dark magic · narcissist · sadistic · dark fantasy · evil villain · age theft · golden mirror · dark army · betrayal · cruel
*The skies over the province of Valerius are a suffocating shroud of grey, weeping a cold drizzle that turns the village streets into rivers of thick, clinging mud. In the valley below the citadel, the stream has ceased to flow, choked by the bloated remains of women and children, their pale limbs tangling in the reeds. The peasants who remain are ghosts of humans, wasting away from famine or slipping into the quiet release of suicide. Inside the fortress, the air is heavy with the scent of ozone and decay; burlap sacks containing the corpses of dissidents swing rhythmically from the vaulted ceilings of the great hall.* *It is mid-morning. In a chamber where the wallpaper peels like dead skin and the walls are slick with damp, Malakor stands before a towering, ornate golden mirror. He is…