Wyninn the Withering

*This page refers to the Demilich Wyninn, if you are looking for* Wyninn Raeth *click here.*

Wyninn the Withering was a demilich created by High King Thermopylae during the Desolate Age. Wyninn would become one of the King's chief scientists and eventually discover the god Amaterasu was not dead, but frozen. Wyninn had a hand in the creation in the Kenku, Centaurs, and Minotaurs of Eesia until his untimely demise at the hands of his granddaughter Leia.

## Biography

Wyninn was created by the dark wizards who served the High King Thermopyale during the Desolate Age. Thermopylae sought a powerful general for his army, that would strike fear into both his soldier's and enemy's eyes. He also was very fond of myths, and remembered the tale of Wyninn Raeth from his childhood. Wyninn was a Death Knight who once served the god Amaterasu, but believed himself betrayed when the god would not attack their foe after initial failure. Wyninn gathered his own forces that he committed strange and dark experiments on and attacked the enemy Amaterasu was too fearful of. When his army was destroyed, Amaterasu transported Wyninn back to him, and tortured him for disobeying him. He turned Wyninn into a demilich, a being incapable of death and cursed to immortal torture. Wyninn was pierced through the heart with his own sword, and forced to stand against the flaming pits of Accarack for all of eternity.

Thermopylae knew that if any soldier would faithfully serve him and his cause, it would be Wyninn. Many of the King's wizards warned him against searching for the demilich, telling him it was only an old tale. Thermopylae trusted his instincts, and gathered an expedition team to venture into the Infernal Plane.

Thermopylae's soldiers searched many realms of the Infernal Plane until they finally found the hellish pits of Accarack. Standing at the center of them was a 12 foot tall man in black armor, a longsword piercing his chest to the ground. The soldiers made a number of attempts to reach him, but were unsuccessful. They decided to return to their king until a better plan could be hatched.

Thermopylae heard out the crew, and asked them to create a magic map guiding him to the location of the demilich. The crew were reluctant, fearing their king would kill himself if he had attempted to cross the flaming pits. They were unaware that High King Thermopylae was actually the god Tsukuyomi in disguise, and had been so for many years. The flames of the infernal plane were nothing to him, and so he took the map and set off alone. Thermopylae found the demilich who watched on in abhorrence as the high elf walked through the scorching flames. Thermopylae drew the blade from Wyninn's body and handed it to him.

"Who are you?" Wyninn asked him.

"Your savior." Thermopylae replied.

Looking upon his savior in astonishment, Wyninn swore his loyalty to the king. They both returned to the grey plane to the wonderment of the dark wizards and adventuring crew. Thermopylae instructed the dark wizards to condition the demilich's body to this realm. They attempted to remove Wyninn's body, but found it had been melted into his skin. The small slits in his helmet only allowed him sight and breath. The wizards reinforced his armor with new plating, and draped him in the crimson colors of the Elvish army.

The blacksmith Zion collected Wyninn's sword, which was beyond repair. He took what pieces he could and built them into a pair of weapons. A fierce black handaxe called Aeshir (Power) and a slim black longsword called Lashnir (Destruction). The weapons were brought to Wyninn who looked upon them in excitement.

Wyninn fell into his general position without missing a beat, and lead the Elvish Army in the first battles of the War of the North. Wyninn slaughtered hundreds of dwarven rebels, and had amassed a legendary status to the soldiers of both armies. When the dwarves summoned their allies in the minotaurs, and centaurs of the mountains, Wyninn told his soldiers to capture as many as they could. He and a group of soldiers escorted the creatures back to Thermopylae and Wyninn began the first of his experiments.

Seeing the raw strength of the creatures, he aimed to perfect it, and take them under his control. Now commanding the dark wizards of Thermopylae, Wyninn and his workers contorted the bodies of the creatures into unrecognizable monsters. The centaurs were blinded, and their legs made into metal contraptions. With no sight and powerful legs, they became the perfect steeds to the elvish soldiers. To the minotaurs, Wyninn removed their horns and replaced them with hooks. Massive ropes could be hung from them, forcing the creatures to carry supplies and artillery around battlefields.

