-The Searing King

Some prominent Demon Lords are newcomers to their Plane, and while their rapid power increases are incredible and rare situations, they can often be in the shadow of Demon Lords who have resided in their Planes for magnitudes longer. The Searing King is one such example of this, especially in comparison to the Sufferer. The Searing King sees this newcomer as a rebel and a nuisance, but not a real threat; the King of the Wastes sits upon his throne, laughing to himself and watching every vengeful move of his newfound rival.
His throne of flames grows more intense by the hour, and his smouldering mace hungers for the blood of his demonic brother; his empty eyes and seared crown speak of untold desire for destruction and pain. But he waits, and he watches, and he subtly influences his Plane to give the Sufferer the greatest chance to become powerful, before he can strike him down and feel the rush of victory against a worthy foe one last time.

The Searing King is powerful and utterly ruthless, but his arrogance could be his folly. That said, his arrogance is substantiated - perhaps more so than any other Demon Lord alive.

Plane: Sper Indiath

Name: Krysennavelhelasivinelixinelishinsylis.................

Type: Demi-god

Appearance:


Krysenna always hides her bare flesh. Her mask is more of a symbol than anything else as her mask never changes while the rest of her wardrobe fluctuates between armor and other finery. She is 8.1 feet tall and as her clothing shows is thin and quite attractively proportioned. Her face is as porcelain and a milky white marred only by purple scars carved into her flesh. The runic scars begin in the center of her forehead and wrap around her eyes before crossing again in the center of her forehead and curving down around her cheek bones. They meet again at her chin and then branch outwards across her neck to cover most of her body in a delicate spidery network of scars forming a single extremely long word. Her eyes glow with violet light that flickers and dances with the promise of sinister and sadistic delights. Her lips are inviting and her tongue similar to the Night Mother can stretch out far longer than a humans. Her face seems made to bring pleasure. So why does she hide it behind a mask? Raven black hair falls down around her mask and past the twin horns that rise up from her head. Her ears do not look like the picture.

Krysenna's tail is almost always hidden beneath her clothing but it is coiled up beneath around her legs and is quite long. It has a retractable stinger at the tip. Krysenna's only other flaw in her appearance comes on her back where two stumps of what were once her wings remain. She hides these stumps beneath her clothing. Her fingers are tipped with long claws and so are her toes.

Personality and Drive:

History:
Krysenna is the slaver queen of Sper Indiath. Her origins are mostly unknown and she is something of a mystery. The few who have seen her features claim she greatly resembles the demoness Mother Night and that she bares the same runic scars that keep the slaves that she rules over in line. Few know any answers to questions of her history and few who do know would ever speak of it for fear that the chains which bind will begin to strangle or that Krysenna will choose them to be the next victims of her twisted desires and sickening lusts.

Armaments: (Does your Lord even carry weapons? If so, tell us here. If not, tell us what they usually use to kill stuff. (Unless those means are magical, in which case ignore this and place in category below)

Abilities:

Chains that Bind: Krysenna controls the magical chains of Sper Indiath. They are nearly impossible to break and their shackles will never open once they close unless she commands it. Any creature who is shackled is bound and their magical abilities and strength is sapped and added to her own. They also cannot use magic to free themselves. The chains come in any size desired. They can be summoned from Sper Indiath no matter where she is. Demon Lords and Champions are powerful enough hat they can fight against the chains and free themselves with effort. If they are weakened enough though the chains can spell the end.

Truenaming: Krysenna can carve the name of a person's true name into them and then use it to control them. But the more important use of this power is that she can name things and control them. If she named the wind the wind would obey her commands, if she named fire then the fire would do as she said, and if she named water the water would obey as well. Truenaming is very powerful and very flexible but it isn't the fastest form of magic and requires her to speak in order to use. It can override normal spellcasting because truenaming makes you the master of what you name. But it is slower than normal arcane spells.

Curse: Krysenna can bestow curses on her enemies. Curses are hard to dodge and hard to get rid of. She can curse people so that every pleasurable action they take causes agonizing pain and every unpleasant action causes pleasure. She can curse people so they can no longer sleep and suffer as their minds break down.

Let Them Bleed: Any wound from Krysenna cannot be healed by normal means and takes high end magic to mend at all. These wounds will bleed and drain her foes no matter what type of bandages or other measures are taken to stop the bleeding.

