Kestran of the Four

"''Strength is the one true trait that matters in this world. The strong rule, the weak follow." - Kestran of the Four''

Kestran was a member of the Four- the original founding group of the Order of Hunters. Widely considered to be a rival of Hecarim in terms of combat prowess. He was the founder and first grandmaster of the School of the Wraith.

Description
Kestran was a tall, slim man with long black hair according to the Mural of the Grand Hunt. Standing around 6'3", he often dressed in a long grey overcoat and leather armor, which eventually influenced the design of the Wraith School armor. Said to have a grim demeanor and an expression that rarely shifted to a smile. The only one said to be able to make him smile was Lorelai, his ally and eventual lover.

Personality
Kestran was said to be a dour and professional man, who rarely shifted his dark disposition. Alone among the Four he was considered to be highly ambitious and somewhat consumed by the thought of power. Strength, in his eyes, was the most important thing that determined one's worth. It was said that he and Hecarim never saw eye to eye on this subject, as long as they both lived. Kestran, despite his faults, was an extremely intelligent man, and worked to hone his mental skills as well as his physical ones whenever he could. It was this pursuit of knowledge (especially in the arcane and forbidden) that was instilled in the Wraith School from its inception.

Abilities
Kestran was a near peerless fighter, especially in that he used a very rare weapon- the greatscythe. A difficult weapon to wield that required both strength and agility, Kestran pioneered many fighting styles that used the weapon. Kestran notably possessed the powerful Hunter Art known as the Black Flame Blade. Exactly what it could do was unknown, but it was immensely powerful in an offensive manner, only matched by the Blue Flame Blade wielded by Hecarim.

The Four
Kestran presumably served alongside the rest of the Four for many years prior to the creation of the Order. Kestran was the most concerned in passing down the strength and knowledge they had acquired to future generations. Hecarim pushed for the power to be divided up amongst the Four, so that none of them would have too much power in influencing so many future Hunters. Kestran agreed, but found Hecarim's way of teaching "weak." Soon after the creation of the Order of Hunters, Kestran became consumed in studies of the occult and arcane, often spending many hours in his tower library poring over old texts and manuscripts, searching for any information that might increase his abilities.

After many years, Kestran enlisted the rest of the Four in a grand journey to the north, pursuing some important method of power. This power was that of the Goddess's Tears, said to be a pool of the goddess Emelora's tears, shed upon the disappearance of her sister. These immensely powerful godly tears contained the essence of life, and as such could grant a mortal immortality. The Four originally sought the tears as a method to continue their teachings for all time, but Kestran gradually became consumed with the eternal strength it could grant. Lorelai and Bracken abandoned the path at some point, leaving only Hecarim and Kestran to forge forward. The two eventually found the pool of tears, but Hecarim had second thoughts. The two longtime allies turned on each other, and dueled to the death. Kestran was badly scorched from head to toe and mortally wounded by Hecarim's Blue Flame Blade, but managed to claim victory by decapitating his former friend. Both Kestran and Hecarim's body fell into the pool of tears...

Return
From the power of the tears, Kestran survived. His wounds never quite regenerated, he nonetheless gained a semblance of immortality, though he would remain in constant agony for the rest of his life. Unable to complete the ritual necessary to use the true power of the tears, he instead took a vial with him and left to pursue new allies and reclaim the method of performing the ritual. He would evidently spend some centuries traveling the world in search of what he needed, but failed. He eventually returned to the Order, taking on the persona of Vladimir Voorhis. He eventually rose to the rank of Grandmaster in the Wraith school, and began to use that power to further his goals of claiming the tears once again.

As Grandmaster Voorhis
During his time as Grandmaster of the Wraith School, Kestran used his power and influence to begin gathering allies and choosing those he felt "worthy," of service. He began to see what the Order had become, and was disgusted. In his eyes, the Order had become rife with corrupt, weak-willed people who did not earn the power they held. He began to make plans of not only reclaiming the Tears of the Goddess, but also destroying the Order and remaking it anew.

During this time period, he brought Megaera Tryndamere under his wing, quickly seeing her power and potential. He began to mentor her in the ways of the greatscythe, as well as honing her blood powers. In time, she would become one of the most powerful Hunters in the Order. Kestran eventually manipulated her into recruiting her sister, Astrid, into being part of the Seraph Serum Experiment. Working with Demacian Narcan and then Grandmaster Adeves Kingslayer, Kestran sought to use the sample of tears he possessed to make a synthetic copy. This experiment would end in failure, with only three out of the eight test subjects surviving. These test subjects: Megaera, Astrid, and Cyrus Legassaire, did not gain full immortality. Instead, they gained vastly increased speed and strength, as well as powerful regenerative abilities that made them difficult to kill. However, this serum actually caused their lifespans to decrease drastically. He would have Adeves killed in order to prevent the latter from stopping his further efforts, but Kestran would eventually scrap the program anyway.

Kestran eventually gathered an inner circle of Hunters that answered to him alone. He began to make overtures with the Witch Slayers through Adeline Belvadire, organizing an army to overthrow the Bastion.