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Sargon first appears as the ghost of a high priest from a lost empire, who helps the heroes of the role-playing game Advanced Fighting Fantasy against the evil sorcerer Xortan Throg. But after his resurrection, he reveals himself as the main villain and final enemy. Sargon the Black in fact leads the Church of Elim, the Primeval God of Darkness, and seeks to destroy the world of Titan in his stead. He threatens the continent of Allansia, only to be defeated again. He is named after Sargon the Great, founder of the Akkadian Empire and a legendary figure in early Assyrian stories.
Creation Myth[]
The Fighting Fantasy universe was shaped by the First Gods. Vuh, Primeval God of Life, created the Physical Planes. Ashra, Primeval God of Light created the Astral Planes, and Elim, Primeval God of Darkness created the Magical Planes.
However, Elim deemed the result flawed, wanting to erase it and remake it perfect, while Ashra wanted to push creation further, and Vuh felt that things could not be judged until mortal races populated the world.
They created the Major Deities who shaped the world of Titan, named after the God King who made it, but soon their divide became too great. Elim created the Gods of Evil Death, Disease and Decay from the flaws he wanted to highlight, named after what mortals regard as the worst scourges in existence.
This led to the apocalyptic First Battle, which ended with the Gods of Evil banished into the Void. The Primeval Gods left the universe to never return, leaving the deities in charge. No-one knows where they went, but they seem to watch things from afar, no longer caring.
Background[]
Over three-hundred years before the era when the gamebooks take place, Sargon was a notable of the capital city of the powerful nation of Carsepolis, based on the Roman Empire. He was the high priest of Elim, and one of the last worshippers of the Primeval Gods, now long gone from mortal memory.
Sometime later, the Demon Princes of Titan led the forces of Evil in a large-scale assault on all the three continents, The Old World, Khul and Allansia. This resulted in the nightmarish Chaos Wars, permanently scarring Titan.
Sargon was killed during the war in unspecified circumstances, probably in a bid to destroy the world in the name of his god, as he cast a Death Spell that was reflected back to him through a Crystal of Power.
Carsepolis was razed by the war, with Port Blacksand being built over its ruins, now resting below the sewers. Over time, Port Blacksand became the infamous City of Thieves, the worst wretched hive in Titan filled with the vilest scum and ruled by the fearsome Lord Varek Azzur. As for Sargon, his ghost roamed the ruins of his former city, near the decaying temple of the Ocean God Hydana, where the Crystal of Power rested out of his reach…
Powers and Abilities[]
Sargon is considerably powerful. Being a priest, he gains his power from his patron deity’s favour. He masters Priestly Magic, consisting in channelling divine energies to summon, bind and banish supernatural beings, or bring blessings to allies and curses to foes, if not miracles and plagues. As the high priest of an evil god, he can summon and control undeads, evil spirits and demons, and cast dark curses. He masters the fearsome Death Spell, an instant kill aging the caster a year. He masters normal spells, no different from a sorcerer, though once again mostly evil ones.
Elim also granted him divine blessings, making him immune to normal weapons and preventing him from needing to rest. Moreover, he is a skilled fighter who rides in battle sword in hand, along with the Commanders of his cult. During the Final Battle proper, he wields a dagger when he does not spellcast, with great proficiency for his age.
Personality[]
| “ | Let a man get a few spells in his head and he thinks he can do anything! | „ |
| ~ Sargon's contempt for Xortan Throg. |
Surprisingly enough, Sargon is genuinely polite and respects his foes, though he cannot fathom being defeated until too late. He is poised and regal, he never lies (though he does give half-truths when pressed), keeps his world, and values his vassals. Likewise, he shows utmost contempt for Xortan Throg, rightfully dismissing him as a "young idiot".
Still, he is conceited, cruel, ruthless and sadistic, sacrificing innocents and punishing servants for failures. While Elim was a sort of extremist wanting to undo a world he viewed as flawed beyond saving, Sargon is a fanatic who craves destruction. He delights in flaunting his power, making a point in tanking attacks he can resist, always sure to win.
When it comes to strategy, he simply sends his hordes raze his targets. Despite this, he is very cautious, aiming to destroy threats foremost, targeting the most dangerous foes first, fighting to neutralize in one spell, or kill if it does not work, instead of a regular fight. Furthermore, he is a skilled orator and manipulator, who made the heroes work for him unknowingly. He first converted criminals easier to sway, but could corrupt normal folks into hateful fanatics.
Sargon and Xortan Throg, the villain of the first book, are both powerful and cunning old spellcasters, clad in rich Carsepolis fashion, who fight quite similarly. However, he is noble-looking, courteous and pragmatic, while Throg is ugly, smug and delusional. Besides, Sargon is ten times the overlord Throg could only dream to be, building in a few months an army that could threaten Allansia, while he spent his life trying to take over Port Blacksand without hope.
