~Lykos Daekon

[Lykos 256]

--This began as a post in the "flesh out your character" thread, but I quickly realized I had invested a bit of time in the biography. A bit of time. There is a bit of artistic lisence taken in certain situations. Some events are exaggerated, yadda yadda yadda the bio is a good read.--
 

\Lykos/

Full Name: Lykos Daekon
Nicknames: "Lykos the Scarred", "Lykos the Red", "The Crimson Huntsman"

Race: Human/Adunian
Gender: Male
Age: 137
Hair: Brown/Grey
Skin: Caucasian
Eyes: Brown, one blinded
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 257lbs.

Place of Residence: No permanent home
Place of Birth: Whitewood, Alistarian Islands, Aegis.

Relatives: unknown
Enemies: Undead, necromancers, endermen, Riolan
Allies: Artorus Elendil's men, Subadai, assorted hunters. The Blind Seer (Zaney boy)

Occupation: Monster hunter/survivalist/Person hunter
Crafting: traps, bows, arms and armor.

Appearance: An old and successful warrior bearing the scars earned in his youth.

Fashion of Choice: Not one for high fashion, prefers practical clothing, short sleeves, hardened joints on critical areas.

Armor of Choice: Light leather armor with steel pauldrons and vembrances.

Weapons of Choice: Dwarven iron strait sword, salamander tooth dagger, subadai-make composite bow, Diamond-edged silver partisan (polearm), bare hands.
-Special mention--->Shield: mithril aspis with sharpened edge to a blade. Obsidian boss. (A boss is a raised portion in the middle of certain shields, aids in parry) painted with the likeness of a self-devouring snake. Forged by Arbrek Starbreaker.

Skill: A master with blade, shield and fist. No magical ability. Basic knowledge of "combat medic" work.


Special Abilities: Natural trust with animals of the wild (ex: feral wolves will trust him.) has some strong hands on him for Beowulf happy punch time.

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Motivations: Freedom, survival, the destruction of the undead and endermen, the flourishing of those he would call friends.

Disposition: Carefree even in the midst of battle, will lend a hand to the needy.

Outlook: "Despite what we think of ourselves as a people, we are all beasts of the wild, some more feral than others... One must always be the hunter, lest he become the prey."

Religion/Philosophy: Non-worshipper of common divines, respects the spirits of nature, and will defend them from darkness.


Positive Personality Traits: Extremely loyal to the few that prove themselves equals to him and earn his trust. Ferocious yet carefree in battle and otherwise. Charitable to those weaker than him, respectful (to a degree) to those equal to him.

Negative Personality Traits: Defiant to anyone who believes themself greater than him (quick to violance in these matters) Once angered, loses his playfulness. Sometimes does not know when to quit, usually relentless.

Misc. Quirks: Possesses a strange hatred of chickens, and will slaughter them on sight.

Likes: Roaming the wilds with his pack of wolves, ripping endermen and other assorted monsters apart with his bare hands.

Dislikes: People who act high and mighty without backing themselves up. "Rank and titles... Like I give a s*** that you're a duke, i'll still beat your arse!"

Favorite Foods: Spider meat
Favorite Drinks: Strong liquor
Favorite Colors: Red, fuchsia (unconfirmed)

Hobbies: Tearing the mosnters of the night limb from limb with his bare hands.

Played by What Famous Person: Russel Crowe (fightin' around the woooorld)

Theme Songs:

-History-

~Birth~

In the pine forrests of the Alistar Islands, in the town of Whitewood, a boy was born to a pair of laborers that worked the mines below the dirt that lay under the city. The boy was born on a local festival that celebrated the spririts the people of the island believed to inhabit the forrests: The Eagle, a relentless watchman and holder of wisdom. The Bear, the protector of the home. And the Wolf, a protector of the land and of the family. As such, the children born on that day are laid in front of the totems of the spirits, and will reach out to the spirit that they hearken to. The boy reached to the totem of the wolf, a staunch protector of the land and a guardian of kin. Thus, the parents named him after their culture's chief wolf spirit, Leíkos.

~Childhood~

Lykos grew quickly, and was able to walk within his first year of life. His parents worked themselves to the edge in order to provide for their only child, and their efforts were not in vain. Lykos grew and grew both mentally and physically into a healthy and dexterous worker within only a few years. Sometimes Lykos would help his parents move their equipment and carry their tools, but most often he could be found outside of the city walls in a very safe forrest protected by the spirits themselves, observing nature and how each animal played their own roles. The plants provided food for cud-chewers, and the cud-chewers provided food for the bears and wolves. The predators would dare not touch the children of the men that ruled the island in this forrest so close to the city, as they recognized the humans as the dominant predator, and respected them as such. That along with an abundance of food allowed the people of the island to travel the southern wilds without fear of attack, and they often slept in the open under the stars.

