Dark Steel, Darker Desires

Dark Steel, Darker Desires is a book recovered from the orc war camp at Grimvern Bluff.

## Description

Sealed within a thick and tight wrap of furs and seal hide, Dark Steel, Darker Desires is a historical tome that ponders on the story of a figure known as the Consigned, who betrayed his master after being corrupted by the blade he had once wielded in his name.

## Research

### Completed by Hassk

*When the Keeper does not sweep up understanding or knowledge on a matter little known, it is surely with reason, with purpose. Rumours and tales of their own understanding and knowledge are not unknown, despite the efforts of mortal-minded men, for it is through the desire for such understanding and knowledge that would be acolytes, apprentices, attendants and disciples make their way to his domain - and so such tales are willingly provoked into the consciousness of the Principal Races. Likewise, when the Keeper wishes to seek out a soul and mind, they may find further reachings still, fragmented memories hidden in the reflective depths of crystalline shards as like a shattered silver mirror, and in doing so set the individual on a path of servitude, though rarely in appreciation of this fact at such time. Despite this, there is instead at least one tale that the Keeper has sought to cast aside, but it remains pervasive nonetheless, a fact most likely due to its architect, whose power is greater than even the form than even the ascended being the Keeper has since become.*

*Stories tell that he Keeper was not always a deity, offering an explanation for their exclusion from both the Principal Sixteen and the Malign, and instead for a time existed as a mortal being who dedicated themselves to the arcane - most so the secrets of immortality beyond that of conventional lichdom. Such power attracted the attention of those that surrounded them - some with devotion and a desire to learn in their minds, others with anger and jealousy in their hearts. In response to violence, violence was returned, and in the name of the Keeper, it was delivered by an individual known only as the Consigned. The Consigned pledged their soul to the one that was to become the Keeper, and in return they were granted understanding of such brutality of the hordes of Acheron, the scheming plots of the Nine Hells, and the unpredictable vitriol of Limbo, harnessed from the pages of their greatest cyclopaedia. The Consigned was slain in time by combined efforts of those that sought to tear down the Keeper, but as they moved to pass through the Gateway between life and death, they were plucked free by the master they had served so dutifully, their essence used to forge a weapon, as they themselves had been a weapon to the Keeper's whims.*

*Or so they were led to believe.*

*In truth, it was the Master of Malice that seized the Consigned's essence, trapping his being into the blade that would become infamous as a Remnant of the First Gift, wielded by hundreds of individuals - all ill-fated, corrupted and controlled by the anguish and hatred contained within, spewed from what the Consigned had become. Ophidian delights in the disunion of allies, and so has twisted the soul contained within to abhor his prior master. Every act enacted by the fingers that grasp the handle of twisting serpents wrought of black iron is guided by the malice within to undermine the Keeper's interests, uncovering plots and undoing ploys, all the while It Which Slithers Unseen delights in the chaos shaped to his delight.*