The Riven Lands

A gaunt Darakhul whose yellowed teeth and sunken eyes glow with necromantic energy drawn from desecrated graves. His pale, corpse-like skin bears ritual scarification that forms a map of every cemetery in his territory. Wears a gravedigger's cloak decorated with bone talismans that rattle with the voices of cooperative spirits. His ornate shovel is forged from melted-down grave markers and blessed by death priests, serving as both tool and unholy weapon that can dig through both earth and living flesh.

Patient and methodical with the eternal perspective of undeath, viewing the boundary between life and death as meaningless superstition that limits profitable opportunities. Maintains respect for the dead while feeling no guilt about redistributing their possessions, believing that corpses make poor guardians of wealth. His undead nature grants him philosophical detachment from mortal concerns while allowing him to hear the whispered demands of spirits seeking revenge against the living.

Once a simple gravedigger who took pride in providing dignified burials, Mortis died of necromantic plague while preparing mass graves during an outbreak of undeath. He rose as Darakhul with memories intact but fundamentally changed by his connection to the negative energy plane. His undead nature allows him to communicate with restless spirits who whisper the locations of valuable burial goods in exchange for promises to disturb their enemies' eternal rest. What began as taking mementos from the grateful dead evolved into systematic grave robbing guided by vengeful ghosts who demand payment in desecrated corpses.