Cremator

Comic

* Chapter 9

## **Cremator, Fire Elemental**

Cremator looks like a humanoid skeleton without legs, with long tail. He covers his body with Maze Master's skin. His bones are covered in flames he can mostly control, unless he loses his temper (which happens fairly often). He can also conjure more fire he has control on if he wishes, and can control all fire around him.

Cremator is deeply depressed and suffers from violent outbursts, but is slowly fixing his mental state. Thanks to Maze Master's corpse he used as a part of his new body, he has much more power than an elemental of his size can handle. He struggled between wanting to avenge his master and accepting the past and moving on with his own life.

Cremator is a elemental and biologically has no gender. He uses male pronouns.

## **Story**

Gods and demons, collectively known at Eternal Ones, are a species of immortal magical creatures who feed on emotions. Every one of them has been named and written down in the history books, with varying degrees of impact they had, but, there is also a third species of Eternal Ones. Much more common, and ironically, much less talked about – the elementals.

Many elementals wander the lands, rejected and ridiculed by others. They can feed on personal attention and energy itself, and most of them find themselves working in service of gods and demons, or working with humans performing tasks exceeding human durability and magical capabilities.

And so was Cremator, a fire elemental who got his name as he burned the piles of dead bodies from the futile war humans waged against the undead hordes a few centuries ago. They needed him, they kept dying, he was still needed and the cycle of cremation went on for years. Until the dragons were involved, and soon, even gods and demons too. Less and less humans were dying every day, and Cremator’s work was not as essential anymore. At some point, humans had so few corpses that they just returned to burying them. Cremator was left without a purpose. Burning things was all he could do, and for years he tried to find another job like this. He found himself burning trash, but even that was denied to him as soon as machines became more popular. He spend his entire life among humans, but they only saw him as a tool that was no longer needed.

One particularly cloudy day he arrived to a small backward village of Ooran paid for his services to “burn the bodies of the fallen before the beast can wrong them” by the town priest. Intrigued, Cremator ventured into the depth below the abandoned castle towering over Ooran. Down there, a voice called him. A demon was making his lair deep underground, and he sensed the elemental’s arrival. When Cremator made his way to the bottom, blazing through the creatures of the depths, the demon named Inter had something for him. A role to play in The Greatest Game Ever Made.

- - -

15 years later he stood in the cavern against a man in a green scarf, as the champion of the Maze Master and one of the guardians of the Ooran Dungeon. He incinerated many foolish adventurers trying to beat his master’s challenge, but this one was… different. Cremator couldn’t feel the typical greed and bravery from him, and instead the man emanated apathy the elemental was so familiar with. In addition, unlike most people Cremator killed so far, the man was actually skilled with his blade, and the blade’s touch was unimaginably painful. That day the fiery guardian of the dungeon has failed his master. He barely survived, as the warrior has not bothered himself with double-checking his smoking broken body. His master ignored his cry for help.

In agony, over the next few hours Cremator crawled his mangled half-dead body to the bottom of the dungeon. He served his for so many years! Why did Inter abandoned him?! There had to be an answer, right?

As it turned out, Inter was dead.

At the bottom of the Ooran Dungeon, Cremator’s cry of anger and defiance echoed through the rotten lair. Once again, he was just a tool with no further use, trampled on the way and left to die. This defeat broke him. He scavenged what remained of Inter’s corpse and made himself a new body, reclaiming a part of his old master’s power.

A month later he ventured out of the fallen Dungeon, hellbent on tracing the demonslayer and claiming his revenge. He chased him on foot, as humans ran in terror as soon as they saw his new everburning form, from a city to city, from village to village. Always a step behind.

It took him almost 2 years to catch up with the man named Cane who murdered his old demonic master, in a southern city called Rohoim. The rage burned, windows were broken, Guard were called, and drunk Cane bludgeoned Cremator down with one breaking blow. The elemental had to run in shame, and the next day tried to kill his arch-enemy once again, with the same result. How could it be, he wondered. The man has changed. There was something else in his inner emptiness. Some other suppressed feeling hr could not name at the time. Was that the reason he kept losing to him?

Cremator had a few days for thinking and introspection, as he was arrested later that night for the miniscule destruction he caused in the city. For his entire life he was used by others to destroy things. He has only known destruction and incineration. That man, the demonslayer, he has found something which kept him going. A purpose.

As soon as he was released from arrest, Cremator was approached by an Arcan Kou from the Kijha Magic Academy, who has seen him perform advanced pyromancy in a populated area with inhuman precision. The Academy Council admired his skill in magic he had mastered for three human lifetimes, and they had an offer for him. A use for his powers which, unlike any other, was not about destruction.

- - -

2 years later he stood against the door for his doctor’s office, as the Pyromancy Proffesor on the Kijha Magic Academy and the first non-human pyromancy teacher in the Academy’s history. He shared his knowledge of the art of bending fire to many aspiring mages and he was paid accordingly, being able to afford weekly therapy sessions.

Is he still a tool for others? Maybe? Even if, this time it was his decision, and he enjoyed it.

Isn’t every person a tool for something or someone else, anyway?

## **In-Game**

High risk high reward mage who can deal devastating damage from distance. Cremator can safely nuke entire enemy team, but positioning is crucial, as his incredibly low health allows some melee damage dealers to kill him in 3 hits.

Abilities
If ignited by any means, his basic attack ignite enemies
 Infernal Discharge
Explosion knockups all enemies for 0.5 second, deals 8 damage to enemies in 1.5 blocks range and 4 damage to other enemies in 6 blocks range
 Heatbast

## **Trivia**

* Cremator was named after boss from a hack'n'slash game The Chosen: Well of Souls.
* He is the only character with his *actual name* in character select menu instead his title.
* After Maze Master's death Cremator suffers from depression, which over time worsened due to his inability to defeat Cane.
* Before his rework in 2.9, Cremator spawned an actuall punchable fireball. Enemies could deflect it, so the ability had to be changed.
* Cremator is the only character who had any major retcon, with his 2022 story update adding 200 years to his age to justify his past work during the Age of Death.