Red's background is an odd one because she technically had two sets of parents. Her first set gave her flesh and blood and were entirely human (even if a little special), being the Lord and Lady of Citadel Dawn. Her second set gifted her with a spirit beyond most, being Cantoninus - Lord of the Burning Host and Louhri - The Ice Queen.

The Lord of the Burning Host agreed, mesmerized by the chance of creating a child. So Louhri began working her enchantment using ancient Eldar knowledge and items of great power. She manipulated the ritual so that both spirit twins were girls (as she could not abide boys), making one in her image and the other in his.

Now Louhri could not bear the children herself and Cantoninus could not physically sire them, so the Ice Queen's magic needed two fertile couples to act as hosts, as one would be born from an Ice Fey and the other from a human woman.

The girls were named Leda and Lyssa. After their birth, Cantoninus and Louhri went peacefully their separate ways, each intent on their "own" child.

Cantoninus watched his little girl Lyssa grow under the protection of Lord Dawn whilst Louhri raised Leda in the ways of the Ice Court and Ice fey nobility. Then in the third year, Louhri struck.  She saw the love in Cantoninus' eyes and knew the Lord of Spirits to be distracted by his new daughter, neglecting his duties and breaking rules to be with her. This was a weakness she intended to use. Her plan was to steal Lyssa from Dawn and lock her away in her Ice Mountain. Then when Cantoninus demanded her release, Louhri would demand Cantoninus' power in exchange.

Louhri's Orn descended on Citadel Dawn and massacred everyone. But in the carnage, no one saw Ischandi the Wise spirit Lyssa away to his secret vale. Cantoninus blamed Louhri, thinking she'd killed Lyssa, whilst Louhri stood confused and assailed by Spirit's of Cairis. The plan had gone horribly wrong. 

Ischandi hid the girl, giving her another name to go by, based on the color of her hair. He called her "Red" and she called him "Grandfather." It was with him she spent her next seven years, training in the sword, acrobatics, tumbling and magical knowledge (not the usual sort of childhood). He even allowed her to bathe in the Frost-fire and become stronger than the strongest of grown men.

When she was ten (and still magically hidden from both Cantoninus and Louhri), Red began journeying around Daydark using her Grandfather's pendant of "dream-shifting". It was on one of her explorations that she met Bran Aidin Avaize, a hero from Sardium. He introduced her to other heroes, the greatest being Lord North.

When she met North, she fell in love, but was too young to be taken seriously. So she sought out another of the Wise and persuaded him to age her from ten years old to seventeen. This the Wise did, but by then it was too late, Lord North had entered Evermore and fulfilled the ancient Prophecies.

She later grew to love Kris of Mekley and settled in the new "Citadel North", preparing for North's return. Here she lived as Lady for another sixteen years, but physically still appeared to be seventeen (the Frost-fire granting long life as well as strength).

In 2616 she teamed up with Ragnek Stormcrow - Wizard of Day. Together they confronted the combined might of the Witches of Arun and the Midnight Sun with Red adopting the title of "The Red Witch". 

The sword "Need", upon North's command, cast several spells of protection on her, to fend off Moorum's fire. These spells were so great that they have still maintained their potency 16 years later.

They are ;-

Resist Fire (at 18th level) for 1/2 damage.
Protection vs Fire (at 18th level) Gives 14 Armor Points / dice of fire damage !
Obscured fire shield (at 18th level) for 50 points of fire absorption.
Turn Fire (at 18th level) for 50 points of fire deflection.
Magic Resistance (at 18th level) for +150%

and finally

Inner Shell (at, you guessed it, 18th level) which gives her a Second Saving throw vs anything.

She still took some damage !

She knew that Arun could unlock the powers inherant within her spiritual lineage. Of the line of Dawn and the spiritual daughter of Cantoninus - Lord of the Burning Host and Master of Spirits, Red's transformation through intercourse with Arun proved perilous, rendering her in a cocoon-like coma for three days. Complications resulting from Need's spells permeating her spirit caused a spectacular metamorphosis of her spirit beyond Arun's expectations. Add to this the residual effects of visiting the Annex Animus and it is no wonder Red's spirit bloomed as it did.

