Scaverous

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Cryx.png Scaverous Cryx.png

Lord Exhumator

Scaverous.jpg

Race Iron lich
Gender Male
Weapons Avernus
Birth Unknown
Lord Exhumator Scaverous is Cryx's foremost forensic necromancer. He specialises in exacting necromantic arts required to unbind the tongues of the dead, to manifest their shades from echoes left on their bones and force from them answers to his questions. Scaverous’ experiments have consumed an untold number of corpses and souls. No longer can the whims of a willful spirit deny him information. Through carefully inscribed runes and the manipulation of the energies separating Caen from Urcaen, Scaverous can compel virtually any spirit to give up its memories.

History

In his mortal life, Scaverous was a historian and arcanist who dabbled in the black arts. Bestowed the gift of undeath for his obsession with and skillful pursuit of knowledge, Scaverous was immediately put to work, first in the Archive of Skell and later abroad to gather intelligence. Immortality has given Scaverous the potential to learn every piece of lost lore, and he is willing to pay any price for that sum of knowledge. His master, Lich Lord Malathrax, saw his efforts with approval, particularly as these vital secrets began to result in unmistakable advantages for Cryx, and elevated him to iron lichdom.[1]

When the Orgoth immolated themselves rather than fall to Toruk’s armies, Scaverous was sent to assist Terminus in ransacking the ruins of Drer Drakkerung. Through his efforts, much of the Orgoth's terrible occult secrets fell into the hands of Cryx. When the secrets of the soul cage were extricated from the souls of the Orgoth, the power of the Nightmare Empire grew incalculably.[1]

Centuries later, it was Scaverous who figured the technology of the Cygnaran arc node out by defiling the tombs of innovative engineers and pulling forth their secrets through necromancy.[1]

In 608 AR, Scaverous is sent to Hellspass in eastern Khador to assist Lich Lord Venethrax in the transportation of an athanc he recently unearthed. Interrogating the shades of multiple generations of engineers, he discovers they were part of a secretive cabal tasked to maintain the ancient subterranean machinery securing the dormant athanc. Scaverous is able to devise an ingenious, massive transport for the athanc.[1]

Scaverous next turns to examining other corpses in the crypt, including the sanctified remains of ogrun that had lain untouched for thousands of years. After a few days, Lich Lord Malathrax interrupts his work and gives him an order: intercept a train that will soon disembark from Fort Brunzig with the corpses of two dozen members of the Greylords Covenant, including several of high rank. Malathrax continues to explain this group was tasked to an expensive project, secret even from the Prikaz. All information on their activities was sequestered, as were all records related to the Iosan assault resulting in their deaths - the very first time Ios sent its military might outside its border.[1]

The train Khardic Colossal is intercepted on the Iron Highway between Korsk and Skirov. He sends most of his army to keep the train defenders busy while he, his warjack Erebus and Darragh Wrathe try to secure the coffins. As the battle still rages outside, Scaverous searches the corpses of the Greylords and secures of the skull of one whom he identifies as a koldun lord. With much difficulty interrogating the shade, it reveals that the Iosans were seeking a Nyss relic studied by the Greylords, which has now been delivered to a secure facility under Skirov, before disappearing. As the Khadorans start to overwhelm the rest of his army, Scaverous beheads several more Greylords, tucks the skulls into his ribcage, then flees.[1]

He reports to Lich Lord Malathrax at a small underground complex amid the mountains southwest of Hellspass, and sees the eldritch Goreshade has joined the lich lord. Scaverous relates the details of what he had learned from the shade of the koldun lord as well as from subsequent interrogations of the other corpses, and Goreshade assesses the Retribution of Scyrah is responsible.[1]

Personality

Scaverous has an insatiable hunger for lore, and he keeps a number of his favored repositories—the skulls of his subjects—with him at all times, held within the ribcage of his torso. He has been seen muttering and plotting with them, speaking to voices only he can hear. He has been accused by certain peers of a tendency to be distracted down odd byways in his pursuit of potential information, but many times this habit has allowed him to pluck loose the keys to the most deeply buried mysteries. He secretly longs not only to learn as much as possible but to hoard that information as his own. Secretly he wants access to the skulls of Cryx’s own lich lords, each of whom he knows to be a treasure trove of accumulated occult lore, although he is careful to keep such desires hidden lest they be mistaken for treason.[1]

Scaverous feels no qualms about indulging in carnage in the pursuit of his goal. The living are less than uninteresting to him; they cannot be properly processed until dead. It is often expedient to pry secrets from a freshly gathered soul, and on occasion Scaverous is tasked with capturing, killing, and interrogating such individuals.[1]

References

Warcasters
Cygnar Allister CaineColeman StrykerConstance BlaizeDalin SturgisEdward Dominic DariusJeremiah KrayeKara SloanMarkus BrisbaneSebastian NemoVictoria Haley
Protectorate of Menoth Anson DurstFeoraMikael KreossSeveriusAmon Ad-RazaServath ReznikThe High ReclaimerHarbinger of MenothThyraVindictus
Khador Alexander KarchevAleksandra ZerkovaGurvaldt IruskOld Witch of KhadorOleg StrakhovOrsus ZoktavirSorscha KratikoffVladimir Tzepesci
Cryx AsphyxiousDalin SturgisDeneghraGoreshadeMortenebraScaverousSkarre RavenmaneTerminusVenethraxWitch Coven of Garlghast
Retribution of Scyrah Vyros NyarrIssyria NyarrRahn ShyeelThyron EllowuyrOssyan VyreKaelyssaRavynGarryth
Convergence of Cyriss AuroraAxisDirectrixGhil LucantSyntherion