[hider=Archon of Blood][center]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5dTeRroCZI][img]https://static5.comicvine.com/uploads/original/7/73958/4124488-elric-the-ruby-throne-cover-art-cropped-01-600x322.jpg[/img][/url]

[sup][i]"I understand. Illyrica is your home, and Lady Izalith your queen. Your trade was good, and you were taken care of. Your Exarchs defended you, and the Archons ruled you justly. You did not need my patronage. But now, you come to me and say, 'My Archon, give me strength, give me power.' But you don't offer piety. You don't ask on your knees. You don't even think to call me Great-Father. Instead, you stand before my throne and demand my favor."[/i][/sup]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]N A M E[/color][/h3]Kuth Irkalla
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T I T L E S[/color][/h3][b]Archon of Blood[/b]
Great-Father, the Dragon in the East, Lord of Sheol, the Red Worm, King of Thieves and Whores, Murder-God Bhaal
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T Y P E[/color][/h3]Archon
[h3][color=9e0b0f]R I V A L[/color][/h3]Kabius Grim, the Archon of Shadow, serves as Kuth's primary rival in the twisting, internecine politics of the Empire. Each man considering himself to be a master of secrecy and subterfuge, they constantly endeavor to outdo one another other otherwise gain some sort of advantage over their rival. Though the scale of their conflict is often hidden from the public eye, it can be quite bloody at times; Kuth has made a tradition out of sending Kabius the head of every one of his spies he finds in his private court. On a deeper level, Kuth realizes that the Archon of Shadow is among the greatest obstacles to his own ambition, and would see the man removed from the equation at his earliest opportunity.
[h3][color=9e0b0f]A P P E A R A N C E[/color][/h3]Kuth seems to many like a man from another world, so uncanny is his appearance. A long, tapering head, his features presenting an exotic beauty. His slanting eyes are crimson red, their gaze ancient and brooding. His form is slender, yet wiry; lithe and predatory like a hungry wolf. His flesh is the color of bleached bone, and his long, flowing hair is the color of pure snow. His unnatural coloration resulted from his unholy communion of the Dark Ones, which corrupted his form and prolonged his life well beyond mortal means. His garb of choice is usually obsidian armor or ebony robes, both of which fashioned to designs no longer found in this world.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK0w67B4EtU][img]http://www.freneticarts.com/files/illustration/bd/thumbnails/FA_illustration_000492_0x260.jpg[/img][/url]

[h3][color=9e0b0f]P E R S O N A L I T Y // D R I V E[/color][/h3]Kuth strikes many as a man out of time, his moods and actions out of place among the other Archons, Exarchs and other rulers. Most view him as little more than a vicious tyrant, ruthlessly disposing of those that oppose him, and crushing any resistance to his rule. Those that know him more personally understand that he abides by a personal code of honor, though it is alien and antiquated enough to be almost inscrutable by the standards of this era. While on the surface he appears flighty and mercurial, this masks a tenacity that would rival that of a starving hound. He delights in dark decadence and long-planned revenge in equal measures, and generously shares the pleasures of either with his confidants. A shrewd manipulator and a cunning deceiver, it is a dangerous thing to assume Kuth's intentions, as one almost assuredly only thinks what he wants them to think. Despite his evil reputation, Kuth values loyalty above all else, greatly treasuring those of his blood, and those who have spilled blood in fealty to him.

Nothing less than the complete domination of Illyrica is Kuth's goal, and he fully intends to usurp Izalith and depose the other Archons in doing so. Whether the Mother Night herself knows of his intentions is debatable, but this does not so much as give him pause. Already Kuth's influence seeps into the mainland like a poison, his unholy brood and clandestine agents positioning themselves in noble courts and positions of power.
[h3][color=9e0b0f]H I S T O R Y[/color][/h3]Sheol, also known as the Black Isle, is a large island that sits across the waters of the Dragonthroat from Nachesh. Before the Disjunction, it was home to a small nation of sorcerers and warlocks who worshiped the Ancient Ones and performed dark rites and rituals in their names. As the War of the Heavens wrought destruction across the world, the small magocracy that thrived on Sheol was utterly destroyed, leaving behind nothing but the ruins of their obsidian temples and palaces, and a small colony of the Ancient Ones' vile brood. It was thought by all that the native peoples of Sheol had been made extinct, but in truth, a single man survived.

Kuth Irkalla tells little of past prior to the Disjunction, explaining vaguely that he was a lesser noble, a warlock that served in the court of one of Sheol's sorcerer-lords. In the centuries between the fall of his people and his own rise to power, he lived as a savage in the wasted ruins of his homeland. He practiced foul and forbidden magics to ward away spirits and demons, and drank the blood of the Dark Ones that remained from the War to extend his own life in absence of his people's curative elixirs. These desperate measures corrupted Kuth's very flesh, turning his form bone-white and turning him into a creature less than human. So twisted was he that food could no longer sustain him, and he was forced to subsist on the warm blood of living creatures.

In time, civilizations rebounded and people returned to Sheol. First explorers, then settlers, then merchants and traders, and finally outlaws and fugitives. Outside of the influence of the then-fledgling empires, Sheol became a haven for pirates, smugglers, and all manner of other scoundrels. Organized crime flourished like a weed in Sheol's ports and shipyards, and before long the island had become a pseudo-nation of thieves and killers. Kuth did not lament this development, as he saw it as little more than human nature in its purest form. Though he had forsaken the Ancient Ones as gods, Kuth still adhered to their malevolent ways, and sought to take back Sheol for himself.

