Editing Dear Darkness:Bashter Evagrius

[[File:Bashter.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Bashter Evagrius]]

=Backstory=
==Short version==
Bashter Evagrius left his well-to-fo family in the city to study metaphysics at Leidenheim Priory, a remote monastery. Unfortunately, a plague of husks (zombies) infected the monastery and surrounding countryside. Bashter barely survived, doing so by any means necessary, including acts of violence. He does not speak of what happened, though he has come to hate those who fail to live up to some notion of oblesse oblige: if one has power, one should use it for the benefit of those who do not. After recovering, he felt a call to join another sect, the Templa Avesti.

==Long Version==
===Beginnings===
Bashter Evagrius was born into a family of Reeves that lead a very comfortable, safe life in Suryada, the planetary capital of Ravenna.  His teenage years were not the most pleasant, as his family life was themed by a vicious cycle between personality conflicts with family and political arguments with family.  As he approached 20, however, his family and him achieved a balance of sorts.  Everyone was happy when he finally found himself: he was accepted into the priesthood, and the plan was for him to become a librarian and administrator within the church hierarchy.  However, he still needed to attend seminary, and the earliest available spot was at the Leidenheim Priory, a monastery within the wilds of the Folari North province.  

===An Education in Surviving Evil===
Things were calm and working according to plan until the middle of his second year, when the entire valley was overrun with husks.  The region was cut off from the rest of the world for almost a month before the area was retaken by a Kalinthi unit of monster hunters supported by Trusnikron rangers.  The village closest to the monastery was in ruins, and there were many dead.  Some of the dead were killed after they became husks, many were killed by husks, and many more appeared to have been killed by humans while they themselves were still human.  The surviving commoners were lead by the Munstersen brothers, who described a list of the common horrors of a husk plague: a siege, family members mad with grief, etc.  The local lord was an obnoxious young Hawkwood who was given the fief to get him as far from Court as possible, and it became clear that he mismanaged the situation, squandered resources, and indiscriminately killed commoners who questioned his commands.  The local lord's remains were found outside the village, along with those of his Muster police chief.  The villagers offered no explanation regarding what happened to them.

The Kalinthi found the monastery had become a web of carnage, makeshift barricades, and traps.  Inside, there were only two surviving monks: a seriously injured Bashter, and a young Eskatonic named Yacob.  The abbey resisted the initial outbreak well, as it easier to defend than an open town.  They received a radio call for help from the Munstersens, who were in dire need of medical supplies.  Bashter, Yacob, and a third student named Ozandrus volunteered to take supplied down to the village.  Ozandrus was eaten by husks on the way down.  Upon returning, Yacob & Bashter found that the priory's defenses has been breached somehow, and their friends and mentors were either dead, eaten, or animated into husks.  Bashter and Yacob became trapped in the abbey looking for survivors, and they found none. Bashter and Yacob created a safe zone in one tower, but Bashter broke his leg in the process, and Yacob dragged him to safety.

===Finding Flame===
During his recovery, Bashter read a great deal on husks, then monsters, then sin and evil.  He slowly became disillusioned with the bland, bureaucratic religion of the Orthodoxy, and slowly became attracted to the Temple Avesti.  Despite his intellectual upbringing, he joined the Avestites when he was released from the hospital, and worked his way into being an inquisitor.  His friend Yacob had a similar path: though he remained an Eskatonic, he became a Kalinthi.

Bashter was trained at the Temple on Pyre, and he became enamored with the simplicity that life had there, and he found their spiritual documents profound yet deceptive in their apparent simplicity.  At the same time, he was saddened at the ignorance he found.  These experiences hardened him against the excesses of the powrful, who he blamed for the plight of the common and powerless.

