Black Wizards of Shaniko

This group is the source of most of main antagonists in all my stories upon my world of Martapa. In a world which revels in magic, these individuals are the most hated and feared not for their power and dark magic, but for their core ideal: Raise Kahalla to the only God and ruler of Martapa.

Shaniko was the beginning of this group, rising in power and destroying many races nearly to their last individual. There are prophecies, in his time, which said a dark Wizard would rise and conquer the world for Kahalla, but that a small group of people would stop him. He took several centuries (dark magic extends life, but he has a secret no one knows...he's an elf) to find who these people would be/were and hunted down the elves for one of the numbers was to be an elf. This individual would be the one with the magical power to stop him, so Shaniko thought taking them out root and stock would be best. In the end, he was unable to stop his own demise or bring his God to the mortal plane, but his many apprentices continued the fight.

It was these apprentices who formed the Black Wizards of Shaniko. (As a side note, there were many cabals of wizards at the time and Shaniko had belonged to a cabal at one time named the Black Wizards, so they simply added Shaniko to the end after they wiped out Shaniko's old cabal). They sought to succeed where their master had not. They researched, took on apprentices to teach said research to and took their time until they could build their power not only to rescue their God from the Void, but to wipe out any opposition upon Martapa before hand.

Three thousand years passed before Marius Vandez became the head of the order and with his ability to bring people together and his power there is hope he can fulfill Shaniko's goals. He manipulates people very well, playing the Empire against Tridon as they seek to stabilize each of the countries to stop Kahalla from returning from the Void.

Apprentices are taken by force from their families, though Marius begin the tradition of actually taking them after talking to the family and paying for their loss. More flies with honey... They were trained harshly and mercilessly, some dying in the process. Any rebellion amongst the apprentices was punished by death. Apprentices are just that until their master determines they are ready to contribute to the order, which may take decades.

I wouldn't use Black Wizards of Shaniko as player characters (unless you are doing an evil campaign) but as your main villain. They cast mostly necromancy spells, life spells are impossible, and even spells which would mend things or create things are hard for them. Manipulation and social skills are good ones for these Wizards. I suggest if you use these Wizards as a villain to surround him or her with lots of meat shields, mercenaries for those who are not gamers. I found this out the hard way in my own campaign... especially if you want to use them for a long campaign and more then one appearance.
Tomorrow: Northern Alliance