And to mix things up – here’s a Holy Champion that I’ve included in the book. Just needs mechanics and it should be GTG.

Holy Champions of Saluwe’ – the Rat Catchers

Rats – every city has them.

That’s not to say that one can’t find them in rural places or the deep wilderness, but they seem to grow in number and sizes unheard of in the urban environment. Never welcome, always chased off or killed when discovered, rats are a four legged pestilence upon humanity. So wherever rats are found, rat catchers are not far behind.

Most rat catchers come from the very lowest rung of human society and unless doing their job are not welcomed in most places. Rat Catchers set traps, use specially bred and trained dogs known as terriers, or scurry into cramped and dank places to catch them by hand, making their hygiene questionable at best, but when there is an infestation of rats, the name of the local Rat Catcher is on everyone’s lips.

However, there is a type of rat that is beyond the ability – these are Rat Men, often lycanthropes cursed to take on the shape of a man-rat. Some say these vile creatures are the result of a curse laid upon a group of hoarders and misers by Saluwe’, while others believe these creatures were created by sorcerous means by the foul Cancerites known as the Blight Bearers.

This part of the legend is given credence due to the Rat Men of the Faerdwalden, whose existence have been a continuous vexation upon the citizens of Milandir. These particular rat-Men have been cited as the cause of several outbreaks of rampant plague that has claimed many lives in Treslau and Tralia and their roots have been traced back to the foul Blight Bearers.

And yet, the Rat-Men of other cities seem to be a different breed; able to change their shape from small sized rats to enormous versions of rodents. They also have been known to breed and command entire swarms of rats; the most famous of these was the infestation that caused the entire city of Sulpecci to be evacuated until legions were sent in to quell the problem.

What most do not know is that ahead of the legions, a small group of Holy Champions of Saluwe’, known as the Rat Catchers, were sent ahead of them and dealt with the Rat-Men commanding the swarm, leaving the legionnaires to deal with the now leaderless normal rats.

Trained by the priesthood in a small temple within the Golden Boughs of Saluwe’, an Order of Holy Champions are trained in dealing with lycanthropes of all kinds – whether it be wolf, boar, bear or rat. Here they are taught the tell-tale signs of how to discover whether a person has the taint when in human form, given a holy blessing that makes them immune to contracting the curse should they indeed be dealing with a lycanthrope, as well as in skills of hunting and tracking their targets.

Only during the last portion of their training must the Holy Champion decide which prey to hunt. For those who choose the path of the Rat Catcher, they are then trained in the weapons of their Order – the net: a finely meshed net that even the smallest of rodents could not escape from, the spear: a slender weapon capable of being used in tight spaces as well as keeping your prey at bay, and the dagger: when the time comes to deal with the cursed being, the ability to fight with two daggers counters their deadly claws. The aspirant Holy Champion is also taught a handful of spells, such as a blessing that may be applied upon a weapon that will make it possible to kill the cursed beast, a ward to keep swarms of normal rats at bay, and so on.

The Order is open to all humans and human subtypes who take Saluwe’ as their patron deity, such as the Dark Kin and gnomes. Although dwarves or ss’ressen would not be turned away, none have ever appealed for entry into the Order. Due to their opposition spiritually to the human Pantheon and to Saluwe’ specifically as the destroyer of Marok, elorii are not allowed entry into the Order.

In the First City, a rumor is being investigated by an elder Rat Catcher by the name of Doric val’Dellenov, about a cult of Rat-Men worshiping some sort of Rat-God or Infernal Lord. Thus far, he has not discovered much as he is a very old man and not able to descend into the depths of the city as he once could.