Scatama Salorium

Scatama Salorium, also known by his nickname Saló is a Lizardman Shaman.

Biography
Not much can be said about the conditions of his birth - it was as simple as it came, with his first 37 years spent in the tribe. Of course, for somer eason, he was naturally weak, even though it did not show at all on his appearence. The elders of the tribe stopped trying to teach him how to hunt after a few hours, because he could not learn anything of it, besides tracking. But the shaman of the tribe quickly discovered the talent for magic in the boy, so he quickly took him under his wing. For many years, he would teach him, improving his knowledge. This training wasn't a picnic either - next to the exhausting spiritual training, his body had to be trained too, as a healthy mind and a healthy body go hand-in-hand. The boy learned some martial arts, and learned how to fight with a staff. But at the age of 37, a big change came in his life. The village was attacked - by one man. A Dark Magician.

His power was too great, so neither the warriors, nor the shaman could deal with him. The amount of destruction was unimaginable - no one survived, except one person: Scatama. Scatama succesfully escaped with his life, but not for long. A few seconds later, he was already in the claws of the wizard, who did not kill him. Feeling the power of the magic in his opponent's veins, albeit it was of divine origins, he knew that it could be useful to him - so he abducted the lizardman and made him his slave. With magical handcuffs, he tied down his powers, and tied a piece of cloth to his mouth to prevent him from speaking. Many years passed in misery and suffering. The mind of the boy was poisoned, and as he was running out of his power, so did he got under the influence of the dark mage, becoming a tool. His emotions got locked away for the sake of survival. He suffered, yet did not show it, knowing that that would only bring more pleasure to his tormenter. The magician often used him as the guinea pig for his experiments. Of course, most of these experiments were utter failures, and even the succesful ones were just as painful as the failed ones.

Salorium spent 10 in the captivity of the wizard - he wasn't even counting the days, sleeping as much as he could. He only wanted one thing: to die.

But then a fateful day, something strange happened: the mage unexpectedly left, saying nothing, not even taking his slave with himself. He just left. The boy knew: this was his one and only chance. He woke up, and quickly scouted the place to see if anything would help him escape. He had no cage, so his job was easy. He took some scrolls, took them into his bag, which he painstakingly took to his neck. Then he took a belt from the mage's wardrobe, got a pouch onto the belt, and put food into it. But then he had to step back - at the door was a nightmare, kicking in his general direction with its flaming hooves.

The lizardman locked the door back with his heart beating in his throat. After some heavy breathing, tears started flowing out of his eyes. All hope was lost - if the horse wasn't going to let him proceed, he would not be able to escape. It didn't matter that he was resistant to fire, against a demon like this, there was no hope. He was thinking that once the wizard comes back, he'll kill Saló and throw his meat to the beast - and this negative thought gave him a great idea. He quickly ran down to the granary, gathering as much raw meat as possible, as much as he could carry with his tied and bound hands.

He gently opened the door, and of course, the demonic mare jumped towards him, trying to squish him, but he dropped the meat just in time. The monster stopped, and a few seconds later, it was already occupied with the meat. The lizard saw that the horse hasn't eaten in days, at least judging by its looks. Its owner treated it like he treated Salorium. The boy just watched as the demonic foal was eating all that meat. After this, it did not attack him. The young lizardman hesitated for a few seconds, then started going, as far as possible. He travelled for three days, trying to find a place where the curses he had would be dispelled. Through his covered mouth, it was hard to eat, and he spent almost more energy eating than he received from the food itself. yet, in the end, he found a village, where he wasn't received warmly. Who would receive warmly a lizard whose whole body was full of wounds, whose clothes were torn, who had tied hands and mouth? Everyone turned their backs on him, some were even scared. As he saw the eyes of the people, the rest of his strength went away, he got on his knees, and just looked at the ground. He was waiting for someone to just go to him and put an end to his misery. In the end, one man called the town's priest, who helped him up and welcomed him with a warm smile. Salorium, for a few seconds, could only watch the man. He has forgotten this facial expression. He hasn't seen a person who smiled at him like this for ages. The last person who looked at him like this was his mother. A few minutes later, he was already laying on the altar of the church, quietly listening to the priest's words. A few more minutes later, the dark curse was gone. He was liberated from all that was binding him. He felt like he was born again. He wanted to express his gratitude, but he couldn't speak the tongue of the humans, and was even forgetting his own Lizardman tongue, as ages have passed since he last opened his mouth. In the end, he painstakingly made some sounds that expressed gratitude, but from the priest's point of view, it was the facial expression that did the talking.

And so began Salorium's third life, spent in the village where he worked. The village took some time to accept him, but nevertheless, he was useful, as he was skilled at healing, and his magic was also quite a boonf or the village. In the time, he learned the tongue of the humans, and re-learned his own, so that he could understand the scrolls written in his tongue. Three years later, at the age of 50, he was ceremoniously proclaimed a fully recognized member of the village, and received his own house. His life was good, and he wanted nothing more than to just work as the priest's assiastant. Of course, he had some religious debates with the priest, as ever since his childhood, he believed in the gods of order and chaos, and prayed to them while under captivity too. Luckily, the priest was open-minded, and could accept, that not everyone would embrace the way of light. He overall had a good life.

Precisely 11 years later, the dark magician came back. Looking for the lizardman and feeling his presence, he found him there. With his black, flaming steed, he could drive through the local militia with ease, telling them, that they must surrender him, lest more people die. Salo quickly stood up, and cast a frozen ice ball spell, targetting the wizard's spell, which made him fall off his horse. Salo then cast a lightning bolt to the mage, who absorbed the spell and laughed maliciously. The mage responded with a fireball, but Salorium was quickly enough to block that with an ice wall, then returned the attack with another thunderbolt. The mage, once again, blocked it easily. The villagers were scared for their lives, looking at the battle intently. The wizard would cast a spell that heated up the soil underneath, while the lizardman countered that with a frosty wind. So the mage then tried to kidnap a little girl, grabbing her as she was screaming, then flying to the top of a house.

But that moment, a strong lightning struck the mage from behind, while the little girl fell, only to be caught by villagers just in the nick of time. But it was not over yet. The nightmare, the demonic steed ridden by the wizard was standing motionless among the slaughtered men, eating their flesh. The peasants looked at it with disgust, but dared not to do anything, as the monster was already very dangerous even without its owner. The shaman could only look at the horse with pity. He mentally revisited the time when he first met it. Nothing changed ever since. The monster felt the lizard's presence and looked up, but did not attack, just looked intently. The man than took his hand onto the horse's head, and caressed it. He felt no blazing heat. The horse's red flames turned blue, and it wasn't nearly as hot as before. As if the demon wanted to take on its old form. Perhaps the process of demonization was not complete, and the beast resisted the magical influence, keeping its old memories? Who knew. Either way, the lizardman turned to the villagers, telling them to take away the corpses and bring raw meat. The demon was no longer scary to him. He felt, that there was a bond between him.

Then he looked at the corpse of the dark wizard, saying "It would seem that this is where another spark of the darkness ends.". As he took a good look on the corpse, he decided that all of evil must suffer this fate, everyone who walks the path of darkness must fall. Then he'd gather his supplies, his inventory, saying goodbye to all his friends - the next morning, he'd be sitting on his new horse, taking one last good look at his old home before starting his journey into the unknown, so that he may find his life goal.

The original FRPG
Saló appeared on the Hungarian version of the forum on the 23rd of April, 2011, taking part in some adventures.