Pharris Tergor
Pharris Meian Tergor has led a life too long and too troubled.
Born to a loving family a very, very long time ago, Pharris was destined for a sad life - literally. His ancient ancestor, a man named Lethin Tergor, had made a cruel pact the god demon, Yaminora: in exchange for tremendous powers of black magic, he would be cursed, as would his son, his grandson, and so on, for thirteen generations, as cursed beings known only as the Hellcasters.
The nature of this curse was inescapable: fate itself would weave and conspire to drive each son to a horrid madness, sweeping across the land in a swath of destruction. And so as Lethin did, so too did his son, and the first born boy to each generation thereafter. Fate would not permit their death, not the escape of siring a male child, no matter how the Tergors struggled with their destinies. In return, each was given easy access to the might of demons, but damned to eventually turn upon the world and bring terror.
Pharris' father was no exception, and when he was blessed with two daughters, he hoped for the best. Alas, it was not to be, and eventually, Pharris himself was born, his eyes black as night - the curse had moved on yet again. His hopes for an easy life dashed, Pharris' father attempted to shield the boy from his fate, teaching him little of his horrible heritage. Yet from the scorn of his neighbours, and legends in dusty tomes, he slowly became aware of the truth.
When Pharris was thirteen, he demanded of his father that he be taught the ways of the dark arts of his heritage. His father, aware of the great rage his son harboured for being shunned as an outcast, utterly refused - telling him that it would bring him only misery in the end. Unwilling to accept this, Pharris fled his home striking out into the world to learn the dark arts of his own accord.
In this Pharris came under the tutelage of a demonologist and necromancer, a reclusive man by the name of Pox Ay`thet. Pox, although a man versed in the darkest of evil, was not a truly despicable man, and took pity upon the young, defiant, angry boy who arrived at his home one rainy night, and took him under his wing. Almost immediately Pox had realized that his young student was the newest Hellcaster, and damned to rain terror and destruction upon this world. Nonetheless, he too understood the inescapable fate bestowed upon the boy, and taught him the best that he could - if only in hopes that one day he would make amends for the sins that were his destiny. Two years passed, and true to his heritage, Pharris learned the black arts quickly. He said goodbye to Pox, and returned to his home.
His village was much as he had left it - however, his house alone was burned to the foundations, still smoldering. Inside, he found his sisters, brothers, and parents dead - burned and gutted, all murdered. His younger brother, only twelve, had been crucified amidst the blaze. Horrified, Pharris crumpled, and wept.
Villagers, once known only for their scorn, slowly came forward to explain what had happened: a zealous order of paladins, eagerly seeking to end the curse of the Hellcasters, had descended upon the Tergor home and slaughtered them swiftly and without mercy. Mistaking his brother, Flaym, for the new Hellcaster, he was made a horrible example of, to "teach the demons fear of mortal valor".
Furious, consumed with despair, and disgusted by this blatant hypocrisy, Pharris rose from the ashes of his old home, spilling not another tear. His mind, overwhelmed, turned upon the villagers. Damning them for years of torment and cruelty, refusing to hear their cries of mercy, and disregarding the gentle sympathy he had been offered only moments before, Pharris Tergor slaughtered the village. On that site he rose an army of undeath, and enacted rituals to bind demons to his service.
Only fifteen years old, Pharris led a dark army against the holy order that had killed his family, and devastated them utterly. Desecrating their temples and animating their bodies, he found even this overwhelming victory could not sate his rage - and did not even begin to fulfill his newfound blood lust.
It is said that his terror reigned across the land for almost a hundred years, as Pharris Tergor's army grew fat on the bodies of his foes, on the pacts with dark powers, with mercenaries and maniacs eager to share their sadism. He became known for a hollow cruelty, leaving whole cities burning, its people weeping and defeated.
Eventually, however, a great army rose - dedicated to good, they clashed time and again with the army of the Hellcaster. And in the end, after years of battle, Pharris himself was defeated in battle. Fleeing the battlefield, he left his ragtag army of darkness to its fate, and disappeared into the depths of the Demon Spirit Wood, a small forest known for being haunted, possessed, and otherwise uninhabitable.
There Pharris lived many, many years, reclusive, slowly coming to his senses, and grieving for his crimes. And in time, he built a home there, and lived in relative peace with some of the inhabitants of the wood, in particular the three demon siblings Aura, Daemos and Minion. Slowly, others appeared in his forest home, seeking refuge from their past lives, and were given it freely.
