Avernox

Some time during the reign of the second Wizard Santa, Gaelica led his undead army against Wizard Santa’s at Santa’s Workshop. She defeated them, but at the command of Avernion, spared them under a conditional surrender: Wizard Santa must provide a cut of his annual soul collections to the Shadow King as payment for continued operations. If they should provide below their year’s share at any point, Gaelica will return to Santa’s Workshop and annihilate the operation for good. The most recent Wizard Santa was not as evil as his predecessors and doesn’t wish to keep the operation going, but knew that Gaelica will kill him and everyone at the North Pole if he willingly ends it. This is why he sought out the party in his whimsical manner, pointing them to the Isle of Smiles so that they can get to the North Pole and shut down Santa’s Workshop. Then, maybe he could weasel away and retire, or join them in their fight.

Cyrofel Royal Family

• Prince Amon: Undead necrosorcerer, Champion of Avernox
• Princess Sevira: Undead cryosorcerer, Champion of Avernox

The Averpope (The Death Minister)

• Formerly the Shadow King’s undead Moon Elf warlock, responsible for political “outreach” throughout Cyregnor & foreign relations outside of Cyregnor. The Death Minister served as King Avernion’s closest advisor before the fall of Cyrofel. Upon Avernion’s transformation into the Shadow King, the Death Minister made a pact with the lich, becoming an Undead Patron Warlock. The Death Minister serves as the Shadow King’s political agent, securing deals across Cyregnor and spreading his influence through subtler means than military force. However, he is powerful enough to make quick work of most political opponents, should that become necessary. Basically, he infiltrates prospective territories, tries to convince them to join under the Shadow Triad’s banner, and if they refuse, kills important political leaders and destabilizes the settlement’s government from within. Usually not present in Necropolis, but has special privileges whenever there. Reports directly to The Shadow King; notably does not answer to the Morien Council or the Pharaohs at all. He will be tasked by the Shadow King to give the introductory tour of Necropolis when the Gaiobros arrive, much to his chagrin and belief that its beneath him. Upon the Ascension Of The Shadow Triad , he became the Averpope of Cyrofel & Champion of Avernox.

The Angel of Death (Shade Walker)

Undead Moon Elf skeletal wight that served as King Avernion’s personal bodyguard before the fall of Cyrofel. Upon Avernion’s transformation into the Shadow King, the Shade Walker made a pact of eternal service to the lich, becoming a Daidrin Fighter. The Shadow King sends the Shade Walker on missions where he wants targets killed & their souls collected, but with subtlety and precision rather than an army of undead led by the Wrathful Pharaoh (formerly Lady Gaelica). The Shade Walker wields several weapons & Daidrin spells to complete these missions for the Shadow King, listed in detail within his statblock. Upon the Ascension Of The Shadow Triad , he became the Commander of the Avernal Knights, Angel of Death & Champion of Avernox.
Avernal Army

Avernal Knights

• The Shade Walker: First Knight & Commander of the Avernal Knights, Champion of Avernox
• Cyrofellian Royal Guard (with Shade Walker formula)
• Necropolis Guard (taken by Avernox into Cyrofel): consists mainly of Zombie Troopers units led by Wight Troopers. They protect the city from outside threats and perform limited policing duties within, since undead citizens don't really have the same worry regarding crime as living ones. Sir Gorien has been the leader of the Necropolis Guard for several centuries, who personally guards the Cyr's Crown Gate day and night. The Jaw Patrol Training Center occassionally recruits accomplished Necropolis Guard troops, but Sir Gorien answers directly to the Necropolis Council.
• Sir Gorian the Sentinel (historical, currently with the Avernal Knights in Cyrofel) - guardian of the city gate. Death knight responsible for maintaining who comes into the city. Reports directly to the Morien Council, indirectly to the Caring Pharaoh. Flanked by two Frost Giant Zombies, anti-teleportation/phasing field starting at the gate & surrounding the whole city. Necrocannons exist atop the wall connecting the gate to the mountains, manned by skeletons.

