Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-1852943-20130424155230/@comment-24584009-20140223213752

There are a couple clues as to who he is. He is clearly an enemy of Nito and the Way of the White. It's also specified on the Rite of Kindling that it was the power that he stole from Nito. The fact that Paladin Leeroy helps you kill Pinwheel but defends Nito further supports Vaati's hypothesis that Nito and the Way of the White are very much intertwined.

In fact, it would be interesting to see when the undead curse started compared to how old Pinwheel is. If it was around the same time, maybe the Rite of Kindling was how Nito controlled the death of humans, who may actually be naturally undead. It's possible Pinwheel started the curse himself to create undeath for his family, but then it extended to the whole world.