Rhavas

Rhavas was the original name of a senior priest of Phos in the city of Skopentzana, in the northern parts of the Empire of Videssos. Rhavas was a brilliant theologian who was widely respected among the hierarchy of the church of Phos. After a civil war broke out in Videssos, the border and town garrisons of Skopentzana were withdrawn by the warring factions, forcing the city to fend for itself. Rhavas played an important role in preparing the city for the onslaught of the Khamorth raiders from beyond the borders, but they were eventually able to take over the city.

Rhavas, however, survived and escaped. In the process he was greatly shocked by the devastation wrought by the Khamorth, which made him doubt the orthodox creed that the good god Phos would inevitably triumph over his evil rival Skotos. As he travelled to the imperial capital at Videssos, his doubts grew into heresy and then into outright worship of Skotos. As early as the escape from Skopentzana, Rhavas had found that people he cursed would literally fall over dead. During his travels, he used this power to commit several increasingly heinous crimes.

In Videssos, he attempted to convert the new Emperor Maleinos and the assembled senior clergy of Phos to his own view that Skotos was the stronger god and that evil would prevail. Predictably, he failed and was imprisoned and excommunicated for heresy. At the end of his excommunication ceremony, he was able to escape, laying down a curse on the entire city of Videssos which caused it to be struck by a powerful earthquake (but did not kill everyone in the city). He swore to get revenge on the Empire for rejecting him and his new creed.

Rhavas fled into the countryside, where he eventually met up with the Khamorth once again and decided to try to convert them to Skotos-worship. In the process he helped them sack another Videssian city and dueled with a Khamorth shaman.

Skotos granted Rhavas an unnaturally long lifespan, but he gradually withered into a skeletal state over this lifespan. Rhavas learned to master both swordsmanship and magic, becoming extremely dangerous in both. He repeatedly masterminded plots to destroy the Videssian Empire, including a Halogai invasion under the pseudonym Harvas Black-Robe and the rise of the Yezd nomads, among whom he was known as Avshar. Rhavas's predilection for creating false names by rearranging his own name may reflect his deep-seated, arrogant confidence in his own intelligence.

Rhavas was ultimately defeated by Marcus Scaurus, leader of a Roman legion that had been transported to Videssos by druidic magic, and by Viridovix, a Celtic chieftain who had been leading the Gallic forces against Scaurus's legionnaires and who was transported to Videssos by the same event.

Rhavas's power to deliver lethal curses was later made even more pernicious by his mastery of magic, allowing him to animate weapons to attack his foes, to summon down sheets of fire and ferocious beasts, and to imbue weapons with a soul-trapping enchantment. Only individuals protected by powerful spells or intense personal faith in Phos could withstand his curses and magic.