But who was the man, Camber of Culdi? What was the man before he became the saint -- and the demon?

Was he, as later legends insist, the sole perpetrator of the atrocities and terrors associated with the Deryni Interregnum? The apotheosis of Evil Incarnate? Or was there another side to this man who became a legend in his own lifetime, saint after his death, and curse word for generations to come?

Just who was Camber of Culdi?......

The scant Deryni sources which survived by the reign of Kelson tell us that Camber MacRorie, more than any other single man, was responsible for breaking the hold of the ninth-century Festillic dynasty; he and his children who discovered, during those chaotic times, that the awesome Deryni powers and abilities could sometimes be bestowed upon certain, select humans. The old House of Haldane was restored to the Throne of Gwynedd in 904, and for more than a decade humans and Deryni lived in comparative harmony.

Les than a year after his death Camber was canonized for his daring contributions. This we all know is true. To humans and Deryni alike, he became Saint Camber, Patron of Deryni Magic, and Defender Hominum--Defender of Humankind. For a time, a grateful people could not find high-enough praise for the man who had delivered them from the hated Festillic yoke. Churches and monastic schools were named for him in the decade after his death. The mental techniques perfected by Camber and the healer Rhys Thuryn were taught in Deryni institutions of learning throughout the Eleven Kingdoms. His family and followers continued to assist the restored Haldane king and consolidate the new regime, and eventually founded the Camberian Council, a form of which still existed by the time of King Kelson.

But human gratitude is short and selective, and the gratitude of kings more capricious still. It was difficult to put aside completely the reminders of Deryni dominance, especially when many Deryni still occupied positions of authority and prominence. It seemed almost disloyal to the memory of those humans who had suffered under Festillic rule to ignore the injustices which marked the eighty-plus years of the reigns just past. A bitter people soon forgot that salvation, as well as slavery, had come from powerful hands of the Deryni; and the result was a rising tide of anti-Deryni feelings, culminating, on King Cinhil's death in 917, in a purge which annihilated fully two-thirds of the Deryni population of Gwynedd...

Camber MacRorie. Seventh Earl of Culdi. Gifted scholar and legalist. Retired civil servant. Sometime practitioner of Deryni magic.

In 903, he had not yet earned the title of Saint.