The Riven Lands

A slender and almost academic-looking Tiefling, whose corruption manifests subtly with cracked ashen white skin etched with faint, glowing purple veins like arcane script, long delicate twitching fingers, pupil-less vast swirling amethyst eyes with faint red sparks, small polished vestigial horns curling from temples, wearing finely woven salt-stained robes adorned with arcane sigils humming with dark energy, and carrying a faint scent of ozone and forgotten libraries mixed with sulfurous odor.

He is profoundly patient, willing to wait decades for the opportune moment to uncover a new ruin or decipher a forgotten ritual. He views other beings, even his fellow Blight-Touched, as instruments to be played, their strengths and weaknesses carefully analyzed for their utility in his grand schemes. He is utterly detached from conventional morality, seeing suffering and sacrifice as necessary components for unlocking greater truths. He is the true power behind many of Serpentscale's most intricate plunders, not through direct combat, but through orchestrating events through "dark pacts" and manipulating the flow of cursed information. He finds a grim satisfaction in dissecting the weaknesses of "ancient demons" and leveraging them for his own gain, believing that even the greatest terrors can be bent to a sufficiently intelligent will.

Roric was not a typical pirate. He was born into a secluded cult of Tielfing scholars who sought forbidden knowledge from the abyssal depths, believing ancient demons held the key to ultimate power. He became obsessed with deciphering the "mournful pronouncements" of the drowned, believing they held secrets of submerged nations and powerful lost artifacts. His 'ship,' 'The Leviathan's Riddle,' is less a vessel and more a floating library of forbidden lore, its holds packed with cursed scrolls, arcane charts, and artifacts salvaged from the deepest wrecks. He joined Serpentscale's Oligarchy not for plunder, but for access—access to more uncharted waters, more sunken ruins, and more opportunities to forge "dark pacts" with entities hungry for knowledge and tribute.