Field Account of the Graveyard

\Recorded by Mordven Nocturnis, Lorekeeper of the Veil Concerning Xylara's Audience with Custodian Zaddar Sullissia

I accompanied Xylara into the Graveyard of Freeport beneath a sky the color of tarnished iron. The air there carried the sour stillness of old mortar, damp soil, and sealed things denied both proper rest and honest remembrance. Graves leaned in crooked ranks beyond the road, their stones mottled by age, while mausoleums crouched behind rusted gates as though listening for the footfall of any fool careless enough to disturb them.

It was there we encountered Custodian Zaddar Sullissia: herald of the arcane, necromancer, and keeper attached to the great library within the Academy of Arcane Science. He did not greet us with courtesy, though I suspect he believed he had. His first words were an appraisal, his second an insult, and his third the opening of a lecture he had plainly been waiting to deliver to anyone unfortunate enough to possess ears.

He demanded that Xylara step forward, that he might look upon her properly. When it grew clear she did not know him by reputation alone, his expression tightened with the injured vanity of a minor scholar denied the reverence he had rehearsed. He informed us, with no shortage of satisfaction, that one should not expect common adventurers to keep company with persons of his standing, and then introduced himself as though the fate of Norrath depended upon the correct arrangement of his titles.

"I am Zaddar," he said, "herald of the arcane, necromancer, and custodian to the great library within the Academy of Arcane Science." He assured us that in all our travels across Norrath we would meet none greater. I made no correction in the moment. There are vanities so delicate that even truth must weigh whether the effort of breaking them is worth the sound.

Zaddar then turned his attention to the ground beneath us. This, he warned, was no simple graveyard. Freeport citizens were buried there, certainly, but so too were enemies of the Overlord, entombed beneath sealed stone and old command. He seemed almost offended that Xylara had not arrived already versed in every official version of the place's history, and with the air of one instructing a particularly slow child, he began his account.

The land now claimed by the Graveyard, Zaddar said, was once the northern part of Freeport. In those days it had been held by a corrupt order of knights blindly loyal to the ancient god Mithaniel Marr. These were the Knights of Truth, though Zaddar spoke the name as though it left a bitter taste upon his tongue. In his telling they were no defenders, no servants of honor, no remnant of an older vision of Freeport. They were heretics, tyrants, and obstacles to progress.

He reminded us more than once to pay attention. I record this because it was, perhaps, the most consistent feature of his discourse. Zaddar possesses the rare gift of making even history sound as though it has personally inconvenienced him.

As his account went on, the tale took the unmistakable shape of Freeport doctrine. The Freeport Militia and those loyal to Lucan D'Lere rose in strength and number, while the Overlord conceived a plan to liberate the city from the followers of Marr. Zaddar described this liberation with great relish. He spoke of brave militia, of cheering citizens, of tyranny broken beneath disciplined steel. The account had been polished smooth by repetition and sharpened in every place where loyalty to the Overlord demands sharpness.

He claimed that as the Overlord's army drew near, many among the Knights of Truth abandoned their posts and fled into the ancient citadel of Befallen. Those who remained faced the full force of Freeport's wrath. The Overlord marched his army to the gates of North Freeport, near the very ground on which we stood, and brought forth siege engines to shatter the defenses of those he named oppressors.

The battle, by Zaddar's telling, raged for days. The Knights of Truth fought desperately to keep their hold upon Freeport's people, yet they could not withstand the might of Lucan's forces. One by one they fell before the blades of the Freeport Militia, whom Zaddar called freedom fighters without the slightest flicker of irony. I glanced toward Xylara as he spoke, and though she gave no open sign of doubt, I could see she heard the same thing I did: not merely history, but history dressed for inspection by those who fear the Overlord's displeasure more than they love accuracy.

In the final hour, Zaddar said, the last of the Knights of Truth were encircled. Their captain, Sir Haligan, looked up and beheld the Overlord advancing toward him. Knowing his cause lost, Haligan made one final desperate assault, only to be cut down by Lucan's soldiers. Thus, in the custodian's preferred phrasing, the foul leader of the oppressors was extinguished, and Freeport liberated from the followers of Marr.

The graves around us seemed colder after that. It is one thing to hear a victor's tale in a hall of banners, where wine and politics lend warmth to every lie. It is another to hear it among the tombs of the defeated, with chains still sealing their dead beneath the stone.

Zaddar explained that the bones of the fallen Knights remained interred there. By the Overlord's order, their tombs had been sealed with mortar and chains, trapping their bodies beneath the soil forevermore. Then he offered a speculation he at once asked us not to repeat: that Lucan may have ordered the tombs sealed for fear that Mithaniel Marr might one day raise his fallen knights to battle again.

I found that detail more revealing than he likely intended. Propaganda speaks loudly of victory, but fear is quieter, and therefore often more honest. If the Overlord truly dreaded resurrection, then perhaps the dead below us had not been dismissed so thoroughly as Zaddar's grand account required.

Only after this long performance did the custodian reveal the practical matter at hand. The Academy had sent him to inspect the tombs of the fallen Knights, for nearly four hundred years had passed since the battle he described, and spirits trapped in the world are rarely content to remain obedient to the terms imposed upon their bones. He claimed also to be pursuing a long-lost spell from an ancient tome dating to the era of the knights' fall and Freeport's so-called liberation.

Then, with a sudden and transparent shift in tone, he confessed that he required Xylara's assistance. The work before him, he explained, demanded the skills of a true hero and loyal follower of the Overlord. He made no secret that the task lay beneath his own level of expertise and intellect, a statement that revealed both his pride and his preference for having others step first into danger.

Xylara accepted the charge. Zaddar seemed pleased, though whether by her willingness or by his own success in avoiding the labor, I could not say. He instructed her to inspect the tombs of the fallen knights, confirm that they remained sealed, and ensure that no grave robbers had disturbed the mausoleums. Should tampering be found and left unreported, he warned, the Overlord would have them both executed.

Thus the work began: not in glory, nor beneath a noble banner, but among chained tombs, old propaganda, and the restless memory of a war Freeport still insists upon calling liberation. I walked beside Xylara as we moved deeper into the Graveyard, past stones that had weathered centuries of rain and command. Whatever Zaddar believed himself to be preserving, the dead beneath that soil were preserving something also.

Perhaps accusation.

Perhaps grief.

Perhaps truth, waiting for a hand brave enough to disturb the seal.

Lorekeeper's Note

Custodian Zaddar Sullissia's account must be treated as Freeport-aligned narration rather than impartial history. His description of the Knights of Truth as corrupt heretics and of Lucan D'Lere's forces as liberators reflects the political doctrine of Freeport and of the Academy of Arcane Science. The useful facts preserved within his speech are these: the Graveyard stands upon land once part of northern Freeport; the fallen Knights of Truth were entombed there; Sir Haligan is named as their captain; their tombs were sealed by command of the Overlord; and the Academy had cause to fear disturbance, resurrection, or vengeance as the four-hundredth year since the battle approached.

Seek. Discover. Endure.

Mordven Nocturnis

Lorekeeper of the Veil

Norrath Secret Society