"They would soon now be going forward into lands wholly strange to them, and beyond all but the most vague and distant legends of the Shire, and in the gathering twilight they longed for home. A deep loneliness and sense of loss was on them." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 8: Fog on the Barrow-Downs.
Welcome one and all to another Kingmaker hero venture!
It occurred to me recently that I have made several Twilight Elf heroes split across different threads, generally on their own, and set out to assembles these Avengers (and Harassers and Evokers and...) into a single thread. All four of these heroes have gone through changes from their original forms - some more than others - (Sylvio was initially a Sylvan Elf but fit the Twilight Race and this thread far better) and I hope they reflect the work that Kingmaker Past and Kingmaker Present have done on them.
These heroes also have the added (and skin-deep) gimmick that their fifth power has two forms; as a regular power and as a Hero Spell, therefore allowing the hero to fit into both Frontiers and Origins. I have indicated my preference in that the other power is in brackets and far briefer, but this allows you to decide when any of these Twilight Elves were redeemed and joined the player's cause.
As always I welcome any and all feedback, no matter how harsh or constructive, and have chosen to leave both a change-log and my own thoughts at the top of this page to help guide feedback.
Without further ado:
Change-log:
16th October - added image links where appropriate to help visualising powers and smoothed out some formatting.
My thoughts:
Burden might be too erratic with his mayhem, and by contrast Sylvio's powers might be too reserved.
Diana's powers could be entirely reworked because I'm very uncertain in them.
I'd love any lore pointers - is Diana's too short while the others are too long? Are any of them understandable?
Coming Soon..:
Arch-Scourger: Ever been so angry you held your desiccated spirit together for thirty years of confinement and then reconstituted your physical form once free? She has. Don't get in her way.
Praeno: Cyndar's boyfriend may not be the host for a galactic entity, but he earned his title of 'Nameclaimer' on his own merits. Shadeslayer and Shardstealer, Dragontamer and Daemondueller, Goldweaver and Gullfeeder. The Immune. The Indomitable. The Immortal. That's about a twentieth of his formal titles, let alone what he is named in myth and folklore. He's done it all.
Burden, the Innocent:
Burden is a teenage Twilight Elf with short cut white hair; he wears the cape and chest armour of a Harasser - which are comically large for him - alongside tattered grey shorts, all of which emphasise his light blue skin. He clutches the continent-destroying book of Baj’Nimen in both hands, with wispy violet smoke drifting out from between its ornate purple covers, continually reading and flipping through its pages, sitting cross-legged if idle and jumping into the book upon death, as it closes.[i]
Stats: (Level 4 to Level 10)
Health: [i]200 350 25 (Regen: 35/s)
Armour: None (0%) Low (30%) 5%
Damage: 23-38 50-65 3.3-3.3 single-target magic damage every 2 seconds, holding his hand over a page of the book, causing a purple magic orb like those of Baj’Nimen to fall onto the path. In melee Burden picks up the book and hits enemies with it as it glows purple, with the same damage and time interval.
Speed: Fast, closes the book and runs with it, with his overly large cape billowing behind him.
Innates:
Paper Chase: Burden can reach impassable areas by jumping into the book and moving in a whirl of pages over gaps or canyons, moving as fast as his regular speed while doing so.
Arachnophobia: As an arachnophobe, Burden’s fear manifests through the book and turns his attacks a far darker shade of purple, dealing true damage whenever Spiders are near.
Absorption: Burden is occasionally immune to magic damage, with enemy magic attacks having a 10% chance of being drawn into the book and recharging a random power by 1 second.
Powers:
White Pages (Passive): Reading pages sewn out of the Sleeping Trees, Burden’s knowledge expands and proliferates, giving his base attack three independent 2.5/5/10% chances of stunning for 2 seconds, summoning a sylvan curse for 4 seconds or dealing double damage, all of which can stack their effects. In melee Burden instead absorbs the desires and emotions of the enemy he is facing into the book, upgrading his ranged attack to streaks of wispy black smoke with a 10/20/30% chance of disintegrating the enemies they hit for 12/24/36 seconds after 4 melee hits.
Mischievous Charm (15 seconds): Pulling a page out of his book, Burden throws it at an enemy as a bright purple paper aeroplane, dealing 50/100/150 True damage to a single target and applying a random area effect (silence, stun, burn, etc.) for 5 seconds, in addition to all three White Pages buffs.
