Karsus

Lord Karsus is an arcanist in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He was the Netherese creator and caster of the Karsus's Avatar spell that triggered the Fall of Netheril.

Background

Early life

Karsus was born about 3,100 years after the nation's founding, in -696 DR. He was able to cast his first spell at the age of two, and by the age of twenty-two had become the youngest arcanist to ever create his own floating city.

Gifted with magic, but lacking the necessary discipline that comes with hard work and research, he founded a school of magic on his enclave and encouraged the attendance of radical thinkers and those interested in taboo projects. One of his students, now known only as Lord Shadow, wrote a treatise on the exploration and exploitation of other planes, such as the Plane of Shadow, which garnered initial criticism but was eventually embraced as the key to an infinite source of shadow-creatures as slave laborers as well as a dumping ground for unwanted garbage.