Character
Marcus Crassus
The censor who turns mana into gold
Marcus Crassus is the censor of the peninsula bearing his family's name: tall, broad-shouldered, richly dressed, and covered in more rings than restraint. He discovered the secret everyone covets, how to turn mana into gold. Because gold controls and stores human mana, this amounts to manufacturing the substance of power itself.
His doctrine fits into one line: spend more and earn more. He built Gold Seal around it and created a ring that turns its wearer into a lich upon death. He also keeps Nelvia and her drow settlement producing Nectar of Power, consuming their surrendered memories as inspiration before major spells.
When the Great Barrier fell and Flavius Marcus was defeated, Crassus withdrew into the Underdark. Marcin Sobiesansky found him there and offered an alliance: Crassus's gold would finance the alchemist's research, and both men would rule the empire replacing the Ark. Crassus listened without committing.
Aldor and his companions had heard the entire negotiation under Shroud. When Aldor revealed them and opened the fight with a Fireball, Crassus caught the spell in a net of gold. He then left with the drows, his servants, and Sobiesansky's alchemists while the Grand Alchemist blocked pursuit. Jerax was ordered to dominate him afterward, but never reached him. Crassus escaped the confrontation and his later fate is not recorded.