Shattered Kingdoms

Ilyash was born in a small halfling village in the Northern Wastes to warm and loving family – mother, father and three siblings. From a very early age he found himself drawn towards studying magic, but as there was no source of real magical education in his birthplace, his only option was studying with the village shaman – a bone shaman, it so happened. These were darker arts than those practiced by normal shaman, and all the more rare for it. Ilyash was taught by his mentor to communicate with the tormented, the angry and the vengeful – all those spirits that had a desire, but not the opportunity to return to the mortal plane through normal means either due to old age or some other factor. He also learned the basics of summoning them back, although in a fashion much different from the one that normal shaman used, for these spirits could not return in that way. Instead, he had to construct or find empty hosts for these spirits in order to grant them the time they needed to seek vengeance and acquire peace.

This education came not without a price for the communication with such spirits, while necessary is not without its cost. Ilyash’s mind was slowly twisted by this exchange, but not in the fashion that it happens with normal necromancers for he had nothing but the best intentions in mind. Instead, outwardly he remained happy and kind, willing to help anyone that asked him for assistance, regardless of their origin or life goals. Instead the corruption occurred in another fashion – he journeyed out both with and without these spirits, seeking to assist them and to find hosts for new ones – all for the good of granting them peace. Furthermore, he began to worship negative energy, or the Darkness, as he referred to it – the counterpart to holy magic, its direct opposite. Of course all of this led to a further spiraling into his own personal darkness, making him to show more and more of his darker side as he grew older.

Eventually, he decided that there was little else he could do both for himself and for his village by remaining there and decided to travel to the city – Krychire. There, he enrolled in the academy and quickly progressed through it towards his graduation and his journey into the real world. He quickly realized though that the world was not at all how he had envisioned it. While some people, especially in the North were friendly enough, others still were downright hostile and murderous. Particularly he saw his mistake when he ran into a dwarf priest of Nashira called Gork who attacked and killed him on site in the middle of one of his training expeditions. While attempting to realize the source of this anger, he came to understand that Gork’s faith and political affiliations – the Druids of the Wild Reach – made him predisposed against anyone that walked with the spirits in the way that he did. Despite many attempts to explain to Gork, other Druids and the Light that he was not in fact a defiler, not a necromancer at all, they remained deaf to his words and actions.

Eventually, after numerous attempts upon his light by the various aforementioned forces, he became fed up and decided to ally himself with Benjamin and the rest of the Council of Necromancers in his unholy crusade. He summoned countless spirits from the afterlife, those that were most angered by those that hunted him to fight along his side. Many of the Light fell in those years of his wandering. Finally, one day he met the priestess Jurithiel while resting in the Moot’s longhouse and after many conversations with her about his quest to awaken the Darkness, they came to an understanding. The Darkness existed, but all paths towards it were destroyed in the earlier years by the fall of the Adepts of the Blood Path. Furthermore, the path of the Adepts was one that was no longer realistic – if had even ever been. To this effect they decided that if they were to forge a new way to the dark powers they would have to eliminate the old ways entirely and a plan was hatched. After several attempts to bring the keeper of the old adept Spire to their way of thinking, they gave it up for lost and were forced to destroy her before continuing on to Mount Stryfe and the entrance to the Abyssal Tower. Ilyash and Jurithiel realized that in order to destroy the Adepts utterly they would need the aid of one of the greatest of the blood artifacts – the Sacrificial Blade of Destruction which was lost with the closing of the Tower’s entrance.

The hermit of Mount Stryfe pointed them in the direction of the Seven of Kol’s Moot where they were able to speak with and acquire the assistance of the Seven in their quest. Sometime later, united with the Council of Necromancers (soon to be called the Black Hand) Ilyash, Jurithiel and a representative of the Seven gathered at Mount Stryfe in order to open a pathway to the plane of Ember and Ash where the Abyssal Tower once stood. Within the plane, they uncovered the sacrificial blade of destruction and set about completing their combined plans. While both sides were unaware of the complete plans of the others, they were luckily still able to work together in union without any mishaps.

