Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang

Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang is a character mentioned but not actually appearing in the Ravenloft product line novel Shadowborn. He is an important figure in the background history of the Shadowborn Family and their associated mythos.

History

On the same outlander world that held the Great Kingdom of Avonleigh, there was another empire to the south known simply by the Grand Kingdom as the Southern Empire. It was ruled by the Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang. According to Lysander Greylocks, the Grand Caliph was a wise, good-natured, and righteous ruler until the day he encountered the fiend called Lussimar, also known as Ebonbane. The fiend approached the Grand Caliph as he was praying to his god for advice on dealing with northern raiders. Taking on the guise of Muhdar ab Sang's deity, Ebonbane corrupted the caliph and drew him mad. So possessed, the caliph ordered the events that caused the Heretical Wars with the Great Kingdom.

The Ahltrian, previously an order of adventurers and explorers serving Grand Caliph ab Sang, were changed to a secret society of murderers. Those who objected or found the truth were quietly murdered. Upon the orders of the Grand Caliph, the Ahltrian personally oversaw the sacking of Letour and Sanschay, two cities in the southern provinces of the Great Kingdom. Thousands of innocent lost their lives in the raids and conflagrations that scarred the towns.

Lady Kateri Shadowborn eventually drove Ebonbane from the world, freeing the Grand Caliph and Ebonbane's other victims. The weight of the transgressions he committed while under the influence of Ebonbane drove Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang to commit suicide.