Nael rem Arvus

Nael rem Arvus was a hemomancer, monster-slayer, relic-hunter, and Fugue daemon active in the 250s C. He was notable as the first person to wield The Shroud of Heinrich the Mad Lich since the man himself. He also, by his own admission, beat the goddess of death at cards. Furthermore, he wielded both the sword of Dateriä II and Xánwyr, however briefly. 
==Life==
Nael was an orphan who was born some time around the 220s or 230s, and raised at a halfway home in the Rakkimarran town of Rasmus Light on Mjor Island. Rasmus Light was a coastal industrial town around a C-shaped inlet, and the area was responsible for processing and canning a very large amount of sardines and tinned fish, and not much else. When he was a young adult and soon going to be too old for the orphanage, a hemomancer named Marvos rem Arvus visited the orphanage and adopted him as an apprentice. Marvos was a member of the Order of the Crimson Shroud and selecting a worthy apprentice to train in the dark arts. 
===Marvos's Betrayal===
The Order was searching for the Shroud of Heinrich, an artifact with the power to control the flow of death. Nael was kept with other apprentices to be trained as the next generation of blood-magicians. In 245 C, the Order (without their apprentices) attacked the Essu village of Ushtirn, erroneously believing the Shroud to be entombed beneath it. Their leader, Malachar, orchestrated the wanton slaughter of innocents, before he himself was killed by Mordred Ninetoes. Marvos, witnessing this destruction, came to his senses and was rightfully horrified. He took his apprentice Nael and fled the remnants of the cult, now headed by Sedna, Kordelia, Esthric, Xorthu, and Valaska. Marvos and Nael were marked as apostates - outcasts and betrayers. Marvos had stolen one of the cult's key tomes, full of ancient scribbles, and they wanted it back. 
===Early Travels===
Some time in summer 251 C, Marvus and Nael went to the Danderillon chasing a lead about an ancient and powerful vampire, Gail di'Romila. They arrived at the Four Corners Floodplain on the shores of the Anoq Basin and found his body decomposing (unbeknownst to them, he had been killed by Silvia d'Abavël only weeks earlier during the grand arrest of the Wildecards). They excavated his skull and turned it into a speaking-skull which could dispense esoteric knowledge. On their return to Rakkimar, they were separated briefly in some snowy weather, and Nael found Marvus had been mortally wounded by some beast or some such. The Order of course did not know Marvos had died. But, with his dying breath, Marvos entrusted Nael with the ancient text and all of his important things. Now, Nael was left to wander the world, his training almost-but-not-quite-complete. He eventually settled in Solvenger where he worked as a double glazing salesman alongside Kala Netzi and Erik Máni.
===The Wildecards===
When Mordred and Valen of the Wildecards came to Solvenger in the Near Year 253, he and his friends joined them on their travels, which are detailed fully at Wildecards. I won't get bogged down with details that are already there. However, the notable thing is that he was rapidly aged into his fifties by Sedna's psychic scream; and now he resembled his mentor more than ever, which gave Malachar quite the fright seeing Marvos, only to find out it was Nael. Using the ancient text, he unlocked the tomb of Heinrich the Mad Lich. In order to acquire the Shroud of Heinrich, he sacrificed his right hand, and then also had to drown his best friend Erik - it was very emotional, but Nael gained the shroud, and with it, his body stopped aging, he became unkillable, and he could snuff the life-flame of anyone he desired just by looking at them. He finished off both Valaska and Malachar of the Order during the siege of Solvenger. Later, in Sedia, he also acquired the sword of Empress Dateriä II, a mirrorsteel Volxa. During the group's final adventures in the Danderillon, he briefly acquired Xánwyr from Lucrezzia Reeves, before ceding it to the rest of his party.
==Personality==
Nael was one of the more virtuous members of the Wildecards as the party went. He took issue with several of the more egregious things the party did, shown for example when he was moments away from putting Baron Orvin out of his misery to stop Cutzah's torture session; or when he stood up to Kragar after the latter almost turned on Barnabas. He was also surprisingly selfless, even more so than most of his party, shown when he was acquiring the Shroud - after learning that someone had to be drowned to acquire it, he laid down and asked Erik to do it to him, but Erik tearfully refused so they swapped. His restraint was also shown when, after acquiring the Shroud, he did not use it very much. He kept it at his belt and used it only to defeat the most powerful foes, knowing it would risk Outsider intrusion if he kept doing so. 
If he kept hold of the Shroud, he might become a Wanderling. Who knows. 
Category:People
Category:PCs