This appears as a simple suit of leather armor, blackened as though by great fire. Armor Rating of 3; +1 to Mystic Armor.
Dakth'Jezaul Shyqaep'ptaan was a high Lord in his world, leader of the Ysaith Shaa House of Ijenth. Being a relatively twisted person he caused quite a bit of trouble for the people of his lands, until eventually he was exiled. The majority of the people wanted him destroyed, but tenets against executing the Nobles are strong in that society, and the rulers decided to merely exile him: they stripped him of all wealth save his library (which contained no magical texts), and a mysterious sword which, though nonmagical, had resisted all attempts at enchantments (it was basically useless to them who enchanted even the most minor weapons, and at least he was not sent out helpless).
Unfortunately, another faction gathered together its mages and sent a magical storm after his ship, tearing the very fabric of reality around it and sending it hurtling between worlds. Only Dakth'Jezaul, somehow protected by his sword perhaps, survived the brief but terrible journey, though his mind suffered, weakening his sanity and exaggerating his already strong paranoia and megalomania. Crashing deep in a forest in Barsaive, he found himself in utterly unfamiliar surroundings with his library as his only link to things he understood (the ship survived the journey remarkably well, at least until it crashed into the middle of the forest).
Happening on a wandering Nethermancer, he attempted to commumicate, but although Dakth'Jezaul looked much like the natives, the man attacked him with spells of pain. The man regretted that shortly, as Dakth'Jezaul's mind lashed out at him and promptly destroyed him, rather suprising both of them. The laws were different here, and he had strange powers.
His true pattern was too different in nature, and it, combined with his weak sanity, altered the very nature of things around him, changing and decaying the forest and its creatures. He took armor and an unusual staff from the unfortunate Nethermancer to protect himself from this strange world. The Staff of the Black Whispers, posessed by an evil spirit, spoke to his mind with visions and delusions, further twisting him to its own dark purposes and drawing power from the corruption around them, while the armor--originally a minor item to aid its wearer against fire--was radically changed by his presence. It became the embodiment of his paranoia and need to be protected from those who would do him harm.
Once he and the staff were destroyed, much of the damage will heal, but there is enough taint left in the forest that people speak of it in hushed tones, and tales of attacks by half-animal, half-man beasts and other mysterious events from within its boundaries surface. Talk such as this gives rise to names, and so this place has become the 'Barren Wood.'
(The sword he brought remains nonmagical, but is made of a material stronger and more magical even than orichalcum. This material cannot be duplicated and is nearly impossible to forge or work, but is ripe for enchantment.)