Mutual Torment (20 seconds): Putting his fingers into the book and pulling out a purple ring of energy between his thumb and index finger, Burden frisbees it to the feet of his current target to form a purple Sylvan Curse, causing this enemy to be linked to the strongest enemy on the map, each party taking 125/150/200% the damage dealt to the other for 5 seconds. If his current target is the strongest enemy, 50% of its base health worth of enemies are connected instead. White Pages and Mischievous charm effects are linked, instakills on the large enemy cause the Curse to carry over to the next strongest enemy.
Problem Shared (35 seconds): Burden shows the book to any single enemy or 350/525/700 health worth of enemies, disintegrating them into purple light and ripped up paper, while leaving a violently-violet rune on the ground that ruptures when at least three enemies are within its medium radius, dealing True damage equivalent to 50% of the base health of the enemies it disintegrated.
Hero Spell: Bookwyrm (50 seconds): A tear in reality opens like ripped paper in the tapped area, with 1/2/3/4 smaller versions of Baj’Nimen’s Wyrm crawling out, being able to be moved to engage and block enemies. Regular (purple) Bookwyrms have 200/300/400/500 health, 5/15/30/50% magic resistance and bite with repulsive mandibles to deal 10-30/20-40/30-50/40-60 magic damage every 2 seconds. Burden can also summon red Wyrms with physical damage and armour, a Wyrm of any other colour with doubled damage but no resistances and an albino with white skin, red eyes and doubled health that deals double True Damage. All types of Wyrm are equally possible and share in his instakill buff from White Pages if it is active, fading into similar shadows should they die.
(Bookwyrm (30 seconds): Summons a purple Bookwyrm that can be moved independently with 100/250/400 health, 15/30/50% Magic resistance and deal 10-30/20-40/30-50 physical damage for 15 seconds, biting with its disgusting mandibles every 2 seconds with a 20% chance of instakill on each attack.)
Lore:
Ainyl’s orders were clear and succinct: ‘Expand our arcane forces - money no object; Cult and Clique at your disposal; train for war.’ The Arch-Scourger was surprised, but dared not question her Queen’s sister’s prerogative - everyone in Duredhel knew Ainyl’s position was hers by ability, not nepotism - and her new control over the Heretic Cult and Evoker Clique greatly increased her political standing. Thus she set her new followers to work, reigniting the old rivalry between Scourgers and Evokers as to who were the most effective warriors and teachers at great benefit to her forces. However, the Cult Leader of the Heretics had no respect for the Arch-Scourger, or ‘Matron’ as she had been nicknamed, and ordered his followers to stalk the streets and snatch anyone with magic they detected. One clear evening an aimless stroll under the moon lead him to an alley in the dredges of the city and the boy sat idly on its cobblestones, counting the stars.
Immense, but evasive, power could be felt in the boy as he sat in a secret room in the Sorcerer’s Spires shared by the three magical orders and the Cult Leader let out a great astral shout when the young mind repelled him once again. Swift as a shadow, the Arch-Scourger located and destroyed the door to the room, but was ensnared in the Heretic’s dark grip and unable to move as a well-rehearsed monologue began to spill out of the smug grin on his ratty face. She ignored his words - about specifically training to counteract her powers, about his Cult stealing away boys for his own army and about his plans for the forces her death would gift him - but allowed herself to watch what happened next. With a scream she tore herself asunder and her Banshee hurtled outwards, tethered to her by a purple thread at her core, gnawing and scratching at the Cult Leader, his mouth still moving the gashes in his trachea preventing his words from reaching it and his grin barely fading as it fell to the floor, his body joining it a moment later. Entirely ignoring Burden, the Banshee clawed at the ground as the Arch-Scourger retracted its tether, releasing repulsive noises as it vanished into her abdomen, which jittered rapidly with her tense breaths. Throwing the Cult their Leader’s head and ordering the children returned to their homes, she led Burden by the hand as he stared wide-eyed at the narrowing ceilings above him, until eventually she reached the door of her most-trusted graduate student, handed her the boy, and left in the knowledge he would be removed quickly and with discretion.
