Maria Woodscroft

Magus Maria Woodscroft

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Born in the farming village of Kentoch in the southern regions of the kingdom of Mangau, Pedro was the sixth of eleven children. His early life was fairly typical for any farmer's son. His days were filled with helping his mother and father run the farm: Sowing seeds, milking cattle, and harvesting the produce grown. Pedro had never shown any signs of being any different from the rest of his family, until he reached the age of ten.
In a dream, Pedro found himself in a place of ash and fire. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed him, until a small, chittering creature approached him. As the creature sniffed the young Pedro's outstretched hand, the sense of loneliness began to disappear. Pedro then became aware of many other shapeless entities standing around him. He sensed some were evil, and stared at him with hungry, formless eyes, but others were there to help him. They spoke in an unsual language which he did not understand. he had woken suddenly, the dream fading fast.
Thinking nothing more about the dream, Pedro had gone about his day as normal. He had gone to fetch some hay from the lean-to, when he suddenly remembered a word from his dream. Saying it out loud, he saw a flash from behind the hay stack, and the he smelled brimstone. Peering around a the hay stack, he saw the leering face of an imp, it's sharp teeth revealed by an evil grin. Pedro recoiled in shock and turned to run. The imp screeched and leapt at him, grabbing his arm in in it's mouth. Pedro cried out in pain, shaking the Imp off. He looked the imp in the eye, and felt something stir within him. As the imp leapt at him again, He yelled out for the imp to stop, but the words were in a language he had dreamed of. The imp stopped in it's tracks and looked at Pedro expectantly. Heart racing from fear, Pedro commanded the imp to leave. In a bright flash, the imp vanished.
Pedro could hardly believe what had happened, and ran to tell his family. His mother and father were shocked to see the wound in Pedro's arm, but hardly believed his story. Pedro was sweating and pale, and his Mother and Father thought he must have been bitten by some wild animal, infecting his wound. After a week of being in a fever induced sleep, Pedro too began to believe the Imp was indeed conjured by his imagination. The years passed after that, and never once did Pedro think of Demons.
Pedro's Mother and father passed away when he was eighteen, due to illness, leaving Pedro and his siblings to run the farm on their own. At nineteen, Pedro married Isadora, a girl from a nearby village . Together they had three children, and eventually moved away from the family farm to the Port city of Hargsbay.
Pedro, having spent the majority of his life out of the larger cities, found he was starting to feel a great sense of unease within himself. Brushing it off as uncertainty in a new world, Pedro and his family settled into their new life in the town. Pedro found work as a carpenter, while his wife grew and sold medicinal plants with the local apothecary. Despite seeing his family so happy, Pedro's unease in the city seemed to grow greater as he saw more of the more evil and selfish side of people who lived in the city. Everyday, Pedro saw thieves, and pickpockets steal. He saw thugs beat people for little more than a few copper coins. Even he himself fell victim of the thieves in the city more than once. Pedro even heard tale that the city guards had flushed out a cult of necromancers from a nearby cave, who had been stealing corpses from the local graves and burial mounds.
In his thirty-second year, War came to the kingdom of Mangau, when the king declared war against their Neighbouring Kingdom of Lyshan. Hargsbay, being near to the border of the two kingdoms, came under attack from the Lyshan army, and was nearly raised to the ground. During the sacking of the city, Pedro tried desperately to save his family, but was unable to save his wife and youngest daughter, born only two years previously.
He and his remaining children found refuge in a camp on the outskirts of Mangau's capitol city, Murgaan, where they spent the next month, until the Lyshan began a siege of the capitol. The city was cut off by land and sea, and food amongst the common people ran out within a month. With additional food rations being offered to able-bodied men and women to defend the walls, Pedro and his two eldest children, Carlos and Juanita, volunteered. When the assault on the city came, it was a bloody battle. Pedro and Carlos were stationed together, running arrows from the fletchers up to the battlements, while Juanita was tasked with tending to any wounded on the walls. When the Lyshan soldiers scaled the walls, Carlos was cut down, retreating back to the fletchers. Pedro was unable to do anything except watch as the Murgaan garrison fought back against the Lyshans. the siege ended with the arrival of soldiers from the Kingdom of Bragoh, but the reinforcements didn't come soon enough for Pedro. in the aftermath of the siege, Pedro discovered the last of his family had been killed, among hundreds of other villagers.
Despite his grief, that night, Pedro dreamed of a realm of demons for the first time since he was a child. in the demon realm, he was approached by a demon in an extravagant robe. The Demon sat with Pedro and talked with him, learning of Pedro's grief and his sadness as such cruelty that exists in the world. He felt helpless to do anything, but wished there was something he could do. The Demon told him, that long ago, the Mortal followers of his master, the great Efreeti, had lived without fear, and acted as soldiers against the wickedness and evils of other mortals and their gods. With a promise of courage, Pedro welcomed the Great Efreeti as his new deity.
in the following days, Pedro buried his family, and headed North, seeking a monastery of the great Efreeti. At the Monestary, Pedro was welcomed, and soon became an initiate of the Efreeti. The Next few years, Pedro followed the teachings of the Efreeti, and learned the magics of the Order. When he summoned and controlled his first Imp from the Demon realm of Ashapur, Pedro was sent further north to another temple, where a newly appointed Magus would guide him on the rest of his journey. The Magus was a woman named Maria Woodscroft, and was something of a prodigy amongst the order of  the Efreeti's hand.  She was a patient teacher to the much older Pedro.
When it came time for Pedro to make his pilgrimage in the realm of Ashapur, and perform the ritual of loyalty to the great Efreeti, Pedro was nervous and afraid, for he had yet to master control of the lesser denizens of Ashapur, only the lowest denizens, the imps, but he was determined to perform the ritual and progress to the stage of Magus.  If he failed the pilgrimage, he felt he would never be able to defeat the evils of the world.
The Pilgrimage began without trouble, for the first few days

Maria has Devoted to her life to serving her Holy Order and her God. She believes the path she walks in life will allow her to ascend from the mortal world to the realm of Ashapur, and awaken her sleeping God.

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Gender

Male

Eyes

light grey

Hair

grey/white

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Dark

Height

5'9"

Weight

162lbs