Fistandantilus

Fistandantilus was a follower of Nuitari, and until the rise of Raistlin Majere, was considered the greatest and most powerful of the Black Robes to have existed, and one of the greatest mages of all time.

Early History

Early history of Fistandantilus is scarce at best. He had no other friend than his magic, was tall, thin and had a cold menacing aura. However, what is known is that after he came to magic, his abilities were great enough to slow his aging and prevent him from dying of old age. He originally wore the Red Robes, but after seeking out Gilean for the secret to immortality, who rebuffed his request because it denied the natural balance of life, he quickly switched to the Black Robes, seeking Takhisis, who granted his request by giving him what would become known as the Bloodstone of Fistandantilus, a powerful artifact that drained the life force of others and granted it the wearer. The power came at a price, as the stone absorbed the very essence of its victims, including their memories and personalities. If the user of the Bloodstone was not strong willed enough, the victim's personality and will could overpower the user and drain the user instead. In turn of irony, it would so happen that this would end up being the fate of the mighty Fistandantilus. Though he was known for his darkness, he was loyal enough to the Conclave to be considered a trusted agent, so much so that he was at least partially responsible for convincing many of the lords of Ansalon to construct four more Towers of High Sorcery in their various territories. Though he possessed his own castle, he kept an apartment in the Tower of Wayreth, and at one point was the head of the Tower at Palanthas. He had even assisted the Conclave in the destruction of a renegade mage, who had fortress at Zhaman. Fistandantilus successfully lobbied for its preservation, and was granted dominion over the fortress at Zhaman. However, this was not necessarily out of good faith. Though he claimed it had much knowledge of battle magic, in reality this was most likely a ruse to gain sole access to its renegade power. Fistandantilus began to reside there at Zhaman until the Third Dragon War, when he was temporarily forced to find another lair.

Istar

Fistandantilus' dark ambitions of godhood placed him in many of the events that ended up causing the Cataclysm. Most notably, his interference in the Lightbringer prophecy. Needing a pure cleric of Paladine, his machinations had caused the ascendancy of Beldinas to Kingpriest of Istar. While this allowed Fistandantilus freedom to experiment with impunity and placed him in a position of trust and advisement, he eventually realized that the Kingpriest was not pure enough to assist him in opening the Portal to the Abyss. During the Lost Battles, where the Kingpriest sought to capture all the Towers except Wayreth, the Kingpriest was secretly supplied with magic seeds that would allow his armies to pass through the magical groves. The mages, unwilling to give up control of the Towers and their artifacts, destroyed two of the Towers, the one in Losarcum in Dravinaar, the other in Daltigoth in Ergoth, that both leveled the surrounding areas as well as completely destroying the towers. The destruction caused both sides to negotiate a truce, with the mages surrendering the Towers at Palanthas and Istar. The mages of the Tower at Palanthas had been allowed to remove as many items as they could carry before turning over the key to the Lord of Palanthas. As they turned the key over, Fistandantilus' apprentice, Andras Rannoch, threw himself from the tower, killing himself but sealing the Tower until the Master of Past and Present came to claim it. Fistandantilus had made Rannoch do this with the assumption the the Portal was in the Tower at Palanthas. However, the portal had been moved to Zhaman, unknown to him. Seeing that the Cataclysm was imminent, Fistandantilus used the Time Travel Device to get to the future.

The Paradox of Dwarfgate

In the original timeline, Fistandantilus had traveled back in time to the year 39 After Cataclysm and initiated the Dwarfgate War. His purpose had been to use the army to distract the Dwarves, abandon the army, get to Zhaman and the Portal to the Abyss. To this end, he cast four extremely powerful spells. The first two performed as they should, the second was trapped in an artifact, and the forth was never known. He did make it to Zhaman and the portal, but a gnome triggered the Time Travel Device, disrupting the spell to open the portal, and causing massive destruction, resulting in everyone's death, Zhaman melting and becoming Skullcap Mountain. However, a curious side effect was that Fistandantilus' spirit was severed from his body, resulting in him becoming a Lich. All these events are paradoxical, as Raistlin had used the Time device to travel to the time before the Cataclysm, slaying Fistandantilus with the Bloodstone, and impersonating him for a time. This ended up rewriting the Dwarfgate War, with Raistlin, Caramon and Crysania being at Dwarfgate instead of Fistandantilus, Pheragas (a gladiator hired by him), and Denubis (the only true cleric of his time).

The Lich

It was this Lich spirit that later found a young mage student, Raistilin Majere, whom he encountered during the young wizards  test of High Sorcery. Inside the Tower of Wayreth, the cunning dead mage offered the badly injured Raistlin all his power for exhance for residence inside his body. Raistlin accepts, but eventually the young mage manages to pass the test on his own. However, as stated before, Raistlin had traveled back in time and absorbed Fistandantilus with the Bloodstone, then enacting the events at Dwarfgate, therefore rewriting the events to where the accident that turned Fistandantilus into a lich in the first place had never occurred since he was dead long before Dwarfgate occurred.