St. Roderick

St. Roderick, or Roderick the Evangelist, was a prophet of Axiom who helped convince the Four Knights to embark on their quest to destroy the Great Trees and end the Age of Deception.

History
Before he became involved with the Four Knights, not much is known of St. Roderick's life.

But Roderick rose to prominence after Axiom showed him a vision of four heroes to seek out in the frozen north. Together with St. Andrew, who received a similar vision, Roderick traveled north to Pagos to seek the four heroes who would defeat Immaru the Deceiver and end the Age of Deception. As Immaru's deception became clearer, Roderick forsook his ties to the Alitheian Empire and was fully faithful and loyal to Axiom.

Once in the north, Roderick and St. Andrew convinced the four heroes to help them destroy Immaru, but agreed to help defeat Iborighu, a pretender-god himself who was ravaging the north, in exchange. While St. Andrew sacrificed himself in the battle to defeat Iborighu, Roderick remained with the Four Knights until the end, participating in the final battle that ended Immaru and brought truth back to the world.

Heretical Theories
The few scholars who have been able to view primary sources from the time attest that there is no mention of a "Roderick" before the Book of Axiom. This has naturally led to a number of theories dismissed as ridiculous (at best) to heretical (at worst) about Roderick.

While most accept that the Book of Axiom probably exaggerates and "adjusts" some of the historical incidents it highlights for religious purposes, it is rare to find a person in the Book of Axiom who was not easily verified to have existed in the right timeframe. That is not the case with Roderick.

But some heretical researchers suggest that Roderick's name was changed and some of his details "adjusted" in the Book of Axiom to better fit the Church of Axiom's dogma.

One of the more ridiculous assertions from crackpots says that Roderick was in fact the son of one of the Ascended, while others think that he was a homosexual.

Still more say that if Roderick was a member of the church at the time, it's likely that he was well-versed in magic, something that the Church of Axiom may not have wanted to include in a holy text.