Stuff added 6/19/2024

Avernox & the Shadow Triad updates EARLY LIFE
Not much is known of his early life, but Avernion was born or settled in Luxevor 400 BC (300 years before the Perniam Wars). Luxevor was a Cyr-defiant city-state in Cyregnor & the last Moon Elf society on Gaion. Luxevor created more anti-divinity weapons than the other northern city-states, including Fraesokovia, due to their proximity to Dalterra/their mortal enemies (Dahli & Sun Elves) & their defiance against Cyr. Avernion excelled through the ranks of the magocracy, becoming the Grand Archmage of the High Magistrum (council of mages that rules the city) by the later years of the Perniam Wars. He became close allies with Lady Gaelica, Knight Commander of the Luxevoran Army & paladin without a god, and Hierophant Zalcophet, an Archmage who deciphered religious glyphs, artifacts & texts to craft arcane imitations of divine spells, becoming a cleric without a god.
FALL OF LUXEPOR/LUXEVOR
During the Cleansing, Cyr took out her rage on Luxevor, an Arcane Capital in Cyregnor. While her hatred of Fraesokovia was strong, Cyr believed that Luxepor was a greater affront to her power. As such, she spent the final hour of the Perniam Wars personally decimating the city, while simultaneously raining down necrotic & spatial ice meteors, dark lightning & shadow fire from the Cyregnor skies onto living populations.
The battle between Luxepor & Cyr was epic. With Cyr projecting much of her power across the continent with necrotic meteors/spatial bombs encased within ice, Luxepor/Luxevor had a slight chance at victory. Cyr’s summoned forces struggled against Luxepor/Luxevor’s Daidrin/arcane/druidic mages & cold/necrotic/force immune warbeasts/monsters, leaving the arcane/Gaioforce magitech defenses capable of focusing on Cyr herself. She racked the city for an hour, causing major devastation while being harmed herself. At the end of the hour, Avernion called Gaelica & Zalcophet to their wings of the Luxepor/Luxevor Grand Castle & fired an experimental weapon, the Void Cannon (prototype of the weapon he would perfect a millennia later as the Shadow King, then as Avernion) at Cyr’s chest, which harmed but did not kill or seriously injure the goddess. It drained the dark energy reserves of the entire city, but it also delayed Cyr to the end of her hour. As she whisked away in a blizzard gust of snow & dark energy, Cyr angrily tossed her Claw of the Frost Reaper at the castle, located in the damaged city’s center. The Claw gathered dark energy and compressed to a humanoid-wieldable size as it spun/plummeted towards the city. Unable to divert it or shield themselves from such a blast, Grand Archmage Avernion & Grand Hierophant Zalcophet cast a modified Demiplane spell on themselves, Gaelica & their portion of the castle, successfully escaping the city moments before impact. However, the city-wide Fractal Clamp Cyr placed across Luxepor/Luxevor + the fact that the castle’s interior already uses spatial magic to enlarge itself = the trio could not move their demiplane out of spatial range of the Daidrin explosion, which completely destroyed the city. This explosion had the following effects upon the Claw’s contact with the castle/city center:
•Leveling of most buildings with a mass gravitational shockwave of force •Flash freezing of buildings/rubble/objects/people/monsters in their place or wherever the shockwave pushed them •Mass transmutation of buildings/rubble/objects/people/non-bioweapon creatures into ice •Mass turning of people & non-bioweapon creatures into undead. As a lasting effect, any non-bioweapon creature that dies within Luxepor/Luxevor’s ruins/region will reanimate as a ghoul (normally) or a wight (if they die with intense anger, hatred or vengeance in their heart). Anyone/anything turned into a wight cannot be resurrected, as their soul is permanently entangled & corrupted by the region’s magic. •Everstorm blizzard created around the Claw of the Frost Reaper, using it & the city’s center as the eye of the storm. This storm became natural/not magically indefinite once the Claw was claimed by the vampires who would become the Blood Lords & Blood King of the Vampiric Empire. •All spatial magic within, in or out of the region is disrupted, making teleportation spells impossible. This effect lists partially when the Claw is taken from the ruins, but casters of teleportation or other spatial magic will roll Wild Magic dice whenever casting a spell of this type •Spells dealing cold, necrotic or force damage are amplified. Spells amplified in this way ignore resistance & treat immunity as resistance. •The bioweapon monsters survive off dark energy rather than food, water or breathing, and do not need to sleep. As such, those flash frozen live in suspended animation, ready to attack anyone that is near if freed. •Anyone who cast Demiplane/any teleportation or spatial spell to escape the blast became trapped within the spatial confines of that spell. This meant that Avernion, Zalcophet & Gaelica were trapped within their wing of the castle inside their own Demiplane.

