Sepulchure

"FALCONREACH! On this day...you will know your place in the order of things. The tale of your destruction...shall be told for thousands of years! NO ONE stands against the mighty Sepulchure! NO ONE withstands my wrath. Your fate is sealed! Today...you will witness the birth of a legend! Today...I will destroy EVERYTHING you love. And when your heart is filled with pain and sorrow, and your mind is crushed under the weight of despair...I will claim the Orb of Darkness, and this world will be MINE. HAHAHAHA...There is nowhere to run. There is nowhere to hide."

- Sepulchure

Sepulchure is a DoomKnight who is the secondary main antagonist of DragonFable with the Mysterious Stranger as the main antagonist and a minor villain in AdventureQuest Worlds.

History
DragonFable

Sepulchure was originally a gifted swordsman named Valen, who fought side by side with King Alteon (who was Sir Alteon at the time). He also fell in love with Lynaria. Together, Valen and Alteon overthrew the tyrant King Slugwrath.

Little is known about Valen after this, as all that has been confirmed so far is that he lost someone very special to him, he felt it was due to a lack of power, and he went in on a journey to find more. (Those who have played Adventurequest Worlds believe that someone to be Lynaria Alteon, but that has yet to be confirmed in Dragonfable.) When he returned, he was Sepulchure, and served his ancient Master general and figurehead of the Shadowscythe forces on Lore.

He prepared for years, recruiting Drakath Slugwrath, former prince and now leader of a group of bandits, as well as Xan, Noxus, and many other villains throughout the world. Eventually Noxus and his legions of necromancers rose a guat dracolich fortress called Shadowfall. For nearly two decades, Sepulchure had been working and preparing for world domination. Gravelyn, whom he promised Lynaria to keep a secret because Gravelyn was the Champion of Light. His goal was to collect eight elemental orbs and use them to conquer the world (or possibly to revive Lynaria). Too this end, over the course of the beginning of DragonFable Chapter 1 he ordered Drakath too collect the black and white dragon boxes in in return for being gifted with the Necrotic Blade of Doom. However, he was only able to retrieve the white dragon box.

Later, Sepulchure hatched the white dragon egg, and turned the baby dragon that hatched into a dracolich that he named Fluffy. Later, after having heard that the DragonFable hero prevented his attempt to get the Wind Orb, he confronted the hero and revealed that he broke a prophecy that one dragon would save the world and the other would try to destroy it by having turned the one destined to save the world, the white dragon, into his dracolich Fluffy. As the hero and Sepulchure engaged in combat, it was apparent that the hero discovered how powerful Sepulchure was. Sepulchure attempted to destroy the hero, but the Necrotic Blade of Doom commanded that he leave for more important objectives. Sepulchure obeyed and left telling the hero to make the fight more interesting for him next time they met.

Time had passed since then, and Sepulchure managed to claim the Fire, Water, and Earth Orbs with the help of two of his subordinates, En and Tropy. With that, he decided he would claim the Darkness Orb next. He crashed Shadowfall into Falconreach's Guardian Tower, destroying it and causing an all-out war involving invasions by twenty-million undead while claiming the Darkness Orb. He summoned an undead Akriloth, ridden by Xan, who killed Lady Celestia. While Xan and Akriloth attacked Dragesvard, Sepulchure managed to collect the Ice Orb, and followed it up with stealing the remaining three Elemental Orbs of Energy, Wind, and Light. Sepulchure invited the hero to his fortress to battle his/her way through it and witness the creation of the Ultimate Orb. Sepulchure succeeded in using the eight Elemental Orbs to create the Ultimate Orb, but before he could use it to become master of the world, he was betrayed by Drakath. To Sepulchure's shock and horror, Drakath used the Ultimate Orb to fuse with Fluffy and become a dragon, destroying his fortress. Drakath proved to be a powerful opponent for both the hero and Sepulchure, but eventually, the two worked together to defeat Drakath.

