Tobias Edgard the Shaldrazer

Tobias Edgard is possibly the most well known shaldrazer, properly known as a zhwialhd'raeccer by the Carson Institute. A shaldrazer is one who attended magic at the institute but somehow delved into shadow magic, which is illegal to practice or study. Basically, a shaldrazer is a shadow mage.

Tobias was born in 1721BD in a town called Lihuil in North Ideitess. As a child, Tobias was a light boy for the Dualkedorian church in Lihuil. It was his job to guide people around the town by night using the church's supply of oil and good lanterns. When he was young, his mother died of atramentous. This is believed to be the starting point of the causes behind Tobias's infamous behaviour over the following decades. As it is common knowledge that the atramentous disease was created by Sharnan, Tobias somehow paid for his own admission to the Carson Institute when he was 14 and began to study magic. He didn't tell anybody at the time, but later it was revealed that he studied magic so that he could find Sharnan and kill him for killing his mother. Tobias was one of the minority who believed Sharnan was alive, in hiding, and continuing to torment North Ideitess through powerful magic.

Tobias graduated the Institute as a Cfoumlhd'raeccer, or earth mage, after doing eight classes. He skipped Third and Sixth classes as he showed exceptional talent. He was 22 when he completed his studies, but then he vanished from society's sight. The following details were described by Tobias several hundred years later, but the accuracy of it all is often disputed.

The Cursed Magician

It is said that over the next few years, Tobias had withdrawn from the Institute and from society and hired a handful of skilled mountaineers. They went into the southern-most red mountains under the impression that they were looking for mines that had been long-abandoned which were rumoured to still contain precious material. Tobias went with them. As the boy had spent much of his childhood sneaking into closed-off mines and caves with other boys, he had some experience in going underground. They searched and went back to towns for supplies no less than six times before, on their seventh expedition, they found what Tobias was looking for. Indeed, it was a mine, but it did not contain what he said it would. The mine led to a cave which led to a stone underground structure of some sort, like a castle that had been swallowed by a mountain. What happened to the mountaineers thereafter is not known. As Tobias was an experienced earth mage, he had managed to clear and stabilise many portions of the mine that would have killed or stopped any non-mage from proceeding. In this structure, at the end of the labyrinth of rooms and passages, was one room with a heavy stone door. Behind this door was Sharnan.

And so it was that Tobias had a chance to avenge his mother, but Sharnan was quick with his tongue and had magic that Tobias did not expect. Tobias was paralysed and Sharnan tried to strike a bargain. Sharnan explained that he was bound to that very room deep in the earth in all his forms because it was a curse placed on him by the Principal of the Institute. He said that, if any part of him was to leave that place, he would die. Sharnan said that, in exchange for his own personal and concentrated magical channel straight from the source, Tobias had to take revenge on the Carson Institute. It's not quite known whether this personal channel, which Sharnan called a "direct link", was what enabled him to erupt the volcano, freeze the lake, create the disease, and call up the rainstorms, or even whether he did all those things. He offered to give Tobias a third of his direct link in exchange for Tobias going back out into the world and destroying the Institute. He also promised to resurrect Tobias' mother. The young man accepted.

Tobias was quick to prepare an attack on the Venzet Institute to try to please Sharnan as soon as possible. Tobias used his new strength and shadow magic to draw people back out of the ground and give them movement as his warriors. He did not go into details about what that meant, but merely said that it was like bringing a person back to life but leaving behind their soul. Sharnan forbade Tobias from bringing back anybody he knew, including his mother, or the deal with be off immediately. These "soulless warriors" were called the Huskatari and Tobias gave each of them the ability to use magic and taught them to use weapons. He did all this within the underground ruins Sharnan called Veriheroth. Apparently, somehow, Veriheroth was once heavily populated by humans, and the buried dead made a large supply of potential Huskatari.

In 1633BD, Tobias should have been 88 years old, but he appeared not a day over 30 thanks to his direct link. It was this year that Tobias gathered the Huskatari and began to invade the defences of the Legionites of Venzet in order to reach the Institute. The soldiers were not prepared, but they are strong and many, and they eventually fought the unknown warriors off. The Institute immediately undertook heavy research to find out where the Huskatari had come from. All signs pointed to Sharnan. Tobias began to distribute his Huskatari over North Ideitess in an attempt to divide the forces of the Legionites, so that his target was not so heavily guarded. The raids went on for almost two lifetimes, sometimes regularly, sometimes silent for months or even years. Eventually it came to be that Tobias himself forced his way to the Institute with the help of his personal Huskatari bodyguards and there he encountered the Principal. The master mage of the Institute put up a good fight, but in the end, Tobias killed him. He then withdrew his forces and went back to Veriheroth to tell Sharnan what had happened. Sharnan was pleased and then began to resurrect Tobias's mother. But it did not work.

It became evident that Tobias had already brought his mother's body out of the ground, but she was soulless like the Huskatari. Sharnan, though infuriated, saw opportunity to get Tobias to perform one more favour for him. So Sharnan told his apprentice that he would be able to get into Adumbra and bring back his mother's soul so that she would be as she was before, but he couldn't until the cursing seal on his body was broken.

The Final Deal

Tobias would only agree if Sharnan brought back the souls of his younger twin siblings, which he was very protective of. They were long-dead. Sharnan agreed, but said that they would need to share blood so that -- when Sharnan switched to Adumbra -- the desired souls would recognise the bond and come to him, as he was not allowed to leave the room, whether in Riiga or in Adumbra. So they each cut their hands and grasped them together so that their blood was mixed. In truth, Sharnan only did so so that he would get back his direct link. He planned to later use Tobias's blood to deceive the link into being fully connected with him, causing Tobias to lose his third and consequentially die. Sharnan disappeared as he went into Adumbra and Tobias went to bring back the bodies of his siblings in preparation. However, once Tobias stepped out of the room, Sharnan appeared back in the room and fell to the ground. Sharnan was dead, because his blood left the room in Tobias' hand. Overcome with rage, Tobias forced Veriheroth to collapse on itself and he fled the caves and mountains.

It was 1420BD when Tobias returned to Lihuil, his hometown. He was 301 years old and aging by the minute as he had lost his magical connection. As a child, he despised the church, even though he and his father worked for them. However, now overcome with grief and despair, he found nowhere else to go but to the very place he once hated. The priest there welcomed him, as he saw only a very old and sad man who needed comfort. Tobias began to speak with the man, recalling all that had happened in his lifetime. It quickly became clear who he was speaking with -- the one that everybody thought was Sharnan. Though fearful, the priest continued to listen. Tobias' last aim was to tell all that had happened so that others may avoid making the same mistakes. When Tobias was finished telling his story, the priest asked him why he wanted to share it. Tobias said that, if he didn't, it would have all gone to waste. Sharing what had happened was his way of giving meaning to the terrible tortures he had lived through. And then he laid himself down in a bed and died.

Tobias' old body was buried with the rest of his family and the priest told everyone he knew about what had happened. Many were glad that Sharnan was finally pronounced dead, and many were also sad about what had happened to Tobias. Some were bitter towards both Sharnan and Tobias, saying that they got what they deserved. A select few hoped and prayed that Tobias would become a Slayer.