Difference between revisions of "Dimitryi/Xerysis"

Latest revision as of 03:41, 9 January 2005

Legends speak of a chill, scouring wind that scatters armies and breaks nations as it passes. This wind is Xerysis, the evoker of self-preserving fear in mortals, the fear that drives soldiers from their ranks, men from their friends, and nations from their allies. In ages past, entire armies were routed by Xerysis, who struck fear deep into the private hearts of each soldier. When it chooses, the cold wind coalesces into the form of a hairless, alabaster-skinned man, wearing a sharp-angled toga spun from mirrored glass. Any who look into the reflection in Xerysis' toga see only themselves, and not the reflections of any allies nearby.

It is said that the motion of Oramus' wings, which form the boundary of the Cage Beyond, first formed the winds of Xerysis, and that they eddied and flowed in that space beyond. Which is fortunate for Malfeas, for these corruptive winds could break down even the demonic society there.

In the stories of the Crown of Sun, Xerysis has been absent from the Malfean prison for ages, bound in various forms to Creation. For hundreds of years in the First Age, Xerysis was trapped in the Mirror of Many Ribbons, bound there by the Solar Exalted protectors of Denandsor. The Mirror twisted Xerysis' powers, reversing them and blessing Denandsor with strong links to other societies throughout Creation, increasing the fame of the city's merchants and explorers.

During the Contagion, these links proved threatening, as infected refugees flowed towards the previously-welcoming city of Denandsor. In desperate fear for the people of his city, the Dragon-Blooded governor destroyed the Mirror, intending to shatter these social links and banish the infected from the city's lands. His attempt worked, but a bit too well. Xerysis was freed from the mirror, but bound to the city by ancient Solar sorcery woven at the same time the Mirror was made. The city was filled with such dread that the infected fled from its borders, but also, the citizens of Denandsor fled with them, filled with fear for their own safety. Denandsor was left abandoned and empty, as it remains to this day, populated only by a Third Circle demon intent on its freedom and the Daughter of Denandsor, the city's spirit who is now the Demon's unwilling concubine.