Archmage Travenus

Ardnold Travenus III, once a powerful archmage of the Imperium and referred to as "Archmage Travenus", is a 450-year old lich whom the party encountered in the Jungle of Daggers.

The Imperial Archmage
Archmage Travenus was the personal advisor to the Emperor of the Imperium on all matters magical, and was the architect of several conquests at the beginning of the Century of Conquest, before the God-Emperor ascended to the Imperial throne.

At the peak of his power, he had an extraordinary amount of influence in the Imperium, making him the de facto head of the Arcane Directorium, the wizard elite of the realm. He was described as a calm pragmatist by his allies and as a Machiavellian manipulator by his enemies.

Fall from power
When the God-Emperor (at the time only a mere mortal, Emperor Octavius Augustus) ascended to the throne, Travenus and Octavius clashed on numerous matters. Emperor Octavius didn't trust the powerful archmage, and instead sought to position his own sister, Septima Augustus (later becoming the Archmistress of Magic) as the head of the Arcane Directorium.

No sources commemorate the events that ensued, but the Avalanche has been told by Travenus himself, that he was forced to abandon his position, and to seek shelter in the Jungle of Daggers. Several hundred years later the Avalanche found the magical ring of Travenus in the Brass Embassy of Stoneharbor, indicating that he either abandoned his ring, or traded it in during his flight from the Imperial City.

Jungle of Daggers
Travenus has spent the hundreds of years since his exile in the Jungle of Daggers. He had chosen an ancient temple and library as his new home, continuing to advance his magical knowledge and planning his return.

Nearing the end of his life, and aware of Octavius' ascension to divinity, Travenus saw no other way to survive but to submit himself to the dark ritual of becoming a lich. He made his phylactery into a form such that most humans can't resist feeding it, and made sure to release it to the wild tribes of the jungle every hundred years. These were the only times when he also dared to venture out and gather news about Aegeron, lying in wait in between, patiently awaiting the day when Fate finally decides that the God-Emperor has overstayed his welcome among the living.

In the year A.I. 487, Travenus met the Avalanche, who informed him that what he was waiting for has finally happened: the God-Emperor was no more. This allowed Travenus to leave his chosen prison once and for all, and to ally himself with Andromeda Fierra, whose goal was also to resurrect the Imperium.

Deal with Pongo
When Travenus met the Avalanche in the Jungle of Daggers the good-aligned members of the party were hesitant to return a phylactery to a lich, even to such a humane one. It was clear that Travenus will need to feed its phylactery again, so to avoid a conflict he offered to only consume the souls of fiends and other damned creatures in the future. He also revealed how to destroy his phylactery, thus giving the Avalanche the power to destroy him in the future. Furthermore, he and Pongo made a magically binding covenant that were he to violate the terms they agreed upon his phylactery would be teleported to Pongo or his descendants.