[Beginner] Dark Secret Saga - Dargor

[saudade_apps]

(warning for mention of rape)

PLAYER
NAME: Mary

CHARACTER
NAME(S): Dargor
AGE: 33 (At least in appearance. His father is over 5,000 years old and he's half demon, so it's entirely likely he's older. I put him somewhere between 50 and 75.)
CANON: Dark Secret Saga
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
Dargor's history spans two stories, the Emerald Sword Saga and the Dark Secret.

Parts of the story are in the liner notes...which are pretty much the summaries on the wiki pages.

If you want/need to give any/all of it a listen: here

Gods of Light and Hell Gods
There are varying levels of these gods. At the top, are the Gods of Cosmic Light. Below that are varying ranks of Gods of Light generally referred to as angels. Erian is one of the more powerful angels.

All the way on the other end of this spectrum are the Hell Gods. The ultimate Hell God mentioned is Kron. Kron has two sons: Akron and Nekron (Kron is very creative with names). There are varying levels of Hell Gods and demons in between. Vankar is a demon somewhere below Akron and Nekron but still high enough up to have been close in service to Akron.

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Dargor first appears midway through the Emerald Sword Saga (although he is behind the scenes already). His father, Vankar, was a demon in service to the Hell God Akron. Vankar, probably through service, has been granted the lordship of the Black Mountain and the Shadowlands. Dargor is half-demon and despite his allegiance to his father, he has always felt at odds with his demon nature and with how Akron acts. (note: Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain says he was adopted by Vankar. This is retconned later something the Warrior and Aresius (the wizard who follows the Warrior about) were mistaken about. Still, he follows his duties as he is expected to. At least until the day he finds his father dead. He is told by Akron that the Warrior of Ice (who never has a name beyond that), the Chosen One to end Akron, murdered his family (it's somewhat implied that this included his father).

Dargor at that time pushes aside all of his internal conflict and swears himself to Akron and acts as his lieutenant. No matter what else Vankar was, he was Dargor's father and the only parent he knew (his mother is Gaia, the Goddess of the Earth). We are not told what else constituted his 'family', but I assume a wife and at least one child.

Under Akron's command, Dargor lays siege to Ancelot. By the time the Warrior of Ice even gets there, the city is in ruins and Akron has taken Princess Airin. The Warrior of Ice and Prince Arwald (with his army) fight back Dargor's forces and he falls back to Hargor, which Akron is using as a base of sorts and where he is holding Princess Airin and the others he has taken captive.

Akron sends a message to the Warrior and the Prince, telling them that the Warrior will surrender the Emerald Sword, the holy blade filled with the glory of angels, or he will kill the prisoners one by one. Akron was, of course, lying (he's a Hell God). The Warrior agrees to meet them because the holy blade isn't worth all of those lives, but when he and Arwald arrive the prisoners (save for Airin) are dead. The Warrior and Prince are taken captive.

Airin is brutally raped by demons in the middle of a demonic celebration while Akron watches. Arwald and the Warrior are forced to watch. Dargor tries to convince Akron that this is wrong and is unsuccessful. When the demons are done with Airin, she is lowered into a pit of acid and dies. It's Arwald's turn next and he is tortured before being lowered into the acid. Dargor, unable to watch this and unable to change anything, leaves. Arwald, in his last moment, throws some of the acid at the Warrior, melting the chains that bind him and allowing him to escape. But his escape left the sword in Akron's hands.

Using the sword, Akron unseals the magic binding the Queen of Dark Horizons. They rain down fire on the army of the Warrior of Ice and, after blood rites are performed, unleash thousands of demons on the land. Akron now cannot be defeated. Game over, man.

But that doesn't stop the Warrior of Ice until his forces are surrounded and they realize all is lost. Dargor, still out for revenge, challenges the Warrior to a duel. The Warrior, being the icon of Good, doesn't kill Dargor. Dargor falls from a rock and is trapped. The Warrior helps him. Dargor doesn't understand the Warrior's mercy. He's believed that he was on the side of good (because evil never does actually think it's evil) and mercy is not something someone evil shows. Missing what this means altogether because he's just out for revenge, he strikes the Warrior down.

The Warrior is taken and Akron is ready to declare victory. He occupies the holy city of Algalord and reduces it to rubble. He has the Warrior of Ice tortured and Dargor remains this time, not watching out of pleasure but watching because he's come to realize finally that Akron is evil and that it was Akron who killed his family. He strikes down the Queen of Dark Horizons and calls forth gargoyles to attack Akron and kill him.

