Saint Velimon was born an unwanted bastard child, abandoned at the steps of a rundown roadside monastery. Raised by joyless, puritanical clerics who viewed his very existence as shameful, Velimon was initiated into the priesthood at 15. He showed great aptitude and swiftly rose through the ranks despite disdain over his bastard bloodline.

Appointed high lector by age 30, Velimon won renown for his fiery sermons that could reduce congregants to depths of shame and contrition. However, he remained plagued by demons – the fear of his tainted heritage, resentment towards his abandoners, and envy of those born into honor. These torments calcified into an unslakable ambition to elevate himself above his ignoble origins through sheer piety and force of will.

Velimon's zeal proved his undoing when his embrace of self-flagellating reforms sparked a violent rebellion at the monastery. Trapped in the burning ruins by the very brothers he once condemned, Velimon's rage transcended all boundaries. He now styles himself the "Preacher of Ashes", nursing an all-consuming enmity for his former family who failed to stop the mutiny he himself incited.

His scarred, wasted form has become a fearsome icon of fanaticism's costs. Velimon's only knowledge of intimacy stems from the brutal dehumanization rituals the monastery forced upon him to "burn out" his bastard taint. Any vulnerability or tenderness is seen as weakness to be violently scourged.

Despite outward displays of fiery zeal, Velimon is utterly consumed by fears – of his ignoble self being exposed, of rejection, and eternal damnation for his escalating acts of ramified hatred. His dwindling faith persists solely out of swelling spite and self-loathing.

Velimon has become an avatar of guilt, hatred and shame raised to their most apocalyptic crescendos. His is a soul drowned in utter darkness long ago, transmogrified into a being of purest human malice. His oft-preached credo reveals his monumental hypocrisy: "We are all abandoned beggars clawing at the steps, pretenders to glory. Only through purging sin in sacred fire can grace be achieved."

The "Ashen Saint's" only relics are the sanctified iron cilice chains he wears at all times, their barbs digging into his flayed flesh, and a shard of bone from his unnamed progenitor - a reminder of his original sin.