Lykos learned his way around the forrests, as he knew of the trials he would have to face to become an adult. He would be blindfolded and taken with all of the other children of age to the opposite side of the island and dropped in a brooding northern forrest with nothing, not even the clothes on their backs. They would have to use their skills to keep warm and fed on the week-long hike it would take to get back home. Upon returning, the children would be recognized as adults, but only the first 5 back would be granted adulthood and an adult name. The amount of children to return was usually high, but something disturbed the balance of the forrest when it had come to be Lykos' time... Lykos, now 14, practiced his survival skills every day he could, plunging himself deep into the woods and finding his way back through seperate routes. By the time he was 15, he was ready for his trial, much more ready than the others that would be out there with him. They rode blindfolded in carriages towards the dropoff. While most slept, Lykos listened. He listened to the his surroundings. He took mental note of each bubbling brooke and thunderous waterfall. Upon arrival to the dropoff, the blindfolds were taken off and the children were instructed to pick their directions and to get on their ways, as they only had a week to get back, and each moment they wasted would be a threat to their health.

While most of the children grouped up, Lykos went alone. He walked, not wanting to waste energy. He checked moss growth on the sides of trees and determined which direction was north and headed south, towards where he remembered the waterfall he had heard to be. By the time he had arrived at the large waterfall, the sun was setting and the forrest changed tones. While they were bright and almost cheerful at day, they were quite different at night. Green and brown was replaced by twisted and shadowy black. Unlike the southern forrests, the north was dangerous at night. The forrest seemed to have a hunger of its own and tried to lure you away from your path to almost certain death at the hands of a variety of dangers. While most of the others climbed into the trees to sleep, Lykos continued through night. His sharp senses detected everything in the forrest. The chirping of crickets starting and stopping in a natural rhythm, the twigs on the ground being snapped by nocturnal animals looking for roots to eat... And the soft pitter-patter of careful footsteps, sneaking footsteps. Lykos stopped his movement upon hearing the steps through the underbrush. All other sound faded away, the crickets stopped singing their melodies, the night birds and bats taking roost. The steps got closer and closer, and Lykos turned to the orgin of the sounds, getting as low to the ground as he could, hoping the dark would keep him hidden. The creator of the steps came into view. Another child. The son of a wool trader back into the city. Lykos observed him and followed him for a while. He noted that the child most likely had close to no experience with the wild... His movement was unnatural and he ran into literally every obstacle he could, a stark contrast to Lykos' smooth and fluid stalking through the underbrush.

As Lykos followed the child, a call was sent into the air, which was suddenly followed by a multitude of others. A large pack of wolves were in the area, and had just sounded the call of the hunt. Upon hearing this, Lykos laid on the ground and partially covered himself with underbrush. He watched the other child. He stood completely still, frozen in fear. Lykos was about to call out to the child to hide, but a great beast of a wolf suddenly broke through the trees and bushes and tackled the boy to the ground. The boy was only able to emit a muffled shriek just before the black-pelted alpha wolf clamped down on his throat, tearing the life right out of him. Upon seeing the boy hit the ground, Lykos bolted up and charged at the alpha on silent but fleet feet and tackled it off of the other teenager. The boy was beyond saving, his life draining out of his grievous wound. Lykos tackled the beast and got his arm around its neck. He slid onto its back and wrapped his legs around its center as he began choking the creature. It got to its feet and thrashed about, rolling its own weight atop of the boy before it lost consciousness due to his breath being cut off. Lykos held fast and finnaly snapped its neck with a sideways twist of his arms. Hearing the crack echo through the area, Lykos jumped to his feet and looked around. The other wolves had encircled him, and had watched the fight. They did not help the alpha... They merely watched as Lykos strangled him. The largest remaining wolf, which Lykos recognized as the pack's beta, took a few tentative steps forward. It came forward with a snarl on its face. Lykos took a more defensive stance, a growl of his own rumbling in his throat. The beta suddenly bowed its head. Lykos knew what it was doing. He knew the wolf was submitting, it wasn't going to fight. The others did the same. Lykos tested them. He took a few steps into the forrest and looked back at them. They followed his steps and halted as he did. They were following him with no intention of taking him down.

Lykos was running through the brooding forrest, its twisted roots and branches seeming to open up to him as he jogs an invisible path. He was hungry, he knew that much. The wolves were at his side throughout all of his movements. Suddenly, the beta peeled off to the left, bellowing a hunting call. Lykos followed the wolf, it was chasing a deer. His body in shape, Lykos was able to keep up with the wolves, and was able to see the pack take the stag down. They killed it as the alpha had killed the boy from before, tearing its life out through its throat. He ran up to the wolves, who had already started eating the still-quivering meat. In addition to a slight drizle of rain pouring from the sky, there were no means to make fire in this dark forrest. Lykos had not eaten the entire day, so he decided to join the wolves eating the stag raw.

After 15 minutes of tearing bits of meat off and out of the stag with his hands and swallowing the bits near-whole, Lykos was full, as were the wolves. The beta nudged Lykos and started trotting off westward. Lykos followed, along with the rest of the pack. After an hour of jogging, Lykos and the wolves met a beautiful sight- a clearing in the trees lit bright by bright fluorescent plants and mushrooms along with the moon high above. The wolves proceeded, and Lykos stopped in his tracks, having never seen such beauty. The wolves climbed into a gaping hole in a hillside surrounded by glowing green and blue plants. Lykos climbed in as well. The wolves had brought him back to their den. Lykos later fell asleep with his head on the side of one of the beasts.

