The second Avatar-general of Valeria is known to his people as the Lord of Martyrs. His name has long been lost to Harrow, who only know him as the Pained Lord, the Burning Knight or - to the priests of Harrow - the Abomination King. Born nearly three hundred years ago, the Lord of Martyrs was a devout priest of Helios that dedicated his life to hunting down the creatures of darkness that roamed the lands. Those that had passed beyond the veil of death were his favoured prey, and while he was never as successful as the Paladin Orders at destroying the undead, more than one village plagued by the restless dead were glad for his ministrations. It was in a small and forgotten village that the priest was told of mutilated cattle and of children taken in the night. The villagers were afeared that they had been abandoned by the God of Light and were prepared to give themselves to the pagan beliefs of the Fair Folk who were offering surcease from the terror. The priest convinced the village to pray to Helios for salvation, while he would enter the nearby forests to find whatever it was that was hunting them so and put an end to its reign of terror. Sealing the villages remaining livestock in a barn, the priest took the plumpest remaining cow and staked it out in a field and waited for nightfall. It was midnight before the creature attacked. The priest first knew of it as a hammer blow knocked him out of his hiding spot, cracking his ribs and shattering an arm. The monster beat him mercilessly before the priest even managed to see it. It stood as a man, but the pale flesh, feral eyes and mouth full of fangs betrayed its true nature. The priest pulled out his sunburst icon to drive the creature away, but it simply laughed and ripped it out of his hands, reducing it to a crumpled mockery. The priest steeled himself for death, but the vampire had a more amusing idea. Pouncing on the priest, it drained him of his vital essences and forced its own cold, bitter blood down his throat instead. The conversion from living to undead took agonising days, as the priests faith grappled with the darkness spreading within. His belief was strong, but the Old Curse was stronger, and the priest lost himself to the darkness within. How long he lived as a beast, nobody knows. Bound to the will of the creature that cursed him, he didnt have even the ability to remain in a human shape. He grew far beyond the height of a man. His facial features shifted to take on a daemonic, batlike shape. His skin paled to a marble white and his body became ropy and lean. For over a hundred years, he was the instrument of terror of his master, and those that dared speak of him did so only as a whisper. With the fallen priest as a weapon, the power of his master waxed mighty, mighty enough that the creatures thoughts turned to domination. It was in the winter of HY922 that his master grew bold enough to raise an army and assault the Solstice Temple - one of the holiest places in Valeria. Enthralled necromancers raised legions of the dead to overwhelm the defenders of the temple, and summoned daemons charged the few paladins that called the temple home. The fallen priest was ordered to take the vanguard and kill anything that got in his way. The paladins of Helios barely slowed the fallen priest as he rampaged through the temple. The greatest fighters of their order fell like children before him as he tore through their heavy armour with his bare hands. The fallen priest made his way to the heart of the temple, bent on destroying the heart of the religion he once held so dear. The defenders dead or dying, he thought no one was left to stop him, before one last man stood in his path. The man was frightened. Weak. But the fallen priest found himself stopping. The resolve, standing in the face of certain death, awake something long lost to the creature and it stopped. Howling in pain and confusion, he turned on the monsters at his side and ran back into the heart of the dark army surrounding the temple. Moving too fast for the dead troops to react, he slammed into his master and, to the masters surprise, ripped the monsters cold heart out with one monstrous claw swipe. Freed from his masters domination, the fallen priest took up the holy symbol of a dead paladin and resolved to wait until the dawn rose to face his god and put an end to his unholy existence. The rising of dawn brought pain to the creature unlike anything it had ever known. Unable to bear the pain and cursing himself for his weakness, he sank into the soil and waited out the day. The next dawn he attempted to destroy himself again - and again was unable to bear the suns touch. For a year it tried and for a year it failed. Growing increasingly bitter at its failure, the vampire took up the holy symbol it had gathered from the battlefield a year earlier, and crudely carved into its steel hard flesh one of the holy symbols of the Valerian faith. Once the symbol was complete, the creatures flesh began to smolder then ignite with a pain that exceeded anything that it had felt before - but still nothing compared to the touch of the sun. Its flesh burning, the creature made a decision: Every night another symbol of faith. It thought that perhaps, should it carve enough, it would be able to stand the sunlight and receive the death it deserved. Until then, it would continue the task it had set itself when it was still a mortal man - hunt the creatures of darkness wherever they may dwell. Thousands of monsters fell before the beast, and each night it carved another icon. Its body was covered in burning glyphs and it could no longer remember a time where it did not carry a burden of unceasing pain. The icons became harder and harder to carve, as the pain grew greater and greater. After decades of fighting and pain, the vampire knew it was time. Taking its burning form back to the Solstice Temple, it scaled the outside of the shrine as the sun started to grace the horizon, reaching the top as the Face of Helios shone down on it. Even as before, the pain was unbearable, but the decades of preparation allowed the creature to stand its ground, and bathe full in the light of the Holy of Holies. But it did not die. The agony was beyond words, but death would not come. The vampire stood in the light until noon before he sank to his knees and finally, after centuries, prayed once more for deliverance. The priests of the temple, watching this from afar, watched as the light on the creature increased. A solid ray of sunlight beat down on the creature as it knelt and prayed for the rest of the day and into the night - one single ray illuminating the temple. As dawn rose again, the priests saw the creature rise and walk into the temple. It still bore a monstrous frame and was still engulfed in flames from the thousands of holy symbols carved into its flesh. It still moved like a man in unthinkable pain, but it walked with serenity on its face. The vampire approached the priests and when it looked at them, they felt the presence of an Avatar of Helios and bowed deep before it. To this day, the Lord of Martyrs leads the Penitent Crusade - the Valerian armies formed of sinners seeking redemption. Every night it carves a new symbol of faith into its flesh and every day it prays to the open sky. As an Avatar of Helios, it represents the domains of Fire, Martyrdom, Pain and Redemption. Unlike the other Avatars, it appears to be immortal, all damage done to it being healed in seconds. To the forces of Harrow, the Burning Knight is one of the most terrifying things to see on a battlefield, especially given its willingness to punch its way to the center of anathema cores and destroy everything living within a kilometer or more but itself. The Rail-Barons have poured hundreds of thousands of gold crowns into the coffers of the churches of Harrow to find a way to permanently stop the Abomination King, but to date all their attempts have failed as surely as it failed to destroy itself.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:31:56 +0000
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