Soran the Dark

Alexandros the Faithful, Karandos the Chaotic, Nimrod the Orderly, Sikandar (Sons) Dolofina the Murderous (Creation, "Daughter")

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

Soran the Dark is one of the oldest and most powerful eternals.

## Biography

Soran and his "sister" Nesa were created by Erah towards the dawn of existence, before she had acquired true intelligence. Erah plucked two crystals from deep within her, one light and one dark, and shaped them into dolls to play with. Due to being created by one of the eldest gods, Soran and Nesa were imbued with life and great power.

Eventually Erah matured and granted freedom to her creations, before going on to birth the younger gods. While Nesa was indifferent to the different nature of their younger siblings, Soran became jealous and bitter of his younger brothers and sisters who had greater divine rank than himself. He decided that he would someday become a true god himself, as was his birth right.

Along with Nesa, Soran created the Deryth race from leftover energies of Erah, with Soran creating the Chelom-Der tribe himself and helping Nesa make the Derjorath tribe.

Soran travelled the worlds in the early days of the second sphere and fathered a number of children with the intention of using them to increase his power down the line. Amongst these, Nimrod and Karandos eventually became powerful eternals in their own right. Also during the second sphere, Soran came across Nabor the Tormentor, another of the younger eternals who had absorbed Erah's energies in order to ascend. Soran saw Nabor as an insult to their kind, and fought him, imprisoning him deep underground and turning him into a living battery to enhance his already great power. Soran then built the first great empire of Erah, with its capital directly over Nabor's prison. By the time the third sphere began, Soran controlled about half the material plane, with colonies on a number of other ones. He brought many to his side through deals, which were generally negotiated in a way to give himself a significant benefit without the other side realising. He had amassed a collection of artefacts of great power and was confident in his eventual ascent to true godhood. He had managed to recruit his son, Karandos, to his side, while Nimrod led the human resistance against him. With his personal power swollen from his acts, Soran decided to attempt a feat only true deities were capable of: creating life from scratch. The deryth race didn't count in anyone's eyes since he and Nesa had not only worked together but had used Erah's power to create them. Soran went to the northern continent, to the area later known as The Wastes. There, he performed a great magic to draw on the nature of life itself to create living essences and then form bodies around them. The magic devastated the area, resulting in life becoming nigh impossible to sustain there. The result though was the creation of a new race, the Spawn of Soran. While he was displeased by the barbarity of his creations, he was impressed by their great strength. One of them, a smaller, weaker one, Soran felt pity for and took home with him. He named this child Dolofina, and she came to serve as one of his chief subordinates alongside Karandos.

Soon after this time, Karandos grew weary of his father's growing power and the threat he could pose to the mortal races with his experiments. He made a deal with Nimrod and another eternal, Ylias, to overthrow Soran. Ylias provided a powerful weapon to Karandos while Nimrod used his forces to draw away Dolofina and attempt to imprison her. Karandos duelled Soran and managed to kill him through luck more than anything else. His death caused chaos to break out in his empire, resulting in its destruction. The other eternals then created alliances and fought against each other for control over Soran's former domain. The gods, who had been content to observe Soran's empire and take notes on how it was done, were horrified by this: Soran's power at his peak was equivalent to one of the more powerful greater gods and he himself could arguably have been considered a god at that point, and thus his death meant that their lives were also potentially at risk. Not wanting to risk their own safety against a group of powerful entities capable of killing them, Reganus, Giha, and Quouo sought out Xuth, an eternal of equal power to Soran. They found the halls of Xuth deep beneath the earth and explained the situation to him. Xuth was incensed by this and went to the surface. Xuth quickly ended the conflicts and created a set of rules for the eternals to stop them from causing more cataclysms in the future, rules that he himself would enforce. All evidence of Soran's empire was removed from the surface of Erah by this conflict, and when civilisations eventually re-emerged thousands of years later, there was no memory of Soran's empire left to the mortals.

At the height of the Aventi Empire, Alexandros, the youngest child of Soran, had infiltrated Aventi society and reached one of the highest ranks in government. He persuaded the Emperor of Aventus to let him lead a force to the wastes in search of an "ancient superweapon mentioned in the oldest legends". He went to the wastes and found the prison of Dolofina, which he had these people excavate. Dolofina was freed and proceeded to massacre the Aventi. The two of them returned to Aventus where they performed a ritual Alexandros had created to resurrect Soran. The ritual was a success and Soran was restored to life in a weakened state, but the resulting energies sank Aventus to the depths of the sea. Soran rescued his children and took them back to the ancient ruins of his throne room. There, in thanks for his resurrection, he granted them both some of his power, costing him his corporeal form, elevating them both to the rank of eternal. Alexandros his since been infiltrating other societies, influencing their development to benefit Soran's cause. Dolofina has been guarding Soran since then due to his weakening. In the succeeding millennia, Soran has regained not only the ability to regain his corporeal form, but also much of his former power. He desires to regain the artefacts that were lost in the destruction of his empire, as well as claim more potent sources of magical power. The eternals involved with his death are currently terrified of Soran's return, feeling that he will direct his wrath towards them in revenge for what they did. They would much rather pretend he isn't out there than face the reality of it. Since he has not acted against them yet, they are convinced that he is watching them, acting in the shadows, manipulating events to bring them down completely and totally. Soran is not doing any of this, since he doesn't hold them killing him against them. He would have done the same in their place. This does, however, have the effect of reducing their overall influence on the world as they are paranoid that they are playing into his hands.

Recently, Dolofina has attacked the Kolshet Empire, drawing in a fight with its ruler, Keisara. This may indicate that Soran's plans have reached their next stage.

## Powers and Abilities

Soran is one of the eldest and most powerful of the eternals. While his power has waxed and waned over time, he is currently more powerful than most other entities on the material plane. At his height, he was often considered to be a greater deity, even by the gods themselves. Currently his power is capable of matching the power of weaker greater deities.

Due to the events that led to the destruction of his empire, Soran has become much more careful and scheming in his actions. While his killers are incorrect about what his schemes are directed towards, they are right in their idea that he is manipulating events in his favour. Through Alexandros, as well as a number of other agents, he has manipulated most societies since the fall of Aventus.

Soran is a master negotiator and sees deals and oaths as one and the same. He will always fulfil his side of any bargain, and will pay every debt, but he will also make sure that anyone negotiating with him is also compelled to fulfil their side, and nine times out of ten he stands to gain much more from any bargain than the other side, even if they do not realise so.