The boy woke the next morning to find the wolves gone. He looked around the den, around the clearing. He found their tracks leading to the north... He had to continue south if he wanted to make his way back to the city in time. The forrest turned from chalky darkness to welcoming and vivid color. Birds awoke and sang a praise to the rising sun. Insects made their early-morning rounds to their food sources. Lykos walked through the forrest as the red sun crested the ridges of the island's volcano, which the locals named Romstel's Tower, after their culture's first leader, who had taken his people to this island.

Days of walking passed, and there was no sign of any other children or the wolves. However, Lykos did see one thing that picked up his spirits. Upon cresting a hill, the pearly-white towers of whitewood keep gloriously stood upon the horizon. It would be another day of walking. Lykos wasted no time. He ran through the forrest, dodging bushes, climbing around boulders, rushing through high grass. After a couple hours of this movement, Lykos became tired and slowed his pace back down to a walk. The sun was at its highest and the animals were active. He was hungry once again, but there were no wolves around to take large game down for him. He could catch a rabbit with his bare hands, but it would expend too much energy. He searched the area, eventually finding a stream that ran off from the lake under the waterfall. The stream had fish in it. Lykos waded into the water, careful to not disrupt the fish.

Lykos finished eating his catch, a single salmon. Like the deer, Lykos ate the fish raw. It didn't matter, though, as it was actually more nutricious to eat a fish raw. He tosses the bones and scales back into the stream to be reclaimed and reused by the forrest. The city was only a night's walk away, but he was tired. Strangely exhausted. His mind told him to keep going, but a strange heaviness weighted his eyes down. Surely there would be no harm in- NO. Must go on, only a few more hours before his goal would be within his grasp. A night of sleep threatened his chances of winning a spot as an adult. And so he trudged onwards, his senses dull by lack of sleep.

The sun was down and the moon was at its highest point. Lykos was still walking, but his mind was elsewhere. He found himself snapping awake after "passing out" while he walked. He never stopped walking, but his consciousness left him a few times. A sound snapped him out of his sleep. A scream let out into the darkness. The scream told its story. Something was in great pain, and was actively being delivered that pain. Lykos ran to the source of the scream of pain and saw what caused it. A couple of his competitors had killed a wolf and were already ripping its skin off and eating it raw. The sight was revolting. Not the fact that they were eating it raw, but the fact that they had killed a wolf that showed no aggression. They had killed the poor beast in the southern side of the island. A sector deemed sacred. This act was believed to anger the spirits, and Lykos felt he needed to avenge the unrightful death of the wolf.

The boy crept forward through the grass and underbrush, his form being concealed by the darkness. He could see his targets, however. Like the boy from before, they stuck out like sore thumbs. Any predator within half a mile probably knew they were there. Lykos was one of these predators. He had began crawling to further-reduce his chances of being detected. He would not kill the other teenagers, but he would help them along their ways... He was within five feet of the two, who had their backs turned to him, kneeled down next to the wolf they were eating. Lykos suddenly bolted forward and kicked one of them in the back of the head, sending them tumbling. He followed this with a right hook to the other's meat-filled face. He jumped atop the boy he had kicked and slammed his head into the ground a few times. Getting up from the boy he slammed, he noticed that the other boy had drawn a steel dagger from one of his boots. How the boy had gotten clothing and a dagger was unknown, but it was illegal in the trial. Lykos raised his hands, ready to try and take the dagger out of the other boy's hands. Just before the other teenager charged, a black mass leapt from the darkness, followed by several more. The shape landed upon the dagger-wielder and tore him apart. Lykos quickly backed off and ran into the forrest, back on his way to his town. Several wolf calls spread about the crisp night air. Nature had taken its revenge.

~Early Adulthood~
-Alistar-->Aegis-

Lykos emerged from the forrests as the sun emerged from the horizon. In front of him lay the main gate of his home, Whitewood. The walls were dotted with parents waiting for their children to come home... Including Lykos' own parents. They ran down to ground level and recieved him with open arms. All but three of the children returned that day, and the parents of the lost did not fret, as they knew their children had been claimed by the spirits to live in the forrests forever. Everyone in town feasted and sang as a scop told stories of Aegisian and Alistarian heros. The new adults were named at the end of the feasting, only to be followed by further celebration. Lykos was given the family name of "Daekon".

Years passed, and Lykos had taken a job quite different from that of his parents. Instead of spending his days underground away from the warm embrace of the sun and the beauty of forrests, Lykos took a job as a hunter. At the age of 16, Lykos was an apt member of his trade. He could survive on his own quite easily, but he provided food for his family as well. All good things had their limits, however...

Lykos slept in his parent's thatch-roofed hut in the early morning as the earth started to rumble. The Volcano on the other side was known to be active, and tremors were by no means uncommon. Little did the townspeople know, it was different this time. Inside the volcano, ancient creatures stirred. The island had housed these creatures for countless years. They were birthed of the earthen fire of the volcano, and they had hibernated inside of that earthen mound since the beginning of time. They stirred after an unknown force woke them from their slumber. These creatures were great winged serpents not unlike drakes yet unrelated to them, and they lacked higher intelligence. They emerged from the volcano as it erupted with molten rock and gas and shook the earth further.

