Khecher
Khecher is a glacier orc from a small community in the north called the Samavir (as the orcs in the Forges are called Valni). He was an experienced ice fisher and hunter for most of his life, and also worked as a local guide for adventurers who came to the area, in partnership with his younger brother. One of these adventures escalated into a near-war with eldritch creatures underground, which terrified Khecher; when his brother was captured and tortured, he ran, abandoning the party, and became lost deep underground. The deep silence almost drove him out his mind.
One of the adventurers survived and blamed Khecher. This lead to threats against Khecher's village, in response to which the village ratted out the adventurers to some powerful local force. This led to Khecher's closest adventurer friend of many years blaming Khecher for this cowardice, even as Khecher's own people blamed him for drawing these events down on them. In despair Khecher went deep underground to do something—possibly help the adventurers, possibly just die—but somehow survived once more. He believes this was due to coming to an understanding with Tiefe, the un-god of the deep emptiness underground. He decided to dedicate the rest of his life to Tiefe as a priest, as atonement.
This development is horrifying to anyone who grew up underground; Tiefe is understood to be the opposite of life, not even a god of death but just the abyss itself. Khecher's wife kicked him out, as did the Samavir. In fact, though, Tiefe's priests don't worship Tiefe, they come to terms with it; it's a form of meditative practice, almost, balancing at the edge of emptiness. As a discipline, the priests of emptiness stand between Tiefe and others; they don't proselytise for Tiefe, they're practically protecting others _from_ Tiefe. Khecher finds this helpful for dealing with his trauma. He doesn't explain this to others, though, because he thinks their disgust is what he deserves.
Khecher isn't his original name; it means "heretic."
