Xakhaz is the ancient archmage of the "despicable gods of the south".
Xakhaz, and the Khaz priesthood of the Howling Gods took shape almost immediately following the Great War against Chaos. With Zagoula so wholly devastated by war and Chaos, the peoples of the Southern Steppes were leaderless and seemingly deserted. Feeling this, and feeling like their own gods had abandoned them after the horror of the war, the soothing words of Xakhaz and the promises of a re-found greatness stirred the people. Not Evil at heart, but lured by his words they followed the Evil priest and began practising what the north would perceive as Evil ways. Under his leadership, they set about renovating the ruins of Zagoula, whilst Xakhaz experimented with magical mutations and augmentations to living creatures. In 30AC he led the forces of Zagoula northwards to attack the lands of the Council of Seven, his forces bolstered by all manner of perverted mutant creatures.
The council reacted quickly, however, and despatched a large force from the north under the command of the great warrior Skarlos. Supported by the priests of Oiden, Skarlos defeated the enemy in the Battle of Castle Hill. The priesthood of Oiden imprisoned Xakhaz's soul beneath the earth (along with the sword of his champion, the Southerner warlord Vlax the Slayer) and built a temple to Oiden and a castle to guard the two entrances. A new garrison city, Neuburg, was founded on the ruins of the old frontier town to further ensure the safety of the northern lands from encroachment by the Southerners.
Then in the late third century AC the sorceress Senyakhaz, a priestess of Xakhaz's foul Khaz priesthood enchanted Baron Tholdur of Neuberg and set about strengthening her idol. Xakhaz began to reform himself bodily by taking parts of dead corpses forming a monstrously deformed body exposing the level of derangement to which his already evil mind had sunk after three centuries of bodiless imprisonment. A hero put pay to his resurrection, destroying Xakhaz forever more.
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