Court politics in Old Sheol taught Kuth much of how to gain power and influence, and the self-described lords of New Sheol were ill-prepared for the level of violence and barbarity he was willing to demonstrate. Killing his rivals and taking their assets for his own was practically his first course of action. However, to curry favor one must give as well as take, and in seeing the people of Sheol as his kin and his ward, Kuth founded the reputation of the "Great-Father," the secretive crime-lord who could grant nearly any desire, but often at a terrible price. Under his watchful eye and swift hand Sheol grew into a small yet burgeoning empire in its own right; one that attracted the attention of the Mother Night, Izalith.

When the mighty armies of Illyrica came to port on Sheol, they met no resistance. Their soldiers were welcomed with women and drink, and Izalith and her Archons were invited to treat with the island's lord. The man they met was merely a puppet ruler hastily instated by Kuth, and served as a front as the Great-Father made his own demands. Wise Izalith saw through this guise with ease, but indulged Kuth by continuing to parlay with Kuth through this proxy. The "lord's" demands were easily met, as he would swear fealty to Illyrica and the Mother Night, meeting her needs for men or coin when asked, in exchange for Sheol's complete autonomy and its Archon's unquestioned authority. The puppet was granted the title of Archon for the brief months that he was alive to bear it, and after an unsurprisingly quick coup, the Great-Father ruled the Black Isle in earnest.

Though little had changed beyond a crown being placed upon his brow, Kuth now wielded the power of an Archon through the Mother Night's favor and the legend of the Great-Father. Determined to shape his home into a true nation, he founded the order known as the Coven. Equal parts crime syndicate and secret police, the Coven's innermost ranks were formed by Kuth's dozens of offspring, which he had imbued with both a portion of his unnatural power and his cursed blood. Generations of descendants formed the bulk of the order, who infiltrated every port, city, gang, business, and criminal enterprise on Sheol. Any organization that was host to the Coven was under the Great-Father's "personal" protection, but was forced to pay tribute. Thieves paid in coin, slavers in flesh, and any who refused were purged. Particularly loyal supplicants could undertake a covenant of blood, and become members of the Coven themselves.

Sheol was as much a den of sin and lawlessness as ever before, but now under the direct and utterly legal control of the Great-Father. The foulness of Sheol was hardly contained to only it, and crime often spread to coast of Nachesh like a dark stain. Similarly, Kuth's influence hardly stopped within his own borders, and both members of his Coven and other agents under his control lurked within the domains of other Archons, as well as Lesmiana. To say that this corruption was tolerated by Kuth's fellow Archons and lesser Exarchs would be a dramatic overstatement, and many have made attempts to depose Kuth or otherwise restrict his influence. He has reacted to such attempts with a swiftness and ferocity that few are prepared for, and a handful of Exarchs have "abdicated" by his order. There have even been occasions when other Archons have had their noses blooded, both figuratively and literally, after attempting to infringe upon his enterprises.
[h3][color=9e0b0f]A R M A M E N T S[/color][/h3][b][color=9e0b0f]The Sanguine Throne:[/color][/b] The literal seat of Kuth's power, the Sanguine Throne is a hulking structure of shimmering, translucent, ruby crystal. However, the throne is not carved from any sort of mineral, as it is actually formed by an incalculable quantity of blood that is kept in a perpetually-frozen state by magical means. Traitors to the Archon and other political criminals are traditionally executed by ritual exsanguination, and their blood is added to the Sanguine Throne. Beyond serving as a symbol of Kuth's might and cruelty, the throne is a locus of hemomantic power, and Kuth can use it to amplify his blood magic to truly staggering levels.

[b][color=9e0b0f]Yammu, Blade of the Black Isle:[/color][/b] An artfully crafted bastard sword, forged from a mysterious obsidian metal, and designed by artisans that no longer live in this age. With great effort and expenditure, Kuth was able to recover and reforge this blade from the ruins of Old Sheol, and it now serves as one of his primary symbols of office. Tempered in the black flames of chaos, Yammu's very essence is antithetical to life, and wounds inflicted by it become virulently necrotic as its victims' flesh surrenders to the void.

[i][b][color=9e0b0f]
Mysteries of the Void:[/color][/b][/i] An unholy and heretical tome of Kuth's own authorship, Mysteries of the Void is an encyclopedic amalgamation of Kuth's knowledge of the Ancient Ones, Vilespawn, Antediluvians, the War of the Heavens, and the Disjunction, all of which he lived to see with his own two eyes. Many additional secrets have been mined from the past through mystic meditation, and Kuth has dutifully inscribed them all in this grimoire's pages, using the very blood of Dark Ones as ink. While the book's existence is antithetical to Izalith's law of Forbidden Knowledge, Kuth keeps its existence hidden through psychic blocks, defended by magic booby-traps, and the tome itself is written in the dead language of Old Sheol, of which only the Archon of Blood and the inner circle of his Coven still speak.

[b][color=9e0b0f]Zephon, the Storm of Chaos:[/color][/b] The only one of his artifacts that Kuth does not keep for his own personal use, Zephon was commissioned as the "successor" sword to Yammu, and was ensorcelled by the Archon of Blood himself. While it was forged by more mundane, earthly metals and methods, it is inscribed with hundreds of runes that serve as the source of its power. Each rune binds a chaotic spirit that Kuth personally summoned and enslaved, thus making the blade host to a veritable legion of faeries, demons and devils. Each rune that is invoked infuses the spirit's power into the blade, but also releases the spirit's consciousness, which can easily influence the sword's wielder. Thus as more runes are invoked, the weapon becomes incrementally more powerful, but the wielder also is put at greater risk of being overcome by the spirits within. Deemed too dangerous to trust to one of his subordinates, Kuth had Zephon locked away within his personal vaults.