A World's Pain: The endless multitudes of tortured slaves in Sper Indiath cry out in anguish as they are worked endlessly in pointless labor. Krysenna channels all that pent up pain and hatred, all that impotent rage, all their suffering into a focused eruption of pure agony.

Name: Valcili'Nothrac

Type: Valcili'Nothrac is a great cathedral of unholy torment and blasphemous acts. It sits at the highest point on the great chain of Sper Indiath and commands the ideal position for a fortress.

Description: Valcili'Nothrac is the citadel of Krysenna, Mistress of Pain, Lady of Torment, The Queen of Chains. It is a remarkable building that is huge in size. Towering spires rise up above the cathedral and enormous stained glass windows show many scenes of torture and debauchery. Almost all of them show Kyrsenna at the helm, inflicting the torture on the slaves of the realm. Valcili'Nothrac is also the heart of the plane and the nexus of the chains. It is defended by all the chains of Sper Indiath and they answer the Queen's commands alone. Deep inside the cathedral are Krysenna's own chambers where an endless exercise of deviancy and twisted lusts mixed with the ecstasy of pain is carried out.

Name:
Size:
Attendants- 200
High Masters- 15
Legion Masters-45
Chained Legions- 4500
Blessed Chosen- 100

Hierarchy and Culture: (What is life like within your warband host?? How does one advance, and what ranks are there? What is their reason for following your Lord?)

History: [Redacted]

Military Capabilities:
Attendants- The attendants attend to the needs of the other members of the faction. They have no authority and never have any slaves bound to them. Krysenna personally holds them all in bondage through her naming. They are not combatants but their wretched eagerness to sacrifice themselves to save their mistress means they do need to be considered.

High Masters- The 15 high masters are powerful namers who answer only to Krysenna. She holds their bonds and they are linked to her and by her authority they control the lower levels of the cohort. They are potent magicians and their magical power makes them extremely dangerous in a fight. Plus they have some control over the chains of Sper Indiath as well and can be nasty to fight against.

Legion Masters- The legion masters each control a legion of 100 hundred soldiers. They are powerful warriors who normally have honed their fighting skills for years in countless raids against other planes to capture new slaves. They are very tough and difficult to kill.

Chained Legions-

Blessed Chosen- The Blessed Chosen are Krysenna's own 'children'. Krysenna rarely spares those she decides to use to slake her twisted lusts and desires. But those who she favors and finds satisfying are remade by her skill with truenaming. She reshapes their bodies and minds to fit her desires and calls them her children, the Blessed Chosen of the Queen of Chains. Her chosen have two forms. The first is a human form where they appear extremely handsome or beautiful and the second is the form of the Derevi.

Warcry:

Derevi heads are roughly human shaped but they do not have the same structures. Derevi eyes are larger and more light sensitive than human eyes but they are also less precise and paint a poor picture. Two ridges above and below the eyes can be pushed shut to protect them from the elements or overly bright lights. Above the nasal canals is a hollow horn-like organ that acts like a trumpet. The horn lets Derevi make sounds to help with echolocation and underwater sonar. Below the eyes are two pits that can sense heat which also help the Derevi in the darkness of their underground homes. Thier mouths are large and full of cutting teeth. Derevi heads can tilt back more than human heads and can either be socketed in a horizontal or vertical orientation.

Derevi have two 4 meter long wing fins that are linked to their upper and lower set of limbs. The upper limbs have one long claw finger that is not part of the wing, but are otherwise encased in the wing fins. The fins also include the upper part of the lower set of limbs, going down to around the knee level. The wings are heavily muscled and the Derevi can use them to fly or to propel themselves very quickly under water. When Derevi walk on land they use their two hind-limbs to stand on and fold their wing fins up so that they do not take up as much space. This posture leaves the claw finger ready to strike.

Derevi have three 4 meter long prehensile tails that emerge from the base of the spine. Thier tails are very strong and can easily break bones or constrict tightly. Each tail has a spike at the tip and a venom sack inside. The spikes inject their venom into prey species and are retractable. The tails also can scoop up items for fine motor skills and are much more useful than the wing fin claws there. Derevi venom is a potent paralytic neurotoxin. It causes excruciating pain instantly and then rapid paralysis and death within minutes.

