Nylock

*“It makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.”*

-Nylock

## History

A great half-elf warrior, Nylock was one of few chosen to be a Lord in the Final Empire. He was lost to the doomed future, but brought by through time by Tolumvire of Arendur, who maintained his position of Lord and dispatched him on his Great Crusade. Nylock was recalled during the Arendur-Ragnarok War, where he was named the Knight of Arendur, a position held by only two people in existence. He used his Four-Dimensional Symbols to cast a world-wide antimagic field across Terra, forcing Ragnarok to allow Arendur some say over its own surrender terms. The act brought about the fall of Arendur, and inadvertently destroyed the Empire of Caprakan. Nylock followed Tolumvire into exile, but was brought back when the Holy Council determined to make him the God of Swords. Somewhere along the way, he was corrupted by O'Rangus, and somehow made integral to the elder evil's plan, but was presumably freed when O'Rangus was killed.

## Personality

Nylock was the most loyal of Tolumvire's Lords, considered by many to be unimaginative yes-man with a peachent for narrating the obvious. He was the first to herald Tolumvire as the "Supreme Leader" of Arendur, and the first to follow him into exile. Only once did he raise his force against his master - to express his fear of death - but he would have died for Tolumvire nonetheless.

## Worshipers

* Mortal Sword: Paralance. Nylock granted his old friend the status of his mortal sword. No other warrior was nearly so worthy.
* Shield Anvil: Khamsa. The Red Knight of Alba Coralis who had defied Aldrich and made himself into a knight of faith was, despite his reservations, privileged by Nylock as the repository for the world's sorrow.
* Destriant: Curtin. The god of swords lets no throne guardian go without a measure of his blessing; a divine shield against the end, investiture as the pontiff of a clergy of one.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

Nylock was invoked various times by priests in Arendur, Ragnarok, and the Final Empire, and did not withhold aid from the soldiers of those kingdoms, some of whom had been old enemies or comrades of his when he had been a mortal.

## After the War

Nylock's worship fell into decline after the war, although some Hexenjägers transferred to New Arendur would invoke his name, admiring the myth of the magic-breaking warrior. As his power stagnated with the advent of peace, the restless sword god would leave his realm behind and begin a decades long hunt for the old one Aldrich. Their battles have been the stuff of legends, but increasingly there has been a desperation on the part of the waning deity, a determination to annihilate the old one before he grows too weak to manage it.

## The Great Awakening

Nylock and Tolumvire travel to Caprakan in order to slay Aldrich, but are overwhelmed by the great old one, who devours the god of swords. Tolumvire is able to retrieve the Final Incantation and flee.