Lykos could hear a ruckus outside. Could it be midday already? The markets couldn't be this active in the morning... The muffled murmurs turned to screams. Lykos' eyes snapped open. Something was up, and he would see what. As he rolled off of his bed, the roof of the hut went up in flame. As he felt the heat, Lykos threw himself through the bedroom window. As he rolled on the ground, he looked about for any invaders. No enemies on the ground, he looked to the sky. Strange beasts flew though the air, each spouting purging flames upon those below. Lykos looked to the sun. relatively low in the East. It was still morning, and thr mines would be unlocked. His parents would still be in the mines... And it had exits all around the island.

Lykos ran through the streets, dodging lines of flame as he strode toward the mine's entrance. He ran into another fleeing resident as both rounded a corner, and Lykos tripped, rolling into the open of a courtyard. He stood up and started running forward, but one of the creatures came over a building in front of him and opened its mouth. Lykos tried turning around to run, but he knew he wouldn't outrun his death... As Lykos looked back at the beast, he was slammed in the shoulder, sending him rolling to the side.

"Run, you idiot!"

Lykos heard the familiar voice of the town's guard captain shouting at him. He finished rolling out of the way and found his footing, looking up just in time to see the captain, who he had began forging a strong friendship with, get engulfed by flame. The beast flew off as the Captain took a knee, panicking. His full iron plate armor would not save him from the heat. Lykos looked on, struck by paralysis as he watched his friend literally boil in his suit. The boy shook his head and ran, blocking out the smell of brimstone and burning flesh.

Lykos finnally reached the mine's entrance after picking up a bow and a few arrows off of the ground, assumedly dropped by some poor guardsman lifted into the air and dragged off into the air. He climbed deeper into the earth until he found his parents... His father was grievously wounded by a cave-in, unable to move any further. Lykos kneeled next to him along with his mother. His father had no words, his complexion pallid and white. He only lifted his arm and handed his son his family's heirloom, the tooth of a great salamander, from a long-dead brother of the beasts that were attacking the town. He held in each of his hands a hand of his wife and his son, and he looked at them with happy eyes before he passed on.

Lykos tied the blade to his belt and took his mother into his arms. They stayed like this for a few minutes, but Lykos' mother let him go.

"We can't let this be his grave, down here in the stone... We need to take him back to the surface, somewhere where nature can reclaim him. These things are thankfully not burning the trees... Only the city. Have we done something to disturb the balance?" She said, looking at her husband's still-warm corpse.

"I do not know, mother... But we need to keep moving. The earth still shakes, and more of the tunnels will fall, and if we do not escape, the stone will be our graves as well. I will tend to father..." Lykos tell his mother, taking his father's body onto his shoulders.

After a half hour of trudging through dreary tunnels that held the echos and screams of dying men and women, trapped under miles of stone, Lykos stopped next to a crate of Sunder, an explosive material woven into a cloth and used for precision mining. Remembering guardsmen ineffectually firing arrows at the beasts while they flew through the air, Lykos took the sunder cloths and wrapped them around the arrows he had picked up. The explosives would help him crack through the rocky hides of the beasts if he needed to.

Another hour of walking through the mines and dodging cave-ins, Lykos and his mother found the only remaining exit, which exitted on the Northern side of the island, overlooking the sea. They exitted and walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea. After saying a few words, Lykos let go of his father and let him fall into the sea below. After giving his father back to nature, both he and his mother walked towards the forrests, where they would take cover until the threat had passed. It was not meant to be.

As they neared the forrest, three of the scaled beasts dropped from the sky and landed in front of the two. Lykos took his bow from his back, but the largest of the three beasts opened its mouth, letting loose an inferno upon the two humans, covering them both in flame.

Lykos was on one knee, holding his breath. He heard the sounds of his mother's dying screams, smealt her flesh burning. The flames subsided... And Lykos remained. Not questioning his survival, Lykos took a Sunder-wrapped arrow and nocked it to his bowstring. His sight was clear, his senses in tune. His focus drew in towards the head of the beast. The arrow burned in his grip. It was primed, as Lykos was. He let the arrow fly. It sliced through the air, meeting the right eye of the beast, burying itself to the feathers. The Sunder activated by the contact with the skull, exploded, destroying the beast's skull and everything inside of it. With a strangled and brief roar escaping its newly-formed neck-hole, the beast instantly went limp. The other two beasts took wing and began flying away, roaring at the sky. Lykos looked to the volcano, its top was blown, and lava swept down the southern face. The lava was headed directly towards the town in an unnatural flow. His home was doomed... Home.

Lykos looked to his side. His mother was laying there in the fetal position... Hr skin darkened and crisped. He held out his hand, but when he touched her, she collapsed upon herself... She was nothing but ash. Lykos stood and looked towards the forrest, then ran in.

~Aegis~

-Part I-

A week passed, and Lykos was living in the forrest, slowly making his way back to the Southern side of the island. He hunted alongside a pack of wolves as before for his food, and drank from the streams.