Akron had been expecting the betrayal and has a demon attack him. Gaia gives Dargor the strength to push Akron down to the platform the Warrior is on. The Warrior tells Dargor to lower them into the marshes and pins Akron to the platform with the holy sword. They are devoured by the watersnakes and Dargor (with his summoned gargoyles) leads the forces of Algalord to victory. The gargoyle becomes their new symbol and Dargor drops out of sight.

Some time goes by and the forces of evil start figuring out how to resurrect Nekron. There were seven books that contained all of the secrets and over the years six of them were found. The last, containing the actual secrets of the resurrection, was hidden by the Black Order in the Darklands. Erian had written a White Book detailing exactly how to stop the resurrection and no one knew where that was. So going after the seventh book was the best idea.

Only, no one knows much about the Darklands and one needed a demon of the Black Order to get into the secret chambers where the book was hidden. It was suggested that Dargor be found and after a lot of protesting it, it was agreed upon. He was found and convinced that he was the Only Hope. So he led Iras Algor, the hero Khaas, Princess Lothen, and the elven king Tarish to the grey mountains, while ducking the Black Order.

Vankar appears in a vision to Dargor and reminds him that he is half-demon and that he is betraying the very blood that flows in his veins. Dargor tells him that he knows it all too well and he will pay for being a demon, but that he will fight Vankar forevermore.

They find their way into Dar-Kunor and search through it for the seventh book. They realize Dar-Kunor is made up of the bones of humans and elves. Dargor tells them that it was his father who ordered the building of Dar-Kunor and formed the Black Order. They find the book but taking it causes demons to be unleashed and they flee. They come to a place where their options are jump off a cliff and hope they live when they hit the river below or stay and let the demons do what demons do.

They jump. They survive. They return to Elgard to open the book.

Through reading the book, they realize that Erian's book is no myth and after going into hardcore research mode, they learn the location of the book. They then journey to a place where even the tears of angels freeze.

They find the White Book beneath a black dragon made of stone but Tarish betrays them, saying the Book belongs to the Black Order. Dargor and Khaas manage to kill him, but before he dies he rips some of the pages from the book. They leave to be treated and so they can read the White Book. But the missing pages held some very vital information.

After a lot of running around (and Khaas dying), they retuned to the fortress with the stone dragon (which they learned had been alive once and tortured by Nekron). Thanor (the dragon) opened his stone eyes and holy light fell on Dargor. The missing pages had been carved into his body, including the way of stopping Nekron.

'I am Erian’s reincarnation and the chosen one to walk through the gate of the ancient world in order to challenge Nekron’s hellish soul and the evil energy that generated him.'

Dargor can't accept it at first. The black blood of a demon flows through his veins. He is evil because of his very birth. Iras tells him that it's easier for an angel to be good because they are born that way; it takes a lot more for a demon to choose the light over the darkness. Accepting his fate, Dargor passes through the portal, killing himself and releasing his immortal soul. Erian's cosmic energy combined with Dargor's soul, giving new birth to Erian as a God of Cosmic Light.


PERSONALITY:

Dargor is the son of a demon lord. He was the prince of the darklands at one point, but despite the evil overtones of his life and surroundings, he thought himself to be on the side of good. He never became the spoiled prince, expecting to be doted upon by his servants or his people at all times. His was likely a kingdom always at odds with something, internal or external. That shaped him into something different.

Power and honor became sort of cornerstones for him. The power to keep threats at bay and to correct internal problems. It's likely (sort of hinted at) that he used less Good means of power before he realized the truth about his father (it apparently is possible for full demons and children of Hell Gods to be good-aligned instead of evil). His mind and ways of thinking had been twisted for a long time.

Even still, things were to be done with honor. It's why he objected to the brutalities visited upon Airin and Arwald. These were not the right and honorable actions to take, especially not as a lord who planned on uniting the world under one banner. On the same lines, when he gives a word of honor, he stays to it. It's important enough to him that when he realizes he was on the side of evil and had blood on his hands because of it, he abdicates his rule of the shadowlands and goes to live in a cave.

He is called a mighty and brave, dragonhearted warrior. Despite being a mage, he is physically powerful. Enough so that he attracts Akron's attention. Wanting such a powerful warrior to fight for him was the point of killing Dargor's family and blaming it on someone else. Despite the courage he has, he has been arrogant, and justifiably so in his mind. It's something he's learned about himself and the realization that his arrogance blinded him to the truth has sapped that part of him.

Not only does he now question his actions, he can be very self-depreciating at times. He focuses quite a bit on the fact that he is a half-demon. He's evil because of it whether he likes it or not. He's damned for it. He is unworthy of the attention of angels. He wants to overcome his evil nature but every time there's a failure, it falls on his demon blood.

