Zayken

Not that many years ago, there was a village called Kanpar. Just outside that village, there lived a man, named Hammon. He was a mage, one of no small power. And with great power comes great eccentricity. Rather than use his magic for personal power, to unlock ancient secrets, or anything else of the sort, Hammon was fascinated with creating life. His unusual creations prowled his estate in a relative peace - however disturbing the villagers found them, and their master.

In its own way, Hammon's life was idyllic - he even had the love of a beautiful village woman, Ellimene. It was not until ambition took Hammon that his lovely life began to falter. Amazed by his own creations, yet never satisfied, he decided to create the culmination of his work. He would create a human being, and one so utterly flawless that nobody could scorn his efforts again. He would create the perfect man.

So came to be Zayken. He was intelligent, handsome, and kind in the utmost. He was accepted easily in the village, often seen to do chores for people with no desire of payment. Zayken was a splendid man.

However, this perfect man eventually revealed a flaw that was predictable, yet shockingly tragic. Zayken, with the showers of praise he earned, began to become arrogant. And one day, in his arrogance, he decided he deserved a reward for all he had ever done in his very short life. He attempted to seduce Ellimene.

This, alas, did not go over well with Ellimene, who fled from Zayken as her rejection sent him into a frenzy. She returned to Hammon, and told him of Zayken's indiscretion. This, in turn, sent the mage wild with rage, and he confronted the still furious Zayken. This quickly became a clash of will, and then, a brief, vicious combat. Alas, Zayken, although a fantastic physical specimen, was quickly subdued by Hammon's magic.

Unsure what to do with his creation, who seemed to become darker and more flawed by the day, Hammon chained Zayken in his cellar, and left him. He mused that some day, he might correct the problems in this mistake of his.

Meanwhile, Zayken fumed - he had failed. Failed to win Ellimene, failed to defeat Hammon. And here he rotted as a discarded animal. Obviously, he was not so perfect as he was supposed to have been.

He had to be Perfect.

One day, Hammon heard a horrid noise from his cellar, and went to investigate. All he found were broken chains, and a hole in his wall...

...

Zayken first appeared in the Broken Dagger as a wretched thing, draped in rags and rattling the chains of his imprisonment. By this time he was already far from human, a horrid creature hidden behind his trademark porcelain mask. Seeking knowledge with which to perfect himself, he demanded books from Quincy - who provoked Zayken to a rage. After their brief tussle, Zayken fled, leaving behind an iron key. Quincy pocketed it - thus their feud was born.

In the following year Zayken reappeared again and again, each time a little more insane, each time a little more physically mutated, his body twisting and altering to match his struggle to find Perfection. Again and again he was chased from the grounds of the Dagger in increasingly horrible battles.

As well, other creatures appeared, beings created by Zayken - mutated from the stock of more natural things, into horrible nightmares. All a little more Perfect, in the eyes of the mad monstrosity. These atrocities, called Zaykenspawn, were also turned aside by the defenders of Myrken.

Eventually, he seemed to disappear.

That is, until a ranger and a soldier, Sawyer and Mason, arrived in the Broken Dagger from a village called Kanpar. They told the people of the Dagger that Zayken had returned to his old home, and was destroying everything. He frequently screamed of Myrken, and more often, Quincy, his nemesis. The pair had come to Myrken to seek Zayken's foe, and any others who might help displace the monstrous king from the dying village.

A group from Myrken travelled to Kanpar, and saw firsthand the Hell on Earth that Zayken had wrought out of Kanpar. Moving through the small, corrupted village took great efforts, battling beasts of all sorts - including the traitor, Mason, who had been a disciple of Zayken, and transformed to try and destroy the party.

Eventually, the party confronted Zayken, who had mutated his body yet more into a giant, multi-limbed horror, large enough to smash a house with one blow. The battle was furious, and amidst it, the ranger, Sawyer - previously infected by Zayken - martyred herself against the horrible creature.

In the end, although it was difficult, Zayken was defeated - the final blow poetically laid by his hated foe, Quincy. The group left the horrors of Kanpar soon after - the village was well beyond salvage.

It was assumed that was all to be heard from Zayken...

...

Some time later, another creature appeared in Myrken. Small and somewhat elven featured, she was nonetheless an unnatural monster. Confused in this place, the monster elf tried to make her place - but constantly attacked and abused by the wary defenders of Myrken, she withdrew, and became dark, hateful.

As this being attained a higher intellect, she named herself Shyntei, and like Zayken, began to mutate the people and animals of Myrken into strange beasts - even more deadly than those Zayken before had created.

In time, Shyntei revealed that she was Zayken's daughter, the last of his spawn, created to continue his legacy of perfection. And she had decided that humanity was a horrid race, cruel and destructive - better off to be changed and ruled by she. Shyntei would alter every living thing, and make them part of her hive, where she was a loving monarch.

Who knows how this may have ended up, if not for the intervention of one - the insane drow, Audmathus, who long tormented Myrken, was killed. But having foreseen his own destruction, Audmathus prepared his own legacy of suffering for Myrken.

On the night Audmathus died, Zayken rose up from the earth and began anew his terror.

After attacking the Dagger and doing great damage, Zayken fled. His next appearance was in the hive of his daughter, Shyntei - having seen the weakness she promoted, in caring for and loving her mutated subjects, Zayken destroyed her hive and stole most of her essence, for in many ways, she had become closer to Perfection than Zayken himself. At the intervention of some nobler people, the wracked Shyntei was rescued from her crumbling lair, and Zayken fled.

Some time later, Quincy found the broken, rotting corpse of Zayken in the Myrken woods, and presumed the creature dead. However, unbeknownst to any, he had merely cast off that massive shell, and was once again seeking a new form for Perfection...

Zayken still lives, as evidenced by his occasional deeds, however he has learned much from his previous defeat. He is subtler, craftier, and all the more deadly for it. Whatever Zayken's plans for Myrken and beyond, they cannot possibly be good...