Xardas

Xardas's tower · Beyond the camps

"Congratulations. You're the first to make it past my guardians."

Background

Saturas describes Xardas as the former leader of the Fire Mages and the original sixth Fire Mage among the twelve who created the Barrier, six from each circle. After the Barrier was formed, Xardas turned away from the path of Innos and withdrew into the wilderness.

He had been researching the summoning of undead and magical creatures, unsettling Gomez and eventually offending even the other mages. The quest log separately calls him a thirteenth mage, while Saturas describes twelve Barrier mages. The two accounts disagree, leaving Xardas's place in the history of the Barrier uncertain.

Xardas now lives secluded in a tower near the orc territory, pursuing research into the Barrier and the Sleeper as a necromancer.

The tower

Saturas warns that Xardas uses dark magic and that some creatures serve him, adding that several couriers sent to contact him over the years never returned. The tower's gatekeeper is a talking demon who agrees to let the Hero through only after he brings the hearts of a stone, ice, and fire golem.

Xardas greets the Hero's arrival with grudging respect, noting that he is the first to make it past his guardians alive; asked if others tried, he answers flatly that they did not survive. The tower itself is crowded with arcane books and strange artifacts, and Xardas's former residence, now half-sunken and defended by undead magic, still holds equipment and his old robes.

Meeting Xardas

Xardas mentions that his servant already gave the Hero a teleport rune allowing him to return at will, and offers to teach him some basic Orcish before he sets out, calling it something that will be of great help. He trades in magical goods, and when the Hero asks why he needs help with the orcs, Xardas explains that they know him well, including Ur-Shak, and that their opinion of him is not necessarily favorable.

The Hero, on the other hand, is a fresh face; as Xardas puts it, there is power in anonymity. He also admits that he has been watching the Hero through Beliar's versatile magic, having noticed how much trouble the newcomer has caused in only a few weeks.

The Fire Mages

When the Hero reports that Gomez had the Fire Mages killed, Xardas is unsurprised, blaming their misplaced trust: those who sow wind must reap a storm. I always told Corristo not to trust Gomez.

The Barrier and the Sleeper

Xardas is openly contemptuous of Saturas's separate plan to use focus stones and the ore pile to blow open the Barrier, insisting nobody can control all of the ore pile's energy, warning that all it would accomplish is getting everyone involved killed, and calling it a far bigger threat to take care of than anything else at hand. He says the Barrier misfired because the focus stones were only the symptom of a disease deep within the orc temple: the Sleeper, a demon summoned by five orc shamans to destroy humanity.

He has been reading the signs in his books while his fellow mages dismissed the orcs as incapable of thinking ahead, and has been keeping an eye on the Hero because he already knows the truth. When the Hero later says Saturas sent him about the focus stones, Xardas shuts the idea down outright: Forget about Saturas and his glittering pile of ore. That won't bring you the freedom you're after.

Ur-Shak

He directs the Hero toward a shaman who might vouch for him with the orcs, saying he was last seen at the old castle up on the mountain east of here, near the enclave and visible from the tower's balcony. Xardas says Ur-Shak does not think like the other orcs and may share a common goal with them, possibly opposing the Sleeper, making him their best chance of getting into the enclave.

Asked why this shaman has been dishonored among his own people, Xardas admits he does not know all the details, but believes it has something to do with Ur-Shak's study of human culture and ability to speak the human tongue. Told that the Sleeper the Brotherhood worshipped is really a demon summoned by the orcs to end mankind, Xardas shows no surprise, remarking only that he appreciates the Hero risking his life just to play errand boy for those idiot cultists.

His reputation

Saturas's account makes Xardas the Water Mages' last resort, but Xardas needs the Hero because his own reputation would make the orcs suspicious. Ur-Shak distrusts him as a demon summoner but admits that his knowledge goes deep and that he speaks the truth about Krushak.

Milten reacts with alarm to Xardas's name and calls him the demon summoner, yet agrees to cast the spell when he understands that the Sleeper threatens everyone. Diego and Gorn also connect the Hero's plans to Xardas, while rumors spread among the mercenaries that the Hero is now working for him.

Uriziel

After the Hero returns from the Sleeper Temple with the weapon, Xardas identifies the sword inside the hidden sanctum as Uriziel, recalling from his research that an Avatar of Innos once used it to fight the orcs before falling in battle. He was never certain the story was true until seeing it firsthand, recognizing the shape, the insets, and the engravings as a match.

He explains that the orcs removed the five gemstones and used the sword as the source of their warding spell, so the Hero must return the gems to their insets first. Even then the blade's magic has been drained by a thousand years spent maintaining the Barrier and will need a much larger source of energy.

Restoring Uriziel

Xardas has a spell scroll capable of channeling energy from blue ore into the sword. To use it, the Hero needs a second mage, specifically the young Fire Mage who survived the massacre, to help cast the spell while he plunges Uriziel into the ore pile.

When the Hero asks how recharging the sword helps him as a mage, Xardas admits that the thought completely escaped his attention, then promises a solution after the sword is restored. Once the Hero and Milten recharge Uriziel using the ore pile's energy, Xardas feels the magic the moment the Hero enters his tower and sends him straight back to the temple.

The Sixth Circle

He later agrees to initiate the Hero into the Sixth Circle of magic, judging him capable enough, but warns of its grim reputation as the Circle of Death, explaining, in his words, it's one thing for a god to breathe life into his creation, and something else entirely to end one. He insists the Hero train under Saturas first, promising to instruct him afterward.

On the rune bound to Uriziel, he warns that removing it breaks the bond with the blade for good, with no way back, and admits he is unsure exactly what spell the freed rune will hold, though he expects it to be as powerful as the sword by itself. He later approves when the Hero brings back armor taken from Gomez's stores, calling him witty as usual and noting the armor will be a great help down there.

The Sleeper's anchors

Xardas then reveals that the five orc shamans' hearts are what keep the Sleeper anchored to the world. When the Hero encounters him inside the temple, Xardas says he has been trying to help but that some spell is draining his powers.

He warns that Kalom is preparing the final sacrifice and that the Hero must destroy all five hearts before the Sleeper wakes. He does not know what has happened in the enclave, but insists that there is no time to waste: the Hero must break through the last barrier and kill the Sleeper.

The final encounter

If the Hero chooses magic over the sword, Xardas can turn Uriziel's gems into a rune, though he cannot say exactly what spell it will contain; he expects it to be as powerful as the sword itself. In the final encounter, Xardas speaks of the Hero as a puppet and himself as the architect of the Hero's path, admitting that he guided him only as a means to an end before declaring that he no longer needs him.

During the confrontation he taunts the Hero about gods, power, and balance, revealing a far darker face than the secretive mage who first offered his help.

What other NPCs say

Diego, Milten, Saturas, and Ur-Shak refer to Xardas when discussing unexplained magic, the Colony's larger danger, or a message that must reach an unusually knowledgeable mage. The variety of people who mention him shows why Xardas stands outside ordinary camp politics while still influencing all three factions. Saturas gives the strongest warning about Xardas, insisting that he never does anything unless it benefits his own ambitions—even when he appears to help the mages.

Sixth Circle requirements

  • All conditions: Xardas teaches the Sixth Circle only after Chapter 5 begins, the Sleeper Temple exploration quest has succeeded, and the Hero is a Water Mage with the Fifth Circle already learned. The Hero must also have enough skill points to learn it.

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