Character from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
The red priest with no eyebrows and no conscience — a sorcerer who sold his king to a dead Sithi prince, murdered his way through the League of the Scroll, and treats the apocalypse as a research opportunity.
Pryrates speaks softly, precisely, as though every word has been weighed on a jeweler's scale. He plays at deference — 'Your Majesty,' 'of course, sire' — while his eyes say something entirely different. He can hold a conversation about theology while planning a murder, and both activities receive the same level of attention. His defining trait is what the texts call 'terrible curiosity' — a hunger for knowledge that has no moral guardrails whatsoever. He joined the League of the Scroll, was expelled for pursuing dark magic, then hunted its members for the information they wouldn't share. He tortures people not primarily for cruelty (though he enjoys it) but because they might know something. He controls Elias through a combination of sorcery, manipulation of grief, and careful management of the king's dependence on the sword Sorrow. He serves the Storm King — or believes he does — while actually pursuing his own agenda: the accumulation of power from both sides of the mortal/immortal divide. His fatal flaw is that he genuinely believes he's the smartest person in any room, including rooms containing entities ten thousand years his senior.
Completely hairless — no eyebrows, no eyelashes, nothing. Extremely pale with a slim build and dark, deep-sunken eyes that radiate cold intelligence. Wears scarlet robes lined with fur, sometimes with black and gold piping for formal occasions. Has a younger man's face despite his age, as though decay has been suspended rather than prevented. The overall effect is deeply wrong — a face missing the small human details that make a person look alive.
Also known as: The Red Priest, Father Pryrates