This bit of lore is something I put together for my BBEG source of ultimate power I'm looking for suggestions on what it would do [dnd 3.5e here]. I'm toying with the idea of granting the user all the bonuses associated with a Lich without the whole "being dead" as well as usual bonuses to stuff that just make BBEGs all the more evil... fair warning, it gets really dark, and a bit graphic towards the end, i'm interested to hear feedback...

WARNING! in case you missed it in the paragraph above, the end of this gets to be a bit graphic and more than a little dark, this is an item of pure and ultimate evil here...

The Forsaken Crown Voled Wirewien

Voled Wirewien, or Lord Wirewien was a Great Kind of ancient times. History books label him as the Great Unifier and his reign begins the Calendar of AU or After Unification. The unification in question is of the three great kingdoms of old, The Kingdom of Crown, The Kingdom of Dragon, and the Kingdom of Lion. Belonging to the Kingdom of crown Voled was neither the strongest nor was he the weakest ruler. Pressed agents the northern mountains Voled’s kingdom was beset upon by the mountain beasts and attacked often by either of the two kingdoms to the south east and west. Able to defend but never retaliate Voled waited out year after year of siege from every border. The year of unification came in Voleds sixty-eighth year of life and the fifteenth year of siege to the Kingdom of Crown, a plague had ravaged the south continent claiming much of the royalty to both the kingdoms of Dragon and Lion. However the illness was unable to take to the harsh and cold climate of the northern Kingdom of Crown. In the southern Kingdoms new leadership was put into place. The nephew of the king of Dragon, and the granddaughter of the king of Lions were each to be coroneted. Voled, at last seeing an opportunity for peace called for the coronation to take place at a region known as the crux, a sacred area where the three kingdoms all shared a border. With reluctance but hope of peace the two kingdoms agreed. Coronations of both Princess then Queen Isthein, and Duke then King Ediberd took place in the Crux of the land on the summer solstice. With their coronation Voled Wirewien posed that the two should be wed, while both young neither king or queen was willing to marry, the idea posed by Voled was sound and both knew that it was needed to ensure a lasting peace… and thus it was so. Two kingdoms became one and it was known by all that with their combined power they could destroy the kingdom of crown, Voled, keenly aware of this capitulated voluntarily, on the requirements that his capital would become the new capital for the now unified nation, that he would retain sovereign rule of the lands of the Kingdom of Crown until his death, and as he had no heir, his crown be the one used by King Ediberd. At sixty-eight years many knew that the good king had a decade, two at most, before he left this life, and so the deal was struck.

In the eyes of Voled the willing capitulation of both his lands and title was a small price to pay for the peace the land so desperately needed. However, in the eyes Ryall Arderne, who had been the best candidate to succeed Voled, the peace signaled the end to all hopes of perching himself atop the throne of the Kingdom of Crown. Ryall formulated a plan. On midnight of the winter solstice, in the time farthest from the light of day Ryall placed a curse upon Voled. Using dark magic thought long to have been forgotten Voled’s body became trapped within life as his mind and spirit left. Voled’s body became a vessel to Ryall’s every whim. His commands, often dark and vial were met without pause. King Ediberd and Queen Isthein bound by their agreement with Voled were unable to do anything save try and ease the suffering of those afflicted as Ryall made his way into and up the nobles court within the new kingdom. Years passed and Voled’s body was to reach its one hundred and first birthday as Ryall was able to place himself in a position to make suggestions to King Ediberd. With silver tongue Ryall offered to the king that the coming birthday would be the last of Voled. Ediberd, eager to see a single unified kingdom finally a reality, sanctioned Ryall’s plan. During the feast the goblet Voled’s body drank from was poisoned, and so, three days hence, the body succumbed to the poison and Voled was no more.

At the moment of the body’s demise Ryall sealed the final granule of Voled’s life-force into the crown, and then began an insidious ritual. Flaying the skin and burning out the eyes of the corpse, followed by removal of the heart and using the blood trapped within its final beat Ryall bathed the crown that would be King Ediberds in the coming days. In a dark tongue that had nearly been forgotten by time Ryall used one of Voled’s finger bones to engrave a curse on the crown, a curse that would give the wearer of the crown great power, but at much greater cost… Twenty three years after the unification of the kingdoms one ruler was finally able to command his subjects, King Ediberd stood over his subjects wearing the crown of Voled Wirewien. At his right side stood his wife, Queen Isthein, and at his left stood, the now high advisor, Ryall Arderne. Isthein had birthed two sons and a single daughter to Ediberd, all three of which were loved dearly and named Agrardodan, Dardotlan, and Learia. Agrardodan was the eldest and crowned prince, he was schooled in many subjects and was often following his father, learning what he could in order to rule in his place one day. Dardotlan was the middle child, and was taught the ways of war, educated in strategy he quickly ascended to the rank of Master-General in his father’s army, pushing always north in a constant battle with the savage beasts of the mountains. Learia was beautiful and as skilled with her words as she was the arcane arts, owing her proficiency in both to her tutor, Ryall, she was wed to him at his behest to her father when she came of age. As Ryal neared his fifth decade, invigorated in the knowledge that Dardotlan had perished in an avalanche in the mountains, he began to set in motion a plan that would place him upon the thrown. The cursed crown had begun to work its way into the mind of King Ediberd Ryall barely had to breath word of his command before Ediberd slew both Agrardodan and Isthein. Murder of the Queen and crowned Prince did not sit well with the noble’s court, and Ediberd was poisoned within a fortnight. The crown was passed to Learia who, pregnant with Ryall’s child ascended the throne with a heavy heart and began her reign as High Queen. Ryall’s anticipation of the crown was now palpable, enough so that many court nobles denounced and condemned Ryall, who in response, slowly but surely had each and every noble that opposed him assassinated and supplanted with another, more sympathetic to his cause. As the months passed and Learia’s pregnancy began to come to fruition Ryall began to feed her more and more Garlic in her meals, as well as a steady stream of Ginseng tea. The herbs added to Learias diet were harmless at first, but in the quantities Ryall prescribed Learia’s blood became as thin as water.

[THIS IS WHERE IT GETS BAD]

On the ninth month of her pregnancy Learia went into labor, and Ryall watched the blood flow and Learia bleed out. Ryall would not touch the child born to him, he would not look at the baby Learia had named with her dying breath Astiri. Not until he wore the crown he had worked so hard and so long for. Placing it upon his head Ryall wore the crown of Voled Wirewien. Now King, Ryall Arderne, let the power sink in and reached for his child. Looking into the pair of silver-blue eyes Ryall watched as he slowly squeezed the life out of little Astiri, smiling, as he knew no one would be able to usurp him, no one would have claim to the crown he had devoted his life to obtaining. With the corpse of Astiri in one hand Ryall slew the midwives, and then ordered the execution of every noble who had ever opposed him. As his orders were being carried out he began the same ritual he had on Voled’s body, finishing by cutting out the heart of Astiri and again painted the crown with the blood within, he then retrieved the skin he had flayed from Voled and began stitching it to the skin of Astiri, using Learas hair as thread he formed a leather bowl that he filled with the blood of every nobleman killed that evening. The pool of blood, dark and thick, was used to dye the robes of Ryall dark crimson, and coat the crown so that the life-force of each victim was contained, and it’s power now a tool to be used by Ryall…

Open to any thoughts or suggestions you have...