Tormyn Blackheart b. 4002 SY d. 4283 SY
Arvyl’s son, Tormyn, was born after his father’s defeat in the Shadowgrim. He inherited the shadow curse infecting his father, but no one realized it until he succeeded Arvyl on the Pearl Throne.
Tormyn’s father, while overly proud, was not an evil man prior to his Folly, but the same cannot be said of Tormyn Blackheart. Cruel and full of depravity, he led Sangrithar into an era of decadence from which it never recovered. Under his rule, lines between the aristorcrats and the common people were drawn sharply, dividing them into haves and have-nots. His reign was one of conquest, during which the legions of Sangrithar became a mercilessness fighting force, spreading fear and blood equally.
The culture of the capitol changed too. Owning slaves became popular with the nobility and Tintammil transformed into a cheap brothel like those down by the docks, filled with drunken sots with no ambition beyond their next lay. Meanwhile, the masses lived in increasing squalor, poverty and oppression.
Like those before him, Tormyn journeyed to Pel Aesylle expecting to be tutored in the Maiden’s rites. Truthfully, Tormyn cared little for the Maiden and had already decided that the people in the capitol should worship him, as the heir of Thar who was Umbar, not a dead goddess missing in action since the Elder Days. He came to Pel Aesylle not to learn the useless lore of devoted cultists, but to wrest the Elf Lord’s power.
He thought his intent well cloaked from Kandol, but should have known better. The Elf Lord was not someone easily fooled. Tormyn may have wielded the power of the Pearl Throne, but he was new to it and no match for Kandol’s ancient wisdom. The Elf Lord looked into Tormyn’s heart and found it wanting, a blackened and shriveled thing lost to the shadow corrupting him. Kandol ordered him away from Pel Aesylle and warned that Tormyn and his heirs would be never be welcome in Pel Aesylle until they were free of shadow and once again of pure and noble heart.
Kandol’s treatment of Tormyn led to years of persecution for the Maiden’s followers. When Tormyn returned to Sangrithar, he turned his outrage upon them and made practicing Her faith an act of treason. The Stones on top of Tar-Numerath became virtually deserted and many forsook Her. Those whose faith stayed strong became known as Devotees, after the high priestess Drusylla, and her acolytes were branded witches. Drusylla had served the God-Emperor in Tintammil honorably before Tormyn outlawed the Maiden’s worship, but when Blackheart demanded that she denounce the Maiden, she refused, proudly proclaiming her devotion to the Maiden right up until the end. When the God-Emperor finally executed her, he created the very martyr he feared.
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