This is an historical account of the power structure of the Fiends within the Great Seal.
-Marius of the Leaf-Chronicler
A Story of Power
Ancient History of the Fiends
Long ago, when the Fiends first came to Karn, they were all independent. Vorago knew that his creation needed motivation to keep going or they would lose interest in the Game and never achieve anything. So, he gave them the ability to bind another of their kind to their own will. The idea was for the strongest, most resourceful among them to rise to the top. They would only be able to bind another Fiend when they fulfilled their master’s goals. The greater deeds they did, the more power they were given.
All of the Fiends longed for the power to control one another. They longed for control over others who, in their mind, falsely thought they were superior. So, the Fiends worked hard for their Master. Over the years of the Ethereal Wars, three Fiends grew in power and rose to the top. Wraith, Balazar, and the one who came to be known as the Empress. These three had each taken at least one of the others. Wraith had two and Balazar had four, but the Empress only had only one. Balazar was poised toward becoming the most powerful of all the Fiends. Several times, she was able to take what others said could not be taken. Then, everything changed with the Empress was able to enslave the Dragonlords and us them as pawns again the rest of the world. Her cunning and success eclipsed the rest.
Balazar, at the time was locked in a constant back and forth with an Erune known as Sword of the Moon. The Erune had finally struck a mighty blow, weakening Balazar, when the Empress struck and was able to take Balazar, enslaving him, and driving Sword of the Moon away. Enslaving Balazar gave her all those Fiends whom he had already enslaved as well. Such a masterful stroke took Wraith back and had him reluctantly listening to her, with the goal of keeping her from enslaving himself, as she had done with the others. Verago had no interest in giving her more power, since the drive between Wraith and the Empress would keep hem focused.
Then came the Great Seal, and all the Fiends were locked away. The Empress rules over her ‘pet Fiends’ each with the goal to free themselves from the Seal. The rivalry between Wraith and the Empress has grown strong, but the power of the Empress is almost absolute, so Wraith can only look for ways to get more power or somehow loosen her grip on the power she has.
Plans within Plans
Wraith has always liked the idea of Sanctuary. It is a central location that he can use to try and control the humans. The Empress was locked in her war against the Archons, Dragonlords, and Imperials with little time to finish anything. Wraith, on the other hand, would try to feed her enough information so she wouldn’t bother him. Most of his time was spent playing with various people, hoping he could find something that would help.
Everything changed when Amaros (Shaun) told Wraith about the Staff. That moment gave Wraith his first light of hope in a long time. This was a chance to not only break the Seal, but possibly bend the Empress herself to his will. Its power was staggering. But Wraith knew if he made too many waves the others would notice. If that happened, he would have to fight off, not only the Empress, but the Archons as well. So, he decided to increase the pressure on Sanctuary and then work to move in an agent that could befriend the young Trumar.
Those plans started going well, until the Empress needed a new body for Balazar. While looking, the Wickermen found Percy and luckily discovered that if Percy took on Balazar’s soul he would seek out vengeance on Sanctuary. Oddly, the Wickermen didn’t know what would happen after that.
What Happened Next
Percy was being tortured by several humans. He was at the brink and Balazar took over. The new Balazar, changed by the intermingling of Percy, did exactly what was expected. He went after Aeolus (Keith). A direct confrontation was not optimal, if the Archons were to be kept out of it. Instead, Balazar (now Percy) ambushed Aeolus and started to torture him. Percy also captured and tortured his friends as well. Unfortunately for Percy/Balazar, the Town of Sanctuary rallied and was able to save Aeolus. Balazar ran, again not wanting to bring the Archons down on him, and resolved to try again.
Soon after, Balazar found that his old enemy the Erubi known as Baylor was in town. He wanted Sword of the Moon badly, more than just about anything. He asked the Empress to help him seek revenge on the Erune. She agreed, as long as she could get Inazumi (Allan) and Kagami (Kim). The Empress wanted them but it had not become a priority, yet, for her.
A secondary target that excited Balazar was Braxin (Brian S) who was a Seraph. He believed that if he could get a Fiend to take over Braxin’s body he could tap into the Archons power. He started to work to capture Braxin.
Meanwhile, Wraith couldn’t let Balazar have his way with Sanctuary. If he found out about the Staff, it could put everything in jeopardy. That would bring the Empress in full force, and such would cause a major conflict between the Archons and the Fiends. Wraith feared the Staff would be lost. Such a major event would ruin all of Wraiths carefully laid plans.
Instead, he planned to turn the tables on Balazar and help Sanctuary defeat him. He fed them a powerful ritual which will allows mortals to cast out a Fiend (only one shot, he isn’t dumb). He helped them gather the various components. Then, he used Baylor as bait. He also used a Trumar to befriend Aleta (Kat) to keep the Staff out of sight.
Balazar was able to trick Sword of the Moon to come to Baylor after capturing Braxin and Baylor. The ritual that Balazar was doing on Braxin was strong enough to call to Sword of the Moon and make him curious. But right when Balazar started to win the battle with Sword of the Moon, Wraith sprung his trap and the town of Sanctuary was able to capture him and drag him back. Baylor and Braxin were both lost in a sub world from the Balazar’s magic .
The ritual against Balazar went perfectly, except for two strange, unanticipated flaws. One, Balazar was still magically charged from the powers he was using on Sword of the Moon. Two, Balazar used to be the owner of Armaros (Shaun). Armaros was in the middle of a ritual that took away his race and made him temporarily human. This shift changed the energy and interfered and instead made a part of Armaros go into Balazar. The human part of Armaros at the time, that had all the emotions and feelings of a human, was forced into Balazar/Percy. The backlash cause extreme pain to Armaros who couldn’t keep the Exorcism going, which in turn made it fail. This left Percy/Balazar with human emotions and empathy and failed to force him out of Percy’s body.