Feior

Feior is a powerful sorcerer and warlord, who serves as the main villain in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Black Vein Prophecy, unique among the series' gamebooks because of its setting and the deep background of its playable character. Feior is the twin brother of the playable character Maior, and like his brother, he was put into a magical slumber by his father, the vile tyrant Bezenvial so that one of them would take back his endangered throne upon awaking.

While Maior awakes amnesiac and slowly gets purged of his evil, Feior awoke fully conscient of his mission and raised a powerful army to take over the Isles of Dawn. Feior was very close to fulfil his goal but his armies, and later himself, were defeated by Maior and he was taken prisoner. Thus, Feior is one of the very few Fighting Fantasy villains not to be slain after being defeated.

the Black Vein Prophecy
Feior and his twin brother Maior were the sons of the powerful sorcerer Bezenvial, the despicable and ruthless tyrant of the Isles of Dawn, a huge archipelago located in Khul, one of the three continent of the world of Titan.

Fifty years before the start of the story, when Maior and Feior were still young children, the Triurge (a group of higly powerful and benevolent wizards) assaulted the capital of the kingdom and destroyed Bezenvial's fortress, to put an end to the tyrant's reign of terror. Fully aware that he was no match against them and that he would die very soon, Bezenvial made the Black Vein Prophecy, according to which one of his children would one day rise and rule the Isles of Dawn, so that his kin could continue his dinasty. Bezenvial and his High Priest put both Maior and Feior in a magical slumber, inside magically sealed crypts, as the fortress was falling apart under the Triurge's powerful blasts of magic.

Thus both of Bezenvial's sons spent the following decades in a slumber, diring which they grew up to adulthood, though their growth was halted so that they would remain young and healthy, fit to take over the archibelago when the time would come. Also, the vast magical power they inherited from their wretched father would fully devellop during their sleep.

Feior woke up few weeks before Maior. One can guess that he woke up amnesiac just like his twin brother and that he managed to get back his memories, but this is not explicitely stated. Given that Feior retained all the evil of his cursed bloodline, it is more likely that he retained his memory as well. What is sure is that he made no time in raising a huge and powerful army of rogues and mercenaries, even enlisting the help of an immensely powerful dragon-like creature called the Sturramak, and attempted to take over the Isles of Dawn.

About Feior
Unsurprisingly from a Fighting Fantasy villain, Feior is a powerful and dangerous sorcerer and an accomplished warlord. He is a master of dark magic able to summon powerful spirits and magical forces and to enlist the help of powerful beings. His most prominent powers is his mastery of the four special spells only known in the Isles of Dawn, that are: Feior is also an accomplished swordsman who trained since his earliest years, as it is stated that as a child he always kept his treasured sword with him. He is fully aware of his role as one of the Heirs of Bezenvial and more than willing to fulfil the Black Vein Prophecy and become the new tyrant of the Isles of Dawn, having no qualms in killing or taking prisoner is own twin brother for this. He does values Maior's life somehow, and is willing to appoint him as his right-hand-man, but he values his own ambition more and his considers himself the most suitable heir of the two. A claim furthered by Maior's change of ways.
 * Baopo The spell of destruction and Feior's favourite attack; an extremely powerful bolt of pure heat that the sorcerer expells from his mouth. Potent enough to burn anyone it strikes to a crisp.
 * Biantai The spell of changing state; it creates purple cloud-like tendrils that mutates anything they touch, being used to fuse to materials or beings into one and also as a dangerous mean of attack.
 * Shangshuo The spell of lock-up: it creates a whirling, silvery energy that can freeze anything or anyone in place and strangely enough, can cancell the spell Baopo.
 * Tiaohe The spell of balance, that can bring incredible calm and serenity to its caster and strangely enough, can cancell the spell Biantai.

Feior is described as threatening but somehow grandiloquent, clad in rich yet slightly exagerated clothes, but he is a very skilled warlord and strategist who knows full well how to lead a battle and to embush his enemies forces. He also obviously has enough charisma to be respected by his men and knows how to offer higher prices to mercenaries hired by his enemies.

Role in the Gameboook
Maior, the playable character spends the first part of the gamebook slowly regaining his memories and his magical powers through a large number of adventures, encounters with thieves and people from the Isles of Dawn, and battles with fearsome monsters. Meanwhile Feior and his immense armies are waging war against the -far outnumbered- forces of the Boy-King Poo Ta, the last king of the bloodline who succeeded Bezenvial. Poo Ta, who is an extremely obnoxious and incompetent child, delusionally convinced that he is invincible, keeps dismissing the dramatic warnings of his generals and thus poses very little threat to the evil sorcerer.

