Editing Lamoret (section)

== Background ==
Lamoret, former Shoftim (a combination duelist/champion/lawyer) of the rim world Vow, has come to New Uzme after being forced to retire due to injuries he suffered defeating Sickle the Thorn Lord, surviving thanks to magical prosthetics made from blessed sardonyx clay that replace a large portion of his body. He is a paladin on the path of Ur-Chayil, and upholds the Four Purities as best he can despite his broken body. He is methodical and uses his mastery of violence to minimize future suffering. He dreams of creating a panenpoli like those he knew on vow, creating a good city on this frontier world, but his immediate goal is to become sheriff of Grace.

===Vow, homeworld of Lamoret===
Vow is a rim world where humanity lives in densely populated urban centers (Panenpoli, “Cities that contain everything”) surrounded by wastes of non-arable land. A particular combination of factors (scarcity of resources, relatively high technology for a rim world, a balkanized political landscape that is nevertheless unified in its desire for increased terraforming) have lead the panenpoli of Vow to establish treaties that have replaced destructive large scale military operations with personal duels between combatants. These combatants, known as ''Shoftim'', are a combination of lawyer, diplomat, and duelist. When regular diplomacy fails, the Shoftim are summoned to trial by combat. Shoftim of neutral panenpoli help negotiate the terms of the trial. 

===Personal Background & Arrival on New Uzme===
Lamoret was from Thunderwall Beyond the Storm, a mid-sized and fiercely independent state. Lamoret defended his state victoriously many times and was a wise moderator for other disputes. Lamoret’s final trial was against the hates Sickle the Thorn Lord of Iridium Bay, a notorious shoftim who would have been strip of his privileges long ago if it wasn’t for the Industrialists of Iridium Bay protecting their most partisan champion. After a full day of personal combat, Sickle was dead but Lamoret’s body was shattered, as the Thorn Lord’s wounds rot flesh. The doctors and physicks of Thunderwall were able to save Lamoret by replacing all the infected tissue with blessed, living clay. Tragically, while these magical surgeries saved Lamoret’s life, he was left visibly scarred and incapable of maintaining bodily purity laws of the Shoftim. Instead of being Lamoret the Shoftim, he is now Lamoret Pesel (“Statue”).

Not wishing his disfigured form to cast a shadow over Thunderwall, Lamoret agreed to become a colonist on a frontier world. He hopes he can create a new chapter in his life creating a new land for humanity and help them learn the honorable teachings of Ur-Chayil. He dreams of creating a panenpoli like those he knows from Vow. However, such plans take time. He has only been on New Uzme a few months, and has set himself up as a scribe and reeve with an eye on becoming the Sheriff of Grace.

===The Shoftim and the Ur-Chayil Path from Prometheus===
The Shoftim practice a philosophy known as the Path of Ur-Chayil, which is supported by the Beacon of Prometheus, a power of stasis and eternity. On Vow, it is interpreted as the principle of divine law, and it is to humanity’s benefit to learn how to live in accordance with the cosmological order. The farther from the axis one is, the more inescapable entropy becomes. It is therefore humanity’s plight to deal with suffering, death, and destruction. The Shoftim are warriors of peace, those who destroy to limit destruction.

The Shoftim practice the Four Purities (body, conduct, hope, and association), and they practice psi-stylitism, or the meditation upon Still Pillars, mental amplifiers that drown out the change of daily life and allow practitioners to sense the eternal order of the cosmos. When Lamoret was recovering from his wounds, he was placed within the foundation of a still pillar for 29 days and 28 nights as the living clay became part of him. As he is no longer allowed to practice psi-stylitism and can only commune with Koios at the base of Still Pillars, he is now known as “the Anchorite.”

===Additional Background: Lamoret’s Injuries, Treatment, and Current Form===
In his final Trial, Lamoret was severaly injured by Sickle the Thornlord’s rotting thorns which devour and destroy the flesh of their victims. To prevent Sickle’s thorns from killing him, all of his infected flesh was removed. In its place, Lamoret’s body was rebuilt using blessed clay made from heavy water and ground sardonyx which was then etched with runes of life and truth. 

In essence, Lamoret is now half-man, half-golem; or put another way, a magical cyborg. Most of the flesh on the right side of his torso, neck, and face appear to be made of glazed, dark red ceramic whose temper spakles silver when the light hits it correctly. The joints of replaced areas appear less human and more like the articulated joints of an insectoid exoskeleton. His right eye is shiny and solid back. His voice is now doubled, a jarring growl of a tone always present beneath the still-human tone. As the golem-clay is not truly alive, the rotting thorns have been rendered inert, and it heals naturally, drawing from Lamoret’s life energies to do so. Lamoret’s new body benefits from magical durability, to the point he is always effectively armored.

Lamoret is no longer capable of achieving the ritual purity necessary to remain a Shoftim in good standing. However, as sardonyx is known as “the foundation of Heaven” on Vow, he still had the limited ability to commune at the base of Still Pillars.