Lord Shadowspawn
NE Shifter (Abberation) Male Wizard 14/Archmage 1
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Voldermortimage.jpg
Appearance: A nightmarish serpent like man that doesn't remotely resemble the handsome figure that he once was. Vastly disfigured by the Mourning, he no longer resembles anything but the Abberation that he is. While capable of illusions that restore his beautiful appearance, Lord Shadowspawn spends most of his time in his vile form with his wizard robes covering up his face.
Personality: Cruel, twisted, and ambitious are his good qualities. Lord Shadowspawn is a man that delights in toying with his prey and plotting conspiracies within conspiracies. Caer Shadowfast is only the basis for a vast network of evil activities spreading throughout Breland and New Cyre. He has a special 'enjoyment' of tormenting young women that are beautiful.
Magical Items: Bag of Holding, Giant Snake Familiar (Anaconda-Asp hybrid), Ring of Command, Ring of Regeneration, Robes of the Archmagi, Wand of the Necromancer
History: Lord Shadowspawn was once known as Thanis and was an entertainer traveling throughout Cyre. A happy go'lucky and amusing young man, he discovered his talent for magic early but couldn't perform but the basic magic tricks that the Bards in his group had picked up. Frustrated with his lack of progress, he nevertheless was kept by his desire for one of his cousins whom was one of the great beauties of the Shifter race. Thanis arranged to have her married to him through his skillful manipulation of tongue and the fact that he'd gained great favor with the clan by playing them as spies for the various factions around them in the Last War.
Thanis, eventually, decided to run away and attend the Arcanix in Aundair with his new bride. For that, he needed money and murdered a Pyromancer of the Silver Flame before robbing his church. The brutal activity, he justified, was merely him doing his Cyrean duty of killing members of the foreign church. He believes the act drew down the wrath of the Silver Flame upon them, though it's entirely possible that the two events were just coincidental bad luck of being shifting gypsies in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Captured and taken back for interrogation by Inquisitors, Thanis was horribly brutalized by them in outrage over his actions that he freely admitted. Sentenced to die by burning at the stake, agents of the Emerald Claw that had been posted in the prison were quick to offer him a better deal. With a Feign Death spell, they spirited him away to Frostfell where he was enrolled as an apprentice of several Necromancers that he quickly surpassed one after another until he learned the Dark Arts directly from Erandis D'Vol herself.
Restyling himself Lord Shadowspawn, Thanis proceeded to take over the vacated seat of Gerald Schwartzvald the Death Knight in the Crimson Covenant. Placed in charge of Brelish operations over Harath Clawblade, he was disgusted with the vast network of low level operatives that coated much of the organization's activities and made it impossible for the organization to move without having people know of its presence only hours afterwards. He, furthermore, disliked the grandiose and political nature of Harath's ambitions as he preferred mystical might than economic or social.
Recently, Lord Shadowspawn successfully ousted Harath Clawblade from his position as second in command of the Emerald Claw in Breland. Furthermore; he gained a treasure trove of magical items leftover from House Cannith and House Jorasco. These have given him tremendous power over the fields of machinery and biological life. He's since used them to conduct a thorough purge of the incompetent and useless agents of the Claw in Breland.
Lord Shadowspawn has, instead, devoted himself to the longer term focus of increasing the Emerald Claw's power in the region by encouraging large numbers of Blood of Vol cults to emerge and fostering interest in sorcery. In truth, none of these are related to the Claw but only exist to make it more difficult for operatives to find real agents of the Claw and further obscure their handiwork.
A shocking secret to any but those who know him, Lord Shadowspawn is not loyal to the Emerald Claw at all but only his own ambitions. The vast wealth and power he has accumulated is only devoted to increasing his access to sorcerous knowledge while weakening his enemies. Shadowspawn is, currently, a great financier of expeditions into Xen'drick so that he might gain knowledge of the ancient alchemy of the Giants.
Eventually, Lord Shadowspawn intends to destroy the rest of the Crimson Covenant and assume his place as the sole unquestioned Arch-Magius of the realms. It is, surprisingly, unlikely that he will do much more than continue his studies after this point since his loathing of other races is largely academic.
