Iyadokeshi, back from the dead. by @kgavlas (Kim Gavlas)

(Warning- huge image)

Iyadokeshi, raging and bloody, leaving the scene of his massacre. Some of that blood's his. The strange, arm-like object poking out from behind him is... well, it's one of his second pair of arms.

Here is the story of this creature- I decided (in the least, to sate my own need to write stuff) to put a brief history of his origin down. (Well, I've known it for almost a year now, so now I'll push it on whoever cares to read it.)

A little more than a year before he appears as such, there was a small community where he stands. A beautiful stranger from distant Kejistan had found his way there and decided to stay the night at the village Inn.

While there, he heard the people had been terrorized for the past few weeks by some beast that lurked on the outskirts of the village by night; several longtime inhabitants of the place had been found mutilated, and horrible screeches could be heard during the darkest hours. With winter drawing in and the days shortening, the people feared that things would only get worse.

This stranger was a mage-warrior, and he decided to test his strength against the creature. The denizens of the Inn advised him, some for the idea, some against it, and at length he left into the night.

He was never seen again, but the night-stalker troubled the villagers no more. A few wondered what had transpired; no remains of either warrior or monster were found the next morning, but it was soon forgotten.

Before the turn of the next winter solstice, however, the village had ceased to exist. Travellers in the coming months who had passed by told of a scorched area of fallow and destroyed buildings where it had stood; it was assumed that its end was connected with the other troubles of the time.

However, that was not the case. The destruction from which none escaped was the handiwork of the same man who had saved that village over a year before. Now, however, he was barely a husk of his former self- killed during his battle with the horror, he had been resurrected as a ghoul-apprentice to the monster's creator, and was now set free to wreak havoc on the world, stripped of almost all of his former memories and knowledge.

Once an even-tempered, dark-skinned beauty, he had been warped irreversibly by his rebirth and the following terrors he endured. And what little spark of humanity he had left within him did not sway his actions on the day he left his new home; with a new set of tricks at his disposal, he laid waste to the village and murdered every living thing there.

So he's seen here, in a haze of rage and ecstacy, possibly contemplating his next move.