Shavin is a human sorcerer, born over a hundred years ago. His magical abilities were revealed when he was only seven years old, an unusually young age, and his parents were appalled. They were convinced that their son had been replaced with a fey, and they decided to drown him to destroy the fowl creature.

Shavin would have died if not for a lucky fluke. A cleric happened to be in his home village at the time, and he found the boy in the well, struggling for his life. The cleric helped Shavin out and used his divine magic to bring him back to health. Recognizing the boy’s talent immediately, the cleric took Shavin with him on his pilgrimage. He taught the youth to control his power, to focus it to an end. In addition, he taught Shavin the laws of his god, and tried to show him the difference between right and wrong. Regrettably, the cleric failed to do that final thing.

Shavin was seventeen when the line between good and evil began to blur in his mind. A tribe of lizardmen had been raiding a town he and his master had been visiting, stealing crops from the farmers of the simple village. The town asked for Shavin and his master’s help, but unfortunately the old cleric had been in ill health. Shavin’s master would not allow this town to go unaided, even in his current condition, and sent Shavin to deal with the nearby lizardfolk himself. Shavin made quick work of the guards and move towards the town’s chief to kill him. The aging lizardfolk fell to his knees and begged the oncoming wizard to let him explain himself. Shavin held off his attack and listened to the chief’s explanation. The lizardfolk of this village were primarily peaceful, and had lived in harmony with the nearby village for decades. Only recently, an attack from a group of human thugs had destroyed their crop for the year, leaving them with little to eat. They had nothing to trade with for food, so they believed that they had no choice but to take what they needed. The chief claimed that he had always intended to pay the village back, that no one had been killed, and the few injuries the villagers had sustained had been accidents.

Shavin listened to the lizardfolk’s story, which sounded very reasonable. After extracting a promise from the lizardfolk to cease his raids at once, Shavin left to tend to his ill master. The old man was proud of Shavin for listening, and using nonviolence when it was possible. However, Shavin began to become unclear on the line between good and evil. Everywhere he went, every good deed he committed, he began to see the dangerous consequences that came from his interference. If he killed mercenaries who were bullying the innocent, he orphaned their children. If he gave too much money to a small community, it attracted attention from bandits. Every good action seemed to have an evil counteraction somewhere down the road. Rather than be inspired by this to look ahead and think his actions through, Shavin saw this as proof that good and evil did not exist, and therefore the only morality was what one could do to take care of himself.

Shavin began compromising his integrity, taking bribes to use his magic, killing when it was not necessary and even using his powers to intimidate people and get whatever he wanted. His master confronted Shavin about this, telling him to remember the teachings of his god. Shavin shook his head, insisting that the morality he had been taught was wrong, and his master had been a fool to believe it. The discussion turned into an argument, and in the heat of passion Shavin killed the old man, who was on his death bed and lacked the power to fight back. He smothered the old man with his own pillow and burned the hut to cover his tracks.

Without his master to act as a moral compass, Shavin’s fall from grace rapidly quickened. He began taking whatever he could, quickly becoming a major crime lord. For a while he was very rich, until his second in command betrayed him to his enemies for a fortune. Shavin escaped with his life, and managed to kill the traitor, but lost his territory and followers. At that moment, Shavin realized that he had become overly ambitious and impatient. In his haste to become a powerful figure, he gave his trust to someone who did not deserve it. From that point on, Shavin was determined to never give out his trust to anyone unless they were completely and utterly devoted to him.

Time passed and Shavin gained arcane knowledge and personal power. In the decades since his master’s death he made the jump from petty criminal to a full fledged villain. While many of his plans were thwarted by adventurers and law enforcement, just as many had succeeded, giving him an impressive fortune, a number of arcane trinkets and a large number of completely devoted followers. In his old age, however, he knew that the end would come soon. Unwilling to transform himself into a lich, and unable to find a process to obtain true immortality, Shavin’s eye was caught by an ancient artifact called The Statue of Eternity. The Statue of Eternity was a powerful artifact, said to, among other potent abilities, grant the owner eternal life. Shavin searched the earth for it, to no avail. The Statue was either destroyed or hidden so well that even someone with all his resources could not find it.

So Shavin set himself towards another plan. He did not know where The Statue of Eternity was at the time, but he did know where it had been a thousand years ago. Through years of research Shavin found a place called The Ring of Time, which had the power to transport the user to any point and place in history. Shavin aimed to use it to obtain The Statue of Eternity, and to conquer the world a thousand years ago, so that he may shape it in his own image. He was met by a group of the country’s most powerful heroes at The Ring of Time, sent by the king himself to stop him. They fought Shavin and his followers, and in the combat his right ankle was crushed beneath a destroyed column. He made his way to The Ring of Time while his enemies were distracted, stepped inside and activated it. As the vortex began to form, the group’s sorcerer fired a lightning bolt at the vortex, destabilizing it and causing it to explode. All life within a mile of The Ring of Time was destroyed; except for Shavin.

