People: Asyas the Possessed
- "From beginningless time... the darkness beckons."
Asyas was a priest of Tethys during the Third Epoch. He is believed to have been the first non-isci voidchild, having discovered the Void after the death of Tethys.
History
A Kiltian priest of Tethys, Asyas was a relatively unremarkable individual amongst his people. When the True Gods were slain, however, his mental state rapidly disintegrated; while most priests of the day were deeply affected by this event, most merely sank into depression and joined the ranks of common folk, or pursued other interests after a time.
Asyas, however, went literally mad.
Unaware of the existence of Wanderers, Asyas sought answers: why had the gods forsaken his people? He journeyed to the lands of the Jovians, believing that perhaps their experience with memory and knowledge of the past might provide him an answer, but they had no answers and no insights. Not believing that the Arkeyans would be of any assistance, he went into the wilds, and most who knew him presumed that he would never return.
What they did not anticipate was that Asyas eventually came across a citadel built by the Yuan-agans in the First Epoch, now long-since abandoned. Isolated in the depths of a jungle north of civilization, he attempted to claim the tower as his own: but the denizens within proved to be too much for him to handle, now bereft of his divine gifts.
In frustration, Asyas locked himself into one of the few rooms into which he had gained entry, succumbing to depression and ready to end his life by his own hands. It was at this moment - when he had lost all hope, alone in the darkness of a strange place - when a voice, from seemingly nowhere, spoke within his mind.
It offered secrets, knowledge, and power, all in exchange for one thing: his utter obedience. Asyas knew well of service and devotion, and feeling that he had nothing else to offer the world, accepted the deal. Knowledge of the Void flooded his mind even as his soul departed, to the Tenebrium and beyond.
With newfound strength and terrible powers, Asyas stormed the remainder of the citadel, destroying the monsters within and claiming it for his own. Over time, Jovians became aware of what he was and what he was capable of, and this knowledge spread to the Kiltians. As the world became aware of the existence of the first non-Isci voidchild, a few individuals - each with nothing to lose, who had lost their way in life - traveled to the isle and sought him out, hoping to learn from him and gain access to this strange and terrible power.
Asyas took to the role of tutor with gusto, with all the terrible intent that a being who had traded his soul for power could muster. His would-be disciples were put through terrible trials and torments; those who survived these grim ordeals were ordained as "priests of the Void," as Asyas preferred to call them, and their numbers grew slowly. His very presence began to warp the nature of the citadel he had conquered, and in the greater world whispers of his lair began to spread, along with stories of the tribulations those who dared attempt to become students of the lord of that dark place: and to many, it became known simply as the "Tomb of Horrors."
As their number increased, their influence spread, and soon Asyas and his minions became a scourge upon the world, especially the Kiltian city of Kegate, which was on an archipelago just south of the island on which their citadel stood. Unfortunately for Asyas, his increased activity and willful destruction of life brought him to the attention of Rydia Mistcaller, who would eventually bring him low.
At that point, however, his teachings had spread, and the seeds of Nihilism had been planted. Though Rydia spent the rest of her life hunting down the disciples of Asyas, she did not eradicate them entirely, and the teachings of the Void have managed to persist throughout the ages since.
Rumors persisted, however, even during the Kiltian era, that Rydia's defeat of Asyas was incomplete: that his plumbing of the depths of the mysteries of the Void had yielded to him power over death itself. Though his followers were scattered to the winds, rumors persisted that the Tomb of Horrors was continuing to change out in the trackless jungles, which had - over the course of decades - become fetid marshes and swampland, all life seeming to seep out of any creature that dared set foot near to it. Some claimed that Asyas had somehow returned from death, his spirit - supposedly consumed by the Void - instead returned to the real to let the Void fester, an open wound and a permanent gateway to the worlds of Trinity from outside reality, with Asyas serving as some sort of dark herald for the Void.
