Feyd Mantis¶

"Drahas is the King of Ashes. I made him kneel. He has not forgotten which of us holds the chain."
— Attributed to Feyd Mantis; written in Acheronian, found scratched into a wall of the Court of Ashes the morning after a Drahas tantrum

The Acheronian lord who cursed Sophet Drahas to remain bound beneath Cadwallon forever. Per the PHB: at the Battle of the Wall of Earth, Drahas — then "the commander of the armies of Acheron and baron of Taer Haez" — requested assistance from Feyd Mantis, the most powerful lord of his barony of origin, in the assault on the Dogs of War. Mantis came. The assault failed. And Drahas, in some accounting between the two of them that has never been fully reconstructed, ended up bound to the city he had been sent to destroy.

Mantis is off-stage — he is not in Cadwallon, he has never been seen in Cadwallon, and almost no living Cadwë has met him. But his curse holds, three centuries running, and breaking it is the single thing Sophet Drahas most wants in the world.

What the PHB Establishes¶

Lord of Acheron, of Drahas's barony of origin — outranks Drahas in the Acheronian hierarchy
Requested by Drahas as reinforcement at the Battle of the Wall of Earth — Drahas's first and last admission of insufficient force
Most powerful lord of his barony of origin — the PHB's phrasing implies that Taer Haez (Drahas's seat) is not Mantis's primary domain; Mantis ruled (and rules) something larger
The PHB stops there. Mantis's nature, methods, what he wanted from Drahas, and why he chose binding rather than killing are all implied but not stated.

What the City Whispers¶

Necromancer of necromancers. The Drune respect him. The Akkyshan witches will not name him. The Usurers' Acheronian contacts go silent if Mantis is mentioned.
The Mantis name is older than Acheron's current dynasty. The necromancer Sinlis Mantis invaded the Cynwäll city long before the Dogs of War arrived (per the Cadwallon/06 History/Timeline). The Cadwë underworld believes Feyd is Sinlis's heir, descendant, or successor-self — possibly the same being, possibly an inherited title, possibly something stranger. No one alive in Cadwallon can confirm the connection.
He has not visited Cadwallon since 832. Drahas's curse-binding may prevent it. Or Mantis may simply have no need.

The Binding¶

What Feyd Mantis did to Sophet Drahas

When Drahas's assault failed, Mantis arrived at the field — after the Dogs of War's victory — and held Drahas accountable. The accounting was a magical operation that bound Drahas's lifeforce to the city of Cadwallon itself: Drahas cannot leave, cannot die in any usual sense, and cannot fully command his own form. The Court of Ashes is his prison; the Court of Shadows is what he has built within it.

Why Mantis did this rather than kill Drahas outright is the central question of the Soma–Drahas plot thread. The likely answer: Mantis wanted Drahas in place. A bound Drahas, working from beneath Cadwallon for three hundred years, has been useful to Acheron's interests — surveilling the Free City, infiltrating the Guild of Usurers networks, harvesting Cadwë souls into the Court of Shadows. Drahas thinks he runs his own shadow empire; the Acheronian intelligence community sees him as the longest-running asset they have ever fielded.

What Drahas is doing about it

Sophet Drahas has spent the last several decades secretly researching how to break Mantis's binding — through the Garden of Desire (using the Talisman of Shadows he took from Aghovar Soma for this exact purpose), through the Arcana (the Devil card was a critical step), and through agents he hopes the Court of Shadows can land inside Mantis's own retinue. None of this has worked yet. It is the secret motive behind nearly every Drahas operation that doesn't make obvious sense.

What Mantis Probably Wants¶

Cadwallon's Desire. He is a necromancer of necromancers, and there is a sleeping god under this city. Mantis is patient; his time horizon is centuries. He may be waiting for the Rag'narok to weaken the Labyrinth enough to reach Desire directly.
Drahas to stay broken. Drahas's continued utility depends on his binding. If Drahas breaks free, the asset is lost.
The Talisman of Shadows recovered. Mantis knows Drahas has it now. He has not yet acted to retrieve it. This restraint is itself information.

Relations¶

Sophet Drahas — bound subject; primary asset; enemy who serves him
Acheron — his nation
Sinlis Mantis — predecessor, descendant, or alter — the connection is unresolved
Talisman of Shadows — the artifact whose location Drahas does not want him to know about
The Coiling Emissaries — Mantis may know what they are. He has not communicated.

A letter from Acheron

A sealed letter arrives at the Usurers' back office in the [[Bridges|Bridges]] district — Acheronian wax, no return address, addressed to "the King of Ashes." Drahas's couriers normally collect these without comment. This one was intercepted before it reached him. The contents are written in a code Drahas's people know but Cadwë cryptographers don't. If decoded, the letter would reveal more about Mantis's current Cadwallon priorities than any other living source could provide.

The Mantis name surfaces

A Cadwë antiquarian researching Cynwäll-era invasions finds a Sinlis Mantis reference, then a Feyd Mantis reference in the same source — written in the same hand, dated 150 years apart. The antiquarian wants the party's help authenticating the document. Authenticating it would establish that Feyd and Sinlis are the same being. Mantis would prefer this not be authenticated. So would the Open Hand. So might the Duke.