Renthar [Catskills Shard]

[Renthar]

Given Name: Renthar
Family Name: Unknown
Other Names: Matthew; Michael Mitre
Current Titles: None
Past Titles: Ranger of Yew; Lieutenant in Mondain’s Army; Agent of the Entity; Master of the Order; Advisor to House Braccalese of Trinsic; Necromancer of the Order of Lithos; Keeper of the Rangers Guild of Skara Brae
Place of Birth: The Deep Forest, Kingdom of Akalabeth
Current Whereabouts: Physical Form: Deceased | Spirit: Unified with all the Renthars across the shard-worlds of Sosaria into one composite Renthar.
Known Relatives: Hexra (Daughter, Deceased); Katelynn Vodyanoy (Daughter, Fate Unknown); Dionysus (Grandson, Deceased); Bacchus (Grandson); Postumus (Grandson, Deceased); Three Unnamed Sisters (Granddaughters, Fates Unknown)
Other Affiliations: Mondain; Jon Abbot; The Entity of the Emerald; The Time Lord; The Stower Family; The Order; Antonio Braccalese; The Order of Lithos; The Rangers Guild of Skara Brae

Race: Human
Age: Over 300 years; at the time of his death, he appeared to be a man in his early 40s.
Hair: His hair was naturally black and often tied in a ponytail. During the time his power waned, it became dark gray. As Michael Mitre his hair was kept short and dyed an oak-blonde color.
Eyes: Naturally brown, though they turned red once his lifespan was extended through unnatural means. After that spell finally faded, they turned an odd reddish-brown color.
Skin Tone: Fair
Height: Six Feet, Six Inches
Build: Medium frame reflecting intensive physical activity

Demeanor: With his wild and frenetic gaze, as well as his habit of expressing amusement with an eerily wide smile, Renthar’s appearance was unconventional, though not entirely unpleasant, and his odder features were balanced by a prominent, straight nose. He wielded his significant height like a weapon, using it to belittle or intimidate, and he was prone to exaggerated sighs or amused laughter to express condescension or impatience.

In the guise of Michael Mitre, he made efforts to alter his appearance to avoid recognition. His dyed hair and beard were always neatly trimmed, his posture was stiffer, and he was far more conservative with his prominent smile. He also strived to maintain a subdued demeanor, at peace with himself and the world around him.

Equipment: He never displayed an attachment to a particular piece of equipment, but Renthar’s manner of dress evolved throughout his many years of existence.

As a ranger in ancient Yew, he wore simple brown leathers and a green cloak. As a soldier in Mondain’s army, he wore a Lieutenants sash and uniform, dark chainmail armor, and wielded a long sword and round-shaped shield. As a mage, he eschewed the predictable robes for a white tunic and black cape, pants, and boots. The armor he wore during these years was inconsistent, but he never stopped carrying his long sword. As a necromancer in the Order of Lithos, he wore black, hooded robes and carried a long sword. As Michael Mitre, Keeper of the Rangers Guild of Skara Brae, he wore a mixture of chainmail and platemail armor, a brownish cloak and sash, and he wielded a war axe in battle, which was his weapon of preference when he was a Ranger of Spiritwood. However, he soon adapted his style of fighting and began using a broadsword and bokuto, akin to how Renthar used to fight.

Known History: Few details are known about Renthar’s early years. He was born centuries ago, in ancient Yew of the Kingdom of Akalabeth. As a grown man, he joined a local ranger order, one that had forged a unique covenant with the land. When the dark wizard Mondain waged war upon the world, Renthar betrayed his order and his oath to join his army. The ex-ranger became infamous for his lack of mercy and brutality. Some of his associates included Serak and Ashley Belmont, and he possessed a certain affinity for his protege, Jon Abbot.

Near the end of the war, Renthar and his closest comrades realized that Lord British’s Stranger might actually defeat Mondain, so they stole some of their master’s secrets, using them to extend their lifespans unnaturally. Because he existed prior to the Shattering of the Gem of Immortality, a version of Renthar exists in every shard-world created in the wake of this cataclysmic event.