After that, the Mysterious Stranger appeared, pleased to know that his plan had worked perfectly thanks to all three, and merged with Drakath to become the Super Mega Ultra Darkness Dracolich. The dracolich knocked Sepulchure unconscious with a blast and left to grow to the point of eating the sun, leaving Sepulchure to murmur the name of his lost love, Lynaria. The hero later destroyed the Ultimate Orb and the dracolich, putting an end to the Mysterious Stranger, while Sepulchure was somehow dragged away to recover from his wounds.

AdventureQuest Worlds
"I AM DARKNESS! I AM DOOM... NO FORCE ON THIS WORLD CAN DESTROY WHAT I AM! LONG UN-LIVE THE SHADOWSCYTHE!!!!!"

- Sepulchure's last words in AdventureQuest Worlds before being destroyed by Drakath

In an alternate universe We learn far more on Sepulchure's origins. Despite being best friends and Valen being the right-hand man of Alteon, both were in love with their friend Lynaria. In secret, they held a private duel for the opportunity for her hand. The winner is unknown, but it can be assumed Alteon ended up winning and marrying Lynaria. Here, we learn that Valen's fatal flaw is his inability to accept defeat. Then, the Champion of Darkness, Dethrix, attacked and kidnapped Lynaria. Valen went to the Necropolis and fought Doom Overlord after Doom Overlord to reach Dethrix and fought him in combat. His efforts to defeat Dethrix were futile, but the Mysterious Stranger offered him a chance to become one with the darkness, and Valen became a DoomKnight, taking on the new name of Sepulchure and taking up the Necrotic Blade of Doom as his weapon and ultimate master.

Sepulchure defeated Dethrix, and after that, joined the Shadowscythe, The Mysterious Stranger warned Sepulchure that the plane of darkness would try to replace him by sending forth a Shadowborn. Sepulchure had no fear of that, and laughed as he, together with the necromancer Noxus, created an army of the undead that attacked and destroyed said Shadowborn's hometown (which was revealed to be the hometown of Artix, who was the new Champion of Darkness but was a betrayer to the plane of darkness itself). Lady Celestia and the Paladin Order rescued the Shadowborn, Artix, and trained him as a paladin. Sepulchure, assuming the Shadowborn had been dealt with, turned his attention towards Swordhaven, and the war between good and evil began.

Sepulchure launched a war against Swordhaven, attacking it with his army of the undead. King Alteon was waiting for Sepulchure in his throne room, and the two dueled, with neither one gaining advantage over the other. Then, just as the two were about to unleash their most powerful attacks, a winged figure descended and interrupted the duel. The figure revealed himself to be Drakath and attacked them both, overpowering them with Chaos magic. Drakath flew over to Sepulchure and ripped his heart of darkness out of his body. As Sepulchure made one last attempt to attack his former servant, Drakath crushed his heart, destroying Sepulchure to the horror of his daughter Gravelyn.

With Sepulchure gone, many villains from across Lore made many attempts to overthrow Gravelyn and take the Shadowscythe for themselves, claiming that "a little girl wearing her daddy's scary armor" was unfit to lead the Shadowscythe. One notable attempt was by Noxus, who was now a lich and had created the paladin slayer Vordred with help from his apprentice, Sally. Sometime after Vordred was destroyed and Noxus' skull was used to make a staff, Gravelyn had a strange dream involving a duel between black-armored versions of Artix and Sepulchure, which Noxus interpreted as perhaps a vision of the future. Noxus revealed that he knew Sepulchure before he became the Sepulchure everyone knows and fears, and that only his helmet would allow someone to enter the forbidden vault of the Necropolis itself. With that, Gravelyn summoned the AdventureQuest Worlds hero and gave him/her Sepulchure's helmet to enter the Necropolis dungeon with.