SURVIVAL
The trio’s chunk of the castle was spatially connected to the spaces of the few other Luxevorians trapped in this way, but travel on those unstable spatial pathways was risky. Zalcophet created food & water indefinitely with his arcane holy spells, giving them the ability to survive until they found a way out. They spent their years researching what they kept in their wings of the castle, committing the knowledge to their souls & collaborating constantly for escape plans. However, despite many rituals and attempts, the Daidrin Gaiostone just outside their spatial prison was too powerful to push past. During this time, they nearly went mad, as they could hear the whispers of the Gaiostone penetrating their domain & slowly degrading their moral oppositions to necromancy.
Decades later, the last known nomadic tribe of Moon Elves (the rest had died out before or during the Perniam Wars) led a daring expedition into the ruins of Luxevor, determined to learn how the great anti-divine city fell. Most died, but 10 managed to navigate & break through the ice caves that surrounded the Claw of the Frost Reaper. They found the divine weapon and attempted to break it out, but the ice proved too dense & magically enhanced by the stone. On the night of a full moon, when they were ready to give up, the stone whispered necrotic secrets into their minds, implanting them with the idea that if they were willing to drink the blood of one of their companions, the stone would lift its defenses and allow them to claim it. Predictably, the 10 Moon Elf explorers, last of their tribe & their subrace (excluding the trio, the other trapped Moon Elves & the Moonfather’s lunar colony) turned on each other, with 5 killing & drinking the blood of the other 5. The stone burst from its restrains as they completed the deal, baking them with necrotic dark energy and transforming them into the first vampires. Prior to this, liches, death knights, wights and other forms of undead reigned dominant amongst the unliving population. The new vampires fought amongst themselves to determine their new leader, with Daedrius defeating his brethren and declaring himself the Blood King while the rest declared themselves Blood Lords. While the Blood King removed the Claw of the Frost Reaper & set off with the Blood Lords to claim the weakened Cyrofel for themselves, the teleportation-disrupting magic weakened across the region, allowing Avernion, Gaelica & Zalcophet to escape their prison along with all of their accumulated knowledge/creations. However, the sudden spatial vacuum caused the other spatial gaps to destabilize, tearing apart any objects or people trapped within.
THE TUNDRA WARS
Swearing vengeance against Cyr & her pantheon for destroying their entire culture & home, the pre-Shadow Triad destroyed countless undead as wandered the wastes, recruiting displaced Frost Elves to their cause. Meanwhile, Blood King Daedrius & his Blood Lords invaded the weakened Cyrofel & killed the now demilich Queen Laezarna, destroying her phylactery for good & entrapping her soul within a crystal of magical ice. Blood King Daedrius crafted this crystal into a conduit for the Daidrin Gaiostone’s dark energy, placing it into the apparatus that used to hold her phylactery. With a ritual from the Gaiostone, Blood King Daedrius used the Claw of the Frost Reaper to spatially channel through the apparatus & connect the Daidrin Gaiostone to Cyrofel, repairing its ability to fly. Taking the undead forces still in the city, Blood King Daedrius & his Blood Lords soon invaded all remaining living societies within Cyregnor, turning them into “blood farms”. Only Fraesokovia resisted the wave of conquest with isolationism , while the pre-Shadow Triad & their followers led armed resistance against the empire, with the ultimate goal of claiming Cyrofel for themselves and all other refugees of the Cleansing & Tundra Wars.