But Lynn was not entirely merciless, even if those who observed her duels would not believe so, and she could not bring herself to even consider harming the child. She had killed before and would again - she had even been formulating plans for the Marshal’s Fatal Tourney when she had answered her door - but not like this; her attachment to the innocent before her felt so natural and instinctive that she could not question it. Instead, she gave him her old books to contain his curiosity and recontinued her training to be the champion of the Dark Marshal, new combinations of Hexes arriving before her - both by her own perseverance, and by notes scribbled in margins by Burden, who was unresponsive as to how he knew such cutting edge magic. Seeing a curious opportunity in the boy, she took him to the forbidden library at the tip of a nearby Spire, its ancient tomes being illicit and its dusty corridors being untrodden on the orders of the Arch-Scourger, which were now followed with impunity. Abseiling down the Spire every evening in secret to continue working on her Greatblade at the Waning Forge in the courtyard below and bringing Burden food when she returned, she gained his cryptic and aloof insights in return for warm food and began moulding them into a ferocious and efficient new brand of arcane combat.
As the Tourney neared, she had gone into the library with fresh rabbit stew, but quickly grew nervous as she could not find her ward. Eventually searching the taboo shelves where books of great and forbidden power rested, altering reality around them even as they lay closed, she found him, flicking through the pages of a huge purple tome. She could feel the book tug at her desires, but she had the resilience to ignore it, an Burden greatly enjoyed reading the book and kept it with him at all times, so she allowed him to keep it, his knowledge of magic increasing exponentially as he continued through the book, never making much progress through its pages despite consistently studying from it. As he grew in age and knowledge his vocabulary increased correspondingly, soon beginning to use full sentences and joke at Lynn’s stoicism, much to her chagrin. One clear evening at his request she took down Burden to watch her complete the Greatblade, taking it out of the Waning Forge and inscribing runes and charms into it as a concentrated moonbeam caused its metal to remain supple, the innocent reaching to the greatsword and scribed glyphs from his tome - of a language long-extinct or not-yet-conceived - into its hilt, creating a great purple glow about it as he finished and absent-mindedly grasped the hilt in his free hand, passing it effortlessly to Lynn and christening it ‘The Hexblade, for mother the Hexblade’. Struggling to hold both the immense sword and her tears Lynn hurried Burden back into the library via the kitchens, both of them grinning at their achievement and each other, Burden putting down the book to accept Lynn’s hug, the first time it had left his fingers for many moons.
With an entirely new discipline of magic at her disposal, Lynn faced no competition in the Fatal Tourney even as she toned down her Hexes as to not arouse suspicion. Now the personal bodyguard of the Dark Marshal, the fear Baj’Nimen’s name provoked became synonymous with the title ‘Hexblade’, and the placing of a hex on the door to each forbidden library in the Sorcerer’s Spires kept Burden safe from prying onlookers, even if the hex on his door was only paint. The Innocent had also become more social and extroverted as he spent more time away from the book, taking up the post of Lynn’s errand-boy, with her mockery of this low title countering the embarrassment he could provoke by calling her ‘mother’.
Almost a year later, the city emptied and the war long planned fully began. Already there had been complications; the siege of Aredhel had been a pyrrhic victory instead of a resounding and final triumph with some of their most valuable troops - the Arch-Scourger, most of the Heretic Cult and Evoker Clique and all of the brutish, twisted living siege weapons - having been devastated by the wizard whose name was only fearfully whispered in the spires: Vez’Nan. He whom even Ainyl could not destroy - her defeat and presumed disintegration so total no trace of her remained, his name spoken with immense trepidation, as if he would hear and appear before them to blast more of their forces apart. Any efforts to reach the Queen Amarthael had been thwarted by the Abbot of the Bladesingers, with the Queen, her husband and her three bodyguards escaping to a location unknown and the attackers being forced to retreat and lick their wounds. The battle at the Palace was recorded in histories as the Twilight Gap, and the mournful cries of mothers discordantly unified in ruing Vez’Nan and the Prince Denas of Linirea, who held the Gap in the Palace wall together.
