Ventrex Caustar is a powerful lich, a former member of the Darkheart, and the former self-appointed mayor of the sickly town of Olir. He is known for being an unusually bright and optimistic person despite the nature of his existence.
Description
Ventrex holds the appearance of a healthy young human man with tan skin, light brown hair, and piercing red eyes. He wears fine clothes of great value, but are generally antiquated in style.
Ventrex has an eerily optimistic and upbeat personality. He appears to attribute little value to humanoid life as evidenced by his ruthless harvests of blood to sustain his form, but also seems to enjoy establishing relationships with people as a hobby to pass the time.
Skills and Abilities
Ventrex is a powerful practitioner of blood magic, and can attain much power through rituals of sacrifice.
Necromancy
According to multiple witnesses in the destruction of Tevari Port Town, Ventrex was capable of casting powerful necromancies that raised the dead of the island into a small army.
Lichdom
Multiple sources, including Eyles Hierto and the Nightseeker, have claimed that Ventrex is some type of lich. His power is unique in that it allows him to keep an incredibly youthful appearance.
History
According to the bookkeeper Eyles Hierto, Ventrex achieved his lichdom at some point whilst living among the undead in the Deadmarch. He wreaked havoc among some settlements around the Deadmarch and its borders, amassing an army of the dead before apparently being slain by a group of heroes. Her records indicated that Ventrex was considered vanquished at that point.
Through some circumstance, Ventrex ended up in the Tevari Isles, where he proclaimed himself the mayor of the hamlet of Olir. He ruled there for some time, long enough for many of the residents to begin questioning his eternally youthful looks. At some point, he began contracting bandits to terrorize the area, citing boredom as his primary impetus, but also in need of more bloodshed to fuel his powers. He later hired the goblin mage Kreegal, who was possessed by an artifact of Abrax known as Abrax's Splinter, to stir up even more chaos in the area. When the adventuring party the Peas attacked and vanquished Kreegal, Ventrex arrived at his hideout with an army of bandits just in time to meet the Rain Knight. His forces ultimately ended up clashing with the Storm Knights, and Ventrex resorted to killing much of the population of Tevari Port Town and animating their corpses in order to bolster his forces. Ventrex was eventually run out of the isles by the Rain Knight, escaping to the mainland by boat.
Ventrex was later found by the demigod Tarisi and forced to work for the Darkheart, and accompanying the Rain Knight to Betaria in order to secure the Blood of Batrax. During this time, Ventrex managed to turn his antagonistic relationship with Zerist into an uneasy friendship, with the both of them saving each others' lives at certain points in the journey. After the successful retreival of the blood, Ventrex was tasked with distracting Tarisi as the Nightseeker constructed a ritual to seal the demigod, and was nearly killed in the process. He eventually managed to escape into eastern Sanaris, where he laid low for a time, taking up residence in a roadside hut and occasionally draining the life out of passing travelers.
During the Battle for the Sun, Ventrex ventured out to Slaghead Island at the behest of the Rain Knight, fighting back the forces of Jylurm while harvesting the corpses of the fallen on all sides of the conflict. Ventrex disappeared shortly after the conclusion of the battle.