Verumathras

The Big Bad Evil Guy behind the Manaris Campaign.

Exalted Leylord of ancient Meridia in the Age of Artifice Arcana. Ruling until mere decades prior to the Sundering, Verumathras commanded the entire continent of Manaris throughout most of the end of the First Age. Using his vast resources, he studied the nature of the leylines and their magic further than anyone else, and was awestruck at the discovery of the Void Beyond and the Null Lords that dwelt there. He spearheaded a means of establishing permanent contact with the Null Lords, seeing them as new gods to be worshiped. As tensions reached their fever-pitch among Altheris's nations, Verumathras tapped into his great machine, and he and his attending nobles and elite soldiers were exiled into a pocket dimension of the Shadowfel for millennia. There Verumathras bided his time and quietly amassed power as a lich. He has been slowly gaining followers since the beginning of the Age of Mending with the intent of raising two armies - one in the Shadowfel and one on Talus - and marching those armies on the civilizations of Manaris, taking his old kingdom back under his control. To this end, Verumathras has influenced operatives all over Meridia towards various aspects of his plan:
 * Take control of the ancient Rabiin guardians beneath Khaz-Merda, as well as  other ancient relics of power from the Age of Artifice Arcana, lending devastating power to the Foretold armies on the Prime Material plane
 * Rebuild and reactivate the planar gates scattered throughout the Skywalk Plateau, attuning them to the Shadowfel to allow the Promised King and his elite soldiers to return
 * Develop a new, living vessel for the Promised King to inhabit: preferably an elf of extremely high magical ability, whose soul can be diminished, ousted, or eliminated
 * Cripple or eliminate the Teldarin Conclave, recovering his magical armor (which is secretly held by the Conclave) and destabilizing the society most armed with the knowledge to stop Verumathras
 * Awaken the vast Foretold armies entombed in Al-Qerim, preparing the undead horde to march on Meridia
 * Use the dragonflights’ resentment of the Meridian peoples to gain control over the various dragonflights that have fled to the west beyond the Staggerpeaks