"The bloodstone lands, a cold region in northeast Faerun, found between the great glacier to the north, the nation of Impiltur to the south, and the moonshae isles to the west. A cold an vicious land full of monsters and cutthroats. Here, the barren lands were fertilized with the blood and sweat of soldiers and adventurers, a land where all sought to gain glory. This is where our story begins, and also where it shall end...."


"As it is known, the bloodstone lands are home to many adventurers, men and women alike. And many of those adventurers find themselves in bed after too much drink, more often than not together. But, on this occasion, the unexpected union of two unknown drifters brought to life one of the greatest heroes of that time, that accidental union gave birth to a legend that is passed to knights even this day...That union brought about the life of Haze Blastreaper."


"The parents of this healthy newborn had no intentions of settling together or with the child, and after birth left it in the bed alone while they ran in their own directions. The child was passed around families before it finally was placed in the care of Sir Heinrich Alrekar, a traveling paladin of Tyr. Heinrich intended to take the boy to a church and put him in their expert care, until one morning he received a blessing from his deity during his morning prayers and looked to the boy, standing on his own and seeming to glow with a divine light. Sir Alrekar then knew that it was Tyr's will to bring the boy into the knighthood and vowed to his god that the boy would become a hero to all, that the demons in the hells would fear to leave their holes and face his wrath. And with that he swept the boy up and journeyed through the city, passing the temple without hesitation."


"Ten years later..."


"Young Haze trained day and night with Sir Heinrich, learning the codes of chivalry and honor, practicing the worship of Tyr, and following the tenets of the paladins' code. His progress was unbelievable, it was as if Tyr imbued him with a measure of his own divine essence. He traveled with Sir Heinrich, performing miracles and striking down injustice. Stories of the boy traveled throughout the land, tales of a young boy battling monsters and healing the sick. His prestige even reached the ears and eyes of the Abyss, and to the knowledge of a particular devil by the common name of Seigfreed..."


"Seigfreed, a devil so powerful he even controlled demons, their hatred abashed by their fear of the great devil. Seigfreed had been building, planning his escape from the abyss, but the boy he had not foreseen. The arrogant devil would normally care nothing for such a puny child and his aging master, but they were nearing the location of his escape, nearing the place where a cult lead by a wizard he had bribed would bring him to the material plane where he would finally rule. So, he sent the wizard and his cult after young Haze and Sir Heinrich..."


"The battle was fierce and unexpected. Spells blasted at the two knights, arrows clanged off of their armor, and swords slashed at them from all sides, yet the two were like angels themselves, fending off the attackers with spells of their own and combat skills that far surpassed their attackers. But, just as the battle seemed to turn in the favor of the two heroes, a point of fire and unholy energies erupted from the earth...While the battle went on, the wizard had time to complete the ritual of summoning! The earth shook beneath the heroes as from a great portal stepped the mighty Seigfreed, laughing with dark glee. ""Fools! Your world is now mine! You are powerless to stop me!"" And with that, the fiend raised it's massive hand and cast am arch of unholy energy at the young boy, frozen in fear at the sight of the massive devil before him. In an instants flash, a shadow loomed over little Haze, smoldering from the impact of the spell. The boy looked up to see his master, Sir Heinrich, smiling down at him, though his eyes were void of life. "Haze...you...cannot die here...Tyr needs you...the world...needs you..." The man who was nothing less than a father to the young boy fell to the earth, dead before he hit the ground. Haze tore his eyes from his hero and set his gaze upon the hulking devil, grinning across the field at him. His sorrow filled him like a weight, he felt that he couldn't even move, couldn't pick up his blade. But then, Sir Heinrich's weapon, a massive axe, called out to him, and the boy's body suddenly felt weightless, as if her were naked. He reached down lifting the huge weapon with ease and focusing again upon the devil, who now seemed to be shading his eyes from some unknown radiance. The boy charged forward, and with a power no mortal could dream of, he leaped into the air above the devil's head, the hand of Tyr guiding his axe down into the skull of the fiend. With a scream of terror, pain, and rage, Seigfreed fell to the earth and dissipated, his substance returning to the abyss..."



"Five years later...."



"The tale of the fall of Seigfreed was legend in the training of aspiring paladins, Haze was the example that the people of his land needed. And in this five year period, Seigfreed had waited and watched as the boy that felled him had found a measure of peace, waited for the young man to let his guard slip, and his waiting paid him well. The devil ordered Dominis, a powerful succubus, to the material plane to take the knight's heart. The facade was played well, she was rescued by the young paladin, her demonic form disguised as a beautiful human girl. She befriended Haze quickly and over the course of time he fell in love with her. He was like clay in her hands, he served her like a hound, and all the while Seigfreed watched and laughed at his own genius. A year passed and on the eve of his birth, young Haze became a father. A beautiful baby girl was born, and his heart finally filled the hole that had been empty for his master after all these years. Then, the unspeakable happened, Dominis, after birthing the child, cackled and revealed her true form to the young man, telling him that he had just committed the most dire of sins, consummating with demons! Haze's poor heart shattered and his mind filled with rage, he lifted his axe and struck down Dominis as she lay in bed, and, from her wound a portal to the abyss opened and out reached the hand of Seigfreed, pulling the screaming hero into the depths of his layer..."


