A small agrarian village is attacked by bandits. The village resists, ineffectively. After taking whatever they can carry, the bandits set the village on fire.

This happens more often than many would care to admit. In one of the villages where it happened, Evanith was the last surviving member of one family. You might expect someone in that position to seek revenge on the bandits, or perhaps bandits everywhere. Evanith instead swore revenge on the concept of mass tragedy itself.

Already a clever wizard, Evanith delved into the secrets of necromancy, recognizing undead labour as efficient and death as a tantalizing mystery. Much of what made Evanith human -- organs, mortality, gender -- is now gone, but a forceful drive to end mass suffering remains. Though few know Evanith's name, tales are sometimes told of an army of skeletons which appears in times of crisis, rescues the imperilled, heals the injured, feeds the hungry -- and then disappears without a trace.