Feior is a powerful sorcerous overlord who serves as the main antagonist in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Black Vein Prophecy, unique among the series' gamebooks for the deep background of its playable character. Feior is the twin brother of the playable character Maior. They were both put in a magical slumber by their father, the vile tyrant Bezenvial, so that one of them would take back his endangered throne upon awaking.
While Maior awakes amnesiac and spends the story getting purged of his evil, Feior raises a powerful army to take over the Isles of Dawn. He came close to success, but was eventually defeated by his brother.
The Black Vein Prophecy[]
Feior and his twin brother Maior are the sons of King Bezenvial, the tyrant of the Isles of Dawn: a huge archipelago located in Khul, one of the three continents of the world of Titan. 50 years before the start of the story, when Maior and Feior were still young children, the Triurge (a group of highly 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 was about to die, 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 dynasty without opposition.
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, in which they grew up to adulthood, though their growth was halted so that they would remain young and fit to take over the archipelago when the time would come. Also, the vast magical power inherited from their wretched father would develop in their sleep.
Feior woke up few weeks before Maior. It can be guessed that he woke up amnesiac just like his twin brother and that he managed to get back his memories, but this is not explicitly stated. What is sure is that he retained the evil of his cursed bloodline, and that he wasted no time in raising a huge and powerful army of rogues and monsters, including a highly powerful monster called the Sturramak, and attempted to take over the Isles of Dawn.
About Feior[]
Unsurprisingly from a Fighting Fantasy villain, Feior is a highly powerful wizard and gifted warlord. He is able to cast various spells, to summon powerful spirits and magical forces, and to enlist the help of powerful beings. His most prominent ability is his mastery of the four special powers only known in the Isles of Dawn:
- Baopo (Explosion in Mandarin), the Power of Disruption: Feior's favorite attack, which fires an extremely powerful bolt of pure heat from the caster's mouth, burning anything or anyone to a crisp.
- Biantai (Mutation in Mandarin), the Power of Mutation: Purple cloud-like tendrils that mutate anything they touch, being used to fuse to materials or beings into one and also as a dangerous attack.
- Shangshuo (Apply Lock in Mandarin), the Power of Locking: A whirling, silvery energy that can freeze anything or anyone in place. Strangely enough, this power and Baopo cancel each other out.
- Tiaohe (Restore Balance in Mandarin), the Power of Harmonization: A spell bringing incredible calm and serenity to its caster. Strangely enough, using it cancels the power of Biantai.
Among the many evil sorcerers of the series, Feior is notable for the predominance of the warlord aspect of his character. He is an exceptional strategist able to devise complex tactics combining superior manpower, turning and encircling enemies, using key locations and multiples ambushes. Also, he can feint perfectly and knows that all mercenaries have their price… Moreover, Feior is a gifted warrior who expertly wields both swords and daggers.
Feior is very power-hungry, tyrannical, ruthless and condescending. He is described as threatening but somehow grandiloquent, clad in rich yet exaggerated clothing and with grandiose demeanor. Still, he obviously has enough charisma to be highly respected by his men, and is widely feared by his foes. He knows full well about his role as one of the Heirs of Bezenvial, and he would stop at nothing to become the new tyrant of the Isles of Dawn.
He has good dispositions towards Maior, calling him "fleshkin" and desiring to have him as a general, but only so long as he pledges allegiance to him. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to kill Maior, or worse, keep him prisoner in his throne forever to make him witness the rule of "a true son of Bezenvial". He clearly values his ambition more than family, and he considers himself the most suitable heir of the two; even more so after noting Maior's change of ways, going as far as calling him a "weakling" during their final duel.
Bezenvial[]
Bezenvial
The one through whom everything happened. Bezenvial was a despicable and merciless tyrant, prideful, arrogant, vengeful and cruel. Despite this, he earned the utmost loyalty of his high priest and his equally evil son holds him in high regards. He was distant to his sons, leaving them to caretakers and viewing them more as extensions of his will than as children.