Only two months after the first twisted peaens had echoed across Duredhel’s cobblestones they were joined by the voice of almost every mother in the city after news of Malicia’s defeat and subsequent death, the Spires erupting into grief, panic and disarray. Taking up the position of ruler and enforcing himself with extreme force and giant beetles, Baj’Nimen established a rocky peace, but knew the many mothers of the city would bay for his blood as willingly as that of Vez’Nan if he could not conjure a plan for vengeance. Upon walking to Lynn’s modest quarters one clear evening he found himself drawn to a door with a faded hex upon its front, and walked into the shelves beyond. Detecting his desperation, powerful magic and waning sanity, the abandoned book of Burden claimed Baj’Nimen as its next owner.
But he was not as innocent, nor as compatible with its teachings, and while the Dark Marshal had eaked out three powerful spells, his use of its forbidden power was brutish and imprecise, although this only aided him in the end - his cataclysmic continent-ending spell exacerbated extreme weather and seismic activity instead of calming them, his conjured wyrm was warped and far larger than biology would allow and his disintegrating blasts left a black goo that soon became his trademark. With a large sum of gold to the right person granting him Malicia’s staff, alongside his new arsenal of powers and trickling sanity, Baj’Nimen was ready and gathered Twilight armies to his cause, marching to reclaim the Unseelie Court and crown himself the Twilight King.
But this was not to be.
Burden fled with Lynn from Duredhel on a clear evening, their path open as Baj’Nimen made his case before the entire city. While not having been as ready to fight against the manic dictator as Lynn, now that Baj’Nimen been defeated and his tome reclaimed, Burden has retaken his book such that no other less pure than himself may learn its embargoed gifts and is ready to face whatever comes next with his analytical eyes and treasury of powerful magic.
Playstyle Overview:
Blissful in his ignorance, Burden can deal excellent and versatile damage through his ranged attacks and powers even as they catalyse a cacophony of beneficial secondary effects, bringing managed mischief onto your side of the battle. While remaining in melee for long periods is unsustainable due to his low health and armour, the unheard-of passive insta-kill chance Burden can gain provides an entirely new realm of risky-and-rewarding possibility to canny players.
Sylvio, the Survivor:
Tall and lithe, Sylvio has a softer skin tone than most other Twilight Elves, more grey than blue, while his short-cut hair is deep red instead of white – matching his remaining, furiously glowing eye, along with the inside of his trench coat-like cloak. The outside of his cloak is deep black and its upturned hood guises most of his face, but many scars and marks can still be seen, as well as his right eye, sitting blind and lame. He wears striking grey chainmail under the cloak and his left hip is occupied by a long wide knife with an inscribed bone handle, while his right hip has a long black cylinder strapped to it, which he tensely throws between his hands if idle.[i]
Stats: (Level 5 to Level 10)
Health: [i]455 555 20 (Regen: 25/s)
Armour: 15% 40% 5%
Melee Damage: 15-25 45-55 8-8 damage every 2 seconds, holding the cylinder in both hands and forming a sleek silver spear that bristles with orange energy, spinning it and doing leaps or tricks while slashing and stabbing.
Ranged Damage: 25-35 55-65 6-6 damage every 3 seconds, holding the cylinder in his left hand and forming a crackling silver longbow from which he fires red bolts of energy formed in his right hand, firing calmly and with incredible accuracy.
Speed: Very Fast, moving in a blur and leaving a static wake.
Innate:
Adaptability: Sylvio can use physical or magic damage in any and all of his attacks, indicated by additional splays of coloured lightning for all his attacks and powers if using magic damage
Unbreakable: For every 25 damage Sylvio takes, his damage increases by 2.5-2.5 in melee and 3.5-3.5 at range up to base 100-110 melee and 132-142 ranged damage.
Powers:
Precision Throw (15 seconds): Sylvio niftily flips and throws his dagger at the head of a nearby enemy, the runes on its handle glowing yellow and dealing 1.5/2/3x his current melee damage before the blade flashes with gold lightning and returns to his hand or his hip.
Nova Bolt (20 seconds): His silver bow being overtaken with red energy, Sylvio fires a streaking crimson bolt at an enemy, which explodes in a bristling dome, dealing 1/1.5/2x Sylvio’s current damage within a wide area.
