Bomanz, born Seth Chalk, was the notorious wizard who was credited with releasing the Lady and the Ten Who Were Taken. After the return of the Lady, and the establishment of her new empire, Bomanz was regarded with disdain for releasing an evil that he could not control back into the world. He was, in reality, a good man who was used as a pawn by the Lady and the Resurrectionists alike.
The White Rose
Origins
Bomanz was born in Oar, the largest city and capital of Forsberg (at that time an independent kingdom). He attended the Black Campus of the city's university, where he excelled in the studies of sorcery. He married Jasmine, a woman also from Oar, whose mother did not approve of their union.
Life in the Barrowland
Although they could have stayed in Oar and lived lives of consequence, Bomanz persuaded Jasmine of his dream of learning arcane secrets from the Lady. Jasmine moved with him north, to the Great Forest, into the community of the Eternal Guard outside the Barrowland. They remained there for a total of 37 years, during which Bomanz would have no success in fulfilling his dream. Jasmine's disappointment for having misspent her life with Bomanz in the frigid forest caused her to endlessly nag her husband. However, she genuinely loved him and never betrayed him to the Guard.
Bomanz masqueraded as an antiquities dealer who spent his time digging around the barrows for Domination-era artifacts. His true mission in life was to map out the barrows, allowing him to project his spirit into the Great Barrow and learn long lost secrets of magic and history from the Lady herself. He was convinced that he had a safeguard, the Lady's true name, and spoke her native language, TelleKurre, in addition to his native tongue Forsberger.
Bomanz spent decades mapping the Barrows, and the only physical evidence he kept of his forbidden activity was a secret map of the terrain. On this map he marked less than a dozen of the scores of "lesser evils" who were buried there alongside the Taken. To maintain a respectable front, he always dug up artifacts outside the boundary of the Barrowland to sell them in his shop, where his best customer was Tokar, a trader from Oar. In this effort he was frustrated for years by the "thief" Men fu, a rival antiquities seller with no scruples. Bomanz's public persona succeeded in deceiving the Guard, but the group's leader, the elderly Monitor named Besand, never quite fully trusted him.
After coming to a dead-end in figuring out safe paths to the center of the Great Barrow, Bomanz was close to giving up his life's work. However, a visit from his son Stancil (his only child) provided the help he needed in completing his goals: the location of Moonbiter's barrow. At his son's urging, he placed his body into a deep slumber and his spirit walked into the Barrowland. He made it all the way to the center, and spoke with the Lady who had been subtly guiding his progress over the course of many years. He claimed the knowledge of her true name (which he believed to be Ardath Senjak) but she seemed more amused than frightened. The weak connection to his body allowed him to overhear the conversation that Stancil was having in the room with his fiancée Glory (Tokar's sister). Bomanz now learned that Stancil, Glory, Tokar, and their comrades were all secretly Resurrectionists, a group which sought to release the Dominator and return to the black age of the Domination.
Outraged by his son's betrayal, Bomanz rushed back to his body to stop Tokar from opening the Great Barrow. Back in his body, Bomanz stated to Stancil and Glory that he would attempt to stop the awakening. But Stancil and Glory drew knives and went to kill him, exposing their true loyalty. Failing to talk sense into his son, Bomanz was forced to kill both Glory and Stancil. When Corporal Husky and some Eternal Guard men rushed in, he killed them to. After saving Jasmine and Tokar's very young sister Snoopy from a dangerous situation, he created "a killing sending", a spell to kill Tokar from a distance. But it was too late, as Tokar damaged the enchantments at the Great Barrow. Rushing out into the night, Bomanz attempted to use what he thought was the true name of the Lady to disarm her, but failed in his task, as he had the wrong name. He was surrounded by the dragon's flames and became buried, trapped in the Barrowland, alive but frozen like the Dominator himself. His survival was unknown even to the Lady who presumed, like everyone else, that he died.
Revival and the Battle of the Barrowland
Decades later, upon traveling to the Barrowland to stop the Dominator from breaking free of his prison, members of the Black Company discovered that Bomanz was still alive, interred near the barrows. He was removed from the earth by the Lady, her new Taken, and Croaker. His "withered" but still living body was flown a short distance away to the Eternal Guard compound on one of the new Taken's flying carpets, where he was restored back to normal consciousness. When he awakened, he pushed forward a few steps, believing he was still warding off the dragon from centuries earlier. The Lady immediately showed her dominance over Bomanz by revealing that she had knowledge of his true name, Seth Chalk. Bomanz confessed to Croaker that he was unaware that there were four Senjak sisters and thought that Ardath must be the correct name because it was the only one he had found. He also confirmed that while the papers Raven had found in his former home rung true, they were not written by him, but most likely by his wife and the young sister of Stancil's fiancée.
Bomanz took part in the planning and execution of the Battle of the Barrowland. When Darling's null freed the dragon that guarded the Great Barrow, Bomanz led it away from the rest of the soldiers and distracted it so they could deal with the Dominator. After the battle, the body of the dragon was found, but Bomanz was not. He was presumed dead, finally finding peace and making up for his great sin.
The Silver Spike
Bomanz actually had staged his own death during his fight with the dragon so he would be free of the natural distrust every party had towards him. When the Limper's still-living head was retrieved from the ruins of the Barrowland, he was one of two persons to detect the danger (the other one being Raven). Understanding the incoming danger to the world, he sought help to stop it. Unsure whether to look for the Lady or Darling (the White Rose reborn), Bomanz waited to see which one Raven and Case would go after. After Raven went south after the Lady and the Black Company, Bomanz sought the White Rose. He found her, and her small band of loyal followers, in the Windy Country. The old sorcerer endured the comical harassment of a talking buzzard called Virgil throughout their subsequent travels. Bomanz, Darling, her allies, and the creatures of the Plain of Fear fought the Limper at the Temple of Travellers' Repose, and again when he came to Oar for the silver spike. Unable to stop the abomination Limper had become during the battle, Bomanz sacrificed himself to buy time for the others to take the spike away.