The Riven Lands

A tall, unnervingly slender male Darakhul with translucent, waxy corpse-like skin rippling with faint internal lights. Sparse, brittle hair interwoven with dessicated grave flowers and polished bone fragments. Deep-set, pupil-less eyes hold twin vortexes of shimmering cold blue light. Black necrotic rune lines pulse faintly from jawline to temples. Wears grave-shroud linen robes damp with chilling mist, adorned with dried finger bones that click faintly.

A being of profound, chilling detachment and absolute, morbid authority, utterly devoid of overt emotion, speaking with calm, unwavering certainty. Driven by extraction of knowledge and power from the deceased, embodying internal despair but channeling it into grim resolve. A supreme pragmatist who views ritual sacrifice and manipulation of spectral energies as necessary tools for theocracy's strength.

He embarked on a series of harrowing, forbidden rituals, drawing on ancient texts salvaged from sunken crypts. The pivotal moment in Thanatos's life was a ritual of profound self-mummification and spiritual anchor. He voluntarily bound his living soul to a powerful, ancient lich-phylactery, but without fully dying. This act left him in a liminal state – no longer fully alive, but not entirely undead, granting him an unprecedented connection to the spiritual realm. He can perceive the subtle energies of spectral beings as clearly as the living, and his presence serves as a beacon for the lost and twisted souls of the Archipelago. This unique state terrified and awed his peers, leading to his ascension as the Oracle-Lich, the voice through which the dead speak to the living, and the hand that guides them to their grim rest, or twists them to serve Mournsong's will. His body bears the marks of this profound transformation, a testament to his unholy devotion.