Velsharoon

Velsharoon:

Symbol: Crowned Skull
Home Plane: Mungoth/Death's Embrace
Alignment: NE
Portfolio: Necromancy, necromancers, evil liches, undeath
Domains: Death Evil Magic Undeath
Worshipers: Cult of the Dragon, liches, necromancers, seekers of immortality through undeath
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: LN, NE, CN
Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff - "Skull Staff of the Necromancer"

History/Relationships: Velsharoon (VEL-shah-roon) is the Archmage of Necromancy, a demipower who has gathered the study, practice, and practitioners of necromancy and evil liches into his portfolio and who is striving to add general undeath as well. Newly elevated to a divine state, the Lord of the Forgotten Crypt is only beginning to create a cult of worshipers in the Realms. Although many prognosticators, mortals and immortals alike, have predicted the quick destruction of this arrogant necromancer, Velsharoon has played one power off against another, and he has begun to establish himself in the Faerûnian pantheon.

As a mortal, Velsharoon was a renegade Red Wizard of Thay who lived in the Tower Terrible in Soorenar as well as several other abodes. He aspired to the position of Zulkir of Necromancy, but was driven from that land centuries ago after feuding with his chief rival, Szass Tam, and several other powerful Red Wizards. Nearly as powerful as his archrival, Velsharoon spent many decades seeking enough power to destroy Tam and other wizards to challenge his evil machinations, including Halder of Delzimmer, Omm Hlandrar of Halruaa, the Simbul of Aglarond, and Elminster of Shadowdale.

In a very old ruin in the Plains of Purple Dust, southwest of the city of Zindalankh on the Sempharwater, Velsharoon discovered a process laid down long ago by Talos the Destroyer by which a great wizard can achieve demipowerhood. The Vaunted, as the archnecromancer was sometimes pilloried, managed to complete the ritual, which first turned him into a lich, and ascended into the ranks of Faerûn's pantheon with the Destroyer's sponsorship at the end of 1368 DR. (Sages speculate Ao allowed his ascension to provide a balance to the new Lord of the Death's dislike for the undead.)

Velsharoon served the Storm Lord dutifully, if not loyally, for two years before realizing that Talos was forcing him to expend his divine energy at a profligate pace. Unwilling to be worn out like a footsoldier's marching boots, Velsharoon shifted his allegiance to Azuth after forging an alliance of convenience with the Patron of Wizards. Infuriated, Talos railed against his fickle servant, but Azuth, with Mystra's help, backed the Archmage of Necromancy in a bid to redress Talos's encroachment on Mystra's province of magic. After Talos calmed down, Velsharoon made a secret alliance of convenience with the Destroyer, and he now plays Azuth and Talos off against each other. Officially, Velsharoon serves Azuth as the power primarily concerned with one class of specialist wizard-necromancers-much like Savras the All-Seeing serves Azuth as a patron of diviners. Unofficially, Velsharoon continues to aid Talos's quest for perennial destruction by encouraging his followers to unleash their horrible creations on an unsuspecting world.

Azuth remains an unlikely and unhappy ally of Velsharoon, and Talos seems to be biding his time until the Lord of the Forgotten Crypt gets his comeuppance. Kelemvor, the new Lord of the Dead, and Jergal, Scribe of the Doomed, actively oppose Velsharoon as his predilection for black necromancy violates many of their most cherished tenets. Cyric and Velsharoon share a mutual enmity as both seek to acquire a larger portfolio at the expense of Kelemvor. Finally, though they are not yet numbered among his enemies, it is likely that Velsharoon will soon find himself opposed by the myriad powers of nature, by the Triad of law and good (Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater), and by Lathander, the Morninglord. Velsharoon is a vain, selfish, petty, but very canny power consumed with vengeance, obsessed with experimenting on living and dead beings, and unconcerned with the fates of lesser creatures. In many ways he continues to act like the mortal he recently was, albeit with far greater power at his disposal than before.

Dogma: Those who are chosen to be the apostles of Velsharoon are an elite fellowship of visionaries worthy of the respect of the common masses and entitled to be held in esteem for their bold excursions to the frontier of life and death. Life and death are the twin faces of eternal existence. To surrender to either one is to resign oneself to obscurity. True power lies in the twilight zone between life and death. By seeking to explore and extend the mortal condition and form-even mortal life itself-knowledge of the world, in all of its infinite complexity, is extended.

Lesser beings cannot understand the importance of the exploration of life, death, and undeath and the philosophical implications of this complex medley. Let no one interfere with the pursuit of such research, for the end result will more than justify the necessary sacrifices along the path. Knowledge is power, and knowledge of life and death brings power over all beings, living and unliving; power that can lift the church of Velsharoon and his priests to dizzying heights.

Avatar/Manifestations: Velsharoon prefers to manifest as a great, disembodied human skull glowing with red, pale blue, or blue-green flames. Such an apparition appeared in the Skull Gorge following the Battle of Bones as the human troops made their final assault on the goblinoid armies. Although Velsharoon was a mortal necromancer at that time, church scriptures claim that the unholy visitant foreshadowed the Necromancer's impending ascent to the pantheon. Velsharoon can cast any spell or employ any spell-like power through such a manifestation.

