Xaoc

## Common Knowledge

Denizens of K’Vesten or military personnel who fought in the Fel War in 10,018 A.B., would know that Xaoc was formerly the leader of the Fel (called their Hierophant) and usurper monarch of K’Vesten, and might even know that he is now dead.

## Further Description

Xaoc was the final Hierophant to survive the initial Fel Invasion, as the other two were defeated and cleansed of their Fel corruption. He had a history of occasionally antagonizing the Binturian Party, but became reclusive in the years after he usurped the K’Vesten monarchy.

As the sole remaining Hierophant still bearing some of Vierfrynn’s mind, Xaoc exhibited unfathomable levels of willpower and magical prowess, and was considered by many to be among the greatest, if not the greatest, martial combatants on the Material Plane.

Xaoc was heavily wounded by a combined military effort, spearheaded by members of the Binturian Party, in 10,018, and was killed by many of the same Binturians later that same year in a different incident.

## Early Life

### Birth and Family

Xaoc was born to a family of human peasant farmers in the backwoods of Orelisle. The details of his life have been lost to time, but it must not have been terribly pleasant, given subsequent choices.

### Striking the Bargain (10,016 A.B.)

In 10,016 A.B., Vierfrynn led her Fel Invasion across Orelisle with the aim of conquering it and finally exacting vengeance. As she conquered the Abyss to use its inherently corrosive powers, she reached out to three mortals on the Material Plane. Xaoc was one of those mortals, and to him she offered a deal: offer himself to her and annihilate those who stood against her, and she would make him powerful like none had ever seen.

Xaoc agreed, and he was teleported to the Abyss and made into a Hierophant. This is likely also the point where his martial prowess was gifted to him, in addition to the substantial magics the position grants.

## Time with the Binturian Party

### Fel Invasion (10,016 A.B.)

During the Fel Invasion, Xaoc acted as one of the Fel’s three Hierophants, along with Nor and Mortalis. He directed strategy of different military assaults from within the Abyssal Tear, often directly controlling vast legions of Fel creatures at once. If need be, he would descend to the Material Plane for support or direct attacks of his own.

Though he ultimately lost the final fight against the Binturian Party within the Tear, he was the only one of the three Hierophants to escape, and the only one of the three to have genuinely joined of his own accord.

### Overthrowing K’Vesten (10,016 A.B.)

Following his defeat during the Fel Invasion, Xaoc went into hiding. He expected the Binturians would seek vengeance against him just as he sought the same against them, to say nothing of the rest of Orelisle. He bided his time in various safehouses, regathering strength and amassing another, smaller army. At some point, likely over the summer, Xaoc commanded a great deal of his resurgent Fel forces to attack K’Vesten and overthrow its crumbling monarchy.

Installing himself as its new monarch, Xaoc ruled K’Vesten with an iron fist (as if the region couldn’t be any more bleak) and directed its resources towards a very elaborate trap for the Binturians.

The Binturians escaped this trap, and from Xaoc, with relative ease. Xaoc set about planning his next scheme of revenge.

### Fel War; Deposed by the Binturians (10,018 A.B.)

Xaoc spent an awful long time planning. Some might even say, he spent too long and missed his opportunity. In the time Xaoc had spent planning, members of the Binturian Party had begun planning on their own. Rather than simply waiting for Xaoc to expose himself to an attack with a harebrained scheme, the Binturians would simply go to him. For months, members of the Binturian Party amassed resources and allies, devised countless strategies and contingencies, and trained themselves for an assault directly on Xaoc’s Fortress.

Their preparations culminated in a massive battle, which lasted a single evening and would be referred to as the Fel War. Many nations’ armies took part in the Fel War, including Oscoria, the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, Zondros, Talios (?), Dilghao, Calahay, the Winter Court of the Butterfly-Folk, and Kuragma’s private military faction the SIlver Horn. Seven Binturians spearheaded the Fel War: Niccolaux Bolivar Ostinato; Nayeli; Noch; Naimuna; Aquano Silfedis; Ben Dover Silfedis; and Morgan.

Part of the plan was also to determine a new Hierophant. Through careful research, the Binturians had come to understand that now that a Hierophant existed, one must always exist. A person could willingly take on the powers of a Hierophant if they were able, but if none nearby were willing the power of the Hierophant would simply choose a suitable host based on its own criteria (perhaps even at random). To that end, the Binturians vetted many potential candidates, and the most suitable ones fought in the Fel War.

