Cado Ezechiar

Cado Ezechiar is a Soulblight vampire. At the end of the Age of Myth he was heir to a powerful kingdom within the Realm of Death, but within a year of Cado ascending the throne his kingdom fell to an invasion orchestrated by a sorceress of Tzeentch called the Burning Hand. Badly burned in the fires that consumed his capitol, Cado lay dying until he was approached by Neferata, who offered him the eternal un-life of a Soulblight in which to enact his revenge. Cado agreed.^[1][3]

During the Age of Chaos, Cado pursued his revenge through open warfare, leading an army of undead against the followers of Chaos wherever he found them, with his own vampiric offspring acting as lieutenants.^[2] However, by the Age of Sigmar he has become a solitary wanderer, pursuing rumours of the Burning Hand throughout the underworlds of Shyish.^[1]

Cado's Rings

Cado wears nine iron rings, each of which contains the soul of a being he knew during his mortal life. The wearing of soul rings was a tradition among monarchs of Cado's kingdom, who each kept a 'court of the dead' to advise them with the wisdom of ages. Each ring was associated with a particular kind of advisor, and choosing which spirit would fill which role was an important task for all new monarchs. Careful customs restricted which spirits could be chosen; for example it was considered unwise for a monarch to call upon the spirit of a parent or grandparent who had also sat the throne, lest they try to extend their own reign by influencing their descendant.^[2][3]

The fall of Cado's kingdom led him to discard custom and fill the rings with the souls of his immediate family and close friends, who continue to advise him on his hunt for revenge. Cado's rings hold the following souls:

• Solia, Cado's teacher and mentor in his mortal youth. She remains supportive of him and advises him on how to best pursue his goals without putting innocents at risk through his Soulblight hunger.^[1]
• Idyon, Cado's childhood friend and later a powerful magician who watched over the souls of the dead in Cado's kingdom. In life he was very supportive of Cado, but in death he blames him for the fall of the kingdom and scorns his choice to become a Soulblight, believing Cado to be no more than a parasite impersonating the man he once knew.^[3][5]
• Cado's father. Idyon used Cado's father's soul to trap what he had learned about the Burning Hand, preventing the knowledge from being erased from his memory by the Hand's magics. He then gave the ring to Cado, sacrificing his memory of the danger in favour of giving Cado a warning he could not forget. Cado wears this ring on his left little finger, traditionally the ring of the Unnamed Companion, least consequential of the monarch's advisors.^[3]
• Herezai, Cado's dragon. She was killed in the same fires that mortally wounded Cado and forced him to accept Neferata's offer of cursed immortality, but he preserved her soul and can ride her spirit form much as he did when they were both alive.^[3][4]

Sources

• 1: The Hollow King (Novel) by John French, Chapter 2
• 2: The Hollow King, Chapter 22
• 3: The Hollow King, Chapter 23
• 4: The Hollow King, Chapter 26
• 5: The Hollow King, Chapter 17