Maskyr One-Eye

Maskyr, later known as Maskyr the One-Eyed, Maskyr One-Eyed, or simply Maskyr One-Eye, was a human archmage who settled in the Vast in the 7th century DR.

History
Maskyr was a powerful archmage when he came to explore the newly opened Vast in the 7th century DR, seeking a place well beyond human affairs where he could build himself a tower. At the time, the orcish kingdom of Vastar had fallen in the Year of the Spellfire, 610 DR and been replaced by the dwarven kingdom of Roldilar. Dwarves ruled the Vast and orcs and goblinoids were driven out and quiet, while ogres dominated Thar beyond the Moonsea to the north. Thus humans were few in number north of the Sea of Fallen Stars, bar a few bold and cautious folk who came to explore and settle, as Maskyr did.

One morning in the Year of the Costly Gift, 645 DR, in the very northern end of the Vast, Maskyr came upon a wooded vale that he found quite beautiful, veiled in mountain mists and quiet. He decided to make his home there, and nowhere else.

Unfortunately, it was claimed by Roldilar. Maskyr therefore went to Mount Grimmerfang to seek audience with Deep King Tuir Stonebeard and asked his price for the vale. The Roldilarren Court fell silent and Maskyr waited patiently as Tuir thought it over. Tuir did not want to yield any land to any humans, but he feared the archmage's power. At last, he offered the whole vale, from rim to rim and the earth below as deep as four men, at the cost that Maskyr pluck out his own right eye and give it to him, there and then. To the shock of all present, without hesitation, Maskyr did just that.

Tuir respected Maskyr for that, having thought that no-one would do it, and kept the bargain, granting him the land. He also ordered that no dwarf trespass in the vale nor disturb the archmage. Maskyr then went and dwelled there.

Others followed, and this marked the beginning of permanent human settlement in the Vast. A small settlement soon arose in the vale, and was the site of the one of the last skirmishes of the fall of Roldilar in the Year of the Bloody Crown, 649 DR.

Maskyr, meanwhile, lived peacefully and alone in his tower in his vale for several centuries. Finally, he went on a journey to the planes and disappeared, presumed to have been slain. However, some sages theorized that Maskyr moved out as people settled in his vale, leaving his old tower as a trap while he moved into The Mage's Tower on the other side of the Flooded Forest, becoming, supposedly, the Mage Who Never Dies.

Legacy
Maskyr and his tower were long gone by the 1360s DR, with only his name and legend surviving. His name lived on in Maskyr's Eye, the name given to the vale and the village there, in the Wizard's Hand inn in the village, and in Maskyr's Trail.

Personality
Maskyr was an archmage of great patience.