Cassius

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“I despise the concept of owing anyone anything, but… you have ended my suffering, much sooner than the eternity I anticipated.”

~ Cassius

“You tresspass on the property of Cassius Summus, and take away the modicum of normality that was JUST reclaimed… to issue a Regalia Challenge.”

~ Cassius

“Mmf… so this is grief… it tastes… bitter…”

~ Cassius, after LIND’s sacrifice

Species:

Fox (black fennec)

Gender:

Male

Profession:

Master of the Black Demesne, the Forest. Known as Cassius the Gloomy King, believing in duty. Holder of the Dusk Kris.

History:

Cassius Summus is the personified concept of darkness and NOTHINGNESS, one of the twelve concepts Zeroth separated from himself and gave consciousness. His demesne is a curiously dangerous and beautiful forest under a blood red moon, the source of all of Diadem’s lumber and the magical black walnut used for magic staffs. He is seclusive, devoted to duty even when people fear him for it, and enjoys woodworking. Corentin of the Green Demesne is his brother.

Over a year before the Kings of Kings arrived, a mortal in black carrying weapons of gold, who called himself the Crooked King, came to the forest in the night and challenged him. The gold weapons devoured Cassius’ spells and turned his summon against him, and when their blades met an explosion sent Cassius and his creature through the walls of the challenge ring itself, leaving behind only his severed arm. Before the Regalia could be taken, Cassius animated that arm into a being of his own and ordered it to hide the Dusk Kris. The Crooked King left them both to rot.

With a gaping hole through his chest, Cassius was trapped inside his own challenge circle, too weak to recover, while his corrupted summon ran wild spilling his essence across the forest as a pool of black ink. Everyone who came looking for the missing lumber workers was stained by it, drained of vitality and “infected with immortality.” His animated arm, LIND, spent that year steering would-be heroes toward the demesne, and the Kings of Kings finally killed the ink creature. Cassius drank its essence back to heal his chest, waited at their insistence while they found a way to save the stained prisoners, declared the corrupted challenge null and void, and drew every drop of ink back into himself, regrowing his arm from a mass of tentacles.

He rebuilt his home as a two story cabin whose door opens into darkness and a tree labyrinth guarded by LIND’s nightmare, tamed into a guard dog. When the Kings of Kings challenged him for the Dusk Kris, he carved them a wicker throne with his own shadow before fighting them, admitting he intended to take their heads if they lost. In the battle against Nash-Zeroth he stood with the other Masters, silent, while LIND spoke for him. When LIND sacrificed himself to save the Kings of Kings, Cassius reabsorbed the last of his essence and discovered what LIND had been holding all along: the emotion Cassius gave up to bring him to life. For the first time, he felt grief.

Notes:

• Slitted yellow eyes that turn blood red with black sclera when he is roused.
• Long black hair. Now wears a Gothic shirt with bell sleeves, the left half black and the right half white.
• Can manipulate his own shadow as a limb, and travel through shadow portals.
• Incapable of fear, sadness, or joy until LIND’s sacrifice returned his emotions to him.
• Demesne animals are black furred and feathered with piercing red eyes.