Dirth Nerku

**Dirth Nerku** was a powerful Black Dragon worshipped as a god by many inhabitants of Truma. He was the son of Tiamat and has been fond of his rivalry with a much younger Silver Dragon. He was captured and punished for centuries until he promised great power to a guard, whom he then killed, instantly before escaping to his own plane of existence. Dirth was thought to be killed for hundreds of years until a wizard found an unknown arcane source coming from Dirth's plane, which then the wizard was killed for conspiracy reasons by the believers of Argo, the rival of Dirth, as a cover up for the truth.

## Dirth Nerku

### Aliases

"The Deadly""Night Storm"

"Death-on-Wings"

"The Firstborn"

Pact-lord of Ashala (Briefly)

### Relatives

Tiamat (Mother) Abzu (Father)

Kingu (Brother)

Lahamu (Sister)

Lahmu (Brother)

Abyzou (Sister)

Argo (Brother)

Ur-Dragon (Grandfather)

### Affiliation

Dirthites (Patron Deity) The Horned Ones:

Draconic Consortium (Leader)

Guildpact of Ashala (Briefly taken over)

## Physical description

### Species

DragonFormer Elder Dragon

Former Celestial Dragon

## Biography:

### Early Life:

Dirth was born the eldest child of the dragon mother Tiamat and her consort Abzu born in the elder days of Truma. As a child of the daughter-spawn of the Ur-Dragon and the world-soul of Truma, he had incredible power beyond most of his kind even at a young age.

### Divinity:

He set himself up as a god among the early Trumans, representing war, death and trickery in their pantheon.

His power was rivaled mainly by fellow dragon Argo Borza, who was mostly his moral opposite.

Many generations later, he was imprisoned by a coalition of Metallic dragons and tired and angry mortals led by his rival Argo who imprisoned him for many years, until he tricked his guard Avindr Valatis into aiding his escape. He would break free but betray and kill Avindr in order to open a portal to his own dimension among the lower planes.

Though he had lost much of his divine power, he was still strong and dangerous. He joined the draconic cabal known as the Horned Ones and helped them form their espionage unit, the Draconic Consortium.

During this time, he would arrive on a barren world on brink of death and aided the people there into building a great city where he was worshipped again as a god. He molded the civilisation in his image, using them to his ends. Eventually, he left them to their own devices, promising to later return and instructed them to encase their dead in a strong magic-resistant resin in order to prepare them for his return.

### War of Sparks and Dragons:

Dirth would soon plan bigger things and turned his eyes to Ashala the ringed city, and the power of Planeswalkers. He used his power over the Consortium to gather information and artifacts using the Havasta Incident and it’s effects to his advantage. He provoked the terrible three Titans, three Echoes of Aldeare which endless appetites and trade artifacts and technology with the re-awakened machine orthodoxy on the world of Tollona.

He sent his agents to the plane of Ashala, infiltrating many of the factions, whispering into their leaders’ ears and turned them against each other as blood filled the streets in the city for the first time in decades. He even gained the support of Domia Raver, a young angry Planeswalker who, using power granted to him by the dragon, took control of the The Anarcey, amassing them as a great rioting force that distracted the rest of the factions while he turned his attention elsewhere.

With his newly gathered power, he returned to the world of Durst and came to the City he helped to build, ordering a great festival to be held at the hour of his arrival. The champions fought hard and many died during the Trials in their god's honor, their bodies being taken down below the temple. In the end, only one remained and was teleported away as Dirth undid his binding on the ancient evils of the land and made all the prepared dead rise as a great undead army with the dead champions being augmented with weapons and higher intelligence to lead them. He unleashed them on their still living kin and brought a great hour of devastation upon the city before leaving them to the sands. A few Planeswalkers tried to stop him, but they were betrayed by their supposed ally Lillian Kozak and left to die with the city, as the dragon flew off at the head of his army through a portal to Ashala.

As his armies entered the city dimension, he had his agents enact his devastating plans. He had Phane and Desamus assassinate the ghosts of the Fraternity of Ozdab, making their cursed souls void with the Blade of Utter End, caused a great rebellion amongst the Mortuary Association as they slew their lich leader Geroldo Vasmaus, though his followers were able to hide his phylactery as the hivers placed their hive queen , then mind controlled by Dirth as the new head of the Guild. He had the Anarcey assemble a great riot in the Center Square far away from the portal to distract the Believers of Justace along with any other security forces, as his followers in the city assembly made claims against Nherit, whispering against her as many flocked to the popular senior Radie Vokuman, who was in secret a Consortium agent. And so when his great undead army entered the city-plane, they were largely unopposed, and those few who could fight him were swiftly crushed.

