Holus Sanrim / Emperor Dominus I

Summary/Background
At first the leader and founder of the Grand Crusade, Holus Sanrim lost his entire family in the Battle of Meadowlake in 3849 DY, and in his rage and grief purportedly vowed to never rest until the scourge of evil was purged from Setat. With the formation of the Grand Crusade, Sanrim attracted many like-minded people, and personally lead every campaign. Sanrim in fact died several times during his tenure, and despite the best healing magic available to the Grand Crusade, Sanrim was himself a heavily scarred man. Those close to Sanrim described him as a quiet man possessed of no humor and no patience for idle pleasures or small talk – he was utterly devoted to his own cause and viewed every obstacle and setback as a challenge to what he believed to be a holy war.

Once a man dedicated to rooting out manifestations of evil in all forms, Holus Sanrim organized the Grand Crusade more than 20 years before the Godfall but was not sanctioned by any god or the Church of the Many Divines. This did nothing to deter him, and Sanrim continued building the Grand Crusade over many years, but he was never able to gain the approval of a Church that was uneasy about Sanrim's methods and fury. In later years, and already convinced of a vast conspiracy against Humans, Sanrim grew increasingly bitter and paranoid that the Church itself was being poisoned by evil as they continued to rebuff his extremism and increasingly brutal tactics, and Sanrim alienated the other factions of Setat. Even the High Templars of Setosh, at the command of Supreme Templar Parinus Adain, became involved, warning Sanrim that his methods required more restraint if he wished to remain welcome in Setat. This almost-universal rejection led Sanrim to question the moral purity of the factions rather than his own, and Sanrim soon convinced himself that as all the factions that opposed him were run by non-Humans or Immortals then they must have been tolerant of evil or perhaps even the source of it. Sanrim hid the depth of his madness and hate until the Godfall, and as chaos descended upon Setat Sanrim snapped and gathered his most trusted zealots to act decisively.

Using his Grand Crusaders to restore order in Setat, Sanrim seized control of Human neighborhoods throughout the Great City and laid claim to Setosh's citadel, the Silver Crown of Setat. The other factions of the city were so distracted by the collapsing guidance of the Pantheon and the turmoil in the High Templars that they did not realize the degree to which Setat's character had changed around them under Sanrim's influence. As they focused on their enclaves and trying to maintain some semblance of the peaceful and cosmopolitan Setat that existed before the Godfall, Sanrim moved to fill the void left by the High Templars as Supreme Templar Parinus Adain led the Final March of the High Templars from Setat late in 3864 DY. For a short time, the city had some sense of peace.

A year after Setosh's death, Holus Sanrim culminated his horrific plan and shattered that peace. From the Human districts of Setat, Sanrim launched surprise attacks on the headquarters of each major faction simultaneously. Caught off-guard, they pulled back their respective peoples and protected the civilian populations in their fortresses. Sanrim was not deterred - he was in fact counting on this development, and purposely drove them from their homes to seek protection in fortified walls. That same night, hidden catapults and trebuchets, built in secret in compounds loyal to Sanrim near the packed fortresses, rained alchemical stoneflame on each of the bastions. By morning, Holus Sanrim had burned the ancient homes of his perceived enemies to molten glass, killing every last man, woman, and child within in a blaze of hatred and cruelty. Deemed the Night of the Black Phoenix, the slaughter marked the first act of Rocian conquest and the end of the Grand Crusade as its non-Human members fled the organization in horror to protect what few survived to flee Setat.

In 3865 DY, Holus Sanrim crowned himself Emperor Dominus I. Setat, he proclaimed, was the first city to be cleansed, and from the ashes would rise a reborn Human Empire, and all would come to fear the sight of their banners as they feared the shadow of the Roc from which the empire takes its name. As Emperor, Dominus I commanded a total reformation of Setati culture from one of tolerance and and peace to one of blind obedience, xenophobia, and bloodthirsty conquest, and that evil as Emperor Dominus alone defined was to be pulled up from the roots, no matter the cost of life. By the end of his reign, Dominus I painted the Omac Plains in blood and fire, introduced total war and crucifixion to Coznakk, and shaped the Rocian Empire into the brutal and feared conquerors they are. What began as a single, short, and horrifying attack festered into a campaign of genocide and conquest that has carried through to the modern era.