Zurath’ek was a powerful Nharvek arcanist active beneath the Skyre Islands during the early 8720s SE. His work combined Nharvek manipulation of identity with mortal arcane traditions, experiments in undeath, and a sustained attempt to discover a path to apotheosis.
Zurath’ek appears to have maintained or inherited a network of underground sites rather than operating from a single lair. The Mistborn encountered Nharvek activity beneath Lidviken, near Hagvik, beneath Hammerheim, and in the region around Dulthapplas. Not every Nharvek involved in those locations is known to have answered directly to Zurath’ek, but surviving evidence connected enough of the sites to show that his influence extended far beyond one isolated concordance.
Pact with Ulrik Lindvig
A journal recovered from Ulrik Lindvig after the fall of Hammerheim recorded a pact with Zurath’ek in 8722 SE. Miners or explorers beneath Hammerheim had disturbed a Nharvek site, and Ulrik turned the discovery into an alliance rather than attempting to contain it. The details of the bargain are incomplete.
By the time Cap’s coalition reached Hammerheim during the Asnor Succession War of 8723 SE, the city had been devastated. Ships drifted outside the harbor with dead crews, its defenses stood largely unmanned, and an active Nharvek facility existed beneath the castle. The Mistborn found Ulrik alive but mentally ruined. His journal provided the first clear identification of Zurath’ek as the figure behind the pact.
Ziggurat and Captives
After the war, the Mistborn investigated Zurath’ek with help from the College Arcanum and contacts in Dulthapplas. They located an old ziggurat southeast of the underground settlement, surrounded by a region of fungi that produced unusual psychic effects. The group penetrated the structure and confronted Zurath’ek, but he escaped.
Refugees found near the site were brought to the surface. Among the people connected to Zurath’ek’s operations was Flow, the abducted wife of Mist, who had been compelled to work on a structure marked by aberrant symbols. She was eventually brought to Bregentved and later visited Mist’s burial place with his surviving companions.
The Teeth of Sekorath
Zurath’ek’s final recorded project used the Teeth of Sekorath, forty relics originally associated with an ancient predatory sea power. After the Mistborn recovered the Teeth from a submerged Sahuagin temple, Zurath’ek sent the Black Echo—a Nharvek-altered resurrection of a black dragon the company had killed near Bregentved—to steal them.
Research at the Great Library on Danto helped the Mistborn identify patterns shared by earlier attempts at apotheosis. A network of observations established by the College eventually traced the relevant magical and geological disturbances to Cinderfold.
During the Apotheosis Attempt at Cinderfold, Zurath’ek mounted all forty Teeth into a ritual complex aligned with the moons and local geothermal activity. The Mistborn disrupted the working before it could be completed. Zurath’ek nevertheless seized the Mantle of Rektesh from Cap Tan Ro’geers and escaped by planar magic to the Realm of Winds.
Gobbles, briefly dead during the final battle, remembered sensations of rain and copper while perceiving Zurath’ek’s departure. Zurath’ek relocated to the Realm of Winds after the failed ritual, taking the Mantle with him. His later plans and the eventual fate of the artifact are unknown.