Nostradus Blackheart

### Relatives

Cayelle Kalimour (daughter); Antony Blackheart (cousin); Ingrid Blackheart; Reginald Blackheart; Erik Blackheart; Shoria Blackheart; Kraetas Blackheart (descendants)

## Life as a Wizard (1728-1800 AoS)

Nostradus Kalimour was born in Year 1728 of the Age of Sistona. He learned arcane magic in Telvimbror during the heyday of the Iludin's reign over Tellaria and gained a healthy hatred of them, as well as the elves who disdained his humanity.

Over his long decades of study, he climbed the ranks of the Burning Griffin guild, became well-known in the city, and was even invited to become one of the Ten Arcans. Nostradus was one of the only mages in history to refuse this offer. He had no love for the idea of a council watching over his shoulder even more than they already did. Eventually he took an apprentice, Jerelaus Thundash, and despite their significant age difference, the two became the closest of friends.

In 1794 AoS, he fathered a daughter with his wife Brigette Sokolov at the surprisingly advanced age of 66. Many theorized that the two used their magic to conceive, which may have given Cayelle unnatural affinity. Sadly, Brigette passed six years later in 1800 AoS.

Jerelaus was anointed as the Gold Arcan in 1795 AoS. Nostradus was proud of his student, though he himself had passed up the offer to be an Arcan decades prior. When Cayelle's mother died, he left his daughter in Telvimbror in order to distract her and keep her from his grief. She became the youngest apprentice to a Gold Arcan in history. Nostradus himself went on his own sort of pilgrimage to explore other kinds of magic, studying the more obscure art of Primality.

## Corvisburg (1801-1803 AoS)

Under the guise of a simple human noble, Nostradus took the inhabitants of the failing town of Corvis's Inn and invited them to bring their trades and families northward, to the western edge of the Spindlewood. He had sensed the Aether Vessel deep beneath Arvenlaad and wished to study its effects on humans. Nostradus installed a mayor and a city council and left them to oversee the construction of the city. He focused on his own project: the magical creation of the later-dubbed Blackheart Tower. During these years, he visited his daughter in Telvimbror monthly, never neglecting her.

## Horror in the Northlands (1803-1810 AoS)

In 1803 Nostradus returned to Telvimbror to visit his daughter and Jerelaus. They teleported to the Northlands, which was Cayelle's favorite place in the world to visit. They arrived in Vandurga. Leaving Cayelle in town, the two archmages accompanied local dwarves led by Renabon Strongbellows to slay Shardolis Evanimber, a half-elf wizard who had been using necromancy to terrorize the locals. Jerelaus had volunteered to take care of this threat before the Iludin could, to ingratiate Telvimbror with folk across Tellaria so that they would not buy into the Iludin's propaganda that mages were unstable and dangerous to all around them. They succeeded after a tense battle at Pale Tooth Tower. Two enchanted blueice teeth were salvaged from Shardolis's winterwight guard. They were kept as trophies and curiosities. Jerelaus took one back to Telvimbror and Nostradus kept the other on his person.

Six years later in 1809 AoS, due to heightened pressure from Sistona, Nostradus and Jerelaus had Cayelle moved to the Northlands to study. She dwelt in Ganvord for over a year before her father visited her again. When he did, the tooth caused frostbitten corpses from the long-buried city of Hanverdallous to rise and attack Ganvord, Talkardin, and Vandurga. A huge zombified mammoth dug its way up out of the Hedgerow and thundered through Vandurga. Cayelle and the townsfolk were terrified, but were saved by the powers of dwarven clerics of Andarn purifying the tooth. Despite his services prior, both he and Cayelle were no longer welcome in the Northlands, so they returned to Eranos and relocated to Corvisburg.

## Death and Resurrection (1814 AoS)

Nostradus died of natural causes at the age of 86. His funeral was overseen by his best friend and former apprentice Jerelaus Thundash, the Gold Arcan. Cayelle attended, but was too grief-stricken to speak at the service. He was buried humbly in Corvisburg, with the epitaph:

Here Lies a Great Wizard

High Guildsman of the Burning Griffin Guild

1728 A.o.S – 1814 A.o.S.

May Warlorian Speed You to Your Rest

And May Ereigon Fight off the Devils at Your Back

His rest was to be short-lived, however. His daughter's grief was not to be underestimated, nor her talents. She had been born powerful and trained by the Gold Arcan of her time. She refused to believe that her father was truly dead. She dug up his body with her bare hands and swore to dig up her mother's as well so that they could be a family again. Through powers that are still not understood (though perhaps the area's Primal forces played a part), her grief, rage, and denial tore her own soul from her body and passed its energies into her father's corpse. Cayelle Kalimour fell dead, and Nostradus rose from the grave.

