Geralf

Geralf's History

Geralf III Cecani is a blue-aligned necromancer (more commonly refered to as a Stitcher of Skaaberen) from Innistrad. He considers his skaabs — shambling corpses stitched together from disparate body parts - works of art. The crazed Geralf has no social bounds when showcasing his latest creations to the world. He is known to have grand ambitions while his sister, Gisa, is far less formal and driven by her whims.

The siblings were scions of a noble family and distant relatives of the former Lunarch Mikaeus. They were banished from Thraben in a hushed scandal and then moved to the Moorland, where they waged war against one another by raising armies of undead. Their battles prompted many of the Moorland's inhabitants to move to the Nearheath, leaving the area even more desolate than before. Marauding ghouls ranged freely through the moors, lost playthings in the mad, epic battles of Gisa and Geralf. Geralf eventually took over Trostad, most likely massacring the inhabitants that didn't flee. In response, Gisa has attacked Trostad simply to best her brother.

Later on, the two would plan on waging a war against one another. Geralf had tried to set formal rules, named The Five Laws of NecroWarfare: 1. No spontaneous awakenings, 2. No luring, killing, or raising of bystanders or livestock, 3. Combatants face off at a predetermined place and time, 4. Combatants must have at least three limbs to play, 5. Headquarters are off-limits and 6. (added after Gisa retrieved the magical sword the Bloodletter) No magical swords.

Gisa however would have none of this and considered all was free game, frequently defying Geralf's rules if only to infuriate her brother. The engagement was called off when Geralf decided to invade Thraben and invited Gisa along. Geralf sneaked into the city before the attack to kill Mikaeus. Later he met up with Liliana, who shortly thereafter brought Mikaeus back as a zombie. Gisa was left with tending to the siege, having gained control of Geralf's Skaabs along with her conventional undead. The army broke the outer wall of the city before being pushed back by the fire, causing Gisa to abandon the siege. Odric, a champion of the church, captured Gisa and held her imprisoned in Rider's Lock.

Geralf would then the create the zombie Grimgrin, named such in honor of his sister.

Geralf sent a horde of skaabs to set his sister free, although she stated afterward that she didn't need his help. She wanted to reinstate the war, but Geralf was occupied with creating what he called his masterpiece, under the wing of the alchemist Ludevic. Gisa retreated to the manor of their parents, ruined by a fight between the siblings in their youth. She later revived her parents as zombies, but sent her father back into the ground. She found a new friend in the lithomancer Nahiri and provided the ghouls to build the Drownyard temple.

When Liliana Vess was going to raise an army of zombies to fight the hordes of Eldrazi that had invaded the plane, Gisa and Geralf briefly managed to put their differences aside to join her and team up against the Eldrazi.

Two years after fighting the Eldrazi alongside his sister, Geralf still lived with Ludevic. He hasn't seen his sister in this period until he received a letter from her brought by a zombie programmed by Gisa to cry without stopping. Geralf wrote to his sister that he wants nothing to do with her and told her she deserved her boring life in Thraben. After Wilhelt's forces besieged the city and Gisa repelled his attack, the ghoulcaller declared her intention to move in with him, to Geralf's horror.

By the time of the New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, Geralf lived in Havengul. He was paid a visit by Ludevic and Sorin Markov, and they warned him about the impending Phyrexian threat. Shortly afterward, he received a letter from his sister complaining about oily skaabs that couldn't be raised from the dead and knew that she had encountered Phyrexians. The siblings collaborated to rout the invaders, but went back to feuding as soon as they were gone.