Eventually Lykos reached the area where Whitewood laid. The forrest in direct line to the city was black and flat, burned by the lava as it swept towards the town. The town had suffered the same fate. All but the keep was completely destroyed. The remaining building was still burned beyone recognition. All of the inhabitants had fled or died... Something told him that they had all died. Lykos steeled himself and walked back into the forrest...

A few years passed, and Lykos had thrived on the island. He lived with the pack of wolves he had ran with during his trial for adulthood. They provided good company, but Lykos yearned for someone to talk to. Sure, he could "communicate" with them with body lanuage, but he could not argue with them. There was no debating, no transmission of knowledge or wisdom. There was no art. No music beyond what Lykos created himself. During a dream, the spirits visited him, telling him to leave the island. The island was withering without the humans, the spirit growing weaker every day. They told him that they would follow him to the continent named Aegis, where his ancestors had fled to the island from. There, both Lykos and the spirits would grow stronger.

Lykos followed the words of the island's spirits and made his way off of the island by raft. He watched the island disappear from view as he crossed a horizon... It would be the last glimpse of it he would ever take. The island's nature followed him, as well as a few of the wolves. A week of rafting took him to the shores of Aegis, and he took his first few steps onto the land. He looked about. The trees were different, and it had its own spirits to be respected. The island's spirits merged into Aegis' natural flow, leaving Lykos, but guiding and protecting him as he moved. This land was tainted by unnatural monsters...

After a few months of introducing himself to the land, he found the grand city of Alkhazar. Here he made a name for himself for his great feats of courage and skill. He made his money hunting and destroying monsters, using his proceeds to buy himself equipment and ale, and gave what he didn't use away to those who needed it. He made many friends here. He fought alongside William Baldwin, enjoyed his mead with Throdo Therving, and shared his stories with The blind seer named Zane, who he had saved from Necromancers. Zane thought Lykos was a Dwarf, interestingly enough. Well, who could blame him? He was blinded by the Necromancers and the time spent with Lykos entailed drinking mead and sharing battle stories. Besides these few, there were others that reacted to his kindness. There was a mute boy named Henry that he had always given food and other gifts, as well as a goblin fittingly named "Flower Goblin", who always weared a pumpkin on his head. Lykos had always given the goblins gifts each time he visited, from armor to precious gems.

A half a decade of this passed, and the city was attacked by dissenters after the throne of Oren. Lykos had told the guards to not open the gate for a few soldiers masquerading as monks, but they opened them anyways. The usurpers attacked in force with diamond blades singing through the air. Lykos had seen Herron, a LT. In the OrenGuard getting chased by a half-dozen fully armored usurpers, and interened the best he could. He killed half of the, before being forced back. Herron would have to deal with the others. Lykos escaped the others by climbing to the roofs. He easily lost them, as he didn't have all the armor to haul around as they did. In the streets below, the main leader of the rebelion, Brett Perea, walked about as if he owned he city... He was unguarded. Lykos jumped down and captured him, taking him to a higher-up of the city guard, an Orc. The Orc thanked Lykos for his deed and sent him off to deal with the rebels at the keep.

Lykos snuck his way up the path to the keep, then saw Herron getting chased by EVEN MORE of the soldiers. Lykos ducked into a guard tower and hid until the main force chasing Herron passed. Only one archer remained, firing arrows at the LT. . Lykos bursted out of the tower and decapitated him quickly, then dragged his corpse into the tower. A plan coming to his head, Lykos donned the dissenter's armor and helmet and walked up to the keep. The usurpers had already captured it, and they let him in with no trouble... They thought he was one of theirs. Inside the throne room, he saw Brett sitting in the throne, his supporters next to him. The Orc guardsman walked next to Lykos.

"What the hell is going on?! Did he escape you? You told me you had control of this situation!" Lykos whispered to the Orc.

"I do have control of this situation, hunter... EVERYONE, this man is an imposter!" The Orc shouted.

All of the eyes turned to him, and Lykos shot an arrow at Brett before being forced to run from the dozens of men chasing him. Sadly, the arrow missed, planting itself inches from where Brett's head was leaning. Lykos pulled his sword and slew any in his way as he escaped, ripping the armor off of himself as he ran. Eventually he lost his pursuers and hid in a sewer tunnel. The Orc had his name, and he had to leave. So he left, he ran out into the wilderness. He would not fight for a government he didn't believe in.

Lykos walked the forrests for years. He walked as far north as he could, then circled the massive continent. He kept to the shore and walked the entirety of the land. In his travels, he found a land than seemed to flow under him. It was a beautiful place, full of multitudes of game. There were vallies, mountains, forrests, and grasslands... A perfect place. There was a nearly-ruined Castle on top of one of the mountains, but it was locked up tight, and would require heavy work to open and renovate... Lykos continued onwards.

