Exanimate Kindred

Whether you believe it to be a myth, a true believer, the name "Exanimate Kindred" is often said with a measure of fear. Often, the first mention of the Exanimate Kindred is in the telling of the story of Veceral Morkadian, a powerful wizard of a now-extinct race. It is said he was exiled from his people and hunted, much as one would hunt an animal, for his stubborn pursuit of knowledge and power in the forbidden art of necromancy, save that for one day he simply disappeared. No sign of him could be found.

Nearly two hundred years later, in the city of Tosalas (latino word), found somewhere in the Azure Isles, people began to go missing. At first, it was sporadic, and nearly unnoticed, as the victims were often the paupers, criminals, or the homeless, but when the more upstanding of the citizens also began to disappear, the city council sent for aid. Help did come, eventually, but when it arrived, in the form of four paladins of the Shields of Shaddai and their squires, it was too late. They found only the ruins of an empty city, an eerie silence heavy upon it.

The Paladins explored the empty city, little realizing they were about to discover the fate of its inhabitants. After searching for several hours, finding not one living being or corpse, they purposed to take their rest at one of the city's finer inns. Eating a quick meal, the Paladins, and their squires, retired for the evening.

The night erupted with a howl, and as the Paladins were ripped from their slumber, saw several pale-skinned creatures with bat-like heads savaging the squires. Though the Paladins leaped forth to combat, the fate of the squires was sealed as the last of their lifeblood was taken from them. The Paladins, with the power of might and the divine, drove the creatures out. Realizing they had perhaps made a mistake in choosing to stay, they gathered a few belongings and made ready to leave.

It is said that, as they emerged from the Inn, they were swarmed by the mindless undead, their fetid carcasses and hunger making escape nearly impossible. Yet they drove them back, scything through them with only a few wounds sustained, yet just as they were about to break free, they faced the master of that swarm, as well as his most trusted princes. Proclaiming Tosalas to be the first city of his new empire of living dead, Veceral and his so-called princes leaped to battle the Paladins.

The story goes that the Paladins defeated Veceral, but only one, grievously wounded, survived. That paladin, Sir Aaron Rosharon braved a nearly impossible trek across the Iron mountains, north to Sea of Sands, where he was given aid. It is Sir Rosharon breathed his last, so severe were his wounds, and Shaddai took him home, but not before this mighty Knight of God related his nightmarish tale.