First and Night-Crowned Wolf

Special Equipment:

Enchanted Battle-Axe 'The Axe of Thousands'

Appearance:

First and Night-Crowned Wolf\\\'s appearance is much unchanged from the time of his death, six-thousand years ago. His physical form has not been seen in millenia, but it is still in prime shape, incredibly muscular, powerful in every way. However, it is permanently incased in a massive, demonic armor suit forged from the souls of five-hundred dead warriors and a demon, carved with gothic images and shaped with horns and thorns and many ill-formed extrusions. The Ghostlord stands eight feet tall, with arms and legs larger around then most humans\\\' heads. Incased within his armor, he is fearsome to look upon. A cloak of chains, each the fetter of ghosts that serve as his personal slaves, hangs from the spined shoulders of his armor. The helm of his steel shell is shaped like the face of a awful wolf-demon, and allows his eyes of green flame to shine through. The snoutish face-guard, when raised shows only these eyes and some sort of monstrous visage that drives those who behold it insane.

First and Night-Crowned Wolf is filled with rage, rage at the Death Gods, rage at the ghosts which surround him, rage at the Underworld itself, rage at the living, and, most violently, rage at his own death. His ghost-slaves are much abused, and the spectres who gather at his black court risk annihalation every day of their afterlives. The Ghostlord is often either brooding, sulking, and dark, or violent, vicious, and bloodthirsty. He takes glee at killing, but not even this homicidal humor can stop his anger. Only when he is with his lover, Golden Tears Mistress, is he at peace, but even at these times, he is a thing of violence. Golden Tears Mistress has the scars and bruises to prove it.

Background:

All mortal beings must eventually depart for the Underworld, the Grey Land of the Dead in which ghosts and spectres live out their afterlives into eternity, or hear the call of Oblivion and fade away. But some mortals do not understand the cycle of death. They hate and fear it, seek all ways to circumvent it, to live on into forever. Such a one was First and Night-Crowned Wolf. A lord among the people of an ancient culture of sun worshippers, he lived a life of hedonistic, decadent luxury, taking whatever pleasures he chose. He often battled the barbarians on the fringes of the empire of his people, and became their greatest general, seemingly unstoppable in any endeavor. He was lusty in battle, and lusty in the bedroom, and whisper told that he enjoyed it rough, like a battle of the sexes. Gradually, these rumors developed into darker gossip, tales of depraved sexual rituals, shadowy lovers and associates, and even trafficking with the hellish powers of the Inferno, and bargains with the umbral intelligences of the Underworld. Indeed, there was something vile about the man, and, lo and behold, he never seemed to age. As his former lovers, friends, and rulers passed away, he stayed as strong and virulent as ever. He became a thing of fear, the demon-hero of the sun worshippers to be released upon their enemies in the times of war. But, with the twilight of their empire, and the crumbling of Wolf\\\'s otherworldly bargains, the bellicose bloodthirster could no longer stay as he was. As the last emperor of the sun worshippers died away, so did First and Night-Crowned Wolf. The Underworld was ready for him when he came.

As he had once been a great noble in the Living Lands, First and Night-Crowned Wolf took the same station among the spectres. He rose quickly through the maddeningly complicated politics of the Underworld, and soon, he stood perched before the edge of Oblivion, looking down upon the massive, dusty porticos of the tombs of the Death Gods. First and Night-Crowned Wolf sold his true name to those gods, and with it, the last spark of goodness in his soul. He became a Ghostlord, a master among spectres, tantalisingly closer to true life than any other one among the dead, but cursed only to shadowy unlife instead. The Ghostlords are a strange and vile group, and the depraved First and Night-Crowned Wolf fit like he had been born to it.

The Ghostlord now plans the domination of all of the Underworld, and, afterward, the Living Lands. He works dark and evil magics in his horrific corpse-fortresses and shadowy pleasure palaces, seeking more and more power. The Death Gods, in their mute tombs, ignore him as they are wont to do, laying forever just above Oblivion. First and Night-Crowned Wolf has already crushed a fellow Ghostlord, Baron of Ebony and Jade Hands, and has layed his sights upon another, Blackened Sun Mask. He lives a dark mirror of his living existence, but he still seeks to live once more, and to transcend life and death. This time, he believes, nothing will stand in his way, no rulers, no enemies, no gods. He will have his ultimate prize.

Roleplaying Notes:

-If the characters are actually seeing First and Night-Crowned Wolf, they almost certainly are great powers of, or possess massive influence in, the Underworld.
-He is very powerful, and has thousands of fortresses and palaces, each with thousands upon thousands of soldiers (Ghosts, of course) and his specially picked and trained death-knights.
-Keep in mind that when I say \'ghost\' or \'spectre\', I don\'t mean the Undead, I mean dead people in their afterlife.