-Part II-

Five years had passed, and he found himself looking at Alkhazar once again. It had changed a bit. More buildings, at least. He walked inside to banners of blue and white. The Perea had been dethroned or something, because the old king was back. He was no longer a wanted man, it seemed. In the paths, he met a man named Will Chapman, a young man looking to join the OrenGuard. Lykos described the job of an Alkhazar guard. Boring, low pay, long hours. He told Will about the hunting of beasts, be it beast or monster... And Will asked to join him in his hunts. Lykos accepted him in as his apprentice. He taught the young man the hunt. When to hide, when to strike, how to honor nature by slaying the unnatural. Will had done some work behind Lykos' back, though. He told Lykos of his plans. He had splinter agents throughout the different governments of the land. He would see them destroyed. He would take over the land if he were successful, Lykos would become the leader of all. It was a good plan, there was no denying it, but Lykos did not agree with it. Lykos told Chapman that he wished not to involve himself in the politics of this corrupted world, and that neither should he, as it would poison him. Will protested, but finnally heeded the word of his superior. The hunter brought Chapman back to the ruined castle in the wilds and told him of his plans. He would bring an entire group out to this location. The group would consist of three sections: The Bow, The Dagger, and The Sword.

The Bow consisted of huntsmen who hunted for the fun of it, and grew quite skilled at their tasks. They were widely renowned monster hunters, and were called in to eradicate large concentrations of netherspawn. The Dagger consisted of spies and assassins, working the shadier jobs that a large, powerful warrior was not fit for. They gathered information to advance the group in the world, as well as hired themselves out to other groups, and even by nation leaders. The Sword, named "The Sword of Lorem" by Will Chapman, the leader of the section, were muscle. They were the ones you would expect to come charging into a battle headlong in their heaviest gear. They based themselves out of the outskirts of Alkhazar, and rented out their services to whoever would buy them. Thin-necked lords and powerful factions alike seeked their services. They were easily the largest mercenary group Oren had seen...

Everything was going fine. Lykos lived in the castle, hunting each night. Chapman did a splendid job of both directing the Sword and directing the rebuilding of the keep. While most of the men in his group called the castle "Lykos Keep" and "Castle Lykos", Lykos named the keep after the region, calling it the Thorne Valley Keep.

One night after a greatly successful hunt with his hunters of the Bow, Lykos recieved a bird from Chapman in Alkhazar. The Undead were staging yet another attack on the city, and Chapman feared the OrenGuard would not be able to hold the city on their own. Knowing the Undead would not stop and wait for Alkhazar's meek defenses to raise, Lykos bid the hunters of The Bow to gather their equipment and rush to Alkhazar. No one in the group was a fan of Oren, but they had a presence in Alkhazar, and therefore it was part of their home, and they would defend it.

Lykos and his hunters, a dozen in all, met with Chapman in the outskirts of the city. The Sword was at his side. Together, Chapman and Lykos pooled their forces together and charged into Alkhazar, right into the middle of the battle. The group fought as one, tearing through the necromancers' pets as if they were tissue paper. While the "underlings" stayed and fought the undead in the middle of the battle, Lykos and Chapman hunted down the Necromancers and other transcended Undead with feriosity unmatched. They snuck in behind them as they weaved their firestorms, and cut them to pieces before they knew they were there. In the middle of the city, the others in the group fared worse and worse. They easily tore through the monsters, but the necromancers had surrounded them with netherfire and unearthly lava. They noticed this, and thought to escape the inferno. They knew that they could not jump the lava streams, so they quickly decided to use momentum and throw each man across the rivulets of fire as he was sprinting. The roughly half of the men made it out of the circle of fire, but the others were engulfed. Those who survived shouted and yelled in anger and frustration at the loss of their brothers, and let their blades sing through the flesh of all that moved. They destroyed undead and monster until the field lay quiet.

Chapman, Lykos, Redbain, and Thole stood over the remains of monster, undead, and unsuccessful warrior alike. They had charged into the battle and turned the tide with a dozen warriors, but came out only with four alive, the rest being dead or MIA. The Orenians who had survived the battle climbed atop the ruins of the town square and proclaimed victory for themselves and for Oren. The hunters retreated after all of the undead were slain or forced to flee. They found themselves burying the bodies of their slain in the castle garden, and they receded from the sight of the nations, licking their wounds.

Over a few years, the hunters recovered their lost strength, as well as a few allies. Lykos' old friend, Zane the Seer, had become a battlemage. Battlemage Zane brought his group to the castle and Lykos allowed them to build a mages' tower adjacent to it... It was a hideous building, but it served its purpose. Chapman was back in Alk with the Sword's guildhall being rebuilt. Lykos fostered a relationship with a couple he had found that actually had a secluded home built only a couple kilometers away from the castle. The druid Bircalin and the Elven princess Idelwen. He helped them in their building of their house by keeping the area around their house clear of monsters while they worked.

The days were filled with splendor. The hunters bagged thousands of monsters, the mercs were making heaps of money, and the dagger tore information from the underbellies of the nations and sold them to the highest bidder. These good times, like all good things, had to end.

Lykos sat in the study in the main building in the keep. Night had fallen, and everything was quiet. He read books gathered from around the world by the dagger as a rain began to fall. He walked up to the window and lay his forehead against the wall next to it. Just as Lykos felt at peace, a bolt threw itself at the wall Lykos was leaning on. The bolt tore through the wall, destroying a large part of it and throwing Lykos backwards. Lykos scrambled to his feet and rushed to the armory, raising the alarm. The undead had just opened a Nether gate near Bircalin's house, and they had discovered the hunter's keep. The undead were initially after Indelwehn, but found the house empty... So they turned their gaze upon the hunters.

