Doompriest

Lowly acolytes of the Cult of K’Leth speak of the 'Priests of Immortality', those who they know to be important figures in the Cult’s rituals of soul transference. To the Knights Revenant, these beings are known by their true name – Doompriests. And as their true name belies, Doompriests are not the saviors the lesser cultists believe them to be. The magics involved in shifting souls from their hosts to soul gems are far from easy to master, and as the Cult grew, the need to harvest bodies for the Knights Revenant overwhelmed the capacity of the small number of Soul Shepherds. In an effort to maintain a constant supply, they agreed to teach the art of transference to a few trusted initiates who they came to call Doompriests. But the Soul Shepherds kept for themselves the art of transferring souls from gems into bodies, thereby protecting the most crucial half of their arcane knowledge. To the majority of the Cult’s flock these 'Priests of Immortality' are the heralds of their long-awaited reward – the start of their journey to eternal life. But the Doompriests and the Knights Revenant they serve know that very few soul gems go on to have their precious contents transferred into a new body. The hierarchy among the Doompriests remains opaque, but it is believed that foremost among them is Lady Klaxis, and the story of how she became so says much about the Cult's shadowy practices. The daughter of a wealthy and greedy merchant, Klaxis was sidelined by her father whose chief concern was trade and business. With financial ties to the Cult of K’Leth he had come to know that coin alone could not buy immortality, and was easily recruited. Having been promised that he’d be swiftly granted a new physical vessel, he happily volunteered to give up his own. Though the ritual in which his soul was extracted should have been secret, Klaxis had followed her father and watched from a hiding place as the Doompriest transferred his essence into a soul gem. She was discovered, taken prisoner, and forced to work for the Cult. With her father’s soul entrapped, Klaxis had nowhere to go and no one to help her, and so she remained with the Cult, doing what she needed to to survive. She earned her captors' trust and learned their ways, years later grasping the Doompriests' power. She was permitted to assist with soul transference ceremonies and later was accepted into their ranks. She made close alliances with a number of prominent Soul Shepherds, inveigling herself into the role of first among equals and making herself indispensable. Klaxis has since found herself in possession of the glinting soul gem that holds her father’s essence. Having power over the man who had once had power over her seems to her a fitting irony. But how she will use that power remains to be seen. Will she seek the forbidden knowledge that will release her only relative? Or keep his soul as a trinket, a reminder of how far she has come?