Haustro

Among The Seven Lords of Avarice, Haustro is perhaps the most enigmatic. Unlike his kin, who ruled through fire, blood, or fear, Haustro's dominion was defined by wind, cloud, silence, and solitude. His name is rarely spoken in hushed fear or hatred, but rather in curious reverence, like a forgotten genius whose works outlived his voice.  

Nature and Personality

Haustro was not a conqueror, nor a killer by traditional means. He was a recluse, an obsessive arcane savant, whose interest in the material world was limited to the skies above it. His obsession was singular: flight. Not simply the act of levitating, but true, unbound freedom, soaring beyond the clouds, beyond gravity, beyond the realm’s reach. This dream consumed him.   Though he commanded tremendous magical power, Haustro himself never flew. Despite years—possibly centuries—of experimentation, his own body refused the gift. Whether it was a curse, a limitation of his nature, or self-imposed restraint remains unknown. What is known is that Haustro learned to make everything else float instead: cities, stones, towers, even palaces.   He spoke little, if at all, and was never seen without his veil—a mask of ever-shifting cloudstuff said to dissolve into vapor when approached, only to reform moments later. Even his closest servants, few in number, claimed they never saw his face, nor heard his voice clearly. Some believed Haustro no longer had a face, or had abandoned his physical form altogether in pursuit of his dream.  

Magic and Achievements

Haustro’s mastery lay in aeromancy, the manipulation of wind, pressure, mist, and weightlessness. His spells were subtle, elegant, and disorienting—capable of collapsing siege towers in a whisper, lifting armies into the sky and letting them fall, or creating impossible stillness in places that should be roaring with sound.   His most famous and enduring magical legacy is his theory of Arcane Buoyancy—a principle he used to anchor floating structures in fixed altitude and orbit, a feat most modern mages struggle to replicate. It is for this reason that most arcane historians agree: Haustro was instrumental—perhaps central—in the creation of Shadegate.   The legendary half-floating fortress, impervious to time and untethered from stable geography, bears many hallmarks of Haustro's magic:  

• Its elevated platforms supported by elemental pressure zones

 

• Its gravity-inverted halls, which spiral inward toward an impossible center

 

• The soundless wind that haunts its endless stairwells

  Shadegate, more than any other ruin, is believed to be Haustro’s masterwork—a place not for conquest, but for isolation. Some say it was his refuge, a skyborne tomb where he could drift forever, undisturbed.  

Appearance and Mystique

Haustro’s attire was as ephemeral as his presence. Most depictions describe him cloaked in layered robes of wind-blown silk, adorned with arcane runes that shimmered like drifting snowflakes. His movements were silent, barely touching the ground, and he left no footprints. A constant gentle wind surrounded him, rippling his garments and warding off attackers with invisible bursts of force.   No living soul is known to have seen his true form. What lay beneath his mask of vapors is unknown—some believe he was hideously disfigured, others think he was never mortal to begin with. A few whisper that Haustro never existed as a person at all, but as a manifestation of magic’s yearning for the skies.   He never participated in the infighting that destroyed the Seven Lords—at least, not overtly. His domain simply vanished. His spires drifted into cloudbanks. His voice faded. By the time the others turned on one another, Haustro was already gone—lost to the wind, or perhaps finally free.