| “ | Morkai the Red, my former master is dead. Akar Kessell, this day forward known as Kessell the Red, is now appointed to the wizard's guild of the Luskar! | „ |
| ~ Kessell after betraying Morkai the Red. |
| “ | Did you think that you could walk right in here and simply dispose of me? I am Akar Kessell, you fool! The Tyrant of Icewind Dale! I command the greatest army that has ever marched on the frozen steppes of this forsaken land! | „ |
| ~ Akar Kessell to Drizzt. |
Akar Kessell is a major antagonist of the Forgotten Realms. He is a major antagonist of R.A Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt, serving as the main antagonist of The Crystal Shard. He is also the main antagonist in the of Neverwinter: Curse of Icewind Dale and Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance.
He was the weak apprentice of Morkai the Red, who betrayed his mentor in a bid to gain more power. Eventually, he found the Crenshinibon, a powerful and sentient magical artifact that amplified his power. With it, he set out to conquer Icewind Dale.
Appearance[]
Akar Kessell initially looked like a fairly average young person, wearing a cloak that was slightly too big for him. Upon obtaining the Crenshinibon, he began to wear elaborate and regal clothes, as well as growing his fingernails very long.
Personality[]
A pathetic but ruthless individual, Akar Kessell was a less than average wizard apprentice consumed by envy and resentment towards his peers and dreamed to become a fearsome and respected archmage one day, willing to kill his master and father figure to gain a position of power.
Once his powers were boosted by the crystal Crenshinibon, he became overconfident and completely lacking in empathy, using the crystal to brainwash innocent women into being his pleasure slaves. Kessell believed himself to be the master of Crenshinibon, unaware that the crystal was tapping into the wizard's greed to manipulate him.
Biography[]
Akar was originally the clumsy apprentice of the wizard Morkai, who raised him like a son, and was frequently mocked by other young wizards for his lack of magic talent. During a journey to Icewind Dale, the evil archmage Dendybar the Mottled persuaded the young Kessell to kill his master Morkai in exchange for a place of power in his Host Tower. Kessell, blinded by greed and tired of being mocked, assassinated Morkai. Instead of rewarding him, Dendybar betrays Kessell and pushes him out of their caravan to let him freeze to death in the snowy region.
A few days later, a starving Kessell finds Crenshinibon, a sentient crystal of great power with a malevolent personality. Kessell is easily manipulated by the crystal thinking that it will make him feared and respected by everyone. Together, he and Crenshinibon raise a giant crystalline tower called Crystal-Tirith and build an army of Orcs, Goblins and Giants in the next few years, as well as making a deal with the Balor demon Errtu, who was lured to the material plane by Crenshinibon. Kessell also used Crenshinibon to turn a bunch of kidnapped women into his personal harem of mindless slaves. His plan was to take over the Ten-Towns and later the rest of Faerun.
However, Kessel and Crenshinibon were caught by surprise by the heroic drow Drizzt Do'urden and his companions, the young barbarian Wulfgar, the dwarf Bruenor and the halfling Regis, who gradually unravel their army and plans. Wulfgar manages to convince the barbarian tribes to turn against Kessell and Drizzt sends Errtu back to the Abyss. Later Drizzt engages Kessell in a duel on the slopes of a mountain, where a spell by an enraged Kessell accidentally causes an avalanche. Crenshinibon, fed up with Kessell's arrogance and incompetence, decides to leave him to die buried under the snow.
Return as an undead[]
Over one hundred years later, an Arcane Brotherhood agent's apprentice gathered an expedition of dwarves to explore Kelvin's Cairn for signs of Kessel's frozen corpse. What they found was a lich, Kessel risen in undeath. Desperate to recover Crenshinibon, which had been destroyed in the intervening years, Kessel was drawn to any remnant of the crystal's power. He led his discoverers to the site of his tower Cryshal-Tirith. Dust from Crystal-Tirith when it was destroyed had fused with the ice, which came to be known as black ice, but it retained no remnant of Crenshinibon's intelligence. The dwarven miners in the group however began to attack each other after they had touched it, much to Kessel's amusement. The lich encouraged the last remaining dwarf, Baerick Hammerstone to begin crafting items from the black ice.
External Link[]
- Akar Kessell on the Near Pure Evil Wiki
- Akar Kessell on the Forgotten Realms wiki
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 Villains
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Arklem and Valindra's Agents
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The Legend of Drizzt Villains | ||
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Pirates of Luskan Calimport Underworld Sentient Artifacts Demons Dragons Drows Many-Arrows Shadowvar Red Wizards of Thay Others | ||