Halos Panascon

## Bio

Halos lived a fairly normal life during his childhood. His family was involved in politics with great kings along the land. With their help, they secured peace across the *Pangea*. However as a child, Halos was rather fascinated by magic. He would be astonished whenever a wizard would stroll through his city and accompany them on small adventures. Upon reaching adulthood, the elder dragons agreed to form the elder dragon riders and Halos’ father was elected to become the Black Rider of Necromancy. However, his father believed himself to be too old to carry a burden and bestowed the honor upon Halos instead. With the cool wind of *Elder Dragon Dulath’s* whisper, Halos became the Black Rider. He quickly became experienced with his powers and traveled with Dulath a great many times. Over time, he befriended the dragon and taught many about the cycle of life and other practices within necromancy. In his early ridership, Halos expressed that necromancy is not evil as it is typically portrayed as and instead can be seen as beauty due to the aspect of life. However, his view on necromancy slowly decayed as he aged. Seeing the other riders becoming old as well, Halos became obsessed with the possibility of immortality and began performing questionable rituals. In the interest of keeping his rider, Dulath unlocked the secret of immortality to Halos and bestowed it upon him. Halos was entitled to be the Black Rider forever. His vision of necromancy retained to the tainted stereotype that many perceive it and Halos abused that perception.

## Ridership

Halos served Dulath faithfully for hundreds of years while stepping out of line only a handful of times. Dulath instructed Halos to retrieve an ancient artifact created by the *Lich* called the *Orb of Occult*. Dulath desired it as it contained many souls which he could use to conjure a massive army. Upon his command, Halos set out to retrieve the orb. He quickly tracked it down to reside within one of *Ehlonna’s* beloved forests in central *Silvestris*. She had assigned the orb to be guarded by a long lived bloodline of wood elves. Halos desecrated the village her guardians belonged to in an attempt to find the orb, but *Henath* escaped with it before he could find it. With no way of tracking Henath, Halos sent his undead forces to attempt to find him and returned to Dulath empty handed. Dulath was furious as he had great plans for the orb and desired to punish Halos. However, Dulath questioned himself on Halos’ punishment due to his immortality. Dulath banished Halos to reside within the *Underworld* as proper punishment. Halos quickly formed influence as the black rider to the sentients of the Underworld and performed small deeds for the powerful creatures such as mutants, demons, and devils. Over time, Halos would perform missions for Dulath while in his banishment such as preparing armies to surface to the *Material Plane* and manage incoming souls from the *Fade*. Halos performs his duties diligently in the hopes of lifting his banishment. He almost cursed his blessing of immortality. Additionally, he helped harbor *Elder Dragon Beledath* by maintaining the dragon’s madness.

Halos lived in isolation until *Annastilla*, *Calirius*, *Chokoff*, and *Ealrith* disturbed his home. The party was accompanied by *Elder Dragon Zurrath* who wished to speak with Beledath. Playing as if Beledath was living in the Underworld willingly, Halos allowed Zurrath to speak to Beledath and kept the party company. Once Zurrath’s discussion went south, Halos attempted to kill the party and chased them by grabbing onto Zurrath as he ascended through *Dulath’s Gate* while Zurrath and Beledath battled with the party mounted on Zurrath. Halos was ultimately forced to retreat during the encounter as his banishment caused him to fall off of Zurrath and return to the Underworld.

Halos remained in the Underworld until the signal of the summoning of the riders was activated by *Elder Dragon Rider Kaiden Armov*. The signal expelled Halos’ banishment and allowed him to travel the material plane once more which he left for *Caelum* immediately. During the meeting, Kaiden revealed visions to Halos and his fellow riders that showed the reunion of the elder dragons once more causing the banishment of *Tiamat* to be lifted. His visions showed an apocalyptic event displaying the reemergence of Tiamat who effectively destroys the material plane. With his vision validated and ideals aligned with the riders, they all set off  from Caelum to ensure that this event couldn’t happen. After adjourning from Caelum, Halos accompanied *Elder Dragon Rider Merek Uhmil* as Halos informed Merek that Dulath was traveling to *Elder Dragon Venia’s* location to secure her. Merek then informed Halos of Zurrath’s intentions to restoria Venia which they formed an alliance to thwart Zurrath’s quest. However once arriving at the scene, Beledath had already nearly completed the ritual to undo Venia’s adamtine form which *Akir Duskwalker*, *Arthus*, *Ser Ravyn*, *Severus Willow*, and *Zavidur Ugadesh* fended off Merek and Halos long enough for Beledath to complete the ritual. Additionally, *Elder Dragon Rider Lilith Marowe* turned on Halos near the end of the battle. Halos cursed Lilith and Beledath’s name and teleported back to the surface to assist in the duel between Zurrath and Dulath. However, the duel was ultimately a stalemate once Lilith assisted Zurrath which caused Dulath and Halos to retreat to southern *Therinox* where they plotted to scourge the rest of the continent.

During the second commune of all elder dragon riders, Halos revealed that he thwarted the Lich’s resurfacing to the Material Plane but in turn it caused the Necromancy Anomaly. A thick smog now covers the area which Halos claims is deadly to all living creatures. Halos ventures away from the commune saying that he will keep Dulath’s scouring of Therinox to a minimum while the riders progress against Tiamat’s resurrection.

Three days after the transmutation anomaly occurred, Kaiden hailed the riders to Caelum for a third rider's commune. The time had come for the riders to decide if they should dedicate their efforts towards further prevention of Tiamat's resurgence or prepare to fight her head on. In the end, the riders decided to prepare for a fight. The riders also shared more trivial details of their recent efforts with which Kaiden was ridiculed by Halos about the *Phoenixborn*. The riders then adjourned from Caelum to prepare a strategy and muster their forces to fight Tiamat.

With the help of Kaiden Armov, *Thalnik Ulmrus* was introduced to Halos for aid with Thalnik's woes. Thalnik desired to commune with a *Balor* and rid himself of a pact now in the possession of *Xezmon*. After some discussion, Halos suggested that he could perform a ritual that would take him directly to the Balor in question with the assistance of Kaiden and the *Great Shadow*. Additionally, Halos informed Thalink that ridding himself of a pact was impossible due to its divine nature. He told Thalnik he must either get Xezmon to transfer the pact, relinquish it willingly or become divine. Halos later aided Thalnik by performing the ritual to enable him to go directly to the balor's lair.