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Early Years
A youth of physical prowess, commanding presence, and mental sharpness, Mortador was raised in a workingman’s household, not far from the city. Early in life his sharp mind grasped the idea that the path to real power was through the study and use of magic and so he apprenticed to a local wizard and began his career. Driven by his vast intelligence and ambition, he soon reached the limit of his master’s abilities and left to pursue power and knowledge in the world beyond. Mortador traveled with many adventuring bands and grew in his knowledge and skill as a magic user.
The Turning Point
Seeking treasure and glory with a group of adventurers, Mortador entered the cursed ancient pyramids and labyrinthine dungeons beneath the Desert of Desolation. There the young wizard, and his companions overcame a host of undead creatures, fought fiends of the abyss, survived a twisted assortment of deadly traps, and finally entered the lair of the undead master, the lord of the desert necropolis. The adventurers fought and vanquished the Lich and his minions then plundered the vast treasures of the pyramids. Mortador found there two artifacts of ancient evil; the Eye and the Hand of Vecna, cursed organs, the remains of an evil demi-god, the mighty lich lord named Vecna. His lust for power overcame his reason and Mortador, raving mad, severed his own arm and gouged out his own eye that he could acquire the powers of that dead lich lord.
The Ascension
Mortador became a creature of evil in the land; his callous nature and cold ambition easily succumbed to the malevolent power of the dead eye and skeletal hand he had grafted to his own body. Evil, all consuming ambition, a driven Mortador built a tower in the wilderness and enslaved the tribes of orcs and goblins in the region, and there he sought to trade with the powers of the lower planes. Mortador began to harvest souls in exchange for favors and influence with demon princes and the outer lords, he sold his soul and won it back, bartering, cheating, tricking and beating the Devil.
Consumed by ambition, Mortador sought the formula of eternal undeath, the Elixir and Ritual of transformation that changes mortal wizard to undead lich. Learning the secrets of undeath he created a phylactery to house his soul, then he drank the poisons, spoke the most unholy of words, and died. His soul separated and safely housed in a gemstone, his dead body was transformed by the foulest necromancy, black magic infused his remains, and because he was a very powerful wizard with the Eye and Hand of Vecna already fused to his body, Mortador became an Arch-Lich, an undead mage of immense power.
Influence in the Worlde
Now a vast shadow-cloud drifts across the land, a mile high, boiling black pillar of darkness moving through the sky. At the center of this cloud of darkness floats a horrific mansion, an elaborite, many-towered palace of dark stone and fire. Mortador’s Mansion, his lair, travels through the world, slowly floating over the land and leaving a trail of darkness and death in its wake.
The Arch-Lich is said to host a council of lich-lords gathered from many lands, that great and malevolent entities frequently visit his mansion, and that his evil grasp is felt on many worlds beyond our own, such is his formidable power and influence. Mortador the Arch-Lich is consumed by his hunger for power and seeks now to become divine, to become a god of darkness and despair.
