Ambuchar Devayam

Ambuchar Devayam was once known as Tan Chin, a powerful necromancer and the emperor of what would become the nation of Shou Lung in Kara-Tur.

Biography
Tan Chin is first noted in history as a young man who discovered several artefacts from the fallen empire of Anok-Imaskar. In, Tan Chin used these artefacts to murder Kwan Ying, the empress of the empire that would eventually become Shou Lung, declaring himself emperor in her stead and renaming the city of Ten Mor Shou to Kuo Meilan after his lover. Tan Chin ruled for seven years over a prosperous nation until word reached his ears of his officials in Fenghsintsu province being extorted and murdered by cultists of some dark entity known as Hei Te Pao. After seven parties of heroes failed to defeat the cult, Tan Chin resolved to defeat the aggressors himself. After researching Hei Te Pao in the Imperial Library, he discovered that the spirit, a black leopard, could be held under thrall by an enspelled ivory chain. Tan Chin correctly surmised that a powerful wu jen must be in possession of this chain. He and his friend Kar Wuan traveled south to defeat this enemy, locating the lair of the cult and eventually meeting their foe. Using the magical spear Shan Tien, Tan Chin broke the links of the ivory chain, freeing Hei Te Pao, who turned on the wu jen, effectively ending the power of the cult. Tan Chin and Kar Wuan were lauded as heroes, though they almost certainly only defeated the cult to protect the incomes of Fenghsintsus rice paddies.

Twelve years later, the tuigan were annually raiding the provinces of Chukei and Ma'yuan. The barbarians could not be effectively put down without too high a price so again, Tan Chin and Kar Wuan decided to try and resolve the problem themseves. Kar Wuan had the idea to steal an artefact called the Jade Mirror of Shih, which could turn even the mightiest of creatures to stone, from its guardian, the great lung wang Pao Hu, who lived under the waves of the Celestial Sea. Kar Wuan did so, escaping with his life, while Tan Chin waited for the dragon to notice the theft. When it did, it found only Tan Chin and demanded to know if he knew where the thief was. Tan Chin directed him to the Plain of Horses where Kar Wuan was waiting on a mountaintop. Using the Jade Mirror, Kar Wuan turned Pao Hu to stone, creating the Dragonwall.

Though he was known as "hero-emperor" for these exploits, Tan Chin's creation of an undead army and cruel rule spurred a revolution 76 years later. Led by one of the Nine Immortals, the historian Chih Shih (who was disguised as a wu-jen called Shih-Hai Kwai), the revolutionaries destroyed Tai Chin's undead army with the Stone Scepter of Shih. Tan Chin fled from the city of Kuo Meilan and into the Raurin Desert where he searched for more Imaskari magic to increase his powers.

At some point during his search, he discovered a method to turn himself into a strange kind of disembodied lich with the ability to possess other creatures. Over two-and-a-half millennia later, he traveled north to the city of Solon where he used his powers and a Durpari army to conquer the ailing city and subjugate its remaining citizens. With an eye toward ruling over Shou Lung, he began calling himself Ambuchar Devayam, the Raja of Solon, and began excavating the city for yet more imaskari magic. Any mortal subject who died was quickly turned into an undead creature thanks to the Stamp of Tan Chin and soon there were few living creatures left within Solon's walls due to their being overworked and underfed. He also managed to awaken the purple dragon Gaumahavi, capturing her child Sandiraksiva in order to ensure her obedience.

Ambuchar attempted to conquer Ra-Khati at the beginning of the 14th century to use as a staging point to attack Shou Lung. During this War of the Purple Dragon, the city of Kushk was destroyed by Gaumahavi at Ambuchar's orders, and the invasion was only foiled when Gaumahavi was defeated in single combat by the Dalai Lama of Ra-Khati in the sky over Saikhoi.

Defeated but undeterred, Ambuchar continued searching for imaskari items, incidentally cutting off Ulgarth's lines of communication with the lands north of it. He was also responsible for the creation of the monstrous Dowagu.

In, Ambuchar attempted another invasion of Ra-Khati, this time marching his now-vast undead army into the hidden realm, probably conquering it. Within a year, he had also conquered Khazari and a large portion of western Shou Lung, nations that were still weak from the Tuigan Horde's invasion. His efforts may have been hindered by an army from the Tuigan Horde led by Hubadai and by the eruption of the volcano near Solon later that year.

Ambuchar Devayam spent most of his time in Solon in the Star Houses or the Ebony Temple, wherein his crystal phylactery resided. The Ebony Temple had portals to the para and quasi-elemental planes of ice, ash and vacuum. It is assumed that the unnamed plane upon which his essence resided could be reached from there. Per the Paddrasathva of Knowledge, Furo, if one could acquire four ebony imaskari artefacts from these other planes and toss them into the Bottomless Pit of Fire in the Ebony Temple, then the lich would be destroyed forever.

However, doing so only prevented the regeneration of his phylactery upon its own destruction, the lich's unique power. Shortly after his invasion of Ra-Khati, adventurers likely acting on behalf of Hubadai successfully cast these artifacts into the Pit. Besides forevermore preventing the regeneration of his philactery, this caused the pit to erupt, burying Solon under ash and magma. The lich likely survived the volcanic eruption; official sources state that years later, adventurers armed with the Stone Sceptre of Shih used it to destroy him beneath Skarou in.

Appearance
Ambuchar Devayam was six feet tall and weightless in his incorporeal state. Visibly, he consisted only of a pair of glowing golden eyes, a trait gained by any host body that he possessed.

Combat
Ambuchar Devayam fed upon the life force of the living, and as such preferred to use his energy drain attack when possible. He often possessed other beings, and retained the use of his supernatural and spell-like abilities while in these hosts.