Monsters poured through holes drilled into the walls by the necromancer's bolts, and the hunters charged and tore into them. Lykos stopped himself as he was charging... He could see the gate, half a kilometer to the south. Monsters continued pouring out of it, seemingly infinitely. Lykos yelled for Redbain, one of his most trusted men, to cover him, telling him of the gate. Leaving the rest of the hunters to tear the undead apart, Redbain and Lykos charged through the lines of monsters, cutting a bloody swathe through them on their way to the gate.

Having cleared the gate for a few moments, Lykos told Redbain to go back and help the other hunters. Redbain argued, but reluctantly ran back to the castle to defend his brethren. Lykos stepped through the gate into the realm of fire. He knew he would have to destroy the gate from inside the Nether in order to stop the undead from ever entering the hunter's domain in the southeron plains again. Upon stepping through the gate, he was met by three undead. Two apprentices and an inquizitor, judging by the robes. They raised their staves, but before they could finish their incantations, they met Lykos' blade, which split their heads into pieces with each swipe. Their bodies fell to the ground, their robes burnt off, leaving nothing but a skeleton. As with all transcendent undead that he killed, Lykos pulled a tooth from each, stuffing them into a pouch on his side.

Closing a minor gate like this one was trivial. It only required a few seconds of concentration and an item connected to Ariel. Lykos did not worship the deity, but her tools were useful against his enemies. Smashing the idol into the base of the portal, it dissolved away and returned to where it was summoned from.

The portal to Aegis gone, Lykos had only a single option. He had to traverse the Nether and find a portal. And he needed to move quickly. He was stuck in the realm with no food, and the water in his canteens had instantly dissappeared upon walking through the portal.

After a few hours of dodging undead, Lykos found a way out. In front of him, a tower appeared. On top of the tower was a portal. Lykos quickly climbed the tower and threw himself through the portal. He rolled into the grass of Aegis, a huge improvement to the fire and brimstone... In front of him, a Necromancer observed the area below him. They were on top of the mountain overlooking Thorne Valley. Lykos walked up behind the Undead... It spoke, greeting him. It did not look back, and only thought Lykos was one of its kin. Lykos replied by shoving his sword through the back of its skull, killing it instantly. A scout. The portal closed promptly after he had parrished.

Lykos ran down to the keep to find it torn apart, blackened by fire. Beneath his feet, he saw numerous bones. Pigman. Rotted Zombie... No normal human. He continued on into the main entrace hall of the main building. Inside, he found what he felt had happened. I front of him lay the bones of his comrades. Their flesh was burned away, and only bones and bits of armor remained. Around them lay the charred bones of dozens of piggers and zombies. His brothers died with sword in hand. He counted his dead. All of the hunters that were with him had perished, except for one. Lykos could not find the corpse of Redbain amongst the ashes.

Lykos set explosive charges on the supports to the main hall and set them off from outside... Their home would be their graves, the bodies of their enemies their headstones. Lykos walked out of the keep, crushing a pigman skull with his boot on his way out. He felt destroyed. He had found victory that day, but the entirety of the bow, save for Redbain and himself, was destroyed. His home was destroyed. Chapman had sent himself off before the day the battle came. He felt that Lykos was accusing him of stealing something, while Lykos had only said that SOMEONE had taken a chest of riches from the loot piles in the basement... That meant he was away, and that he was safe. Lykos would not see him again for decades.

-Part III-

Lykos walked into Alkhazar, starving and wretched, covered in dust and grime from his time in the Nether. His clothes and armor was tattered and destroyed. He walked to the Therving tavern and collapsed inside. He awoke the next morning in fresh clothes to warm food. Throdo gave him the food and clothes in payment for Lykos' years of donating to the tavern... His friend William Baldwin met him on the first floor, and they basically drank the day away, getting into a few violent pub brawls to vent steam.

As the sun set, Lykos was passed out in the tavern due to the sheer amount of alcoholic beverages he had enjoyed that day. That night would be hell. He woke to the sounds of a scuffle outside. His head pounding, he looked outside. It was not a pub brawl, as he had predicted, but instead a man being chased down by a trio of undead pigmen. Lykos leapt out of the tavern, sword and shield in hand. He caught up to the pigmen, but they had already slaughtered the man. After a short battle, all three pigmen lay on the ground, beheaded.

Lykos looked about. The city was on fire. Lykos listened to the area. There were screams and war cries from both man and beast. He takes in the smell of the area. Brimstone and death. The city was once again being invaded by the undead. Just his damned luck to be caught in it.

Lykos went through the battle, killing monster, necromancer, and thrall alike with relative ease... Until the undead brought in the miasma. A thick cloud settled over the city, each breath bringing an intense burning sensation to all who stayed.