He was a very powerful wizard, who devised several spells and a special brand of magic, which Maior would learn to master after he became king, and use in the sequel The Crimson Tide to help the hero not only find their missing parents but also find themselves. Long after his death, his shadow still looms over the Isles of Dawn.
Role in the Gamebook[]
The playable character is Maior, who spends the first part of the gamebook slowly regaining his memories and his powers through different kinds of adventures, encounters with people from the Isles of Dawn, and battles with many fearsome monsters whose powers make the battle dangerous.
Meanwhile Feior and his immense army are laying waste on the country, waging war against the (far outnumbered) forces of the Boy-King Poo Ta, the last king of the dynasty 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 warlord.
If Maior travels with a woman named Velkos, he must avoid getting enrolled in her gang of thieves, otherwise he will either get killed or become their leader, staying with them until Feior wins the war, tracks him down and kills him. Maior must befriend Merzei, a revolutionary who is rallying the people, but never offer him gold or attempt to fight him, lest he gravely offends him and gets soundly trounced.
Maior must also find the wise Credas, the sole survivor of the Triurge, who reveals everything about his past and the Black Vein Prophecy. Credas asks him to bring him the Sitting Prophet, a powerful, magical golden statue able to destroy anything evil that comes near it. Given that Feior has been purged of the evil of his bloodline, he has nothing to fear from the statue.
On his way to bring the Sitting Prophet to Credas, Maior might encounter his twin who offers to name him his right-hand man. Such meeting must be avoided, as a refusal means that Feior has Maior executed, and acceptance means succumbing to evil and both brothers being destroyed by the magic statue.
Credas asks Maior to fuse him with the Sitting Prophet with Biantai, the Power of Mutation, to grant him control over the thousands of Kreehuls, the winged-humanoids worshipping the statue, and use them against Feior's forces. Finally, Maior must reach the royal army's headquarters and offer assistance to the distraught generals. The allied armies then engage a decisive battle against Feior's forces, who use as their deadliest asset a formidable Sturramak: a huge feline, dragon-like monster, who breathes extremely dangerous bolts of pure energy, spawns countless leeches able to decimate entire squadrons and drains magic.
Credas fighting the Sturramak
Maior must have allied the royal army and Merzei's people to stand a chance against Feior's armies, but even then, he cannot survive his brother's ambush without having stolen his battle-plans. He must also have transferred his power to Credas, who will join the battle with his hordes of Kreehuls and engage the Sturramak, otherwise, the dragon seals Maior's and his troops' fate.
Beware, for if Maior has met one of Feior's officers who was bound and gagged, he would attack him to avenge his humiliation. This is a highly dangerous duel that is better avoided.
- Feior's officer has 11 in skill (power-level) and 13 in stamina (life-points). Considering that the maximum skill total is 10 instead of the usual 12, this makes him a fearsome enemy.
If Maior hired mercenaries, Feior later out-bids them without his knowledge, and they kill decimate the allied forces. If the Sturramak destroys Credas and attacks Maior, he must avoid it at all cost and concentrate solely on catching up with his twin to settle their score.
- The Sturramak kills Maior if he fights it with magic. With 11 in skill and 25 in stamina, it is an even worse foe than Feior's officer.
Confronting Feior[]
Feior gets knocked-out by the Izkhao.
As Maior's forces are turning the tide, he goes to help Credas who is losing his fight against the Sturramak, but the wizard urges Maior to chase his evil brother, who is climbing the mountain to conjure Dark Forces that would lay waste on the allied armies.
- Maior must win a test of stamina to safely reach Feior, otherwise Feior uses Baopo, the Power of Disruption and sears Maior to ashes.
- Feior first attacks with Baopo and fires a bolt of pure heat. Maior must cast Shangsuo or get burned to death. (Or sent backward plummeting into the chasm if he attacked with a Baopo spell of his own.)
- Feior will cast Biantai and Maior must cast Tiaohe to resist, otherwise the spell horribly mutates him and Feior finishes him off with another Baopo.
