Lord Soth

Lord Soth is a famous death knight from the world of Krynn.

Also called the Knight of the Black Rose, Lord Soth is featured in the Dragonlance setting and, for a time, the Ravenloft setting. Soth was a knight of the Rose, the most esteemed rank of knight, and married. Whilst on a trip with his loyal retainers they encountered a band of Ogres attacking 13 elven priestesses. They slew the Ogres but Soth fell in love with the fairest priestess, and eventually managed to seduce her, sending a message to his seneschal to murder his wife and dump her body in the nearby ravine. Soth's indescretion was found out when the elf-maid's 12 companions revealed she was pregnant with Soth's bastard son. Soth was stripped of his rank and would have been executed had not his lover and retainers spirited him away from jail to his home, Dargraad Keep, where he married the elf-maid. Besieged by the other knights, Soth's mood turned black, even striking his wife on one occasion. When he realised the monster he had become, he prayed to Paladine for help. Paladine showed him the future, the destruction that the arrogant Kingpriest was about to call upon Krynn. Soth was told that if he could stop the Cataclysm, he would be redeemed. Soth set out but encountered the 12 other elf-maids. Blinded by the vision the Kingpriest foretold, a world in which only the good (meaning the elves in their minds) remained, they poisoned Soth's mind with lies about his wife's infaithfullness. Enraged, Soth turned from his quest and confronted his wife just as the Cataclym began. A chandalier fell upon his wife and new-born son, setting her aflame. His wife begged for him to save their child, but Soth ignored her. As her life ended she cursed him, and upon pronounciation of the curse the fire engulfed the entire keep, slaying Soth, his retainers and the twelve elf-maids. Soth became a Death Knight, his followers Skeleton Warriors and the elves Banshees, cursed to remind him of his folly and their own every night.

Soth ruled a domain in Ravenloft for a time. This realm -Sithicus; land of specters in the elven tongue- was created when Soth was betrayed by his seneschal, the Ghost Caradoc. The Mists plucked him and Caradoc from Krynn whilst the two battled, and seperated them. After a series of adventures with a Vistani girl -Magda- and a Werebadger -Azrael-, Soth became ruler of his own domain. The story of his ascension is told in Knight of the Black Rose, the story of his release is told in Specter of the Black Rose.