Going to clarify I’m the commissioner.
 
‘He was a healer in a small village when the three tribes were at war, one of the few who opposed it. Eventually he was forced into it and found his place as amongst the White Mages, though even with a force of dozens on every battlefield many died. 
He sought a means not to raise them, but to keep them alive long enough to heal, and eventually came to seek the power of Necromancy. 
During a battle he used it to help a soldier blown near clean in two alive while the healing magic mended him, dulling the pain. 
Eventually found out, in part due to the other healers speaking of his unnatural success rate, he was deemed a heretic and hobbled, hamstrung, the tendons forced to heal improperly. 
He continued his work, his mothers knowledge of clockworks’ giving him the inspiration for the legs he wears centuries later, and allowing him to reach those in need. 
Inevitably, the touch of the necrotic energies manifested, his presence bringing decay to that which has passed and fear unknown to the living. Captured by mistake, he found himself condemmed twice over, as his forelegs were crippled much the same as his hind, and he was left to rot in one of the Unicorns keeps, his clockworks taken and kept as a trophy. 
Unfortunately, he didn’t. Using a mixture of healing magic and necromantic summons he escaped, eventual having a bounty placed upon his head. He came to be known as the Feller of Knights, his continued descent into dark magic giving his once kind demeanor a cruel edge when others were in danger, and the Grave-Keepers’ Fulgur, for his penchant for electrical spells as offense. 
Taking these titles as his new names, he set about making a sanctuary for those who fled the war, a city where both the beasts of magic’s blood and the living tired and weary might have peace. 
As to whether he succeeded or failed, the frozen north is poorly mapped and even less trustworthy in it’s legends.’