Ghaleon Ebonheart
From BluWiki
(99 FS - 135 FS) Born the son of Sir Dyne Ebonheart, Ghaleon grew up in the noble tradition of Figaro knighthood. When his father was slain by the members of a mysterious sorcerous cabal, revenge seethed in his heart. This need for vengeance became all that he was and eventually strangled any capacity for compassion or empathy that may have once existed in Ghaleon. He inherited his father's small plantation and made a respectable living as a planter and freelance warrior. All the while, his longing for revenge and hatred of all things arcane led him to the worship of Vrojk, the god of war. Using his noble connections, he learned the esoteric secret of the sword Draconis from Vrojk's warrior-priests.
In late 133 FS, Ghaleon's life changed. He received a letter taunting him with information on the location of Draconis. As a further incentive to meet its sender, the letter bluntly stated that it was covered in contact poison. Ghaleon, along with Malcolm and Soirse, found himself in the unwilling service of the Shadow Veil. The group defected on a mission to assassinate Siobhan the Wise, a Shadow Veil deserter, and with his help they found a cure for the "poison," which in reality was a strange and alien parasite.
Having angered their former employers, Ghaleon and his fellows were waylaid while they slept and were taken to the Cusp, a demiplane that housed the Shadow Veil's headquarters. There they were stripped of the material manifestation of their destinies by a bizarre ritual, and to escape they bargained their souls with Thraxis, an ice devil. Through further clandestine negotiation, Ghaleon learned the location of Draconis from this devil.
As the travelers sought a way to fulfill their unexpectedly difficult task assigned through their pact with Thraxis, Ghaleon set his own plans into motion. He convinced his companions to accompany him to a distant plane adrift in the Sea of Stars to retrieve Draconis, a plane they later discovered was the corpse of Vivec, god of magic. With the ancient sword in hand, Ghaleon joined the Dogs of War, an underground cult devoted to Vrojk. As his soul and the power of the sword built upon one another, his obsession with revenge grew hotter. He infected a childhood rival, Torvald Oberian, with the same parasite he contracted from the letter. This sparked a chain of events culminating in the secession of the Figaro family from the Treaty of Five Swords and the conquest of Altair by the Fire Legion. His assets destroyed, Ghaleon recruited a dwarven wizard called Mloclam the Mad to his aid.
The adventurers traveled back to the Shadow Veil's headquarters to recover their destiny, known as quintessence. Through a difficult battle that claimed the life of Mloclam, they defeated the mind-flayer Varliith, and Ghaleon avenged his father, having learned earlier that the Shadow Veil was the same mystical cabal that slew him.
In light of the seeming impossibility of the ice devil's task, Ghaleon's fellows devised a plan to resurrect Vivec in order to win his favor so that he would release them from their contracts. Ghaleon had other plans. He feigned allegiance to his friends, all the while secretly planning to eliminate even the essence of the slain god in order to win the favor of Vrojk. Draconis could do this, but not until it was reunited with Cardiclast, its counterpart. In time, Ghaleon sought out Sir Valentine, a friend of his brother Sir Gareth Ebonheart, and the bearer of Cardiclast. He challenged the knight to single combat, entering into the rite needed to reunite the swords. Proving himself the stronger warrior, Ghaleon vanquished Sir Valentine and claimed the might of the reunified Draconis. Malcolm joined Ghaleon's cause as well, and both plotted to betray Soirse.
But their ally was more canny than they had believed, and she fled in the night to the designated location of the resurrection ceremony. They followed, Ghaleon mustering the Dogs of War and Malcolm calling forth the duergar who owed fealty to his father. Soirse was not without allies herself, protected by the Seekers of the Star, a sect devoted to the dead god of magic, and by Sir Gareth and his companions, seeking to bring Ghaleon to justice.
A bloody final battle ensued. Soirse struggled to complete the ritual and free the essence of Vivec from its mortal bearer, a dragon named Antares. Ghaleon and Malcolm seemed to overwhelm her protectors, but Malcolm held another secret betrayal for Ghaleon. With a magical amulet he aimed to imprison Vivec's essence and use it to impart deity unto his father. In this new, three-sided battle, the tide quickly turned. Malcolm fled to another plane using a magical armlet found in the group's attack on the Shadow Veil, and he took over half of the essence with him. Ghaleon was routed and fled into the night. Soirse completed the ritual, but with most of the essence imprisoned in Malcolm's amulet, she was unable to resurrect Vivec completely.
Seeking to escape his contract with Thraxis, Ghaleon sought out an ancient and mysterious city in 135 FS. Therein he hoped to harness a mysterious power to free him from his agreement, so along with the Dogs of War and Cale, he journeyed there to perform the unbinding ritual. However, he was interrupted by an unlikely coalition of Soirse, Zeke, Relena, Gareth, and Malcolm. In the ensuing fight, Malcolm captured some of the mysterious essence and fled, presumably returning it to his new ice devil master. Ghaleon slew Zeke, piercing him with Draconis, but was himself stricken down by lightning summoned by Soirse. He was last seen dead, his body being carried out of the collapsing city by the Dogs of War.
After his death, Cale and the other Dogs of War attempted to resurrect him in a secret temple of Vrojk, but Malcolm, sent by Thraxis, interrupted the ritual. The risen Ghaleon escaped in the confusion, but his memory was destroyed as a result of the botched ceremony. Finding his way north, he reached a monastery of Icthareon where he was re-trained as a paladin to the god of law and given his new name, Cyrus.
Having performed many valiant deeds under his new pseudonym, Ghaleon still sought to find his true identity. With the help of Ceralin de Roisin, Oleron Lethos, and Aldaren Sterenfeuer, he traveled to the plane that housed the Nameless, the keepers of all names, and discovered his true identity.
Further information on Ghaleon Ebonheart may be found in the Cyrus entry.
