The Tales of Krayth Tal'Deraz (BIO)

[Ferregar]

Table of Contents
-----{INTRODUCTION}-----
Peace
Fear
Hate
Love
Rage
War

INTRODUCTION

Krayth's backstory is simply to big to fit the character limit on his profile page sweatdrop For ease of reading, I have broken up his backstory into a number of sections that are hyperlinked to their start. Events that occured In-Guild begin at the chapter titled, "Love." Hope you enjoy the read! 3nodding  

[Ferregar]

Table of Contents
Introduction
-----{PEACE}-----
Fear
Hate
Love
Rage
War

PEACE

Memories...The very first was darkness; the muffled squealing shriek of lumber and twisting metal amidst enraged calls for justice and the crackle of hungry fire. One woman's screams were the loudest; they belonged to a voice that would coo and comfort him in the coming years. By the time the moonless black of that night had turned into fiery dawn the cries had ended, a beautiful tear streaked face was illuminated above as Pheena's hands clutched her baby boy into the cradle of her arms. The young female and her mate Valdiir had come to the hamlet of Rivenwall to secure a future of peace and prosperity for their unborn child. Instead, they found hatred and violence. That morning, with neither the time nor strength to pull her beloved Valdiir's corpse from beneath the numerous bodies of the now silent mob, Pheena clambered over the massacre and fled to the wilds with her newborn son.

For the four years after, Krayth's life was uncomplicated. He grew into a boy alongside his Exodus, a small black dagger he had always known as Beyruun. His mother taught him about her own Exodus, a strange blue staff she called Thilda, and he learned that he should never leave Beyruun away from him. This lesson was contradicted by the truth of their lives' struggles. When times forced them to travel into town for supplies, his mother made him leave Beyruun behind with Thilda. Each time, Krayth could not help but cry. It frightened him to be apart from what felt like his brother, but when they would return and find the weapons chasing each other back and forth along the floor Krayth would laugh and leap in to their game.

Krayth enjoyed peace and love beside his doting mother, but she was troubled during the nights' later hours. They travelled on, knowing it was never safe to stay long in one place as an Anima, and in the seclusion of the Wormwood Swamp she taught him to wield his companion. The creatures of the marsh paid them little mind as Pheena proved more dangerous than a meal was worth. Travelers either didn't care or didn't realize the manner of monsters that dwelt next to the road. From time to time, Pheena would invite a weary merchant or hunter into the comforts of her home. Krayth would find them interesting, and wished that one would stay. This thought would make his mouth water and even hidden within the safety of the secret sheath Pheena made for it, Beyruun trembled against Krayth's chest and wouldn't let the young Anima take his mind from their guests.

Life changed during Krayth's fifth year. Pheena had brought home a traveler, and after slaking the bard's third with wine and luring him to her bed, she offered him food and a place to rest through the night. Krayth was roused in the middle of the night by the sound of fighting in the house. As he ran out to find hi mother, he found Pheena pinning the drugged bard to their dinner table. He gargled for help through the blood gushing out of his torn throat hapless victim. Krayth felt afraid as Pheena wiped the blood from her mouth and sweetly ushered him to stand next to the man; gently encouraging her son to feed. Krayth did not need to be told twice. Beyruun was screaming inside of his head, and he suddenly felt hungrier than he ever had before, The boy was innocent to the idea that he was violating his prey's very aspect of being. As Krayth devoured his first soul, he was overwhelmed by the sustenance of a feast and the comfort of his mother's embrace. Then he was overwhelmed by the bard's memories of travel, song, drink, rape and the privately of the human's private life. The rest of the night Krayth laid on the floor with his hands on his head, as his mother smoothed his hair and sang to comfort him.

Though consuming the bard's soul had plagued him with strange and disturbing memories -knowledge of earthly deeds no child could truly comprehend- the young Anima felt calmer and more at ease than ever before. Beyruun had stopped its screaming, and he slept for whole nights without his Exodus waking him. With the silence came time to think and explore, and the young Tal'Deraz took the time to "adventure" through the nearby marshlands within the bounds of his imagination. He collected feathers, small bones and shards of rock, and his nimble fingers created trinkets from them to share with his mother and his first friends - people inspired by the dead bard's memories, who would trade stories of exciting journeys with him and take him hunting for the first time.

Life proceeded in this uncomplicated way until a handful of other families moved into the region and began a settlement - one that included Pheena and her lovely son, posing as two dark skinned gypsies from The Devil's Eye. Among their numbers were children of similar age, and one particular boy named Besrim Halgar. In Besrim's glossy green eyes and strange but happy smile, Krayth saw his dreams of a friend come true. Besrim quickly became Krayth's best friend outside of Beyruun, and they often ran out into the marshes to play Hunter and Prey, Find the Relic or Hide and Seek. The Relics would often be baubles Krayth made, and after many years of play Krayth made one necklace especially for his friend.

