Ketheric Thorm

More than a hundred years after his death, Thorm would be brought back from the dead by Myrkul as General Ketheric Thorm. The God of Death tasked the general to form an alliance with the apostles of the other two of the Dead Three and bring death to the world, offering in payment the resurrection of Ketheric's daughter Isobel.

After reviving his daughter with help of Balthazar, Ketheric's plan at a family reunion failed: when the revived Isobel saw his broken visage, she fled into the darkness, protected by her goddess Selûne. The town had been ravaged by Ketheric's death rattle, the Shadow Curse. Looming over the town for a century, all within had either died outright from it or been twisted into horrific monsters.

Undeterred, empowered by Myrkul, and granted immortality by the Nightsong (another name for Dame Aylin), Ketheric began amassing an army of followers of the Absolute in order to march to Baldur's Gate and sow destruction.

He is tasked with the recovery of the mysterious artifact, the only object capable of thwarting the Dead Three's plans

Grief-stricken and unable to cope with his loss, Ketheric Thorm renounced the worship of the Moonmaiden and turned to Shar, the Lady of Loss

Moonrise Towers, once a bastion of Light, turned into a symbol of darkness and grief; Thorm systematically erased all Selûnite trace of the town, forcing all believers of the Moonmaiden to convert to Shar, flee, or die. Those who remained devout to Selûne did so in secret, arranging a fledgling resistance⁠ even as Sharran spies began to infiltrate their gathering places

In Ketheric's downward spiral into darkness, Shar compelled him to build an army of Dark Justiciars beneath his home town in order to cleanse the world of Light. Ketheric lured Isobel's lover, Aylin, whom he had once quarreled with under Selûne, and trapped her in a prison. He had the immortal demigod serve as a perpetual sacrifice for Dark Justiciar initiates – a design of his closest confidante, the necromancer Balthazar

As terror gripped the town he had previously served so faithfully, the Harpers, a loose organization that roots out villainy, saw that Ketheric had committed "Murder, Slavery, and Desecration of Temples Most Holy." They began to seek an alliance to end his reign

Reithwin soon became the site of a wintertime battle between Ketheric's army and the combined forces of the Harpers and druids of the Emerald Enclave. Ketheric's Justiciars repelled the combined forces, and the Harpers  unsuccessfully attempted surrender. All the while a devil's bargain was struck with Raphael beneath the town by the Selûnite-in-secret Morfred as well as Yurgir and his merregons; they then worked to annihilate Ketheric's Dark Justiciar army

In the end, the Sharran army was defeated, virtually all Dark Justiciars were slain⁠virtually all Dark Justiciars were slain, and finally Ketheric himself perished. And yet, before the final blow was struck and his death was sealed, he unleashed a Shadow Curse upon the land - a curse that would persist long after his demise

A devout worshipper of Selûne, Thorm lived with his wife Melodia and daughter Isobel near the town of Reithwin as governor of the region. Such was his devotion to the Moonmaiden that he would commission a local mason, Morfred, to construct a grand bastion in her honour: Moonrise Towers.

Yet disaster struck the Thorm family when Melodia passed away, leaving Ketheric to raise their daughter alone. With a child in his care, Ketheric persevered, and though doubts plagued his mind, he kept the Selûnite ways. As Isobel grew older, their happy years had a sour note: he disapproved of a budding relationship between his daughter and an immortal Aasimar visiting the town, Dame Aylin, daughter of Selûne.

The conflict would be cut short, however, as tragedy would befall Ketheric once more, and his daughter Isobel passed away

Though best described as a man tormented and utterly transformed by grief, his daughter Isobel speaks of a loving, doting father while she was growing up, one who had the admiration of his subjects for being just and fair, full of love for his wife who he adored more than anyone else. Tragedy, however, would turn him into a bitter, wrathful man, willing to cleanse Reithwin from any Selûnites to spite the Moonmaiden for abandoning him.

Whatever the man he once was, the Ketheric the party encounters is a callous one, evident by his dismissal of Minthara and the goblins, ordering their torture and execution for failing him. Though courteous when needed, he will quickly condemn the party to death should they defy his orders. Above all, however, he is ruthless and relentless in his pursuits, willing to burn the entire world just to be reunited with his daughter.

Though his loss and anguish moved him to change his patron god twice in search of relief, he proved to be an ardent believer of each while serving them: for Selûne, he built Moonrise Towers in her honour, for Shar, he built a grand temple under town in her name and for Myrkul, he amassed a great army ready to raze Baldur's Gate to the ground.

Through it all, he kept  a note from Isobel close to him, showing that deep down a small part of him still remembers the man he once was

Ketheric has a severe, weathered look - his face marked by age and a permanent scowl. He wears a plain circlet adorned with the skull of Myrkul, and a richly detailed suit of armor which clearly identifies him as the Chosen of the Lord of Bones. His Netherstone rests securely in an ornate golden cage on his chest armour. Ketheric's straight gray hair is tucked neatly behind his slightly pointed ears. A thick, full beard connects to his hair, which suggests he has only partly elven ancestry

Once the governor of Reithwin Town, personal tragedy, loss and grief drove him down the path of darkness and violence, the eventual result of which was his defeat in battle a century ago by the combined forces of the Harpers and druids of the Emerald Grove. Now, risen from the grave to lead the Absolute's forces as their general, he seeks to destroy Baldur's Gate, spread the cult of the Absolute, and have his daughter Isobel with him once again.

He is a high half-elf who was brought back to life a hundred years ago by Myrkul

General Ketheric Thorm is an Undead with elven ancestry and appearance, the Chosen of Myrkul, and one of the leaders of the enigmatic Cult of the Absolute