Traven

Traven Delacor, a.k.a. Traven the Cold, Traven the Dark, Traven the Mad and Traven the Red, is an NPC Wizard from the world of Krynn in the Dragonlance setting.

Krynn

Traven was once a married man and a moderately successful Wizard of the Red Robes. He and his wife had a single child, a daughter, whom they loved.

When the War of the Lance erupted, Traven was content not to get involved; he followed the path of Neutrality, and as long as his family was safe and his research went well, the rest of the world did not concern him. Sadly for Traven, the war came to him. Shortly before the end of the five-year conflict, a battle between dragons erupted over Traven's hometown, and his daughter was one of the casualties. In the aftermath his wife committed suicide so she could be with her child, leaving Traven alone - and quite dangerously insane with grief.

Unwilling to turn to the gods of Krynn, who he blamed for the War, Traven resolved to return his wife and child to life with his own magic. As he was unable to learn or create new Necromancy spells, Traven pushed his favoured discipline of Transmutation to its limit. He also took on an apprentice, a Dark Elf named Arcael, feeding her resentment over her banishment in order to guide her to become a member of the Order of the Black Robes. In so doing, Traven hoped to gain access to the Black Robes' secret lore on the subject of Necromancy, as well as an ally willing to use it for him.

The arrangement between Traven and his apprentice went quite well; as it turned out, Arcael was quite frantic to preserve the life of her twin brother, who suffered from a recurring lung disease. Even after she graduated the Test of High Sorcery and joined the Order of the Black Robes, Arcael worked well with Traven, their research taking great strides... and then her brother died before the two Wizards were ready to cure his ailment.

Arcael defected from the Orders of High Sorcery to the Knights of Takhisis sometime after, leaving Traven in the lurch - and furious. He struggled for years to compensate for the loss of his accomplice, fearing to seek a new apprentice, yet still unable to study and cast the necessary Necromancy spells himself.

In the end he tried to circumvene his inability by using scrolls Arcael had scribed before her departure, activating them in turn to enable him to perform a ritual that would restore his wife and daughter to life. The attempt failed miserably, as it resulted in an explosion that destroyed most of Traven's home and notes, as well as the preserved body of his dead wife.

As he sat cradling the corpse of his daughter amid the ruins, Traven cried out for any power that could grant him his heart's desire to reach out to him... and the Mists rose to draw him into the Demiplane of Dread.

Darkon

Traven appeared in the Demiplane of Dread in Martira Bay, his daughter's corpse still in his arms. While he established a secret laboratory and struggled to reconstitute his spellbooks, he succumbed to the Claiming - and yet he persevered with his research into transferring, manipulating and creating life.

With the years starting to weigh on him, Traven observed unusual longevity in some of his neighbours. Having unwittingly discovered the Kargatane, Traven stalked, abducted and murdered several 'lab specimens', using alchemy to first distill a potion of longevity out of his victims' blood, and later render the potion into a powder that could be preserved almost indefinitely. With this, Traven anticipated centuries of life to complete his research.

Some time after this, Traven noticed a series of articles in Darkon's arcane periodicals, whose line of thinking seemed to run parallel to his own. Although neither of them remembered the other, Traven had been reunited with Arcael. The two Wizards started studying and experimenting together again, making great strides - until they hit a dead end in their research.

Souragne

With tales of unique magical practises and advanced Necromancy coming out of Souragne, Arcael and Traven chartered a ship to take them there. Barely had they left Darkon's territorial waters, however, or their true memories came flooding back - as did Traven's rage over his apprentice deserting him, and Arcael's grudge that her brother had not been saved by their joint research. The two Wizards fought, and Arcael fled when it became clear that she could not win, leaving Traven to travel on alone.

Traven settled in Marais d'Tarascon for years, quietly conducting research without making waves. He studiously obeyed the edicts of Anton Misroi, for whom he appeared to have the greatest respect, and consorted with some of the domain's most dangerous Voodan. His discretion was rewarded, with Anton declaring the corpse of Traven's daughter off-limits for reanimation and engaging in casual correspondence with the mad Wizard.

When Traven believed he knew how to revive his child, he humbly asked Anton for permission to hold the ritual in Souragne. While his request was denied, the Darklord graciously permitted Traven to leave his domain, and even provided him a generous sum in travelling funds.

Lamordia

Traven set up his new laboratory in an abandoned keep in Lamordia, and prepared for the ritual. His preparations required him to gather a substantial amount of lifeforce and fresh human bodyparts, all of which he harvested from Lamordian peasants. As Traven had harvested with wild abandon (he considered the Lamordians to be little more than mindless animals), his actions attracted undesirable attention. On the night of the ritual, Traven's home was attacked by adventurers, and the process was disrupted.

Although Traven survived and the adventurers who survived were forced into flight, the Wizard was unable to try again. His daughter's soul, which he had kept trapped in hibernation inside of her dead husk all this time, was gone, its vessel cracked open.

Soulhunt

Traven taxed his magical abilities to the utmost, but he was unable to find his daughter's soul. Finally, he gave in and wrote to his former apprentice Arcael. He offered her peace if she would only use her superior ability with Divination to help him.

The Elf tried, but could only reveal that the soul had already been reborn, and that Traven should seek 'a girl mantled in power and theft'. She added that a Vistani raunie might be able to refine her vision.

It took Traven three years of correspondence and negotiation before he could find a raunie willing to give him the light of day; his reputation had preceded him. Raunie Mariuschka let him know that she had read Arcael's words and had subjected them to a Tarokka reading. She would tell him the results, but only in person, and for a lavish amount of money. When Traven arrived at the agreed meeting-place, he was incensed to find raunie Mariuschka dead. Her tribe informed him that a Succubus Mariuschka had been taming had turned on her and slain her, 'after partaking of her knowledge'.

Traven determined to find the Fiend who might know the name and face of his daughter's new life, and wring the knowledge out of her.