Tanar’Letalis-Scythe of the Mortal Demon

[amusedapathy]

The Tanar’Letalis, which translates roughly to the Scythe of the Mortal Demon, is arguably one of the most wicked scythes to have writhed its way from the depths of the Abyss onto the Prime. The origins of this scythe are clouded in secrecy, but it is known that it was forged in the unholy flames of the Abyss by minions of the Slaughterlord and bestowed upon Dameon Nepirtas as a personal reward from Maleki during his time as the Arch Reaver.

While one cannot speak for the god of hate and his motives, the scythe forged while vicious in its original form, still paled in comparison to the true unholy weapon of Maleki, which at the time was a scythe, the Tanar’Sheev. Negative energy swirled around the blade, drinking in the life force of its targets, and after blessed by the High Priest of Mikona, Father Gork, maggots and disease would fester in the wounds of the unfortunate. Despite this, for some time, the scythe was treated as a mere imitation of the Scythe of the Seven Demons that paled in comparison. It fed off the hatred of its own Master who despised the Tanar’Letalis and reveled in the death of others as the pair wreaked havoc across the lands. Uncared for and used ruthlessly against anything that stood in the way, the once razor-sharp edge is now lined with jagged edges and notches which cause it to rip and tear flesh as it mauls its victims while it sunders.

Dameon was determined to make this scythe surpass the Scythe of the Seven Demons. The Tanar'Letalis has tasted the blood of over thirty willing sacrifices, the strongest and most powerful of ritual sacrifices to Maleki. It has slaughtered an unfathomable amount of living creatures; from lowly innocents to guilty thugs, heroes, magnificent beasts, and angelic archons to vile demons and everything in between. What it doesn’t kill, it corrupts. It has tasted the pure, holy blood of a Paladin that was corrupted into a Blackguard; it has bathed in the blood of a druidess of Dru’el that was corrupted into a Verossan and even had its thirst briefly quenched by a Cha’rethite priestess who became a Malekite, to delivering messages on cold winter’s nights claiming heads as trophies of an elf that paid the ultimate price for her husband’s transgressions. This scythe has tasted corruption and it always thirsts for more.

Though the path of the Tanar’Letalis originally was shrouded in the Seven Demons’ shadows, it began to emerge when their path left Maleki. With no need or desire to be a copy of a historic relic, the Scythe of the Mortal Demon truly began to develop into something evil once it broke away from its chains and began forging its own history. During the time of the False Blackdagger Shards that were spread across Negaria, the scythe was exposed to large amounts of Blackdagger Essence which caused further added to its darkness and terrifying power. It’s slaughtered countless souls for nothing more than currency in Khin-Oin and the Gray Wastes. It victoriously led its Master along with a Blackguard of Asmodeus against the entire Celestial Order of the demon hunter demi-god Almara and the dragon god of justice, Bahamut, in a conflict over the Divine Sphere of Chaos and the Lord of the Night. It served its Master in securing the Necronomicon Ex Mortis from destruction in the bloodiest Trade Fairs in the history of Avlis after a mage of the White Order desperately attempted to acquire the dark, demonic tome after having failed to acquire it.

The Tanar’Letalis has since been enchanted by the life force of Dameon himself and a small piece of a lich’s soul to allow it to absorb yet more power. In a ritual of combining a second scythe, powerful in its own right, was absorbed by the Tanar’Letalis which allowed the scythe to ascend far beyond its origins. In a great scheme along with a Blackguard of Maleki, Darias Nepirtas, events were manipulated which ultimately lead to the enslavement of a powerful dracolich, Nithhogr, who was bound to the Tower of High Sorcery for a time. Abandoning the tower and control of the dracolich in exchange for even more power the scythe was once against infused with the darkest of energies and evolved even further. This scythe has been instilled with the curse magic of claws taken from the corpse of a powerful rakshasa prince, Anth’kashur. It has even claimed the head of the Myconid of Maleki in recent history.

But the scythe is never fully satisfied. The red energy that encompasses the jagged blade of the Tanar'Letalis often writhes in ecstasy in suffering, even if its own Master.