Khasad
Written by Lionel. Many thanks!
One of the two Dark Immortals alongside the revenant vampire Elazul. Known in ancient times as ‘the last of the Prime Evils’, for a great war had struck down the rest of their twisted brethren. A wanderer through the now-forgotten province of Senal, he was sealed by the light warriors Ryvain, Falcanthen, Orvaac, and Norodruin at the Tower of Crius. Yet even as Khasad writhed against his shackles, he knew their day would come.
The First Immortal War
A millennium after Khasad’s sealing, the Dark Immortals plotted their return. As Khasad slept, Elazul ripped through the earth with a horde of vile creatures to bring total ruin to Senal and its jeweled city Crius and freed Khasad.
Through centuries further, Elazul schemed. A dark army emerged from the south, tearing through Craughmoyle and Gualon and provinces too ancient to be remembered now. When evil ripped across the land, only Sven and Hind and Lore could dare to stand against it. Yet even they, nor even Norodruin, were fully capable. Together Elazul and Khasad created Arrecation, an evil entity more powerful than either immortal, and their display of power. Arrecation, so-called ‘son’ of Elazul, crushed the forces of peace utterly and very nearly ended the world. Only through those runes which had sealed Khasad in Crius could the Dark Immortals’ terrible plots be postponed once more.
Around this time, Kaizer and Solaris, mighty dragons, felt their free thoughts dwindle away and become possessed by Arrecation. Here in a Lithrydel where Elazul’s creation of vampires had spread, where the realm had been rebuilt but forgot the terrors which compelled rebuilding, the land was ripe for conquest.
On and on it went. A cycle unbreaking. With so much strength at his disposal, Elazul was at last able to withdraw Khasad from that most ancient of prisons. They spoke that the day the whole world would bend to their will was at last before them now. They spoke of the world beyond Lithrydel -- marvelous Ishaara, primitive Catal, Demon Archipelago, everywhere in-between. With the capabilities they now held, with the Spire -- a simple title for a sword of untold potential -- the saga of the ‘Prime Evils’ could ruin the planet itself.
Yet there was but one thing neither Khasad nor Elazul anticipated: the sheer will of the dragons Kaizer and Solaris. They’d cracked Arrecation’s hold and stood vigilant against them. It was the one flaw which spread forward into a hundred. The armies of light, well-aware that this pure evil would one day return, moved quickly. Although their losses were considerable, Khasad and Elazul and Arrecation were brought down. Khasad to his cage, Elazul to wandering, Arrecation seemingly blinked out of existence.
The Second Immortal War
Khasad tore his prison asunder and searched through shadows for Elazul. Vengeance was on his mind. Vengeance for all suffering so vast that none could possibly comprehend. He came before Trist’oth drow and amply demonstrated his efficacy, slaying the current rulers and taking the Underdark. He rid them of a certain thorn, too, and their loyalty was his overnight.
Reuniting with Elazul, Khasad decided that the world should burn for its transgressions. It would be remade in their image, never again to rebel. Lithrydel first, Vailkrin at the epicenter for the vampires’ refusal to be as thralls to their creator. With the legions of drow at their command, they plundered ships for navy, wrecking Cenril without true battle. They spread fast over Gualon and uncovered immense artifacts throughout the realm wherever they’d been hidden. These artifacts, fragments of the power that the Dark Immortals once wielded, restored their power in ways Hollow had never before seen.
Men and women of inherent good could only watch in despair as they struggled to unite a realm which had not seen complete chaos in centuries. Early campaigns against the omniscient forces of darkness were met with bitter defeat. Heroes such as Shogo and Renai perished alongside thousands of victims. Lionel was captured and tormented by the insane Khasad, and possessed by Elazul to cut down his own wife Alexia, with his own sword, Hellfire.
At the Battle of Vailkrin, the Dark Immortals’ first-phase plans came to a head. Their drow, joined by countless scores of Wraithen undead, wrought catastrophe upon the city. Donovan and Kalid fought valiantly to save as many lives as possible. Fighting continued for days without end. When the dust settled, Vailkrin was torn asunder, countless bodies littered the ground, and the Dark Immortals’ reach spanned half the realm.
The Second Immortal War ebbed on. With Lionel free, and soldiers like Cailyn and Demont rising to fame, evil could be pushed back if only meekly.
In latter campaigns, war became endless skirmish, desperate attempts to procure old artifacts of unimaginable value. There upon the field near Cenril was the combined host of every remaining ally from as far west as Venturil to as far east as the islands which would soon become Rynvale. Humans and elves and dwarves and everyone else besides, even drow who began to fear the undead, took a stand and held until dawn. Khasad and Elazul, so proud that their wickedness was now set to blanket all the realm, did not anticipate any collaboration between free peoples could break their nigh-indomitable war engine. They did not believe that the good which had banded together to save Hollow would use their own powers against them.
Khasad and Elazul were destroyed as much by last-second strategic failure as the heroes who felled them.
The Spire
A sword of terrible dark power. It is said to rend cities with a single blow, cut through anything, and blast maddening sorrow to all who surround the wielder. How much of the sword's power is myth and how much of it is real is lost to the ages.