Thaos ix Arkannon

"The gods are cruel, I'm afraid. The man you seek is Thaos ix Arkannon, grandmaster of the Leaden Key, one of the most elusive and dangerous men Eora has ever known."

- Lady Eydis Webb

Thaos ix Arkannon is the ageless grandmaster of the Leaden Key, worldly agent of the goddess Woedica, and main antagonist of.

Background
A legendary figure across Eora, at least to those who are even aware of his existence, Thaos is as mysterious as he is powerful. What scraps of evidence exist suggest that he has died many times, only to be reborn each time, exactly the same man, Awakened during adolescence with all the knowledge and experience of his lifetimes. The plots he orchestrates sometimes take hundreds of years to bear fruit. This unnatural lifespan is said to be the result of his status as one of Woedica's Favored, who never let rules get in the way of her favoritism. The boons bestowed by the goddess also ensure that his body is no boundary to his soul, and he is known to take possession of others, if their souls are weak enough. Often it is for elaborate deceptions, but sometimes he simply forces them to kill themselves. Two millennia of life and accumulated experience left him with an overabundance of talent. He is not one to show himself in any but the most critical matters, which means that if he has directly involved himself in whatever the Leaden Key plots, it is a major endeavor indeed. However, anyone seeking to confront him would have to remember that he is not merely a driven, single-minded man with not the slightest concern for anyone below, but also an incredibly powerful cipher and a man of great cunning.

Godmaker
Centuries ago, when the Engwithan civilization was at its peak, Thaos was one of the architects of a grand social engineering experiment meant to give meaning to the world and through it, peace. It was the end result of generations of research into the divine and souls, trying to find the true Creators and put an end to the religious wars that ravaged Engwith. They found the answer, except it was no answer at all: There were no gods or, if there ever were, they were gone. In a world filled with thousands of false gods, gods that told kith to take slaves, to make war upon their neighbors and devour the slain, to burn their children alive and cover themselves in the ashes as a sign of their faith, that was unacceptable. There were no gods and it was necessary to create them.

Centuries of animancy research left Engwith with a mastery of the science. The Engwithans constructed a vast network of adra-powered soul machinery connected to Sun in Shadow, where one of the greatest adra pillars in existence could be found. It was Thaos who activated the machine, sacrificing thousands of Engwithans - men and women, young and old, great and small - in an instant, to imbue the machine with their souls. As their bodies crumbled to ash, their souls coalesced into a single whole, melting into the adra and merging with it, birthing the gods into Eora. Thaos was the only one to walk away from the ash-filled chamber.

He founded the Leaden Key to proselytize the new faith and ensure that nothing could threaten the grand social experiment through any means necessary. He was the guardian of the gods' terrible secret and to guard it, he quickly learned to justify any atrocity. After all, the kith needed help in overcoming their instincts, that only gods could provide the spark needed to overcome the base instincts and give hope in a world that would otherwise lack purpose, answers, and ending, a world where there was only the Wheel, grinding without end and without mercy, slowly turning souls to dust. Yet they had little need for atrocity in that time, as the kith readily accepted true gods and the miracles they offered.

Until the time of the Apostate.

Apostasy and the Inquisition
Iovara ix Ensios was just one of many converts to the "true" faith offered by Thaos. When missionaries arrived at her village, their words gave her hope that she would bring to others. Yet a single breach of secrecy in the temple by one of the missionaries revealed the terrible truth to her. After a time spent in despair, Iovara began questioning missionaries in public, exposing their parlor tricks, and gradually taking over their followings. When Engwithans started to flock to her banner, Thaos retaliated in the most terrifying way possible, fearing that the great plan would be throttled in its infancy: Enlisting the aid of realms that accepted his vision of the world and the gods he ushered into the world, he started an Inquisition which would see Iovara and her followers destroyed and all trace of them removed from the annals of history. Peaceful missionaries became fervent inquisitors, rooting out heresy and heathens, burning the infidels on pyres and forcing them to confess.

Yet for every one they killed, another would joining Iovara's cause in the last religious war. She sought allies, hoping to build an alliance to counterbalance Thaos', and found safe harbor in Creitum, whose powerful ruler could effectively resist the Inquisition. In order to finally destroy Iovara's movement, he sent one of his protégés after her. The orders were clear, to make Iovara move to Ossionus, right into the trap laid by the Inquisition. Ever the optimist, she fell for the notion that Thaos was marching armies at Creitum and that Ossionus would be a safe refuge. Captured and brought to the Court of Penitents, Iovara suffered terrifying torture at the hands of the Inquisition. Yet despite the terrifying pain and injury, she did not break, remaining defiant to the end. She was imprisoned in the dark adra cells in Breith Eaman, the real Court of Penitents deep below the public building erected on what is known in modern times as the Burial Isle. Thaos had his victory: The secret would remain safe for the next two millenia.

In time, Thaos would see the entire known world converted to the faith, with kith across Eora praying to the same gods, if under different names. To protect their secret - and cement belief in the Engwithan gods - Thaos destroyed cities, nations, and even entire civilizations. Among his many victims was Tolosus, which he plunged into civil war; Desontio, which he seized from a benevolent ruler and handed to a tyrant; and Arborensis, where he ensured the plague would arrive as surely as the cure didn't. Compared to this litany of atrocities, the recent Hollowing of the Dyrwood was the mere skip of a heartbeat to him.

