Rector Drath Lore: Official Story

Few acolytes of the Cult of K’Leth ever see the headquarters of the Knights Revenant, the cursed isle of Perdition. A bleak place of mist and cold stone, it is the nexus of the Cult’s operations and the home of Losan K’Leth himself. Common cultists yearn to make a pilgrim’s journey to its craggy shores, hoping to receive the favor of the great K’Leth himself, but most know that only their children stand a real chance of one day seeing the place.

Among the jagged buildings that bristle across the barren isle is a school, named Umbral. It is a place of stone columns and perpetual shadow, the scrape of quills on parchment and the clack of slow, armored footfalls the only noises permitted in its grim halls and dormitories. Here, children of the cult who show particular promise – be it academic, magical, or military – are brought, ostensibly to be further educated in the ways of K’Leth, though there is an even more vital purpose to their work.

Umbral is administered and maintained by a dedicated group of Knights Revenant, and only a few among their ranks are more infamous than Rector Drath. She ensures discipline in the institute, while she can also benumb flesh to dull pain and fuse broken bones with her magic, allowing her to act as a physician. It is said that she once ran a similar institution for orphans maintained by the Sacred Order, and that she was one of Losan K’Leth’s first converts. The structure of Umbral does indeed seem to be based on the Sacred Order’s foundling institutions, but the things taught within could not be more different from Lumayan dogma.

Drath is unstinting in her duties. Besides regulating the institute’s discipline, she instructs various classes herself, most of them martial in nature or relating to the histories and heraldics of the Knights Revenant. She readily lashes the bared palms of the wayward or inattentive with a switch rod, or strikes them with the haft of her scepter of authority, making no attempt to conceal her natural cruelty. The mere sound of her footsteps accompanied by the swish of her black and gray dress is enough to quell most mischief-making.

Rector Drath is feared and hated by her charges, though the youths of Umbral also have reason to be thankful of her constant presence. The dead do not rest easy on Perdition. Umbral has been attacked by reanimated corpses or unquiet spirits, often the dead of shipwrecked vessels who drag themselves up from the icy, crashing waves, hungry for warm flesh and blood. During such assaults Drath plays her part in the defense, for she has many skills in the art of necromancy. With her booming, matriarchal voice she can master the ghosts of the lost and force them to obey her, while the scepter that acts as her badge of authority doubles as a heavy mace – with it she smashes the skulls and breaks the bones of any who would violate the institute. She can also part ways with her own body, taking on a spirit form and walking the halls unseen, ensuring none break Umbral’s strict curfews or violate its grounds.

Umbral helps secure the future of the Cult of K’Leth, but its secret and most vital function is as a testing ground to discover potential future Soul Shepherds. Like the other overseers of the institute, Drath is always monitoring her pupils for those who show arcane aptitude. The dreaded Rector singles out worthy candidates and removes them from their classes. Only then can their true training begin.