[h3][color=9e0b0f]M O U N T[/color][/h3]Though Kuth will most usually travel by more inconspicuous means, when riding to battle or making a show of force, he takes up the reigns of Apollyon, his undead draconic steed. While Apollyon's physical form is comprised of the bones of an ancient dragon lord, the creature is truly a chaotic spirit that has been summoned and enslaved by Kuth, and bound to the dragon's bones. A powerful magical entity in her own right, Apollyon is capable of magic-induced flight, and can conjure powerful curses and poisons to destroy the foes of her master slowly and painfully. While she is intelligent, prideful, and utterly malevolent, Apollyon has something of an obscene infatuation with Kuth, and eagerly submits to his demands.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr54gJZk_nM][img]http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad192/ramennoodleboy_2/2935447369_7a7647ef24.jpg[/img][/url]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]D I S C I P L I N E[/color][/h3]The discipline formed by Kuth's status as an Archon is known by several names: blood magic, hemomancy, sanguimancy, and so on. These titles are largely descriptive, as the discipline focuses on the manipulation of blood, flesh, and bone. Most who wield it are born with their powers, as it is most common among Kuth's direct descendants, but it can also be granted to outsiders that join the Coven. The only other practitioners are the small priesthood that exists on Sheol, who use its powers to heal members of their congregation and to venerate their Archon. Blood Magic can be used to many ends, including raising mindless undead servants, inducing rapid decay, creating structures of biological matter, mending wounds or curing disease, and siphoning away the strength and vital energies of others. More powerful practitioners, such as those in Kuth's inner circle, can induce entropy in inorganic matter, turn flesh to ash, and take hold of living matter to turn their enemies into fleshy puppets.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=345SeLo4_hY][img]http://68.media.tumblr.com/f50886a21f38e27d3bbabd62a193de66/tumblr_inline_nekm6leM3M1r9lhsj.png[/img][/url]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]A B I L I T I E S[/color][/h3]Kuth has been an accomplished magician for centuries, and has a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from his considerable lifespan. He masterfully commands such primordial forces as darkness and chaos to tear apart his enemies or imbue himself with unnatural power. Raising the dead is child's play for him, and he is no stranger to summoning and binding spiritual entities from realms unseen. Magics of the mind are also well within his domain, as he has been known to read thoughts, dominate the weak-willed, and peer through space and time to spy on his enemies and learn forgotten secrets.

Even without his mystic powers, Kuth is a master of deception and manipulation. Adept in playing the emotions and motivations of others to suit his needs like so many stringed musical instruments, he is often embroiled in several staggeringly complex plots at any given time. Lending to his skill in politicking is his considerable knowledge of history and economics, which he has brought to bear in developing Sheol as a province of the Empire.

While he has some knowledge of swordsmanship and fencing, Kuth was never much of a warrior, and his skill in arms is rudimentary at best. A common man would still have nearly no chance of overcoming him in hand-to-hand combat, however, as his body is so imbued with mystic power that his strength and speed are both inhuman.[/center]

[hider=Sample Spells]

[color=9e0b0f][b]Raise Null[/b][/color]
Components: A completely exsanguinated corpse, a few drops of the caster's blood, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: Five minutes
Range: Touch
Duration: Until the death of the Null
Effect: A corpse is raised as the caster's servant, completely obedient to their mental commands, but is no more intelligent than a feral beast when left to its own devices. It has no magical abilities, and is only as powerful as it was in life, undead status aside. Still-fleshy corpses lose all hair, fur, feathers, etc, and a membrane of flesh grows over their eyes, giving them a distinctly faceless appearance.

[color=9e0b0f][b]Decompose[/b][/color]
Components: Life energy of the caster, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: A few seconds
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Induces spontaneous decay organic material, which can induce necrosis in flesh, wilt living plants, or rapidly decompose dead matter.

[color=9e0b0f][b]Bloodblade[/b][/color]
Components: A pint of the caster's blood, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: One minute
Range: Self
Duration: Concentration
Effect: The caster slashes their own wrist, and the blood that issues forth in the shape of a scimitar in the caster's hand. While not particularly strong in construction, its cutting edge is supremely sharp, like a hyper-pressurized jet of water.

[color=9e0b0f][b]Flesh Knit[/b][/color]
Components: Life energy of caster or target, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: Variable depending on extent of injury
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Damaged or wounded flesh spontaneously regenerates, but the process is imperfect as magic "compels" the wound to heal; the target experiences excruciating pain, and heavy scarring is common.

[color=9e0b0f][b]
Vampire's Bite[/b][/color]
Components: Incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: A few seconds
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Upon contact with the target (either skin to skin or through a medium such as cloth or metal) the caster siphons away the life energy of the target, draining their physical and magical potency and supplementing their own until their bodies naturally restore or readjust.

[color=9e0b0f][b]Mortify[/b][/color]
Components: Life energy of the caster, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: A few seconds
Range: 10 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Hundreds of years of decay are forced upon the target in a single moment; a living creature struck by the spell has its flesh turned to ash, usually killing it instantly

[color=9e0b0f][b]Unmake[/b][/color]
Components: Life energy of the caster, incantation in Old Sheolan
Casting Time: One minute
Range: 15 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Either a single target or all matter in a radius is subject to severe, accelerated entropy. Flesh turns to dust, metal rusts, water evaporates, and the heat is sucked out of the air. Can be used to accelerate the expiry of enchantments or the consumption of magic energy.