As the story progresses Maior meets with the wise Credas, the sole survivor of the Triurge, who tells him everything about his past and the Black Vein Prophecy, stating that Feior must be defeated. To do so, Credas asks Maior to bring him the Sitting Prophet, a powerful, magical golden statue able to destroy anyone evil that comes near it. Given that Maior was mysteriously purged of the evil of his bloodline, he survives the contact with the magical statue. Upon bringing the Sitting Prophet to Credas, Maior might encounter Feior himself, alongside his entire army, who offers him to be his right-had-man. This encounter must be avoided, given that if Maior refuses, Feior will have him executed and if he accepts they will both be destroyed by the Sitting Prophet.

Then Credas asks Maior to fuse him with the Sitting Prophet with the spell Biantai, so that Credas can take command of the thousands of Kreehuls, humanoid creatures that worship the statue and use them against Feior's armies.

Finally, Maior heads to the royal army's headquarters and offers his assistance to Poo Ta's distraught general. They are soon joined by the hundreds of peasants rallied by Merzei, a revolutionary whom Maior has befriended, and the armies of Kreehuls led by Credas/the Sitting Prophet. The allied armies then engage a decisive battle against Feior's forces way superior in number and helped by a formidable Sturramak: a huge feline, dragon-like monster of immense might, who breathes extremely dangerous bolts of pure energy. While the armies are clashing, Credas engages a tremendous battle against the Sturramak.

Maior has to best his brother's strategy thanks to stolen battleplans. If he hired an armies of mercenaries, they will have switched to Feior's side and the battle will be lost. Maior must also transfer his power to Credas, or else the mighty Sturramak will destroy it and attack Maior. The Sturramak has 11 in skill (level of power) and 25 in stamina (life-points) making it nearly unstoppable. (The maximum of skill points available is usually 12, but in this gamebook it is only 10, so the player would be far overpowered and should better avoid the confrontation.)

Confronting Feior
As Credas is losing against the Sturramak, he urges Maior not to bother about him and to go after evil brother, who is fleeing the battleground, with the intent of summoning evil magical forces that would lay waste on the allied armies. Maior first needs to test his stamina to safely reach Feior, otherwise he immediately gets struck and killed by a Baopo spell.
 * Feior first attacks with the Spell Baopo and fires a bolt of pure heat. Maior must cast Shangsuo or get toasted to death.
 * Feior will then cast the Spell Biantai. Maior must cast Tiaohe to resist, otherwise he gets horribly mutated and Feior finishes him off with a second Baopo.
 * La_défaite_de_Feior.jpg will then feign exhaustion to strike with a second Baopo. Maior must use the spell Biantai so that he will waste his magic resisting it and summon his servant, the mysterious genie Izkhao, who will knock Feior out cold with a punch and defeat him for good.


 * If Maior choses another spell, he will very likely be destroyed or captured by his evil brother. Yet, he might destroy Feior or having to defeat him in a swordfight. Feior is a powerful foe with 9 in skill and 14 in stamina, which considering that 10 is the highest skill level available in this gamebook is nothing to be sneezed at. However, killing Feior leads to the bad ending of the gamebook, in which Maior gets finally corrupted by the evil of his bloodline and becomes the tyrant of the Isles of Dawn, just like Beznevial predicted.


 * With Feior knocked out, Maior must take him prisonner instead of finishing him off, or else it leads once again to the bad ending.

Confronting Bezenvial's spirit
When Feior is defeated, it is revealed that if Bezenvial is dead, his spirit is still alive and retains all his dark power. Bezenvial's spirit manifests itself as a huge, dark cloud shaped like a snake that retains his human face, and expresses his contempt for the son who betrayed him.

As the dark cloud attacks him, Maior is then plunged back into his past and revives the moment when he was put into a magical slumber. Depending on how Maior led his quest, he will either be defenseless against Bezenvial who will strike him and make him fall into a chasm, or he will manage to break free from the flashback on time. If that's the case, the Sturramak, who managed to destroy Credas but who is grievously wounded will charge at Maior, who must dodge it or perish. Then the two mighty evil creature will collide and be destroyed for good in the ensuing blast.

Then a victorious Maior will be hailed as a hero by the royal army and the people, and given that the Boy-King Poo Ta died heroically in the first line of the battle, he will be appointed as the new King of the Isles of Dawn, effectively fulfilling his wicked father's prophecy but, ruling as a kind and noble ruler and not as a tyrant.

Trivia
Feior's name is obviously derived from the word "fear," beffiting him as a dreaded sorcerer, while Maior's name is derived from the word "major" meaning "greatest" or "greater," beffiting him as the only one among the two twin sons of Bezenvial who managed to purge himself from his father's evil.