DJORN - The Phoenix King

I have stood witness to the teachings of the sorcerer, Endymion, the fall of Apollo and the defeat of Atlas. I have ridden the iron-manticore, in a general’s position, against the armies of Astaroth and faced overwhelming vampiric, as well as daemonic, forces alike, throughout the infancy of my earlier years. I have walked the path of the dullahan, retrieved my bearings, tasted immortality and sat upon the throne of a million fallen kings before me. I have come to offer my aid in the troubles plaguing your kingdom. Pleased to make your acquaintance.

It was in the ending of the Fifth Century that Djorn was born into slavery and under the rulership of Gozaar, the Tyrannical Titan; A feared king and powerful man who lived as a god amongst men. Djorn was one of many youths who, when he came of age, was forced into the armies of Gozaar and fought countless battles against the vile ruler’s opposing kingdoms.

After a successful battle, led and won by Djorn, he was ambushed by a troop of bowmen who captured the young soldier and imprisoned him for one hundred days. For all these days and nights Djorn was not given food, water, exposure to light or any sustenance. He was raped, starved, stabbed, beaten, tortured in various ways and vitally wounded, all so the guards could place bets on how soon it would take for him to pass out from blood loss, or worse, die.

Still, for one-hundred days he did not starve, he did not weep and Djorn did not die. Finally, forces from the Kingdom of the Tyrannical Titan were sent to retrieve Djorn from the dungeons of Gozaar’s enemies, the Uncahl, and the young warrior was retuned to his king. Djorn thanked Gozaar for rescuing him, but in a turn of events Gozaar had Djorn held down while he sliced off both the boy’s arms, just over the elbow, deeming Djorn too incompetent to wield a weapon after his capture at the hands of his enemies. 

As a warning to the weaker men of his armies, Gozaar displayed Djorn’s severed arms above his throne, crossed and on an oak mantle. Djorn was given flimsy wooden prosthetics and returned to a life of slavery under the watchful eye of the Tyrannical Titan and his torturous guards. During the beginning of the Sixth Century, Djorn’s wooden prosthetics, given to him after the loss of his arms, broke in the midst of work and as punishment the warrior was sentenced to be hung from the neck until dead and tossed into the Valley of Death, on the farthest reaches of the Velspar Desert.

Djorn was hung six times, each time tightening his neck and avoiding death, before the executioner order him to be thrown over the cliff and down into the valley, believing the fall would finally kill him. As Djorn was carried to the edge, he killed two of the executioners with a blade he snatched away from them, between his teeth, before pulling the last one over the cliff alongside himself and vowing, as he fell, to one day take the head of the Titan, Gozaar.

Sometime after this, Djorn awoke to a figure standing above him. This man was a Mystic; A soothsayer and sorcerer of arcane knowledge who befriended the wounded warrior and aided him in his recovery. Djorn travelled with the old nameless one and learned from him the histories of their world and all the forces within it.

The Nameless Mystic taught Djorn of magic and mystery, eventually crafting the young warrior prosthetic arms of steel, bonded to his body, that would react as regular limbs could. Djorn spent much time with the Nameless Mystic, until one dark evening the two came across a cult in the midst of summoning the daemon, Asaroth.

The Nameless Mystic interrupted the ceremony, but Asaroth’s manifestation was complete. The daemon struck down the Mystic as the druids fled. In his final breaths, the Mystic transferred a magic, known as the Bane’s Shadow, into Djorn. This allowed the warrior to control the powers of darkness, and shadow magic, that grew in power at night, once the sun had faded from the skies, making Djorn almost invincible by nightfall, but vulnerable during the day.

As night had reached its peak, Djorn constructed a black body of unbreakable armor and a foul blade which he used to slice Asaroth almost completely in half. Asaroth escaped back to Helfar, which was the underworld beneath Molestriah. Djorn vowed to travel to the underworld and take Asaroth’s head for killing his closest friend and for being a creature of supreme darkness.

During the middle of the Sixth Age, Djorn spent a large fraction of his life traveling the world and learning all that he could of daemons and the dark arts. Eventually, under the enchantment of vile sages from the South, Djorn was given passage to the Palace of Sleep; A realm built and inhabited by the daemon, Mephistion.

By this time Djorn had travelled the globe far and wide, even assembling a small following of disciples who worshiped him for his unbelievable strength and mystical prowess. Djorn sought to strike up a bet with Mephistion. The lives of Djorn’s men for safe passage into the underworld, Helfar.

Djorn found the daemon contemplating his proposal before he had even come, foreseeing the warrior’s arrival. Mephistion knew that if Djorn was allowed passage into Helfar, he would seek out Asaroth, who ruled in the Unholy Trinity, alongside Lucifer and Beelzebub, and oversee the death of all daemons all long as he was aloud to roam free.

Mephistion didn’t much care for the daemons of Helfar, as he ruled in the world of dreams, and of the mind. And so, Djorn took the daemon on in a game of dice, and won. The lives of Djorn’s men were spared and the gateway to Helfar was opened, allowing only one man in. For fifty years Djorn searched Helfar.

For fifty years Djorn sank deeper and deeper into the cataclysmic pit. And in fifty years Djorn single-handedly decimated the minions, legions and ranks of the underworld with his unbelievable mastery of the Bane’s Shadow magic. Because it was always night in Helfar, Djorn’s power only grew with each daemonic soul he took and with each circle he sank below.

