NPC of the week: Arius Holdt

If you're writing a D&D campaign and you need new D&D villain ideas, we've got something pretty special for you. You can place this character in our 5th Edition homebrew universe, Arclands (you can get both our core rule books for free on this site - see the popup that should be coming any moment now), or adapt Arius Holdt for your own setting. Be warned, he isn't much fun, but as a villain, we don't think he'll disappoint.

Arius Holdt’s face is an inscrutable mask, he learned long ago that his emotions were his greatest weakness and would betray him to his enemies; Arius Holdt has some very dangerous enemies. He lives and works at the heart of the great Library of Harenis, where, to his fellow scholars and archivists, he is a mystery. Nobody is ever quite sure what Arius is looking for in the vast archives and stacks of the library, but he definitely seems to be driven to find something.

From Skaris to Harenis

Arius is a Skarisi by birth and has managed to mask his accent successfully, though some of his more astute colleagues have guessed he has a Skarisian background. Skaris is the paranoic theocracy of the Arclands, a walled city in the heart of the Blackbriar Forest, whose rulers believe it is the source of all spiritual authority across the continent of Aestis. Skaris eyes other cities with intense suspicion and punishes traitors and heretics mercilessly.