Iskander the Black – UNLEASHED

Librarian’s note: Information passed to the Harts at Moot 1, 1126

A warning to the nations and guilds of the Heartlands and Southlands.

Iskander the Black has been released.

To understand the extent of this threat I will recount what we know from the writings of scholars that have come before us as can be found in the “Second Journal of John Paul Newman” and “A History Mostly of the Heartlands”

0 AF – The First Emperor

Tebron I is crowned at Malkarn – the first known host to the daemon we know as Iskander. His victories defied reason, and his longevity was unnatural; all part of the power granted by this vast daemon.
The Rite of Imperial Conditioning eventually forced the daemon out – but did not destroy it.

214 AF – The Night of Blood

Emperor Dentatus I is slain by his own guard and Aulius Catalus seizes control in a military coup.
He takes the name Iskander, the daemon reclaims its throne and begins a reign of terror.

Expansion without limit.
Entire populations erased from the surface of the egg.

Imperial records themselves speak of ritual warfare, necromantic pacts, and atrocities so vast they stain the Empire’s own archives.

220 AF – The Unmasking
The 19th Legion and the Enforcer Legate uncover the truth:
The Emporer is possessed.

The Senate moves. The Gazed of Rellen act.
They depose him – but cannot kill him. Imperial Conditioning forbids it.

So they do the only thing left.

They bind him.

His mouth sewn shut with Silver Thread – to silence command and spirit.
His tongue removed – to strip him of power.
His limbs shackled in obsidian.
A vault raised with the seals of the Wellspring of Fate.
Locked from within by pattern-keys known only to the Enforcer elite.

The ritual took days.

It still was not enough.

From within his prison, he probed.
Pattern-echoes. Minor possessions.
Whispers wearing the faces of others. Trusted voices. Friends.
Cults and forces gathered in his shadow enacting his will:
The Voiceless Choir, agents in the world, even signs that Briar himself was bent to his will and a host to but a fraction of his power.

Daemons still answer his call. Courts still remember his name, and still serve their masters.

1126 – The Breaking
At the Great Library of Magic, the unthinkable occurred.
Caspar of the Watchers broke the binding.

Iskander was unleased.

Understand this thread:

This is not the return of a tyrant.
This is the relase of something that wielded The Empire as a weapon – and refined domination into an art.

He has had centuries to learn.
Centuries to reach.
Centuries to prepare.

He does not conquer lands – he takes control of all those within them.

I do not ask this lightly. We must stand together against this terror, lest we be washed away – prepare, unite, and be vigilant.

Ser Lunarian the Calm, Order of the Shining Sword, Knight of Good