Erebus

Erebus
Erebus in his final form
Born	Kharn Arathan 1458 BF The Embers
Died	86 BF Petra Tenebris
Nationality	Citizen of the Embers
Other names	Father of the Nyx
Occupation	Wizard Leader of the Nyx ascendancy
Notable work	Creator of the Nyx

Erebus, also known as Kharn Arathan, was a male low-class vampire and later a Voidform who led the Nyx ascendancy as it's leader and creator during the Age of Darkness. Being a low-class vampire, he successfully pursued wizardry as a way to free himself from the tyranny of his own kin. Although once a well-respected Wizard, Erebus abandoned his former colleagues to pursue his quest of ascending into a higher form of existence, like ancient Wizards were believed to have done millenia ago. Betraying mentors and friends alike, he became the first fully-fledged Voidform, then created and used the extra-material race of the Nyx to engineer a new order in the multiverse and further understand the cosmic mysteries that pertained everything. Through the Night crusades, Erebus established an empire that enslaved or purged counless societies in favor of the Nyx and later the Sabled.

Having to deal with constant Nyx rebellions and the ever-present pressure from humanity, Erebus ended up fighting on multiple fronts for centuries, not only on the material world, but on the Void as well, with younger Voidforms attempting to destroy him from within. These threats were deal with counterattacks that culminated with the the disastrous Red crusades. After that, Erebus empire began to collapse and lose ground, due to the lack of resources and Golden Empire's expansion. Eventually, Erebus retreated to his stronghold at Petra Tenebris, where he died after being attacked by other Voidforms in both the physical and the cosmic realm. Due to his immense power, Erebus fragmented into three non-sentient Voidforms; The Eye, The Hand and The Nail, which affected the material realm for centuries.

Biography

Early years

Kharn Arathan was born at the outskirts of the northwest Embers by a couple of unknown farmers in Shen, during a period of great famines and societal decline. Just like most people who resided at the north-west of that world, he was isolated from other societies, not only because of the general economic depression that had struck everyone, but also due to the conflicts between the two nations of the north, who were endlessly competing for resources and territory while disallowing it's people from fleeing to the richer and more stable southern nation. Being the only child in the family that didn't prematurely die, Kharn had a difficult and bland childhood, which was centered around survival and preseverance. During these testing times, he put up with living in a village which was getting increasingly smaller, with it's people either dying from hunger or fleeing to find a better future or die in the process.

At the age of 28 Kharn abandoned his village shortly after the death of his family and the destruction of his village by raiders, and fled to the south, which was ruled by Rahn at that time. He settled in the city of Kohn Alonn, which was well-known for harboring war refugees from the north. Before he could leave for Cindergrud, the world's capital and his final destination, he was attacked in this sleep by a vampire. Unable to resist the gift of the vampire, Kharn was turned successfully and was subsequently forced into a completely different life he could not imagine.

Death and rebirth through vampirism

The society Kharn was forced to join were known as the Rahhnites, and was more of a criminal organization of high-class vampires than a proper vampiric society, as he would later discover. Following the code of the society, Kharn took an oath of opposing the living, pledging fealty to the leader, and dedicating his live to dismantling the government of Rahn, as well as anyone else who supported vampire hunting. He was then forced to change his name into Erebus, which would complete his transformation both physically and mentally. The transofrmation process, as he would later find out, was menial compared to the initiation process a true vampiric society would have, but it was nevertheless effective towards making Kharn forget his past and embrace the new reality he was living in.

For the next few years, Erebus would conduct all kinds of operations for the Rahhnites, from espionage to assassinations and convertions.