Cyric

*"No...you are not the ones who will defeat me."*

Cyric is a powerful divine being who has wrought havoc throughout the planes since being freed from his prison in Episode I: Reclamation. Stopping his plans is the number one goal of the Sandstriders.

### Backstory

Cyric, also known as the “Killer
of the Divine,” the “Harbinger of the Future,” or “The Void God,” did not begin
as a powerful threat. Originally, Cyric began as a Voidsoul Genasi – a very
rare type of Genasi which are treated as pariahs by the other elemental types.
The Primordials declared that all Voidsouls were to be killed immediately. They
viewed them as an existential threat. As opposed to the other types of Genasi
(Firesoul, Watersoul, Earthsoul, Airsoul), which emit energy, Voidsouls had
the ability to absorb and use the energy of other beings – seemingly without
end.

For whatever reason - whether the
love or pity of a parent, or something else – Cyric was not killed, and instead
went into exile. When the Council of Three and the Primordials had their final
epic battle, and the Council defeated the Old Gods, Cyric was traveling on a
pathway towards some mountains not too far away. Somehow, he absorbed what was
left of the Four Primordials – an event that gave him massive power. It is
unknown if Cyric was as mad as he is now before this event, but it certainly
didn’t make him more sane.

Cyric often speaks with five voices (one for each Primordial, as well as his own). These voices are known to disagree with each other. In essence, Cyric holds five consciousnesses in his mind.

He fought the Council of Three a
few times over the next few millennia. Eventually, they defeated him; unable to
kill him, they banished him to Vuul’kira, the Plane of the Unwanted. He
eventually broke out of his prison, using the Shardminds to help him open a
portal back into the world. Desperate, the Gods created a new type of prison,
an extradimensional prison based on a gem of sorts, and hid the gem away in the Freezing Wastes.

Cyric found a way to communicate
through the gem, and communicated with Gramorn Duskfell in Stin Cepel. Gramorn,
through a series of agents, retrieved the gem, and enacted the ritual which
released Cyric and imprisoned Jenova at the same time.

### Campaign

Cyric took some time to recover
his strength from being locked up so long. During this time, the Harbinger Coup acted as a distraction.

After Reclamation, Cyric, with
his power restored and a greater understanding of his own abilities, shocked
the Council of Three by coming out of nowhere, essentially absorbing their
divinities, and then banishing them to the very prison they first placed him in
– Vuul’kira, the Plane of the Unwanted. Liev, the leader of the Harbinger Remnant, did the same thing to the Sandstriders.

Cyric used the bodies of the
Sandstriders to enact his will in the material plane, awakening evils old and
new and generally sowing chaos. All the while, Cyric began his search for
information regarding the Temple of the One. When the Gods got wise to his
plans, he created a Consortium of allies by promising them great power. He
freed Levistus from his hellish prison; he promised Bane victory in battle
against Kord; he promised Malakai that he would rule over all dragons; and he
promised Melora that the world would be razed so that nature could once again
rise to prominence.

When the Sandstriders came to the
Astral Sea, Cyric took the form of Eldak in an effort to gather information
about the Temple of the One. Unsuccessful, he stunned the party and walked away
– but not before taking a strike from McCreedy’s Blade of Chaos.

Cyric communicated with Jenova, calling her his "sister." It was revealed by the party that both Jenova and Cyric were once Voidsoul Genasi whose lives took a very serious turn. Empathetic, Jenova reached out to Cyric, believing she could save him. However, once he used her to help him get past the Trials of the Temple of the One, he turned on her. After a battle, Cyric, Jenova, and Laz Ursulus disappeared through a rift in spacetime. Cyric is currently hunting The One, to what end, no one is certain.