Agents/Petitioners: Velsharoon is served by many forms of undead, both sentient and non-intelligent and both free-willed and controlled. In particular he manifests his will through blazing bones, boneless, crawling claws, dreads, flameskulls, flesh golems, and poltergeists. He is also served by living creatures such as fenhounds and scarab beetles. He is fond of black, purple, maroon, rust-red, gray, and bright and unnatural green gemstones (reminiscent of green slime in hue). These are often held sacred to him, and their discovery is said to denote his favor or presence. The overnight appearance of an adult bloodrose plant is said to herald the impending arrival of Velsharoon's avatar or manifestation.

The Church of Velsharoon: Velsharoon is largely unknown throughout Faerûn, but in the past year or so many bards have begun to relate fanciful tales of his ascension to audience's seeking to be frightened by stories of horror. Outside of secretive cabals of necromancers, those mortals who are aware of this evil demipower perceive Velsharoon as the lord of liches and a power able to organize the undead against the living.

Cultists of Velsharoon gather in dusty crypts, abandoned mausoleums, and neglected graveyards. The Necromancer has few true temples, but those few which have been constructed are located in ancient catacombs or necropolises and resemble brooding stone mausoleums carved with ghastly depictions of the dead, the dying, and the undead. Fetid air and the cloying reek of embalming fluid waft through such edifices, and undead servitors serve as untiring sentinels. Vast laboratories, crammed storerooms of alchemical supplies, and befouled mortuaries consume most of the space, and few concessions are made toward sleeping chambers, dining halls, and kitchens.

Velsharoon's clergy is composed primarily of specialty priests, known as necrophants, and necromancers. Both groups are represented in roughly equal numbers. About 20% of the Necromancer's clergy are clerics, holdovers from before the Time of Troubles who served Myrkul, the former Lord of the Dead, and who have little interest in serving Kelemvor, the new Lord of the Dead, or Cyric, who briefly preceded him. Novices and acolytes of Velsharoon are known as Pallbearers. Higher ranking priests have titles such as Soul Stalker, Cryptguardian, Dead Walker, Bleeder, Life Leech, Spirit Sepulcher, Seeker of the Seven Truths, and Necromaster. Higher-ranking priests have unique individual titles conferred upon them by Velsharoon himself.

Day-to-Day Activities: Many priests of Velsharoon spend their days in necromantic research, seeking to understand the faith's collective knowledge of life, death, and undeath. Most have created hundreds of undead servitors, some of them unique. When an undead creation has served its purpose, these self-involved researchers often brand the symbol of their god on its chest and then order it to wander randomly across the Realms. Other priests of Velsharoon are involved in "support" activities for the faith-grave robbing, embalming, teaching, etc. A few of the more congenial low-level priests sometimes cure the minor ills of the populace to bring in funding or worldly supplies for the church and to more easily gather information about its enemies.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: For a relatively young faith, the clergy of Velsharoon have quickly established a large number of holy days and rituals. The faith has yet to coalesce into a homogeneous creed, however, and widely varying rituals are found not only in different temples but within individual temples as well. Nonetheless, one ritual has become fairly widespread.

The Pact of the Everlasting is a special ceremony performed by Velsharoon's priests upon attaining 9th-level (or sooner if they employ an appropriate scroll spell). This unholy ritual involves the casting upon them of a Velsharoon's death pact (as the 7th-level priest spell), as well as numerous other horrible incantations and the foul sacrifice of numerous good-aligned sentients. Prominent theologians of the faith claim that this ritual is merely the first of seven to be revealed by Velsharoon along a path to achieving immortality.

Major Centers of Worship: The Crypt of the Arisen Army is hidden amidst the caverns worn into the walls of the steep-walled valley known as Skull Gorge. The subterranean temple and surrounding city, Necropolis, were founded at the site of one of Velsharoon's mortal abodes known as the Forgotten Crypt, which was built in the form of a grand mausoleum amidst the crypts of an ancient Netherese city. The Cryptskulls, as the clergy of the temple are known, haunt the length of the Skull Gorge and the neighboring Battle of Bones. The have animated a legion of undead to guard the gorge after claiming the entire valley as their domain. They are led by a high-level necrophant, Baron Vjurn Blacktower.

Affiliated Orders: The Order of One Thousand Nightmares is a company of nightmare-riding swordwraiths who haunt the Fields of the Dead. Although the ghostly warriors have battled each other for centuries, Velsharoon's clergy have recently mastered powerful spells enabling them to organize the contentious spirits of the ancient warriors into a necromantic knighthood of nearly 200 undead mercenaries whose ranks continue to grow. The aims of the necrophant masters of this unholy army are unknown, but they surely spell trouble for the Western Heartlands.

Priestly Vestments: Velsharan vestments resemble once-resplendent, rotting wizard's robes. The Necromancer's clergy wear garments of varying colors-any shade except red-but their habits are uniformly of somber hue. Most adorn their vestments with depictions of skulls and bones, but the faith is still young enough that fixed patterns of adornment for the various ranks have not developed.

Adventuring Garb: When adventuring, Velsharan clergy members favor iron-shod staves and cold iron or silver maces which are effective when battling undead. Most eschew armor as too great a burden on their spellcasting abilities, with only the relatively rare clerics of the clergy garbing themselves in conventional protective garb. A typical priest or necromancer disciple of Velsharoon considers an escort of undead servitors as eminently suitable armor.