During his time here, much changed for Pharris Tergor. His brief marriage to a fae woman left him with a child - to his relief, a daughter, who they named Kirei. He also made many fast friends, who together served a new purpose - protecting the world at large from the secret demon incursion that had begun in the forest. Therein, a quiet war waged with the world's fate in the balance, escalating in pitch over the years as Pharris and company battled back the invasions of the demonic realm. His battle with a demonic noble, Nodarrius, forced Pharris to consume the demon's essence, forever altering his body, causing him to become slowly more demonic in nature himself. Likewise, Pharris did battle with the 'demon messiah', Deroth, who was defeated by the reincarnation of his own murdered ally, Mayorai. It was also during this period that Pharris aquired the demonic blades, Yasha and Mamono. Many other adventures were had, climaxing in Pharris' eventual showdown with Yaminora, the very demon that had corrupted his family line. With aid, and Yaminora was destroyed - shattering into fragments of himself, his power scattering throughout the world. Barely surviving this fierce battle, Pharris decided, finally, to settle down.
However, Deroth reappeared - beaten but not destroyed, swearing that he would gather the power of Yaminora for himself. To prevent interference, he kidnapped Kirei, swearing that if Pharris attempted to stop him, she would be murdered. Years passed and Pharris desperately sought his daughter's location, but not even the strongest divinations could find her. In despair, Pharris left his long time forest home and began to wander.
Eventually, Pharris settled in a small city, and began to frequent a bar there, taking on a scholarly role to the young heroes and adventurers that he found there. Grim, but finding a slim glimmer of brightness in his heart, he managed to live on. Years passed, then, until he was reunited with his daughter - she had escaped from Deroth on her own, and lived, destitute and alone, by any means necessary. His once sweet, gentle daughter had become a hardened mercenary who now called herself Shikei. Moreover, she loathed him for 'abandoning' her. Enraged by her hate, but blaming himself, Pharris made little attempt to reconcile with his daughter. However, when Deroth reappeared, attempting to turn Shikei against him by taking control of her demonic blood, he was forced to battle the ancient demon once again. Amidst this, Pharris absorbed the fragment of Yaminora's power that Deroth had been vying for - gaining an incredible control of the darkness, and becoming nicknamed God of Shadow. Deroth fled, swearing revenge. And Shikei was freed of his influence - at the price of fragmenting her mind into three conflicting identities. Again feeling guilt for his daughter's misfortunes, Pharris drifted away once more.
Finally, he came upon Myrken Wood, and therein, the Broken Dagger. Here he settled in quietly and lived peacefully for a time, sharing stories with the populace and attempting to keep peace where he could, eventually falling in love with the faerie, Vialweh. Sadly, this idyllic time could not last, for misfortune was his eternal companion. In an encounter with Lady DarkWind, Pharris lost control of his shadow powers, and was consumed by a fragment of Yaminora's consciousness, which proceeded to use the Yasha Blade to rip Pharris' soul from his own body, imprisoning it within the blade, leaving Yaminora free to run amok in Pharris' body.
Although he spent only two weeks imprisoned in the blade, Pharris was forced to endure the equivalent of hundreds of years of consciousness within the blade, trapped in a metaphysical landscape of hellish nightmares. Banding together with other souls imprisoned in the blade, consumed by Yaminora, Pharris attempted to ward off the inevitable consumption, battling nightmares relentlessly, and watching as time and again his companions fell, unable to protect everyone. Taking on a paranoid, singleminded bent, he survived his time trapped within the weapon, until he was eventually freed by Zorana. Returned to his body, Pharris was never the same. Dark, morbid, and paranoid, he withdrew from the people of Myrken to live among the shadows, honing his mind and body to the singleminded goal of flawless strength. Abandoning his Hellcaster powers, Pharris now hones his shadow god abilities alongside overwhelming martial prowess, augmented by his demonic physiology.
Since withdrawing from the world, Pharris has had limited contact with anybody, primarily through Quincy Randall, who he took on as his combat student. Although he has shown some small softness for the fiery girl, he is nonetheless a cruel and brutal instructor, and a merciless foe in true combat, maddened by his singleminded paranoia.
