Biography: Fah'raaj Etu Masa (Patreon)

“My child, we can no longer live as rats. We know too much.” -Nicodemus, The Secret of NIMH

What began as an instinctual yearning for what would generously be called junk, eventually became the cultural phenomenon that made the ratfolk of the Imbahiri Warrens world famous collectors. It began so long ago that few can even remember the first pieces of the first collections that rested in the cool tunnels beneath the scorching sands of the Meraz desert southeast of Sedeq. The ratfolk grew wiser as generations passed and their collections became more and more valuable and thus more and more coveted by the creatures of greed that frequented the markets of Sedeq. Forever in tribal competition among themselves for better collections, the ratfolk evolved into expert treasure hunters, traders, and defenders. The collections themselves have become legendary. If the rumors are true, and if you could survive long enough in the desert to find them, go deep enough beneath the sand to reach them, and escape with your life, a man could live out the rest of his days in luxury with one single piece from these collections.

Fah’raaj son of Masa was the 16th child of Masa, and the 7th son. His birth was unremarkable and little was expected of him as none of the 15 children before him exhibited the rare gifts of Masa, the elder shaman of Fah’raaj’s tribe. The shaman are called Mu’Tik Haal, or ‘treasure whisperers’. Not to be confused with ‘appraisal’, the Mu’Tik Haal of a tribe did not determine something so banal as an items value in coin. The shaman could hear the spirits and the spirits know of the rarest and most powerful objects of the world. Whether man-crafted, fallen from the sky, or birthed from deep within the earth, the shaman can lead his people to the most beautiful creations resting on Golarion, this was Masa’s gift, and by the time of Fah’raaj’s naming, it was clear that the gift had passed to him.

Fah’raaj was trained intensely by Masa to learn to tap into the spiritual realm that is in and among all things. He also exhibited extraordinary intelligence, even for a member of the ratfolk race. His keen, insightful mind had him besting adults in games of tactics as a child. It was the Lore Spirit that wandered through Masa one day and told him what must be done. Masa was growing old and the collection of his tribe was waning in comparison to the other tribes. He would send Fah’raaj to the west. There, he would study the ways of the humans, dwarves and elves of Avistan, and learn where they hide their great treasures. Masa negotiated the trade of one of his most valuable artifacts to send Fah’raaj to an academy in Absalom where he would learn to speak and even think like the Avistani. 

In short order, Fah’raaj found himself graduating with all honors, having provided a dissertation on the blurring line between the arcane and the divine. Spells once thought relegated to the writing of wizards, or born to the volatile sorcerers, could be pulled into the spiritual plane, and harnessed with the power of prayer and the guidance of his spirit animal, the desert viper that had followed him since birth, called Nicodemus. Never before had the scholars of Absalom seen such a thing. The Pathfinder Society accepted him easily as his upbringing as a Mu’Tik Haal was invaluable to their plans. For Fah’raaj, it was the logical next step. Until his father joined the realm of the spirits, he had much to learn here, and the Pathfinder Society could fund his expeditions into farthest reaches of Golarion to bring back artifacts unlike anything the rats of Imbrahiri had ever seen.