Besrim took the token of affection gladly, his strange smile splitting his lips with glee, and promised that next time he would give Krayth a gift. What Besrim offered was breathtaking, as freshly smithed short sword from the forge that Besrim's father worked. It glinted in the daylight and KRayth took it gladly, but quickly found that he struggled to maintain his grip on the weapon. It felt off-balance, top heavy and slippery. Besrim teased Krayth for having a maid's hands, and this upset the young Anima. Krayth wanted to show Besrim Beyruun; how glossy, black and sharp it was; how it could talk and move unlike any sword Besrim had ever seen, but his mother hd warned him about revealing his greatest secret. It had to be kept. Krayth fumed as the sword slipped out of his hands, and Besrim laughed at his clumsiness. That was the first time Krayth truly felt angry, but he was quick to forgive his friend and life went on. Then something happened. With the town's newest arrival came a shadow, and its darkness swept over the town in the night.

The settlement had grown, and there were rumors of a were-beast lurking among them. Such rumors were often true, and it was common knowledge that Wormwood was home to secrets and sinister forces that stalked through the marshes in the twilight hours. Suspicious fingers pointed to a newly arrived medicine woman named Hyli Redcraw, and when the town finally mustered the courage to confront her... she vanished. Horror swept through the town as Besrim was also discovered to be missing. There was blood smeared across the floor of Hyli's hut, and a small trail that streaked out into the marshlands. Enraged by Besrim's death, many in the settlement attempted to track the murderous woman without success. As a week passed and their anger sank into grief, Krayth planned to find Hyli on his own. He refused to believe that Besrim was dead. The human boy was strong and smart - he had to be alive! The fear of losing his one true friend propelled him into his first true adventure.

Determined to rescue his friend. Krayth gathered Beyruun and a bread roll and set out into the marsh alone. He was pursued by a mutated dog. He watched ghosts drift in the distant fog, screaming out to him for an end to their suffering. He ran out of food, but his mother's teaching helped him to survive; to keep track of a trail that grew fresher as he went deeper into a thicket of black leafed trees. Frightening things watched him from the shadows of the forest canopy, but with Beyruun in his hand he had the courage to carry on. Two days later, he found Besrim alive... and it was then that the Halgar boy's true nature was revealed. He was dragging Hyli's rotten and mutilated corpse by its hair. Pieces of her were missing, and her corpse was bloodless and bloated from the marsh. Krayth observed his friend in total silence, breath frozen in his lungs. While he watched from a distance, Besrim stooped to stab Hyli's corpse over and over again with the short sword he had given Krayth not long ago, snarling the same words repeatedly... mechanically.

"Filthy, vicious, flesh eating beast-whore. Eat it you filthy, vicious, flesh eating beast-whore."

Besrim did this multiple times before Krayth finally mustered the courage to approach his friend. Shaking from what he witnessed, he was unable to maintain his silent approach and Besrim's head snapped to look towards him. Realizing it was Krayth, Besrim grinned from ear to ear, caked in blood, and gloated over how easy Hyli was to kill. "The monster didn't even have time to transform! I was too fast for her," Besrim said with a chuckle before pausing, eyes wide, and pointing down at Beyruun. Krayth had forgotten he was holding it... "Where did you find THAT??" the Halgar boy asked at the same time that he reached out to grab it from Krayth's hands. In that moment, as Besrim seized his Exodus and wrested it from his hand, Krayth felt fear unlike anything he knew before. ICy claws ripped into his heart, and Krayth struggled to remain standing. Besrim looked back at Krayth with concern, but the Anima lied, said Hyli's stink was making him sick, and that he found Beyruun lying in the muck. Besrim was amazed but eventually returned the black knife to his friend, teasing that he wanted to take the knife but knew Krayth wasn't strong enough to swing his sword. As they trudged back towards town and left Hyli's body to rot into the swamp, Krayth clutched Beyruun tight between his hands and tried to slow his racing heart. As he watched Besrim whistle and slink ahead of him, swinging his short sword and pretending that he was slaughtering horrible monsters, Krayth erased all thought of ever telling Besrim the secret of his birthright and Beyruun. They never told their parents about Hyli, and though they swore to keep it a secret Krayth could not help but wonder if Besrim had known that Hyli was human...  