Xaoc’s Keep was a large castle constructed primarily out of obsidian blades, and protected by a magic barrier that prohibited intruder entry. The assault team fought their way to the keep and crossed the bridge over the moat surrounding the keep, then executed a ritual to dismantle the barrier. That done, they tore through the door into the castle and fought their way through waves upon waves of Fel creatures. Upon reaching the top of the tallest tower, where Xaoc appeared to be, they looked down to see Xaoc on the ground holding a handheld device of sorts.

Using the device to active remote charges in the tower, the Binturians scaled the crumbling wreckage of the exploding tower to reach Xaoc at ground level. A brutal fight ensued, but at the last moment, just before the killing blow was struck, Xaoc teleported himself away to safety.

Though Xaoc would never again hold sway over K’Vesten, or any of Orelisle for that matter, the Binturians and their allies ultimately failed in their mission.

### Usurping Tark’s Tower, and Death (10,018 A.B.)

Xaoc teleported away from his near-death experience, and harnessed the power of the Fel and its latent connection to the strange and unknowable void to recover as quickly as possible. He had nearly drained the power of the Hierophant, and was practically at death’s door. Unfortunately for him, no place on Orelisle was safe for him now. He lacked the necessary power to open a rift to the Abyss (or Mordant Realms, if you prefer), and he could only stay in one place for a few days at a time before locals or recon parties detected him and forced him to flee again.

For six months, Xaoc hopped from place to place, with no food or sleep, sustained only by the dwindling power of the Hierophant within him. At last, he collapsed in the snowy tundras of the farthest north reaches of Orelisle. But fate is a funny thing, and his body was found by a friendly fae before the cold could take him. The fae in question, one Horevan Antagoniste, was a friendly and foolish but powerful creature, who took Xaoc’s nearly-lifeless body back to his home: the tower of Doomlich Tark. This tower is a marvel of runic and magical knowledge, able to sustain both itself and various contraptions of Tark’s design. Using its power, and classical healing methods, Horevan and Tark nursed Xaoc back to stability with no idea of his true identity.

Xaoc weighed his options. His pride would not allow him to live a meager existence with meager company, but he needed more power to exact a proper revenge. Struck with a brilliant idea, he told Horevan that he was a changed man and asked for control over Tark’s tower. Believing his obvious deception, Horevan agreed, and Tark ceded to this supposedly earnest request. Xaoc used the tower’s magic to nearly fully rejuvenate himself, then flood Fel corruption back through the tower to assert direct control of it. He banished both Horevan and Tark, and laid a cunning trap for the Binturians.

...or it would have been a cunning trap, if Tark and Horevan had not immediately gone to the Binturians for help. Though Horevan considered himself the Binturians’ mortal enemy, that was mostly to test their wits and skills and neither party bore the other much ill will, if any. The Binturians agreed to help, just as one of Tark’s constructs arrived with an invitation to the Binturians to challenge Horevan once again.

Upon entering the tower, Xaoc locked the Binturian Party within and mocked them for falling for his obvious ruse. The Binturians navigated through Tark’s - now Xaoc’s - tower and dismantled some of the traps left behind, finally confronting Xaoc at its peak. Xaoc had given himself invulnerability, which was immediately negated when the Binturians activated the tower’s failsafe system to disconnect Xaoc from it entirely. His body shrivelled up into the same emaciated state it had been in when Horevan found it, and the Binturians spent several minutes killing and maiming Xaoc with extreme prejudice. His body was flayed, his soul torn away, his remains split into pieces and burnt to ashes, his head submerged in acid, and a litter of other terrible things to do to a person.

The Binturians sent the powers of the Hierophant to Suuzi, the pirate captain whom they would have given the powers to in K’Vesten if given the opportunity.

After an expression of heartfelt gratitude, Horevan and Tark teleported everyone outside the tower to watch as Tark blew the thing to smithereens.

## Further Information

* The Abyss
* Aquano Silfedis
* The Binturian Party
* Fel Invasion
* Fel Magic
* K’Vesten
* Horevan
* The Mordant Realms
* Oraefin
* Suuzi
* Tark
* Vierfrynn