[color=9e0b0f]
[b]Bloodthrall[/b][/color]
Components: Blood of the caster, life energy of the caster
Casting Time: One minute
Range: 50 feet
Duration: Concentration
Effect: The caster strikes the target with a string-like tendril of their own blood, which becomes invisible and incorporeal as the spell takes hold. The target's body then comes under the thrall of the caster, who can move their limbs, face, etc by mental suggestion. More advanced casters can force their target to speak, or control their involuntary processes such as their breath or the beating of their heart.
[/hider]
[/hider]

[hider=Loyalists of the Great-Father]
[center][h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  C O V E N[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BvDrO-ntHk][img]http://magic.wizards.com/sites/mtg/files/image_legacy_migration/images/magic/daily/stf/stf167_revelers.jpg[/img][/url]

[sup][i]"Beauty walks arm in arm with the beast tonight."[/i][/sup]

The scions of the Great-Father himself, who bear his cursed blood in their veins. The Coven are Kuth's eyes and ears, his hands and tongue, his fangs and claws. Wherever the will of the Great-Father is to be done, the Coven will be there to carry it out. Widely-spread and loosely-organized, their numbers are difficult to ascertain, but they are thought to exist in the hundreds, if not thousands across all of Nachesh. The only practitioners of Kuth's discipline of Blood Magic, as only the Archon's blood can unlock the secrets of the disipline. The myriad offspring of the Red Worm organize themselves into a caste system, a series of numbered "Broods," determined by the number of generations separating oneself from the Great-Father. Those who are not born into the Coven, instead joining it by supplicating themselves in loyalty to the Archon of Blood, undergo a profane ritual known by such names as the Blood Kiss, the Covenant, or the Sacrament of Sheol. This transfuses the blood and power of the Great-Father into them, but they are still seen as the bottom-most "Bastard Brood" by the inborn members of the Coven.

Established early in Kuth's reign, the Coven served as a formalization of his prior underworld connections and alliances. As he had no adult blood relatives at the time of his asencion to Archon, all of the founding members of the Coven were converted through the Blood Kiss, though almost none remain to this day. Members of the Coven serve a wide variety of roles in service to the Great Father, from his closest advisers, appointed rulers of Sheol, courtiers and emissaries to other Archons. These more prestigious positions are generally reserved for Kuth's children and grandchildren, though it is well-noted that the only member of the Coven that is an Exarch joined by undertaking the Covenant. Lower-ranking members are typically criminals of all manners and classes, exert Kuth's most direct influence.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]N I R G A L[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY3ufkZPm1s][img]http://orig12.deviantart.net/b77e/f/2013/077/f/d/castlevania_dracula_by_shana990-d5yieyi.jpg[/img][/url]

Nirgal Irkalla, Kuth's third-born son, is perhaps the highest-ranking member of the Coven, the Great Father and Lady Margeux aside. He serves the Great-Father as vizier, his formal title being Prince of Maweth, a position he assumed from his eldest brother following the Ivory Dragon's betrayal. While he is assisted by a variety of advisers and lesser members of the Coven, he is responsible for much of the governance of Sheol itself, as well as administration of the Coven both within the Black Island and abroad. While many (quietly) consider Nirgal to be a smug bureaucrat and a heartless sycophant, Nirgal is none the less a skilled administrator and politician, and his position in the hierarchy of the Coven is well-kept.

[h3][color=9e0b0f]S I B A R I[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J-2qJsr9us][img]http://i.imgur.com/r6zdmNk.jpg[/img][/url]

Born into the Second Brood, Kuth's grandchildren, Sibari Irkalla is the eldest daughter of the Great-Father's firstborn son, Kishar. Having been born into such great prestige, great expectations were placed upon Sibari, which she endeavored to live up to. Seeking to join the ranks of the Blood Host, Sibari was still undergoing her martial training when Sheol was beset by the Betrayal of the Ivory Dragon. She was kept close to her father's side for her own protection during the ordeal, but this backfired when the Ivory Dragon slew personally slew Kishar, and took Sibiari's right arm as she attempted to fight him off. Crippled and joining all of Sheol in mourning as the Betrayal subsided, she was appointed as steward to the Archon of Blood by her sympathetic grandfather; a position she has loyally fulfilled for nearly forty years.

[h3][color=9e0b0f]A L U[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq3W09vpwAk][img]http://i.imgur.com/Km7zkvJ.png?1[/img][/url]

A boy of merely sixteen years, Alu Irkalla is Kuth's Third Brood descendant, and is grandson to Nirgal Irkalla. Alu was born into pedigree and prestige, the purity of his blood well-noted to be above average for his Brood. A child of Sheol post-betrayal, the paranoia and politics endemic to the Coven's upper strata are quite familiar to him, and he has learned much from closely observing his family members navigating such matters. Excelling in his studies, his grandfather requested that Kuth allow Alu to become his steward, thus allowing Sibari to retire or move on to a different position, with hopes that Alu could gain enough experience to potentially succeed Nirgal as Prince of Maweth. While Sibari objected being removed from her position, Kuth allowed Alu to study under her, with the possibility of working as her alternate or underling for the time being. Alu, having no say in this, is terrified of the prospect of working so closely with the Great-Father, and is greatly anxious over being singled out and separated from his peers.
[/hider]

[h3][color=9e0b0f]S E V E N  H O S T S  O F  L O T A N[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG-dYzXTm_I][img]http://magic.wizards.com/sites/mtg/files/images/hero/KcVXZ8CrXl_icon.jpg[/img][/url]

[sup][i]"Seven heads with seven names,
Bear the weight of seven sins,
Wear the marks of seven scars."[/i][/sup]

The governmental military forces of Sheol, as developed and funded by the Archon of Blood himself. So named for the legendary ancestor-beast of Old Sheolan myth, Lotan the Forever Worm, a primordial seven-headed serpent whose corpse forms the very island of Sheol itself. Given the relatively small size and low population of Sheol, the Seven Hosts were each designed to be a self-contained elite force that could operate with minimal support, and could individually fulfill a specific role. While there was always the intention to have a total of Seven Hosts, they were not all developed simultaneously, nor are they remotely equal in size and prestige. From the elite praetorian guard of the Blood Host, to the condemned madmen of the Dread Host, the Sons of Lotan are unified in the sheer destruction that each Host can bring to bear on the battlefield.

