Phemo the Shepherd

<i>‘Smash and stomp, rage and romp, find the fiend I’ve never seen. Him who blinds, I will bind, in my sack, writhe and wrack. Justice done, he can’t run, find his home, break his bones. Even if I cannot see, I will catch that Nobody.’ – Phemo the Shepherd’s sea shanty</i> * The one-eyed Jotunn Phemo once lived alone peacefully on a small island in the Argolades, subsisting on sheep from a flock he spent much time and care tending to. He was also a skilled builder, carving local marble and limestone slabs to build pens, a dwelling, and standing stones. An adventurer landed on his island, chasing false rumors of a secret treasure Phemo guarded. Phemo heard the explorer and demanded to know who was there. The adventurer, hiding behind a rocky outcrop, shouted back, ‘Nobody’. The giant turned to look, but saw only a blurry shape hurtling towards him – lead shot the man launched expertly from a sling, whizzing through the air. It struck Phemo’s eye, destroying it. 'Nobody' fled as Phemo howled in pain. Being blinded filled the otherwise passive, humble Jotunn with a bitter, vengeful fury, and hatred for all civilized people. Too late, Phemo fashioned a helmet that would protect his mutilated eye from any further attacks, for it remained a weakness even after losing its function. At first he wondered how he'd find his nemesis, blind as he was, but he discovered that his earth-shaking footsteps sent out ripples in the earth that bounced off of objects nearby and returned to him at differing times and frequencies depending on what they struck, which he felt through his feet. He could even sense his beloved sheep this way. Phemo mastered this new way of sensing the world, all the while brooding on his grudge against ‘Nobody’. He constructed a boat and oars, and ventured out. At first he found only uninhabited islands, but eventually he came across small villages and larger, populous lands. At every port of call, Phemo wrought havoc in revenge against any he encountered, offering to stop his rampage only if the one who called themselves ‘Nobody’ was presented to him. When his demands were met with confusion and noncompliance, he devoured every Human he caught, crunching their bones and feeling their guts burst into his mouth. After much carnage, he returned to his native isle to tend to his sheep, following a detailed map he kept in his mind’s eye. Afterwards, he set off again – and he has maintained this cycle for many years, his sweeping violence spiraling ever-further outward from his home. Early in his rampages, Phemo smashed an Aetherial temple into rubble, then picked up a slab of wall and a column with a chunk of masonry still attached, and began using them as a shield and a club. Though crude, his weapon is devastatingly powerful and his shield nigh-impenetrable. Eventually, one village got the idea to offer up an undesirable citizen, insisting over the man’s protests that he was the ‘Nobody’ who had wronged Phemo. Phemo stuffed the hapless victim in a sack and carried him off to torment him slowly and painfully. Along the way, it became clear that the man was not ‘Nobody,’ for his voice was too different when he spoke the word ‘nobody,’ and his temperament not that of a treasure-hunter. Phemo decided he could live, so long as he used his sight to help Phemo when blindness presented inconveniences. With the help of his captive villager, whom Phemo calls ‘Eyes,’ his quest for vengeance has only accelerated.