Much of the sad story of Wilbur Boggs can be blamed on his grandfather, Dr. Joshua Boggs. Or Old Man Boggs, Poppa, or just “that old coot,” he hardly cares which people call him. He’s rather well traveled for a “backwater hick,” as the old gnome puts it, having traveled from Decatur to Tenochtitlan, and many more places besides. The old and eccentric gnome magician has set himself up in the dark and woody mountains of eastern Tennessee, ruling over a small cult of fanatics like an iron-fisted tyrant. The old farmstead he’s claimed has become the center of many a horror: ritual sacrifice, necromancy, genetic experiments… but Joshua Boggs doesn’t see himself as the villain of this tale. No, in his mind he’s the reluctant hero, doing what he must because nobody else will. The powers that be are too stupid or greedy or scared to do what needed to be done, and his conviction has never wavered.
This was about saving the world, after all.Everyone has to begin somewhere, even Poppa Boggs. He was born in the mountains of Appalachia, in a crumbling little town in Kentucky. His mother died before he ever really met her, and his single father made ends meet, but it left him unable to raise a child. His rearing fell upon his old crone of a grandmother, who taught him the cunning practices of his Appalachian ancestors, and when he showed promise, true thaumaturgy as well. It’s here where the trouble really starts, for part of his education in the metaphysical included old stories. Legends of a time before, passed down from generation to generation, all the way back to a previous age of magic. His young mind was filled with the image of a turning wheel of cycles, and the gulfs of darkness that yawned wide between.His grandmother passed before she could teach him everything he needed to know, and he was left searching for answers. He managed to get a scholarship to Emory University in Decatur, where he would receive his doctorate in Theoretical Magic. It is also here he would continue his quest for forbidden knowledge, devouring everything the university could provide on the fourth world. Most of it was bunk, myth or pseudo-archaeology, but it gave him enough to keep his appetite whetted, and allowed him to make some connections. He had to call in favors, travel to darker corners, and make grim deals, but little by little he learned about the world before. He learned of the great magic the wizards of that age weaved, of their empires that spanned continents before Rome was even a thought, and of the terrible doom that fell upon them.His grandmother had told him the world was broken into cycles, life and death, magic and mundanity, but he came to see that wasn’t the half of it. The cycles weren’t infinite, they tended towards death, towards an ultimate ending when all would fall silent and the universe would be as it had been before the accident known as life spread across the world. But entropy wasn’t just a mindless force, no, it had agents. When life and magic flourished too greatly, a great other arose. An anti-life. An Enemy. They came at the end of every age of magic, to wipe the slate clean. They came for the fourth world, and so would they for the sixth.The wizards of the fourth world cast spells that would make even the most advanced magician of today look like a fumbling apprentice, raised armies of adepts and fortresses of arcane power against the horrors, and it still wasn’t enough. The sixth world would be helpless when the time came… and the whispers he heard in dark corners told him the wolves were already at the door. The world wheel was slowing, and if someone didn’t act soon, this would be the last rotation. Joshua Boggs had a plan, though. The so-called awakened of today may be a pitiful lot, but that greatness was still in their blood, and Boggs figured it could be coaxed out with the right breeding.After convincing some big wigs in Tenochtitlan he was just the gnome to do the coaxing, Aztechnology hired Dr. Boggs to their R&D department. With corporate backing and a morally dubious amount of leeway, he set about trying to breed a reliable strain of awakened that could harness the powers of their ancient forebears. He failed of course, but he learned quite a lot in those early days of trial and error. Unfortunately his partnership wouldn't last. As failures compounded Aztechnology’s attention and money didn’t hold, and Joshua found himself falling out of favor. But they didn’t understand, not really, all they wanted was their army of magical super-soldiers. They were no-more invested in his grand plan than any of the other petty oligarchs playing king in the sixth world. So, Joshua Boggs decided to go his own way. He stole as much of his research as he could, destroyed the rest, and fled. Clever or lucky, he managed to slip the corporate hounds and flee back to the CAS, dead as far as his employers knew. It’s there he built his little community, finding like minded individuals to help him see his great plan through. There, in the eastern mountains of Tennessee, his work continued.He likes to think of what he has set up as a “program,” but it’s really a cult. The scared, the desperate and the disenfranchised viewing him as their messiah, complete with looming apocalypse he was going to save them from. By the end, most were ready to follow his every command. The descent into madness wasn’t immediate of course, but failure lead to fear, fear to desperation, and desperation to atrocity. As lines kept getting pushed back, eventually nothing was off limits. Punishment for disobedience became harsh, those children who didn't show enough promise were given up to ritual and experimentation, and the cult became more and more isolated, all while Joshua kept up the facade of a benevolent father.He was a father with favorites, though, and didn’t hide it well. The stronger ones, the kids that showed the most promise, and those who bore them. He gave them special privileges, gifts, taught them his ways of magic and secret knowledge. From time to time, he would even treat them like family rather than an experiment. To him, those fledgling mages were his proof the program worked, that all the evil he had done in the name of progress wasn’t for nothing. Deep down he knew what he was doing was horrible, evil even, so it had to be necessary. Of all the petty tyrants who thought eugenics would bring about a new age, he had to be the one who was right. Because what other option was there?
This was about saving the world, after all.