Jzar the Mad

The Mad Magician

One of the most colorful characters of Teréth End history, is the magician Jzar the Mad. Born in Kændal in the early 2nd century DR, Jzar traveled throughout the Old Empire at a time when such movement was very difficult. By all accounts, an Arcane prodigy, the young man left his homeland at an early age to prove a theory that the Veils Between Worlds were weakest at areas where great magics had been fashioned. It was Jzar’s early belief that all Mortal and Immortal Weaving caused irreparable harm to the Skein, and that the Skein was in fact the fabric that kept the Concordant and Discordant Lands from crashing in and erasing the world as we know it. To prove this theory, Jzar set out to visit three continents and measure the amount of extra-planar energies that were seeping into the Waking World at battlefields where great magics had been employed. It was not his interest to breach the Veils, but rather to use the available magics in those areas for feats of Krēádra.

The details of Jzar’s travels are sketchy, for his surviving journals are mostly illegible. What has survived are the stories of those that he met, the effects of his work, and that which can be deciphered from his seminal Nethertome of Jzar the Mad. Most of the tales of Jzar were retold by his only surviving apprentice Kar Ōmad, the magician investigator of Drāgyr Zûn/a>. Kar Ōmad lost track of Jzar the Mad after a particularly harrowing accident in a remote village deep in the wilds of Tassèrus. Jzar the Mad’s discovery in Tassèrus led to the formulation of the “Wall of Souls” theory.

Origins

Jzar the Magician was heir to a large business fortune, left to him by his grandfather. Instead of continuing the family business, Jzar liquidated these assets and founded the Fertile Coast Arcanist guild, based in the City of Fveher. He was reputed to be a shrewd businessman, having a keen mind for mathematics, and renowned for being able to find exceedingly rare objects for his customers. Within twelve years, the guild had expanded operations throughout eastern Teréðor, from Panæð to Ezmir. Jzar the Magician traveled broadly and soon had contacts in many Old Empire ports and beyond.

Despite his guild’s influence and popularity among Dekàli magicians, Jzar the Magician did not belong to their Circles. He wrote a number of essays while in Fveher describing limitations of the Dragàlim. Copies of those essays survive at the Magician’s Academy of Gidðir. Intrigued by metaphysics, Jzar the Magician assembled a cohort of apprentices to travel the world and uncover magical secrets. His first destination was the Soldyámuh Market of Æzàlar where he met long time protégé Kar Omad. His new companion led him along the northern coasts of Tassèrus in search of the lost continent of Emer. There is some speculation that Jzar’s expedition did in fact find and spend time in the Lost Land, but no publications of this chapter have ever surfaced. Many believe that Kar Ōmad wrote extensively about their time in Emer, but that his reports are kept in secret vaults by the Circle of Zûn.

History next finds Jzar the Magician in Lyrast.

Lyrast

Tasserus

Teréðor

In his later years, Jzar the Mad arrived in Oð to pen his most famous work, the Nethertome. Before beginning this project, he had built a stone and timber tower in the Sulyard district of the City of Oð, a short distance from Southgate Keep. The tower was completed circa 180 DR and served as his library, study, and home for the next eighteen years. Although Jzar did not associate with other Oðic magicians, he appeared to have regular intercourse with the High Lord’s wife, Lady Ina Sarkàç-Nir of Zyrr. During the High Lord’s reign, the magician was a regular guest of Kryr Shùrulm despite warnings from other magicians.

In 194 DR, a strange gas rose from the streets of Oð. The elderly were the first to be stricken by the mysterious vapors, which seeped under doors and through the shutters of low windows. A contingent of three wizards representing Circles within the City of Oð went to Kryr Shùrulm to present evidence that the phenomenon was the result of Jzar’s unholy experiments. Arriving at the keep, they were told that the High Lord had taken ill and his wife demanded that no visitors disturb him. Within a week, the High Lord was announced dead and the vapors settled back into the Lower Streets. Following the coronation of her son, Lady Ina visited the Tower of Jzar, the first guest to ever be welcomed into the building. That evening, the Lady exited to an awaiting carriage with a bundle of papers under her arms. It is believed that the Lady saved the works of Jzar, having copies sent to Panæð and her homeland to preserve his life’s work from the paranoid Circles, who distrusted all magics developed outside their influence. When Lady Ina returned to her homeland in 196 DR, the magicians of Oð used the opportunity to win the favor and support of the new High Lord. Within two years, High Lord Eldin I was convinced that Jzar the Mad was a danger and threat to the City of Oð, and signed a warrant for his arrest. With the assistance of the Circles, the demented old magician was dragged from his tower and imprisoned within the dungeons of Kryçàryn. There he died without trial, two years later. In the weeks leading up to his death, the High Lord dispatched a company of soldiers to clear the Dungeons of Kryçàryn, which had become infested with strange and awful beasts of unknown origin. When the tunnels were finally cleared, the body of Jzar the Mad was found clawed to pieces in his closed cell. Instead of disturbing the magician’s body, the cell was bricked closed.