Guardian of Souls

The Guardian of Souls is a spectral herald of the Nighthaunt, charged with shepherding the tormented spirits of a procession and driving them relentlessly against the living. In its grasp it bears a nightmare lantern, a device that burns with a cold and sickly light, the captured glow of stolen souls. By this baleful lamp the Guardian steadies the spirits around it, its light knitting shredded ectoplasm back together and hauling the destroyed dead back into unlife to fight again. Where the lantern's glow falls, the courage of the living withers while the malice of the dead is renewed. The Guardian directs the procession with grim, wordless purpose, wielding a wicked blade or staff and channelling the death-magic of Nagash to smite those who resist. It is at once chaplain and jailer to the damned souls in its keeping, ensuring that none may escape their service, not even in destruction. To break a Nighthaunt host, one must first extinguish the Guardian's dreadful lantern, and few live long enough to try.