Much is written about Zacris the Inquisitor. So much of it true and yet, so very wrong. For Zacris was one of the Warforged, a fact much forgotten by the legends of history. He is remembered as cruel and powerful. A wizard whose skills were terrifying to the common man, he inspired fear and awe and had a reputation for terrible ruthlessness. Tales of his atrocities in service of the empire have survived to the current day.
This is all true.
What is not known, to all but a few ancient sages and lorekeepers deep within the Emperor's sacred archives is this: he really did not want to do any of it. When this secret is passed from secretkeeper to secretkeeper within the fabled Vault of the Unknowable, this is commonly greeted with a roll of the eyes. No one sees themselves as the villain, they will say. But the elders will look with knowing condescension upon their pupils...."alas," they will say, "Zacris DID see himself as the villain. And that was his doom."
Zacris, as we have noted, was one of the warforged. And to this end he had one trait, one reason for being: loyalty. What is lost to all but the wisest of sages is this: he was created as the guardian of Emperor Phaeton IV, known as the Clutching. A caretaker and friend, Zacris watched Phaeton rise from baby to child to youth to man. Scholars of the third order will remember that Phaeton watched the Third Empire fade under his father's rule. He feared for the Empire and became obsessed with it's expansion. But he lacked people he could trust...but there was one who was ALWAYS loyal. And so came the day when Phaeton charged Zacris with being more than a mere servant, but became the most powerful enforcer of the Empire. Zacris had become, in fact, the nursemaid of a nation. And the nation was a spoiled child that was in sore need of the rod, in Phaeton's eyes.
Zacris raised legions, fighting at his master's side. And when war came, he would help win it. But capturing a territory and controlling it are two different things. Zacris would find himself forced to do his emperor's bidding, however vile he personally found it. Year after year, decade after decade, atrocity heaped upon atrocity. Only two things changed all that.
In the Elves, he expected resistance that might require their extermination. But he had no expected their request for a parley. The Twilight Council met with him and promised, in exchange for certain protections, that they would not interfere or obstruct the empire. They warned Zacris that they had the means in their power to slay Phaeton at any time and merely wanted to meet with him to show them. When Zacris asked why they hadn't already done so, they said that they believed (rightly) that he was truly an honorable soul...and possessed of an nearly infinite sadness. And it was true: though he would never contest his master's wishes, self-loathing consumed him for the horrible things he'd done. When Zacris returned to the emperor with news of the treaty, Phaeton did not rage, but asked 'why?'. Zacris merely asked him for this one boon and that it was for the good of the empire. A now elderly Phaeton would not deny his servitor this kindness.
Finally came the death of Phaeton IV. The ways and means of his death are unknown to us, but we know this. His son Incredulos, known as the Craven, was not the ruler his father was. And when he demanded that Zacris subjugate the Halflings, it was more than Zacris could bear. But he remained ever loyal. Leading the legions we now call the Lost Legions he marched forth...never to be seen again. Many think he intentionally marched his men to their deaths in the mouth of the Crocodile God. Others think he found a way to break his oath, while some think he merely sought the sweet release of death. A few maintain he merely betrayed the empire and awaits a day to return and overthrow it.
And we ARE those few, the Scholars of the Unknown Vault. We mark the day and prepare until Zacris's decrepit form be found or he returns...and then we shall follow the Craven's Command and DESTROY HIM.
This ends today's lecture. I expect tomes by tomorrow morning.
You are dismissed.
