Maathias
From Mizahar Lore
 Druvin Maathias | |||||||||
| Race | Druvin | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 457 AV (aged 66) | ||||||||
| Place of birth | Syliras Region | ||||||||
| Title | Ebonknight | ||||||||
| Skills |
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Maathias is a Druvin and an Ebonknight of the Ebonstryfe. Standing nearly seven feet in height and encased in a suit of armor, Maathias is quite the sight. What Maathias looks like under the armor is unknown as is never seen in public without it. The armor itself looks much like that of a Syliran Knight although darker and menacing. As Ebonknight, Maathias commands the entirety of the Ebonstryfe with only Gru'tral above him. Maathias speaks with a voice that sounds rather dead and hollow. He is blunt and to the point about issues of combat, politics and religion though he doesn't speak much of the religion side. In combat, Maathias is a tactician and strategist. Where Gru'tral is brutal and forceful, Maathias leads the army with finesse and thought. He is loyal to Gru'tral and carries the respect of all those he leads.
Maathias is the youngest of the Druvin. His background is well known to the officers of the Ebonstryfe. As a human, he used to be known as Maathias Brock. He was a Syliran Knight of some renown. That was until Rhysol found him. Rhysol appeared to Maathias in battle in the form of a young child who somehow wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. Maathias was leading a patrol of knights against a group of marauding nomads on the outskirts of Syliras at the time. Maathias and his men successfully routed the marauders and Maathias himself took the girl back to the city hoping to find her parents. Her parents of course were never found and Maathias offered the girl his home. A few years went by with Maathias and the girl, Macy, lived what appeared to be a peaceful life with Maathias' wife Fiowne. Unknown to Maathias, Macy had been sewing the seeds of corruption in Fiowne. Macy would make mention of seeing Maathias with other women but did so in the innocent way a child would such as, "Mommy Fiowne, where was daddy going with the pretty lady from the plant shop last night." After numerous instances of this, Fiowne confronted Maathias about it. Of course Maathias knew nothing of what his wife was talking about as he was perhaps one of the most faithful, loving men around.
Macy escalated her work by manipulating Maathias' brother into thinking that Maathias and Fiowne were having marital issues due to Fiowne being in love with the him. This led to a confrontation between the brother and Fiowne where the brother tried to force himself on Fiowne. Maathias, returning home that night, walked in on the two. Macy, had also been working on Maathias and had convinced him that Fiowne was the one cheating on him. When he walked in on his brother and his wife in a compromising situation, Maathias snapped. Normally a strong-willed man, Macy had been working hard to break him down little by little. In that final moment, it all came to fruition and he cut down both his brother and his wife in blind anger brought on by the perceived betrayal.
From there, everything came crashing down on Maathias. His crime was quickly discovered and he was forced to flee. The Knights pursued him into the forest and a battle ensued. Maathias, though a skilled knight and deadly warrior, was outnumbered and outmatched by the others. Madness having taken him, Maathias refused to surrender and was cut down as he tried to fight. Laying in brush, bleeding out from his wounds, Maathias saw Macy appear out of the trees. Time itself had stopped all around them as the young girl walked past the stilled forms of the knights. She knelt down next to the dying Maathias and said, "Daddy, this doesn't have to happen. You saved me from certain death. Let me save you."
Maathias still thought that Macy was the innocent child he had saved years ago. The madness that had set into his mind would not allow him to believe otherwise. In that instant, seeing the face of the girl he had come to know as his own child, hearing her offer to save him, he accepted. Macy then laid a hand on his armored shoulder and said, "Then my blessing you shall have." Both Macy and Maathias vanished and time returned to normal leaving the knights baffled at the sudden disappearance.
Maathias awoke in a strange yet luxuriously adorned room. At his side stood Macy. Maathias remembered all that happened except he didn't know where he was. It was then that Macy revealed her true form as Rhysol, God of Betrayal. Maathias knew then what had happened and what he had done. He was then made a Druvin by The Voice and Rhysol and tasked to command the Ebonstryfe under Gru'tral's leadership.
Although loyal to Rhysol, he hates the God unrelentingly. He accepts what happened to him as being of his own doing. He blinded himself of the truth and his course of action that led to his downfall was his own choice. Honor prevents him from defying Rhysol. He could have said no to the girl's offer of saving him and died with some semblance of honor remaining. The only honor he has left resides in his duty to Rhysol and the Ebonstryfe. Twisted as it is, it's all Maathias has left.
Maathias wears the armor of a Syliran Knight although it is darkened, tarnished a bit and bares a bloodstain on the chestplate over where Maathias' heart would be. The armor is said to be impervious to mundane blades and resistant to magical ones. Maathias' sword, Betrayal, is a black hilted longsword with a blood red blade. It is said that the sword can absorb djed and unleash it upon a target in a wave of withering darkness that is thought to be a reflection of the despair filling Maathias' heart.