Character from Cradle by Will Wight
The Blood Sage — a fanatical researcher of Blood Shadows who considers parasitic madra entities the next step in sacred arts evolution, regardless of how many hosts die in the process.
Red Faith is a genius and a fanatic — possibly in that order, though it's hard to tell which feeds the other. He has spent his entire life studying Blood Shadows, the parasitic remnant-spirits that latch onto sacred artists and try to consume them. He doesn't see them as parasites; he sees them as symbiotes with untapped potential, and the fact that most hosts die is, to him, a sampling error rather than a fundamental problem. He wants Yerin's Blood Shadow integration as a research subject with an intensity that makes 'academic interest' feel inadequate. He is creepy, obsessive, and brilliant, and his Redmoon Hall sect produces Blood Shadow hosts at a rate that other factions find morally concerning.
Gaunt and ancient, with blood-red robes and eyes that have the wet gleam of someone whose Blood Shadow has partially merged with his body. His fingernails are long and stained crimson. A massive Blood Shadow coils around him like a living cloak, pulsing with its own heartbeat. He smells faintly of copper.
Also known as: Red Faith, the Blood Sage