## Norstrar and the Wardens of the Dead (1814-1862 AoS)

The tragedy of Cayelle's death combined with the horror of his own rebirth drove Nostradus to dismiss all reason in his earliest days as Dorhaun's first lich. Though he would make many attempts to raise her, her magic gave him life just as his magic had enabled him to give her life before. Not even Nostradus himself discovered the full truth of this paradox. All that was known was that no matter what he tried, he could not bring his daughter back. He buried her in his own empty grave and left for Telvimbror. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, these events and experimentations so close to the Aether Vessel spawned a new being: Tel'meir, the first Warden of the Dead.

Nostradus arrived in Telvimbror mere days after his own funeral. Without hesitance, he confronted and murdered Jerelaus Thundash for not taking care of Cayelle in her grief-stricken state. He blamed Jerelaus for her death and partially for his own twisted existence. He took the second blueice tooth from his former apprentice and ransacked the Golden Spire, stealing spellbooks and the Robes of the Gold Arcan, which he dyed black and wore himself. When Nostradus held the two magical ice fangs together, they shone for an instant before their light flickered out. They became more cursed than they ever had been in Evanimber's possession. On instinct, he tore out his rotting canines and shoved the fangs into his mouth. His breath was frigid, and when he spoke incantations of cold magic, the power of the spells was overwhelming. He fled Telvimbror before the other Arcans detected him.

Knowing he could not remain in Corvisburg for long, not only because of the Arcans, but because of his own emotions being fueled by Primality, he travelled far west to the continent of Enagia. In northwest Enagia he settled in a lifeless wetland. Reminiscent of Telvimbror, he thought it fitting to construct his own city of magic in a far-off swamp. Using his power, he built a tower much like the one he had in Corvisburg. In this tower he dwelt. Having no need of sleep, he studied the books he had stolen from the Arcans and expanded his knowledge exponentially. There was also no Iludin presence on Enagia, and his remote location meant that no one disturbed him for decades. He raised a veritable army of corpses and skeletons, primarily humans and saurials, to build his new home: the Dead City of Norstrar.

Norstrar was completed in 1820 AoS and Nostradus made the second (the first as far as he knew) Warden of the Dead to guard it: Pro'teor. Since his new home was now protected, Nostradus began to travel again, seeking knowledge of necromancy and experimenting in abandoned or inhospitable places. In 1831 AoS he created the third Warden of the Dead in the Valley of Grey Sands in Phanaris, a fossilized sphinx named Laves'wroen. In 1844 AoS he created the fourth Warden Roda'lon to guard the Dead Forest around the mysterious ruins of Tengaaholme. He would explore ancient lands and learn forgotten secrets around Dorhaun until he finally drew the attention of the Order of Iludin.

## A New Family (1863 AoS)

Not much is recorded of Nostradus's initial defeat, but what is known is that the Order of Iludin sent a human paladin by the name of Edward Whitethorn to Enagia with the mission of finding and eliminating the wizard responsible for the creations of the Wardens of the Dead. Accompanying Edward were Zeroc Duskmask and Alharim Dunestrider, a resident of Phanaris whose people had suffered from the Warden Laves'wroen. Nostradus was defeated, though he merely faked his destruction. Norstrar was overrun and torn down by the people of Enagia.

Nostradus abandoned his city and secretly relocated to his homeland of Khalvorough. He watched his family's lands from afar, seeking the right mixture of naivety and arcane aptitude. After a few months, he settled on another young Kalimour, Antony. Nostradus came to him in the night, telling him that they would become gods together. During this conversation, his parents entered the room and in a panic, attacked Nostradus, but the lich had no trouble in killing them. A shocked Antony became his student in necromancy. The Kalimour line ended with these words:

“There is no going back now, my apprentice. No longer can we be concerned with human guilt or compassion. Our hearts must be black. For blackness cannot be corrupted, cannot be tainted. Black is pure. Our hearts must be black.”

The newly-named Nostradus Blackheart led his apprentice in many strange experiments, some more personal than others. The loss of his daughter weighed heavily on him. As he grew dissatisfied with his new unlife, he sometimes wished that he had stayed dead and Cayelle had lived. Taking his own advice, he attempted to banish these thoughts, but ever they encroached on his concentration. Imagining a solution, Nostradus demanded a vial of Antony's seed, into which he mixed some of his own genetic material. This mixture was used to impregnate a seamstress employed by the family, and she bore a daughter, a true descendant of both Nostradus and Antony. She became the third Blackheart, Ingrid.