Hunter’s Instinct (Passive): With his renowned experiences hunting and being hunted, Sylvio has learned to predict and avoid all manner of attacks, granting him a 5/10/20% chance of dodging enemy attacks - melee or ranged - increasing by 2.5% for every 25 health lost, up to 75%. When Sylvio dodges an attack, it restores 5 seconds from the cooldown of Precision Throw if melee or Nova Bolt if ranged, targeting the enemy whose attack was dodged if the corresponding power is ready.
Blistering Blitz (25 seconds): Wreathed in orange lightning, the Survivor strikes a pose and watches for a second before performing this power, giving the player ample time to note it and stop it if desired. If surrounded by many small enemies, Sylvio crouches with the spear held behind him before leaping from enemy to enemy and slamming it into the ground 1/2/3 times, each slam dealing 2x his current melee damage in a medium area. If his eyes are on a lone, large target, Sylvio holds his left arm forwards and takes his right backwards before sprinting forward for two steps and flinging the spear as a wrathful javelin of orange light, dealing 5x his current ranged damage to a single target.
Hero Spell: Arcstrider (45 seconds): A bolt of white lightning striking him, Sylvio moves in blurs with unparalleled agility and becomes an Arcstrider supercharged with the power of a Thunderdrake for 3/6/9/12 seconds. Excessive amounts of bristling white and cyan lightning flow and spark around his body, replacing the coloured energy in all his attacks and powers and causing him to dealing 1.25/1.5/2/2.5x damage with everything in his arsenal. Fuelled by and recycling his own energies, every kill with Nova Bolt or the slams from Blistering Blitz restore 2.5 from their cooldowns, kills with Precision Throw or the javelin hurl have a 25% chance of immediately restoring the power and the duration of Arcstrider increases by 3 seconds for every 100 health lost.
(Arcstrider (30 seconds): Becomes supercharged with the lightning of a Thunderdrake for 3/6/9 seconds, dealing 2x damage with all attacks and powers, performing agile jumps and tricks while wreathed in lightning. (Deals 100 True area damage if dead)
Lore:
No amount of honed instincts and precise training can truly prepare someone for combat with a dragon - provided four moon cycles have passed since it hatched - due to the abundance of variables and unknowns, yet still the Dragonslayer’s Cult attempted to be ready for such occasions – even seeking them out. Recruiting, arming and training their members and stockpiling armouries of esteemed or noteworthy weapons to the chagrin of officially sanctioned military orders, the Dragonslayers wreaked vengeance against dragons all across the Elven Lands, led by the last Heima; Leha, an Ice Elf who had slain the Emerald King, a great dragon, alongside Sylvio and Rhenius - their Tel’Quasir Loremaster - as the first kill of a united Cult. In an attempt to broker a peace and save her people, Queen Amarthael herself had visited the Dragon Throne with only her husband - the esteemed Jewelsmith - and her three bodyguards, but despite returning unharmed there was no treaty or agreement - the Emerald Prince asserted that he held no sway over the dragons, great and small, that ravaged the Sylvan countryside and Amarthael disavowed any connection the Dragonslayers – neither truly believing the other despite their immense telepathic abilities and honest intentions.
A founding and infamous member of the Cult, Sylvio had been the only one of the first Dragonslayers with a kill already to his name – it had been the worst storm in living memory, erratic bursts of lightning eventually striking the egg of a Thunderdrake and bringing doom to all nearby. Growing larger and more powerful by drawing in electricity, the Drake had destroyed an entire town before it faced down Sylvio alone. Engaging in futile combat and both thoroughly exhausted, Sylvio had dodged the long horn of the Thunderdrake, marring his face and blinding his right eye instead of fully impaling him – letting out an inhuman scream he grabbed its horn with both hands as a lightning bolt was drawn into it – going instead into Sylvio, along with the rest of the energy bristling within the Thunderdrake. Assaulted by rain, Sylvio let out great gulps of breath as the Dragon, lacking the energy to keep its heart beating, wheezed in pain and slowly died, before the Survivor himself lost consciousness. Leha had found him and dragged him to a cave, where Rhenius, a clairvoyant High Elven Mage, had joined them. Binding together in blood and oath, they formed their Cult and began to seek out new members, targets and a location for their base – settling on a hidden grove deep in the Verdant Edge, there they planned and launched their assault on the Emerald King of the Moors, killing the largest Great Dragon in the Elven Lands attracting them great notoriety. Fifteen years later and having greatly bolstered their ranks, Rhenius claimed to have translated an ancient map with locations to the nests planted by the Draconic Empress, the first dragon to have flown the skies, with the entire cult dispersing into groups of four to destroy each nest and only Leha remaining in the Edge to await news. Sylvio took off the nearby Evermeet Spines, as Leha and Rhenius needed him nearby, while others went beyond all known borders and across the Crystal sea, one quartet going to warn a newly-legitimised Dwarven Kingdom of an unfathomable nest beneath their Throne, even in the knowledge they would not feasably return. Such was the determination of a Dragonslayer.
