Grael

Grael, the Heart-Render, Black Spear of the Kemeroi, Scourge of Haebrous, and Rage of Shadow.

The Grael Rebellion and arriving in Dereth
Grael was a warrior of a tribe of Ruschk in the north of the Kingdomw of Haebrous, who called themselves Mukkir. Their leader was Chief Daemal and their warriors called themselves Blood-Warriors. Though he lived in the time of the Empyreans, he is not Haebrean, Yalaini, Dericostian, or Falatacot. It could be possible that his people were here before the Empyreans. Grael was described later by Lucane Kraest as a Mukkir, a "man, large and heavily muscled, like that of a Roulean gladiator with qualities not unlike those of the Empyrean. Tall with a narrow face and striking eyes."

In the fifth year of the reign of Braletain of Haebrous, Grael's tribe is slain to make way for a mercantile company's gemstone excavations. The tribe and their Blood-Warriors put up such a ferocious fight against the Haebreans (the "Shining Ones" ) that Braletain's soldiers exterminated every one, save for one single warrior. This only survivor of this tribe, Grael, is brought back to the Royal Menagerie.

At the behest of his queen, Carraida, Braletain subjected Grael to life in the gladiatorial pits. He survived all the fights, taking the heads and eating the hearts of his slain opponents. His rage over his defeat, the failing of protecting his chief and the slaughtering of his tribe never subsided.

As time led on, Grael. a. k. a. the Spear of Mukkir gathered an army of slaves and fought their way from the pits. He and his new "Blood-Warriors" savaged the kingdom for three days, killing many, including Braletain's young wife, Queen Carraida. The brothers Shemza, Lurza, Dmesne and Rhujun (Ruschk deities? )were amongst the first to join Grael and managed to prolong their life, harboring their essences in crystals, given their souls in exchange for life eternal. They can now be found as the Gatekeepers in the Gateway to the Deep Quest, awaiting the rise of their master. Because the slaves did not have any magical capabilities, and the Haebrous forces did, the Rebellion was suppressed quickly.

Grael somehow escaped Braletain's vengeance, even as his followers were annihilated by the magical arts of the Haebrean royal "thaumaturges". Grael managed to flee, still singing his songs of rage. Four of the other survivors were the brothers Farelaith, Baranaith, Hiranaith and Korogaith.

Though they went separate ways, Grael and the brothers met up again on the coast of Dereth. Traveling in a land they did not know. Grael convinced them to join him, and follow the call to the north he felt. Grael sought the help of "Darkness" to fight the Haebrous.

One night, Farelaith woke up, and found Grael and his brothers caught in some sort of dark magic. Grael seemed to undergo his transformation willingly, and swore oaths with the "Dark that speaks". Farelaith's brothers were wrapped in darkness and started screaming. Farelaith managed to overcome his paralysis and ran. In his fear of Grael, he did not even look back to see what had become of his brothers. The three brothers now serve, turned into Shadows and having lost their name, in the Temple of Stirring Shadows. Grael learned "to move within the Dark that walks and learned to devour the light" of the Empyreans. According to the Falatacot, Grael is, because he is not "pure-blood", i.e. Empyrean, incapable of wielding the full power, and a flawed and imperfect vessel for the energies of the Living Darkness. Grael however, possesses something that no Empyrean does: a transcendent and transforming rage, a heart filled with the kind of pure, perfect hate which made him a perfect conduit for the powers of war and destruction and despair. He could serve as an experimental subject for the "Dark Ones". They wrapped him in thorns, in a mantle of Living Darkness and gave him life everlasting within the Darkness, and they tought him to bring True Death and how to extinguish the light of creation. The "mantle" however,was not originally meant for him, slipped out of the grasp of the Nameless. He took the Gift, enslaved others as he had been enslaved, and fled from The Elder Spirits as he fled from his own slavemasters.

Grael, now called the Black Spear of the Kemeroi, went on to the north. The place he chose to sleep was an isle north of Vissidal Isle. He fell asleep in a realm that was forbidden to the Shadow. The Black Spear is of the Shadow, but drifts outside of the domain of Shadow. His presence, "dreaming songs of rage", covered the island in Shadow, and the isle soon came to be called the Dark Isle. Those Falatacot who followed the Old One, N'cthail, took a chance and used ancient seals to sink the isle below the waves. It was their hope that none would ever wake Grael and that this world would be free of him forever.

