Korva the Famine

> "Long reviled by the general populace, Aizendore’s personal distaste for the necromantic arts is no secret. Hence, it remains a mystery why he opted to include a necromantic seal at all, if indeed, it was Aizendore who concocted the seals, and not, as other sources suggest, the Summoner." Aizendore's Vault of Tragic Treasure
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The Ganyoo exacts its toll upon the living, not the dead, and though many would rather ignore the fact, necromancy is an art which concerns itself with the flow of life. To truly master this potent magic is to strive for balance, to temper power with restraint. When Korva the Famine rose to power on tides of death, she chose to ignore this wisdom.

Korva showed an aptitude for magics at a tender age, and her first brush with necromancy came during a particularly hard year for her people. Though drought is common in the Ganyoo, never had it been so widespread. Never had the underground rivers the Ganyeese relied upon dwindled so completely, until they were almost impossible to find. One night, when the Yetse, Korva’s tribe, had stopped more from exhaustion than from choice, Korva dreamed. She dreamed of silver scales and flicking tails, of a darkness so complete it yawned like a chasm, of water so cold it burned her shining skin. Korva, questing with a new sense she barely understood, had discovered fish in an underground river.

What happened next is the subject of much speculation. Certainly the Yetse prospered with Korva’s new ability, that much is certain. But her new power gained her an unexpected, yet entirely predictable enemy in the form the tribe’s headman. People often tolerate an inept leader when no other option presents itself. This is a truth repeated through history’s script like a worn trope, afflicting the meanest hamlet to the largest empire. When these leaders feel threatened, the attempt to hold the reins of power turns bloody. So, the headman drowned Korva during one of her water-finding expeditions, letting her body disappear into the desert’s underbelly. Unfortunately for him, and for the Ganyoo at large, he’d only half finished the job.

Clinging to a kind of half-life, Korva drifted in the icy water until she reached a vast underground lake. At its center, something roused her from the indifference of the dying. The necromantic key lay where Aizendore left it, nestled in the ribs of an enormous sea creature. With one foot through death’s veil, Korva was untouched by the wards protecting the key, and she sailed to a dark deliverance.

When Korva rose from the depths of the Ganyoo, she wreaked a terrible vengeance upon her people. Tales are still told of the glorious army united to defeat her, through Ganyeese ingenuity, cunning, and the might of the tribes. Most interesting in terms of the key’s current whereabouts, however, are the tales of Korva’s dreaded mount, Duneclaw. A fifteen-foot, bone construct in the shape of a scorpion, Duneclaw was a horror not witnessed before or since. To this day, scorpions are considered a sign of evil in Ganyoo, and the criminal underclass hang them on the doors of victims as the direst of warnings. Still, what accurate descriptions remain of Duneclaw are as curious as they are horrifying. For the stinger in his tail is described in a most peculiar fashion, not as a poison-beaded spear, as might be expected, but intricately carved, with oddly regular ridges. Almost like the teeth of a key.

Where Duneclaw hides now is open to speculation, but the most likely place is the site of Korva’s final defeat. When the tribe’s magi finally beat their way through her defenses, they blasted a swathe of true death in the Ganyoo’s center, a field of bones that lies undisturbed save for a few brave adventurers. Those that return describe a desolate and spirit-ridden place, filled with the laments of the dead. At its core lies a hole so dark none have ventured inside, but the scent of fouled water can be tasted on the air. Perhaps Duneclaw hides there still, powered by the key fused to his tail. Others say he awaits the resurrection of his master. Whatever the truth, Korva’s End is a place of cold myth and hard reality, and perhaps a necessary step on the path to the vault.