Apologies in advance and Long post is long... some times the story is what makes a villain memorable not just their abilities. And this villain is of the legendary mold. I crave your indulgence and forgiveness
Tell you of villains you say?
Sit you back then there by the fire and bring me another glass of the mulled wine if you will and I shall spin the tale of Slyestria the Unknown, Bane of the Empire and possibly the greatest thief, spy and assassin ever to stalk the Western Empire.
Sylestria you see seemed to live only to cause havoc up and down the entire empire. They stole treasures and secrets and lives all with equal skill and all as unstoppable as a force of nature. This bounty was then turned to the detriment of the empire itself. There was no challenge to the status quo to petty to receive aid from Sylestria. They freed slaves, gave gold to rivals, stoked tensions, bankrupted merchants and every other thing that they could do. Even an Imperial decree that accepting such aid was treason was turned against the empire as Sylestria simply would aid nobles and officers leaving them accountable. How long this had been happening was hard to say. What was known was that there were no records of such a criminal before the year of the Seven Emperors and that some time in the ensuing four centuries they had appeared. The records, like so much else, are confused and contradictory no small part due to the results of tampering by Sylestria themselves! What
was known though was bad enough. It was known that they had access to both magic and psychic abilities, that they were skilled in stealth and disguise and all manner of trade craft, and that they seemed to have an endless bag of tricks to draw upon (little surprise with the collected booty of generations!) and of course that they had it in for the Empire and all her offices, stations and nobles. Their identity was little more than conjecture, their motivations even less so. The most common theory was, of course, that they were a changeling... for there is little villainous that is not attributed to that race after all, and the few descriptions of those guards and victims who had seen them were often quite inconsistent. Others swear that Sylestria is an Elf for they had been at this for well over a hundred years now. And yet others stand convinced that it was a demon from hell itself sent to curse the empire...but all that was
really known was that they were uncatchable and delighted in taunts and the most brazen of acts. And that it was a single individual and not a guild or band. This was because of one of the habits that made them so famous. And that was that they quite literally signed their work, or more to the actual point of it would put up broadsides detailing in humiliating detail what they had done and signing
that... and magical and psionic analysis had revealed that every such broadside was from the same person! This was of paramount importance as every time it seemed that Sylestria had been caught or killed... it would turn out not to actually
be Sylestria but yet another fake, or a patsy or a poseur, or a different criminal or a duplicate, or a decoy, or... And, of course, like clockwork Slyestria would strike again. And again. And again. And if it was only one person then no matter how many false Sylestria's were caught and executed the
real one still walked free.
Finally after some decades of this (and the theft of a set of coin molds from the Royal Treasury
during an inspection by the Emperor!) Emperor Kastand II himself had placed a personal bounty of gold on them 218 years prior. In addition to the bounty of gold was granted imperial permission to keep any of their treasure found save alone that which was deemed to be of necessity to the ordered functioning of government (such as those molds, or any of the assorted seals and crowns and regalia that had been purloined) as well as an assurance of amnesty for any crime short of treason used to catch them. Over the years each emperor added to the bounty as did victim after victim. But all to no avail, for even though the prize now stood at well over ten million gold pieces (tax free mind you) with the additional promise of elevation of the family of the catcher to the ranks of the nobility... no one had managed to catch them, or turn them in or even so much as identify who they were though there was a growing body of evidence on who Sylestria was
not.
Well now, with that much riding on it what band of adventurers could say no. They just had to crack the case. The villain of the backstory was now their white whale. And so they bent their every effort to the puzzle. They would worry at it while on other adventures, and took to only adventuring in and around the Empire
just so they could respond to, and investigate, every sighting. I could relate to you the many tales of their adventures or of their quests following clues wheresoever they should lead even unto other worlds. I could spin stories of their plans and traps and feints and counter traps. Share tales of luck of skill or of the times when the gods themselves smiled upon them and aided them. Of triumph and tragedy, betrayals and fidelity or the stories of the children raised and charged with the quest. But my glass is empty and it is unbecoming to not share the Storytellers seat. So I will but tell you this at the last and then move aside for another. That after many a year they did manage to do what none before them had done and lived to tell the tale. They alone solved the Riddle of Sylestria and lifted the veil of the Unknown from them. Yet even they were unable to catch the rouge and they still haunt the Empire today. Perhaps another band of heroes will come forth and finally vanquish Sylestria. Or perhaps not and instead Sylestria shall hound the empire until the death of one or the other. But they did at least have the satisfaction of knowing the secret.
What's that you say? What is the secret? Bend your ear close and I shall whisper it to you, for to shout the end of a tale is to spoil it for others.