===Ancestors are to be Revered, not Worshipped===
Bashter's first inquisitional investigation was as an assistant to Ulrich Butzer, a who embodied the stereotype of the puritanical inquisitor completely.  Bashter fell into the role of the "good cop" to Butzer's "bad cop" as they investigated a ring of Manja cultists.  Despite being an Avestite, Bashter was more cosmopolitan in his reflexes than Butzer.  Consequently, Bashter was able to get extremely valuable information from unlikely sources: A penitant psychic witness, a Gjarti practitioner who knew was also concerned about the Manja, and an Ukari swordsman who helped Bashter understand what exactly the Manja rituals were doing.  All of them were technically outside the investigations jurisdiction for various reasons, and Bashter saw no reason to try and bend the rules to prosecute them.  Butzer was beside himself, conflicted over the fact that Bashter had been instrumental in the investigation, but he had been far more tolerant than Butzer would have been.  Because Bashter was able to claim he followed the law perfectly in this case, Butzer and the Inquisition eventually accepted he had done a good job (this time).

===This was Once Home===
After the Manja case, Bashter was sent back to Suryada.  Seeing the city for the first time since Leidenheim (now referred to by some as Leidenhusk), he barely recognizes it.  What was once a clean metropolis full of ideas and potential was how a place where stains of evil could be literally seen everywhere, and the moans of the oppressed were ignored by those with the power to help.  Bashter immediately began using his investigative skills to understand the commoner life of the city that he never really saw before.  He was amazed at how alive these people were, yet saddened at how much confusion and poverty there was.  He discovered the Vagabond "Guild", including their 'king' for the city.  It would be an exaggeration to say he and Bashter are friends, but they recognize there are some similar motives at work.

And now, it is time.

==Character Sheet==

Spotlight Points: 

