The Ashen Baron

As mysterious as he is dangerous, the Ashen Baron is the master of the Funereal Manor and a thorn in the side of the church of Resounding Truth. For reasons unknown to the layman, the Ashen Baron gathers soldiers for his army of Faltered by spreading the Grey Pox amongst the Fringe Folk and periodically leads these undead troops towards the Heart of Hate in events known as Wakes of Embers.
  He does not seem to be affiliated with the Adversary, as his insistence upon assaulting the Heart would indicate, unless he means to free the imprisoned god. What is known is that the baron is a formidable wielder of magic, as evidenced by the Funereal Manor itself, and the dreadful orb he wields in battle, which releases pulsing waves of destruction that scour men of their flesh and their very souls.
 

Speculative history

Some claim the Baron is a wizard of times past, perhaps even one of the fabled Sorcerer-Kings, who has somehow succumbed to the corrupting influence of the Black Forest and is compelled to try and free the Adversary as a result.
  Other tales, preferred especially by travelling bards, tell of a girl that wandered into the Black Forest and her father. Learning of her disappearance, the father followed her in only to find torn shreds of her dress hanging on the gnarled branches of the dead trees. The man spent weeks searching the cursed woods with his neighbors and others from the village, but one after another, his kinsmen gave up the search until he continued the searching alone.
  Unable to accept that his darling daughter had most likely faced a terrible end, the desperate father packed up what little belongings he had and ventured deep into the corrupted forest, never to return. Those with a penchant for the dramatic like to hearken back to this old cautionary tale whenever the subject of the Ashen Baron is brought up, insinuating that the baron is that very man, still convinced that he can save his daughter through the dark magics he now practices.
  These individuals cannot explain how the Barons actions are conducive towards such an end, however.
 

The Truth

As it turns out, there is some truth to both of the speculative origins that popular folktales attribute to the Baron.
  The Ashen Baron is a man named Constance Mortifax, who was once known to the world as the Overlord, arguably the cruelest and longest ruling of the Sorcerer-Kings. He did lose his daughter to the Black Forest, but it was entirely his own doing, as he had decreed that his subjects be exiled daily into the forest and at random, in an attempt to appease the seething hatred of the Adversary.
  And so it came to pass that his daughter was chosen in such a manner and banished into the forest. Enraged by this turn of events, the Overlord relinquished his crown and became the Ashen Baron, whose sole desire is the end of the Adversary.
 

Orb of Obliteration

The Baron's personal weapon, dubbed the Orb of Obliteration, is a magical artefact that seems to be able to channel the Tapestrums energies directly into the real Nascindor, completely bypassing the need for the Baron to project into the tapestry, a feat that no other wizard has been able to replicate. This means that his use of magic is much more expedient and requires less focus. The Baron can eradicate an entire formation of Seekers in the time it would take for a Warsage to heal a single man.
 

Connection with the Grey Pox

It is theorized that the Ashen Baron has learned how to tap into the corrupted magic of the sullied Tapestry of the Black Forest, and that it is infact the source of the destructive power of his dread orb. Some learned men and women also posit that the Grey Pox, the supernatural disease that he plagues the Fringe Folk with, is the result of these dire magics.
  The exact method is a matter of debate, but some think that he has actually found a way to snatch the essence of a person through the Tapestry, which is then taken into the Funereal Manor.
  The empty husk, now devoid of its vital energies, begins to wither away and instinctively seeks the energy that was taken from it, which would certainly explain the physical symptoms of the Grey Pox, as well as the fact that victims of the supposed disease feel compelled to seek out the manor.
  What happens inside is mostly unclear, but what is known is that once the Baron has both the ”soul” and the body, he rejoins the two in a profane ritual that binds some of the Nightmare's corruption into the very bones of the hapless victim via the engraving of a Glyph of Subjugation upon their person, rendering them an osseous thrall, utterly under the spell of the Baron.
  Why the Baron collects these poor souls and attempts to assault the Heart of Hate with their aid is unknown to most, with only a few people on the entire planet aware that he is motivated by vengeance.
 

Rivalry

The Baron has garnered many enemies with his heinous actions, but perhaps the most vehement and vitriolic of these enemies is the current Seeker-Captain of the Circle of Dawn, Wilhelm Greust.
  He has made it his personal crusade to vanquish the Ashen Baron and end his reign of evil for good. The two have clashed many times in the past, each bout ending with the losing party retreating.
  The church has capitalized on this rivalry in the form of heroic, fanciful tales put on canvas and paper. These are basically propaganda pieces that paint Wilhelm, or "Eagleheart" as he is known among the populace thanks to these stories, as besting the Baron at every turn and it only being a matter of time until he claims final victory.
  The truth is more nuanced. While it is true that Wilhelm has claimed many a victory over the Baron, he has been defeated himself a fair amount of times, even coming close to dying on a few occasions. The two seem equally matched and the only thing that is for certain is that their feud will continue.