A-Z Blogging challenge

H is for Holmvay the Apothecary

Holmvay Ztremne was once an important adjunct of emperor Gygantex, an influential and respected voice in the imperial court. As a pupil of the emperor, Ztremne mastered the secrets of magick more so than anyone before or since, eventually being appointed as the Alchemicus Magnificalis, the court mage and supreme sage of the realm.

It is not known whether the corruption that slowly gained sway over Ztremne during those years had been instigated by some outside source, in order to end the reign of the emperor, but it is certain that when the usurpers battered down the gates of Castle Gygantex, they only achieved this feat through the aid and betrayal of the court mage. Of course their short-lived victory only ended in more bloodspilling, as the wizard and his lackeys turned upon the careless, drunken conquerors during their celebratory feasting the following night.

Now crumbling Castle Gygantex stands alone, in a blighted landscape devoid of life for many miles around, its only denizens the unliving mockeries of nature and its creatures, the pestilent horrors that issue forth from the bowels of the broken castle when the harvest moon hangs low in the sky. Deep below, centuries after his treacherous crimes, his body withered away, even his name forgotten, the Apothecary continues to toil and corrupt all that remains of the old empire. The tale has it that as a final insult, the Apothecary stored his phylactery in the same silver-lined chest where the original copy of the empire's legal codex, Of Men & Magick, was stored.