Ostus Agrivar

Ostus Agrivar
Basic Information
Titles	Lord
Home	Ostus's Hold, Mount Sar, Sword Coast North
Sex	Male
Race	Human
Occupation	Lord
Dates
Died	1352 DR Slain by Imgig Zu
Rules Information
Class	Wizard

Ostus Agrivar was a male human wizard of the North. He was one of the most renowned wizards of the region and lord of the Agrivar estate.

Relationships

Ostus was head of the Agrivar family. He had one son, the paladin knight Priam Agrivar, whom he groomed to be the next Lord Agrivar.

He also had a daughter, Cybriana, with a drow sorceress from Shadowdale. Cybriana and her dark half Kilili ultimately merged into Kyriani Agrivar, a new daughter of Ostus.

Possessions

Ostus had a holy trust, as keeper and guardian of Selûne's Eye.

He was the lord of the Agrivar family estate on Mount Sar, including the family home called Ostus's Hold.

Description

As a young man, Ostus had shoulder-length dark grey hair. He wore a black tunic with a golden collar.

As an old mage, Ostus had shoulder-length white hair and a long white mustache. He wore ornate robes and Selûne's Eye around his neck.

History

Youth

Selûne gives the Selûne's Eye gem to Ostus Agrivar.

Ostus Agrivar's past was a part of legend, set down in the Song of Selûne. The story knew him as a young wizard, riding a horse when he heard the cries of a young woman—the goddess Selûne, tricked and menaced by the monstrous extraplanar conqueror Imgig Zu. Bravely, he raced to her rescue, hurling a spell at Imgig. Although he was not powerful enough to defeat the monsters, he was able to cause enough confusion and chaos that Selûne could escape, climbing onto his horse. To defeat the creatures, the goddess drained her life force away and imprisoned the monsters inside a pocket dimension within a gigantic moonstone, which should contain them for all time. She reduced the gem, now known as Selûne's Eye, in size and gave it to Ostus for safe keeping. He never knew that Selûne had sacrificed her youth to do so.

The story diverged at this point. In some versions, Selûne went back to her home, and brought the young mage with her. Others told that the young mage loved her, but she rejected his advances because she was no longer young or beautiful.

Later, whilst still a young mage, Ostus was apparently foraging for components for cures and potions near Shadowdale when he'd met and been seduced by a "wicked" woman, in fact, a drow sorceress of the region. A child was born of this tryst, Cybriana. Shortly after her birth, her mother took her to an elf village in Shadowdale and abandoned her, leaving her in the care of an elderly elven woman. Cybriana's mother departed, teleporting away by some magic. This was all Cybriana knew of her heritage; she did not know her father's name for many years, and knew only that he wore a gem called Selûne's Eye. Cybriana was a typical half-elf baby, marred only by a strange dark birthmark that developed into a horrid growth, one that bore an evil face. It was thought to be a manifestation of the mother's evil. As the growth threatened to kill her, the village council performed a shamanic rite to extract the dark spirit. Young Cybriana was cured and freed, but the dark spirit escaped. The dark spirit transformed into a drow woman who called herself Kilili. Meanwhile, the monstrous Imgig Zu, still trapped within Selûne's Eye, observed all this and forged a magical link with Kilili, allowing him to escape into the Realms. However, he needed Cybriana and Kilili together to release the rest of his people. Kilili fell in with Imgig, and together they hatched their scheme.

Lordship

Later, Ostus became the lord of the Agrivar estate, north of Waterdeep, housed in Ostus's Hold. He also had another child, Priam, who became a paladin. Father and son performed many services for Lord Nasaqh of the neighboring Nasaqh Estates, for which Nasaqh was quite grateful. Ostus Agrivar became one of the most renowned and well-respected mages of the North, and was recognized for his great goodness.

At one point, Ostus worked with the mage Parwyyd Hanifar, exploring the frontiers of magic together. They built the Great Door on the outskirts of Waterdeep, in order to easily enter the planes. Each wizard needed the other to control the Door.

By the early 1350s DR, Ostus said he had retired from active magic use, bar occasionally speaking with elementals. He wished to prepare his son to succeed him as Lord Agrivar, though Priam was not done adventuring.

However, Imgig Zu had finally caught up with Ostus. In the Year of the Dragon, 1352 DR, riding a wyvern, Imgig broke through the wall and magical defenses of Ostus's Hold and attacked father and son. Priam was crippled by Zu's staff of withering and Ostus slain by his death spell. The attacker seized the Selûne's Eye and left. Agrivar buried Ostus in the family crypt, then ventured out in search of his killer.

Legacy

Retribution was to be a long time coming. Crippled, ashamed for failing to save his father, Priam fell into a deep depression and drunkenness. Some six years later, in the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, he'd wandered into Waterdeep and was reduced to begging on the streets. This was how Cybriana found him, somehow knowing she had to seek out the paladin Agrivar, though not knowing him to be her brother. As she related her tale, a recovering Priam realized they shared a father.

Finally, as Imgig Zu's plot came together, brother and sister confronted him. Imgig taunted Priam and threatened to kill him as he had killed Ostus Agrivar. But, ultimately, Priam struck and slew Imgig Zu in the name of their father. Cybriana and Kilili touched and merged into one being, the living key to Selûne's Eye. The merged being vanished inside the gem, drawing all of Imgig's people back within, saving the Realms from devastation at the cost of her unique identity. A merged being levitated down, passing the shrunken Selûne's Eye to Priam. Part Cybriana and part Kilili, she combined their names and named herself "Kyriani Agrivar", a new daughter of Ostus Agrivar.

Later that year, the Great Door had somehow opened on its own, and Parwyyd sought one with "the blood of Agrivar", who also bore his magic aura, to help him close it. He used a false image of Priam to lure Kyriani to the Door, and enlisted her aid, but felt that the merger of Cybriana and Kilili had been incomplete. In the ensuring battle, Kyriani was separated into the two women again. However, it was Kilili who retained Ostus's aura. Parwyyd surmised that Kilili, the evil spirit she had been, and the strange growth on Cybriana she had emerged from, was the product of the evil of both her parents. Even a man as goodhearted as Ostus had had a dark side, one that all humankind possessed. Ultimately, Cybriana accepted her own dark side and re-merged with Kilili, producing a new and more whole Kyriani, one who could make her own destiny.