Elder Megiddo

Megiddo Desfosse
Megs as a Wanderer in the Black Shroud
Elder of Clan Desfosse
Gender	Male
Race	Duskwight
Clan	Desfosse
Citizenship	Not Applicable
Age	Elderly
Primary Linkshell	Commerce Regulation Agency
Religion	Acolyte of Oschon
Occupation	"Retired Hermit"
Relationship Status	Widower

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Basic Info

Known to very few in the Black Shroud as an anonymous hermit with no history, Megiddo has an extensive history as the patriarch of an entire clan of Duskwight that has been harrowed to near-extinction. Having lost most of his ancestors while he was young, then fathered the clan anew and watched it decimated once more, Megiddo has lost most of his want to be active in the world. He has a single living relative, a grand-daughter who is not related to him by blood, and has lost contact with her. Though he has been deprived of all family contact, Megiddo continues to seek connections with others. He learned to value the Twelve late in his life, Oschon, the Wanderer, especially, and he has reacted to the profound loss he has experienced by releasing control of his life to Oschon. Calling himself an acolyte of the god of vagrants and a "retired hermit", Megiddo has begun to wander the Black Shroud and seek personal connections with those whom he meets, believe that Oschon is guiding him and providing abstract purpose to what is left of his now meaningless life.

History

Clan Desfosse

First founded around two hundred years ago, Clan Desfosse was initially made up of refugees from other Duskwight Clans. Gathering in the Black Shroud near Gridania, the clan progenitors found a number of shallow caves in which to make their homes. Abandoning the cultures that they had known before congregating in the surface world, the adopted a new philosophy that taught vague forms of reverence for both their ancestors and the Twelve and placed utmost importance on those who are related by blood. With dual leadership by both a patriarch and matriarch (not always a mated pair), the clan was never large and was always built on powerful personal connections between its members. The clan drew its wisdom from its Elders, and the young were taught by the previous generation. Among other values, the theme most central to the clan was that nothing should be done for one's self; instead, one should act with others in mind and trust others to keep them in mind. No member of the clan can ask for or take anything for themselves, but when they ask for something within reason for one another, it was most often provided. The second most important value the clan taught to its members was that they must always exist in conflict with the overlanders; that is to say, those who are not Duskwight.

Conflict with Overlanders

Clan Desfosse did not cultivate food, barter trade goods or hunt what was permitted by the Gridanian hunting authorities. The clan lived through conflict. They were thieves, murderers, poachers and even professional assassins. Ruthlessness was a part of every child's curriculum, and they were all raised to believe that overlanders -- anyone who was not Duskwight -- would be hateful towards them and harm them if given the chance. Like the other children, Megiddo was taught the art of stealth and began to utilize it to steal resources for the family before he had even reached his teenager years. As he aged, he learned to compete with the local Miqo'te tribes when poaching for outlawed meat, and once he had mastered the hunting of animals he began to learn how to hunt people.

By the time Megiddo was bron, Clan Desfosse had already spend several generations becoming increasingly vicious. And Megiddo, his siblings and cousins, were the most ruthless yet. Led by his father and older siblings, Megiddo engaged in conflicts with both Gridanian defenders and Miqo'te poachers, as well as the private security workers of the merchants they frequently preyed upon. It was during this time that the shallow caves they used as home began, one by one, to be discovered by the various enemies Clan Desfosse had made.

Megiddo as Patriarch

The need to migrate their home each time it was discovered and being placed on the defensive more and more often over time, took its toll on Clan Desfosse. When Megiddo was a young man, the death of his father and two of his older siblings placed him in the unexpected position of leader. Older family members had become Elders, and Elders were not traditionally clan leaders. Though Megiddo drew on the wisdom of the Elders to help him cope with his sudden responsibility, he also boldly and stubbornly shifted the paradigm of the tribe away from open ruthlessness. Instead of pursuing vengeance for the death of his father, Megiddo let the murder go unpunished, citing a lesson his father himself had taught him about postponing retaliation. Megiddo retreated far from the conflicts his family had begun. This does not mean, however, that he suddenly became kind and cooperated with those around him.

As patriarch of Clan Desfosse, Megiddo refined the cold ruthlessness he had always favored and taught his living brothers how to be assassins instead of simply killers. To Megiddo, the problem had never been the ruthlessness with which they had acted, but instead the fact that they had let themselves be seen, heard, and followed. After a five-year period of recovery during which Megiddo forbade anyone in Clan Desfosse from entering into conflict with an overlander for any reason, the new patriarch of the clan once again threw open the floodgates and let the killing resume. This time, the killing was cold, ruthless, silent. Always in the dark, and each death was a stifled whimper where the victim wished desperately to scream.

The greatest change, though, was a new rule that Megiddo laid down to the clan: whenever they stole, they would take everything, and no one was to be left alive. Instead of simply stealing food and committing highway robbery, they were now conducting raids. They only went out once a month now, as opposed to once every few days, but the number of murders was multiplied several times over under Megiddo's leadership.