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It was about 3000 years ago that the epic tale of Za'kephazhala began.
Za'kephazhala Vladimirovich Khruschev was born in Berevar as a direling long after Björmund was assigned his job being the Death Gate Guardian. Zack was brought up strong and soon became very tough both physically and mentally. He decided to join the ‘Mark of Björmund’ also taking up magic with it. He first learnt necromancy to understand the ways of the undead and to use it against them then got interested and started dabbling in other areas of magic. Ever since he started using magic Zack has become more devoted to the ‘Mark of Björmund’ in his own way, he took down undeads easily slicing their bones up like paper.
One day in his past life as Zack was chasing a very powerful spirit as far as Sulgoran’s Axe when he was suddenly confronted by a group of humans who didn’t bother identifying him but fired their arrows on him. He fried most of their ranged troops with flying fireballs but it took a lot out of him at the time not even including all the effort he went into keeping his obtained wounds from interfering with the disposing of the wandering spirit.
Using his necromancy he could keep himself alive for the time being but he had yet to send the spirit back to its resting place so he ventured south through the land of Salvar adventuring past many areas taking down many spirits. Still following his designated spirit he soon passes over areas that his kind had never seen before and later arrives near the southern tip of Salvar. His venture led him right to the spirit heading through a swirly thing, a portal or a gate of some kind. Having finally caught up with his target the necromancer quickly jumped into the gate and plunged into the depths of Haidia. The direling quickly lost consciousness as he drifted into the new world, his consciousness being the only thing that had kept him alive for the whole time. Feeding off his necromancy he sustained life but only on the most basic level, with an operational heart and brain.
Three hours passed as his body grew weaker and weaker bringing him closer to his death but as his body rejected it his soul embraced it and went over to Antifirmament long before his body died. His soul tried to walk right past Björmund and simply continued on into the Antifirmament with his soul intact and full leaving his body just laying there in Haidia. His soul wandered around Antifirmament for the short time we would call minutes but what was experienced there was completely nothing, a perfect nothing.
While this all happened a battle was going on between the vampire and the dwarves very close nearby when a vampire nearby detected Zack’s soulless body and thus went to investigate. Vampires investigated not by looking and examining but by drawing blood from the victim. As the vampire bit Zack, his soul became bored and came back from the Antifirmament easily passing Björmund despite his closeness to death. His beliefs changed when he saw Björmund doing nothing but standing there next to the Gate of Death not even trying to stop him getting out, he was disgusted by how weak his will was. The ‘Mark of Björmund’ was created to help him in his quest of keeping souls in but Björmund himself simply stands around doing nothing, nothing will change at this rate and he himself simply stand there for eternity letting out most of the souls that wish to. Björmund simply pushes the responsibility onto the ‘Mark of Björmund’ to keep haunting and possessing down to a low level.
Returning into his body he was changed, his mind was changed and his body was changed. He now had nothing to fight for, nothing to aim for and thus nothing to do. His body was being infected by the vampire chain which was morphing him, changing him yet it saved him from his near death experience. Now not only his necromancy kept him alive but also his nature as a vampire and his nature as a spirit implanted into a body. He pushed his body to the limits fighting off the other vampire during his morphing process eventually defeating him. Zack drained the vampire that bit him of all his life and regained enough power to live, survive and exist as material matter.
Over the course of one thousand years Zack had lived with the vampires in their times of war, peace and quiet time. He learnt their culture, their opinion, their arts and their combat.
At the start of the demon war Zack fought with many other vampires against the demons trying to prevent them from getting to the surface, the demons would reign destruction and rule all the people if they could. Zack had heard that even some in Berevar had begun fighting back and in no time he was back on the surface heading towards Berevar keen on telling his people of his story and of his discoveries, he knew the secrets of the vampires, the secrets of the beasts that lived there, the secrets of Salvar and secrets of the demons. He didn’t even need to fight on his way to Berevar as the demons had suddenly retreated to the land of Berevar.
His arrival at Sulgoran's Axe couldn’t have had any better timing as he walked battered through the conditions he was used to his new body proved to be even more useful than his old. His body was as pale as a vampire not affected by the cold, his clothes almost unneeded even in this environment. He fed off the wild beasts very easily compared to those in Haidia, the creatures couldn’t even compare to the ferocious nature of those that came from Haidia. Wild beasts roamed in their territories claiming more every day, some died off and some reigned superior over the others but none could compare to the vampires. Their bite so strong it could pierce the hide of dragons, it could rip through metals and slice straight through flesh.
Joining a kingdom in their fight against the demons Zack dies on the battlefield as destructive vampire despite how much he shifts the direction of the fight and comes back as a necromancer. His life jump started by his own spells but his body not familiar. His form and shape had changed, almost for a worst case scenario. The flesh on his left arm ripped off, his immunity to the elements taken away and his dark nature remove. He was not in his own body but one of another, dominating the wrong body Zack shouts out to the world as his rage wraps around the enemies surrounding him pushing them back with pure force. He tried to reclaim his own body but fails on all the attempts he tries, his domination was temporary so he returned to the kingdom in a half-dead body directly under the lead of Mordechai the Magician. His other self had its soul trapped in the Antifirmament not even able to get past Björmund’s laziness.
His soul was trapped, his body was dominated. The previous owner’s connection was breaking apart while Zack was slowly bonding with his new vassal. At returning to the kingdom the demons had lost but the kingdom had taken so many casualties that one of the king’s personal tended to the bonding of the soul and body together. Lazarus the Artificer proceeded with the process without even needing to think, he made the connection between soul and body, mind and heart. The golem’s sources of power were some wandering souls on the battlefield, harnessed to give him life. When the connection was made he removed all unnecessary parts of the body now that it was no longer alive anyway, some unholy blight had started building up in his body already so his undead nature was confirmed, and he was recreated as a skeletal construct. The construct was theoretically immortal and had small regeneration but to bludgeon weapons it was still as fragile as glass.
The shock of having soul and body cut up then connected caused Zack’s entity in itself to lose all personal memory. There was recall on trained skills and natural talents but no personal intelligence could be remembered. Names, locations and events were easily accessed as his recollection continued and all the information. Zack knew a lot about the outside world that not even the kingdom knew so vital information was relayed even without any official business. Despite all the troubles Lazarus went through Zack’s soul was still in Antifirmament wandering, the bones in his body held together by his absorbed souls. Even with his soul directly controlling the construct the other souls in Antifirmament also contributed to the skills and knowledge they had.
For the next nineteen centuries of his life he ventured around Berevar and Salvar eventually settling at Sulgoran’s Axe with the high supply of food from wild animals draining with them energy he needed to produce change onto his body. He defeated enemies who came too close to his camp not caring for any others who wished to cross Sulgoran’s Axe from either side for any reason. His bone structure took on the image of his soul, taking in attributes from his life as a direling, vampire and finally his new life. He could change his structure over time just as others could train their body aimed at getting stronger. Constantly getting stronger Zack’s life has been a battle against his own life and death, his living energy almost nonexistent all this time.
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