| “ | Awaken great beast. You are alive. You have defeated death. You are greater than before, and I am with you to guide you, to teach you powers beyond anything you have ever imagined. You are the Ghost King. Death does not rule you. You rule death. | „ |
| ~ Yharaskrik |
| “ | I will find you drow. | „ |
| ~ The Ghost King's message to Jarlaxle |
The Ghost King is a major antagonist of R.A Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt, serving as the eponymous main antagonist of The Ghost King. It is a powerful and deadly dracolich, created during a fluke of the Spellplague, when magic went awry. It had the body and soul of the red dragon Hephaestus, merged with a powerful sentient artifact known as the Crenshinibon and the soul of a illithid named Yharaskrik. In order gain power and spread destruction, the Ghost King summoned denizens of the Shadowfell, who served it. After going on a destructive rampage, it was eventually imprisoned by Cadderly Bonaduce.
Appearance[]
In life, Hephaestus was a great red dragon. Like the rest of his species, he was massive, with red scales. As the Ghost King, his skin rotted, leaving him as a skeleton. He also had Crenshinibon, a large blue crystal, sticking out of his forehead.
Personality[]
| “ | Hephaestus is the instinct, the anger, and the physical power. Crenshinibon is the collection of near-eternal wisdom and the dispassion - hence the judgement, of a true god. Yhasraskrik is the freedom of far-reaching projection and the understanding of the surrealism of worlds joined. | „ |
| ~ The Ghost King. |
As Hephaestus, the dragon was greedy, like most dragons. He slept on a bed of gold that he had collected over the years and killed anyone who disturbed his lair. He was also very arrogant and vengeful, having a fierce hatred for any that wronged him in any way and thinking very highly of himself. He was very impulsive and not too intelligent, hunting down whatever he wanted without thinking of the consequences, and never thinking too far ahead or having any ambitions beyond killing those near him and adding to his hoard.
Upon merging with the Crenshinibon and Yharaskrik, this changed. The two more intelligent entities were able to harness the Ghost King's innate strength and power to spread more destruction than ever, raising beasts from the shadowfell to strategically destroy nearby settlements, and holding the dragon back from making impulsive decisions that could result in his second death. Hephaestus provided vengeance and drive, the Crenshinibon provided planning and ambition, and Yharaskrik provided caution and intellect.
When the Crenshinibon and Hephaestus banished Yharaskrik's soul, finding him obsolete, the Ghost King's personality once again changed. Now, it lacked caution, and was willing to risk itself by personally attacking its enemies. Although it was still a skilled planner with more ambition than the original dragon, it was more impulsive, and much more driven by vengeance and wrath.
History[]
Creation[]
The three entities that would become the Ghost King came together when drow mercenary Jarlaxle Baenre and a cleric named Cadderly Bonaduce set out with a couple of other companions to destroy the Crenshinibon, which had been wreaking havoc around the world. They brought the evil artifact to Hepaestus's lair, where they hoped to convince the dragon to destroy it with his fire breath. However, unbeknownst to them, Hephaestus had already made an alliance a different drow named Rai-guy Bondalek, who sought to take the Crenshinibon for himself, and had the dragon try to kill Jarlaxle, Cadderly, and their friends.
Meanwhile, a mind flayer named Yharaskrik also sought to destroy the Crenshinibon, and arrived a few minutes after the battle started. When, for a brief moment, Rai-guy managed to get ahold of the Crenshinibon, Yharaskrik attacked him, trying to destroy it. However, at that moment, Jarlaxle tricked Hephaestus into breathing fire on them, killing Rai-guy and Yharaskrik. The Crenshinibon exploded under the blast, burning out Hephaestus's eyes in the process.
Hephaestus spent the next few decades sitting in his cave blind. One day, the goddess of magic died, causing random magical events to happen all over the world. One such event was the souls of Yharaskrik and the Crenshinibon appearing in his cave. A soul can't last long without a body, so Yharaskrik acted fast. He quickly tricked Hephaestus into killing himself by jamming his head into to the remains of the Crystal Shard, and then moved into his body along with the Crenshinibon. Yharaskrik and the Crenshinibon brought the dragon back from the dead, now with power over the Shadowfell and three souls living in its body.
Wreaking Havoc[]
Once he sufficiently understood the situation, Hephaestus argued that they should go kill Jarlaxle Baenre and Cadderly Bonaduce for being responsible for their deaths. However, Yharaskrik argued that they should exercise caution, and have one of the spirits of the liches that had been trapped inside of the Crenshinibon do it. Grandfather Wu, one of the seven liches whose spirit now belonged to the Ghost King, set off, but seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth during his confrontation with Jarlaxle. The Ghost King believed that it must be trickery on the part of the drow mercenary.
The Ghost King next decided to unleash denizens of the Shadowfell around the Cadderly's temple the Spirit Sauring to spread chaos. The monsters decimate the town of Carradoon, driving its inhabitants underground. Meanwhile, the Ghost King had another group attack the Spirit Sauring. Although the attack failed, it costs the lives of many of the priests staying there.
Around the same time, a dwarf named Ivan Bouldershoulder came to Hephaestus's lair, and Yharaskrik, eager to have privacy from the other two minds, possessed him. However, Ivan was able to fight him off and regain control of his body. Upon his return to the Ghost King, Yharaskrik realized that he was no longer welcome. Both the Crenshinibon and Hephaestus wanted to move against their enemies personally and were tired of the illithid's caution getting in their way. Yharaskrik was banished from the dracolich, and his soul was left to die.
Free from caution, the Ghost King personally the Spirit Sauring, where some of the most powerful fighters in the world were now hold up. The dracolich was killed in the battle but returned to the Shadowfell and healed. It then created a dimensional rift and returned. This time, it nearly destroyed the temple in the battle but was once again killed. Cadderly followed him to the Shadowfell where he sacrificed his life to set up wards to prevent it from ever returning. The Ghost King spent the rest of its existence in the desolate world of Shadows.
Powers and Abilities[]
Prior to becoming the Ghost King, Hephaestus was already a powerful creature, being a red dragon. His massive size, claws, teeth, and fire breath made it so he could kill most of his opponents easily. He also had wings to fly, but didn't use them much, since he seldom travelled.
Upon merging with the Crenshinibon and Yharaskrik he gained their power. The Crenshinibon's necromantic powers was given to the Ghost King, who could now raise zombie servants. In addition to this, the souls of the seven liches absorbed by the Crenshinibon were now outside of it, but their spirits were completely under the Ghost King's control. The powerful entities were useful for the dracolich's cause. The Ghost King was also given Yharaskik's power over the mind.
The Ghost King also had control over the Shadowfell, and could summon entities from it to serve in its army. This also made the dracolich practically immortal, since any time it died, it returned to the Shadowfell to heal, before coming back to the Material Realm stronger than ever.
Trivia[]
- The Ghost King is the only titular antagonist of Transitions to lose at the end of the book he is an antagonist in. Obould (the orc king; its arguable whether he is a villain in that book or not) created the orc kingdom he so desired and Kensidan (the pirate king) is able to transform Luskan into a free port.
External Links[]
- Hephaestus on the Forgotten Realms Wiki
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The Legend of Drizzt Villains | ||
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