Emperor Zhan Xiang

Zhan Xiang was the emperor of Murandao at the time when the country was taken over by the Dragon kings. History remembers him as a traitor that sold out his own people and worked with the sorcerers and the dragons. For this his name was erased from the few official records that survived the reign of the Dragon kings and the rebellion that ended their rule, surviving only in a curse-word for traitors even after people forgot its origins.

on 175 there were strange sightings of a figure moving in the oldest cemetery in Murandao and rumors of ghosts. Soon after the city officials found a pit dug in the middle of the burial grounds, leading to a secret magically protected chamber that seemed to be from the age of the Dragon kings. Under that chamber was another hidden tunnel, leading to a smaller chamber with a table with some items that apparently belonged to the emperor. On the floor were the remains of a skull carved with runes, which was studied and concluded to be the head of the emperor himself.

Legend Lore
In reality emperor Xiang attempted to resist the rise of the Dragon kings but they managed to manipulate him by assassinating his wife and children and then driving him to paranoia and finally to madness. They tortured and killed him in an unholy ritual that bound his tortured spirit as a revenant that would track down and slay anyone that read one of the cursed scrolls containing his name. The sorcerers used the scrolls to assassinate numerous rivals and even the royalty of neighboring kingdoms as there was no way to combat the spirit that always returned at night and always stronger after it was defeated. The only way to permanently destroy the spirit was to dispose of his remains, but they were well hidden under magical protections and long forgotten underneath the foundations of an old tower that once stood in the middle of the cemetery in Murandao.

A band of adventurers found one of the scrolls without realizing the curse and managed to locate the secret chamber while being hunted by the revenant. Inside the secret chamber was the emperor's skull, carved full of sinister runes put on a pedestal and forced to stare at his family portrait and the belongings of his dead family. They crushed the skull and freed the tortured soul of the emperor, ending the centuries old curse.