[Renthar]

Post-Shattering: The Shattering changed little for Renthar, except that deprived of his master, he no longer saw any obstacles to his own ambitions. He continued to exist as a predator, seeing the chaos that followed Mondain’s death as the ultimate opportunity. Over the course of the next few centuries, he continued to amass power, knowledge, and influence. This stood in contrast to Jon Abbot, as the two former soldiers, once like brothers, eventually had a contentious parting of ways. Assuming the name Preacher, Jon Abbot chose a path of isolation and peace, even if he did not believe himself capable of true redemption.

His most significant and long-lasting alliance was with the Entity of the Emerald, a powerful and mysterious being caught in an endless cycle which ranged from the ancient days of Barataria and Rondorin to Sosaria’s distant future, and back again: gem, spirit, dragon, and mortal bloodline. The Entity stood opposed to the enigmatic figure known as the Time Lord, and Renthar became one of its agents in their eternal conflict. It was the Entity that convinced the former ranger to embrace magic and sorcery. Over time, Renthar also assumed control of the Order, an ancient monastic order that safeguarded the Entity while in its emerald stage, and eventually evolving into an order of fanatical assassins dedicated to its service.

It was at this time that Renthar began maintaining journals concerning a variety of subjects. Of note were those containing his Resurrection Ritual, a spell he created that could restore anyone, including the dead, to their default state, but not without significant risk to the caster. He was also the first to record the existence of the so-called Titan Seals, a quartet of artifacts related to a false prophecy that hid Titans of Pagan’s plans to invade Sosaria.

Another recurring presence throughout his many years was the immortal witch Ilyana and her multitude of offspring. Occasional acquaintances, it was more than a century after the death of Mondain that Renthar briefly joined with the witch and Ranger of Spiritwood called Mitre to rescue one of her children, stolen by a rival. Within a year, Renthar slew Mitre, and Ilyana gave birth to another son. While she never confirmed which of the men was responsible, she chose to name the new child Michael Mitre. Once Michael reached adulthood, he embarked upon a quest to learn more of the two men fathered him. He eventually decided it was Mitre, and attempted to avenge the death of a man he never knew. Renthar killed him too.

Many, many years later, Renthar and Ilyana’s paths crossed for a final time. By now, she was known as Iliana Stower, and a bargain was struck between them. In exchange for a small favor relating to an artifact capable of crossing worlds, and an agreement that her family stay uninvolved in the Entity's affairs, Renthar promised to help the Stowers perfect the Hollowing, a magical ritual that played a vital role in the witch’s plans. Both his murder of the junior Mitre, as well as his failure to provide the expertise needed to complete the Hollowing, eventually led to serious consequences for the sorcerer at the hands of the Stower family.

For a time, Renthar dwelled in Trinsic, serving as the magical advisor to Antonio Braccalese, an ambitious nobleman. While visiting Magincia with Antonio, the sorcerer seduced aristocrat Shannon Jacoby away from her family, and she willingly followed him back to the City of Honor. But Renthar’s associations with Antonio increased his visibility, and the Royal Army of Britannia sent an investigator, Ethan Fraser, to infiltrate Antonio’s inner circle and gather evidence that Renthar was the same man who had served Mondain so long ago. After discovering the truth about the man she thought she loved, Shannon turned to Ethan for comfort, and they escaped to Yew together, where she gave birth to a daughter, Katelynn. Their happiness did not last; Renthar retaliated through his agents Kalodar and Celeborn of the Ninth Circle, and Katelynn was left an orphan under the care of Empath Abbey.

Soon, Antonio found his own twisted version of love, an obsession with Lady Thalesa Cornigan, the wife of another nobleman. Renthar enabled Antonio to magically impersonate her husband and seduce Thalesa, which led to open conflict between the two families. Soon, Lady Cornigan committed suicide, Lord Cornigan became a fugitive from justice, and their son Thraxirous was left with naught but his family name and bitter memories. Antonio soon took possession of the Cornigan estate, which Renthar often used to further his schemes.

When the woodsman Massad ran afoul of one of Renthar’s agents, and later the sorcerer himself, it led to the massacre of his family. Massad’s oath to bring their killer to justice led to Preacher, whom he mistakenly believed still served his former mentor. After resolving this confusion, the woodsman’s tragic tale persuaded Jon Abbot to forsake his centuries of self-imposed exile, and together they searched for Renthar. Their mission of vengeance was soon joined by the mage Hexra, whose mother Samaantaa was slain when the sorcerer and his accomplice/new apprentice, Balric of Barataria, tried to kidnap the two women on behalf of the Entity.