Nherit herself tried to stop Dirth and faced him in single combat but was unable to withstand his powers. He had his champions drain her powers into him before brutally slaying her, the dragon Izzak to help his old rival, but was left bloody and dying. He carried Nherit's body to the Assembly and named himself the new Pact-lord of Ashala and with his supporters being in charge of several of the factions, few could challenge him. He had the angel Justace imprisoned and forced the Transcendent Eternals to comply or risk the burning of their elemental tree. Then he turned against the foreign powers, having all in the Council Embassy brought out and had them put to death by his mummies, placing their bodies on display in the main square and ordered the same to be done to any servants of the black-eyed angel Sadraia, whom he had discovered also infiltrating the guilds, leading to small skirmishes in the streets that mostly went his way due to the mass amounts of numbers. He took control of the city's unique teleporting properties and used them to deny the Council and Sadraians entry, while slowly pulling in Planeswakers into his trap.

When Domia Raver came to take his reward, he slew him and absorbed his power, Unfortunately, Lillian Kozak saw this and realized this was to be her fate when she outlived her usefulness; she began to plot against her master. He watched the battle unfold, absorbing the powers of every mage who died nearing closer and closer to the divine power he so desperately desired. But then more dangerus Planeswalkers began to seep into the city, theChampions of Magic, lead by bold Paul Miller, the Knight-Protector of Qudi Gidden Eura wielding the Black Blade that had once before tasted his blood, the illusionist Jakar Bastir who had survived his encounter in the sands, if only barely, and Aldrich Nemasir, the Sage of Gulavault.

These Planeswalkers formed an alliance with the surviving local powers as well as an uneasy alliance with the Sadraians, now supported by a task force lead by Zofia Parakar. Together they rescued the surviving faction leaders and removed the dragon’s puppets one by one.

As he watched his plans start to fall apart, he was confronted by the Speaker of Sadraia, who mocked him and told him that he was being beaten by his betters and of how he had fallen for Sadraia's plans. Angered by this, he let out a deadly flaming breath killing the Sadraian Ulamar and sending Abrax Tal'c who had also survived the fall of his city far away as his spark ignited. The Speaker however only laughed, revealing his face to the dragon, the first person outside of the Sadrat Council to see it in millennia, before teleporting away.

Soon after the dragon was confronted by the Coalition who attacked him with deadly force. The dragon was barely able to defend against their combined power, but was able to hold out until his undead army arrived and swarmed the heroes. Eura tried to kill him with the Black Blade, but Dirth was clever enough to not fall for the same attack twice, knocking the sword out of the knight’s hand before biting off the noble Planeswalker's head with his mighty jaws.

Victory seemed near for him, until his lieutenant Lillian Kozak saw his struggle against the heroes as the best time to turn against him. She commanded his undead army to attack their master and distracted him long enough for the dragon Izzak to strike at him, diverting the power-flow to him instead, which he used to drain much of Dirth's strength and take the essence of Ashala back away from him. Drained of his power and army turned against him, Dirth was quickly defeated and made to submit.

### Imprisonment:

After his defeat, he was brought before the Horned Ones who were infuriated by his betrayal and exploitation of their organisation for personal power. They stripped him of his seat and gave it to Izzak. Then they imprisoned him in their own plane of internment with his old rival Argo as his eternal jailor.

## Personality:

Dirth was petty and cruel even by the standards of other dragons and was known to hold grudges against anyone who slighted him. He had a megalomaniacal world-view, seeing himself as the rightful god of all things and believed all should bow before him.

## Powers:

**Draconic Power:**

**Dragon's Breath:** Acid/Fire

**Celestial Powers (Formerly):** Trickery, Death, and War

**Mass amount of stolen powers:** Briefly during the War of Sparks and Dragons.

## Trivia:

* He started as one of the deities in Kobold Boi's first D&D campaign.
* Due to copyright reasons, he replaced Nicol Bolas in the Keyvaile version of PMiller1’s War of Sparks crossover.