"Death will only be the beginning of your eternal pain, mortal. Beyond the grave there awaits a world of horrors that you could scarcely begin to ever imagine."
- —Melkhior[2b]
Melkhior the Ancient
Melkhior the Ancient was the first Vampire Necrarch created by W'soran.[1b] It was Melkhior himself who named W'soran's Vampiric bloodline the "Necrarchs," after he killed and cannibalised his progenitor.[3a]
History[]
Upon Nagash's defeat, W'soran took many of his master's writings and studied them with the aid of his acolytes and his apprentice, Melkhior, transcribing his notes in the dread Grimoire Necronium. His mastery of necromancy grew so profoundly that he was able to limit the red thirst that drove Vampires to live dangerously close to Mankind.[1a]
By drawing on the power of True Dhar to a far greater degree than other Vampires, their forms grew as twisted as their master's. Over time, their minds twisted along with their bodies, and many sank into madness. One such unfortunate was Melkhior[1b], his finest, most diligent student and a fervent Nagashi disciple.[3a]
W'soran's studies of the spirit world and the ways of necromancy became an end in their own right, and he lost sight of his master's vision. It was this that ultimately led to his undoing. Powerful though he was, W'soran had to enter a trance-like state to interact with the spirit world. Yet Melkhior seized one such moment to use to his advantage. Perhaps Nagash spoke to him from the beyond, telling him to slay W'soran. Perhaps he perceived his master's lack of purpose. Perhaps he looked down on W'soran, for Melkhior was able to interact with the spirit world without need of entering into a trance.[3a]
Whatever the case, Melkhior leapt at his master and ripped out his throat, draining him of every last drop of blood, before eating his entire body over the course of three days so as to assure he absorbed all his master's essence. From that moment on, Melkhior was hailed as the master of his bloodline, a bloodline that he named Necrarch to symbolize their sanctification of death.[3a] Melkhior the Ancient pursued the Necrarchs' dream in a much more subdued fashion.[1b]
Melkhior lived far from human settlements and his secret tower is hidden from view in the great Forest of Shadows by powerful enchantments. In the highest chamber of this tower, the ancient Vampire worked alone. He was decayed, irredeemably evil, and utterly insane.[2a]
Melkhior experimented with the living, trying to find out how they can be made to understand the benefit of joining the Undead and how they could overcome their fear of the dead. Countless men have died in Melkhior's obsession but still the answer he searched for eluded him. Pain, suffering and horror fascinated this mad being. The dungeons and torture chambers of his dark tower were filled with wretched prisoners, who underwent indescribable agony to satisfy the curiosity of this insane Vampire Lord.[2a]
Melkhior's fortress is a monument to suffering and terror, filled with the results of his insane experiments: Zombies that are half-dead and half-alive, severed heads which scream endlessly in the darkness, limbs that crawl in lightless passageways, and countless other horrors created by Melkhior's dark arts.[2a]
Now and then the ancient Vampire leads his Undead servants out of his stronghold to capture new victims for his experiments or to swell the Undead legions that guarded him. At such times, armies of Zombies commanded by the twisted acolytes of Melkhior poured from the forest and hunted for the living to bring back to their master.[2a]
Zacharias[]
In his tower in the Forest of Shadows, Melkhior continued W'soran's work on the Grimoire Necronium, his visions of the future growing more disturbed over the centuries as his sanity cracked further and further. Eventually, his visions grew so vivid they could not be depicted in prose, and he began painting on canvases of skin. His dungeons were filled with the living for him to torment. He often turned his mad attentions on his loyal servants as well.[1c]
One of these servants, the Necrarch Zacharias, sought to repeat Melkhior's defeat of W'soran and fought Melkhior in a magical duel. Melkhior was the victor, but years later Zacharias returned, somehow vastly more powerful than he had been, and had his revenge on Melkhior.[1b]
Melkhior was not destroyed, however, but slumbers whilst regaining his strength so that he can return to avenge himself upon his wayward student.[1c]
The Harvest[]
The hunger for knowledge and the need to replenish the number of guinea pigs in his laboratory has often forced Melkhior out of seclusion. Throughout history, he has been known to have led his horde of minions on raiding campaigns, looking for new victims for his experiments. In ancient times, before the armies of The Old World were strong enough to stop them, the forces of Melkhior reached as far as Tilea and Bretonnia, leaving a trail of destruction and horror behind them.[4]
Characteristics[]
The horror that is Melkhior.[2]
Melkhior has almost the same knowledge of the necromantic arts as the most powerful living necromancers, for he has thousands of years of experience in these matters. He is so suffused with dark magic that he is now more part of the world of the dead than the living and is decomposed to the point where he is a skeletal, reeking horror. His eyes are two pools of darkness that mirror the purest evil in everything they see and an aura of death hangs heavily about him.[2a]
In the total darkness of his hellish fortress, the ancient Vampire paints on human skins. He paints terrifying scenes of a world where there are no living, where the dead walk the land and withered, undead trees blight the bleak landscape. Melkhior claims that he paints visions of the future, glimpses of the time that is to come. Perhaps his visions are true and the known world is doomed to the horrible existence of unlife.[2a]
Melkhior rides a huge Winged Nightmare into battle, which is said to be made out of carcasses of monsters slain by himself.[2a]
Wargear[]
- Painbringer - Painbringer is the black sword of Melkhior, said to be made from the magical life-force of insane men. The mere touch of this blade brings insanity and hideous pain.[2b]
- Grimoire Necronium - Written by Melkhior himself, this book is one of the greatest works of necromancy ever penned in the Known World. In its pages are described the blasphemous rites and evil spells that allow wizards to summon and command the dead.[2b]
- Black Cloak of Lahmia - This cloak is one of the great treasures of Lahmia, the Nehekharan city-state where the first Vampires came into being. Merely looking at the cloak can make the eyes bleed and sanity vanish.[2b]
Trivia[]
It is heavily implied in the Time of Legends novel series that W'soran's spirit slew, and then possessed Melkhior's body after he was murdered. This means that "Melkhior" has long been but a body inhabited by W'soran.
Melkhior the Ancient shares a similar name to Melkor, also known as Morgoth, the most evil being in creation in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Melkor was the first Dark Lord, the former master of Sauron, and was considered the source of all evil within Eä, the term in the formal Elven Quenya tongue for the whole of creation.