[Renthar]

The Emerald Empire: During the years before and after the 300th anniversary of the Shattering, many threads of Renthar’s unnatural life span finally coalesced. The ongoing struggle between the Entity of the Emerald and the Time Lord neared its inevitable climax, and led to the formation of a group of adventurers called the Emerald Empire. Unknowingly, they served the cause of the Time Lord, and their ranks included some Renthar had wronged, such as Thraxious Cornigan; Gianni Braccalese, a nephew of Antonio who killed his uncle for the honor of their family; and most notably, Preacher, Hexra, and Massad.

Using the artifact related to his bargain with Iliana Stower, Renthar summoned a red moongate in Magincia. The sorcerer, Balric, and members of the Order were followed through this portal to other worlds by Night Angel, the founder of the Emerald Empire, Preacher, Hexra, and Massad. In the ensuing battle, Renthar was seemingly slain by his former protege. A few months later, Night Angel killed Balric, and of his nascent group slew the rest of the Order and thwarted their efforts to resurrect Renthar. For a time, the Entity had met its apparent defeat.

But this did not last. The Entity secretly returned Renthar to Britannia, the Order was revived by the recruitment of new members, and Balric was restored to life through the Emerald Empire’s casting of Renthar’s Resurrection Ritual. However, the Baratarian chose to make amends for his past misdeeds by joining the group and discarding his allegiance to the Entity and the sorcerer. Three later additions to the Emerald Empire’s roster were of importance to Renthar’s past and future: Dionysus, a green-bearded fellow; Ithias Braccalese, another of Antonio’s nephews, and Katelynn Frasier, the daughter of Shannon Jacoby.

Before his return was discovered, Renthar used the belief that he was dead to perform two tasks. With the aid of the Order, he murdered the current Mayor, Lord General, and City Council of Trinsic over a past slight, enabling a younger generation of Trinsic leaders to take charge. He then performed a ritual that summoned a servant of the Entity from another shard-world, at the cost of randomly transporting fifteen natives of this shard-world to a third one. Those sent away eventually found their way home, though not without consequence: some stayed behind, and a handful of the individuals they had encountered there followed them back.

Renthar’s primary antagonists among the Emerald Empire soon ceased to be a concern for him. After Hexra became pregnant, the father unrevealed by her, she and Massed retired to Moonglow to raise her infant son. One night, the Order ambushed them, only for two mysterious figures to intervene and slay the assassins before kidnapping Hexra and her child. When Massad sought help from their friends in Trinsic, he was murdered by Luther, an Order agent who had infiltrated Thraxious Cornigan’s recently recovered family estate. This infiltrator also slew Preacher during a confrontation between the Emerald Empire and the Order during a confrontation over custody of the journals that detailed Renthar’s Resurrection Ritual.

After arriving in Trinsic, Katelynn decided to make inquiries into her family history, and from Lady Sara Braccalese, Gianni’s mother, she learned that Shannon Jacoby was once romantically entangled with Renthar. Following the trail, she also discovered that Kalodar and Celeborn, her comrades in the Emerald Empire, used to work for the sorcerer when they were part of the band of mercenaries known as the Ninth Circle. They also admitted to killing Ethan Fraser in order to conceal evidence he had gathered against their employer. After the Emerald Empire successfully defended them from an Order assassination attempt, Kalodar guided the group to the documents prepared by Fraser. Soon, Renthar revealed he was still alive by visiting Katelynn, expressing an interest in Meerlinda Cornigan, the child adopted by her and Thraxious, and hinting that he, not Ethan Fraser, was Katelynn’s true father.

When he next resurfaced, Renthar arranged for the denizens of Necropolis, undead and members of a group known as the Crimson Alliance, to kidnap Meerlinda because she was the Rondorin prophet, a being with an ancient connection to the Emerald that once imprisoned the Entity. The purpose of capturing Meerlinda was to corrupt and taint her to the cause of the Entity, but the Emerald Empire was eventually able to rescue her.

Due to his failure with Meerlinda, both the Entity and the Order sidelined the sorcerer; he was no longer the former’s primary agent, and the assassins chose a new leader. Soon, Renthar was also struck by a strange malady that drained him of his vitality and magical prowess. This weakness left him at a disadvantage when most of the Emerald Empire’s active roster was imprisoned and replaced by darker versions from a shard-world of Sosaria known as the Abyss. This counterpart Emerald Empire was trying to gather the shards of the original gem that contained the Entity, and they forced the sorcerer to aid them. Their gambit eventually failed, and most of them were slain or returned to their native shard-world.