Role in the Story[]
Advanced Fighting Fantasy is a tabletop role-playing game, expanding the series' lore with rules, varied character types and classes, and many spells. Casting spells costs life-points, the characters' attack strength is determined by their score in relevant special skills, and they can launch more than one attack per turn.
The Game Master can invent and expand quests at their leisure, but the game sets a story in three books: Dungeoneer, Blacksand! and Allansia.
Dungeoneer[]
Sargon first appears after the group of heroes enter the ruins of Carsepolis, tracking down Xortan Throg. They are captured by a horde of fish-men, but his ghost appears and scares them away, freeing the adventurers.
Sargon first appears as an helpful ghost
While evasive on how he died and the god he serves, Sargon tells them his story truthfully, and explains Xortan Throg's origins and ambition to topple Port Blacksand from within to restore Carsepolis, not mincing words about how out of his league he really is.
He then offers a bargain. If they can bring him the Crystal of Power from the temple of Hydana to end his undeath, he will tell them how to defeat the wretched sorcerer. Sargon reveals that the Crystal of Power reflects back any Death Spell cast at its wearer. If his exchanges with the group were cordial enough, he will restore the magic sword they found without being asked. They only suspect that something is amiss as he resurrects instead of crossing to the Afterlife, as he had hinted, but he merely thanks them and teleports away.
Should the group attack him, he proves a powerful foe with 10 in skill (level of power), 12 in stamina (life-points) and 29 in magic special skill. Unwilling to use attack spells against wielders of the Crystal of Power, he merely stalls with spells like Flash, Darkness, Fear and Confuse, before escaping.
Who Sargon really is and what he is after remains unknown, but the group has the foreboding feeling that resurrecting him was a mistake. After they slay Xortan Throg and leaving the Crystal under the watch of the Legendary Mage Arakor Nicodemus, they wonder whether he will return...
Blacksand![]
Sargon wasted no time rebuilding his cult in secret. He started in Port Blacksand, recruiting his first cultists among the already corrupt denizens, remaining unnoticed even by Lord Azzur himself. Proclaiming to have uncovered secrets from the distant past, in a few months he recreated the Church of Elim and expanded all over Allansia, with many public figures swayed or coherced. Sargon never appears in this book, but the cultists are acting on his orders.
The group of heroes can be the same as the previous book or another, though canon made them the same group in all three. They are working as protectors for the caravans of a cowardly merchant named Waldo, who is supposed to meet a rich merchant from Port Blacksand named Brass in the village of Meerham. However, Brass is murdered, with Waldo as the only suspect, but it turns out that dark sorcery was involved. The heroes then start investigating to find the real culprit, not unlike a film noir.
As they investigate the tent where Brass was murdered, they are attacked by the assassin, in fact a mighty Silent Death demon that must be defeated.
- The Silent Death is a powerful foe with 10 in skill, 20 in stamina and 2 attacks per turns. It has also 14 in the skill unarmed combat and 16 in the skill strength, making its attacks deadly. It is immune to normal weapons and cancels sounds, so spells can only be cast from outside. It throws its target at another, taking two turns to get up.
The group goes to Port Blacksand, risking to run afoul of the corrupt City Guard if they refuse to pay their obscene bribes. If the first victor of Zanbar Bone is with the group, the City Guard will be looking out to capture them. The group can escape the City Guard thanks to Robul, high priest of Usrel the Goddess of Peace, and his kid apprentice Ben. Brass' son and heir Torbul hires them to find the culprit. Their investigation leads them to the Legendary Mage Arakor Nicodemus, but attracts the attention of the powerful Guild of Thieves.
The evil yet honourable Guild Master Rannik the Red offers to investigate on the Church of Elim, that had bad blood with Brass. If the villain protagonist of the gamebook Midnight Rogue, who stole the priceless Eye of the Basilisk gem from Brass, is among them, assassins will target them to collect a bounty.
Cultists of Elim praying in front of his brass effigy
Helped by the Guild, who provides them magic weapons against demons, the group sneaks into the temple of Elim, ornate with a gigantic brass statue of their god. It appears that Nagrin, the local high priest is about to animate the statue, in fact a highly powerful golem built upon Sargon's orders, and use it to destroy Port Blacksand as a whole.
- Nagrin is a very powerful foe, with 12 in skill (the maximum available), 17 in stamina, 14 in the Priestly Magic special skill, and 6 in luck to resist spells. Yet, he is a coward who prefers to summon weak Demonspawns with 6 in skill and 6 in stamina, or deadly Silent Deaths. He can cast Counter-Spells, Fear and Sleep, hide with a Fog Spell or attack with Force Bolts, but despite his high power he is not that much of a threat, for summons are costly.
The heroes find the grimoire of the cultists, but they could animate the Brass Golem who is rampaging through the streets, knocking down houses in one punch, and must be taken down at all costs. This causes a mass panic, with the citizens and the guards attacking either the Golem or the heroes, or even each other.
