Maldrone Swart

One of the darkest figures in Jorldfold's history, Maldrone Swart was the first lich and the by far the most powerful who ever lived. A devout follower of Apatoth, he was so skilled in necromancy that he could raise whole armies of undead Wights and even attained immortality.

The Winter Rose

Maldrone knew that to achieve his goal of melding his gods' realm with the physical world, he would need to commit an act so dark that it permanently splinters the barrier between the two realms. His warped mind wasted no time in taking the first steps to achieve this goal. He murdered his own mother and father while they were sleeping, dismembering them for his ritual then buried their remains outside of a shrine dedicated to Diathames , the patron of families and homes.
Maldrone discovered a cave with strong ties to necromancy, it had been used for centuries for their purposes and now he would use it for his own. Even to an outsider, this cave seemed to emanate something evil. A strange black substance oozed from the walls and there was a strong smell of sulfur. Over the next two years, Maldrone tracked down twelve children he learned had Divine inheritance then lured them in succession to the cave where he killed them and then 'enslaved' their traumatized souls to twelve artifacts associated with the Obligate, one for each deity.
Upon returning to the shrine of Diathames at nightfall, he drew a circle over the burial site of his parents with twelve points. He followed the same basic ritual of necromancy but placed the skull of his father and rib-cage of his mother in the centre, surrounded by a circle of twelve candles. Upon lighting them with black fire, he splashed the blood of each slain child corresponding to their ancestor deity and then projected a terrible psychic attack on their souls. The desired result had worked and a great tear appeared from which an emissary was spat forth.
Instead of the usual five black stones however, the creature produced a single reddish-black stone then pushed it into Maldrone's forehead. The ground shook and a great dead tree rose from the ground, impaling Maldrone on its gnarled branches. Black ooze bubbled up around the opening in the earth and then as suddenly as it appeared, the creature disappeared into the tear.

Pale Dawn

Upon reaching lichdom, Maldrone gained a mastery over the dead that dwarfed all those who came before him. Along with his followers, he slowly and painstakingly raised his host of thousands of undead to a vast horde numbering well into the hundreds of thousands. In 934 CN, his lieutenants amassed their 'army' along the bordering kingdom of Risvern under the cover of powerful illusory magic. The invasion, which was undertaken with devastating ferocity and speed, took the kingdom completely by surprise.
Resistance from the Risverni army was sparse and ineffective, with hundreds of men abandoning their posts when horror stories began reaching their garrisons. There was one notable exception when a hastily organized force of 600 men under Prince Oleksyr fought a heroic, but doomed rearguard action outside the town of Rinetz. Thousands of refugees were escaping along the only road to the capital and a breakaway force of Maldrone's horde were in hot pursuit. Oleksyr ordered his engineers to construct a trench covering the northern entrance of the town. Once construction was complete, it was filled with wooden stakes and then camouflaged with felled trees.
At nightfall, the undead finally reached the outskirts of Rinetz. This vanguard numbered in the thousands, easily outnumbering the defenders perhaps as much as twenty to one. They were silhouettes against the black sky. Oleksyr's men had no idea what kind of enemy was arrayed against them and the memories of the stories came flooding back. The tension was palpable.

Powers and Abilities

Lichdom - Maldrone's status as a lich gave him a mastery over the dead, surpassed only by Apatoth himself. Not only could he raise massive armies of undead, but he also achieved immortality.
Illusion magic - While he is most recognized for his skills in necromancy, he was also very highly adept in illusion magic. Maldrone used this discipline to great effect when hiding his activities from discovery for years.

Species

Praesem (Men)

Ethnicity

Dorothic (Northmen)

Age

1,829 years old

Date of Birth

899 CN

Gender

Male

Eyes

cerulean blue, gradually turned watery blue to almost white.

Hair

shoulder length, black (greying) while mortal. After lichdom, hair gradually fell out.

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

pale, now marred with discoloured blotches

Height

not significantly taller than most Northmen