Cazador Szarr
Lord Cazador Szarr
Cazador was a Vampire Lord and patriarch of the Szarr Family, who held power in Baldur's Gate for more than two centuries.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Cazador was adopted by Dralia Szarr, the Matriarch of a surviving branch of the Szarr family of Baldur's gate. Although the main branch of the family were wiped out by business rivals more than 300 years ago, a less prosperous branch of the family who lived outside the city survived.
Cazador's adoptive mother was obsessed with restoring the family to their former glory, and specifically chose to adopt an Elven child in order to have someone in the family who would be long-lived and could work over generations to restore their name.
Cazador eventually travelled to Baldur's Gate to seek out the one surviving member of the main family, Donnela Szarr, who was rumoured to have defied death by becoming a Vampire and rebuilt the Szarr family home in the city.
However, on arriving, he found that Donnela had recently been killed by a rival vampire, Velioth the Martinet, who had taken over her palace. Velioth turned Cazador, making him his first spawn.
After several decades as a spawn, Cazador eventually gained the knowledge and power to perform the Rite of Perfect Slaughter, killing Velioth and taking the power of a Vampire Lord for himself, becoming the Master Vampire of Baldur's Gate.
He took over the Szarr Palace, and got back into contact with his mortal family, who had assumed him dead. He offered them the gift, turning his adoptive mother, his aunt Fistula Szarr, and his cousin Blovart. He had one other surviving cousin, Ladislau, who had recently married, who chose not to become a vampire in order that he could have children and carry on the family line.
While Velioth's spawn, Cazador had learned of the Rite of Profane Ascension, a ritual which would grant a vampire untold power, which Velioth had been obsessed with finding. The only known source was a book, The Necromancy of Thay, which was lost after it was stolen from the Thayan Capital.
Cazador knew of some details of the ritual, such as that a girl of the caster's family line would be required in order to complete the ritual, and that the caster needed 7 spawn, each of whom must deliver 999 souls for the ritual, so while he hunted for the book, he set about turning spawn, and collecting the souls, turning them into spawn in turn so that he could take as much time as he needed to gather the souls without worrying about them dying.
He found evidence that the Necromancy was taken into the Deadlands, and sent Petras to search for it. However, he found nothing, and shortly afterwards, the region descended into war, and the Shadow-Curse made travel impossible. Cazador resigned himself to waiting for it to resurface, and turned his attention to other matters, although he continued to collect souls for the ritual, and encouraged his living relatives to procreate in order to assure that there would be children of his family line.
In the 1470s, a new player appeared in Baldur's Gate's magical underworld, a Mummy Lord Necromancer calling himself Mystic Carrion. Cazador consulted him, and learned that he knew of the Necromancy of Thay. He didn't know where it had ended up, but did tell him that a commentary on the Necromancy had been written, and a copy was held in the library of Sorcerous Sundries.
In the intervening years, disease and accidents had wiped out all of his surviving mortal family except one, a girl named Amanita Szarr. She was about to turn 13, meaning she would no longer be useable as a sacrifice. After a great deal of fighting within the family, they agreed to assist Cazador in turning her, keeping her at the appropriate age for the ritual, even though this would mean the end of the family line, rather than waiting and hoping she had a daughter of her own in time.
They made her a spawn, imprisoning her in the attics of the Palace when she refused to drink Cazador's blood to complete the transformation.
Meanwhile, Cazador was able to bribe the new ruler of Ramazith's Tower, Lorroakan, to let him view the Tharccian Codex. To his disappointment, it did not include sufficient information to perform the ritual, nor did it include any clues as to the book's location.
A few years later, he met a young man named Enver Gortash at a party. When the topic of Mystic Carrion, by then very much in fashion with the upper classes as a spirit channeller, came up, Cazador expressed his belief that the man was a charlatan, giving a heavily redacted version of the true story.
Seeing an opportunity to make a powerful friend, Gortash offered to help Cazador, suggesting that he summon Mephistopheles, the greatest scholar of the hells, and tract with him for the ritual.
Cazador did as he suggested, and Mephistopheles gave him a version of the ritual, adapted to suit Mephistopheles's ends. However, this version of the ritual specifically required a living child, meaning Amanita could not be used. He also made it clear for the first time that the ritual could be used by only one vampire, meaning the power would be Cazador's alone.
His mother was furious to learn that he had ended the family line for nothing, and that the power would not be shared. The subsequent falling out devolved into an all-out war between Vampire Lords, during which Dralia and one of Cazador's seven spawn died, and the family structure of the Szarr coven broke down, with the surviving members, including Amanita, going their own ways.
Cazador had long referred to his spawn as his 'children', and since a drop of their maker's blood is required to create a spawn, he realised he could use that to add a child to his 'family' for the purposes of the spell. He therefor found and turned Leon to replace his deceased spawn, and brought him and his daughter Victoria to live in the palace, using threats to her life, along with Leon's powerful magical abilities, to pressure him into bringing souls for the ritual at a rate far greater than his 'siblings'.
Within less than a decade, the cells in the Tourmaline Depths were full, but before Cazador could complete the ritual, Astarion Ancunin vanished, kidnapped by the Cult of the Absolute.
When it became clear that Astarion was back in the city, but no longer under Cazador's control, he set about implementing the Rite, certain that Astarion would not be able to resist returning to confront him. The night before the Rite, he threw a great ball at the palace, and lifted the restrictions which preventing his spawn from killing.
Dalyria immediately used this freedom to kill Victoria, which she believed to be the key to freeing herself from Cazador's control. In reality, all she did was begin the Rite, sending the child's soul straight to Mephistopheles.
Astarion did indeed return, as Cazador had predicted. However, he had not counted on Astarion having made friends and allies during his months away, and Cazador fell to the combined might of The Party, ultimately being killed by Astarion in The Rite of Perfect Slaughter.
Relationships
Previously Held Ranks & Titles
Date of Death
1159 (turned) | 1492 (killed)
Life
1123 DR
1492 DR
369 years old
Circumstances of Death
Killed by Astarion Ancunin
Birthplace
Place of Death
Spouses
Siblings
Pronouns
He/Him
Gender
Man
Eyes
Red
Hair
Black, straight, shoulder-length
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Ruled Locations
