Galron

Galron was a wizard-king and lich that ruled over some unknown outlander land. He wished to escape the need for his disgusting corporeal undead body but lacked the wizardly skill to ascend to a higher state of existence (as a demilich although that term is never used in Lord of the Necropolis (Novel). He supported Albemarl, a researcher and teacher of both arcane magic and science, and allowed him to create a school of higher learning. But Galron had ulterior motives ultimately sinister in nature, for he manipulated or coerced Albemarl into developing a horrid machine that could store life energy. Galron ultimately sought to use this machine of horrific science to power his ascent to a higher state of existence unbound by corporeal form (akin to a demilich, although this term is never used in Lord of the Necropolis). Albemarl ultimately sought to destroy the machine, but Galron had already achieved his transformation at the cost of thousands of innocent lives. The transformation greatly bolstered Galron's skill, and he warded the chambers around the machine, indeed even his entire palace, with protective spells Albemarl could not bypass. Nor could Albemarl escape, so he penned the last of his experiences in the Scientific Journal of K. Albemarl and warded it with preservative spells as he waited for his demise.

Galron used powerful magic to cut his palace off from the outsider world and installed over a hundred immortal undead guardians. The palace ruins were later discovered by Domran, an agent of the Kargat. He found Albemarl's journal, though he could not breach the interior chamber that held the machine. What Azalin read in the journal motivated him to seek out the ruins across domain boundaries by using Oldar Wahldrun as a proxy body. Galron's guardians were immortal and intelligent, retaining memories of their past lives but being motivated by pain to continue their stewardship. Neither the Kargat nor Azalin's spells proved to be enough to overwhelm them outright, so powerful were these spells Galron had left. The most Azalin could do was to lower the pain of the guardians enough that they would cooperate in letting him take the machine if promised a permanent release. Nonetheless, the feat worked and Oldar-Azalin left with the machine, later putting the guardians to rest.