Over time, the north was considered to be under control, so the Blood King left his Blood Lords to maintain order on Cyregnor while he took Cyrofel south to Dalterra. The lands of Faelaria (northern-most islands/archipelago of Dalterra) were near completely sundered & conquered (now resembling a dark fantasy/Transylvania like region), but the vampiric advance was stopped by a brave defense of the Drakewatch & the recently founded Warian Collective at the Battle of Fork’s End (northernmost tip of Dalterra). Sir Alathor, a paladin/knight & founder of the Warian Collective, sacrificed his soul’s ability to bind to Lifeforms by casting Astral Banishment on Blood King Daedrius, sending the vampire & himself to the Astral Fog. Determined to claim the city, the Cyrofel Resistance followed the city here and took advantage of the power vacuum, joining the fight & infiltrating the city. While sustaining heavy casualties, they + the Warian Collective successfully cleared the city-state of vampires & forced the only present Blood Lord (& last “living” vampire in Cyrofel) to sign the Treaty of Fork’s End, which magically bound the vampires from ever advancing farther south than Fork’s End. After casting an arcane ritual to pass on the terms of the magical contract to every vampire created from the Blood King’s/Blood Lords’ magic, the pre-Shadow Triad killed the Blood Lord & set off in their new city to liberate Cyregnor from the vampiric empire. The three were hailed as legendary heroes who saved the living in the Tundra Wars, and thus became King Avernion, Grand General Gaelica & Frost Pharaoh Zalcophet of Cyrofel. King Avernion eventually appointed the Frost Elves who would later become the Death Minister & Shade Walker as his Grand Vizier & personal bodyguard/First Knight.
While Cyrofel managed to liberate the territories of 1 out of 3 remaining Blood Lords and kill them personally, the final two , Blood Lords Vawne (mage) & Dorlath (warrior) prepared and organized a grand counteroffensive against the city-state and won a major battle, cutting the Cyrofel Royal Army in half and forcing them to retreat to the Nairvithone Mountains. As such, the vampiric empire still retained 60% of living societies under its control, launching a full scale invasion of Cyrofel while it was vulnerable. During the battle, Gaelica fought & killed Blood Lord Dorlath, while Zalcophet used his arcane imitations of cleric abilities to drive off as many vampires as possible, but the Blood Lords brought their most capable armies to dismantle Cyrofel’s defenses. To escape the carnage, King Avernion used the Daidrin Gaiostone to cast another Demiplane variant on Cyrofel itself. However, Blood Lord Vawne, a powerful Daidrin sorcerer, cast a personally-crafted variant of Astral Banishment that wouldn’t permanently damage his soul, learning as much as he could about it through research & investigation. This spell locked Cyrofel in the demiplane it fled to, but it also destroyed Blood Lord Vawne entirely, having failed to perfect it as he’d hoped. With no central figure to keep the empire together & most of their conquering army depleted, most vampire lords fought amongst themselves & consolidated their territories, signififying the end of the Vampiric Empire. The free humanoid societies rebuilt and fortified against the vampires, remaining free from vampiric control within the waning days of the Tundra Wars.
BIRTH OF THE SHADOW TRIAD
While trapped in the demiplane, King Avernion panicked. Unable to break them out with the stone’s power (it had contributed to the ritual that sealed them in), Avernion, Gaelica & Zalcophet had a full-scale uprising on his hands from the citizens in the coming weeks. Meanwhile all three were receiving more whispers from the Daidrin Gaiostone, secretly being amplified by Danos. In their desperation for control & reaching closer to the end of their natural lives, the three succumbed to the Daidrin Gaiostone’s corruption and formed the Pact of the Shadow Triad, with each gaining a form of undeath with the goal of one day usurping the gods of Cyr’s Pantheon. They quelled the uprisings of their people in brutal fashion, cursing the entire city into undeath while retaining a small population for soul feeding to Avernion’s phylactery. Upon this transformation, King Avernion became the Shadow King, Lady Gaelica became the War Reaper & Zalcophet became the Frost Pharaoh.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Avernion was born between 100-200 years before the Elder Wars to one of the last nomadic Moon Elf conclaves on Gaion. He learned to survive amongst the harsh anti-Moon Elf sentiments amongst Northern Dalterra by advancing in his Daidrin heritage, becoming a prodigy in the Gaioforce. At some point during these days, he met Zaelim the Moonfather , with both exhibiting a mutual distaste/pompous disdain for each other. When Dahli influenced her Solternian followers to wipe out the last Moon Elves, the Solternian Empire led a massive ethnic cleansing throughout Dalterra, driving Avernion's conclave to Cyregnor while the remaining Moon Elves in Cyregnor were completely wiped out. Members of his clan included Gaelica & Zalcophet, two fellow Moon Elves that would later join him to create the Shadow Triad .