Later, at one time, Sally and Noxus rebuilt Vordred into Chaos Vordred with Chaos magic provided to them by Drakath, and had taken Gravelyn prisoner. But just when Vordred was about to kill the hero, Artix, and Gravelyn, a character resembling Sepulchure appeared for Lynaria's tomb to partially grant the wish of Gravelyn to bring back her father. The Sepulchure look-alike effortlessly destroyed Chaos Vordred to everyone's amazement. Later, Drakath, learning of Gravelyn's partially-granted wish, released an essence that allowed Lynaria's tomb to fully grant said wish and play with time and reality, taking everyone to an alternate past created by Drakath himself showing what the world would've been if Drakath hadn't interfered with Alteon and Sepulchure's duel.

As Alteon and Sepulchure dueled in said alternate past, the hero appeared and attempted to stop the duel to prepare them both for Drakath's arrival, but strangely enough, Drakath never showed up. Sepulchure attempted to kill the hero, but Alteon sacrificed himself to save him/her, taking the attack for him/her. Assuming that the Champion of Light had been defeated, Sepulchure attempted to open up a portal to the plane of darkness, but was unable to do so. Realizing that Alteon was not the Champion of Light after all, he came up with a plan to find the real Champion of Light and summoned Death, afterwards killing Death himself and starting a zombie apolcalypse starting with zombifying Alteon and his knights in hopes of finding the real Champion of Light. Later, while Artix, Gravelyn, and the hero fought off the zombies, when Sepulchure found Gravelyn missing, he remorsefully decided to break his promise to Lynaria to keep her a secret and vowed to slay his own daughter with his blade.

As he and his zombie army descended upon Battleon, he issued a challenge to his daughter to a battle, which Gravelyn accepted. As the two fought, the hero and Artix fought off more zombies only to be attacked by Sepulchure, who drove Artix into Aria's Pet Shop and the hero into Yulgar's Inn where he/she fought against the zombified versions of Cysero, Alina, Galanoth, Warlic, Zhoom, and King Alteon himself. As the hero stepped back outside the inn, Sepulchure had a difficult decision on whether he should finish off Gravelyn or not. Finally, due to his promise to Lynaria to keep Gravelyn safe and secret, he refused, which caused his Necrotic Blade of Doom to lose its composure. Drakath appeared and attempted to kill Gravelyn but Sepulchure stepped in to protect his daughter by sacrificing himself and letting Drakath pull out his heart of darkness and crush it, killing him again just like he did during Alteon and Sepulchure's duel in the normal past during the first chapter of AdventureQuest Worlds' main storyline.

Both enraged and deeply hurt by her father's sacrifice, Gravelyn unleashed her true potential as the Champion of Light and she and Drakath fought. As that happened, the DoomBlade used this as a perfect opportunity to take complete control of Sepulchure's armor, turning it into Dark Sepulchure. While the hero and Artix fought against Dark Sepulchure, Gravelyn and Drakath continued to fight until Drakath offered her a choice of destroying her own father or continuing her fight with the Chaos Champion, with no time to do both. Drakath flew away and, just as Dark Sepulchure was charging up a powerful attack to use on both Artix and the hero, Gravelyn suddenly transformed the Necrotic Blade of Doom into the Blade of Destiny, using it to destroy Dark Sepulchure and undo the effects of her wish.

Personality
Sepulchure is the cruel, ruthless overlord of the Shadowscythe. He is selfish, greedy, and sadistic, and enjoys making a living out of sending undead minions to attack and destroy villages. He is very proud and therefore not only refuses to tolerate failures but also refuses to accept defeat. This inability to accept defeat was his fatal flaw and led to him becoming Sepulchure. However, deep down inside, he has a kind, gentle soul, one he believes that he doesn't have, and loves Queen Lynaria Alteon, whom he is trying to bring back through various means. He also still retains a level of respect towards his former friend, Alteon, who expresses lament and wishes to bring back his friend.

In Dragonfable he is a smart, pragmatic, master tactitian. His plans have rarely failed, with the few times he has being through intervention of his master, the failures of his lackeys, or, once during the Popsprocket war, sheer rage at being insulted. He also appears to be able to resist the protection provided to the Hero as both the Chosen, the main character, and the videogame protagonist. This can be evidenced by his being in a situation to kill the hero in several occassions and only being stopped by his Master, much to his frustration. It is also worth mentioning that His willpower seems immense, as he appears to retain much of his personality, sanity, and individuality while in his armor, something that should be quite impossible. This has lead to his Master controlling him through threats rather than his armor.