Derevi lower limbs are like human limbs in that they support the body in an upright position. But their lower limbs are shorter than humans and more heavily muscled. They end in four -clawed feet that can close with a vice grip. Two clawed toes point forward and two clawed toes point backwards. When they stand upright on two legs Derevi are about 2 meters tall.

Derevi have slimy skin that is covered by a thin layer of mucus. If their skin dries out it cracks and can develop painful sores. Their skin is tough though and not easily broken.

To say Eyrn is a tower is a gross simplification, but it is one that is often made. After her death in life, and her burial by her followers in the Spire, her spirit took residence in the structure, making it sometimes hard to distinguish the two. She has no physical form beyond the Spire, though a special few have claimed to have seen apparitions of her within her sanctuary, usually with her giving prophetic warnings.

Ten thousand years ago, there was a war, one which shook the skies and smashed the earth. The Empire of Merciful Dark, led by the horrific demon Mother Night, conquered civilization after civilization, subjugating them for its dark god. The mage-lords of the Diadochi were united against this threat, unleashing their awe-inspiring powers to their foes. It was at this time that Eyrn was conceived, the child of one of the warring Diadochi Lords. She was left to be raised by the Galans, a confederation of barbarian tribes aligned with the Diadochi against the common foe. The war had by then been dragging on for millennia, and was a life-or-death struggle for its participants. The eye of the Empire turned against the Galan Confederation when Eyrn was twenty-four. The Diadochi offered no assistance, accepting the loss of the Confederation as a calculated sacrifice in their grand plans. Without aid, the confederation stood no chance, and despite valiant resistance they were gradually being wiped out.

In their most desperate hour, Eyrn emerged among them to lead their armies. At first many derided her growing position and influence, declaring that a woman had no place leading the brave Galan warriors. Yet Eyrn was no mere commoner, with the blood of the ancient magi flowing in her veins, and her power was in many ways greater to her forebears, though how this was is unkown. Wielding holy fire, she led an army of her countrymen against the Enemy. Great though her might was, it was insufficient against the hordes arrayed against her. In the Battle of Isha, after being seperated by her devoted entourage in the heat of combat, she was finally overwhelmed and slain by Mother Night's unholy Champion after a brutal duel. The battle was lost, though her enraged and grief-stricken kinsmen were able to cut their way through the enemy ranks and carry her lifeless body away from the battlefield. All seemed lost for their people, who would be doomed to fade from history.

They interned her in the Spire, a tower of mythical proportions built by one of the Diadochi magisters who had been slain in the early days of the Great War. Though their lands burned around them, they carried her to the apex chamber, where they sealed her within a great golden coffin. Many commited suicide out of despair and grief. Some say that it was this fanatical devotion that caused what would come next, though others insist it was the combination of her magical blood and the inherit arcane powers running through the Spire. Regardless of the cause, she was reborn at that moment. Not physically, of course, but spiritually. In a sense, she became the Spire, and all within could feel her embrace, and rejoiced. By their worship, she became more powerful than she had been in life, and banished the forces of darkness from the surrounding lands.

It took over a hundred years to retake the traditional lands of her people. This was followed by centuries of peace. However, around 9450 years ago, discontent at her rule grew as overpopulation created poverty and plague struck the land. The nobility took advantage of this and led the people in rebellion against her, leading to the Wars of Apostasy. Mendeyrn was sieged and sacked, and though they could not breach the Spire, a period of anarchy followed in which Eyrn could only watch as her people decended into the abyss. She founded the Order of the Tower 9320 years ago, comprising of four thousand of the greatest, most pious knights available to her. They left the Spire and, led by the Oracle, restored order to the Galan lands. Once her tumultuous kindred were once again under her dominion, she re-organized her old empire into a new system. Having learned that direct intervention only made her an unpopular and an enemy of the nobility and the commoners alike, she withdrew from the mundane responsibilities of ruling, leaving the local nobility to rule themselves.

