Benniszth

Benniszth the Blackened

## Other Information

### Abilities

Darkness-Precept mysticism, knife fighting, deception, unpredictability, taunting, haunting presence

### Goals

To bring about Annihilation (failed), to corrupt House Aiataar (succeeded), to topple world economies (failed), to resurrect his master (succeeded), to violate the Prophecy of the First Flame (failed)

## Soul

### Alignment

Chaotic Evil

Benniszth, also known as Benniszth the Blackened, was the second of Mikhalinn's supreme generals during the Scourge of Shadows (alongside Drakon Maianos) and continued to work to bring about his master's plans after the Scourge had been brought to an end. Although not nearly as old as Drakon, Benniszth nonetheless possessed great power and was skilled in both hand-to-hand combat and the dark arts of Qlippoth.

## **History**

Benniszth was born to a human family living in central Andar during the height of the Jhoshan Empire's reign to his parents Amand and Drew Gorm, the younger brother of his sister, Charli. Originally given the name Benna, he was raised brutally by both his parents who were fanatically loyal to the oppressive regime they lived under. His upbringing encouraged Benna to adopt the same allegiance to his Emperor, which would later see him join the Jhoshan military when he came of age.

In his formative years, he was taught how to hunt and trap by his father, who was a deer-stalker of great renown in his community. Even at this time, Benna displayed a cruel streak, enjoying the skinning and disembowelment of small animals before they had succumbed to death.

### **Joining the Jhoshan Army**

Recruiters visiting Benna's village when he came of age took notice of his aggression and will to explore the lands beyond his small community, and he eagerly joined up for service in the military, travelling to Delekosk for training at the military academies. The pride his father showed in him as he left home pleased him.

Despite numerous occasions when he was disciplined for disorderly behaviour during his training with the other soldiers, he soon entered the battlefields on the front lines, seeming to thrive on the chaos and discord of war with the Nords of the south and even the ogre tribes of Irum'Vemak. His strength lay in his natural agility and ability to be fast on his feet, making it nigh-impossible for inexperienced foes to land blows upon him. However, what were perhaps the happiest years of his life were to come to an abrupt end.

### **Murder and Exile**

His recklessness and disregard for the safety and lives of those around him eventually led to the deaths of not only fellow soldiers, but also his captain, and he was sentenced to execution for treachery on the battlefield. Fleeing military courts, he returned to Redwater, his village of origin, to bid farewell to his family. Upon learning of what his son had done, Drew was infuriated and banished him from the family name, and Benna flew into a murderous rage, slaying both his parents and critically injuring his sister before fleeing into the woods and travelling north. It is possible that this is when his mind started to break, as other villagers who were drawn to the commotion claimed to hear mad cackling fading in the night air, originating from the treeline.

### **The Red Seventeen**

Homeless and causeless, and feeling betrayed by those he had looked up to, Benna changed his name and ran with numerous bandit troupes for many cycles, surviving on the merit of his own wits, quick mind and multiple talents. Those he travelled with learned the value of having both a fierce fighter and skilled hunter on side, and he eventually came to lead his own band of roving murderers known as the Red Seventeen, whose connections with various nautical pirate ships led them to venture deep into the vast uncharted territories of southern Vaishun, fuelled by treasure-lust and their leader's insatiable thirst for blood and, perhaps more prominently, the sheer thrill of walking the gauntlet between life and death.

### **The Blackening of Tiamat**

After having successfully raided several native tribes of the Myrkish and pillaged the relics of a couple of lost jungle temples, the band of cutthroats eventually discovered the entrance of a shrine to the serpent goddess Tiamat, and were promptly attacked by the fearsome monstrosity that emerged from the depths of the edifice. The dreadful three-headed beast resembled a form of dragon, but none could identify from either fact myth, its true nature. The creature's flesh-melting venom dissolved Benna's crew and he barely escaped from it with his own life, having merely been grazed by its awful fangs. Left alive but horribly charred and mutilated by the toxin which coursed throughout his entire body, he dragged himself from the depths of Charnoth and bought passage back to Naen with the wealth he had acquired through murder and theft. The pirates who granted him this passage were taken aback by the fact that he gave them enough riches to buy the entire ship permanently. Benna, however, had turned his intentions towards something beyond mere material gratification. In the dark of the gloaming jungle, voices had whispered in his head of a chance for vengeance upon the world that had cast him out and taken so much of his body and mind from him.

### **The Road to Oblivion**

Upon arrival back in Andar, he travelled back to Redwater for what would be the last time, leaving a trail of unsolved abductions and murders behinds him that were suspected by the local clergy to be connected to some form of demon worship. At this time he also became addicted to the opiate known as troxia, which he found to be the only substance that could relieve his wracked body from pain temporarily. Locating his sister, who had survived his vicious wrath many cycles before and had converted to the faith of Maiar to atone for her family's moral crimes, he waited until the whole community was attending a service Charli led before entering the church and massacring all within. Leaving his sister alive until last, he revealed his identity to her before killing her as well and offering up the blood that drenched the chamber as a sacrifice to Oblivion, summoning a voivode named Kaloth, who performed the Song of Annihilation and inducted Benna into the ranks of the warlocks. Vowing to make amends for any unselfish deeds he might have committed in life, he took Benniszth, a word in Tartarian which means "Penitence", as his name, enjoying its similarity to the one given him at birth.