Thaddius the Mad

The Tale of Thaddius the Mad

Thaddius was born to a noble family in the lands of Rilth long ago. His father served as a minor captain in the Horned Gods armies and when Thaddius was born it was assumed he would assume his father's hereditary post. But Thaddius, when he came of age at 12, refused his father; in him flowed the blood of Paladins. His line was ancient and in ages past his people served Corthain's Justice and even as a boy Thaddius knew this. Upon hearing the refusal, Thaddius's father cast him out and drove him from the house with a whip upon his back.

Thaddius took to the hills and there began a life of adventure. He apprenticed himself to a gnome warrior and learned the arts of battle and weapons. The two of them wandered the length and breadth of the Lands of Ursal, plundering dungeons and holds, until their fame spread through the northern lands of the Empire. But at the last his comrade fell in battle, leaving Thaddius to his own design. So the young man began a war against the Dark and savaged it wherever he could. In time they placed a price upon his head, though no wardens could capture him. And so it was for many long years until at last, as age began to steal upon him, he decided to best the gates of Aufstrag.

When he approached the Wasting Way he found it open to him, as were the gates, and the halls and stairs of the grim tower, until his feet led him into the throne room of Unklar. There he saw the god upon his throne. He strode boldly into the room, blade and shield at the ready. But he knew not his folly for Unklar sat in his prime. Upon meeting the Horned God's eyes Thaddius' mind broke for he saw the impenetrable darkness of eternity. His blade slipped from his hands and he fell to his knees. Unklar servants gathered up his body and they carted it the Klarglich and there Unklar unmade him. He tore his arms from his body and gave him the wings of a vulture; he took his tongue and filled his mouth with a pestilence and he ravaged his flesh in other ways; but the final curse came when he breathed into it hollow, dying flesh and gave it immortality.

For many years Thaddius occupied the throne room, perched amongst the high places of that great hall, but in the end the darkness fell and Thaddius was freed. But his mind never returned and he never understood his freedom, only that the darkness had ended. When Coburg ascended to power he drove many of the atrocities from the hall; Thaddius fled, wandering in the deep places of that fell tower for many years. In the end he settled upon the slopes of Aufstrag watching the gate. Madness had long taken him and only shades of his mind returned to him. When the memories of his youth and the dreams of his desires cloud out his mangled reason he settles upon the bridge and writes, spilling the imagery out of his mind.

So from time to time he settles upon the Great Ramp that leads from the Causeway to the Portico upon the doorstep of Aufstrag and with a stylus in his crooked toes carves whatever madness is in his head upon the stone there. Much of it has no meaning, but if the writings are studied one may learn the wisdom of the god Corthain's Justice as given to the world through Thaddius the Mad.