In addition to the above, Red is still extremely strong because of the Frost Fire and still possesses all of North's spells.

Side effects of becoming Arun's bride ;-
Ashar's spirit manifests itself as a vicious gaze attack. When she leasts expects it she can actually burn things to a cinder with her gaze. This also has a side effect as she cries burning tears. The gaze attack is equivalent of 8th level or 16 POW. Failure means 2d10+5 fire damage. Critical failure means 5d10+10 fire damage - both regardless of armor or magical protection.
 
 

She decided to do this by translating the chaos into a dream landscape, a fantasy world mirroring that of Eldahar. Then piece by piece she added to this world, giving it detail and definition, borders, mountains, rivers and seas. Characters in this world became lesser Aspects of Orion's mental illness and by interacting with them, Tamara as Motherland began the arduous task of healing the World.

2617
By 2617 Tamara has had more than ten years to build her new World - the World of Heartland. Using her imagination and unique ability to tap the power of the Black Lodge, Heartland can no longer be called a Dreamscape, but a real plane of Reality.

Heartland is a beautiful place on the surface, a single peaceful country ruled over by Mother Land, Sister Land and Brother Land.

These four Aspects are the equivalent of Supreme beings in Heart Land.

"The Family" also occupy the Black Lodge. There they watch the World from orbit. Tamara is obsessed with finding a way to restore Abaddon's knowledge and reform Orion. She believes that the only way of doing this is by bringing both pieces of the World's heart together and unmaking them.
 

Heart land is also a refuge and new home to Abaddon's monstrous children - The Brood. These creatures were meant to be Orion's perfect beings but were dismissed as imperfect and cast out along with their creator Abaddon. Later Orion created the Black Elves and their own children the Drai-make and Drai-makim (Dark Elves).

Some of the Children of Abaddon ;-

Berlin,
Azrianne,
Sovereign,
Gemini,

Evil is as evil does

Sowing the evil seed
Gortte Lionsmane began his life in the ancient city of Irillan as the only child of noble parents. He led a spoiled life, wanting for nothing until one day, just before his 10th birthday, a traveling mage called Sypher Hyste spied the young boy's potential.

Gortte had been blessed with a large spirit and extremely keen mind - the prime requisites of a good mage, so Sypher resolved to use the boy's gifts to his own advantage. Sending an air elemental, Sypher assassinated Gortte's parents and stole the boy away to his hidden tower. Once there Gortte found himself bound and turned into a slave - forced to assist Sypher in all of his spells, rituals and experiments.

After several years of studying the evil mage's ways, Gortte felt confident enough to make his move. Stolen hours perusing Sypher's secret spell books saw the young man in good stead as the moment of his liberation approached.

When Sypher was involved in his next delicate summoning ritual, Gortte cast protections upon himself before ruining Sypher's protection circle. The demon was of a particularly nasty breed and didn't waste time jumping upon the summoner and devouring him whole. Not waiting to be desert, Gortte fled the scene taking Sypher's spell books and components with him.

New Allies
The young mage soon found himself running out of money and resolved to get rich, quick. But having learned from Sypher's mistakes, Gortte knew he needed a bodyguard.
It was in the "Dewy Dryad Inn" that he encountered a barbarian called Grisz. Grisz was big, dumb, incredibly strong and extremely dangerous - just the sort of person to have around. So using all of his charm and cunning, Gortte enlisted the grunt as a guard / adventuring companion.

Unfortunately the barbarian had already made a friend and didn't want to leave him behind. So Gortte accepted the barbarian's wishes and met with a dwarf of dubious origins and even more dubious odor called Merrick. Merrick loved gold and whenever Gortte mentioned lots of it, Merrick's eyes shone with a mad lust.

With these new easily manipulated companions, Gortte began exploring ancient temples and ruins in search of magical items and lost treasures. The barbarian and dwarf were happy to have the magical weapons and money while Gortte took all the objects like rings and wands. It was a match made in Hell.

Soon another man joined their party. A man who fitted right in with their murderous, uncaring ways. His name was Thrim and unlike Gortte's desire for power and status, or the barbarian's lust for battle or the dwarf's greed for wealth, Thrim took delight in chaos.