[hider=The Seven Hosts]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  B L O O D  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/LsO5EWu.png?1[/img]

[sup][i]"Honor and glory to the heirs of Sheol. By the blood of our fathers, and for the blood of our sons."[/i][/sup]

The oldest and most prestigious of the Seven Hosts, the Blood Host serves as the personal guard of the Great-Father, and any other persons or places he deems worthy of their protection. Also called Sanguine Guards, the Blood Host's membership is more exclusive than that of any other host, as it only accepts members of the Coven. Those born into the Coven may spend their entire lives training in arms and blood magic, aspiring to one day join the Blood Host's ranks. Mighty warriors that pledge themselves to the Great-Father may undertake the Covenant and thereby become a Sanguine Guard. The politics and paranoia that plague the Coven are nowhere to be found among the Blood Host, as they consider consider all who are found worthy to join them to be equal.

Originating as Kuth's small circle of trusted guards prior to his ascension to Archon, Kuth considered inducting his closest guards as members of the Coven to be a convenience for himself, as they would then be permitted to accompany him to secretive meetings. As the Coven grew and Kuth's power grew with it, myth and ritual began to surround those worthy enough to guard the Great-Father, and in time the first of Host of Lotan was established to formalize the organization. Members of the Coven may submit themselves as aspirants at the Host's temple in Maweth, whereupon they are subjected to numerous trials meant to test their prowess in arms and their loyalty to the Great-Father. Few survive these rituals, which are conducted over the course of a full year, but those that succeed are inducted as neophytes to the Host. Neophytes are then assigned a true Sanguine Guard as a mentor, to train them in the Host's secret techniques of blood magic and martial skill. Once their mentor deems them worthy, the neophyte is considered a Sanguine Guard in full, and a formal ceremony marks their ascension to the Blood Host. As a highly diverse Host, there is little uniformity among the Sanguine Guards, besides their heraldry and their signature crimson cloaks.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]C A L I S T A R[/color][/h3]
[img]https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/eyJ1cmwiOiJodHRwOi8vaTc3MS5waG90b2J1Y2tldC5jb20vYWxidW1zL3h4MzUzL2NyYXp5ZmluZ2Vycy8xNjE1NC5qcGcifQ.US_I9iFX0rfm0wIoar1QhxIgdug?width=482&height=586[/img]

Calistar Mephis, the Third Brood descendant of Kuth's daughter Goethe, is the Herald of the Blood Host. His title is a designation of honor among the warrior brotherhood of the Sanguine Guards; the Herald is first among equals, held up as an exemplar of the prowess and loyalty that the Blood Host demands from its members. Calistar's early years were spent in the pre-conquest North as the Coven representative for a band of mercenaries and poachers on the northern frontier. As the Conquest of the North took place, Calistar's skill in arms hard-won from years in the unforgiving North earned him a measure of prestige among his fellow soldiers, and he was eventually appointed the leader of a larger mercenary force. As the campaign concluded, Calistar returned to Sheol at the personal invitation of the Great-Father to partake in the trials of the Blood Host. After successfully completing them, he was graduated to a true Sanguine Guard with unprecedented speed. His appointment to Herald, an honor considered long-due by his brothers in arms, followed his defeat of a rogue War Hydra in single combat after it came loose from its bonds in a war convocation in Maweth.
[/hider]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  S T O R M  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/hFOggaI.jpg?1[/img]

[sup][i]"Do not be taken alive."[/i][/sup]

The second-oldest of the Seven Hosts, the Storm Host is both the most numerous among them, and the most alike to a conventional military force. Serving as Kuth's private fleet, the Storm Host draws its ranks from the most vicious pirates that have come to call Sheol their home. Recruited from the many privateer fleets that port in Sheol, many supplicants for the Storm Host are offered up by their crew for their excessive blood-lust and cruelty. After a trial period of torturous indoctrination, these marauders become known as Black Corsairs, and are placed in the service of ship captains hand-picked by Kuth for their prowess at sea, icy hearts, and loyalty to Sheol.

The Storm Host's duties are numerous and integral to the goals of the Coven and the Great-Father himself. While privateer fleets uphold general responsibility for the defense of the Black Isle, the Storm Host is held above them as a constant threat of what would befall them should they turn against the Great-Father. Adept in boarding actions as well as amphibious assaults, they further augment their lethality by employing wizards to conjure storms to capsize their foes, or summon terrible beasts from the deep sea. The Storm Host is most infamous for the destruction and slaughter it leaves in its wake, as those they do not kill they take as slaves to be worked to death on their ships, or to serve as blood-cattle to the elite of the Coven. The unluckiest of their captive are kept as torture-toys to slake the blood-lust of the Black Corsairs in times of peace.

