In a time of vast pestilence, a vague monk of dark inclinations, one Rotund’jere, found himself sanctioned to the rank of Cardinal by the quick death of all his superiors. While others of the order went out to aid the ill, the newly proclaimed cardinal secluded himself within the Cathedral of Rumusque, busily conniving to acquire the property of dying aristocrats, promising them spiritual rewards if they signed over their terrestrial sphere of influence. As the pestilence receded to a few mulish pockets, his behaviour came to the notice of the greater order, which found him guilty of heresy and condemned him to serve in the plague ward, without spells that would ensure him a slow and protracted illness. However, they had not counted on his natural immunity. Rotund’jere caught the pox, but instead of dying, found it nourishing his power, converting him into an authentic plague-mage, a Pope of Pestilence. Announcing himself the Necrolyte, he travels the world, spreading plague wherever.