Xaro Voss

The Foul Phantom, Arcanum Adept, Master of Undeath Xaro Voss

The author of this entry has tried very hard to find the original creator of the photo used to represent the character. Thus far, they have not been able to locate them. If you have information or a link to the creator or their page, please contact the author so they can update it. Artists deserve credit!

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The birth of Xaro Voss was similar to the birth of many other Foul Bloods born in The Sister States, he was discarded by his parents in the Nightveil Canopy and was raised communally by the other Foul-Bloods in the area.
He quickly recognized a natural affinity for arcane magic and spent practically all of his youth harnessing his strength. In his study, Xaro discovered that all the questions he had in his mind, indeed all the questions of the universe, could be answered through magic. His most immediate question was his identity, and the first proper spell he cast answered it. Although his parents were far away, he found a brother by blood close by. Within the woods of Nightveil Canopy, he found Jester Voss, his elder brother who, at 7 years old, was already a prodigious physical combatant. The two were determined to leave the canopy and each become world-renown adventurers. To accomplish that task, they swore to each other a pact of loyalty and service. While Jester stayed in the Sister States to learn at the ancient Wu Jen monastery, Xaro left to Terisirae and spent years studying with great practitioners of magic like Anselm Algernon, Syrene Randwyr, and even Brayden Bradley, honing his mind as his brother honed his body.
Xaro became a reclusive mage who preferred the quiet study of lonesome libraries to the flash and renown of his peers and his brother. This worked well for him as his mind was particularly equipped to pursue obscure, esoteric knowledge through hundreds of disparate texts, a peculiar practice that would only be slowed by additional heads. Very little is known of Xaro past this point, indeed most of what the public knows of this mysterious figure is what has directly been said of him by people like his brother and his mentors. Instead, rumors surround the mysterious Xaro Voss, whispers of his meddling in forgotten lore, ancient magic, and forbidden rituals.
Several thousand gold pieces and multiple powerful magic items went missing from the vaults of 7 Staves just weeks before massive earthquakes began spreading in Eastern Terisirae in the year 1089. These events corresponded very closely with the one-year anniversary of The Night of the Winter Flare, causing mass hysteria and widespread fear. Fortunately, this event came and went without catastrophe.
A gravesite in New Veren was completely emptied overnight in the year 1092. Many of the interred were soldiers who fell during The Three Crown War and the ceremonial artifacts they were honored with have, to this day, never been recovered.
During a fact-finding mission past the South End Wall in 1117, it was discovered that the tainted land marked by The Impetus had extended by roughly twelve feet. No explanation was ever hypothesized for how the long-dead magic of The Impetus had surged enough to grow toward Bunkertown.
Between 1137 and 1139, over a dozen officials, nobles, and pseudo-royal individuals in The Sister States were murdered by a vigilante known as “The Kalishnikye”. The murders were very high profile, and eyewitnesses reported several items that matched the descriptions of the magic items that went missing in 1089. Then, suddenly, the individual disappeared without a trace.
Although none of these individual incidents could be ascribed to Xaro, there were sightings and clues left behind that pointed to a mysterious perpetrator behind these schemes and more. Some hypotheses point to a relationship between the involved parties and the interests of the Foul Phantom.
According to his older brother, Xaro achieved what few wizards before him had the unique combination of capability and depravity to achieve: he completed his ascension to Lichdom. After years of searching for lost knowledge, Xaro left his mortal body to find unlimited power and immortality. His success, as monumental as it was, was mere stepping stone to unlocking the secrets of the universe as he had set out to do nearly two centuries prior. Jester identified him as an existential threat to the surviving world, and set out with a group of similarly powerful and anonymous adventurers. They quested to locate Xaro’s phylactery, destroy it, and defeat Xaro at the height of his power. They barely managed it, but somehow the group completed their quest in the spring of 1140.
Is it possible that he found some forbidden spell that would allow him to transcend even this defeat? Could Xaro be wandering the eternal, biding his time until the most opportune moment for his resurrection arrives? Or is he actually gone, vanquished for all time? Perhaps these are questions best left to those as insanely dedicated to the pursuit of foul knowledge as Xaro Voss himself.

Morality & Philosophy

To Xaro, nothing was more valuable than history. It represented the collective achievements of all the people who had come before and achieved amazing things. It also represented a certain ability to control the future, to seek wisdom from the past and use it to avert calamity in the present. He regarded The Impetus as the single most catastrophic event of all time, not because of how many lives were lost but because of how everything destroyed became completely unretrievable forever after.
Because of his Foul Blood identity, he was an avid believer in the ubiquity of greatness. Xaro considered every person to be a genius in their own right, simply spending their lives in search of their specific field of expertise. He considered himself somewhat lucky to find his talent so quickly, and thought it was a tragic joke that most humanoid creatures were cursed with such short lives. He studied necromancy as a hedge against the reaper, believing that he may be able to find multiple fields of expertise and develop all of them, becoming a true polymath among prodigies. Maybe he also believed he could use that magic to extend the lives of other gifted individuals like himself so that they may develop into pure diamonds as well.

Current Status

Deceased

Species

Foul-Blood

Age

149

Life

991 Y.E. 1140 Y.E. 149 years old

Birthplace

Unknown

Pronouns

He/Him

Eyes

Burning Amber

Hair

Inky Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Sallow Cream

Height

5'8"