- The Brass Golem is a powerful and considerably resilient foe with 10 in skill, 30 in stamina, and 2 attacks per turn. All weapons deal reduced damage, and even the mighty blow special skill harm it normally. The group can destroy its clockwork heart with projectiles by winning two tests of luck, killing it at once. They can also target the oil container serving as its blood by winning a test of luck, costing it 4 in stamina each turn.
Lord Azzur puts a bounty on the group, believing them responsible, until he learns the truth, and the group gives the grimoire to Nicodemus (who otherwise turns it to a harmless songbook). Now, the time has come to deal with Sargon.
Allansia[]
Since the averted disaster in Port Blacksand, Nicodemus and his old friend the Legendary Mage Gereth Yaztromo kept tabs on the rising threat of the Church of Elim. Sargon is gathering his cultists and caused a plague in the town of Kaad (as did the warlock Oldoran Zagor after his first return). Yaztromo healed the city and tasks the group to enter Sargon's Monastery in the Icefinger Mountains, and free a crucial prisoner revealed by his divination magic.
The Monastery is deserted, yet guarded by a very powerful Manticore. They defeat it and find the prisoner, a goblin named Giblet. Sargon deemed him an unworthy sacrifice and left him, while he prepares to attack the city of Kaad, which he wants to obliterate for mysterious reasons. Although Giblet distrusts the heroes, he agrees to join forces against the Church of Elim because he hates them more, them and the orcs they recruited.
- The Manticore has 12 in skill, 10 in stamina and 3 attacks per turn. 2 in 6 times, it strikes with its venomous sting, costing 6 in stamina instead of the regular 2 and needing an antidote. Opening the door can let it escape.
Giblet knows shortcuts to travel faster than Sargon's forces without alerting them. In the swamps, the group meets the reclusive Ekaadian people, last worshippers of the Primeval Gods. Upon learning of Sargon, they help the group who allies with Elgon, their best warrior, and Zune, high priest of Ashra the Primeval God of Light. Zune owns the Staff of Ashra that vaporizes Elim's followers, so Sargon wants the Ekaadian and the staff destroyed above all.
After securing the Ekaadian forces, Giblet guides the group to his village, telling them that goblins will only march with them if one hero kills their king Grolik Fatnose, whom he despises, in a duel. The group must then go to Kaad before their allied forces, to gather the city's forces against the Church of Elim's upcoming attack.
- Grolik is quite weak overall, with 7 in skill and 15 in stamina, but 10 in the swordfight skill makes him dangerous.
Once in Kaad, the group is denied entry by Captain Vatchik, the captain of the guard and secret worshipper of Elim, who laughs off their warnings and dismisses Yaztromo's letter as a forgery. If he throws them to jail, they witness his treachery. If not, they warn the inept town council, but a repentant cultist unwilling to see his city razed warns them that Vatchik will meet with cultists that night. They must be dealt with, so Sargon never learns that the city is warned.
- Captain Vatchik is a powerful foe with 10 in skill, 12 in stamina, and 11 in swordfight skill.
- If fought outside of jail, Vatchik is helped by a dangerous Priest of Elim with 9 in skill, 11 in stamina and 10 in magic skill, who can cast assist and hindering spells. Killing him lets the group gain his spell-book.
The Final Showdown[]
Sargon and his forces arrive the next day at noon, giving the group time to prepare. The goblins and the Ekaadian warriors then arrive, having avoided enemy scouts. Sargon expects no resistance, unless the groups stumbled upon one of his orc patrols or Vatchik could warn him. As such, it is best to hide most of the defenders in the city and nearby woods for an ambush.
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Sargon during the Final Battle
All battalions must engage enemies of corresponding might. Sargon fights in a group of Elimist Commanders with battle skill 10, battle stamina 12 and move 4. He casts the weakening spells Fear, Befuddle and Weaken, the defensive Shield and offensive Arrow Storm, but heroes can cast their own.
When faced at last, Sargon has as many bodyguards as there are heroes, with 8 in skill and 10 in stamina. As for him, he has 10 in skill, 15 in stamina, and 29 in the magic skill. He is immune to normal weapons and masters defensive spells.
He first casts weakening spells and prioritizes dangerous foes, before using the shape-shifting Cockroach, the slow-acting Petrify or the lethal Death, and uses a dagger when he cannot spellcast any longer. The safest bet is to protect Zune, who is hiding the Staff of Ashra, so that he can sneak upon him and strike him with it, destroying him instantly.
With Sargon gone and his forces destroyed, Kaad and Titan as a whole are saved from Elim's return. However, victims of his Petrify spell are not healed, hinting that he might have escaped for a sequel that was never made.
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 Villains
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Dark Gods Demon Princes of Titan Allansia Khul Old World Others | ||