Backstory

Meklen Theistad is a figure etched in bitterness and soot, a living testament to the decline of a once-great lineage. He claims direct descent from the noble line of Meklen Tiammen, though he views his current relative—the disgraced Silk Guard Meklen Tiammen residing in Rueside—as a disastrous fool who has hastened the family's doom. Theistad abandoned the traditional path of the Silk Guard decades ago, disillusioned by the political rot of the House of Silk and the terrifying reality of the Meklen curse.

Instead of fleeting martial glory, Theistad turned to the arcane metallurgy of his ancestors. He is the proprietor and master of the Blood Forge, a hidden, fortified smithy built into the bedrock beneath the ruins of Whisperwind Fortress. It is one of the only locations in Coia capable of reaching the spectral temperatures required to smelt BlueGleam Ore. Theistad discovered that working the ore requires a nihilistic detachment; one must ignore the weeping of the spirits trapped within the metal to forge it.

He lives in a state of high-functioning paranoia. He knows the Dead Wyrm has awakened—he can feel the necrotic resonance in the BlueGleam he hammers daily. He believes the world is spiraling into an inevitable void, accelerated by the breaking of the Bukhara Spires. He works with manic diligence, not to save the world, but to forge a single weapon capable of shattering the Dead Wyrm's soul, believing it is the only way to grant his bloodline the mercy of oblivion. He trusts no one, viewing the recent arrival of adventurers in Coia as merely more kindling for the bonfire of history.