He is troubled by his past. Even at the end, there is still the thought that he will find some way to redeem Airin's soul. It's been years since she was brutally murdered, yet her eyes and her face still haunt him. It's left him quasi-suicidal. He says that he wants to just live now that he's free of hell, but he's quick to offer up his life, except at the end (and that goes back to his demon issues). He has blood on his hands that he doesn't know how to wash clean.

CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:

All of his friends die. And generally horribly. But he carries them with him in his memories and strives to not let their deaths be in vain. Or, in the case of Airin, whose soul he will redeem from Hell somehow.

Warrior of Ice
The Warrior is the one he looks to, the one who made him realize that he could choose the light. The Warrior is the one who started him on his path to redemption, even if he doesn't think he deserves it. He had believed, wrongly, for a good while that the Warrior had slain his family. The Warrior's final words to him are words he will never forget.

Princess Airin
She is called 'the rose'. Younger sister of Arwald. They are considered a great example of pure love. She haunts him still. It comes out clearly in Lost in Cold Dreams and Aeons of Raging Darkness. The brutalities that were visited on her are the image, for Dargor, of what evil really is. He will not, likely cannot, forget what happened that day and happened to her.

Prince Arwald
He is called 'the rock', beloved older brother of Airin. He had traveled with the Warrior of Ice to try and save Airin. He was tortured and put to death after she was killed. Dargor had believed Arwald to be as evil as the Warrior and only after he realized the truth was he able to look back at Arwald's actions and see them for what they were.

Aresius
The wizard who traveled with the Warrior of Ice. He is one of the great heroes of the age. He was with Dargor and the others for Akron's death. He was the one to heal the Warrior with the last of his power so that he could pin Akron to the platform. He, like Arwald, is not someone Dargor interacted with much during the war (although given that they both would have worked on the rebuilding of the holy city, they had to have after) but is someone whose actions Dargor was forced to re-examine to see for what they really were.

Vankar
Dargor's father, who twisted him to see the evil of the Hell Gods as something Good and Right. Given that evil never does see itself as evil, it's possible Vankar thought himself a Good demon. Dargor knows his father thinks him a betrayer for siding against Akron and Nekron, but he doesn't want to serve that will and will fight it forever. Given the emotion Vankar shows when he comes as a vision to Dargor, it's likely Vankar, in his own demonic way, does care about his son. Vankar is part of why Dargor's issues about his demon nature are so huge.

Akron, Nekron
The demon king sons of the Hell God Kron. Dargor served Akron until betraying him to his death. He'd believed in Akron's twisted cause for far too long and has too much blood on his hands to ever wash it clean. Nekron is the second, perhaps older (as he existed during the primordeal wars), of Kron's two known sons. Dargor's mission was to stop him from being revived and he did it by sacrificing his life.

Iras Algor
A wise wizard who was the one to suggest that Dargor be their guide and to insist on it until it was agreed upon. He always shows belief in Dargor and his ability to help them save the world. Even when Dargor is protesting his fate and saying that he cannot be Erian because he is a demon, Iras tells him that it takes more goodness for a demon to become good than an angel who is born that way. Iras is also the one to survive to bring back the story of Dargor's sacrifice to the rest of the world. They called each other brother.

Khaas

A friend who dies in the journey. Khaas was good at seeing things from a different perspective. His death is pretty much glossed over, but he was one of the four who followed Dargor to Hell's very door. We don't really get much about their friendship beyond being bound to the same fate.

Lothen

A friend who drops completely out of the story for no given reason. Given that she is replaced by another for the end, she may have had to remain behind for some reason. We don't really get much about their friendship beyond being bound to the same fate.

Tarish
One of the five heroes elected to go find Erian's White Book. Dargor trusted him and considered him a friend. He couldn't understand Tarish's betrayal of them, or even when he turned on them. They'd been fighting so hard to survive in the Darklands that it never occured to them that Tarish knew right where to go to find the Black Order's secret entrance in the caves of his 'ancient brother elves' (it was likely just taken as information he'd have because his ancient brothers had that information.

STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY:
When Dargor accepts his fate, that he is a demon with the soul of an angel destined to destroy a Hell God.

He's a bit self-depreciating simply because of the blood in his veins and for everything he has to pay for. He doesn't deserve to be a holy beacon because he's a horrible person. It's in that moment that he realizes he is more than the demon.

POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
Dargor was contented to just exist in the never-ending darkness. The gods, perhaps Erian, had taken the last moments of life from his memory. The only thing that troubled him was that he should no longer exist at all. His soul was Erian's soul after all.

The only answer that made sense to him was that this was the demon. This was what was left. And if that was the case, then he was at peace with the darkness. It was not the Hell the son of Vankar deserved, and that was a mercy.

How long had he been in the darkness? He couldn't say, nor would he try. Eternal darkness had no time. But little by little he became aware of the light below him, the light coming from below a stained glass showing himself outside the portal, with smaller images of those who had fought and lost. The Warrior, Khaas, Tarish, Lothen, Iras. Airin.

He had been aware of it growing larger but it wasn't until his boots touched down on that beautiful and tragic glass surface that he realized he was as solid as it was. But what was this for? A visual reminder of those who had died, some of whom owed that to his actions? If this was intended to be his pain, it was no worse than was he held within himself.

'So much to do, so little time... Take your time, don't be afraid.'

His head snapped up, away from the images at his feet. His heart hammered in his chest, but he was barely aware of that. He knew that voice, despite having never heard it. It was His voice; he knew it without needing to be told.

"Erian!"

Was it their shared soul speaking to him? Some remaining connection between the living god and the deceased demon? But was he deceased? The pounding of his heart had finally processed.

"Do I yet live?"

'The door is still shut.'

He winced at that.

"Forgive me, Lord." He had planned to open it. He was going to pass through that portal, surrender his life to become Erian. "Is this Nekron's doing? Did he know before the end?"

Holy Gods of Cosmic Light. Had he failed in the end? Had the evil in his blood somehow betrayed them?

'Step forward.'

He stepped forward and the light shone down on to the glass. Three pedestals rose under that shining light and an item appeared on the top of each. On one, the Emerald Sword hovered, the tip of the blade mere inches from the surface. On the second, the black book. On the last was a shield with a gargoyle carved into the front.

'Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well.'

Was he somehow between life and death, between Dargor and Erian? Would these choices somehow alter Erian and how he would fight Nekron? The thought that his decision here could save or destroy his world was a terrifying one. How could any demon make that choice? A hand went to his chest, where Erian's words had been written into his very flesh. He would choose well and Erian would be victorious. He had to believe in that.

He went to each in turn, deciding between the sword (courage and destruction), book (inner strength, wonder, ruin), and the shield (kindness to aid friends, a shield to repel all) before returning to the sword and taking it. He expected it to burn, the blade filled with the glory of angels but it felt natural in his hand. As though it had been weighted to his grip.

'Is this the power you seek?'

"This is my decision." Maybe it was the wrong one. Maybe no demon could truly aid an angel. But by the gods, he would give Erian the best chance and he knew that part of his soul would fight well with it.

The sword vanished and he expected that to be the end of everything.

'What will you give up?'

Give up? How could he take something from Erian? But his eyes found the book. What would Erian need with demon magics? He picked it up and it vanished.

'You have chosen the power of the warrior. You have given up the power of the mystic. Is this the form you choose?'

"Yes."

He watched the pedestals crumble and felt the glass below him breaking apart. He had done what he needed to. As the ground gave way and he fell back into the darkness, he called to Erian one final time.

"Fight well, Lord, and be victorious."

SPECIAL ABILITIES:
First off, Erian. Erian is a Cosmic God of Light whose entire purpose is to destroy the darkness of Nekron. In order for Erian to appear, though, Dargor has to die and stay dead. His soul is half of Erian. So while he's still got that angel soul going on, he can't actually become Erian for purposes of the game. It would kind of be game breaking if he did (darkness, what darkness).

Should he ever die in game, well, we're just going to say that without the soul to guide the power of Erian's cosmic force, it can't break through the darkness and connect with the soul.

Second, Dargor is a Shadowlord. The magic he has is innate to being a demon. That said, with the transfer into the KH reality, it'll sap his abilities. He won't put too much effort into learning the magic. He'll take it as a sign from Erian to move further away from it.

Avenger

Being an Avenger, Dargor will be doing what he's been doing for most of the Dark Secret: fighting with a sword in defense of Good. He'll have the coat protection granted by the shield and he'll be keeping his sword (which is made of Celestial Steel, so it's really good against demons).

INVENTORY:
His sword and armor along with the clothes on his back. His angel soul, demon blood and all his issues because of them.

NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
I'd like him to become a finder if possible. He doesn't get any real chance to live with the knowledge that he's not evil through and through and that Erian chose to be born the son of a demon. He gets to live with his redemption. Maybe even find a way to feel that he's redeemed Airin.

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