Born into House Ofandrus and given the birth name Jathal, Cathbad's early adulthood was spent as a squire to Ser Aerel Ofandrus, an honorable knight of growing renown. It was this duty that gave young Jathal a personal experience with the civil war for the rulership of the Holy. At the end of the war, Jathal left his knight, his name, and House Ofandrus, disgusted with the futile loss of life.
 
He took the Cradish name Cathbad, settling in the small town of Revis and taking odd jobs for several short years, becoming friends with Invar, the elderly quickling pyre keeper. Before Invar died, he entrusted his sacred role to Cathbad. Cathbad and the pyre's flame spirit, Geshazil, tended the pyre for over 500 years, watching as Revis changed and its people lived and died, and they almost always ended up on the pyre.
 
Living for so long amongst shorter-lived peoples and laying them to their final rest wore down Cathbad and Gashazil; Cathbad sunk into a depressive nihilism, slowly becoming consumed by his grim work and the pall of sorrow that surrounded it, while Gashazil became increasingly crass and insensitive about the work and the dead. Eventually, at his lowest point, the visions in Cathbad's reveries began. Visions of burning cities, both within Talingrad and without. Hundreds of thousands of dead and burning. But each reverie seemed more and more beautiful; a world devoid of the petty wars and needless suffering of mortals. He began, in secret, to study the heretical worship of the Harbingers, a collective entity of destruction.
 
At this point, Cathbad would have been considered troubled, but not considerably more so than any other forlorn elf of his age. What truly twisted him was the final vision: a vision of the heavens burning, and the immortal souls therein being consigned to complete annihilations, freeing them from an eternity of existence. In his elation, he begged Gashazil to bond with his soul so that they could share this exciting revelation. When the ritual was completed, both saw the visions that the other had been experiencing. Bound as a single soul with two minds and driven to the brink by their shared experiences, they decided they needed to share their mad vision with the world.
 
And so, in a fit of madness, Cathbad burnt the church of Mitra in Revin, killing over a dozen people in the blaze and a one more who tried to apprehend him, and wounding nearly a hundred others between the fire and the ensuing conflict. Eventually, a paladin by the name of Sister Orna Navratil subdued Cathbad, and as he was manacled to be taken to Covessia, both the Sister and the village ranger, Daine Markhallow, tried to pry a rationale from Cathbad. The only answer they received was that they would understand once their souls had stagnated in the heavens for half a millennium. Convinced it was an unusually sever case of elvish ennui, Sister Orna left Revin with the assumption that Cathbad would receive the help he needed.
 
That might have been the case had he been brought before anyone other than Reverend Iomedae. Cathbad knew her from his days as a squire, and her condescending demeanor incensed Cathbad. After refusing to show remorse after being repeatedly pressed to do so, Cathbad declared the Reverend either a liar or a blind fool, and that she ought to have been in the church too, as to actually glimpse the beauty of finality.
 
Between Cathbad's lack of remorse and clear willingness to repeat his crimes, the Reverend sentenced him to be executed in Brandscar. He was shipped off with some other poor sinner, and upon his arrival he was branded upon the back of his right hand. As he awaits execution, his mind is filled with a single regret; that in his rush to bring destruction, he foolishly allowed himself to be caught before he could spread his good news.