Eligos

[daemoniumexmachina]

ELIGOS

KING OF TREASON

King of the Infernal Realms, Eligos earned his title and his throne presiding across the Plane of Hell hundreds of years ago during the last dispute for demonic monarchy. As with each succession, Eligos' father was tasked with choosing his heir between his trio of offspring based upon who he believed was best suited to reign. After centuries of dispute and bombastic displays of infernal power, the former king chose Therius, the Prince of Red Fields, to inherit his throne. Eligos, of course, was unconcerned. He took the opportunity to submit one final act of cruelty and chaos within his dominion and betrayed his brother by murdering him and usurping the throne.

By the modern age, Eligos has ruled over the Infernal Realms for centuries in his own right, having produced three heirs of his own from which to choose. They follow the tradition of their unholy ancestors and demonstrate their power and malice for their father, laying each sin at the feet of King Eligos for his consideration. He is believed to be harsh, difficult to impress, and harder to read, leaving his three sons with no idea of where in his favor they stand.

As King of Treason, Eligos rules over the sins of betrayal and hubris. Usurped titles, blackmail, mutiny, and oaths broken in the name of greed, imbalances of power or resources, murdered friends and infidelity all fall under the domain of Eligos. He tends also to favor those who have avenged themselves of such acts. Violence, after all, is best when it begets more violence. His symbols are few, most often represented by abstract things such as cracks in foundations, severed ties, and daggers in backs. However, red gems such as rubies and garnets also can be used to represent him. His sigil is a red sunburst, particularly when worn on the chest. He is most powerful during the transition from Spring to Summer.

✦ RETURN ✦

Comments

January | Traitor's Roar

[lastofthefirst]

Let's have a brief chat about Vika, King Eligos, just you and I. She is a Revenant, an ancestor alive well past her prime. To be a Revenant is to be junk; it is to be weak, to be fragile, to be disempowered. It is to be denied the mighty armor that her descendants wear to make themselves swifter, more agile, more safe; it is to be denied their mighty weapons that change the rules of war.

But it is also to receive a dark inheritance. Vika's systems internalize prototypes made by her vile fathers much more easily than any hero can, gaining far more benefit from accepting the Faustian bargains they offer from their "very safe" labs.

She has come to a high place past the mine to meet you, O King Treason, lord of the waerloch and the quisling, and she has come bearing gifts. A sample of the snow in which César's corpse stood, a frozen chunk of the star-things she's been hunting from the rooftops, and her "original" arm, so recently replaced, but which was taken from her prey and in turn made, too, by her fathers as part of weapons of war.

These she sets on a flat stone, brushed clean of snow, before she says in a flat voice: "Eligos. By the hate in me and the filthy taint of my fathers' hands, I seek audience with the king of the worthless and the wretched. I have an offer that may be of interest."

Re: January | Traitor's Roar

[daemoniumexmachina]

The shadows breathe as the name of the King of Hells is spoken. They come to life, writhing like wicked serpents against the bitter snow. And like a drop of blood into the inky black, a glowing red blot appears amid the ichor, and begins pounding as it is encased in a jagged ribcage. Above the sickly heartbeat, two red eyes open in the void.

Those who have met the princes know that they all bear an insufferable air of smugness to their demeanors. Each has a different flavor, of course, but ultimately they are all arrogant pricks. Eligos has no such aura. He is sinister, but muted. Predatory. And with nothing at all to prove. After all, he's already won.

The voice that comes from the King of Treason is hoarse and deep, and his tone blunt.

"Speak."

[lastofthefirst]

Vika nods, just once. Her voice remains flat, blunt, mixed into something that would only barely pass the Turing Test. "A question first, to avoid wasting your time and mine. Can you gainsay the barrier and deliver a being to death despite its influence? If you can, I will speak my desire, and you your price, and we'll see if we can agree."

The blunt fact of the matter is that as far as Vika is concerned, she has nothing to fear from Eligos. Death, torture, betrayal, play a different tune; these are old hat. Hence her straightforward offer, born not of arrogance but utility.

[daemoniumexmachina]

"The barrier is of no consequence," Eligos replies, equally plain and even. "It will not be a pleasant deliverance into the arms of Mortanne, however. Name your enemy."

[lastofthefirst]

"No. This is my request: one shot -" Vika holds her buster up, pointed at the sky, "imbued with that power, to be expended when I wish, and only at my knowing will. The target, and only the target, will die and never return to Marrow Island. But to avoid leaving you in suspense, I will fire within one lunar month."

In her heart is a hate she can't name, but her face is still as stone. "Name your price, king of the wretched."

[daemoniumexmachina]

There is a moment of consideration from Eligos. The deep red eyes which peer out from the dark are calculating, and one who looks closely can see the shape of an idea forming behind them.

This is a dreadful plan, Vika.

"There are rules." Like liquid shadow, he emerges from the trees now to stand plainly before her, but looks no different in the light. The moonbeams do not reflect on his form, leaving him appearing almost as negative space. A hole in existence save for a beating red heart suspended in a broken bird cage. "As stated, you must discharge the shot by the time the moon returns to its present phase, waxing gibbous. Their death will convey their soul directly to me, for whatever purpose I deem fit. Finally, in order for the shot to work as intended, you must first earn the target's trust. It need not be an exceptionally significant bond--- just enough trust that there will be pain in your betrayal.

[lastofthefirst]

Click-click-click-click-click-click-click...

...

"It's pointless to ask for a forfeit if either of us fail. Your kingdom is the breach of contract, and I've never had any honor to lose. But do understand: I live for my revenge on those who betrayed me before I was ever born."

"I accept."

[daemoniumexmachina]

At the implication of a threat, Eligos laughs softly, briefly. Such ferocity! He extends a spindly hand, red veined and with fingers like spiderwebs. For a moment it looks as though he intends to shake her hand but the fingers instead wrench open her chest panel. The king of demons places a palm over her frozen core, and on its surface forms a sticky, red, pounding heart, affixed to her with tendrils of what look like tendon or spiderweb.

"May your vengeful heart prove its mettle, Daughter of Hate."

[lastofthefirst]

"I suppose we'll see, king of the wretched." Oh that feels...strange, but she's in it now. She's in it now and she's hoping, gambling, that her nature as the test bed has also been translated, that whatever strange force remade her into a thing of magic and mayhem either couldn't rid her of her Faustian might or deliberately preserved it. Eligos has given her a gift, but that's the thing with being a Revenant: the devil always gives you more than he intended, and gets nothing extra in return.

The pact is sealed, as it ever is, before the altar of someone Vika does not respect but who is willing, in their arrogance, to treat with her.

"...If there's nothing else, I have work to do. Clock's ticking."

[daemoniumexmachina]

He laughs again.

"And so are you. Good luck."

And with that, the King takes his leave, receeding back into the night.