Asmodan's History

Many moons before the dreaded battle of Spiked Crossing, before The House of KoES fell into corrupt and power hungry hands, we were at peace. We had little interaction with any other houses and kept to our own works, our own quest for Balance within the Shadow. Aquiela Val'Des gathered us. He was the true Father of the Keepers and teacher to us all. By us all, I include our nemesis Asmodan Kytain. Asmodan was not the man he is today then. He was an eager student full of hope and promise, much like I was. I dare say I once called Asmodan 'friend', though I know now this was not so. Asmodan and I sought to learn from Aquiela just about everything and anything that he was willing to impart upon us. The Magick and the Alchemy was like an addictive drug that neither of us could quite get enough of. We were devout to the Keepers and served Aquiela with honor for a very long time. That is until our own blind ambitions made us stray from our oaths and lead us to our inevitable demise. Though the story of my folly is long and one of it's own, it bares a small mention here as I fear my works accelerated Asmodan's corruption. With Aquiela's restraints on how the Secrets were to be used and what was "right for the Shadow and the Balance," both Asmodan and I grew impatient and anxious. I turned my back on my oath as a Keeper to pursue the works and creation of the Entropy Coalition, which ultimately lead to the leaks of Chaos into the City. But Asmodan, his plans were of total domination of the Keepers. I fear that the Chaos the EC unwittingly allowed into the Dream clung to Asmodan like a second skin. He thrived on it and wanted more. I was so lost in my own taint and darkness that I did nothing but stand by and watch Asmodan destroy the Keepers. I allowed the beauty and truth to be buried under his greed and deception for far too long. Aquiela's favorite word was "Tolorance" in his day to day works. He allowed us all the room to err and flounder but was the first to help us off the ground when we did fall. He gave us too much room in retrospect, with allowing us access to the Secrets, the Book, all of it. While I was no more then a common thief in stealing the formulae, Asmodan was a traitor of the worst kind. His lies and conspiracies against Aquiela, Bellenter and Lorthodolic to overthrow them stopped at no lengths. But Aquiela foresaw all of this, even my betrayals were shown to him. They knew and they prepared. Asmodan raged at Aquiela and his brother's actions. He gathered his followers and convinced them that Aquiela had grown weak and feeble minded with his actions of burying the Truth and the Wisdoms of the Keepers. Now Asmodan was completely barred from access to the Secrets and used it as a power play to seize the House from Aquiela and the True Keepers. It was not long until Asmodan gathered his own Circle of Rulers and lead them all under his dark cloud of tyranny. It was a tragedy like no other, paled only in comparison by the Great Loss itself. I lost track of much of Asmodan's actions after Aquiela and the others went into seclusion and eventually Cast Adrift. I do know that though small in comparison to the other Houses, Asmodan's House of Shadows was one of great wealth and power. It was not the House that was meant to stand at all. It was tainted by evil greed and lies. Asmodan had succeeded in removing all traces of what the House was built on and what the true Keepers stood for with his new reign as the Dark Lord of KoES. Now I feel it important here to interject that my own corruption and imbalance took great pleasure in seeing The Keepers turn. Perhaps it made me feel justified in some twisted way. I wanted the Truth to die along with my own goodness. I was not "myself" though, you must understand that. My own hands helped bury the True Keepers to justify my own corrupt pursuits. I, am not who I was then. I am now who I was when I first took Aquiela's hand and vowed my soul to the true Shadow. . . NOT the man that Chaos tainted and twisted through my works. For whatever reason, if but to tell this tale, I have been given a chance to redeme myself and make amends. With that, I continue. . . Asmodan came to me often after the Battle at Spiked Crossing in search of any knowledge that I still held from our pure days. He used bribes, threats and whatever else he could summon to get me to spill all I knew that would aid him. Evil begets evil they say, and my heart was black as the pitch spawned from Chaos at that point. The Dreamstrike Masters were my foe and I could see nothing else but their demise. I aided Asmodan, I admit this freely as part of my penance now. I knew of his plot to kidnap Kiroko Lambent Kayarhara and I reveled in the thought of Turgin's suffering. I was corrupt, my Keeper's soul buried deep beneath the Chaos I so desperately sought to harness and control. Despite that, I had no taste for Asmodan's MindFlay or other tools of torment. Though I dished out my own evil, I can take some solace in knowing that I never directly inflicted the pain and suffering that Asmodan took pleasure in dispensing. But it was when I learned that Asmodan sought to possess the very art that I and my comrades were fighting to destroy that Asmodan and I became mortal enemies. I had no clue that his abduction of Kiroko was for the bargain of Dreamstrike. When I did learn of this, it was far too late. I watched from a safe distance past the Shadow Steps, chameled and Mind Blanked, I watched it all. I heard Kiroko's cries after Asmodan shattered Contessa to oblivion. I witnessed it all first hand. I retreated away from the House in horror, an odd sensation for me at the time I admit. The Truth was indeed dying. Bittersweet. It was a full week of silence outside my laboratory before I felt the strange twinge. Aquiela often spoke that the Shadow was in all things, a single thread that binds and the Keepers tap into it as if a sixth sense. I knew this to be true then. On my instincts I raced to the Gathering and watched once again. I saw Mi'raj and knew at once, as if intuitively, what was to take place. I did not stay. I walked back slowly and heard the screams of Asmodan as the Dark Rite was performed against him. I felt the smile cross my lips as the image of the Shadow take it's divine justice out upon him. Then I stopped dead in my tracks, knowing my time would be next, knowing that my own betrayal to the Shadow, to Aquiela would be upon me. I too would reap what I had sown. Oddly, this is the last bit of "feeling" I carried for many moons, until the last Full Moon before the Great Loss. I felt Aquiela leave this place forever. It was then I knew the Truth was indeed dead within the City. That I would never see the prophesy play out in my lifetime. And here I am. Brought back to this place as I was before. With my heart free from the evil that twisted me into the hideous creature that wrought havoc not much unlike Asmodan. But I have been gifted a second chance. To make things right with my 'father' Aquiela Val'Des, to help the true Keepers banish the evil cloud of Darkness that is called Asmodan from their lives forever. To help Asmodan's children find peace. This is my path, thus is the tale. ~ by Fenr'al