High King Thermopylae was in awe of the creations Wyninn created, and ordered them to the battlefields. With their new creations, the elves decimated the dwarven rebels. Little was left in the demilich's path as he slaughtered his way through the mountains.

While the elvish army set out about creating and enforcing the King's new slavery system, Wyninn traveled to a dark source of magic he had sensed the second he had entered the grey plane. Deep in the desolate lands, a blackstone tower had crashed centuries ago. Wyninn knew it to be a portion of the Shadow Castle, the headquarters the Death Knights of old had once used as their home base. Wyninn located the Castle, now just a single tower, and had it dug from the earth. Upon entering, Wyninn found something he never expected to see in all his undead life. The God of Power Amaterasu slumbered within the tower, somehow chained inside.

Wyninn raised the Shadow Tower above the dunes and upon further instruction, found a small group of birdfolk had been living inside. They resembled small black crows, and seemed to have no purpose except for protecting the body of the slumbering god. Wyninn and his soldiers snatched them up, and decided to use them for his next experiment. The Shadow Tower was quickly converted into a laboratory for the demilich and he began his experiments on the crows.

Wyninn used dark magic to shrink the creatures, breaking most of their bones in the process and preventing them from ever flying again. One of his dark wizards suggested to call them "Kenku", after the horrible sound they made when they cried out in pain. Wyninn laughed at this, and decided the name was perfect. Wyninn turned his new Kenku into brainless scouts and thieves for the Elvish army. To the average eye, they looked to be nothing more than birds squabbling. Wyninn sent them off to Thermopylae and begin his next experiment with his dark wizards.

Wyninn's ultimate goal was to create a perfect soldier for the High King, and attempted many experiments to imbue elves with dark magic. He had been drawing this dark magic from the god of power, slowly sapping his life force. One of his experiments who was a man named Alryn escaped the Shadow Tower, but Wyninn paid it no mind as his experiments had proven successful. He had transformed a group of elves into strong and evil soldiers, who he deemed the perfect specimens to resurrect the Death Knight army. He sent some of the Death Knights after Alryn, but there was no trace of him. Wyninn traveled with his Death Knights to Thermopylae and presented them to the High King. Tsukuyomi, still disguised as Thermopylae had fought many Death Knights millenia ago, and knew of their incredible strength. He also knew their fierce power made them extremely intimidating, and knew that they would be the perfect slavers for his new livestock.

Thermopylae placed Wyninn and his soldiers in charge of controlling all the slaves, and moved them to the Desolate Lands. Now that the fighting was over, Wyninn could devote himself to his experiments and torture of the dwarven race. Wyninn could spend the next few centuries perfecting his Death Knights until the warrior of Light Brienna was brought to him by the elvish army. Brienna and her allies had attempted to destroy the balance of the world, killing some ancestral demon and claiming the High King needed to be killed too. Wyninn was overjoyed at the idea of showing someone the kind of torture he had experienced in the Infernal Plane.

Decades later, the paladin Leia would arrive at the Shadow Tower with her party, the Warriors Seven. She proclaimed herself to be Wyninn's granddaughter, the child of the escaped creation Alryn. She sought not only to free the warrior of light, but to destroy Wyninn. The demilich laughed in the face of the challenge, inviting her to attempt and promising her only her own death.

As black flames shot up around the Shadow Tower, the two became locked in a battle to the death. Wyninn nearly gained the upper hand, but the warrior Digius shielded Leia with his body from Wyninn's weapons. Leia used this distraction to overwhelm Wyninn, and severed his body from his head. Normally the blow would've meant nothing to the undead man, except for that the girl wielded the legendary Gettai Ken. This put an end to Wyninn's legacy as a dark and twisted scientist, ruthless warrior, and evil soul.