In a strange way, Shavin got what he wanted. Since he was in the vortex at the time, he was protected from the explosion. The result of him being stopped midway through traveling through time was that his metabolic process was frozen. He no longer ages at all, though he can still move and act normally. An unfortunate side effect of the process also made it impossible for injuries he had going into the vortex to ever be healed. The only injury he sustained at the time was the damage to his ankle, but now it can never be repaired without returning the flow of time to him, a process that he is both unwilling and currently unable to undertake.

In the fifteen years since the event, Shavin has begun to rebuild his empire. He lost a good deal of his followers in the explosion at The Ring of Time, and he has been patiently recruiting new ones. One such follower is Yeril, a cleric who worships the void. He views Shavin as an agent of nothingness, and personally tends to the old man’s healing and care.

Shavin’s interests are many, and as such can be a great villain for any campaign. His primary interest is in taking over the world, a task that he is certain he will, one day, achieve. It may take centuries or millennia, but he can wait. To that end, he is also interested in gold and commodities. The rebuilding of his operation requires funding, and he is well invested in many different businesses and activities, both commercial and illegal. Many heroes may find that a crime lord is in fact a devoted follower of Shavin, and siphons off all his guild’s assets towards the sorcerer. Shavin is also highly learned and curious on the topic of time travel, which he believes may be the key to taking over the world, or even the universe. The Ring of Time may be destroyed, but Shavin believes that it was proof that moving through time is possible, if difficult. Shavin enjoys collecting magical items, and is particularly interested in The Statue of Eternity, despite the fact that he is already immortal. The legends state that it grants other, considerable powers to its holder, and Shavin believes that if he can obtain it, he will be able to repair his ankle, which causes him considerable pain.

Shavin has also been known for his problems with authority. He refuses to be second rate to anyone and would rather destroy his entire operation than see it in the hands of someone else. This has translated to a general distaste for gods, particularly the one his master worshipped. Due to this, Shavin tends to invest in projects that weaken the gods’ powers, and is particularly interested in a way to utterly destroy them. He is aware of how unlikely that goal seems, so he only works towards it passively, paying heretics to research ways of harming those higher powers. Thus far his research has not turned up with much, but that does not stop him from continuing to try.

The incident at The Ring of Time has had one additional affect on Shavin. He is, for all intents and purposes, a Greater Sententient. Shavin tends to downplay this ability, though he has come to rely on it. He likes to pretend that he is nothing more than a normal human, with particularly good planning skills. In particular, he uses this ability to make a big show about how well informed he is about his opponents’ strategies, and to imply that there is a traitor in their mists.

Shavin is not a particularly powerful combatant, and he knows this. The years have not been kind to him, and his physical abilities degraded quite a bit before the incident at The Ring of Time. As such, he typically refuses to go into combat personally, and sends his followers to do his dirty work. He stays behind magical and physical protections, manipulating the battle behind the scenes, usually while invisible. He is quick to run away and let his followers finish the fight for him, though his Sententient abilities give him a great advantage in combat. He rarely, if ever, gets hit, and always seems to make the perfect move at any time.

Shavin
Chaotic Evil Male Human (Medium Humanoid)
Sorcerer 20th
Hit Dice: 20d4 (52 hp)
Armor Class: 10
Move: 10 ft
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+9
Attack: Dagger +9
Damage: Dagger 1d4-1
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +12
Abilities: Str 9, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 20, Wis 17, Cha 26
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +29, Knowledge (Religion) +17, Spellcraft +29, Concentration +24, Bluff +32, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +17, Knowledge (Mathematics) +17
Feats: Still Spell, Silent Spell, Maximize Spell, Extend Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Wand, Brew Potion
Special Abilities: Sententient Abilities, Spells, Frozen In Time, Crippled, Spells

Equipment: Boots of Teleportation, Bead of Force, Cloak of Charisma +6, Chaos Diamond, Cube of Force, Mirror of Life Trapping, Iron Flask, Figurine of Wondrous Power; Obsidian Steed, 1,500 gold

Sentenient Abilities: See Article

Frozen in Time: Shavin does not age, get sick, is not subject to poisons, does not lose blood when reduced to negative hit points or subjected to any abilities that involve bleeding (such as a dagger of wounding) and does not need to eat, sleep or drink. However, Shavin does not heal naturally, and if reduced to negative hit points can stay unconscious forever unless he is healed.

Crippled: As a result of Shavin’s injury, he cannot run. In addition, it causes him great pain to stand on it, so he carries a cane.

Spells Per a Day: 6/8/8/8/8/7/7/7/7/6

Spells Known: 0th-Prestitigination, Flare, Daze, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Ray of Frost, Disrupt Undead, Light, Mage Hand 1st-Magic Missile, Silent Image, Shocking Grasp, Burning Hands, True Strike 2nd-Touch of Idiocy, Web, Cat’s Grace, Command Undead, Continual Flame 3rd-Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Fire Shield, Flame Arrow 4th-Charm Monster, Wall of Ice, Wall of Fire, Dimension Door 5th-Wall of Force, Teleport, Feeblemind, Cone of Cold 6th-Circle of Death, Wall of Iron, Chain Lightning 7th-Banishment, Delayed Blast Fireball, 8th-Demand, Clone, Binding, Hold Person; Mass 9th-Wish, Time Stop, Teleportation Circle

Languages: Common, Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnomish, Halfling, Goblin, Orcish

CR 25

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