ʜᴏᴡ ʟᴏɴɢ ʜᴀᴅ ɪᴛ ʙᴇᴇɴ?
Since he truly felt fear? Since that wicked feeling had coursed through blackened veins, ravaged through the entire being that he had become. It had become an alien feeling, and it harked him back to times he had long forgotten. Times wiped away from memory and left as revolting flashbacks of a time that mortality coursed through those rakir-rich veins. Vizier of Hell, Violence Incarnate, Vessel of Xandraza. Titles claimed. Yet at the core, he remained what he once was. The meat inside of the casing, the marrow within the bone. Deep down, through it all, he was still…
ʀʏᴀᴅ.
How long since he had last used that name? He wasn’t sure. The few that knew it, were too afraid to utter it. He himself was afraid to speak it. It evoked feelings that were alien to him now, after that wicked infernal crown was placed on his brows. Memories and nostalgia of a time where hatred, fear and dread did not fill his heart, and madness did not plague his shattered mind. A time where he ran an orphanage, and was a respected doctor. The times where he dreamed of a good life; a partner, a house, children to impart his wisdom upon. Recognition amongst peers and friends. What had even drawn him to this life? What had plucked him free of stability and happiness, and unto madness and despair? Ah… yes… that very feeling that drew so many more, and would continue to drag even more.
ɪᴍᴘᴏᴛᴇɴᴄᴇ. ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀʟᴇꜱꜱɴᴇꜱꜱ. ʟᴏꜱꜱ. ɢʀɪᴇꜰ.
And so, a man so bright, so happy, met with the Blue Serpent. A brand was placed upon his hand. Madness instilled upon his mind, fear taking root within his soul. And like a cruel, fickle play of fate, a mere year after, he found himself with a partner, and children to impart wisdom upon. That curse drove him to limits he would’ve never gone to. An absent father. An absent partner. A brutal, cunning man, sacrificing and sentencing souls to death and damnation. A child took their own life. Another, hated and scorned him. And the last, recognised his failure as a father. And the husband? The husband, of course, he pushed away. The perfect life he had wished for, vanishing before his eyes. And who else to blame, but him? Fate had been played with, and fate was a cruel mistress, one that took far earlier than it gave. Ambition, desire, that spark in his eye. And finally, after five decades of terror, five decades of madness, five decades of sheer and unfiltered malice.
ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʏʀᴀɴᴛ ꜰᴇʟʟ.
OOC: THIS POST MAY BE TREATED AS COMMON KNOWLEDGE!