Nox

**Nox, the Rot** is the line of evil dragons which represent rot and death. He is one of the Ascendant Dragons.

## Description

Dragons are powerful even in death, and Nox, the Rot exemplifies this trait. Dragon bones and scales are used in some of the most powerful artifacts throughout the ages, and Nox represents the tendency to not merely die. There has only been one Nox. Appropriately, they died of old age long ago, but remained Nox and has not needed to be replaced. He is one of the two remaining firsts, the other being Akaros.

## History

Because Nox continued to exist past his own death, he has had ample time to begin work on his ultimate goal of becoming the only Ascendant Dragon. Though he had once been friends with Akaros, he turned against him and removed him from his own body. Akaros' essence was locked away, and his body was set to being guarded. He encountered Akaros in Teer's body in the Underdark beneath Alibrook, speaking to him as a friend despite having been the one to put him in that position in the first place.

Nox killed Culumog and used his own powers to possess the corpse of the Gullet and command his followers. Doing this, he was able to send Culumog's follower after Akaros. While this plan ultimately failed, that did not deter him. When the party encountered and killed Omurem, one of Nox's followers, Nox possessed Omurem's corpse once more and retrieved a mysterious orb from Omurem's hoard.

Later, Nox would begin a full assault on the Platinum Disc, hoping to kill Bahamut. The party sneaked into his camp in hopes of crippling his armies. While there, they discovered another orb, this one set up in a magic array. They grabbed the orb, barely managing to escape Nox himself in the process. Akaros was pulled from Teer and into the orb, revealing the purpose of the orbs: absorbing the essence of the Ascendant Dragons. The party was able to recover him in short order, and Nox would subsequently attempt to stop the party whenever they were in the vicinity of a dead dragon, to little success.

Eventually, the party and Bahamut brought the fight to Nox. They infiltrated Nox's False Lair, taking out Hedemora, the man in charge of creating the ritual Nox intended to use to absorb the essence of all of the ascendants. While there, Nox's agent Anvuraak was able to trick Akaros into one of the orbs. From there, the fight was taken directly to Nox at the Rotspire. Between Nox himself and the undead bodies of the already deceased ascendants, Nox was able to kill Bahamut and Tiamat, the last of the remaining living ascendants, and begin his ritual. The party interrupted, however, killing the mages who were channeling the ritual to the ethereal plane for him. He began using Sors as his catalyst instead, though that also did not lost for long, as the party rather violently opposed this. His catalysts removed, the ritual failed. In his anger, he attacked the party bodily. This granted Lysaro the opportunity he needed to intervene, claiming that Nox's actions had gone too far and broken too many rules. His godhood was stripped of him, and the party handily defeated him.

Akaros, having existed in a strange state between living and death for so long, was able to consume Nox's essence and take on the form that Nox had been unable to, becoming the Ascended Dragon of Rebirth. Akaros blasted Nox's body with his breath weapon before restoring the other Ascendant dragons to life or freedom, as they saw fit. Nox was left in his true form, a fetal dragon, struggling to breath. It was here that Aedon found him and, sharing the same color of mana, absorbed him into themself.

## Followers

* Hedemora
* Carden (former)
* Haaken
* Anarith

## Allies

* Anghadym (former)
* Omurem