Finally, to end the madness, the devil, Aemon, decreed that Asaroth was to be given up to Djorn, and the warrior was to leave Helfar immediately after Asaroth’s slaying, afterward being decreed never to return. Aemon presented the daemon to Djorn on a silver platter and the warrior smirked with malicious intent.

Djorn agreed, killing Asaroth by slicing him down the middle with a blade constructed of pure blackness, avenging the Nameless Mystic. As a trophy, Djorn cut off the right horn of Asaroth, lifted it over his shoulder and was granted passage back to the surface world of Molestriah. Djorn emerged, untouched by time, as youthful as the day he had begun his search for vengeance a half-century ago, as time did not move in Helfar.

At the end of the Sixth Century, Djorn had assembled a small mercenary fraction and planned aspirations for constructing his own kingdom. Djorn sought the wisdom of other Mystics throughout the world, eventually coming into the company of sages who foretold Djorn of his dark future.

The sages warned Djorn of an impending doom he would soon face; One that would take his life and, that if he was to survive this unknown threat, he must travel to the Temple of the Bronze King and retrieve the old ruler’s enchanted swords, all within a timespan of thirteen days. Only then could Djorn emerge victorious against this approaching unknown force and establish his new rulership over the land.

So, Djorn took to the continents of the west and travelled deep within ancient forests and past treacherous mountains until he came unto the Temple of the Bronze King of the Second Century. He had lost many of his men in this venture and after coming upon the entrance to the temple, Djorn told his followers that he was to go on, alone.

Deep within the tombs of the temple, Djorn uncovered the burial chamber of the Bronze King where, after retrieving the swords known as Calibronze and Bronzeor, the old king awoke as a vengeful immortal draugr and attempted to kill Djorn for his trespassing on sacred grounds. Djorn, using the powerful swords to collapsed the pillars of the burial chamber, trapped the immortal king and escaping with the blades in tow.

On the thirteenth day Djorn came to find himself in the Southern Dunes of Tahkmel, once ruled by the Bronze King, facing off against an ancient force; A phoenix that had risen from the pyramids of old. Just as the sages had prophesied, Djorn came to face the Phoenix which had risen from the furious spiritual energy of the Bronze King, and manifested itself to kill the warrior who had taken the legendary swords.

But Djorn was prepared. He held the swords Calibronze and Bronzeor up to the phoenix and absorbed the essence of the beast into the blades, standing tall and proving to the shapeshifting force of the long-dead king that Djorn was indeed brave enough to hold these blades. Before the sultans, pharaohs, kings and gods of the age, Djorn had vanquished the eternal spirit of the Bronze King, defeating the Phoenix and was finally worthy of establishing his new kingdom, with the Seal of Bronze which manifested upon the skin of Djorn’s right breast.

From that day forth Djorn came to be known as the Phoenix King and began to spread his rule to all corners of the globe. At last, nearly a century later, Djorn was ready to take vengeance against the Tyrannical Titan, Gozaar and reclaim that which he had lost. It was in the Seventh Century when Djorn, now the Phoenix King, moved his armies to the East and opposed the forces of the Tyrannical Titan, Gozaar.

In a great battle that waged forth for ten straight days, Djorn would finally have his revenge on the tyrant who took his arms. For on the tenth day, Djorn’s forces broke through the Titan’s throne room defenses and there, past legions of guards, Djorn ran relentlessly through the horde and decapitated Gozaar before he could pull his blade from his sheath.

Djorn had killed the king before he could even rise from his bloodstained throne. The guards saw this and retreated, only to be cut down by Djorn’s remaining forces who awaited their escape outside the walls of the Tyrant’s Fortress. Before passing, Gozaar’s disembodied head spoke to Djorn and relayed a truth which finally brought light to the warrior’s inhuman abilities.

Gozaar revealed that he was Djorn’s father, who feared the uprising of his offspring. A fear which, inevitably, came to pass. Gozaar had fathered many children whilst laying with his maids and slave girls; Killing his offspring shortly after birth, as they would be more powerful than him, being human-titan half breeds.

Djorn was but one that he had decided to treat mercifully, or as mercifully as Gozaar would allow. The Titan, who felt an ounce of love for the slave girl who loved him back, kept Djorn as a last favor to his mother who died in childbirth. This explained the titan’s hatred for him, Djorn thought.

Believing the warrior’s birth was the undoing of Gozaar’s love. With this knowledge, Djorn stepped forth to take Gozaar’s throne, believing it to be his birthright and establishing the first of many lands the Phoenix King would take during his reign. Djorn came forward and, using what the Nameless Mystic had taught him, took his enchanted arms that sat over the throne, reattaching them with rare healing magic and the aid of his disciples. 

Soon, after many moons into his rule, the warrior would be awoken from his sleep to the appearance of a bright blue and white light in his bed chamber. As the strange shape came closer, Djorn could make out the man who had manifested before him. The shape that had come to visit the warrior was the Nameless Mystic, who had now revealed himself as the magician, Timaeus.

Timaeus revealed to Djorn that after his death at the hands of Asaroth, the mystic travelled the afterlife until reaching a plane of ascension. The mystic then used the magics of this bizarre realm to return to the waking world of Molestriah and watch over Djorn until the time was right. Djorn, both pleased and thankful for the return of his greatest friend, still had many questions for the magician.

Timaeus vowed to tell the warrior all he knew in due time, as their ventures in the learnings of magic had not reached their end yet. There was still much to be discovered, Timaeus said, and it was only through strength and pure will that the future of this would could b traversed.