Gerhard Grandfollower

“A mix of childhood cult brainwashing

and shitty family defines the messed up
individual i have become”
Childhood
orn in a family that belonged to the nomadic

B
human clerical order of Ilmater, the deity of
endurance and martyrdom, and due to that
Gerhard has lead a hard life ever since he
came out of the womb. His mother was
always wandering between the realm of the
dead and the living, and she died giving birth
to Gerhard. The circumstances of Gerhards’s birth are
unknown, but it is likely that he wasn’t planned.
His father was one of the order’s healers, and he fell
in love with his mother who often was her patient.
Indirectly having caused the death of his loved one,
Gerhard’s father never really loved him. He raised
Gerhard in the early years because he reminded him of
his wife, but as his son grew older they started
becoming more distant. His father eventually turned to
his deity and started inflicting more punishment not
only upon himself, but unto his son aswell.
It was around this time that he would get the marks
on his wrists, caused not by self harm, but by the torture
imposed on him by his father, inspired by the holy As he approached his mid-teens he would start realising
symbol of Ilmater. how him and his people were different from the others.
Children in the cult were often sheltered for easier
manipulation. The cult didn’t have malicious intentions,
but they were worshipping Ilmater up to the point of
Holy symbol of ilmater severe self-harm and violence, with disregard for one’s
A blood stained rack, used
to stretch one’s hands
health
Awakening
The sky of the night that changed Gerhard’s fate had
been decorated by lightning strikes for multiple days, an
incredible thunderstorm has been going on for several
days. The cult was facing a severe hurdle trying to climb
up to an isolated temple in the mountains. The storm
was getting worse, but a few cultists scouts found a cave
by deviating a few hundred meters down the main path.
They hurried up to take shelter in the cave; Said cave
turned out to be a huge maze of turns and twists, so the
Gerhard this way eventually paid the price for ‘killing’ cultists told the children to not go playing around, and
his own mother, and over the years this scarred his that they would only spend the night here. They
childhood. But during his rebellious puberty phase, his sheltered deep in the cave, so deep that thunders
personality started to deviate from that of the other outside would be barely heard. Everyone was sleeping
followers of the cult. Gradually he started building an peacefully even during the thunderstorm, taking the
attitude, and started thinking with his own head. chance to rest up after having spent the past days
wallking in the storm.
“The urge to piss on all of ilmater’s
worshippers throats is irresistible”

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 Gerhard was also trying to sleep as he was severely
exhausted.. yet something whispered to him.
“Come to me son of suffering, born of punishment, come
deeper inside the cave”
Unintentionally he got up, and started walking deeper
into the cave, paying attention not to wake anyone up.
He was hesitant, but he kept going forward, as if
someone else was moving his body.
Once he reached the entrance of the maze the cultist
warned everybody about, he stopped for a second. An
image flashed onto his mind of his destination, and
Gerhard proceeded to move inside the maze as if he has
walked through it hundreds of times. He started
noticing many skulls, ribcages and bones laying around
down some paths, but he was unbothered by them.
The cave was perpetually dark but Gerhard moved as
if he had been born with Darkvision, but after some time
walking he started noticing a small dim purple light. He
started approaching the origin of the light, which was
getting brighter and brighter.
He reached the source of the light, and noticed it was
a strange glowing stone on the ground.
“Pick it up”
Gerhard was slightly afraid, but he could not resist the
temptation, and picked up the strange purple stone. It
looked like something out of this world, but it was very
beautiful. After a few seconds of inspecting the stone, it
suddenly started glowing even harder, causing Gerhard
to frighten, and drop the stone.
But the stone didn’t drop on the ground. As it was
falling, it turned into dust and rushed into Gerhard’s
right eye, causing him to pass out.
“Yeah that was a weird night, that was
the night my eye turned purple and
became the stud you see in front of you”
He passed out for a long time, and when he woke up he
had forgotten what happened to him. His vision had
improved, and he followd the path back to the entrance
of the maze, only to notice that everyone was gone. His
own father had abandoned him.
“What was all that suffering for, then?”
A surge of rage rushed through him, cursing every one
of the cultists who he had been traveling with, especially
his father. He cursed Ilmater and and all of his
worshippers, and swore to seek revenge against the
cult, who always closed an eye to the abuse he had
endured over the years.

2 PAGE 2 | INTRODUCTION