The War of Blood and Shadow
Both the Raven Hand and Dardante tried to summon Grael and get him under their control. King Varicci II is interested in knowledge about Grael and his power only as far as it would help the war against New Aluvia, Dardante has no such inhibitions, and wants to know everything there is about Grael. Dardante was led to believe by a Falatacot that he summoned and bound that he could achieve the same power as Grael, without making the same dark bargain that Grael made. High Archon Lucane Kraest of the Raven Hand got a vision of a presence of a being not unlike his master, the Hopeslayer. and in the hope to find an ally or a puppet to control, he destroyed the first of the crystals, hidden by the Dericost in the Nightmare Gate on Caul. Kraest believes Grael imprisoned, while in fact he is only asleep.

Pontifex Maegris of the Raven Hand and the Ordina Rossu Morta under the leadership of Dardante decided to cooperate and initiate a summoning ritual

Because of suspected treason, the Raven Hand decided to perform the ritual without the help of Dardante, even though the outcome might fail catastrophically without Count Dardante there to guide. Possibly only Dardante knows the summoning involves sacrifices. Isin Dule finds out about the activities of the Raven Hand, notably High Archon Kraest, trying to summon Grael and orders his forces to interfere.

Grael got released, see From the Darkest Depths Teaser Video for a summary of the events leading up to this as seen by Dardante.

The summoning of Grael did not go as planned, and both Pontifex Maegris and Dardante's main assistant, Archmage Aigonne, were turned into shadows. The experiments with Grael having gone awry, Grael became now Dardante's master instead of the other way around. . Dardante, being corrupted by Grael, was turned into a Shadow.

When Isin Dule cannot prevent Grael from being summoned, he calls in the help of the Isparians to rise the Dark Isle and to prevent the Dark Isle from being sunk again.

Preceded by invasions of the Derethian towns by Shadows during the From the Darkest Depths patch, a breach was made for Grael's main contingent near Arwic, lead by the Makkar.

Grael and his Mukkir minions rampaged around Dereth, invading towns such as Rithwic. Grael's forces also besiege Asheron in his castle, but with the help of the Isparians, get defeated.

He was finally defeated by splitting him in three aspects by destroying the White Totem on the Halaetan Isles (Ruschk Aspect), the Black Totem on Caul (Shadow Aspect) , and the Abyssal Totem on Dark Isle (Mukkir Aspect). Oswald brought the Ordina Rossu Morta and Whispering Blade together to fight against Grael. Queen Elysa and King Varicci II decided to cooperate and slay each one of those aspects separately.

These three aspects, the Ruschk Aspect of Grael, the Shadow Aspect of Grael and the Mukkir Aspect of Grael can be found in their respective dungeons for the Aspect of Grael Quests.

Their is still a risk that Grael might overcome the splitting into three Aspects. The Ruschk are looking for a Totem, the Black Spear Ice Totem, which could strengthen Grael and amass the power to possibly disrupt the separation of Grael into containable Aspects.

Appearance In Game

 * Grael (Live Event Character)
 * Mukkir Aspect of Grael
 * Ruschk Aspect of Grael
 * Shadow Aspect of Grael

Lore Articles

 * Grael Rebellion

Quests

 * Grael's Rage
 * Grael's Summoning Chamber
 * Raising Grael's Island
 * Tracking Grael
 * Sepulcher of Nightmares
 * Grael's Forces Attack (Live Event)
 * Shadow Breach Quest
 * Splitting Grael (High)
 * Gateway to the Deep
 * Dark Isle Flagging
 * Mukkir Aspect of Grael Quest
 * Ruschk Aspect of Grael Quest
 * Shadow Aspect of Grael Quest

Creatures

 * Grael's Shadow Captain - One of the shadows raiding the towns during the From the Darkest Depths live events
 * Grael's Shadow Lieutenant - One of the shadows raiding the towns during the From the Darkest Depths live events
 * Lesser Penumbral Horror - part of Graels forces raiding the towns during the From the Darkest Depths live events
 * Makkar - One of Grael's generals.
 * Mukkir - creatures associated with Grael, not like the Mukkir of his original tribe, but Ruschk, altered by forces of the Living Shadow.
 * Ruschk - possibly the Ruschk in Dereth still serve Grael.
 * Shadow Vortex

Locations

 * 26.4S, 98.0E - Shadow Geyser - one of the locations where shadow and mukkir minions raided several locations around Dereth during the From the Darkest Depths live events
 * Dark Isle- where Grael slept, possibly under the Ruschk Ice Tower
 * Grael's Summoning Chamber - where the ritual summoning Grael went wrong for the Raven Hand and the Ordina Rossu Morta
 * Temple of Stirring Shadows - where the brothers of Farelaith serve as Shadows.

Items

 * The Black Spear Ice Totem is a small totem, important to the followers of Grael, the Ruschk.