Lysander Greylocks

Lysander Greylocks is a major supporting character from the Ravenloft product novel Shadowborn. In universe, he was a former enemy of Lady Kateri Shadowborn until she freed him from the possessing influence of Ebonbane. He subsequently aided her son against Ebonbane until his death in the later half of the book. Lysander eventually became a cleric, a priest of the moon goddess Brigit.

Biography

As one of the Ahltrian

On Lady Kateri Shadowborn's homeworld, Lysander Greylocks was an elite soldier in the army of the Southern Empire and one of the Ahltrian. Along with his liege, Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang, Lyssander became possessed by Lussimor (also known as Ebonbane). While under the fiend's control during the Heretical Wars with the Great Kingdom of Avonleigh, Lysander and his troops ambushed Lady Shadowborn and her troops at Hammerlin, killing the vast majority but capturing a few, including Lady Kateri herself. Under Ebonbane's domination, he tortured and raped Kateri, implanting in her Ebonbane's seed. Despite the horror she was subjected to, Kateri did not break and eventually escaped, taking with her the remaining survivors of the knights.

In 608 BC, Kateri birthed the son conceived by Ebonbane's seed and Lysander's rape. She left the baby with Lord Vincent Shadowborn and Lady Victoria Shadowborn.

Two years to the time of her capture by Lysander, she defeated Lysander at Sined Pass and took him into custody. Sensing the unnatural evil that controlled him, Lady Kateri Shadowborn freed Lysander Greylocks of Ebonbane's influence.

Monastic life

Despite the fact that Lysander's transgressions were made while under domination by Ebonbane and the contributions Lysander made to atone, his mind was filled by guilt. He would have lost himself to suicide had Kateri not taken him to Forenoon Abbey and charged the abbot there with his care. Lysander found his peace among the monastics there and converted to the church of Brigit. Lysander showed his gratitude by providing counsel to Lady Kateri. Using the knowledge he gained while serving as Ebonbane's lackey, Lysander provided Kateri with wise counsel against his former master's methods and tactics. Using such advice, Kateri eventually confronted Ebonbane and banished him from the world.

A year after Lysander settled into life as a monastic, Lady Kateri and her troops returned to the Great Kingdom victorious from the Heretical Wars. Despite her victory, the wars caused her spiritual exhaustion, and she retired to Shadowborn Manor.

Despite the seeming respite delivered by the defeat of Ebonbane and the Southern empire, evil was not so easily thwarted. The Dark Triad, as three of the remaining Ahltrian called themselves, were evil entirely of their own volition. They conjured Ebonbane back to the Prime Material Plane and attempted to bind it as their slave inside a sword prison. Their binding was flawed because, while Ebonbane was bound within the sword, the fiend was not bound to their will. Ebonbane killed its summoners and reanimated them as ghouls. Once avenged, Ebonbane set about hatching a revenge scheme against Kateri for its first defeat.

Ebonbane's first step of revenge was sending his minions into Forenoon Abbey after Lysander the defector. Once inside, they killed all of the monastics there and reanimated them as ghouls, Lysander included. Ebonbane took personal control of Lysander and, blade in hand, forced him to strike down Kateri in her own home. From there, the fiend left Lysander sealed away in a grave at Forenoon Abbey to be tormented eternally with the actions he committed. As his ghoulish former monastic brethren corrupted the Abbey and turned it to evil, Lysander prayed to Brigit to escape his bonds and avenge the death of his friends and allies. When Alexi was knighted in 624 BC, Brigit answered his prayers to break free of his bonds.

Counselor to his son

In the next of years as Alexi accrued more skill, Lysander spent time rooting out all the knowledge he could on Ebonbane. Following the Darkening at Alexi's Rite of Ascension and his subsequent failure to become one of the Knights of the Circle in 626 BC, Lysander counselled Alexi that Belenus may have had a greater duty in mind for the young knight.

Dasmaria Eveningstar and Ferran Shadowborn joining them, Alexi and Lysander set out to avenge Kateri's death. Their travels, or rather the Mists, led them to the Phantasmal Forest, where Kateri's ghost held Ebonbane's spirit within the domain that was once her home. In Forenoon Abbey, they encountered and wiped out most of Ebonbane's ghoulish minions before moving on to Shadowborn Manor proper. Over the course of the conflict with Ebonbane, Lysander became possessed by the spirit of Ebonbane once again. Freed momentarily by Kateri's spiritual influence, Lysander Greylocks begged Alexi Shadowborn to dispatch him while he had the chance. Reluctantly but obediently, Alexi complied and euthanised the old priest of Brigit.