As the leader of this hellish group, Gortte led them on many quests. Along the way, hundreds of innocents died. Adventuring parties of kindly priests, heroic warriors and noble Lords all fell foul of Gortte's lies and the weapons of his "friends", until eventually, like all evil groups, discontent grew like a chasm. It was shortly after the greatest Paladin in the known lands lay dead at their feet that things took a turn for the worse. Thrim severed Merrick's head with his new Vorpal sword and Gortte feebleminded the Barbarian to use him as mindless bodyguard.

The Black Shroud
Their adventuring days may have been over, but their evil went on.
Gortte, now a powerful Sorcerer, mage, thief and warrior in his own right, began forging himself a new weapon - a weapon of the planes. Using the same premise as in a bag of holding or portable hole, he created an other planal space to store several of his most powerful artifacts. As these items were technically occupying the same space on the material realm, he linked them all to an extremely well made sword and called it "Statix". Combining all the powers of all the items into one blade made the sword extremely powerful; in fact, Statix possessed such a magical EGO that anyone short of Gortte's supreme intellect and power found themselves a complete slave to sword.

With Statix in his hands, Gortte began carving himself a new future. He became known by many names - The BlackShroud, The Dark Lord, The Infernal Mage etc etc.

Now back in the early days of his adventuring, Gortte had experimented with many women before swearing off of them in favor of magic and power. One woman called Celene had actually born him a daughter called Shanna. It was only years later, when Shanna had grown up into a young and gifted woman that Gortte discovered everything about her birth.

He sensed Shanna would be his undoing and attempted to bring her onto his side. But his evil actions and blackened soul caused her great pain. She couldn't accept him as her father.

Gortte refused to give up.  Concocting a powerful potion of slavery, he stole away Shanna's daughter Trinniarna so that faced with the death of her child, Shanna agreed to Gortte's terms and took it.

His Triangle complete, Father, daughter and granddaughter, Gortte's plans for world domination were ready to begin in earnest. But Shanna's husband - Celbrias the Gray, threw everything out the window.

Accidentally killing Celbrias in front of Shanna, Gortte unwittingly gave his daughter the strength and focus to break free of his power. She attacked him using her own formidable powers until faced with possible failure he made a terrible mistake. Calling upon the Lord's of Hell themselves, Gortte killed his daughter but paid the price. The Lords of Hell claimed his very soul and dragged it screaming into the abyss.

Cleric of Hell
In Hell, Gortte's soul suffered centuries of torment. But not the sort to give up, the Lord's of Hell eventually grew bored and sought other more fresh entertainment. Using this opportunity to it's utmost, Gortte begged and groveled his way into the favor of a minor demon lord and from there wormed his way through deceit, treachery and cunning up to the position of Cleric.

Allowed to walk the Living World for one week each year, in return for power as a Cleric of Hell he brought souls to the Demon Lords. Then one day his big break came. Managing to join a potent party of Heroes bent on saving the World from the evil God Vekna, Gortte assisted them in stealing Orcus' wand (Orcus being one of the most powerful but disliked demon Lords). This wand had been coveted for eons by another demon lord called Gr'zzt and here Gortte saw an opportunity too good to miss.

The party of heroes needed the wand to defeat Vekna and save thousands of innocent lives. Gortte however needed the wand for his own reasons. It wasn't long before the party found themselves beset upon by several powerful dragons and in this confusion, Gortte became bearer of the wand. As the heroes awaited Gortte's powerful spells to help fell the dragons, Gortte cast his Word of Recall and returned to hell. A short trip to Gr'zzt's throne room, one wand and a few words later saw Gortte elevated on the spot to Arch Priest of Gr'zzt and commander of Gr'zzt's armies.

Appearance
Like all of his kind, the Living Ghouls, Guildencrantz has transparent skin, muscles, tendons and blood. Only his bones are truly visible although his skin can be viewed at certain angles or up close, especially if light shines at him directly. To non ghouls he is often mistaken as a skeleton with silver hair sprouting from his skull. But he is far from it.

