Petyr Godswater

Apostle Petyr Godswater

Some forms of evil have rules, rationales, or motives beyond simple selfishness. The Gelth Kazaroses of the world operate through supremacist thoughts and sadism, the Bin-Garems simply don't consider those they trample in pursuit of happiness to be relevant reasons to stop, and the Razarkha Fel'thuzes of the world live by ideologies twisted by mental illness. Then there are people like Petyr Godswater, who have no reason for inflicting suffering beyond it being their main form of enjoyment.
Even as a child, Petyr Godswater had a sadistic streak a mile wide. Born as an extremely rare kind of human mage known as a 'suggester' or 'influencer', this magic is related to necromancy in that it's a form of nervous system control. In Petyr's case, he was able to cause people to believe whatever it was he said, provided there was a grain of plausibility and that a part of the affected people wanted to believe their lies.
Hence, Petyr was able to kill peasants' animals for fun, and his parents, Sampson Godswater and Lanna Shearwater, would accept their son's word that he found the animals that way, that the blood was from him attempting to save them, et cetera. All that mattered was that his parents ultimately wished for their eldest son to be innocent, and so he was. Later on, as he had two younger brothers, Simeon and Duncan, he would test his abilities further, getting his two brothers into trouble with contemptuous ease.
A natural sadistic streak mixed with a magical ability that ensured that consequences would never come his way led to Petyr lacking a belief in not only the gods that his Uncle Saul, the apostle of Godswater, taught him about, but also a belief in the truth existing as a concept altogether. Everything from gods, to facts, to truth, were malleable according to mass consensus. As he grew from a child to a teenager, Petyr's pursuits switched from animal murder and simple familial injustice to much more carnal crimes.
His first victim would be his little brother, Duncan's, best friend, Sherra, who despite being a little girl and Petyr's best efforts to influence her, repeatedly pointed to him as her molester. Duncan hoped to report this to his parents, only for Petyr to convince all three of them of Sherra being an overexggerating child. Still, Sherra's example was the first time Petyr noticed limitations to his powers, so he would test the limits time and time again, figuring out that the key was how much they were predisposed to liking him.
As such, he decided to put on more of a show of piety in front of his Uncle Saul than ever before, working to become a respected member of the community so that, as the apostle's eldest nephew, when he finally ascended he would be considered above all of the base desires and sadism he was in fact indulging in regularly.
Eventually, Duncan would come to see through Petyr's monstrosity after reconnecting with the still-adamant Sherra, who'd since been excommunicated from the Saltwater Temple for spreading 'scurrilous lies' about the growing heir, while Simeon, the second-oldest child whose duty was to marry and have children to succeed Petyr, was aware on a subconscious level but was regularly influenced to forget the specifics of Petyr's actions.
When Saul Godswater finally died, Petyr ascended to his uncle's role and immediately made sweeping reforms to the Saltwater Temple's ascetics, temple guard, and religious priorities. While the Jaranese Revivalist sect of Pantheism was always the more fundamentalist of the two Arkheran branches, Petyr focused on the Holy Hexacron's most divisive passages that focused on what the gods hated, reforming the temple into an outright authoritarian entity with the apostle, that was, Petyr, as the central figure of a cult of personality. The Gods were after the people's complete devotion, and conveniently, the Gods only spoke through Petyr. He used the subconscious recognition some people had of his powers to his advantage; after all, who else but a spokesman for the gods would be able to make their words so self-evidently true?
Duncan was beginning to fear what Petyr was capable of in this new Godswater's culture, and so Petyr gladly offered a demonstration. He was normally careful to make sure he didn't impregnate his rape victims, but with Nira, the wife of an infertile fisherman, he didn't show such restraint. He convinced her that she needed to become impregnated by the Gods, and that he was their vessel, and would even force her husband to watch. After that, he would convince them it never happened, but that instead, that his brother seduced Nira, that unfortunately, the monster didn't care who he hurt.
Later, when Nira had a child and presented him to Duncan, demanding financial assistance, the youngest Godswater brother immediately put the pieces together. Petyr, naturally, put on a display of shock and anger that Duncan would have a bastard with a common girl, and 'magnanimously' said he would financially assist the child's development, as the bastard is blameless, if impure. Duncan, meanwhile, would be exiled to Jaranar, where he would hopefully learn the meaning of piety. When Duncan attempted to protest, Petyr had his ascetics beat him within an inch of his life until he 'confessed' to his crimes.
Following Duncan's exile, Simeon got the message loud and clear. He knew something was wrong despite Petyr's regular induction of memory lapses, and worse still, he knew that having a beautiful wife, Lana Applewood, was somehow a bad omen. True enough, Lana became one of Petyr's many victims, and mother to Petyr's third eldest bastard, Rosaline. Simeon would attempt to raise the girl as his own, as she was officially his, but subconsciously, he simply couldn't forget his wife's screams nor his older brother's mocking laughter.
When Lana committed suicide, Simeon wasn't far behind, overdosing on poppy milk, a regularly abused substance for the second oldest Godswater sibling. Lana's brother, Gerold, would forever suspect Petyr of foul play, and as he investigated, he would come across numerous signs of corruption. The man's severe alcoholism over his sister's death would render his mind too uninhibited and malfunctioning to be properly affected by Petyr's powers, meaning that while he would outwardly play the role of the unconcerned, believing drunk, in truth, he would be one of the few to understand Petyr's true nature.
Now that his parents and siblings were out of his way, Petyr had an eight-year-old 'niece' to take care of. He was financially supporting his eldest bastard, his second bastard, a young girl named Dolora, was intended to be erased due to her mother's apparent resistance to his powers, however the girl vanished after her mother was killed, resurfacing in the Shrine of the Dead, apparently having been rescued by the young lady, Quira Abraxas. His third, however, was now technically his only choice of heir, as an officially legitimate daughter of his eldest brother.
As such,he took it upon himself to personally raise and properly subjugate Rosaline, instilling the values he most enjoyed to exploit from the Holy Hexacron. Naturally, as a monstrous, uninhibited man with a young girl at his disposal, the moment Rosaline showed signs of blossoming into womanhood, he would repeatedly rape her, then use his powers to invoke amnesia. However, Rosaline was so regularly exposed to this abuse that eventually, she simply couldn't forget, so instead, Petyr would use his powers to justify his actions.
As such, passages about pretty girls being the mother of all temptation are regular reading material for Petyr's protege, and as much as Rosaline attempts to scar her face and body, she is always 'too pretty' to be spared being treated as Petyr's personal toy. While there are people who despise Petyr Godswater within his city, those who've seen through his lies through happenstance or repeated exposure, ultimately, his mindless followers far outnumber them.
So for now, Petyr considers himself correct to believe that meaningful consequences only come as a result of mass consensus. He's not even afraid of death, considering himself to have lived the most fulfilling life a man possibly could. Even beyond Godswater, he's secured the largest trade connection with Jaranar in contemporary Arkhera and thus is economically indispensible. If retribution comes to Petyr Godswater, it will not be a public humiliation; it'll be one lucky rogue unceremoniously ending him. And from there, he would likely be regarded as a hero by all who didn't truly know him.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Petyr Godswater has a round, approachable face with a thin, long, trailing moustache and a warm smile. He's thin for his age and wears the red-white colouration of both his house and the Border, his personal patron god. He has brown, folded eyes and warm olive skin, along with black hair where he hasn't completely shaved it (such as his moustache and eyebrows).