Also, his kinder, gentler side shows up during Frostval events, and he at one time even taught Gravelyn, who he also cares for in addition to keeping her a secret, the joy of Frostval itself. The reason he does so was out of promise to Lynaria to keep her a secret, and because he knows Gravelyn is the Champion of Light. Unable to fnthom killing her, he instead focused his efforts in fighting Alteon, hoping that he was the Champion of Light. His love for daughter is evident in his actions, one in which one of his closest generals was Chuckles, Gravelyn's first creation. When Gravelyn teams up with the AQW hero and Artix to defend Battleon from Sepulchure's zombie armies in the alternate past created by Drakath, Sepulchure ends up remorsefully deciding to break his promise to Lynaria and kill his own daughter. Of course, he is an honorable warrior, a quality that prevents him from killing his daughter much to the dismay of his Necrotic Blade of Doom. Sepulchure thinks of himself as the current Champion of Darkness ever since Dethrix's defeat by his hands, even though Artix is the new and true Champion of Darkness. He also is an object of not only fear but almost a dark worship to most villains, and has earned himself the total dedication and loyalty of Dage and Nulgath, among many others.

He still shows subtle hints of being Valen through the few humorous moments he has, the first being naming his baby dracolich Fluffy. Hilariously, one of them is being afraid of Oishii, a lunch lady who's creations during the Thanksgiving events often must be battled and Sepulchure orders an immediate retreat upon learning she is cooking for the holiday celeberations.

Powers and Abilities
Sepulchure has the power to control dark magic. He is capable of using it both for defensive and offensive purposes, such as unleashing a wave of darkness that can overwhelm anything it comes in contact with, as demonstrated when his look-alike effortlessly destroyed Chaos Vordred with a single attack. As a Champion of Darkness (a title that he thinks of himself as), he is capable of Shadow-stepping, a move where he vanishes into the darkness and then reappears somewhere else, especially close to his opponent. He also has the ability to create undead minions, and can even turn others undead, as he was taught by Noxus and the necromancers of the Necropolis. Like all Dragonlords, Sepulchure also has his own dragon amulet, which he is able to use to control Fluffy at will and even command to grow to full size in an instant. It has also been theorized that, as his era's greatest knight, he may have been a Guardian as well.

Sepulchure is incredibly powerful, powerful enough to defeat even the Dragonfable hero, who was prophetized as the one to defeat him and save the world, as well as the AdventureQuest Worlds hero. It has actually been stated by Geopetal, former team head of Dragonfable, that as Valen He would still far outmatch the Hero, making him perhaps the only person who coud beat the Hero with purely physical means. Surprisingly, he is also equally matched with his rival, King Alteon, who is just as powerful as he is, with neither one being weaker or stronger than one another. He is also very intelligent, preferring to face honorable opponents as well as opponents strong enough to face him when the time is right. He is capable of forseeing the moves his opponents make and can counter them by increasing the power of his next attack and using it the moment his opponent makes his/her next move. Sepulchure is able to survive fatal wounds that most living people cannot, as shown when he is still active even with the hole made in his body by his own Necrotic Blade of Doom that Drakath stabbed him in the back with.

Trivia

 * There has often been speculation on what Sepulchure's face looks like underneath his dragon skull helmet that he wears. These primarily orient around an ordinary skull, as customary within masked villains.
 * The DoomKnight and DoomKnight Overlord classes have armors for male players that look strikingly like Sepulchure's armor.
 * In AdventureQuest Worlds, there are two helmets resembling Sepulchure's helmet, one being his standard helmet itself and the other being the helm of the DoomKnight Overlords, which looks different from his standard helmet and has a different visor.
 * In DragonFable, Sepulchure's eyes rarely show within his helmet's visor, but in AdventureQuest Worlds, his visor shows glowing, glaring red eyes.