With similar origins to the Blood Host, the Storm Host originated with the first merchant lords that allied with Kuth as he was made Archon. Realizing his need for a private fleet in the event that the privateer fleets were bought out, he gathered his most loyal allies and planned the construction of the Black Corsair fleet alongside them. The Host's temple was constructed on the rocky, storm-battered eastern coast of Sheol, far away from the most prosperous ports on the island. Here the storm wizards could study and train, Black Corsairs could undergo their trials of indoctrination, and slaves could be herded and shuttled off to wherever they could be sold.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]L O K H I R[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/kaLbnXV.png?1[/img]

Lokhir Bloodhook was born at sea, and as far as he knows, he will die at sea. The Graelings, his ancestors, were always people of the rivers and seas, and it has been no different for Clan Bloodhook for generations. Lokhir was thought to be a scrawny, sickly boy, with no business on a ship. However, his talents were not in rigging sails or pulling oars, but in listening and speaking to the sea. He had an inborn talent for magics of the storm and sea, and could commune with the beasts that lurked below. By the time he was given command of his father's ship, he was infamous on the waters for capturing vessels without ever boarding them. His successes continued until he attempted to take a peculiar, large, black vessel, not realizing that it was the flagship of the Archon of Blood, [i]the Forever Worm[/i]. To his credit, he came closer than any before or after to taking the ship, even managing to slay its captain, but he was defeated in single combat in by the Great-Father himself in his quarters. The Great-Father was impressed, and deemed that if he desired the ship so badly, he could have it. After a period of indoctrination, Lokhir was made captain of [i]the Forever Worm[/i], a position of envy and prestige among the Storm Host. Acting as the hand of the Great-Father at sea, Lokhir could not be happier. The Great-Father's word was permission to steal, permission to kill, permission to do anything.
[/hider]

[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  D E A T H  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/WpYuXYn.jpg?1[/img]

[sup][i]"I am wrath. I am judgement. I am the mercy of the end."[/i][/sup]

Every so often, a ship belonging to the Storm Host will make drift into the port of Maweth in the dead of night, with sails as dark as the moonless sky. It disgorges its cargo in utter secrecy: processions of men gagged and bound in irons march solemnly from the docks to the bone-white temple of the Death Host. Each is a condemned man; killers, pirates, mercenaries and other such scum that have been captured and tried by the courts of the Empire. Some are lucky enough to be merely executed. The unlucky are brought to Sheol. In the catacombs beneath the temple of Death, blood-mages of the Coven work foul magics to transform these men into monsters. Their very bones burst out of their flesh to form armored plates around their bodies. The iron of the blood is infused into the bone to give it the strength of heavy metal, and they are given weapons shaped from the bones of their predecessors who have fallen in battle. The process is invariably lethal, and most often drives the victims insane. However, this is not the end of their ordeal. Their souls are caught by fell magics, and anchored to their transformed bodies to animate them into twisted mockeries of armored knights. Thus the Dullahans are born.

Upon the completion of their transformation, the Dullahans are kept locked in crypts for a year's time, made to listen to sermons and choirs in the temple above at nearly every waking hour, and forced to lie in stillness in the dark as they cannot sleep. They emerge from their caskets as dutiful soldiers, their minds so broken that they cannot think of anything but to serve the Great-Father. The Dullahans are warriors unlike any other; naught but souls fused with heavy armor. They need not eat, breathe, or sleep, and they have no vital organs to puncture or cut off. Their bodies and weapons are infused with the essence of death, giving them preternatural strength and lethality. They can only be stopped by the destruction of the armor that binds their souls, a task easier said than done. With years of warfare and service, the Dullahans begin to develop personalities of their own, and forge new identities for themselves. These champions of the Death Host can demonstrate surprising intelligence, though their loyalty is still unwavering.

The Death Host originated as an experiment, a collaboration between Kuth and his second-born son, Samyaza. Also known as the Ivory Dragon, Samyaza was an expert and experimenter in the realm of blood magic, and devised many strange and frighteningly powerful applications for it. He attempted to put these efforts at innovation to use in making a legion of tireless, mindlessly-loyal, virtually indestructible warriors. The experiment was such an enormous success, that as the Death Host was formally established, Samyaza was elevated to a status nearly equal to the Great-Father himself. Even after the Ivory Dragon's betrayal, the Death Host continues to be built from the bodies and souls of the Empire's condemned criminals, though many exarchs are loathe to send men to suffer from what they see as Kuth's debauched cruelty.

[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  W R A I T H  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]http://magic.wizards.com/sites/mtg/files/image_legacy_migration/images/magic/daily/mm/mm239_deathcult.jpg[/img]

[sup][i]"We are the nightmares that torment you. Embrace the call of the infinite."[/i][/sup]

Building on the successful experiment that was the Death Host, Samyaza and Kuth worked closely together on the development of their next experimental force. In secret they took in young children, typically orphans or the children of political criminals, and hired masters of martial arts and espionage from the nations such as Ryo in the far east to train them. The children were divided into pairs, and each pair was made to live, work, and train together in perfect tandem and cooperation. When they came of age, each pairing had one of the partners ritually killed, and the dead partner's soul was anchored to the living body of the other. Thus they became two souls in one body, the terrifying creations known as Ghostblades.

