Mordoval
Necromancer of the Nine
Nobody asked to be born. But all deserve to be asked if in death they wish to be reborn as undead.
Born in the torrid lands of the far east, the course of Mordoval’s life seemed to be already decided at birth. He was the heir of a High Rustan noble house, with a pre-arranged life and pre-arranged marriage ahead of him. There seemed to be no room for deviation from the course of his life, but fate decided otherwise.
Rustanica was always a place where political alliances changed like the wind. And one day, that wind turned into a hurricane that swept away House Radathron, Mordoval’s House. Betrayed by their close allies, he needed to flee to the wilderness where he took shelter with the black sheep of the family, Illyra Radathron. Illyra lived in a remote and secluded location, far from civilization where she practiced the dark arts of necromancy.
With his house destroyed and his family dead, Mordoval was taken in by Illyra who taught him necromancy. Mordoval excelled in his studies far beyond that which any other had achieved before him.
With his new-found power, Mordoval decided to take revenge against people who killed his family and restore his birthright as a ruler of his ancestral lands. Gaining power was easy, but keeping it proved difficult as his victory brought him no rest. All the other Rustan high nobles were shocked and appalled by Mordoval’s use of necromancy. Seratul the King of Rustanica, a Dragon Priest of dark repute, challenged Mordoval to a magic duel, thinking to separate him from his powerful undead servants.
Seratul and Mordoval fought, and Seratul unleashed dark draconic magic on him. Mordoval responded with Necromancy. The vast energies of the spell-duel seeped into the earth when the two went all out on each other, corrupting and decaying the lands. As the smoke cleared, Mordoval emerged victorious… and yet he had no-one to rule over for Rustanica was in ruins.
Alabaster came to Rustanica in his travels and found it an empty kingdom with a mournful Mordoval on the throne, surrounded by legions of undead servants. Alabaster convinced Mordoval that he didn’t need to exist this way, and that there was hope to fix all the mistakes he had committed: The Worldstone. Should it come to Alabaster’s possession, he would use it to undo Mordoval’s mistakes. The two traveled to Carandor.
When the two arrived at Carandor, Alabaster tasked Mordoval with securing his flank against the threat of the Gods. Alabaster knew that the Gods would not sit idly by and just let him take the stone and remake the world into what he perceived as a paradise, since this would undermine the point of the afterlives of the gods which are supposed to be paradises for the worthy. Alabaster left Mordoval and the other members of the Nine behind, and in his absence they have had to interpret Alabaster’s will... much like clerics of the gods do.
So we come to the present day, where Mordoval is paving the way for the return of the Nine. Even though he believes that the gods are evil, since they do not ask for consent from the souls of the dead to go to their afterlives, Mordoval does not intend to make the same mistake as in Rustanica. Yet it has been centuries since Alabaster was last seen, and doubt and impatience has started to enter Mordoval's mind. Does Alabaster even still live? Does he have any hope of succeeding in his task? Mordoval does not know, and thinks it’s perhaps a good time to take matters into his own hands.
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