[Ferregar]

Table of Contents
Introduction
Peace
-----{FEAR}----
Hate
Love
Rage
War

FEAR

Time... with its passing comes their 16th year. As the Anima grew, so did his supernatural hunger... and as Besrim grew, so did his infatuation with hunting. He would vanish for days at a time without word of where he was going or what he was hunting. The only thing that was guaranteed was that when Halgar returned, he always brought something back with him. "Look at the treasure it had in its belly, he'd say smugly, each time revealing new assortments of weathered jewelry and red-crusted trinkets between his dirty fingers... The kind of trinkets that young women of Wormwood seemed to fancy... the same women that were going missing in nearby hamlets; whose fathers, brothers and lovers would travel in to town searching after them.

All the while, Beyruun's craving for souls became more insistent; more insatiable. Once or twice a month, Krayth and his mother had to travel deep into the wilds of the marsh searching for lunatics, hermits or vagabonds that no one would miss. There was never enough for Beyruun. It begged Krayth always for more, and those howling screams of hunger and pain drove Krayth to the brink of his young mind. Pheena could see Krayth's willpower breaking and began keeping a closer eye on her son. Her presence was as comforting as it had been when he was a child, and it helped to ease his gnawing desire to heed. He could see the worry in her eyes, and how the townsfolk grew more and more anxious and fearful with the reports of missing women that continued to pass through their tavern. Krayth began to hope that estranged friend would not return from his hunting trips...

Then Besrim stopped going hunting altogether. The town had grown too large, and its people too cautious. It was getting harder and harder to sneak out at night, and with the construction of their town hall and the name-giving ceremony hosted in celebration of its completion, their once inconspicuous little village officially became the town of Hyjon's Rest. Both Krayth and Besrim suffered because of it. Halgar joined the newly founded Hyjon Militia immediately, granting him the means to travel through the town at night and, most importantly, the opportunity to regularly "patrol" the roads. Krayth stayed close to Pheena, fearing that being gone from her too long would end with him losing control... and the way Besrim had taken to looking at Pheena.

"I found this on a bandit today," Halgar smiled and held out a gold plated headband. There were stray blond hairs caught between its grooves; frayed at their ends as though it was torn from its owner's head. "Pheena would find it so pretty, wouldn't she?" Krayth could feel the blood freezing in his veins. He took the headband, promised to give it to his mother. Beyruun screamed at Krayth to kill Besrim all the way home - that eating his soul would do the town a great service; that he would be a hero if he would only kill Besrim. The young Anima ran home to his mother and told her that he no longer felt safe in Hyjon's Rest. Pheena knew the need to relocate was getting urgent, but she comforted Krayth with the assurance that on the following night, after the town's harvest was reaped and the fields were clear of workers, they would depart in search of a new home.

The next day, Krayth and many of the young men in Hyjon's Rest were called to the Town Hall. With the harvest well underway and a handful of wagons already loaded with produce, they were tasked with delivering the shipment to a new settlement many miles East of Hyjon's Rest. They were given an escort of 6 Hyjon Militiamen. Besrim Halgar was among them, and this relieved Krayth. The road was clear and the journey swift; they were bartering their goods with the settlement''s residents as the sun began to dip down from its peak. As the moon began its ascent, the Anima's willpower to restrain his appetite failed.

Krayth remembers this moment more vividly than them all. He was approached by a shy eyed girl, one who smiled at him as they packed their bags for the ride home. If she had not done what she did, another would have died in her place. The law of his nature broke his spirit as she bobbed forward, both hands cupped to her belly. As her oversized gown clutched softly to her spry curves, she smiled and offered her hands. Clutched within the palms of her slender fingers were the trembling petals of a Pital Rose, and a wicker heart nestled atop the flower.

"San'salur, farmer. I, I think of you often, and fondly. Be you back this way, I--"

He wanted her. Beyruun needed her. It screamed in his mind for her. As he held out his fingers and pressed them against her throat, she looked confused. His hands cracked her esophagus shut, and Beyruun nuzzled its way onto Krayth's palm. It's glossy black edge slipped neatly into the back of her neck, severing her spinal cord for a swift end. He stared into her eyes as the light left them, scared and uncertain, framed by the clutches of his red, wet fingers. As he drew her soul from its broken shell, he felt deep fulfillment. This sensation of euphoria was accompanied by screams. The Anima didn't look to see who or where - it was everyone, and many were already drawing weapons. His body moved on its own, empowered by his victim's soul and his primed instincts. The run seemed so short; so brief, but it led miles into the darkest marshes. Those of the villagers that matched his stamina were still driven away, fearful of the marshlands off the path and unequipped to chase into the night. He as quickly as he could all through the night, driven more than ever before to reach his mother.  