Both living and dead at once, Ghostblades can access the myriad of spectral powers commanded by the incorporeal undead. To walk through walls and speak with the dead is trivial to them. To become one with shadow and see the twilight between life and death is a matter of course. Some even claim that they can cut the threat that binds a living soul to this world. Despite their prowess as spies and assassins, Kuth could not use the Wraith Host to hunt down and kill his wayward son after his betrayal, as his knowledge of their methods was too great, and his powers surpassed their own.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]V O S K[/color][/h3]
[img]http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/lazav-dimir-mastermind-edh.jpg[/img]

Mirko Vosk came into the service of the Great-Father at the inception of the Wraith Host project. In his home country of Dimir, he was spymaster to the Empress until the royal family was deposed, and Vosk fled the country. After the Betrayal of the Ivory Dragon, Vosk was one of the few masters of the Wraith Host that remained loyal to Kuth, and was rewarded justly. He was inducted into the Coven, and was appointed grand-master of the Wraith Host. Since gaining the power of Blood Magic, Vosk has used it to his advantage, and has devised techniques of rapidly and precisely reshaping his own flesh to assume the identity of other people, thus making him an all-the-more dangerous agent in his own right.
[/hider]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  R U N E  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xoLfsQr.jpg?1[/img]

[sup][i]"My blade hungers."[/i][/sup]

As the Great-Father and the Ivory Dragon collaborated on the decade-long experiment that would become the Wraith Host, the Archon of Blood researched other avenues and sources of power. The practice of binding ghosts for their power led him to postulate on the potential benefits of binding chaotic spirits. Working diligently, he devised a means of summoning such entities and encapsulating them in a "controlled seal" in the form of a rune, which could release the captured spirit in increments so as to tap into its power but keep it bound. His first experiment, the runeblade Zephon, he regarded as a failure. Its power was immense, but it was virtually impossible to wield. He refined his concept, eventually only binding singular, specific chaotic entities, and from these experiments the Rune Host was born.

Raised from a young age, similarly to the Wraith Host, the candidates for the Rune Host spent their lives training in swordsmanship and in magical theory. When their training was deemed complete, they were offered their runeblade, which would then be soulbound to them in a delicate ritual. If they survived the binding, they would be officiated as Twilight Knights. Empowered by the demonic entity trapped within their runeblade, the Twilight Knights wielded eldritch power with terrifying control. By calling upon the hunger of their blades, they could serve as anti-magical assassins, the spirits they wielded devouring mana insatiably. While the chaotic energies had been reduced to a manageable level by the advanced runes that Kuth had devised, the power is still too great for a human body to withstand, and so every Twilight Knight is doomed to have their body gradually deteriorate and eventually fail under the strain of their runeblade's power.

[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  D R E A D  H O ST[/color][/h3]
[img]http://kingdomdeath.com/images/home-kingdom-death-forsaker-madness.jpg[/img]

[sup][i]"I crave the few earthly pleasures left to me. The sweetness of battle. The sour taste of blood. A bitter death."[/i][/sup]

After the Betrayal of the Ivory Dragon, Kuth continued to explore the possibilities he touched upon while forming the Rune Host. The damned men given over to him to become the Death Host were vetted and weeded, as the Great-Father sought only the most vicious and heartless killers for his next project. Rather than bind a ghost to a body, or a demon to a blade, he decided to seal a demon within a living man. He offered up the flesh of his condemned men to the entities of the Beyond, who eagerly accepted the offering and possessed their mortal bodies. The resulting abomination, called Forsaken, was little more than a savage beast in the shape of a man; a mindless whirlwind of destruction that could do nothing but obey the whims of the chaotic spirit that dominated it. Their flesh, twisted and mutated to accommodate the superhuman power of their inner demons, and their minds broken beyond all repair.

Kept bound in heavy chains deep beneath the Temple of the Dread Host, these howling, ravenous monsters are deposited onto battlefields in crates, which are then unlocked remotely by magic. The released Forsaken need no prodding to dive headlong into battle, cleaving apart all in their path with maddened cries. As the demon under their skin cares not for their mortal host, they will keep fighting until they can no longer move, whereupon the demon will be released to wreak further havoc upon the enemy with its tainted magics. Such is the lasting destruction the Dread Host brings that Kuth only releases them when in utterly dire need, or to permanently deny a strategic area to an enemy.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  B U T C H E R[/color][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Upz9uzx.jpg?1[/img]

As the Conquest of the North wore on, a particularly troublesome foe was a thorn in the side of Kuth's modest forces for some weeks. The commander of a Varg warband, a half-giant cannibal known only as "the Butcher" had managed to destroy an entire cohort of Dullahans, and killed and eaten two members of the Blood Host. With a concerted effort directed by Calistar Mephis, the Butcher was eventually cornered and defeated. At Kuth's insistence, his life was spared and he was detained, eventually returned to Maweth to become one of the Forsaken. As Kuth suspected, the enormous man reacted much differently to demonic possession than the rest: he was able to overpower the demon within him, stealing its strength and maintaining control over his own body. This proved to be a negligible difference, as the Butcher was more than enough of a monster prior to having one live inside of him. As he is kept chained beneath the Host's temple, he is silent among the cacophony of the other Forsaken's cries. The rare occasions where he has been released upon the enemy always end with him willingly turning himself back over to the Great-Father, his body adorned with new, grisly trophies.
[/hider]

[h3][color=9e0b0f]T H E  R A V E N  H O S T[/color][/h3]
[img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/2d/86/d8/2d86d8df140f698cabd12fc70f4d7a93.jpg[/img]

[sup][i]"Bhaal! Bhaal! Blood and souls for my Lord Bhaal!"[/i][/sup]

Few events shaped the history of the world as the Great Disjunction did. Many nations and peoples were wiped from the face of the world, but from their ashes rose just as many. In the long-distant years when the Ancient Ones and their Vilespawn ravaged the world, tribes of Northmen fled south by sea to escape the destruction they wrought. These many refugees landed at the north-most tip of an ancient island that had been known as Sheol. They settled there, hoping to be free of the monsters they had escaped. They were not so lucky. As they contended with the creatures that lurked on Sheol, they fled into the Nightfall Mountains, establishing their hidden villages and mountainside settlements where they could be better defended. They were forced to adapt to their new home quickly, and over the course of hundreds of years they became rugged survivors and fierce warriors. So the Raven Tribes were born, taking their name from the Dire Ravens that lurk among the Nightfall peaks.

