Lord Odysseus Rani was, during the Wars of Succession, a supporter of Mycale who fled to Ashtan in the wake of the Battle of King's Tomb. He was originally a member of the Church, but renounced his position as he became a member of the secular Guild of Knights. During his stay in the guild, he wrote a treatise encouraging the Knights to pursue the dark art of Necromancy, considered a distasteful abomination by Lord Damen Kephry.
In the wake of the Battle of King's Tomb he fled to Ashtan, where, as a famed swordsman, he found favour in the court of King Tephicles. When Catarin revealed herself at the Tournament of Blades, Odysseus accepted her challenge, claiming that she was not yet crowned and thus he could not recognise her as empress. When her Sentaari-trained fighting style began to get the best of him, he resorted to Necromancy, much to the crowd's dismay. The princess won out against him, however, and the end of his life fueled Ashtan's allegiance to the Catarine cause.