Marek Rymüt

Marek Rymüt was a Red Wizard of Thay who operated in Innarlith in the Lake of Steam region in the mid-to-late 14 century DR.

Relationships
Insithryllax was a black dragon wyrm who served as a longtime ally to Marek since the time he was in Thay.

Kurtsson was a Vaasan wizard henchman of Marek.

Halina Rymüt-Sverdej was Marek's niece, who eventually joined him in Innarlith.

Salatis was a senator of Innarlith who served as Marek's puppet after he used the former to overthrow the previous ransar of the city-state and had himself named the new ransar.

Phyrea was the daughter of Senator Inthelph. She was haunted by ghosts and Marek took great interest in her. She gave Marek a sword she found at her father's estate that was able to turn its victims into undead creatures.

Willem Korvan was a senator and the husband of Phyrea. Marek used Phyrea's sword to turn him into an undead slave after Phyrea divorced him. His niece Halina had previously had a romantic affair with Willem while he was a chief servant of the city's master builder, and he supplied her with information about the city's important building projects.

Surero was an alchemist specializing in smokepowder who had his business ruined by competition with Marek's magical items trade. Surero attempted to assassinate Marek, but Marek forgave him and let him go free from prison.

Pristoleph was a wealthy fire genasi who was allied with Marek. Pristoleph had ambitions to advance his position in Innarlith, and he eventually overthrew Ransar Salatis to make himself ransar with Marek's help. Marek secretly turned against Pristoleph and tried to assassinate him. He also tried to get Pristoleph's Cyricist henchman Wenefir to turn on him.

Possessions
Marek came into possession of an enchanted flamberge sword that was capable of turning those it slew into ghasts. He was given this sword by Phyrea, who got it from her father's estate in Berrywilde.

Marek possessed a rothé-hide divan that cost twice the annual income of the average citizen of Innarlith.

Early Life
Marek was raised in a wealthy household in the city of Nethjet in Thay. His mother raised him at home with her servants. His father, who worked away from home, was a wealthy merchant. He was recruited into the Red Wizards at the age of 11 on Mirtul 1, the. He learned to be a mage and excelled in enchantment magic.

While still in Thay, he was sent on a mission with other Red Wizards to confront a tribe of lizardmen in the Surmarsh swamp who had failed to pay their taxes to Thay. Marek and his comrades battled the lizardmen in a swamp and were eventually confronted by the leader of the tribe, a black dragon named Insithryllax. Insithryllax killed Marek's companions before he used a charm monster spell to successfully charm the dragon.

He returned to civilization again around 1336 DR with Insithryllax enthralled by him.

He kept Insithryllax with him for many years. Eventually, the charm spell wore off, but the two became friends without the use of magic and Insithryllax accompanied Marek for decades.

Innarlith
Marek was sent by the Red Wizards to Innarlith, a city on the Lake of Steam, to serve as their agent in the. Insithryllax, who was still enthralled at the time, came to Innarlith with him. His niece Halina joined him at a later date.

In Innarlith, he posed as a self-employed mage who sold magical items to clients and performed other magical services, while hiding his allegiance to the Red Wizards. He developed connections with the city's elite, through which he gained information and secrets. Marek also helped foment social unrest among the poor of the fourth quarter of Innarlith. On occasion, he also secretly murdered rival mages and caused destruction for people who refused to become his clients. He made sure that all magic trade in Innarlith was controlled by him or it was put to an end.

He developed a project to breed mutant offspring of Insithryllax and female fire drakes, which he called black firedrakes, in order to gift them to others to win influence with them. He started a nursery to breed and raise them underneath the city of Innarlith, but he ran into troubles when he had difficulties getting enough food to feed them. Some of the black firedrakes found a way to escape from the nursery to the surface, where they caused destruction through the city before being either killed by the city guard or secretly teleported back to the nursery by Marek. Afterward, Marek hatched a plan whereby he carved out a small piece of Fury's Heart to form a new pocket dimension he called the Land of One Hundred and Thirteen, because of the number of days it took to pacify it. He made this pocket dimension into a new nursery for the black firedrakes.

On Marpenoth 1, the, an alchemist named Surero exploded a smokepowder bomb in the middle of the street in Innarlith's second quarter in an attempt to assassinate Marek. Surero had had trouble in his alchemy business as a result of competition from Marek's magical items trade. Insithryllax, who was walking in a polymorphed human form next to Marek, embraced him right as the explosion went off and saved Marek's life. Insithryllax then began turning into his dragon form but Marek stopped him, fearing what would happen if he revealed himself in public. The city guard then arrived and arrested Surero on the spot. Marek asked that Surero not be executed and he even arranged for Surero to be released on Alturiak 3 of the following year.

Meanwhile, he created an army of black firedrakes in his pocket dimension. In the, he brought Senator Salatis to the pocket dimension and showed him his army. Marek wanted to overthrow Ransar Osorkon after the latter had begun a project to build a canal from the Lake of Steam to the Nagaflow and thus connect the Sea of Fallen Stars to the oceans of Toril. This project would have undermined the lucrative trade in magic portals supplied by the Red Wizards. Marek sent assassins twice to kill Ivar Devorast, the chief engineer of the project, but both attempts failed. Marek offered his army to Salatis and in return Salatis would obey Marek's instructions once he became Ransar. Salatis agreed to the proposal.

On Highharvestide in 1365 DR, Salatis launched a coup with the aid of Marek's black firedrakes that ended with the assassination of Ransar Osorkon and the confirmation of Salatis as the new ransar by the Senate of Innarlith. Salatis did not end the canal project, to Marek's disliking, but he did agree to the establisment of a Thayan enclave in Innarlith. Marek eventually changed his position on the canal once he realized that the Innarlan public had already embraced the idea and it was no longer possible to stop it. He supported the canal, but the construction would use magic items and services supplied by the Thayan enclave. This included services to animate corpses of dead workers into undead zombies to work on the canal.

Marek murdered Senator Willem Korvan in the, and raised him as an enthralled undead slave. Marek then used this creature as his own personal assassin. In the, he sent the undead Willem to assassinate Senator Inthelph, the master builder of the city-state.

Marek later betrayed Salatis and switched sides to join Senator Pristoleph, when the latter invaded Innarlith with an army and took over the city in the. But Marek later summoned a maurezhi from the Abyss and ordered it to kill Pristoleph after the latter had ordered for Ivar Devorast to take over the canal project again. The black firedrake bodyguards that Marek had supplied the ransar, however, succeeded in stopping the assassination from being carried out. Pristoleph came to suspect that Marek was behind the attack and sought to arrest him, but Marek remained within the Thayan enclave and thus on foreign soil.

Insithryllax was affected along with other dragons by the Rage of Dragons that occurred in the, and Marek transported him to the Land of One Hundred and Thirteen, where he remained for months before Marek sent him back to the Prime Material plane. Insithryllax then left Marek permanently and headed back to the Surmarsh in Thay.

Rumors and Legends
Marek was widely considered to be a man of impeccable taste with regard to elite culture and art.

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves • Lies of Light • Scream of Stone