From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

About this volume

The volume you hold in your hands records a number of significant events of those involved with The Komturei. It is, of course, incomplete — as only one side of the story is told. Nevertheless, the authors hope you will find the writings herein of some small value.

Index

• One: Kleon and Varasin battle Levantis
• Two: Varasin sells his soul
• Three: Varasin Saves Xezz, Sees a Leviathan
• Four: "Three Cats: Schrodinger and SocioPolitical Analysis"

Kleon and Varasin battle Levantis

• In 2004 Varasin was assigned to the residence at Rovilio, a small town inj Italy. Here he studied under Monsignor Levantis, in areas not normally discussed or admitted to by the church.

Levantis. A hard man to describe. Thin, greying hair short croppeed, fluent in more labguages you can poke a stick at. Brilliant intellect, insightful and gifted. A hard man to please, and one who never suffered fools. It was a hard-won privilege to be at Rovilio, and the first month flew by like a dream. Levantis set me tasks of learning — difficult tasks which, I can say in all modesty, I accomplished well and ahead of expectation. Here for the first time the very connections of older lore long known of, and always suppressed, by the church. Of a sudden a sacrament for the sick became the possibility of healing, and gloria excelsius became a blade to be held in the dark, against things I won't describe here.

Yet I became aware of something more. A deeper level of lore and learning I suspected Levantis to hold and practice. Within the library, the occasional oddness of the absence of a tome; from Levantis, the oh-so-careful guidance away from certain areas. Curious, I chose to be the model acolyte to Levantis' guru; appearing just that slightly less sharp than perhaps I was. I began to notice other oddities — unexplained absences at specific times, small signs of visitors and traffic I never encountered.

And it was here I began to suspect something deeply and profoundly wrong. And yes, I became jealous, and perhaps a little obsessed, with discovering the secrets and knowledge I thought Levantis was keeping back from me. Unfortunately, things were far worse than I thought.

For Levantis was a Nephandi, an awakened agent of a cosmological force of Entropy. I do not know, and now never will, what drove Levantis to this madness. Did he seek to destroy all of reality in an effort to assert a dominion? Or seek power he considered impossible to reach otherwise, by the systematic destruction of everything in their path. I don't know, but I suspect he sought to corrupt and destroy out of some displaced religious zeal, a servant of something vast and terrifyingly empty.

So. On a given night in a given month in the year of our lord 2004, I crept deep into the catacombs below Rovilio, on the silent and unperceived path to Levantis hidden library, or so I thought. As I did there came a feeling, tension, an edge upon the dank earthy air. The hairs upon my neck rose, and shadows seemed to flit this way and that, always at the edge of vision. The only sound — the drip plonk of some leaking pipe somewhere, the almost silent scuffing of my shoes.

To be surprised by the cold fire of a sword laid across my neck, a vise like grip apon my wrist, the almost mortal shock of being within an instant of death, where I had thought myself alone. Rammed back hard by this assailant against the wall, gasping for breath. And in the ruddy light a stranger, impassive, weighing. For no reason at all he paused, his face impassive, eyes liquid black that glittered promises of switft judgement. The whispered words "my frined,

in progress... july 2008

In 2005 Varasin determined that Levantis was preparing a significant ritual in secret. He made his way down to observe, and encountered a stranger who likewise entered, but to stop the ceremony. With little choice, Varasin and the stranger continued. They found Levantis completing a ritual to summon a Nephrandi, an entity of oblivion. The sacrifice in this case was a Lycan. Varasin and the stranger succeeded somewhat in that the ritual did not succeed completely. However, the Lycan was dead (killed by Varasin), Levantis was dead (killed by the stranger) and the Nephandi locked within Varasin. Some grace of the stranger, the Lycan and another bound it there. However, the binding linked Varasin and the stranger together (they are both parts of it); with the Lycan's spirit flowing to the stranger as well. The stranger and Varasin left Rovilio and went to the Lycan's kin. There Varasin was cared for, for a while. Slowly, he regained wits enough to consider his future. Realsing that the binding would be eroded by the demon, Varasin and the stranger knew they would be working on this for quite some time. They decided Varasin would learn to cope with his new life, while the stranger would go on ahead to Paragon City. For the next few years Varasin travelled, slowly picking up bits and pieces of a new life; finding a new balanc