Ralur

**Ralur** was a powerful mage who lived in the last years of the Second Epoch.

Seers proclaimed the stars at Ralur's birth as most auspicious - marking him out as one destined for greatness. They were more right than they could have imagined.

Born in 2E: 1463, Ralur was the third and final son of Baron Karl von Rountini of Skurj. At a young age, Ralur displayed a remarkable intellect, learning to read and write at the age of two, and quickly leaving his peers behind as he absorbed knowledge at a vastly accelerated rate. By the time he had reached the age of six, Ralur's father, hoping to exploit his son's talent, enrolled him in a local school of wizardry.

As before, Ralur's progress was remarkable. Where most students graduated as a fully-fledged mage at the age of sixteen, Ralur had completed his studies by the age of twelve. Ever ambitious, Ralur left to seek out wizards who might teach him more - and in the next five years he did so, until there was only one mage left whom Ralur believed had anything to teach him...

Lord Rive, the Archmage.

Ralur gained an audience with Rive through Xamos, a student wizard who, though five years his elder, had graduated during the same year as Ralur. Xamos had recently started studying under Rive himself, and invited Ralur to join them in Rive's redoubt, high in the Mountains of Sorrow.

From there, events moved steadily forward - Ralur advanced further in power and knowledge, his talent impressing even Rive. The trio even engineered a coup, taking control of the province of Skurj themselves. Ralur's parents and siblings were killed in the battle - but if these deaths gave Ralur pause for thought, the young mage certainly did not show it. The new lords of Skurj forged an alliance with the Drow usurper Lord Anager to fortify their province.

Such an alliance would prove to be their undoing.

The coming of the long-heralded elven messiah - Talan li'Karn-Raka - signalled the end of Anager's reign. A massive army, consisting of the Knights of the Crux Caruillin along with elven and dwarven allies, broke Rive and Anager's stranglehold on the province. Lord Rive and Anager died in battle, while Ralur and Xamos barely escaped with their lives. Xamos retreated to Rive's fortress, where he might withstand any sieges indefinitely, but Ralur scorned his former ally, and fled Skurj. He had other plans.

Ralur converted his sole remaining sibling - his half-brother Nalur - to his cause, and, using the remaining von Rountini wealth, the pair gathered together a formidable armed force. They did not take it to Skurj, as expected, but instead across the seas - to Goriinchia. There, smashing aside any Goriinchian resistance, they laid siege to the fabled Tower of the Magi. It had been here that, during Lord Rive's reign, those wizards opposed to the archmage, including his disloyal former pupil Cassian, had holed up in an attempt to stay "neutral".

But it was not merely revenge that motivated Ralur. The Tower itself was the last remaining Soldara citadels - and Ralur coveted the great magic of the ancient grey elves. Once the tower was his, he discovered the information he required - the text *Divine Metaphysics*, which detailed a ritual that might be performed on a planar nexus, a ritual whose outcome was nothing less than divine apotheosis.

True divinity, the ultimate power in the universe, was finally within Ralur's grasp. He knew the location of a planar nexus - the city of Qar Dal in Carurlonia and he and Nalur took the army there. With Ralur's arcane might and Nalur's fine grasp of strategy, the battle was never in doubt. Qar Dal fell, and Ralur could almost *taste* victory.

But it all fell apart. The white wizard Kelloccio, who not so long ago Ralur had dismissed as a nobody, gathered together a group of heroes, and penetrated the palace of Qar Dal. Ralur, caught off guard while performing the ritual for his godhood, fell in battle to one of inferior arcane skill.

The greatest mortal wizard of all time was dead.

In the ensuing years, the former associates of the Dark Archmage wreaked vengeance on the nations of Atallas, but they are opposed by a core group of intrepid heroes. Karnak el'Sehmet, Dark Patriarch of the Ralurians, was defeated at Fire Island by this group, but at the cost of the life of their leader, Archmage Kelloccio.

Reunited a decade later by the new Archmage Cassian, the heroes go on to defeat Jask-Incalin, another high-ranking Ralurian and the Emperor of Splueria; Ralur's cousin, Balur von Rountini; the artificer Karlen and finally the siren queen Sinthel-Waleshia.

Fearful that the wizard might wreak vengeance from beyond the grave, Ralur's tomb was cast out of Atallas through the efforts of a group of wizards led by the Archmage Cassian.

Unfortunately, some Ralurians abscond with Ralur's eye and left hand beforehand. With the rest of Ralur's earthly remains now beyond reach, these relics become much sought after by his deranged followers as they continue to contain great power.