The Archon of Blood discovered these tribes shortly after his ascension. So secretive and hidden were they that he had no idea of their presence despite sharing the island with them for five centuries. His first instinct was to wipe them out, and remove a rogue faction from his homeland. However, the Raven Tribes were spiritual folk, having wielded their native magics to ward of Vilespawn. The mythology of their long-lost homeland had blended with the myths that the ruins of Old Sheol had inspired in them, and so their religion had become something unique. Without ever intending to, Kuth had near-perfectly matched the description of the god of war in their pantheon, known to them as Bhaal the Murder-God. The Raven Tribes pledged their allegiance to the man they saw as the divine made flesh, and Kuth accepted their servitude by founding the Raven Host and building the temple for their host high upon their sacred mountains.

The Raven Host is made up of hunters, trackers, scouts, tribal warriors and shamans. Having spent hundreds of years battling and surviving against legions of Vilespawn, they are a ruthless and pragmatic people, though steeped in ritual and tradition. The greatest warriors among their number are the Blackwings, mighty hunters that have tamed the Dire Ravens of the Nightfall Mountains for use as mounts in battle. The Raven Tribes view Kuth as their personal war god, and so when he calls them to battle, from their perspective it is at once a holy war and a divine calling.

[/hider]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]W H I T E  W I T C H E S[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50BDumQ4Ynk][img]http://i.imgur.com/1767T8l.jpg?2[/img][/url]

[sup][i]"The sins of the White are yet unforgiven. May we be cleansed through the penance of our sacrifice."[/i][/sup]

When the Betrayal of the Ivory Dragon was at the verge of its eventual failure, the closest conspirator the Ivory Dragon himself turned herself in to the Great-Father. The woman was known as Koshka, the White Witch, and she was the daughter of the Ivory Dragon. So great had become her grief and despair that she sought mercy and forgiveness from her grandfather, the Archon of Blood. When the Ivory Dragon fled Sheol and became the Pariah, thus ending his Betrayal, Kuth did not spare Koshka's life, but rather than purge her lineage, he ordered that all of her descendants be punished for her crimes until the end of days. They would be a symbol of what it meant to betray the Great-Father, and the suffering that awaited the disloyal.

And so the order of White Witches was founded. Partly made up of the daughters and grand-daughters of White Witch Koshka, and partly of the girl-children of political criminals and other traitors, they are form a religious order within the heart of Maweth. Each one either a born or inducted member of the Coven, they practice strange rituals of Blood Magic that are some of the only remaining links to the Ivory Dragon's bizarre perversions of the discipline. Every one of the Witches undergoes a hemomantic ritual to reshape their bodies to more closely resemble the original White Witch, thus maintaining their symbolic appearance. They are further indoctrinated with a number of strange ascetic rituals, including frequent sensory deprivation. The White Witches perform a number of duties in their penance, including personal attendance to high-ranking members of the Coven, marriage and funerary services in the city of Maweth, and several public festivals of flesh-sacrifice and flagellation over the course of the year. The only Witches that are ever permitted to leave Maweth unaccompanied are the Red Witches, a sub-order dedicated to hunting down and killing the Pariah.

[hider=Notable Persons]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]N I C O[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09lJjswh3I][img]http://i.imgur.com/m1Tyxwm.png?1[/img][/url]

Nico is the current White Speaker, the [i]de facto[/i] leader of the White Witches. The White Speaker is a position assigned by merit, specifically one's skill in the esoteric blood magics of their order. The unique position designates the White Witch that serves the Great-Father personally, as equal parts handmaiden, concubine and whipping-girl. Nico, unlike most, was an orphan in the streets of Maweth that was taken in by the White Witches, and raised under their auspices. The unseen potential they sensed in the girl quickly came to the surface in her talents in blood magic, as she was the first White Witch in decades to master what was thought to be a lost ritual: the Story of the Prince of Swords.
[/hider]
[hider=Red Witches]
[h3][color=9e0b0f]R E D  W I T C H E S[/color][/h3]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_5tTM9D7l0][img]https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic3337846_md.jpg[/img][/url]

[sup][i]"Kill the Pariah. Slay the Pariah. Destroy the Pariah."[/i][/sup]

The Red Witches are three White Witches customarily chosen for their loyalty to the Great-Father, their strength of body, and their independent natures. They travel together, scouring the world for the Pariah in hopes of tracking down and killing him, thus avenging their entire order. It is said when the Pariah is finally killed, the White Witches will be forgiven and their order will be disbanded. To this end, the Red Witches spend years training with the Blood Host, to their point where they could be considered honorary Sanguine Guards, and are given strange relic-weapons passed down through the order for generations.

However, the Red Witches have not come close to killing the Pariah in nearly forty years. Each time they actually manage to track him down, the result is usually their deaths, whereupon a new trio of Red Witches must be trained and sent out to reclaim their ancestral arms before beginning the hunt anew. Their hunt is considered a symbolic effort by most outside of their order, but the White Witches have great faith in the current generation of Red Witches. Considered the mightiest trio yet, the White Witches hold out hope that with these three their servitude may end within their lifetimes.
[/hider]
[/center][/hider]