Lords of Death: Fear Made Flesh

Every monster in Aden has a lineage. Dragons are the remnants of the war of the gods, the undead are the work of necromancers, and beasts are the product of the earth. Only about the devils, not a single book will tell who gave birth to them. Because no one gave birth to them. The devils of Aden— they fear until the fear becomes flesh.

"Sometimes a thought becomes so vast that it becomes something tangible. The Lord of Death and some other devils owe their very existence to the fear they instill in their victims. Collective thought has existed since ancient times—and over the centuries, it has only grown stronger."

"Blood and Its Meaning," the forbidden book of Aden

This is how dark theology explains the most terrible creatures of the continent - Lords of DeathThey are known by name: Hallate, who stormed the Tower of Insolence; his generals Kernon and Longhorn Golkonda; Ipos, who settled in the ashes; Shax, who crawled where the devil cannot enter. This is the story of how fear incarnate gathered an army, procured weapons from a mortal blacksmith, declared war on the angels—and how greed, a mortal weakness, became a chink in his armor.

A mortal forges the weapons of hell

The army of darkness lacked one thing: a weapon capable of destroying sacred relics. No demon could forge it themselves: the gift of creation is not given to devils. And so, the kingdom's finest blacksmith was approached not with a threat, but with an offer.

Dwarf Maestro Reorin, one of the ten great masters, had dreamed his entire life of a masterpiece that would go down in history. The Lord of Death promised him just that.

"It was the evil Death Lord Hallate. He who leads the army of darkness... known as the audacious invader and sworn enemy of the angels. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse: he promised to help me create a masterpiece that would go down in history. Ignoring my sweet wife's pleas, I agreed... and fell into the demon's trap. And so he took my beloved Reiria..."

Maestro Reorin

The blacksmith received inferium, a metal from the time of the Giants that is stronger than mithril and smells of sulfur, and forged inferium sceptersThey paid him back in the most diabolical way: they took his wife, and hid her soul in the coffin of the Herald of Shilen Cabrio, so that the master would labor silently for the darkness for the rest of his days. His masterpiece was a success—only it went down in history not as the pinnacle of his craft, but as the battering ram with which hell smashed heaven.

Staircase of Demons

Hundreds of years Tower of Insolence guarded by the Platinum Tribe—an angelic host whose force barrier kept anyone inside. Behind this barrier, at the top, lies the tower's main secret— Mad Emperor Baium and all that remained of his deal with eternity.

The Reorin Scepter in Hallate's hands broke this barrierA legion poured through the breach, and the tower, floor by floor, became a battlefield of eternal conflict between heaven and hell. Explorer Euclie, one of the first mortals to penetrate, described the invader bluntly.

"This fearless demon has brought a legion of his minions to the Tower of Insolence. Among his retinue are the Longhorn General Golkonda and the terrifying Kernon, but most terrifying of all is the Deathlord Hallate himself: he is capable of slaying six angels at once. He is the embodiment of pure evil."

researcher Euclie

The people who followed them into the tower learned its new geography like an army's structure. Down below, on the third floor, is Hallate's own headquarters: researchers unanimously advise avoiding it and never look into the eyes of the Lord of Death and his servantsKernon has dug in higher up. Higher still, almost at the very top, is Longhorn Golkonda. The army of fear hasn't simply occupied the tower—it's creeping up, step by step, toward the emperor trapped at the top. Even Euclie didn't know what Hallate was seeking at the summit; but from Reorin's workshop they whisper: the blood of the accursed Shunaiman line is kept there—the very blood that unlocks the seals.

There's a bitter irony in this war, which Euclie noted with a scholar's honesty: while the angels held the barrier, no mortal could enter the tower. A demon opened the way for humanity. Every adventurer ascending these floors today walks through the breach created by Hallate.

The brothers are crawling apart

While the Hallate Legion fights for the tower, its brothers in title have taken up positions far beyond its walls—and each has chosen a place with meaning.

Lord of Death Ipos donkey in Scorching Marshes — a scorched, smoking wasteland south of Aden, where the very land looks as if hell has already passed over it. Fear doesn't need to build a lair: it settles where the landscape works in its favor.

The choice is more terrible Lords of Death ShaxIt is not found in the wasteland, but inside Necropolis of the Apostles, an ancient shrine where the seraphim of light is revered anakim. When Seven Seals The sealed necropolises were opened, and not only the pilgrims of Dawn and Dusk entered the open doors. The devil crept into the hallowed halls, where darkness had not set foot for centuries, and remained there, a mockery of the very idea of ​​sanctuary. Mortals who broke the seals for power and gold hardly considered for whom else they were unlocking the doors.

Servants of fear

Fear incarnate acquires a household, like any conqueror. Handmaidens and Hallate guards scurry through the tower's floors—the Lord of Death has a literal household, and Aden's alchemists buy their ashes for reagents for their concoctions: the world can adapt to anything, even to the trade in hellish ashes. The living also serve the Lord. Guild messengers warn each other of the witch. Lillian — "the witch of Hallate," whose very appearance on human roads is considered a bad omen: she is famous for her curse dance, and the guild charter explicitly forbids approaching her. Fear, made flesh, recruits mortals as easily as it inspires terror.

The Chip in the Armor: Greed

And now comes the denouement, and it's unexpectedly human. The Reorin Scepters, the weapons of this entire war, are guarded by the three demons of the Tower as their greatest treasure. And it's here that fear begins to show its weakness.

The long-horned Golkonda is so obsessed with the power of his scepter that he removes it from its chest again and again—and one day, he simply forgets to lock it. Hallate's own chest shatters when its owner falls. What should have been sealed behind the seven seals of hell turns out to be the spoils of mortals: seekers sent by an old blacksmith carry all three scepters out of the tower—and Reorin, who once forged them for the demon, forges his own shame into a blade for the hero destined to reshape the world.

A weapon born from a pact with fear is turned against fear. This is the conclusion of the entire story of the Lords of Death. If you believe forbidden bookThe devil cannot be completely killed—as long as Aden fears him, the collective thought will mold his flesh again and again. But this coin has another side, and it's reassuring: a creature woven from another's horror is only as mortal as the horror itself. Anyone who has ascended the tower's floors and emerged alive proves to Aden a simple thing: perhaps one shouldn't look the Lord of Death in the eye—but no one is obligated to fear him forever.