The cure to Renthar’s malady, and the truth about its cause, was unwittingly delivered by Ithias Braccalese. At the behest of his mother Antoinette, who had been disowned by her siblings due to her unwedded pregnancy, Ithias had joined the Emerald Empire. She was acting on behalf of Renthar, who promised an opportunity to reclaim their family heritage. Her son obeyed because he thought it would make his heritage-obsessed mother love him more. As part of this scheme, Ithias was instructed to retrieve one of the emerald shards from the bank box of the late Antonio Braccalese and bring it to the ailing sorcerer. Once they came into contact, the shard suddenly exploded, and the essence contained within was absorbed by Renthar.

With this, previously unknown and missing pieces of the sorcerer’s memories, long ago excised, were restored. Before he had allied with the Entity, Renthar was recruited by the Time Lord as a double agent, his knowledge of this fact removed so that it could never be discovered. Many of the acts he committed on behalf of the Entity were actually to the benefit of its enemy. Also, he finally remembered that he had fathered Hexra, and like the sorcerer, Samaantaa secretly served the Time Lord. The purpose of their coupling was to produce an offspring of sufficient power to mate with the pure-blooded Rondorin Night Angel. Of the six children they spawned across the timeline, three sons and three daughters, Dionysus and Postumus played a vital role in causing the downfall of the Entity. Which also explained the timing of Renthar’s illness and Ithias’ cure; the ongoing struggle between the two opposing forces was finally nearing an ending.

[Renthar]

Second Death: In the end, Renthar aided was instrumental to the Emerald Empire; the Emerald was reconstructed; the Entity was severed from Elysia Mazetti, the half-elven girl who had been used to host it; and the Entity was once again contained inside a jeweled prison. This resolution was not without its cost: Meerlinda sacrificed her essence as the hybrid Rondorin and Baratrian prophet, which permanently destroyed her cognitive functions, and Balric of Baratria, the sorcerer’s former apprentice, and the Rondorin WinterWolf surrendered their lives. As foretold, two of Night Angel and Hexra’s children were important to the final battle, although Dionysus was forced to kill his own brother, Postumus, who had secretly joined the Order.

For his part in their victory, Renthar requested a reward of the Emerald Empire; he wanted them to perform his Resurrection Ritual upon him. According to the sorcerer, casting it on its creator would not only restore him to his youth and full power, but it would render the spell forever unusable. The prospect of destroying such a dangerous magic did appeal to the group, so they reluctantly agreed to help. Aaron Effington, Arshes Nei, Endar, Judas, and Sithas Quimmant accompanied Renthar to the Crypts of the Deep Forest, with Endar serving in the role of caster. While successful in its execution, Judas, Nei and Sithas immediately attacked and killed Renthar, as part of a secret plan they had concocted before departing for the Crypts. But the appearance of a band of dark elves prevented them from recovering the sorcerer’s corpse.

Matthew the Necromancer: Despite the Emerald Empire’s efforts, Renthar had survived, but this time, he did nothing to discourage the notion that he was dead. While in hiding, he focused on repairing the magics of his Resurrection Ritual, so that it would function again. Before Britannia discovered the facet of the shard-world called Malas, the sorcerer found a way to access that land and settled there. He encountered the Order of Lithos, necromancers who worshipped one of the Titans of Pagan he had learned of centuries earlier. Pretending to be an amnesiac who wandered into their temple, he was invited to join them by their leader, the Arch-Necromancer, and given the name of Matthew. He also arranged for the Order of Lithos to come into possession of the Ethereal Scrolls, an ancient document that was related to the Titan Seals Prophecy.

A few months later, the Order of Lithos became embroiled in the hunt for the Titan Seals. A few different factions sought them, including the children of the late Iliana Stower; Neville Holden, a rogue knight of the Order of the Silver Serpent; and the adventurers known as the Emerald Fist. The Fist was loosely linked to the Emerald Empire, and one of its members was Bacchus, a child of Night Angel and Hexra, and the last of Renthar’s grandsons. Both the Stowers and the Fist were in Umbra searching for the Ethereal Scrolls.