Instead, she imposed only her Three Tenets: Firstly, that any contortion of demons is forbidden and that it is the duty of every Galan to oppose those who do. Secondly, the Oracle, as representative of Eyrn, must be obeyed in all things. And finally, the spilling of blood in the hollowed Spire is strictly forbidden. She formed the Galan League, a loose alliance of all the Galan princes, dukes and kings, with herself as the titular head, though in practice they ruled independently of the Spire. As long as these lords follow her tenets, she allows them to do as they will, but should a nobleman stray from the righteous path, he would soon find himself targeted by the Knights of the Tower.

Eyrn is the Mother, and mankind are her children. Having died as a mortal, she now sees it as her role to guide and protect her people, particularly against the depredations of the Outer Planes. This should not be taken as to mean that she is soft or weak, however, as even before dying she had been first and foremost a war leader. Those who, through malice of foolishness, threaten the world find no mercy within her heart. As a ruler, she relies on the adoration of her subjects, rather than the whip that the Diadochi favor.

Eyrn's most powerful abilities are indirect. Lesser demons and creatures of evil cannot approach the lands around her without suffering great pain, and only the mightiest of them could reach the Spire itself. Her influence also affects the country she resides in, which is pleasant and fertile, contrasting with the arid badlands around it. Harvests are more bountiful and the people more prosperous, making the region seem somewhat heavenly to stunned outsiders. Furthermore, though due to her lack of a physical form she cannot smite her enemies directly, she can imbue those who serve her with great power to wield in her name, and in times of great need, she can psychically speak to her enemies, the contact shattering their very souls. It is for this reason that she communicates directly only with a select few who can resist the ravages of her touch. It should be noted that these powers are proportional to the distance from the Spire; far-away lands are beyond her reach, while in the lands surrounding the Spire her powers are magnified exponentially.

In addition to these, she can see the entire world, though this is very taxing, only used when necessary. Her vision is not limited to the things that are, either. Prophecies and visions of the future sometimes come to her, though it is difficult for her to decipher whether these are things that might happen... or things that will happen. Finally, sher power is amplified through Harrowings, the ritual of human sacrifice completed by the ceremonial suicide of the old, the sick, and the desperate. This act is seen as the height of piety, and those who choose to take their own lives in this manner are revered as martyrs and heroes.

The Oracle is old, older than any human has any right to be. It's visible, as well; his eyes are hollow and empty from his blindness, and he is so thin one would think him a skeleton. Etched on his face are his hundred-and-eighty-nine years of living, and he walks slumped, burdened by the unnatural tolls exacted on his body. When he speaks, his voice is faint, and he seems pained with every breath. One would think he was on his deathbed, had he not been in this state for the past century. On his forehead there is a scar, bright and easily visible, in the form of a tower, which burns red just as it did the day he received it.

Gilbert Carrenhey, formerly the Baron of Menes, was born in the small holding his family had held in their possession since time immoral, a mere tower in the vast forests of wheat. The eldest of four brothers and twice as many sisters, he became Baron at the early age of twenty-two after his father was slain by a rival lordling in a dispute over a stream. Thus was he dully launched into the world of politics of the Galan League, where a friend was only a friend the time it took to take out a knife and stab you in the back. For the next five years he lived much as any nobleman does, finding a wife from a family of suitable rank, from which sprung an heir, a spare, and the inevitable akward third. He quarreled with his neighbors over land, peasants and cattle, and served at the court of his King when called for. His was an unremarkable life, and he dreamed of being great, of being recognized, of being special to any other than the peasants under his heels.

At the age of twenty-six, he decided to journey to the Spire, as was custom for every nobleman within the League. Arriving at the colossal edifice, he was not struck with awe, as most others, but rather shrugged with indifference at the structure and the distant god that inhabited it. He intended only to climb to the apex, pray at the shrine, and then be able to boast of having done so to his peers. It took him hours to climb the tower, and when he reached the top he was exhausted. After pausing for a breath, he duly knelt at the Tomb of Eyrn and said the usual words, thanking the Lady for this and that, declaring his devotion to her Grace, and rose to commence the decent.

"You who are named Gilbert by fellow men," he heard behind him, "have been chosen."

Turning around, he felt his heart stop and his pupils dilate at the sight before him. A golden woman, the Lady- for who other would be so great?- stood before him, awesome and terrible. She smiled, and all seemed right in the world, all his worries gone. His head was exploding in agony, and he was bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth, yet none of that mattered, not when She was before him. The Lady touched his brow, and murmured: "I dub thee Oracle".

