Shepherd

"Shepherd" was the title bestowed upon the dogmatic wizard Tovenaar; first as the Shepherd of the Forsaken by the fanatics that flocked to his cause, and then the Shepherd of the Undying, which was the title used by the undead followers who took up arms against the zealous warlord Rapture during the twilight years of the Antecean Empire.
Like Rapture, Shepherd was chiefly driven by a fundamental desire to impose order. Where Rapture and Shepherd diverged, beyond their personal animosity for each other, was there methods. Shepherd believed in order through subjugation; he would remove the people's choice between good and evil, whereas Rapture would seek out those who chose evil and destroy them. Their ultimate goal was to thwart creatures that thrived off of chaos, specifically there nemesis, the Fundamental Avatar, Cataclysm.
Before their falling out, Shepherd and Rapture had collaborated on a magical artifact made of two halves that, when combined, would create a positive feedback loop and bestow the wielder power unto that of a demigod. Upon its completion however, Rapture discovered that Shepherd had colluded with the imprisoned Cataclysm for the secret knowledge needed to make the artifact work, which caused a violent falling out. Their feud spread across the province as both promised their followers a brighter world. Their conflict was put on hold when their artifact halves backfired and imprisoned both for a millennia.
When Shepherd awoke in 1216 EP, he quickly learned that Cataclysm had escaped his prison. In the hopes of thwarting his old enemy before he could bring the world to ruin, Shepherd set out to finish what he had started a thousand years ago. He mustered his army and began conquering large swathes of Horizon with the ultimate goal of finding Rapture, who had also been awakened, and retrieving her artifact half. With it, he could use a suitably powerful Foci like the Tree of Life in Crucible to broadcast his will across Archaios and bring about a forced age of subjugation and order. Ultimately, he was stopped by an adventuring party, Rapture (now going by Echoless) among them.
Despite defeating him, the party opted to spare the lich at the insistence of their benefactor and long-time friend of Tovenaar, Brynn, who had also survived through the years on a timeless island outside of the material plane. Disarmed of his amulet half and the means to impose his will but still wishing to thwart Cataclysm, Shepherd turned his focus to finding other ways to re-capture Cataclysm. He sent out his remaining followers in search of a dark and powerful tome called the Malefica Occultum and advised the adventuring party on all he knew about their shared nemesis.
Ultimately, Shepherd is driven by both the guilt of his role in releasing Cataclysm on the world as well as his own hubris which leads him to believe that he alone possesses the will and aptitude to affect true and meaningful change on the world, and he will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals.
For better or for worse, Shepherd proved instrumental in the defeat of Cataclysm and the conlusion of The Extinction War. With his ancient foe once again defeated and his amulet shattered, Shepherd disappeared into the wind, only making one final appearance before his allies to stand by his old friend Brynn's side as he past on from the mortal realm.
It is unclear what the lich has planned now. All that is known is that his immortality remains intact and he still possesses one of the most potent tomes of esoteric and dark knowledge ever compiled on this mortal coil...

Year of Birth

96 1687 Years old

Birthplace

Petram (Nordstar in modern times)

Belief/Deity

Antecea's Arcane Mantra

Ruled Locations

• Shepherd's Lair

A Wizard of Wonder

Before he was a dogmatic warlord hellbent on subjugating the world to his will, he was an impetuous, curious wizard named Tovenaar. Like most youngsters with a proclivity for spellcasting, Tovenaar studied at the Arcanium of Antecea, where he learned the ways of spellcasting as well as statecraft. Unlike most of his cohort however, Tovenaar did not come from any place of pedigree. Rather, he was an orphan, whose talent for alchemy (and more than a few accidental explosions) got him shipped off to the Arcanium, where his rebellious and curious nature would not be stamped out, try as his professors might. 
There, he became close friends with the elf, Brynn, and the tiefling, Benevolence. Together, the trio got up to all kinds of hijinks and shenanigans, almost always instigated by Tovenaar. Eventually, this got them kicked out of the Arcanium. Their subsequent quest to try and get themselves back in the wizard's good graces resulted in the release of Cataclysm and the deaths of several friends and allies; something Tovenaar never truly forgave himself for.
Despite his hardening in the fires of war and tribulation, Tovenaar never lost his curious streak; something that would continue to haunt him for the rest of his long, long life. When the opportunity to destroy Cataclysm came, he hesitated. He could not bring himself to destroy a creature so ancient and so overflowing with lost knowledge. He conspired to sabotage his party's weapon against the Fundamental Avatar and captured him in secret. He kept him hidden for over a year, coaxing him for knowledge and insight into many aspects of the arcane. Eventually, of course, he was found out, and the resulting conflict with his old friend would go on to shape the world for better or worse for millennia to come.