Social

Contacts & Relations

Ascetic Montarys (affiliate within the Moon Men, fellow conspirator)
Ascetic Pleura (official head of the Moon Men, public hero and reputational shield)
Ascetic Arwile (head of the Bordermen, chief law enforcer)
Ascetic Kuam-Tai (head of the Harvesters, high priest of the funereal section of the temple)
Ascetic Abbot (head of the Worm Men, head of the agricultural surveyers)
Ascetic Kheng-Waimin (head of the Stormcallers, director of the city's 'holy magic' practitioners)
Ascetic Turin (head of the Eagles, a token position on his council)

Family Ties

Religious Views

Outwardly, Petyr Godswater is a highly devoted Jaranese Revivalist Pantheist, however, he doesn't practice what he preaches. He refers to himself as a representative of the Gods' will, and regularly invokes their name when discussing what he personally wants. He preaches law and order, respect and tolerance of women, piety and dedication leading to success.
In private, however, Petyr believes in no gods at all, and thinks that once he dies, he'll still be happy, as he'll have to answer to no-one when he's dead and gone. He uses his powers and outward piety to serially rape and induce amnesia in his subjects, mockingly invokes the gods when people who know his true nature claim he'll answer to them, and believes piety to be a crutch for the weak-minded and a prison for the stupid.
The true Petyr considers the law to be his personal hit squad, values order only if it enables more of his abuse, allows for a female ascetic leader as a PR ploy and opportunity to ogle women, serially abuses everyone he can get away with, is about as pious as a daemon, and is dedicated to only one thing; ensuring his enjoyable, hedonistic abuser's life continues for another day.

Relationships

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Current Location

Godswater

Species

Human

Conditions

• Psychopathy

Ethnicity

Arkheran

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Apostle of the Holy City of Godswater
Overlord of the Forests of Summer

Year of Birth

500 AGA 51 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Apostolic

Birthplace

Godswater

Parents

Sampson Godswater

Lanna Shearwater

Spouses

Siblings

Children

• Dolora Abraxas

Current Residence

Godswater

Gender

Male

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Dark Olive

Height

5'9''

Aligned Organization

House of Godswater

Other Affiliations

• Forests of Summer (province)

Known Languages

Common Tongue
Jaranese
Na'liman
Ikinamese
Old Galdusian (basic)