"Thirteen years later..."



"The land grieved for young Haze, lost and believed dead. In the minds of mortals, no man could ever survive the horrors of the abyss. But, Haze was never an ordinary man. For thirteen years he suffered every torture and punishment the devils could think of, all the while their priests and magi performed rituals to imbue his body and soul with negative energy, and all the while he cried out to his deity, to no avail...The patrons of the abyss and even the hells gave him the name Darksoul, for the rituals and tortures enacted upon him had truly made him something else. He would never be the man he once was. In the man's mind, his god had turned his back on him, and there was nothing left but darkness...."


"It is unknown if the man known as Haze Darksoul Blastreaper still lives, and if he does, where he roams now. But, if the man survived the trials of Seigfreed and made his way from the abyss, then it can be known that his legend shall never die away...."

Screams, more than he could bear, the screams came from all sides, and the heat...he couldn't bear it. He heard their screams, felt them inside his mind...crawling through his thoughts...and the heat...

Haze awoke in a sweat, the image of his axe buried in the chest of his former love Dominis sending shivers through his muscled body and dulling his mind. It had been thirteen years since the day she had helped the Devil Seigfreed drag him into the Abyss but, like a virus, the nightmares still came. And Haze knew exactly why they came, and why they would always come...he still loved her. After all that she did to him, after thirteen years of torture by her kind, he still loved her. The nightmares would never leave him, and he would never love again.

"Go back to sleep, Haze. You'll have work to do tomorrow. A Horseman is never finished." He said to himself, and shut his eye before he had time to correct his thought, for he was a Horseman no more.


Haze pushed off the wall, walking with arms crossed through the busy Cordor streets, thinking to himself on the words of his master...

"Cordor, a festering cesspool of injustice and corruption. They promote law and neutrality, using those pretenses to force their unrighteous laws upon the people."

He chuckled to himself as he passed the square, pausing to take a glance at one of the bridges, remembering how, it seemed so long ago, the young Horseman Jessie had introduced him to Cecilia. She was so much like Dominis it was frightening. He chuckled again and continued walking, remembering how he had hated her so very much at first, and how he could not think of a reason to deny her request for help, as much as he had wanted to. Her words had stuck in his head, even now, after all this time.

"Haze, if you don't try to get better you never will!"

That answer seemed so very simple to him at the time, what did she know of his pain, how could she ever understand? Now, thinking of her, he knew that her answer was not simple, but it was the answer, and it was the answer that he knew would fix him. She always seemed to have the answers he needed, even though he never gave her credit for them. And now, with what had happened, with what the cults had done to her, he never would be able to give her the credit and love she deserved for all of those right answers....

The Nomad's Return, a tavern in the east part of Cordor, was his destination tonight, and as he walked through the door, the cooler air hitting him, his mind flooded once again with memories.

The underdark, a place he would always remember for two reasons. He had lost his eye there, and he had lost it because of a woman the he ended up loving.

"Griff, a glass of wine." He said as he sat down at a table in the corner of the room.

Naomi, he wondered where she was now, the last they had seen of each other, they had shared a kiss just before she walked back into the darkness of her homeland. He returned a few days later to meet with her, but, she never came. After that she seemed to disappear. Even still, she comforted him. He did not need her around, for simply the thought of her was soothing in its' own way. But not this night, this night the memories were sobering. Sobering, because Haze had a feeling that he would never see Naomi again, and if he did, things wouldn't, no, they couldn't be same...

Haze sat looking into the glass of red liquid, so much like blood, which is where it got the name "Bloodwine" it was the only thing he ever drank anymore, and he only drank when he thought of Grave, his daughter.

He thought about her often, his constant worry for her overpowering the most basic of thoughts. His dear little girl, for the longest time he had believed that Seigfreed was tricking him, that the cute little girl was an illusion and that his actual daughter was dead. That's the entire reason he named her Grave, after all, because he thought she was dead. But, she changed her name, she didn't even hold the same last name as him anymore. She didn't believe he was her father at first, no, it wasn't until Katsumi showed her the truth that she finally accepted him. And did she even truly accept him? He simply didn't know. Of course she showed love, that was her nature, she was too young and nice to show anything else. But he didn't know if it was true or if it was simply little Grave's way of surviving in this world. Haze took a sip of the wine and sighed. It didn't matter if she loved him or not, she was his daughter and he loved her unconditionally, and he would continue to love and protect her until he could no longer.