Unfortunately, the Arch-Necromancer lay on his deathbed, and in no position to determine who would receive the Ethereal Scrolls. To break this stalemate, Matthew suggested a trial between the two candidates trying to succeed the Arch-Necromancer. While the Fist backed Fortune, the Stowers supported Kracus, an undead of Necropolis. After a number of tasks were completed, Fortune and Kracus dueled for leadership of the Order of Lithos, and the former won. She then granted the Ethereal Scrolls to the Fist, and the struggle for the Titan Seals continued elsewhere.

The Voice and the Hollowing: For nearly a decade, Renthar found peace as Matthew of the Order of Lithos. Without any conflict or controversy, he was able to devote himself full to the study of magic in a way he had never before. After centuries, he had finally found contentment. Until he began to hear the Voice, an interdimensional communication from one of his counterparts from another shard-world. Somehow, this other Renthar had convinced nearly every Renthar across the multiverse to acquiesce to his Spell of Binding, a powerful ritual which would combine them all into a single, unified being, like he was prior to the Shattering. “Matthew” was the one of the few hold-outs, and this other Renthar would not relent, promising consequences if he continued to resist.

Eventually, the threats of his counterpart drove Renthar to desperation. He betrayed the Order of Lithos, slaying many of his brethren and fleeing with their sacred texts and secrets. With few options available, the sorcerer turned to the Stowers for protection, offering to finally help them perfect their Hollowing ritual. This proved to be a grievous miscalculation on Renthar’s part; the new head of the family, Alionna Arroway, was hardly receptive to his request. She recalled his previous failure with the Hollowing, as well as his murder of Michael Mitre, one of her mother’s children, centuries before. She decided that Renthar would help them with the Hollowing, but as its latest test subject.

Michael Mitre: The purpose of the Hollowing was to “hollow” someone out through the removal of their soul, allowing the spirit of a dead individual to occupy their body instead. Iliana Stower had originally commissioned it as a way to ensure that she could always return from death, and after her death, her children were still struggling to accomplish this. Alionna thought it would be fitting to experiment on Renthar by “hollowing” him out and replacing his spirit with that of her long-dead half-sibling, Michael Mitre.

However, there was an error in the soul-summoning aspect of the ritual, and instead of Michael Mitre, they mistakenly placed the spirit of his dead father, the ranger Mitre, inside the sorcerer. Then there was another failure; Renthar was not completely hollowed either, the two souls co-mingled, and the result was Mitre’s mind in the sorcerer’s body, yet he still had access to Renthar’s memories and knowledge, and was influenced by his darker personality. The Stowers also mistakenly believed that the process had killed Renthar, and they soon disposed of his body.

Months later, a man called Michael Mitre appeared. He provided the Rangers of Spiritwood with aid against the Stower family and journeyed to Skara Brae, where he was appointed the new Keeper of the Rangers Guild of Skara Brae. Among his many acts, Mitre manipulated the dismantling of the Stower family, and the placement of Erollisi Stower as its new head. The truth, that he was the consequence of an unsuccessful Hollowing, was eventually discovered, and for his many crimes, he was forever exiled from Skara Brae. His life was only spared execution because he used Renthar’s Resurrection Ritual to save one of the Rangers of Spiritwood.

Soon, Michael Mitre settled in the wilds of Tokuno with his lover, the half-elven ranger Mylar Tyrmitore. But his counterpart, the Voice, had sent one of his agents after him, and this so-called Emissary located the couple’s hiding place. This led to the former keeper’s death at the hands of Sergio Jarrett, the brother of the late Rhys Jarrett, one of Mitre’s victims.

The Spell of Binding: With his body’s final death, the sorcerer’s counterpart that pursued him as the Voice was able to travel to this shard-world. Although he was dead, this Renthar still needed his help with the Spell of Binding. A couple of years after Mitre’s demise, the Emerald Fist, which was loosely allied with the Voice-Renthar, obtained the blood of William, the offspring of Michael Mitre and Mylar Tyrmitore. This blood enabled the foreign Renthar to communicate with the spirit of the native Renthar, and an agreement was reached between them.

Months later, when the Voice version of Renthar successfully completed the Spell of Binding and departed with his lover Jolicia to an unknown destination, the spirit of this shard-world’s version of the sorcerer was part of this new, composite being.