{|class="wikitable" border="1"
|-|
! width="100" | Template Name
! width="100" | Avestite Cultural Template
! width="100" | Template Name 
! width="100" | Inquisitor Professional Template
|-
! Width="100" | Cultural Template || || Professional Template ||
|- 
! width="25" | General Abilities
! width="25 "| Value 
! width="25" | General Abilities 
! width="25" | Value
|-
| Raised in an Enclosed Monastery || +8 || Protect the Innocent by any Means Necessary || +8 
|-
| A Thorough Knowledge of Metaphysics and Theology || +7 || Always Vigilant || +7
|-
| Cleanse with Fire || +7 || Unshakeable Faith || +7
|-
| Ever Patient || +6 || Conduct Interrogation || +6
|-
| Reads and Speaks Latin || +6 || Your Temperamental Mark IV Flamegun Is Your Best Ally || +6
|-
| Defend the Faithful from Heresy || +6 || Avestite Calisthenics Shaped You || +6
|-
| High Class Social Circle || +5 || Heresy Will Never Escape You || +5 
|-
| Ignorance is Purity || +5 || Ordained Priest || +5
|-
! Personality Abilities || Value || Personality Abilities || Value
|-
| Determined || +7 || Inquisitive || +7 
|-
| Pious || +6 || Suspicious || +6
|-
| Righteous || +6 || Relentless || +6
|-
| Unnerving || +5 || Scary || +5
|-
! Relationship Abilities || Value || Relationship Abilities || Value
|-
| Of Course the Nearest Avestite Temple Knows I am Here || +7 || I would not have survived Leidenheim without The Eskatonic Yacob Zairson. He has since joined the Kalinthi || +7
|-
| Horton Babcock is a Charioteer I have hired many times for transport during investigations || +6 || Indira Kohut is a Gjarti Enthusiast. She is wrong, but she has helped me find and destroy someone much more wrong || +6
|-
| Renzo Selesio Badilon Hazat, whose fief I saved from the Manja heresy || +6 || Michael Wait is a local porter & yeoman. A good and simple man || +6 
|-
| I exonerated the penitent psychic Aaron Moonmist because he was innocent of heresy. Should have done otherwise? || +5 || The Ukari sword master Kreshill helped me destroy a cell of manja cultists. He knows justice well, but refuses to turn to the light | +5
|-|
! width="100" | Template Name
! width="100" | Avestite Theurgy
! width="100" | Template Name 
! width="100" | Survivor of the Leidenhusk Horror
|-
! Width="100" | Trademark Template || || Trademark Template ||
|- 
! width="25" | General Abilities
! width="25 "| Value 
! width="25" | General Abilities 
! width="25" | Value
|-
| Scent of Evil || +8 || They Will Not Find Me, For I Am As Still And Silent As The True Dead || +8
|-
| The Prophet's Holy Blessing || +7 || Stay Here; I Shall Find Provisions || +7
|-
| The Prophet's Censure || +7 || I Will Strike it Down Before it can Harm Another || +7
|-
| Fault of the Soulless || +6 || We Shall Make Weapons From The SImplest of Things || +6
|-
| Calm of the Desert Fathers || +6 || ...We Are Not Alone... || +6
|-
| Torchbearing || +6 ||  Traps Have Been Set, We Can Sleep Tonight|| +6 
|-
| Connected to the Empyrean || +5 || They Shall Not Catch Me, For I Am As Fast As The Living|| +5
|-
| Padre Pontius Cciardi's Touch of Fire || +5 || I WIll Make A Diversion || +5
|-
! Personality Abilities || Value || Personality Abilities || Value
|-
| Stoic || +7 || I Will Feel Pain When I Can Afford To || +7 
|-
| Awe-Inspiring || +6 || I Did What Was Necessary And Would Again || +6
|-
| Brooding || +6 || Through Faith, I Remained Human In The Face Of Horror || +6
|-
| Fervent || +5 || I Will Help You If I Can And Always Will || +5
|-
! Relationship Abilities || Value || Relationship Abilities || Value
|-
| I learned Avestite theurgy with Roger Sandalstrap || +7 || I Survived. No, I'm The Other One || +7
|-
| The Pancreator Is The God Of Us All, Even If Some Do Not Know It|| +6 || I Am Still Friends With Some Eskatonics || +6
|-
| If You Do Not Cooperate, I Will Contact Brother Ulrich Butzer, And You Will Enjoy His Demeanor Much Less || +6 || I Consider The Munstersens Family, And They Me || +6
|-
| I Do Not Know Your Name, But There Is A Darkness Within The Locksley Domain, And I Can Smell It On You. Confess And Do So Quickly, For Your Own Sake|| +5 || The Kalinthi Remember Me, But Would Not Let Me Join || +5
|-
! Flaw || Value || Flaw || Value
|-
| Prone To Hubris || +6 || Haunted By Leidenheim || +6
|-|
! width="100" | Template Name
! width="100" | Individuality
! width="100" | Template Name 
! width="100" | Misc
|-
! Width="100" | Individuality Template || || Misc Template ||
|- 
! width="25" | General Abilities
! width="25 "| Value 
! width="25" | Temporary Abilities 
! width="25" | Value
|-
|-
| They Trained Me To Investigate, Not Just To Interrogate || +8 || ||
|-
| First Aid || +7 || ||
|-
| I Can Uncover Secrets From Records, Not Just People || +7 || || 
|-
| Esoteric Psychology || +6 || ||
|-
| Speak To Commoners Without Speaking Down || +6 || ||
|-
| "You're More Reasonable Than I Was Expecting" || +6 || ||
|-
| Firearms || +5 || || 
|-
| Hasn't Driven In A While, But Knows How || +5 || ||
|-
! Personality Abilities || Value || Goals || Value
|-
| Advocate For Peasantry || +7 || Become The Chartophylax Of The Holy Library Of The Cathedra Vesti || +? 
|-
| Loves Knowledge As A Tool || +6 || Protect Commoners || +?
|-
| His Smile Is Rare But Worth It || +6 || ||
|-
| Hates The Corrupt || +5 || ||
|-
! Relationship Abilities || Value || Flaws || Value
|-
| I Have Introduced Myself To The Elders In The Country Towns. They Appreciated The Fact Someone Remembered Commoners Are At Least As Human As The Nobles And Guildsmen || +7 || Too Academic To Be Trusted By His Fellow Avestites || +6
|-
| My Family Is Full Of Reeves. Despite Everything, We're Still Family || +6 || Defensive About Negative Avestite Stereotypes || +6
|-
| I Could Ask The Vagabonds And Beggars. They Tend To Know Things || +6 || Prone To Hubris || +6 
|-
| Garsea Goodwill Is A Commoner Renowned Locally For Work In Religious Festivals. A Pious Entertainer || +5 || Haunted By Leidenheim || +6
|-
|}


==Other Stuff, Notes etc==