Modern times
With each new body he inhabited, Thaos gained more wisdom, cunning, and power. Woedica's favor was a crucial factor in this, allowing his work to continue unimpeded, while the Leaden Key and centuries of accumulated assets guaranteed limitless resources. Yet for all his might, Thaos was still human and no matter how he steeled his heart, there was a shred of humanity left within. He was unfazed by the War of Defiance and the independence of the Dyrwood, deciding only to intervene when animancy gained traction again. Instead of destroying it in its infancy, he allowed the science to grow in reach and popularity, plotting to discredit it in a way that would ensure its abandonment for centuries to come.

As he wormed his way into the fabric of Dyrwoodan society, setting up his pieces on the game board once more, he met Lady Eydis Webb, a cipher of great power and talent, whom he manipulated into falling in love with him to make use of her abilities. He inducted her into the Leaden Key and benefited from her talent for a time, but eventually his continued secrecy caused her to leave. He elected not to kill her immediately, however, this proved to be a mistake later on when he started his intrigue, shortly after the Saint's War of 2808 AI and the destruction of St. Waidwen at Halgot Citadel. Activating long-dormant Engwithan machines he alone knew how to operate, Thaos created Waidwen's Legacy, depriving newly born children of their souls, instead redirecting them to the Sun in Shadow, gathering souls to restore Woedica as the Queen of the gods.

He carefully manipulated the people of the Dyrwood over the next fifteen years, destabilizing the nation and setting them against animancers and their research. It took a variety of forms, the most spectacular of which was engineering the failure of Caedman Azo's attempt to put proxy souls in Hollowborn, occupying the girl's body and having her bash herself to pieces in full view of Copperlane's denizens. By 2823 AI, the intrigue was in its final stages and Thaos made the final move in his bid to discredit the science. Against the backdrop of hearings conducted by Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin which would decide the fate of the science in the Dyrwood, his agents carried out acts of sabotage and passed them off as effects of animantic research. One of the most notable attempts was the activation of the Heritage Hill soul storage device, creating an undead pestilence on the district. His pièce de résistance in the scheme was the assassination of the Duc just as he was about to announce his decision...

Interdiction and death
Two factors led to Thaos fall:


 * First, allowing Lady Webb to live for as long as he did and then deciding to kill her personally, allowing her to read his mind just before her death.
 * Second, the Watcher, inadvertently created when Thaos replenished the Cilant Lis machine with soul energy necessary to keep relaying newborn souls to Sun in Shadow. Whether it was coincidence or some greater plan by the gods is not known, but the Watcher's soul was one that belonged to one of Thaos' Inquisitors millenia ago, the same one who betrayed Iovara and broke her on the wheel. The same one who confronted him in Sun in Shadow, demanding the truth.

Thaos neglected the Watcher's interference at his own peril. When Lady Webb became involved with the Watcher, helping them piece together the full scope of the Leaden Key's activities, he visited Lady Webb in person after the assassination of the duc, casually conversing with her before plunging the dagger into her chest, which allowed her to read his thoughts in her final moments, which revealed his destination to her: Twin Elms. The Watcher picked up his trail, eventually communing with the gods at Teir Evron and becoming their trump card, both to destroy Thaos and prevent Woedica's reclamation of her throne.

Finally, Thaos and his greatest Inquisitor faced each other in the place where everything started, where Thaos brought gods into existence. A confrontation that ended in the death of his current incarnation and left his soul at the Watcher's mercy.

Quests

 * The Ruins of Cilant Lîs: The Watcher first comes across Thaos as they escape from Cilant Lîs, where he is conducting a ceremony to replenish the Engwithan soul relay's power reserves. The resulting blast causes the Watcher's soul to awaken.
 * Never Far from the Queen: The Watcher relives his soul's first encounter with Thaos, as their past self is sworn into service as a missionary for the Engwithan faith.
 * The Hermit of Hadret House: Another experience occurs near Hadret House, where the Watcher relives his soul's first doubts and attempt to leave the missionary order, only to be convinced to stay as Thaos reassures them.
 * The Man Who Waits: For the first time, the Watcher and Thaos meet directly, as the Watcher investigates Leaden Key activity at the Sanitarium where Thaos is currently hiding in the body of a patient.
 * The Assassin at Large: He escapes this encounter quickly, reappearing when the Watcher addresses the animancy hearings at the Ducal Palace. Here, Thaos takes control of the animancer representative and assassinates Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin.
 * Memories of the Ancients: He flees the city and heads east through Twin Elms to Breith Eaman. It is at Sun in Shadow where the Watcher confronts and finally defeats him. After he's defeated, the player can choose to:
 * Return his soul to the cycle with his memories intact
 * Destroy his soul, stating the past he carried has been a burden to himself or that he has caused too much pain for the Watcher and deserves to die
 * Banish him to the soul prison, Berith Eamam
 * Erase his memories and allowing him to live free of the burden of the past
 * It is possible for Aloth to succeed Thaos as grandmaster of the Leaden Key at the end of the game.

Trivia

 * He is voiced by William Salyers.