Through [means not currently written], Avernion & his conclave became the rulers of Cyrofel years after the Elder Wars ended, but before The Tundra Wars . During this time, the last Moon Elves on Gaion (besides himself, Gaelica, Zalcophet, the parents of the Death Minister & the parents of the Shade Walker) discovered the crash site of Cyr's Claw, the weapon that held the Daidrin Gaiostone. They were corrupted by it and became the first vampires, and the ensuing Tundra Wars led to a Cyrofellian army led by King Avernion, Commander Gaelica & Frostfather Zalcophet marching on the vampiric capital (crash site of the Gaiostone) and killing the Blood King. They took the Daidrin Gaiostone back to Cyrofel and began studying it, but were eventually besieged by vampiric forces that threatened to destroy Cyrofel. In a desperate & ambitious move, Avernion, Gaelica & Zalcophet use the Gaiostone to weave the magical rites of the Shadow Triad, allowing them to complete their respective rituals for their forms of undead, tying it to the Gaiostone itself. As their first act, Avernion pulled Cyrofel into a pocket dimension at the heart of the Everstorm, creating a miniature black hole that was concealed/powered by the Everstorm. To this, most people thought that Cyrofel disappeared or was completely destroyed by the vampires.

Secretly, however, Avernion & the Shadow Triad ruled Cyrofel with an iron fist, pushing the city closer to undeath than most citizens were comfortable with. At some point within the early days of this dystopia, many of the upper & middle class citizens rose up against the Shadow Triad, but were unsuccessful. As punishment, the Shadow King tortured and twisted the rebels into the Laughing Ghouls, an eyeless twisted form of ghouls & ghasts that laugh maniacally as they approach and consume the living. These Laughing Ghouls patrol the middle ring of Cyrofel, serving as a border between the lower class peasantry & the royal palace/Cyrofellian Guards.

Around 100-200 years into his reign, King Avernion decided that he wanted more from his longevity and power. To achieve this, he studied the nature of divinity and how mortals/demigods (the Ascension Gods) became gods in the past. Through this study and mastery over the Daidrin Gaiostone, King Avernion's arrogance led him to directly challenge Danos, hoping to destroy his form & usurp his power. However, Danos not only defeated and destroyed him, but tortured him for several decades by repeatedly destroying & rejuvenating his lich form, proving who is the true master of undeath. By the end of the punishment, Danos left Avernion as a "shadow of his former self", inflicting him with the Shadow Lich curse. This curse disallowed Avernion from taking a truly physical/corporeal form, being more than 100 ft away from his phylactery (the Daidrin Gaiostone), and from directly accessing the Ethereal Plane outside of Cyrofel or his extended domain. This transformation led to Avernion dubbing himself "The Shadow King"

[insert more story, up until the Gaiobros Campaign, where he breaks the Shadow Lich curse and ascends to godhood as Avernox the Shadow Reaper]

For the Shadow King's schemes during the Gaiobros campaign, see The Daidrin Expedition .

Social

Reign

Between 100-200 years (as King Avernion) & over 700 years (as The Shadow King)

Religious Views

Hates the gods, especially Danos. Wishes to become one himself and overthrow the god of undeath that cursed him.

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Current Location

Cyrofel

Species

Moon Elf

Ethnicity

Cyrofellian

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

• Moon Elf Nomads

Honorary & Occupational Titles

King of Cyregnor (mortal)
The Shadow King (undead & divine)

Age

+1000 years

Current Residence

Coldspyre Castle

Sex

Male

Gender

Male

Presentation

Masculine

Eyes

Black

Hair

Long sleek, pitch black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale white

Belief/Deity

Hates the gods, wishes to become one himself

Aligned Organization

Shadow Triad

Related Reports

• Darkjaw Chapter 14: Disgrace of the Drakewarden

Known Languages

Common, Elvish, Undercommon, Northspeak (blend of Elvish & Undercommon), Draconic, Sylvan, Infernal, Abyssal & Deep Speech