The Thanatari worship V'garn, the god of death. However, they are often described as being on the liberal wing of the order, believing in the god of "death who comes to us all" rather than the "lord of the undead". This opinion has helped them form the "life-death" axis, a strange alliance between them and Nightingale, high priestess of K'nor. The participants view themselves as different aspects of an ongoing process rather than natural enemies, and their alliance has saved the world on at least one occasion.
The Thanatari are led by Than, a swordsmen of some repute on Peldere. A knight of Lord Sagrain, he has travelled to many planes of existence, though scholars maintain that his greatest quest to date was the ending of the "Dark Time" during which an attempt to open the gates of F'nor's dark lands was foiled. He has also survived several of T'Sardan's hero gatherings, no mean feat in itself. Than has never knowingly broken an oath and tends to get deeply offended when others do. He is usually seen in his black armour, and uses a wicked looking two handed sword. Rumours that the sword murmurs spells to itself are strongly denied.
Than's main ally is the priest, Jedran. Favoured by V'garn, Jedran can call on many powers of death and darkness - and often does so! His fondest possession is the crown of the Liche King taken from the horde of a mighty dragon. Its powers are something he has only begun to explore. He wields the sword "Nightbringer", and a strange skull headed staff which can smite enemies at some distance. He too has survived the call of T'Sardan when he fought against the Pale. He and Than do not always see eye-to-eye on the subject of policy... Jedran thinks Than is a bit too much of a romantic and ignores the more expedient choices.
Jedran's finest hour was the destruction of the "Circle of Fire", a derelict order of T'gellen knights who had taken to destroying villages they suspected of harbouring any spark of evil. To accompish this, the priest called in a number of favours and managed to summon the spirits of his comrades who had perished during the assault of Baron Brockelbrack's castle. With the destruction of the fire temple, Jedran reconsecrated the ground to V'garn and animated the bodies to defend the temple. The staggering outpouring of power led to some very powerful undead which proved to be somewhat of a surprise to the party of T'gellen knights who arrived at the temple shortly thereafter.
Fern is the party's mage, though warlock might be a better description. She started her career as a fighter and turned her hand to the magical arts after the party's mages were killed in the fighting at Baron Brocklebracks. Although quite talented, she still struggles a little in the presence of other mages, such as the Wizard Judkish. Fern is also the most hard line V'garnian on the party and takes great pleasure in her talents as an assassin. In combat she generally uses a captured T'gellen flameblade which has been known to spit bolts of fire on her command. She also owns a "wraith blade", though Jedran is still trying to work out how to reactivate the weapon's fearsome abilities.
On her travels, Fern has acquired a wide variety of spells and a surprisingly large wardrobe! She too is a survivor of the T'Sardan school of "now get out of that".
Last updated 04-08-99. The pictures are courtesy of, and copyright,
Rysher inc.
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