Codename: Di'Volx, the Summoner
First Construct of Mor'Chai
Powers include necromancy, demon summoning, near-intuitive understanding of shadow and shade

This scholar finds it hard to understand the motivations behind this man, so sorrowful was his tale. One would say that power was his main motive; others, curiosity. Personally, I find it would have to be a desire to be loved.

He was an orphan of a childbirth gone wrong. His father, at first proud of his son, soon came to despise him and cast him into the Night's hold. The Church ordained him as a voidmage, people able to manipulate the raw, unfiltered essence of Mor'Chai's Will. During his teen years, he got into trouble for studying things outside his station, things that would easily get him executed if it wasn't for his peerless studies into the very nature of Mor'Chai. During that time, he ran into problems into the philosophies and the theologies of the God of Night, and he would complain at length to his only friends: An apprentice artificer and strangely-scarred boy.

During his early 20s, bored by his current studies, he delved deeper into the Church's libraries, opening books that have not been opened for decades. During one of these forbidden trips, he uncovered the Flesh Arts: The magical knowledge of manipulating human matter, right to the very bone. Eager to try the powers, he used it on a corpse about to be buried. Oh how pleased he was when it worked, and how angry his superiors were. They deemed him a failure and cast him into G’zhal’mor’chai* (“The Night Path”), a demon-infested mazework/prison made sentient by Mor'Chai. However, Mor'Chai recognized the magics as those used in the Flesh Arts. Using the knowledge he gleaned from his studies, he quickly tamed the building and used it as a laboratory of sorts for further studies.

Several years passed, and he emerged out of the building escorting hordes of demons emblazoned with Mor'Chai's power. The deity, surprised as such a feat, immediately named him the First of His Constructs. Di'Volx' superiors, although shocked and outraged at such favor, had no choice but to comply. (Such compliance lead the way to the creation of the Second Construct.) With such favor, he gleefully pillaged the libraries without fear of retribution, learning things deemed long forbidden by the Church.

Despite all this, he remained a lonely man. His studies had him ostracized by his superiors, and in an effort to alleviate his solitude, he turned to Mor'Chai. Stating that he was one of the blessed few to truly understand him, he turned ascetic, devoting every moment to the Lord of the Night. Unfortunately, this lead to his downfall.

As M'Inchros' betrayal rocked the Church, it utterly staggered Di'Volx. When the cause of the betrayal was discovered, Di'Volx went manic. Why would anyone leave the comforting arms of Mor'Chai, he thought, and for a man no less. It was a question that made him insane, his powers now unchecked. Swaths of demons rampaged across the lands, with zombies of all kinds joining them. The Construct didn't care, and even his superiors were fed into the great hordes.

Mor'Chai, with help of The Great Father, captured him and tried to calm him, but to no avail: His psychosis was too deeply embedded. The Lord of the Night, saddened that his First succumbed to such a disaster, sealed him away, then had himself and his other Constructs away.

(Scholar's Note I: One would wonder if, despite all of the technological and biological abilities to 'correct' the mental and physical states of their kind into their strict gender-based societies, they missed one.)

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* https://awritingmoose.wordpress.com.....6/no-4-escape/