[Ferregar]

Table of Contents
Introduction
Peace
Fear
-----{HATE}-----
Revenge
Love
Rage
War

HATE

Krayth lost track of the corpses shortly after becoming a Dark Avenger. With the powers of darkness coursing through him fueling the rage that burned at his heart, The Anima slunk into the darkest corners of the world and unleashed himself. He slaughtered his way towards the answers he was convinced existed, never bothering to see who was guilty or innocent among the scores of dead in the crime dens he razed. Their presence alone served to mark them. He carved his way through the underbelly of The Islands of Mau, and his travels brought him into the company of the roguish Calidan Greeves.

A human with nothing to lose except leagues of charisma,Calidan found it profitable to arrange a few deals with Krayth. As each yielded greater profits, the human took a liking to The Anima himself. He found Krayth to be a brilliant and cunning friend, but kept Calidan kept his distance. Even as the closest thing Krayth had to a friend since Besrim, Calidan knew full well that Krayth was an amoral monster capable of incredible evil. He tried his best to steer Krayth's moral compass away from massacres and fear tactics, but in the end lacked the courage to truly stand up against Krayth's acts of savagery.

It would have continued that way, had fate not intervened. On a lead, Krayth and Calidan traveled into the biting cold of Kishu. The Anima's body suffered through the elements and punishing training with Calidan every day. On the eve of his 21st year, Krayth encountered a huge blue scaled snake in an icy glade of petrified trees. It looked directly at him as he moved cautiously past, but when he readied Beyruun to slay the beast from behind, it changed. The metamorphosis was into that of a hauntingly beautiful were-serpent, and she immediately conjured skeletons of ice from beneath the water. They fought, and Krayth was overpowered by her subjects. As she commanded her minions to restrain him, he realized that he felt something alien inside of him. The look she gave him caused his pulse to race, and Beyruun growled in his hand.

The two strangers exchanged words. She demanded to know his destination and intentions. "Wherever I must to avenge my mother." Everything he saw in her eyes he felt inside himself, and not once did her gaze break from his. She was enraged; craved blood and destruction... revenge. Her mother had also been brutally murdered and left for all to see. Her only crime was the blood in her veins, and the nursing of her children. In her, Krayth found a kindred spirit, and for the first time in many years The Anima felt something new. He asked for her company, and she sat down. For the first time in his life, Krayth was able to commiserate. When the depth of his anguish came to the surface, she identified with him. She spoke of her own mission and training; her uncompromising drive to avenge her kin. If revenge was what she sought, Krayth said, then she should not rest until she had it. Not for a moment.

The necromancer's fury evolved into determination, and gratitude. It took great effort to part ways from her, but Krayth did so. Before he left, they exchanged names. Azur Bascule... and he thought of those words for many weeks of travel.

More time passed. More pieces came tumbling together. With the aid of Calidan and the remaining men of his shipIt should be completely separate. We'll let the players connect the two, Krayth discovered the location of Besrim Halgar. Krayth's old friend had taken up residence in a derelict fortress in the mountains of the Kishu Tundra, the derelict Fort Adelarde. Without sleep or delay, the duo traveled onward. When they reached the snowy lands of Rykros, they rested. Finally, Justice was at hand.

The ruins of Fort Adelarde, framed in snow and the light of a full moon, were more than a nightmare. Rotted bodies lined the weathered corridors -none of which were human, all of which were female. Many of the cadavers bore the skeletal remains of children inside of them. All were maimed, cut and dismembered. Each of their bellies was ripped open by the blade of a knife; their entrails peeking out and frosted by the biting cold. The putrid odor filled every space. The bodies of infants occupied a large basin shoveled out of the snow in the courtyard. Calidan was filled with fear, but Krayth did not hesitate. The death around him fueled his steps. As The Anima marched upon the keep's gaping entrance moaning sorrowfully in the wind, he found what he was looking for.

What had once been a man of youth and beauty was now a monster of madness and hatred. In Besrim's eyes was only fire and dementia. He took one look at Krayth, and with his ghastly tools in hand the human laughed aloud. "At last, coal seed! At last! Witness my holy works! See how many of your poison kind have fallen and the many infernal dreams I have crushed! I am ready to meet the Day Bringer! Are you ready to help me on my way, Soul Eater?"

The door on the opposite side of Besrim's makeshift meat locker burst off of its hinges. From it slithered Azur Bascule, her body transformed into its true frame as she lanced through the air to strike first. Pandemonium ensued, and in the confusion Besrim fled into the snow. Krayth could not find the words to express himself. Suddenly, the puzzle of his life made sense. Azur's mother had died by Besrim's hands. Their mothers suffered the same fate. Now, they would share in their revenge. Invigorated by this revelation, the trio charged out into the whirling twilight.