Ethraeil

A Church-sanctioned, medieval Lich.

Ethraeil is a frost Lich forced to serve the Divine Church against his will. It is unknown how long this has been the case, but Ethraeil's armor is of medieval make, alluding to his longtime unnatural existence. Many details regarding him are kept secret by order of the Church, as they would rather not have it known that they keep a Lich around.

## History

Born at some point slightly prior to or at the start of the Age of Darkness to a peasant family in a village whose name is lost to time, Ethraeil had nothing but humble beginnings for someone as infamous as himself. For a time, he lived there his in his early years as a peasant under the rule of the region's duke. But his world changed when the Duke, along with an entourage of his family and companions as well as another local lord, came to visit the village and its nearby locale it was famous for: a grove said to have been blessed by the gods. It was there he set his eyes upon the Duke's daughter, around the same age as him, for the first time and was captivated by her. As luck would have it, she approached him on her own accord as he was practically the only one her age to speak with apart from being with the more boring adults. The two hit it off almost immediately as they traversed the nearby woods and spent time together. Although she had to leave once the Duke's visit had concluded, Ethraeil would remember these moments for the rest of his life... especially since she made frequent visits with help from her maid to sneak away. As their time spent together grew, their friendship grew as well. And eventually, it changed to something much more than that. It was on the stream near his village that he professed his love to her, however forbidden it would be considering their disparate circumstances. Although she did love him back, she knew that it would be near impossible for them to ever truly be together. And so, it was a task Ethraeil set out to surpass.

In a motion fueled by both love as well as a young naivete, Ethraeil approached the Duke himself on his daughter's love. Needless to say, if it would were not for her intervention and pleading Ethraeil would not have exiled for such a gesture, or worse. In this case, the Duke made a proposal: If Ethraeil could prove he was a man of honor and chivalry, he would permit the marriage. And from there, Ethraeil became a squire under the Duke and toiled as hard as he could in both times of peace and war to prove himself, culminating in saving his liege-lord's life in the thick of a skirmish. And from there, the Duke permitted his daughter to marry the one she loved. With an estate granted as well, Ethraeil became a Count and from there he worked to be the best man that he could for his soulmate. From their love, came about another great joy in his life as he became a father. It almost seemed perfect for someone as him to have gotten this far... yet it would not last.

The Age of Darkness as its called was a time of chaos and carnage, and the realm which Ethraeil lived in was no exception to being victim of this. For it was the king of his realm that fell to darkness and consorted with the abyss. This evil came to the point in which there was a rebellion in which his liege, the Duke, was a part of. Ethraeil, being a man of honor believed their cause to be just and as such rode into battle with the rebels. Although, this battle would be short-lived as they were slaughtered to almost the last man. Ethraeil only survived by being unconscious and seemingly dead, and when he awoke he saw nothing but carnage around him. The Duke himself lay dying nearby, and Ethraeil comforted him in his last moments as he passed from his life. He quickly surmised from there that his family would also be in danger as a result of this. He rode as fast as he could to his estate, only to find it destroyed. But his family was nowhere nearby, and so he rode to the Duke's castle as fast as he could until his horse gave out. From there, he ran the rest of the way until he found himself at the gates. The sight within was nothing short of pure horror, as bodies were strewn about in piles and horribly massacred. And that's when he saw them.

For three days Ethraeil grieved, holding the bodies of his family through it all. When tears no longer flowed, he could only scream and when his voice gave out he could only sit in a deafening silence. It was at this point, at the lowest any man could be, that he heard the whispers of someone offering him a chance at avenging his family. Sazak, the Icon of Vainglory, offered him to ability to amass the power he needed to utterly destroy the evil king that had set this onto him. Without a second thought on the consequences of accepting the offer, nor what it would entail, Ethraeil took the offer on this promise. And so, he began his descent into necromancy and from there amassed his power to become a lich by putting his soul in a phylactery, which was to be the last remnant of his beloved wife: a necklace with a jewel embedded in it. So fearsome and dreadful he was in his rage, that he would subjugate other necromancers and liches with his will that he was given the moniker of Lich King. And from there, he enacted his vengeance as he swept an army of the dead onto the traitors to humanity that had taken everything from him. But once he had slain the king responsible for his pain, he had a moment of clarity in which he realized at what terrible thing he had become... and how he was now a slave to the will of the same demons that had influenced the very king he had slaughtered. Set upon the world as an agent of destruction, Ethraeil committed countless atrocities and vehement crimes against the living.

Eventually at one point he reclaimed possession of his phylactery and waged war against Sazak, but this would prove to be in vain as he was easily defeated and most of his army practically destroyed. From there, he was taken into custody by the Church shortly before the Age of Darkness ended. Rather than destroy him and cast him into the Abyss with his death, it was seen fit that the Church use him as a weapon against the supernatural instead.

### The Witlock Inquiry

In 1877, Ethraeil was brought aboard a vessel in an enclosed and warded carriage to Grimtham Isle, as ordered by Father Weston in order to aid the upcoming inquiry. Upon his arrival, his phylactery was handed off the Valeria Witlock and as such he began to assist her and those that followed her in the Inquiry.

WIP