Descending into the depths of Evermeet, Sylvio and his three apprentices were quickly set upon by shadow and flame, the small drakes and serpents proving elusive to sword, bow and magic. Alone once again, Sylvio continued onwards until he reached a great opening and a shocking conclusion - Rhenius, for the first time, had been wrong – this was not a nest, but instead the Throne of Alkaran, the Lying Serpent. Ignoring the honeyed words and utopian visions intended to lower his guard, Sylvio forced Alkaran to face him directly, cutting swaths through the fiery atronachs and summoned shadows to take two swift swipes at the head of the Liar with his silver blade – a rattling sigh leaving the beast as its horn fell in two parts. With only a stump remaining and it’s source of power gone, the Serpent was greatly diminished in size and stature as it’s illusions faded and the large cavern emptied. Picking up a cylinder of the dark horn, Sylvio instinctively summoned a construct - fuelled by lightning instead of fire – taking the form of a long spear. Preparing to strike down the Great Drake, Sylvio was blasted back by a great wind as the Emerald Prince revealed himself, his emerald scales no longer diffracting light and guising the immense beast as it flew into the cavern from the east - curious as his Throne was to the north. Running to a viewpoint as otherworldly and terrible noises signalled the end of the Lying Serpent, the penultimate Great Dragon in the Elven lands, Sylvio could see the Verdant Edge burn.
As soon as lighting would strike, Sylvio was at his second home, or at least what remained of it. The bunched armouries sat protected in bubbles of energy yet unreachable, surrounded by cyan flames. Leha lay in the middle of the clearing with four claw-holes in her chest, unresponsive as Sylvio ran to her and Rhenius stepped forward, unburnt and unharmed, mocking Leha’s trust and the rest of their Cult’s blind belief in his information. Ignoring Sylvio’s rash questions and confusion, the Loremaster only smirked as his physical form dissipated and the Emerald Prince teleported before the Survivor in an emerald flash, with no trace of his avatar remaining. For fifteen years the greatest dragon in the world had sat with, talked with and advised with the “greatest” Dragonslayers ever, and they had been entirely clueless. Scolding the Survivor and reminding him of the still binding oaths they had taken, the Emerald Prince stated that dragon’s oaths do not extend to kinslayers, allowing him to slay Leha and exact terminal vengeance. Offering Sylvio a ‘choice’, the Prince cited Sylvio’s aid in diminishing the power of Alkaran, and maintained their oath, promising no action against the Survivor by him or any dragon under his control, but Sylvio could not plan or cause harm to the Emerald Prince or his close brood.
In a binding, if merciful, contract, Sylvio could do nothing as the Emerald Prince made his claim to the Eldest council, and as the last Great Dragon in the Elven Lands he was unanimously crowned the new Dragon King and lord of all Dragons beyond the Crystal Sea – nor could the Survivor act in violence when Amarthael returned to the Dragon Throne and finally brought peace to elves and dragons. Instead, he sought her out and joined her when she did so, taking negotiations from simply seeking an armistice to forming a long and fruitful unity, not apologising or seeking forgiveness for the dragons he had slain, but instead striving forwards and finding himself a place in the new world, which he must now protect.
Playstyle Overview
Lightning quick and with his capabilities always increasing, Sylvio’s initially has a solid base of survivability and versatile damage but transforms as he loses health into a monster of damage potential. Low health is little issue with increased dodge chances and the consequent cooldown reduction - in addition to that from his Hero Spell - allows him to regularly be using his now-boosted abilities, all of his facets combining to make him an incredibly potent and notable battlefield force - ensure his health is always at the right amount for a current or forthcoming situation and you will be greatly rewarded.