Backstory

Publicly, Borivik Seshani is known as a reclusive, surviving librarian from the devastated town of Herthe. It is common knowledge that he was the son of a King's Service combat mage and a mother who succumbed to madness, leaving him to navigate the treacherous politics of Coia alone. He built a reputation as a brilliant but functional alcoholic, content to rot away amongst the dusty scrolls of the Herthe archives. However, the truth is far more complex. Borivik did indeed find a Ring of Mind Shielding containing the soul of an ancient mage named Malakor the Unbound, an arcanist from the era before the Bukhara Spires were corrupted. They formed a bond—Borivik seeking purpose, Malakor seeking freedom. During a fatal tavern brawl in Rueside, Borivik realized his mortal wound was the end. In a final act of desperate altruism, he voluntarily surrendered his consciousness into the Ring, allowing Malakor to surge forth and inhabit his dying body to stabilize it with ancient magic. The entity now walking Coia is physically Borivik Seshani, but mentally Malakor. He is a Charlatan in the most existential sense: an ancient soul pretending to be a middle-aged, grumpy librarian to avoid the scrutiny of the Dragonbone Vanguard or the Knights of Ubba, who might view body-snatching as necromancy. Malakor maintains Borivik's "drinking problem" as a convenient cover for his eccentricities and occasional lapses in modern knowledge. He carries the Ring of Mind Shielding religiously, for Borivik's soul now resides within it, offering commentary and nagging Malakor to "be nicer" to people.