Ruath, King of the Lost City

Legend speaks of a crazed man, who slew his kinsmen and family in the hopes of achieving enough power to rule the world. In the wake of his wrath, a river of blood spilled forth across the burning land. This legend serves as a warning to those whose greed threatens to destroy them and all they love.

Demons and Desperation
In the coldness of the Frozen South, King Larsys and Queen Claudette shone to their people with warmth and love. Regarded with affection throughout their land, their people's loyalty never faltered. Many times when the king had to send his own men to their graves early in order to defend their land, they went without hesitation, chanting Larsys' name as they marched. But though they were well loved and wonderful people, the two of them were seemingly cursed: they could not bear an heir to the throne. Many lamented the loss of their line and many more traveled the lands, searching for a cure for this terrible ailment. None succeeded and a wave of woe swept across the land like the cold of Winter. Then one day, a old man dressed in rags and a hood concealing his face and wielding a wooden staff came to the gates of the royal castle, proclaiming a cure to fruitless attempts of procuring an heir. Desperate at this point, the man was hurriedly rushed before King Larsys and Queen Claudette. They listened with rapt attention as the man wove a tale of a Spirit settling into a nearby clearing; it was the Spirit of Life itself! He revealed his horribly scarred face and tossed aside his staff   whilst telling them of how the Spirit had revitalized him as he wildly danced with a grace that belied his maimed body.

Filled with new hope, the royal couple organized a contingent of their most trusted guards. The man was brought along as a guide, the king promising him titles and land while his queen wept with joy. After a few days travel, they finally made it to the clearing the man described. The enclave was empty with no sign of life; the man told them that it was because the Spirit was skittish at first when he arrived. With such a large group, there was almost no chance that it would show up. Agreeing quickly, the couple sent away their guards, wishing to meet with the Spirit as soon as possible.

However, the moment the guards were sent away, bright day sky was blackened and twisted thorns appeared, entrapping the king and queen and keeping away the guards. They had been tricked. The man appeared before them once more, his scars sinking into his skin to become tattoos and his rags became flaps of skin, grotesque and rotting. His hair, what little of it was torn away by his scars, became wild licks of purple fire as twisted horns grew from his scalp.

The king and queen had been tricked by the demon Scovar.

Terrified for their lives, the couple did the one thing that was worse than asking for their own death: they tried to bargain with it. Scovar laughed and struck a deal with them. New life and theirs for something of equal value. They agreed, panicked and thinking that they would at most have to give their thrones. In a brilliant flash of purple flame,  Scovar was gone, the sound of laughter filling the clearing.

The Mad King
A year passed, witnissing the birth of the young prince Ruath. Hailed as a miracle child, he was treated as a savior, not only having saved the kingdom from the chaos of a royal line dying out but also carrying the blood of the kingdom's most beloved people. He was treated with nothing but kindness and respect, his every whim carried out. He hated it.

He frowned at every kind word, he snarled with every bow, and his whims were cruel and humiliating. Still, the people treated him as a loving prince. When asked, he would say that he had yet to rightfully earn it, that his station was undeserved by anything other than blood. Many times Ruath asked his father if he could join the military, saying he could truly earn his station in that way. Every time he asked, he was denied; the kingdom would be devastated if he, the sole heir to the throne, were to be lost to war. Infuriated by this decision, he ran away in the dead of night. With the country in an uproar of the disappearance of one boy prince, they would surely miss the appearance of one boy soldier.

Before the morning sun arose, he was found by a man in a black hood while trying to steal clothes to disguise himself. Ruath panicked, stating that he would not return. However, the man stated that he had no such plan, instead offering him the wooden staff he carried with him instead, saying that if he was to go to war, then he would need a weapon. The man thumped the staff against the ground and the staff changed to a spear, black and pulsing with power. Before Ruath could even give his thanks, the man was gone, the sound of laughter filling the air.

Soon, Ruath enlisted in his land's military, quickly becoming a well decorated frontline soldier and tactician. The more he fought and slew his country's enemies, the more powerful both he and the spear grew until it took nearly a dozen men to overcome him. His strategies and prowess in battle was crucial in fighting off the siege of the royal castle itself. He was brought forth before the king and queen and was asked his name. Throwing away his helm, he revealed himself to be their son, the crown prince who had been lost. King Larsys was both overjoyed to have his son back and infuriated to have been deceived like this. After the ceremony, Larsys took Ruath aside and told him he was to remain at the castle.

Ruath was incensed at this. He felt that he had yet to prove himself and that if he were to leave, they would lose the war. Enraged at his defiance, Larsys pulled the spear away from his son. A mistake, for as soon as the spear was torn from Ruath's hands, purple flame engulfed it and it took on its original form of a wooden staff. Ruath knew then that his son had been taken by the demon when he had accepted the Spear of Scovar.

The king and queen of the kingdom in the Frozen South had never heard from the demon Scovar again after the deal was struck. Their payment had yet to be brought forward to him. That changed the night their son Ruath met the man in the black hood, before he met Scovar himself.

Stricken with the grief of losing his son and pain from losing his hand to the demon fire, King Larsys agreed to let his son stay in the military. It is said that when his wife learned of what had transpired, the kingdom had lost much of its cheerfulness and joy. Despite this, Ruath rallied his people to defend themselves against the invaders. Returning home a war hero, Ruath immediately marched to his father in the privacy of their bed chambers and demanded that they march onto conquering the lands that had tried to do the same to them.

Larsys and Claudette refused, saying that they were a peaceful people and that while they were the rulers of the land, they would not march their people to war. Ruath, enraged at being denied, slew them both in a blind fury with the black spear. The spear, which had grown more powerful as it drank blood, bolstered both itself and him as it drank the blood of those marked by Scovar himself

In the morning, Ruath announced that his parents were dead, having taken their own lives after witnessing the horrors of war and guilt of sending so many to their deaths. The country was crestfallen that their most beloved king and queen had passed, but rejoiced when he was coronated as king. His first act was to go to war against those that had wronged them. His people rallied behind him and so they marched. Ruath himself was on the frontlines, becoming an unstoppable warrior who reveled in the blood of his enemies. His men were filled with morale when they saw him fight besides them.

However, the Eternal of Battle himself, Astrasaz, had taken notice of Ruath. He had seen what he had become, of the dark shadow looming over, corrupting his mind as he began to thirst for more and more battle and power. Astrasaz asked Byzoautol if Ruath was guilty of any crimes beyond that of war. The Eternal of Laws, responded that, yes, he was guilty of slaying his parents in order to fuel his thirst for war. Astrasaz ordered his death, sending his first disciple, Alberoth, to stop this mad king's rampage.

Meanwhile, the people had grown wary of Ruath, having descended into madness. There had even been rumors of him killing his own men when they had grown disobedient. However, it was on the final battlefield when the opposing army surrendered when his army deserted him as he ordered their deaths. Finally completing his descent into madness and lust for power, he slew both armies. Intent on marching onto his home town to rally more men, he was stopped by the First Disciple. His death had been ordered and his executioner was to now swing the axe.

The battle lasted for days, and Ruath used all of his power and cunning to try and win, but it was to no avail. He had met his match by the one who was empowered by the Eternal of Battle himself. Alberoth slew the mad king one the third day of battle. With the king slain and no one  to lead them, the country's enemies that it had acquired in war time would seek revenge. The First Disciple could only watch as the Spear of Scovar turned back into a wooden staff and set itself alight. Truly appropriate, nothing left but ashes and smoke remained of Ruath's kingdom.