Black Garius

Black Garius was a powerful archmage of Luskan and a member of the city's sinister ruling cabal, the Arcane Brotherhood.

Description
Garius wore regal-looking black robes and regarded others with a deep, intimidating stare.

Abilities
A powerful necromancer, Garius was skilled enough to undertake the transformation into lichdom.

Early Life
Not much is known of his early life, save that he was once a lower-level agent of the Arcane Brotherhood. Garius was noted for his nigh-insatiable hunger for power and prestige, and his never-ending quest for this brought him into contact with the fallen Guardian of Illefarn, the King of Shadows. After he entered into an alliance with the shadow priests (unfortunates who were enthralled into the King of Shadows' clergy), Garius eventually came to realize that his place in this alliance did not suit his needs.

Serving the King of Shadows
As he searched for a way to dupe the King of Shadows, Garius enlisted the aid of many powerful beings. Among them was the only man who was able to defeat the King of Shadows single-handed: the mighty warlock Ammon Jerro. It's not known what Garius inquired of the warlock, but Ammon easily defeated Garius and his captors and returned to waging his war against the King. However, Garius learned of a weapon capable of destroying the King, the Silver Sword of Gith, and how it was split into many shards.

He eventually tracked down several of the shards and found them in the possession of a powerful adventurer, the Kalach-Cha or Shard-Bearer, from the village where the sword was broken, West Harbor. Thus, Garius engineered to bring them to Luskan. There, Garius thought to use his connections in the city to get the shards into his hands. He was however thwarted in this, as the Kalach-Cha, along with the aid of the skilled wizard and former Hosttower mage, Sand, was able to prove their innocence in court and succeed in the Trial-by-Combat versus the warrior Lorne.

However, this was but a temporary setback, now with all he needed for the Illefarn ritual that would grant him the King of Shadows' power (likely this was the ritual that created the Guardian in the first place, modified slightly with knowledge gleaned from the Shadow Priests), Garius was thus ready to usurp the King. However, Garius stronghold of Crossroad Keep (located in the territories of the Neverwinter), was besieged by the Shard-Bearer and a group of Many-Stared Cloaks. As they made it into the lowest chamber of the keep, they disrupted Garius' ritual, however, this all worked according to the plans of the Shadow Priests and their malign lord, as the Shard-Bearer claimed Crossroad Keep for the glory of the north, Garius and the mages who aided him in preforming the ritual were transformed into the King of Shadows' greatest servants, powerful Undead liches known as Shadow Reavers.

Now granted invulnerability and immense magical power, Garius and his fellows then saw to the destruction of the lands of Neverwinter and The Shard-Bearer. However, with the aid of Ammon Jerro and a Githzerai Zerth known as Zhjaeve, the newly dubbed Knight Captain used the power of the True Name scrolls to undo the Reaver's invulnerability, one by one destroying them, and turning back Garius\ attempt to retake his Keep, the Shard-Bearer and his Companions then cornered Garius in an ancient Illefarn Stronghold, where the undead wizard attempted to tempt the following: Sand the Wizard, Qara the Sorceress, Ammon Jerro the Warlock and Neeshka the Rogue. After defeating Garius, having already have recited his true name at Crossroard Keep, the former Luskan was killed by the Shard-Bearer, who then proceeded to destroy Garius' master, the king of Shadows, thus freeing the north from their evil.

Appearances

 * Neverwinter Nights 2