Greed has often been described as the bane of all existence. Stereotypically, the ones with the gold have the greed, and those who beg have the hope. Although poor, Varkatzas was the most greedy and ignorant of all the apprentice warriors. He knew nothing of spells and sorcery. Only blood and muscle. As the champion swordsman among the archers, mace fighters, and fencers, he was often caught bullying the other fighters and torturing them. Varkatzas was well known for singling out the weaklings and leaving long lacerations on their arms with his scimitar, just to let them know who was the most powerful warrior.

One night, as the night began pulling the dank and dark covers over the forest, Varkatzas snuck around the local farms, torturing the cattle and chickens. He noticed that the candles in his grandmasters home were still burning. He stealthily moved towards the window and peered in. The grandmaster was hanging his sword above his desk and then blew out the candle. Varkatzas turned and began walking away when he heard the opening and closing of drawers in the house. He quickly turned around and noticed an eerie blue light shining from the window. This intrigued him. He noticed that his grandmaster was reciting incantations from a book that was opened on his desk surrounded by eight different plants, roots, silks, and ashes. For nights upon nights, Varkatzas took his post outside his grandmasters window.

A few weeks later, Varkatzas had sixty-four pieces of paper with different words of power on them, noticing which plants and roots the grandmaster used for each spell. What power could he have over his meek warriors now! He outcast himself from the rest of the warriors, giving up his sword and in its place began casting spells on his former fellow fighters. His favorite thing to do was poison them while they slept. But soon poison just wasn’t enough to satisfy him. Varkatzas was just too powerful for such a lowly spell. He began killing off the warriors with the most powerful of spells in his spellbook.