- Feior will feign exhaustion to strike with a second Baopo. Maior must cast Biantai to force his brother to waste his magic resisting it. Feior will dispel any other power used against him, and either destroy Maior with a second Baopo or paralyze him forever with Shangshuo. If he does the latter, he will keep Maior prisoner for the rest of his life.
- The best solution now is to summon the genie Izkhao, who will knock Feior out cold with a punch and defeat him for good.
- With Feior at his mercy, Maior must spare his life, otherwise he gets corrupted by his bloodline's evil and take over his twin's armies to become the tyrant of the Isles of Dawn, just like Bezenvial predicted. This leads to the bad ending of the gamebook.
- Should Maior be unable (or unwilling) to summon the genie, he must then cast Shangshuo. Feior tries to resist paralysis. If Maior lets the spell take its hold on his brother, he becomes corrupted by Bezenvial's curse, leading to the bad ending.
- Maior must then get close to Feior to free him, but of course, the ingrate instantly attacks him. Maior can then engage an armed fight, cast another spell before he can react, or (if he could but did not) summon Izkhao to knock him out.
- Feior is a powerful foe with 9 in skill and 14 in stamina, who fights with a golden dagger. Beware, for killing him leads to the bad ending.
- Casting another spell transforms Feior into a silver coin sporting his effigy crowned in triumph on one side, and another screaming in agony on the other. Leaving him in this state corrupts Maior and leads to the bad ending.
- Should Maior flip the coin that is now his brother, a dice must be rolled. Rolling an even number turns Feior back to normal, who in turn transforms Maior to a coin in turn and stuffs him in his pocket, resulting in a quite humiliating game over.
- Rolling an uneven number makes the coin explode and Feior turns back to normal, exhausted and defeated.
- With Feior at his mercy, Maior must spare him and take him prisoner or fall prey to Bezenvial's curse.
Confronting Bezenvial's spirit[]
Bezenvial's Spirit.
After Feior is defeated, Bezenvial’s evil spirit appears under the shape of a giant dark cloud shaped like a snake that retains his human face, and expresses his contempt for the son who betrayed him. It appears that the Triurge banished his spirit beyond the Physical Planes after his death, but that he can use one of his sons as a proxy to manifest himself. Maior must refrain from using his power against his father, who uses his own magic to destroy him. Maior face his father and put an end to his family's evil for good.
Bezenvial sends Maior’s mind to the past in his childhood, during the very day of the Triurge's attack. Maior must relive this fateful event and explore the palace while avoiding detection, to find a glass globe showing a man attacked by a dragon and a dark cloud and shout a warning. (In fact, the globe shows Maior’s present present battle against Bezenvial, and his warning will make his future self's ears ring.) Child-Maior is then found and put into his magical slumber.
If Maior could not shout a warning in the past, his mind will either be sent through time to the beginning of the game, forced to restart the adventure from scratch; or escape from his memories, only to find himself powerless against Bezenvial, who conjures gales of wind that send him plummeting into the chasm to his doom. If on the other hand the warning was shout, Maior will hear his own voice and notice the Sturramak, who killed Credas at the cost of dire wounds. The monster will lunge at Maior, who dodges, and will not be able to avoid crashing into Bezenvial's spirit, destroying both in a blast of pure might.
With his victory secure, Maior will be hailed as a hero by the people and the royal army, for rallying them all and leading them to victory. As the Boy-King Poo Ta died heroically in the first line of the battle, Maior will be named King of the Isles of Dawn, effectively fulfilling his wretched father's prophecy, but ruling as a kind and noble ruler and not as a tyrant.
Trivia[]
- Feior's name is derived from “fear,” befitting him as a dreaded wizard, while Maior’s name comes from "major" meaning "greatest" or "greater", befitting him as the only twin who was purged from his father's evil.
- Feior's name is mentioned in the sequel The Crimson Tide, taking place over six years, during which the hero grows from a child to a teenager. The hero's village was destroyed by mercenaries (whose leader is an evil double of themselves) and they spend years tracking
down their foe and escaping battles between Feior’s forces and the royal army. Maior himself, now king, solves the conflict after they help him unmask a treacherous advisor who was sabotaging his rule.
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 Villains
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