First, their return journey with the blade took the group to the town of Krychire where the full Seven was gathered. There, they preformed a ritual using a gem and the blade to cover the entire town in a deadly mist, effectively making it uninhabitable forever more. After this ritual was complete the Light decided to stick their noses into the process and bring a force to stop the dark rituals that were ongoing. Some battles later (involving one with Achernar) the Light had once more retreated, not realizing that what they were attempting to prevent is what they had coveted for centuries. The Dark forces, now free to move again gathered at the base of the Adept spire where they were greeted by a pair of demons which told them what they must do. While the Hand was to begin the destruction of the Spire, Ilyash and Jurithiel could finally complete their plans. The cloak of everlasting darkness was taken from the Champion of Daemons and the sacrificial blade of destruction was ‘borrowed’ from the Hand. Along with one of the daemons at the Spire, Jurithiel and Ilyash went through a rift to a place of light and on the very steps of Castle Morea they forever destroyed the cloak, the last focal point of the Adepts’ waning power.

Afterwards, they returned to the Hand at the base of the Spire who were just as ignorant of what had just transpired. There, they drove the sacrificial blade into the base of the Spire, which along with the assaults of the Hand’s minions caused its collapse. From the rubble arose a lone tentacle of pure darkness and enveloped both Ilyash and Jurithiel to the astonished gasps of those gathered. Now, they were transported to another plane of existence where they were greeted by utter darkness and the voices of the Dark Gods. They were informed of many things that day, things that shall still remain unuttered here but needless to say, it was upon this day that the Crucible of Shadows was born. Upon their return to the Spire once more, they explained some things to their awaiting compatriots keeping hidden the darkest truth for the time being.
In the following years, Ilyash tired of his endless battles and decided that a more subtle approach would go along better with his newly awakened powers. To this end and after a fortunate incident where Hedonaris robbed his corpse after a death to the Archmage of the Torrum Arcana he was able to ‘turn over a new leaf’. What this entailed basically is that he would not summon spirits into corpses in the presence of the Light, and they would all leave him alone from that day on. Furthermore, as part of this agreement he was able to acquire pardons in all of the cities of the Light and the ability to walk freely within them once more.

Years passed and the turn of the millennium arrived. The Matron Vorlak appeared again like she had shortly before the Adepts’ destruction. Except this time she had a plot to end the world by crashing the Moon into it. Unfortunately for her, this was not part of Ilyash’s plans and he did everything in his power to hinder her. Once more also, the Light attempted to interfere, almost resulting in the destruction of the world through their efforts. It was now that Ilyash and Vrinth discovered the puzzle cube in the mountains southeast of Teron. Any time the cube was completed incorrectly, it blew up destroying anything in a ten league radius around it, until finally they did it right. As a reward they were both granted stone cubes (weighted companion cubes) and passage to the Infernal Outlands through the connecting pillar which arose as a result of their efforts. The Matron was ultimately defeated for the last time.

Again, years passed and most things were forgotten as people changed, but he remained. In the meantime, the awakening darkness strengthened and more powers were granted to Ilyash. Once more, forces of the Light began to test him; the most particular of these was Emet and his Talons. Various skirmishes occurred, culminating in Caeserea’s final strike at the Zhensh judge, after which a lull occurred while Ilyash and his allies recovered. In the meantime an agreement was made with the Illithid of Ch’zzrym to erect a lair within the old twargas volcano. After its completion, Ilyash was able to claim his ultimate title of Forgemaster of Darkness as he took up his responsibilities over the forges of the secret volcano lair.

Old age now catching up with him, Ilyash had finally reached the height of his power and even managed to win the Necromancer Hero Tournament despite neither wanting to be a hero, nor recognizing the term ‘necromancer’ that others gave him. From this point on, he receded even more from the world to further his dark studies and effort to perfect his being up until shortly before the arrival of a pet project that had been long in the making of the Crucible – the return of the Leviathan. After the events that took place with the rise of the Leviathan Ilyash became even more withdrawn and only came out to instruct those that were to follow him and to assist with any last minute matters that may arise up until his ascension.