On that day, a hundred and sixty-three years ago, a man named Gilbert Carrenhey, Baron of Menes, climbed the Spire, and another, worn and torn and bloody, named only the Oracle, stumbled down the steps, a burning mark on his brow demonstrating his new identity.

Wise, kind, and knowing are word that can accurately describe the Oracle. So are depressed, morbid, and delorous. Over a century of agonizing servitude to a higher being, even a benevolent higher being, wears the soul to the bone. He goes about life with a kind of resigned fatalism, accepting every day as another trial he must pass.

The Oracle has no abilities or powers of his own. All of his derive instead from Eyrn and, by extension, the Spire. Due to his connection to the Lady, he is made aware of the visions that come to her, and acts as an intermediary between her and the League. Despite his frailty, her protection prevents normal blows from hurting him, and he can mentally strike at his foes, as well as cast at the same level as a powerful mage.

Type: The Spire is, obviously, a tower. When one speaks of the Spire, one also refers to the metropolis around it, a bustling city of some sixty thousand.
Location: It is located on the continent of Varyon, south-east of the Diadochi city states, on the band of fertile land between the lush coast and the arid interior.
Description: The Spire is, to state the obvious, tall. At a height of slightly over 800 stories, the fact that it stands at all is proof that it must have been constructed by elder beings in the time before history, as the legends say. Sitting on a sheer cliff, it reaches into the clouds, shrinking in diameter at around 500 floors before ending at the Apex, a great dome containing the Tomb of Eryn, a massive golden coffin containing the remains of what many believe to be a god. Despite standing since before time was recorded, the Spire appears as structurally sound and magnificent as it must have been when it was first erected. Similarly, despite being besieged in the past (many times, as it were, for not all appreciate the Lady or her followers), it has suffered no damage from either siege weapons or fire. If there are powers able to harm the Spire, they are unknown to mankind. The tower's entrance is guarded by massive doors of iron, a foot thick, which normally remain open night and day, but in times of crisis, they can be closed, at which point the attackers could pound on them with their fists, and it would accomplish the same as a battering ram.

Surrounding the Spire and the cliffs it sits on is the city referred to as Menderyn, though it is also referred to as the Spire by outsiders. With sixty thousand inhabitants, it is not the largest city in the Galan League, but it is certainly the most visited, as pilgrims from all over the League come to pay homage at the Tomb. Unlike those of the Spire, its walls were built by mere men, and are therefore destructible. Despite this, they remain formidable defenses, though perhaps neglected in recent years of peace. Smashed towers and crumbling walls elsewhere in the city stand testament to more turbulent times.

Size: The Order of the Tower contains exactly 4 000 members.
Hierarchy and Culture: The four thousand knights are divided into ten four-hundred man regiments, which can and do operate on their own. These are further subdivided into ten fourty-man battalions. Though all knights are theoretically equal, each battalion is led by a Knight-Sergeant, elected by his peers to lead them. The Knight-Sergeants in turn elect and anser to the Knight-Lieutenant, responsible for the regiments. Finally, the Knight-Lieutenants are commanded by the Knight-Commander, chosen by the Oracle among the most worthy of their rank, who is second in command only to the former and the Lady herself within the Spire.
History: The Order was founded in the War of Apostasy, when those who saw Eyrn's rule as tyrannous rose up in rebellion. Mendeyrn was besieged, and while it withstood for nearly a month, finally the rebels assaulted the walls and sacked the city, as well as killing the Oracle of the time. After thirty years of anarchy and war, Eryn selected a new Oracle, and formed the Order as it exists now, a corps of four thousand of the greatest knights of the League, swearing fielty only to the Spire. They are blessed by her, giving them greater strength and endurance than other men, as well as ability in magic. Since then, they guard the Spire, and eradicate any who threaten the Lady.
Military:



Knights of the Tower, regardless of rank, all have the same armaments. Though traditionally equipped with sword and shield, they are expected to be master at many kinds of weapons. In battle, they typically form a shield wall to withstand an enemy charge, and then counterattack with enough zeal to cause the foe to flee. They are also adept mages, due to the blessing granted to them by the Lady, and as being a nobleman is a requisite for membership, they are all learned, with the mind beyond considered just as important an asset as the sword arm.