Algol the Apostate

Rare and hateful is the Listener who betrays the Menhir of Fomalhaut . Twice-damned is the traitorous Lancer, who twice-blessed by the Black Stone rebels against the word of the divine. In all the annals of Sacred Vesarca, there is but one of these wretched creatures: Algol, the Accursed, the Betrayer, the Apostate.

His memory damned along with that of his house, Algol has passed more into myth than history, but the crucial scenes of his tale are nonetheless burned into the minds of all Vesarcans:

Noble son. Honorable family. Enigmatic Whispers. Gift of the Menhir. Greatest of Lancers. The unfathomable command, and a future he could not bear. Fall from grace.

When Algol refused to spill the blood of his family, he was declared apostate. The Messengers did what Algol would not, slaughtering his family and burning their estate, before giving chase. Four wings of his former comrades would die at his hand - nearly half of all the Lancers of his day - as would dozens of Messengers. And then, he vanished.

The fate of Algol is widely speculated upon. Some insist that the Menhir of Fomalhaut simply erased him from existence, just as it had once willed his Habit Inviolable - the Hanged Man - into being. Others - particularly parents trying to frighten misbehaving children - say that he still stalks the land, an ageless terror in the dark, a bogeyman. Some even give him an eschatological role: they say that not only does Algol still live, but that one day he shall return and lead the final doomed rebellion against the Menhir of Fomalhaut.