Lykos pulls his blade from a necromancer's skull and pulls his sandstorm scarf up onto his face to negate a bit of the miasma's effects. He looked around. He was surrounded by undead monsters. Normal. But one thing wasn't normal. The city's populance screamed and shouted of retreat, and so they did. Besides a few other heroic or stupid individuals that could be counted on one hand out of the hundreds that lived in the city, Lykos was alone in the dying city. Thousands of warriors had come to fight the netherspawn. They had fled. He had remained.

Lykos watched as all who remained fell to the miasma, one passing out near him while fighting a necromancer. Lykos rushed through a legion of zombies and jumped across a rivulet of lava in order to backstab the necromancer before it could kill the unconscious man. After killing the undead, Lykos picked the man up onto his shoulders. Then he looked around. All around him, the city was destroyed. He was fighting for a city that he personally hated, even after its destruction, just to protect his friends. All of his friends were dead or had fled, so he thought of escape as well. Lykos dragged the man out of the city, carried him all the way to Alras' refugee camp.

After dropping the man off, Lykos kept moving. All the way to his hunting lodge near a mage tower to the south of Alras. Here he collapsed and stayed for a few days, drifting in and out of consciousness until his body could work the effects of the miasma off.

By then, Alras was being attacked. Lykos charged into battle once again and nearly drowned in the breaking ice around the city, only being saved by his bestest drinking and all around killing buddy William Baldwin. The two, joined by Redbain, who had found himself a guard in Galahar, fought the undead until their ground forces retreated and pulled in another cloud of miasma. The trio continued to fight as others fled. They fought their way through the falling city to the keep, where they held out at the front gates, stopping the undead advances. After hours of defense alongside other surviving heros, giant hellcraters opened up, and thousands of monsters climber out. One scout told the heros that the undead had already infiltrated the keep, and that there was no longer anything to fight for.

The group fought and fought, eventually tossing the netherspawn back into the holes they came out of, and fought their way out of the city, gathering in Galahar. For weeks after, it remained calm, save for plague outbreaks, Orc attacks, and demonic wannabes trying to kill everyone. Lykos spent his time in the town's makeshift arena fighting and watching, but found himself bored. He went out and joined a group of people in a temple right off of the King's Road. They told him of dragons and drakes, as well as information on the Salamanders of Alistar Island. He stayed with the group through many troubles, including Orcish invasion, Shad'Rin attacks, and other assorted events of frivilous nature. With this group, Lykos befriended Arbrek Starbreaker, a Dwarf with an affinity for forging and drinking ale, a real individual.

Meeting Starbreaker was quite nice, as later in the month, Lykos was walking down the King's Road only to be assaulted by a Dwarf with a fish, who was claiming to "finish the rite". Lykos killed him for it. Right in time for a Dwarf named K'jell Ironheart to walk by with his possee of other Dwarven councillars and higher ups, including Starbreaker. K'jell proclaimed at they were to carry out Dwarven law. Lykos had just slain a Dwarf, so they had to slay him. All drew swords and began attacking Lykos, with Starbreaker staying back and not swinging. Lykos kited them and led them down to the frozen lake below. Three attacked him. He parried their blows and counterattacked, killing two and forcing K'jell to retreat back up to the road to Starbreaker, Lykos on his tail. As K'jell and Lykos stared each other down, Starbreaker stood between them, asking them to stop their fighting, as enough blood had already been shed, and no more was required.

Lykos growled to himself, then sheathed his sword out of his friendship with Arbrek. K'jell and Arbrek proceeded to walk away to fight a different battle. Lykos didn't care. He let them recover their defeated friends from the lake and he went on his way.

A year later, Aegis darkened. Stalkers known as Endermen watched the land as the undead ravaged it. Lykos and his friends fought them as they appeared, but the undead were infinite. Gates opened around the land, letting loose attacks on The cities of all races. It was revealed that one such gate had opened under Laurelin, and the capitols' leaders gathered their heros to storm the nether and to destroy them from the inside. Lykos went in under Galahar's banner. Merely saying that he fought alongside one of their knights, William Baldwin, allowed him to participate in the battle. Dodging the many traps within it, Lykos fought alongside the other heros of Aegis, working their way to the heart of Drauchreich, where a Dwarf used the Axe of Krug to force the Nether to collapse. Lykos threw himself out of the gate before it closed, and found himself in Aegis once again. Unlike the last time he returned from the cursed realm, he did not emerge in a peaceful forrest. Lykos looked about. He was in the outskirts of Galahar, which was being burnt to the ground by the undead.

The forces of the Nether did not care about the loss of their home realm, they endured. They did not falter in their attack on Aegis. In fact, they intensified their attacks. Before long, the people of Aegis were fleeing the realm to the Verge, leaving their homes, their very lives behind. They indeed found safety from the undead in the realm, but they found new dangers.

Lykos watched people scurry about. People buzzed about, furiously felling trees, digging holes, and planting saplings. Everywhere. Burning and smelting everything they could get their hands on. All to make themselves feel better about themselves. People let off stress in different ways, it seemed. Each race built great ships, and eventually set off into the stormy seas.

~Asulon~
-WIP-

[LaCabra (Soda) 1515]

He's had a much harder life than I could have imagined. Can't wait until the Asulon entries are in! :)

[Lykos 256]

Asulon sections almost complete.