Mazahir Diaries, the
The journals of Mazahir Daywalker, found by Sack after his death
1600
The Mazahir Diaries
General Sections Covered
DM's Note - I've broken the diaries down roughly by what the author was doing at the time. What I have listed here are general descriptions of the events and concepts covered in the diaries at those times.
Research from the diaries
The diaries are treated as having skill levels in various Knowledge skills; if PCs want to look in the diaries for information on a topic, the player rolls a Knowledge check on the relevant skill vs a DC provided by the DM; success means Mazahir wrote something on the topic. It's up to the player to decide if he was right about it...
716-732 The Crimson Eagles
During the years before, during and just after the years you served under him, Mazahir created, recruited, and led the Crimson Eagles mercenary band, hiring it out in the bitty wars that broke out from time to time in the North Kingdoms. The band was successful, and Mazahir was a skillful tactican.
732-750 (Gap)
There's a break in the diaries between late 732 and early 750. Nowhere does it mention what happened in that period, and there are no other gaps anywhere in the diaries. It's pretty certain that sometime in 732 he was Turned, and suffered some sort of breakdown or descent into primitivism as a result.
751-900 New Way of Living
From 751, it's clear that the central fact of Mazahir's life was his vampirism. Over the next couple of centuries he struggled to come to terms with it, and slowly discovered the details of his own particular type. Over this period he kept the Eagles operating, though he had trouble recruiting and retaining troops in the face of the persistent rumours. This seems to have been a time of him trying to integrate what he now was into his life as it had been before, a doomed process in the end. Despite the obvious temptations and benefits of a vampire cadre, he seems to have made no attempt to Turn any member of his band at any time. At least, according to his diaries.
901-1390 Crimson Eagles against the Dragon
Mazahir first heard of Varkar Barduric in 900, when he broke the forces of Trialt and Sinval. Recognizing the Dragon's monstrous ambitions, the Daywalker led his battle-hardened troops north and fought battle after battle during the doomed war of the Northkingdoms and the Beast.
There seems no reason why a vampire would care, but Mazahir fought, led, struggled and strove for four hundred years against the invading forces. His accounts reveal his increasing despondency over the chances of the humans to throw back the invaders, and the difficulty he had keeping his band operating during that time.
Finally, in 1390, he brought his troops to Tellare, his homeland, for the last stand of the Northkingdoms. When the Dragon broke the armies, and the last hope for humanity seemed gone, he finally gave up and abandoned his homeland, his regiment, and his attempts to carry on a "normal" life.
1390-1401 Wanderings
For ten years, he wandered across the southern lands of Alair, visiting places he'd never seen in life. In this period he travelled to Belegond, Stryre, Nhased, and the Erlyid Empire. He seems to have been unable to settle.
1402-1497 The Lands to the East
In 1402, Mazahir crossed the Erean Mountains and found his way into the little-known eastern lands known to their inhabitants as Rokugan. He seems to have been impressed by the people there, and to have spent some time serving one of the noble clans there. He also refers to folk he calls Shinomen, who appear not to be human but to have been creatures of great wisdom.
He notes the existence in Rokugan of a giant wasteland, called the Shadowlands by the inhabitants, from whence the most dreadful twisted chaos creatures emerge to ravage and destroy. Mazahir had no magical or religious training, but he speculates as to whether there is some link or similarity between the Desolation and the Shadowlands.
1497-1580 The Underdark and the High Clans
On his return over the Erean Mountains, Mazahir was contacted by representatives of the Vampire High Clans. This seems to have been his first intimation of any organization among the Undead, as opposed to their just being simple preadators. His notes show that he was taken into a subterranean world, referred to as The Underdark, where an entire underground ecology exists like a mirror of the surface world. He reports this as being vast in scope, possibly as large as the mapped areas of Alair above, though he didn't travel to all of it by any means.
Several entire civilizations exist in this otherworld, largely unknown to the dwellers above and content in the main to remain in their dark dominions. The Fae Mhor have their city, Erelhei-Cinlu, there, as do the Duergar, and other races you've never heard of . Most are evil in nature and unfriendly to each other, but some maintain some alliances, seldom based on trust but rather power.
Within the Underdark lie the strongholds of the High Clans of the vampire race. Mazahir does not give directions or locations to any of these, but describes the great grim fortresses of Clan Ventrue in some detail.
He spent some time in the Underdark, and returned to his old trade of Mercenary for a while, leading warbands for Clan Ventrue and performing missions for other High Clans. The High Clans themselves seemed interested in his abilities and a Cappadocian sage studied him in some detail, trying to unravel the mystery of his differences. At the same time, they seem to have exhibited a certain resentment and distrust of him, perhaps because of the greater freedom he retained.
The Clans found him extremely useful as an emissary to the surface world, due to his immunity to the deadly sun, and he worked for many of them during this time.
1581-1600 Erean Mountains and the Empire
One of his more complex missions for the High Clans was to insinuate a member of Clan Lasombra into the court of the Erlyid Emperor. This took him more than twenty years, and when he'd finished, he was assigned to explore the possibilites of encouraging the Orc peoples to return to their abandoned Holds in the Erean Mountains, as a counter to the Dwarves.
1600-1601 The Dragonslayers
It was during this that he first encountered the group who were to become the Dragonslayers. Intrigued, he tracked them into Kundrakhar, and assisted them in finding the sword Mergil, aware that anything which would discommode the Dragon would earn the approval of the High Clan Lords. Once they gave him the slip, he returned to the Underdark to report. Once the Dragon fell, he did his best to take partial credit, but this misfired and he fell under suspicion of aiding the Elves instead.
It was at this point that he stumbled on the Kingmaker plan. The diaries show clearly that he was never trusted with any of the major secrets of the operation. He was unsure as to whether the - whatever it was - was located in some citadel of the High Clans, or within Erelhei-Cinlu, or elsewhere. He did conclude that the greater part of the actual planning and execution was being conducted in the Fae Mhor's gloomy city, and that there was more than a touch of the demonic involved.
The discovery of the second half of the plan - the somehow reducing of the sun's deadly rays to levels comfortable to the residents of the Underdark - obviously suited Mazahir not at all. He had always traded heavily on the usefulness his "edge" when dealing with the High Clans; that would vanish if this came to pass. He would be a daywalker without day to walk in.
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