Vinias¶
Contested
Named in the open question Nexa-Vinian War and Vinias: the archive dates his war two ways and has him lead a rebellion in Rhovun centuries before the order he founded existed; the 2020 history has him captured and executed, where later documents have him alive.
Grandmaster of the Nexa-Vinian Order, Arch-Maleficus
Vinias is the human wizard who co-founded the Nexa-Vinian Order with Nexagar, broke with him over whether wizards should rule, and led the order's crusade to make magic-users the masters of the continent. He did not stay dead: "He has been imprisoned and killed several times, but has managed to escape or reform. The source of his immortality is a mystery. He is believed to be the foremost master of Living magic alive" (S434, S372). In the Fifth Age he is a legend of the West, seen everywhere and settled nowhere, at the head of the White Fire.
The apprentice¶
Vinias "was a human apprentice to one of the first wizards. After the council fell apart, he founded the Nexa-Vinian order with Nexagar (another apprentice)" (S434, S372). The histories name his master as the arch-wizard Methusial, whose splinter from the Order of Wizards became the order after Methusial was killed: "Methusial's splinter group formed the Nexa-Vinian order, after Methusial's two human apprentices that had stepped up to lead the group, Nexagar and Vinias" (S386). The newest account says the same in fewer words: when the Council of Wizards fell, "an alliance between two of the remaining apprentices of the Archwizards reorganized the remnants" (S358).
The schism and the crusade¶
The order flourished, and "at the height of its power, the Nexa-Vinians were indirectly or directly controlling most of the civilized kingdoms." Then the two founders fell out. "Vinias was a proponent of the natural sovereignty of wizards: They were meant to rule. Nexagar favored the idea that wizards were meant to serve and protect" (S358). Nexagar left to lead the Acadian splinter, the later Acadian Order, and Vinias "led the Nexa-Vinians on a crusade to place themselves as rulers of the continent" (S386). The kingdoms broke the order and turned on magic itself, and "Vinias was the only high level Nexa-Vinian to survive the war" (S386). The war is told on its own page, the Nexa-Vinian War, dated 1864 to 1895 MA in the Age of Magic.
In the Fifth Age¶
In the Rivenlands of the Fifth Age Vinias is "a magi of legendary power, his permanent residence is unknown, but he rumors of his sightings includes almost every city and town in the West. Most recently, he led the White Fire to assist the Kingdom of Brusau in driving back the Imperium at the Battle of Beddenford" (S319, in the fall of 704 SM). The White Fire of that age is "an ancient secret society" that follows the path of Kalar without being a religious order, whose "chief concern is the welfare and advancement of the races," and whose public face is Bertran Godebert; its agents in Alghert answer to "Archmage Kholvar (White Fire -- Vinias)" (S181, S179, S180), whose man is Sivar.
Vinias also holds the Kalamite Orb of Dominion, the part of the Mithis Heartstone associated with Arcantus, and "will not part with it under any condition" (S182). Because the Heartstone must be held by someone "preferably an immortal which is difficult to kill," he is one of the few named as a fit keeper for it (S142). What the party of the Sancturi Campaign had to do with him belongs to that chronicle.
In the Fourth Age¶
The Fourth Age keeps him as a name. The Acadian notes of the Marshford Campaign set "Nexa-Vinian: Vinias" beside the trial of Tserrerak, a High Acadian Wizard "secretly a Nexa-Vinian," and his Nexa-Vinian Order is by then a hidden remnant, "their name now a curse-word among civilized populations" (S358).
Gap
No source explains his immortality, describes his appearance, or says where he lives. The sources call him Arch-Maleficus, a master of the dark side of Living magic, without describing his works. How the would-be ruler of the world came to lead the White Fire, and how he stands with Lothos, are not said.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2020 history (S386) has Vinias, "after consolidating power, and eliminating Nexagar in a coup," lead the crusade, and ends his story: he survived the war "only to be captured and executed many hundreds of years later." The later documents have Nexagar survive to lead the Acadians (S358) and Vinias alive in the Fifth Age (S319); the older Compendium had already said he "has been imprisoned and killed several times, but has managed to escape or reform."
The Compendium's chronology of Rhovun (S372, S384, also S429) has "the Necromancer Vinias" lead "a group of wizards in rebellion against the kingdom" in 641 MA, "a long and brutal civil war" of fifty years ending in his defeat and the outlawing of magic there. Its ruins belong to that war: Meraethe Castle, "once the seat of power of Vinias," the command center of his rebellion, where "many wizards, including Vinias, were killed within its walls," and the Tower of Ithuil, home of a warlock "allied to Vinias during the War of the Warlocks." The same document dates the Nexa-Vinian War both 1864 to 1895 MA and 2270 to 2271 MA. These are the open question above. The Compendium also says the order turned to "the acquisition of power" only "not long after the death of Nexagar," and that "with the full might of the Nexa-Vinians behind him, there was little that could stop him" (S372).