Background
Guildencrantz was born into the powerful Ghoul family of Yoth in 2563. He grew up in the ghoul caverns playing along the shore of the Black Sea. His mother was Fouldeth of Yoth and his mother a cleric of Gherot (the Ghoul God) called Yahmey.

Lord Fouldeth died when Ghaumaurd (the Ghoul city) was taken over by Kurakal the Necromancer and an Ulak army.  Their sacred land of Ghaurimbaad invaded (known as Ghourish to humans), and the majority of the ghoul population forced into slavery, Guildencrantz found himself suddenly Lord over a subjugated people.

Not wanting to be a puppet to the Ulaks, he placed his half brother Sternum in charge as regent and fled his homeland before Kurakal could kill him. Guildencrantz had many adventures, some in the realm of dreams, others upon different worlds and realities within Eldahar's Heartstone before he returned to Ghaumaurd.

When he did return he was so shocked by the pain and suffering of his people that he gathered 100 loyal ghouls and set off again to find himself allies. But when you look like an undead skeleton you can't exactly walk up people - not normal people.

So it was in 2595 that he met and allied himself with the Conclave of Dark - an organization based upon Eldahar's Shadow Realm consisting of Cloe Dark (a vicious female sorceress and warrioress), Lord Solace of Shadows, the Dayan Lich Lord Akal Anu and Lord Devlin the Necromancer of Poru.

But after several months with the conclave Guildencrantz was still no nearer to saving his people. To top it off, Lord Solace gained himself a sword of Shadows (called Shadow Thorn) and turned on his allies trying to force them into obedience. At this point Guildencrantz turned his back on the conclave.

Next he traveled to the Esian land of Neath that had recently been occupied by a secretive society of undead. They tried to enlist his aid and he politely refused but when he did, they turned nasty. The Lord of Neath was a man called Khibar (a Beldornian by birth). Khibar had just recently saved Esium's capital city from a plague of rats; a plague caused by him in the first place to gain the King's favor.

Gaining Neath and the hand of Princess Gwendoline in marriage, Khibar and Urgryth, the undead Lord of Neath, now intended on killing the High King and Queen to gain the throne.

Guildencrantz left Khibar and Urgryth at the earliest opportunity, having given up hope of finding help and deciding to return to Ghaumaurd.

Arriving back home after four years away he saw things had grown much worse in his absence. Kurakal now lived in Ghaumaurd, in Sternan's very own chambers. When he crept into the city through a secret passage many of his people didn't even recognize him and no one seemed willing to help him. He was quickly captured and brought before Sternan who said, "I know of no Guildencrantz" and threw him in prison.

No prison cell or barred door could hold Guildencrantz for long so within the hour he broke himself free and crept back into the streets. But old childhood friends still failed to recognize him. In fact Guildencrantz found himself being attacked by his own people - the Ghouls of Ghaumaurd under the influence of the evil sorcerer's spells.

He had to flee Ghaumaurd for the second time.
With no one else to turn to, he threw himself on the mercy of the Humans and their infamous White Chapter - a group of Wizards dedicated to bringing down evil.

Crossing the Ashwent he journeyed to the tower of Naschu the Red and enlisted the Wizard's aid.
 

Note - Guildencrantz's COM is to other ghouls. His actual COM to humans is 15 less (3.22 !) This is due to his transparent skin and internal organs. His head just looks like a skull surrounded in a layer of slimy transparent jelly.

Personality
Guildencrantz has an adventurer's heart. After leaving his homeland of Ghourish, he felt quite at home traveling the world and seeing its sights. With a well spoken (british like accent), he comes across as a somber fellow with deep complexities to his character. Refraining from the taste of human flesh for several years (an oddity among the Living Ghouls who savor the taste) his attitudes to the world and other races have broadened considerably. Once described as a "restless soul" he wanders searching for answers to questions he hasn't articulated.

Other info
Old wound on right leg causes him to have a slight limp.
STUNS 10
Right handed.
See perfectly in darkness. Half sight in daylight.
Direction sense underground - 87 SR
Hide indoors 110%, Hide outdoors 79%. +10% to +50% depending on light conditions.
Tracking 42 SR, Ride Horse 41 SR, Plane / Realm Lore 6 SR. Funghi lore 52 SR.