Vicar Otar is the acting church authority of the sanctuary of Helix while the Abbot is away, who tried the warlock Silas and had him executed on the altar of the consecrated church.
| Type | Character |
| Spanish entry | Vicario Otar |
Description
A man of about fifty under a heavy cloak he never quite takes off, he carries a staff of redemption that shines intensely when raised. Some call him Temel Otar, possibly an earlier office or title. During the siege two Ironguard guards bearing the insignia of the church’s secular arm (“as if it were an inquisition”, as the valley put it) reinforced his sanctuary.
History
The trial
When Silas’s group was accused of human sacrifice, worship of Orcus and Nergal, and handing a companion to a “cult of the land”, Otar questioned the group’s cleric, Mortan, whom he named “priest of the day”: “a message has come by raven that they are guilty of human sacrifice. Yes or no, Mortan?” Mortan partly confessed. Otar pressed: “Or did they sacrifice him themselves on the altar?”
The escape
Silas fled his cell on a moonless night, helped by one of the corrupted twin guards. Otar took it as proof of guilt (“an innocent man does not flee”) and sent two of the group’s ablest, “alruida, a good tracker, and the dwarf, who is better now”, on the pursuit. He did not punish Mortan.
The siege and the altar
When the skeletal horde of the Knight of Darkness advanced on Helix after the fall of the Sapphire Company, Otar fortified the consecrated church as the town’s last refuge. Greater undead cannot enter it, but corrupted humans can: he knew the final threat would come from within. He rebuked Mortan: “Why did you let this evil flourish? … Instead of tearing it out by the root.”
Silas entered the church with the two corrupted twins to claim the wish of the Tablet of Chaos. Otar said, “You’ll die first.” He and Mortan cast the body-holding spell at the same moment, paralyzing all three. He pardoned the twins to the dungeon and ordered Silas executed on the altar: head against the stone, one mace blow, skull split.
Role
Otar holds the Abbot’s office provisionally without usurping it: not a grand inquisitor, but a frontier vicar able to keep order under siege. Before the siege he told Mortan: “If there is any good, you are the only one who can awaken it.” He also fought Quasi through divine interposition.
Open questions
- Whether the Abbot, on returning from the regional capital, will ratify or soften the altar execution is open; Mortan may be key to that transition.