Waylon Feist

## Better to live among ice than among modern virtues and other south winds...

*"It was from this modernity that we were ill—from lazy peace, from cowardly compromise, from the whole virtuous uncleanliness of modern Yes and No. This tolerance and largeur of heart which 'forgives' everything because it 'Understands' everything is sirocco to us. Better to live among ice than among modern virtues and other south winds!"*

-Waylon Feist

## History

*"We are Hyperboreans—we know well enough how much out of the way we live. 'Neither by land nor sea shalt thou find the road to the Hyperboreans'."*

-Waylon Feist

Waylon Feist was born in the town of Vulpanomi, a town not far from Commorium, an ancient Hyperborean city in the far north of what would, one year later, become the Final Empire. His parents were minor nobility, and he was raised in relative luxury. He journeyed to the Northern Dome as a youth, and studied arcane magic at Brennen's College of the Sciences. He was set apart from his fellow students in that he could enter the Dreamlands without forgetting what he saw upon waking. He encountered Emperor Brennen in the Dreamlands once, who promised to teach him about this mysterious world and the ancient gods who inhabited it, but the War of the Philosopher-Kings prevented this plan from reaching fruition.

## Personality

*"We were brave enough, we spared neither ourselves nor others: but for long we did not know where to apply our courage. We became gloomy, we were called fatalists. Our fatality—was the plenitude, the tension, the blocking-up of our forces. We thirsted for lightning and action, of all things we kept ourselves furthest from the happiness of the weaklings, from 'resignation'...."*

-Waylon Feist

Waylon Feist despised modernity and believed that mankind had succumbed to fatalism. For him, only connection to the Dreamlands and its gods would put an end to this fatalism, prompting him at first to seek out knowledge, and then upon attaining this knowledge, to try and put an end to the Dream of the Old Ones. Though Feist was not in any way inherently evil, his formidable mind was warped by the horrors he contemplated and strove to understand, and any fellow-feeling for other human beings was extinguished when he became a lich. Feist was neither cowardly, cruel, nor arrogant, but he was single-minded of purpose and genuinely believed that non-Dreamers lived lives not worth living.

## The War of the Philosopher-Kings

*"Beyond the North, beyond the ice, beyond death—our life, our happiness.... We have discovered happiness, we know the road, we have found the exit out of whole millennia of labyrinth."*

-Waylon Feist

As the Hexenjägers approached the Northern Dome, Waylon Feist received a mysterious vision outlining the fall of the Final Empire, told he was destined for greater things, and urged to flee. Feist refused, as he did not want to lose the chance to learn about the gods from Brennen. Though he intended to find, he was not given the opportunity. As he lay down to rest the night before the great battle, he was pulled into a deep slumber in which he was safe from harm.

## After the War

Waylon Feist woke from his slumber to find the the Northern Dome in ruins. Knowing that the Hexenjägers were still near and searching for mages, he fled back to Commorium, where he found that his people were establishing a neo-Hyperborean kingdom, independent from the warring powers. Though this land fell in what the Reich deemed the Northern Administrative Zone, at no point did the Hexenjägers deem it worthwhile to expend resources dealing with the "Hyperborean restorationists."

Feist was still determined to uncover the secret of the Dreamlands, and journeyed from settlement to settlement in the north, speaking to sages, madmen, and explorers and collecting the few scraps of arcane knowledge had evaded the Hexenjägers. His findings convinced him that he needed to journey to Mt. Voormithadreth as Brennen had. Feist was accompanied by four other adventurers, each with their own motive, but using a map provided by Axel Heiberg, made it to the peak, where Feist received a second vision, prompting him to lead his companions into the caverns beneath the mountain. There they came before the great old one Tsathoggua, his formless spawn, and his Voormi priests. Through these intermediaries, Tsathoggua promised Feist that he would teach him the things he wished to know, if only he would willingly sacrifice his companions to him. Fail to do so, and the god would let them go; yet Feist would be cut off from the Dreamlands as punishment. Fearful of this fate, Feist agreed, and three of his companions were fed to the god. One managed to escape and swear vengeance.

In the Caverns of N'kai, Tsathoggua taught Waylon Feist many great and terrible things, not the least of which was the secret of becoming a lich, thereby attaining immortality and a new purpose. Feist returned to Hyperborea, first to his manor in Vulpanomi, where he hid his phylactery, and then to Commorium, where he entered the priestly caste and swiftly maneuvered himself to the position of Hierophant, the city's high priest. He used his position to found the Cult of the Sleeper, imbedding worshippers of Tsathoggua into key positions in society. When he deemed himself ready, he and his worshippers revealed themselves and launched a vicious coup. The coup was short-lived, as the lich's enemies had an ally in the form of the Feist's former companion, the one who had survived the sacrifice. This hero defeated Feist in battle, deeming him finished. He did not know that he former friend was a lich.

Upon Feist's defeat, he and Tsathoggua's closest followers were placed in a magical slumber to hide them from reprisal. Feist himself repaired his body in his manor, but returned in this state of slumber. Unable to consume the necessary souls to sustain himself, his body decayed, leaving his skull as a demilich.