Cythrek

Cythrek was a Keilicaela occult shaman who hailed from a Sharazdi-sar tribe. He founded the Descendants of Thutria, a monastic order which pioneered the art of true sight for the Keilicaela species. As the Grandmaster of the Descendants, Cythrek mastered true sight and was said to be immune to illusions manifested from the Veil of Webs.

Cythrek
Species	Keilicaela
Factions	The Descendants of Thutria
Age	189
Status	Deceased
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown

Early Life

Cythrek was born in 8 PRE within a Sharazdi-sar tribe inhabiting the Great Sharazdi Desert. He came up in his tribe as an occult shaman, an ardent and spiritually-resolute adherent of the Cult of Namine.

Migration to Thutria

Sometime in his adult life, Cythrek left behind tribal life in the Great Sharazdi Desert in order to see how the "astray children" of the Empire of Namine lived and sway them to the Cult of Namine, which the Imperial people abandoned hundreds of years before his time. He traveled to Thutria, where he spent a few years cultivating a following and learning of technology and practices unavailable to his people, such as Veil manipulation. After learning that the Veil of Webs existed, Cythrek experienced what he called a divine revelation: he proclaimed that his ancestors told him he must learn to see beyond the Veil, which would supposedly reveal the divine remains of the Matron Namine--the few parts of her body that, according to Sharazdi-sar tradition, were not used to create the planet Namine and all life on it.

Descendants of Thutria

In 40 PRE, Cythrek and his followers, now calling themselves the Descendants of Thutria, were branded heretics by the Imperial Cult for espousing beliefs that ran contrary to Imperial Cult dogma, including denying the divinity of Ferkanid Trinalak. They fled Thutria to escape persecution, secluding themselves in an abandoned pre-Imperial observatory that would serve as their monastery. In their efforts to study the Veil, the Descendants were the first Keilicaela to pioneer the art of true sight, rendering them highly-resistant to Veil manipulation. After over 100 years of discipline, Cythrek was said to be entirely immune to Veil illusions. The Descendants claimed the Compendium Singularia at an unknown time after inhabiting their monastery; it is unknown how they obtained the tome.

Compendium Singularia and Death

In 197 PRE, the Compendium Singularia scratched at the back of Cythrek's mind, calling him to it. He believed the book was the final piece he needed to see beyond the Veil in its totality, so that he could look upon the parts of his divine matron's corpse that yet remained. Confident in his abilities as a true seer and fanatically eager to fulfill the divine revelation he proclaimed over a century hence, Cythrek opened the book and read from its pages. Within moments of laying his eye on the pages, he collapsed, comatose, and did not awaken for hours. When he regained consciousness, he spoke only one phrase, then never uttered a single word more for the rest of his life:

I dared turned my sight upwards after I learned how to see true. And when I looked up and beyond the Veil, I saw the great cosmic spiders that weaved the webs hanging just above the strands. Waiting. Watching. Conspiring. I hearkened to their overwhelming choir of chants and despaired, for I knew not what they chanted. One met my gaze with its eight ebon eyes, and I then realized it was laughing. They were all laughing! They laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed...

Cythrek, speaking his last.

After speaking these words, Cythrek retired to his chambers, where he began to write in the blank pages of an empty tome. He did not respond to attempts by his followers to communicate. He did not leave his chair, stop to eat or drink, and did not sleep. In spite of his followers' best attempts to stop him, Cythrek continued writing until he died.

Legacy

Upon reading Cythrek's final work, his remaining followers fled the monastery in despair, leaving behind the books they had written on true sight. It is not quite known what happened to the Compendium Singularia following this; the tome would be lost for almost 800 years, resurfacing a few decades after 940 PRE. In the decades following 940 PRE, the Compendium wound up in the hands of the Ban-José Corporation.

The Imperial Cult would secure the monastery sometime after the Descendants disbanded, cataloguing their collection of research and books regarding true sight. The library of the Descendants became instrumental for Imperial Veil researchers and scholars, forming the basis of the Keilicaelaac true sight technique. Cythrek's death-volume, considered by the Imperial Cult to be blasphemous, disturbing, profane, and an anomalous artifact, is kept under lock and key in an Imperial Cult archive.

Trivia

• Cythrek's last name remains unknown.