Voran

Voran was a powerful Estorian wizard who, following the Illithid War, settled with some of his people across the sea in the Dawning Woods, where he built a number of sanctuaries for himself and his research by magically carving them out of the earth itself.

The Illithid War
Voran was one of the senior magi of the Estorian city of Terastra, and head of Estorium's magical research committee. Especially skilled in earth magic, Voran's research made many of Estorium's grandest buildings possible. When the illithids destroyed Derenath at the start of the war, Voran immediately began devising ways to counter them. Ultimately, it was Voran and the wizards working with him that were responsible for the creation of the shardminds.

At the end of the war, the Estorians launched a major assault on the mind flayers, ultimately destroying their armies and scattering the survivors to the depths of the Underdark. During this final assault, Voran took a number of magical artifacts from the illithids for future study. One of the artifacts was a strange crystal infused with a tremendous amount of psionic energy, and it inspired Voran to try and find a means of giving psionic abilities to humans.

After the war
With Estorium in ruins, Voran took a number of people north, across the sea, to start fresh in a new home. While the people got to work on building a town, Voran constructed a small keep for himself and began researching the illithid artifacts he had found.

Unbeknownst to Voran, however, the remaining illithids could still sense the presence of the artifacts, and used the crystal as a focal point to open a portal. The illithids ravaged the town, and though Voran destroyed them, he was unable to save any of his people. Distraught over the deaths of his family and friends and faced with the reality that the illithids were still a threat, Voran threw himself wholly into his research.

He created two more underground sanctuaries to divide his research for security, as well as a crypt for his fallen people, then linked them together with a series of portal circles keyed to magical items in his possession. Over the next few years, Voran succeeded in creating a number of crystal that could grant humans psionic powers with continued exposure, and magically scattered them throughout the world where they would do their work.

Soon, however, the illithids found him again, this time opening a portal directly into his keep. Voran fled, sealed the illithids within, and traveled to one of his other sanctuaries. However, left behind were his notes and the magical key to the crypt portal. Using this information, the illithids infiltrated the crypt and subtly altered the portal circle so that the next time Voran used it, he would be teleported not to his intended destination but to the ruins of Derenath, where the illithids were waiting.

Though he fought mightily, Voran was ultimately captured by the mind flayers. The tortured him for several months, ensuring his stayed alive for as long as possible, slowly driving him insane as they extracted information from him. Eventually, when they had learned all they wanted and tired of torturing him for their amusement, they devoured his brain.

Shade of Voran
Recently, a vengeful, maddened shade of Voran was seen within the ruins of Derenath, though it possessed only a fraction of the powers he did in life. It was destroyed by Gryff, Nuraya, Harthur, Ro, and Tephra.