the north, Ferssi grew up in a land inhospitable and incomprehensible to outsiders. However, unlike most other Scalekin, he was even more alone in this barren landscape, cast by fate to be bound to the service of the great and vengeful spirit Ifris who demands sacrifice through fire and betrayal. The Scalekin have long believed that the moons under which a Desert Scalekin egg is laid and hatched influences their fate and personality. Ferssi was laid under a blood moon, indicating a yearning for death and violence, and hatched on a lunar eclipse, indicating great light and healing capabilities. This rare combination yielded one gifted in the ancient Scalekin arts of healing and yet driven by an innate thirst for blood, traits that his elders saw best fitting to the cult of Ifris. This is a cult driven by fear that makes sacrifices through fire and deception in exchange for powerful magic and visions. Such Scalekin will often assume positions as merchants or mercenaries who seek to help outsiders before betraying them to Ifris through fire. In the case of Ferssi, he uses his powers of healing to gain trust. A healer is typically driven by duty or morals, but this is not true for Ferssi or others in Ifris's cult of tricksters. Instead, he heals to lure victims closer to him, making them healthier so their eventual life force is all the more powerful when he sacrifices them to his god by eating their flesh. Unlike a kind cook who feeds guests out of love, he is like a hungry farmer fattening up his livestock before he slaughters them. This form of worship is practiced by the cult of Ifris, a great trickster spirit in the form of an almighty Fire Serpent, who has shown similarly minded Desert Scalekin a path to greatness. His followers tend to wear white while Ferssi also carries a staff with a healing eye of blue on it to calm his victims. Ferssi has had many victims, but most notable was a group of mages from the White Tower conducting research near the Eternagon ruins to the north. Ferssi joined their party as a mage, tasked with healing them from the acrid heat, the horrors of the desert, and Eternagon raids. One night, after months of earning their trust, he revealed his true intentions. In an act sickening even for the Catha Desert, he paralyzed them all before setting them alight, eating their flesh and using their life force for his magic, satisfying Ifris by filling his scaled belly.