The Gravedigger

AUC 2,774, 2nd Day After the Kalends of Ferra

After the execrable events involving Lord Julio Torinix’s disastrous attempts at reviving his spouse, I feel the time has at last arrived I am compelled to commit to scroll what I know of the vile creature know by most as “the Gravedigger” (that is, of those that know of it at all).  For purposes of recapitulation, I shall use the word “he” in reference to this thing, yet surely it is beyond any constraints of the flesh.

First and foremost, the Gravedigger must certainly be reckoned a Mid-power, those beings with might that surpasses any mortal, even a veteran Chosen, yet are still not possessed of the unapproachable ability of a true god.  Lord Qiarsee, the right hand of Ateel, is most likely also in this category.  For obvious reasons measuring their relative strength against the other is rather difficult, but the Gravedigger and Qiarsee seem to be in the same rough area of ability, albeit with starkly different foci.  Whereas Qiarsee is Ateel’s “enforcer”, capable of destroying entire towns and perhaps cities single-handedly, the Gravedigger instead appears concerned with matters of life and death.  Specifically, on the boundary betwixt the state of life and that of decay.

Indeed, Lord Torinix’s doomed quest to revive his young wife hinged upon the mastery of the Gravedigger in this sphere.  There are credible reports that this being has actually brought the dead back to life within his own demesne.  As always in such matters, however, there is a precious cost:  evidently, even if the Gravedigger accents to such a transaction – which is by no means guaranteed – a person of equal and opposite “worth” must be buried in the revived person’s stead.  The lengths to which Julio Torinix went to bring the corpse of his beloved all the way to the Camaranthas region are already impressive; the madness he indulged in to find an “equal exchange” for a Lady of the Old Empire devolved into the grotesque.  In the end, of course, the misguided lord failed in his aim.  Indeed, the only “success” he managed was to get him and nearly his entire expedition killed – or mayhap even worse.

From the accounts of the sole scrivener to survive, as well as my own research, I suspect that the Gravedigger does not actually require an intact body to revive the deceased, yet this has never been tested.  

This last section I hesitate to commit to parchment; indeed, I have wrestled with the idea for the better part of a tenday.  In the end, however, I commend the ultimate decision to the reader as to the wisdom of ever seeking out such a fearsome being.  I, for one, plan on allowing Nature to take her natural course.  I have no delusions of my own grandeur, nor wish to tempt a fate truly worse than death by playing with forces no mortal should.  In that context:

The exact location of the Gravedigger’s demesne seems to have… drifted, in some way I cannot explain.  Yet I have collated sufficient reports to be confident in this deduction.  His original location was somewhat north of and west of Xahar.  Now, it appears this Mid-power operates east of Pulex, on the far shore of the Kogi river.  This of course makes any ill-advised attempt to track this being down even more hazardous, as it is said there are fierce, non-human tribals that have claimed much of that area as their own.  Until the day comes that we of Leptis Regium expand our influence and bring these crude creatures to heel there is no safety to be found that far into the Riverlands (even Pulex has always struck me as an ultimately ignorant venture, although purportedly it does brisk trade relative to its size).

There, oh reader.  Thou now hast a location.  The ramifications of acting upon such knowledge now sit squarely on thy head, and I myself have executed my sacred duty to His 3rd Light of Wisdom.  His Radiance upon thee.

Pax et Lux,

• Critius Secundus, Beacon and Senior Sage to His Grace, Vibius Longinus, Primate of Leptis Regium