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Kuzari Nefhindi

Shataina, Mistress of Myth, Lady of Legends, tells the tale:

Truly, it may be said that never was there a figure so wound up within differing accounts as Lord Kuzari Nefhindi!

The Lord Kuzari Nefhindi was a great architect, renowned especially for the amusing tricks and oblique side-ways that he built into his Manses and cities. His brilliance, some say, came from the fact that he was the only recorded survivor of the All-Colour Fever -- although it is sometimes claimed that he never suffered from the disease at all. Hirruet is one of the most notable of his works; also well-known is Ishkaja. Additionally, some give him credit for the design of the abandoned underwater city of Aquaria. The city indeed displays much steel, his trademark (Lord Nefhindi never made a structure without steel, and is thought to be the only First Age artisan ever to work soulsteel) -- but it also lacks symmetry, with which Lord Nefhindi was known to be obsessed. Many point to Aquaria's malachite and mahogany structures as evidence that Lady Rage of Seraphs assisted him with its creation; this is often the same camp which claims that he and Rage of Seraphs were lovers, and that she gave her life casting a spell to heal him of the All-Colour Fever.

This claim, however, is complicated by the opposing claim that Lady Rage of Seraphs and Lord Kuzari Nefhindi were, in fact, the same person. There are a hundred tales of how Rage of Seraphs created a terrible, draining spell -- aided by the growing sorcerous expertise of her own construct, the Alabaster Enforcer -- and sacrificed herself to save his life. But there are a thousand more which speculate that Lord Nefhindi only made it appear so, that he could both defuse the suspicions of his detractors and eliminate a personality which he no longer wished to play.

Many also accuse Lord Nefhindi of being Lord Ivory Testament, once-cataphractoi insensiblis and the last leader of the Deliberative. The fact that Lord Nefhindi is recorded as having died at the hand of Grassblade a century before Ivory Testament's Exaltation can be easily discounted, they argue, for many documents supposedly penned by Grassblade have been questioned before. The problem of the differing castes of Rage of Seraphs and Ivory Testament is a little more difficult to address, but it is said that Lord Nefhindi mastered ten thousand techniques to masquerade as another; merely imitating the powers of another caste, many suggest, would be a simple matter.

Whatever the truth of other assertions, it is certainly correct that Lord Nefhindi was a master of disguise. He is definitively recorded and remembered as having successfully disguised himself, for his own and others' amusement, as various notable figures, including Quicksilver Scribe and Seven Hymns Princess. And it is also certain that his body was never found. It is often said that this is because he was killed in Malachite, that mysterious province which disappeared entirely (along with everything inside it) around the same time as the apex of the Bitter Flower Empire.

Some have advanced the inevitable theory that even Lord Nefhindi himself was not truly himself -- that he was, in fact, merely another mask taken up by someone who also pretended to be Rage of Seraphs and Ivory Testament. Personally, I find this to be part of the story's charm, and prefer not to ruin the mystery with dull facts.

References:

• All-Colour Fever
• Malachite
• Rage of Seraphs

• Other K Entries

~ Shataina

See also Shataina's other Lexicon entries