Fausto

🔈 (FOW-stoh)

Died in the Temple of the Eight Divines, Drankor

Fausto is a wealthy Chardonian, moving with ease among wizards, scholars, rich merchants, and adventurers, known primarily for his patronage of scholarly expeditions through the Society of the Open Scroll. He is a striking man, with fine features, well-groomed curly black hair, and an elegant style that clearly yet subtly displays access to considerable wealth. He does not speak of his childhood, and his origins are obscure, but by his early adulthood he possessed a mysterious fortune, and was beginning to establish a name for himself as a patron of magical study. All manner of wild tales exist to explain his obvious wealth, the most common of which is that he was an adventurer and explorer in his 20s, retiring to Chardon with the wealth of an ancient dragon hoard.

Despite holding no official wizardly or scholarly position, and having no reputation for scholarship, Fausto is very influential in Chardonian scholarly circles. He is skilled at spreading his wealth around, and his parties are popular among both rich and powerful of the city and the scholars and mages of the University hoping for funding. He has financed many scholars, funding their research, and frequently sponsors treasure hunting expeditions through the Society of the Open Scroll. These expeditions range widely, mostly across Dunmar and the southern Sentinels, in search of Drankorian ruins and lost Drankorian artifacts. Among the large number of scholars and adventurers he has funded are Servius, Dee Wildcloak, Dain Goldhammer, Alban, and Arcus.

He has a charming, friendly, and unassuming demeanor, always eager to help those who ask for it, and always willing to help connect people. Though, he rarely says much about his own goals, deflecting questions about what he seeks to gain from all this aid with a smile and his favorite line: “I was blessed with good fortune, I just want to give back to the world now.”

Fausto’s public patronage concealed his true purpose. He was the leader of The Cleansed, a secret organization working to restore Apollyon to power and complete his vision of a pure, unsullied human species, restored to the glory of the ancient days in Hkar. He was the possessor of the Crown of Purity, through which he controlled important members of the Hetaeri Magica and the Chamber of Stamps, allowing him to manipulate Chardon’s chalyte trade to provide vast quantities of gold for The Cleansed’s quest to recover the lost Drankorian artifacts of Apollyon.

These revelations, made public in the aftermath of the Chardon Chalyte Riots, upended public understanding of his role in the Chardon-Dunmar War. In fact, he had been a key instigator of the war itself: working with Apollyon’s doppelgangers, Fausto helped orchestrate the Pandemonium Incursion in Kylos Market and then blamed Delwath, Kenzo, and Dunmar for the attack. He then immediately became a prominent voice for war, taking public command of the Seventh Guard and accompanying the Chardonian army toward the Dunmari frontier. But later rumors speak of how he left the army just before battle was joined, teleporting to Drankor itself in a final effort to resurrect his patron and master Apollyon, only to be defeated by the Dunmar Fellowship at the Temple of the Eight Divines when Kenzo ripped the Crown of Purity from his head.

Fausto’s death unraveled the magical coercion that had kept The Cleansed in control of the Chardon chalyte trade, and exposed widespread corruption among the Chalyte Oligarchs of Chardon and the Curia of 42. This, eventually, was the trigger that led to the Chardon Chalyte Riots, the disarray of the Hetaeri Magica, and ultimately the Chardonian Chalyte Trade Reforms.