Mara Duskbane

Long before she trained BöötMóöntch, Mara Duskbane earned her reputation in the industrial wastes of Kanonos hunting a particularly insidious form of undead - the remnants of factory workers whose souls had become trapped in the machinery that killed them. Her methods were controversial even among Ghostslayers - she would allow herself to be temporarily possessed by these industrial spirits to understand their binding to the material plane, using her own blood to draw them out before destroying them.

Mara's scars tell the story of her hunts - burns from possessed forge fires, acid marks from corrupted industrial waste, and the ritualistic scarification she inflicts upon herself to strengthen her blood magic. Most distinctive is the latticework of silver lines across her face, remnants of an encounter with a revenant who tried to replace her blood with molten metal. She survived only by turning her own tainted blood into a weapon, a technique she would later teach to her students.

Her connection to the Order of the Ghostslayer began after she discovered that the Bloodclaw Warband's weapon smiths were deliberately creating conditions for industrial hauntings, using the trapped souls of workers to enhance their forges. Rather than immediately stop the practice, she spent months documenting the process, learning how spirit and steel could be merged, before finally destroying the operation. The Order recognized the value of her knowledge, if not her methods.

Mara maintains a lair in an abandoned factory near the Rustwater District of Grizburg, where she conducts experiments on captured undead essences. Her walls are lined with vials of spectral material, each carefully labeled with the manner of death that created it. She's particularly interested in the unique properties of undead created by industrial accidents, believing they represent an evolution of death itself in response to Nolavor's changing nature.

Those who train under Mara learn quickly that she views conventional morality as a hindrance to understanding death's true nature. Her philosophy, which heavily influenced BöötMóöntch, holds that one must be willing to walk the line between life and death to truly master either. She teaches her students to use their own blood as both weapon and research tool, often through methods that leave permanent marks on body and soul.

The Reclaimers view her with particular hostility, as her methods often involve exploiting rather than cleansing sites of industrial corruption. She argues that understanding how pollution and death interact is crucial for dealing with modern undead, who are as likely to rise from chemical spills as ancient curses. Her collection includes several uniquely preserved specimens that demonstrate her point - undead that have evolved to thrive in Kanonos's toxic environment.

Despite - or perhaps because of - her unorthodox methods, Mara has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of how different forms of death create different types of undead. She can often determine how a spirit will manifest simply by examining the conditions of its death. This expertise makes her invaluable to the Order, even as they keep her at arm's length from their more traditional operations.

In recent years, Mara has become increasingly interested in the connection between industrial pollution and the lingering effects of the Black Fire War. She theorizes that modern industry, particularly in places like Kanonos, is inadvertently replicating conditions from that ancient conflict. Her latest experiments focus on comparing residue from the Bloodclaw's forges with samples taken from known Dead God Sites.

Rumors suggest that Mara's interest in industrial undead stems from personal tragedy - a sibling lost to the Bloodclaw's forges whom she's never been able to find and lay to rest. Whether this drives her research or is simply a story she allows to circulate remains unclear. What is certain is that she continues to push the boundaries of acceptable practice in pursuit of her goals, training those students who show similar disregard for conventional limitations.