Darden's Betrayal
The ring granted to the betrayer of Khazar was no minor necromantic focus, but a sovereign instrument of undeath, bestowed as payment for treachery rather than study. Through it, the bearer could raise the fallen in vast numbers, compelling corpses to rise regardless of how or where they died.
To don the ring is to command death itself. At its bearer’s will, the fallen rise in tireless ranks: warriors still clad in rusted armor, skeletal beasts stitched together by necromantic force, and bound in servitude to the wearer. These armies do not fear pain, fatigue, or death, for death has already claimed them. They march until ordered to stop.
Each soul raised leaves an echo upon the wearer's mind, a chorus of whispers that grows louder with every battle. The ring grants power enough to topple empires, but it demands resolve, cruelty, or iron discipline in return. Those who lack the strength to master it do not lose the ring, they lose their minds and souls to the horde.
Besides the risk of losing one’s mind, even the strongest-willed individuals risk losing bits of their life force with repeated uses, eventually turning themselves into a lich.
History
Darden was the cousin of King Floi. During the great battle at Khazar, when the King fled toward the inner vaults, seeking refuge beyond the sealed gates, it was Darden who barred his path. In exchange for safe passage and salvation, Darden had already sworn himself to a dark and nameless entity, sealing his betrayal with an oath made in shadow.
The King was left to die amid the vaults, his blood spilled not by the dead, but by goblins drawn in by the chaos and the promise of gold. Darden, spared by his pact, was rewarded with this ring of necromantic dominion, through which he raised an army from the fallen, dwarves and goblins alike, binding them to his will as Khazar’s halls filled with marching dead.
In time, the ring’s power consumed what remained of Darden’s mortal flesh. Refusing to relinquish his dominion, he embraced undeath, becoming a lich to endure the toll of the gift he had been granted. Thus, Khazar did not merely fall to a curse, but to betrayal, its dead turned against it by one who should have died beside his king.
The King was left to die amid the vaults, his blood spilled not by the dead, but by goblins drawn in by the chaos and the promise of gold. Darden, spared by his pact, was rewarded with this ring of necromantic dominion, through which he raised an army from the fallen, dwarves and goblins alike, binding them to his will as Khazar’s halls filled with marching dead.
In time, the ring’s power consumed what remained of Darden’s mortal flesh. Refusing to relinquish his dominion, he embraced undeath, becoming a lich to endure the toll of the gift he had been granted. Thus, Khazar did not merely fall to a curse, but to betrayal, its dead turned against it by one who should have died beside his king.