
Skorid the Halfspawn Lore: Official Story
Skorid is reviled in Teleria as the Living Curse. Originally a favored servant of the Dreamwalker, Skorid’s ambition and craving for forbidden knowledge of curse-magic led him through a portal to Anathraad to be transformed from Elf into Demonspawn. Grotesque wings of bone and leathery hide erupted from his back, his strength multiplying and his arcane power surging. Wielding a massive two-bladed weapon, one end a cleaving sword and the other a cruel scything hook, Skorid returned to Teleria to spread misery and fear.
Skorid took with him powerful curses whispered into his ear by Siroth himself. They rattled around in his head, each with a will of their own and longing to escape. He muttered and rasped and shouted almost incessantly in an uncanny growl like jagged shards of rock and crystal being scourged with a rusty rake. Mortals anywhere near him shook violently and bled from their eyes and ears as Skorid’s curses wormed their way into them. Stone even cracked around him, plants putrefied, and water spoiled. So terrible was the Living Curse that he commanded the attention of previously hidden Lightbringers determined to stop him from blighting the realm. Thus, for all his strength, it was not long before Skorid suffered his first of many deaths in a ferocious battle with the Lightbringer Leminisi.
His body was destroyed, disintegrated by holy magic. But, thanks to Siroth’s Scourge of Darkness, he was reborn in the wretched, burbling spawning pits of that dark realm’s foulest depths. His sinews were re-knitted, liquefied organs reformed, and shattered bones cracked back into place. He felt, but endured, everything. After several years, Skorid emerged as good as new. Siroth imbued his favored experiment with fresh curses through blood-rites and ancient words of fell power, and sent Skorid back. Over the decades, this pattern of death, rebirth, curse-mongering, and invasion repeated many times.
But Skorid grew impatient. Though each rebirth within the spawning pits was slightly easier than the last, his thirst to spread hexes and woe grew more and more acute as they part-begged and part-ordered him to spread their foul influence. Partway through his latest resurrection, he was seized with fervor and struggled in his half-formed shell to break free. He succeeded, but forever twisted himself in the process.
No longer did Skorid bear huge and frightful wings, only malformed stumps. His once mighty physique was now gaunt and wiry, his muscles having yet to weave themselves into their full glory. His gnashing teeth formed a permanent grimace in his lipless mouth, and his incomplete face was so grotesque and painful that he hid it behind an iron helm. Even his signature weapon emerged from the pits corroded and unfinished. When Skorid repented his mistake and leapt back into the pits, they burned him like acid and rejected him. It was too late.
Siroth heaped scorn and humiliation upon Skorid, stoking the Demonspawn’s self-loathing and instilling in him a burning desire to atone for his impulsiveness. Skorid came to believe that if he could corrupt all Teleria for his master, Siroth would use his personal power to recreate his original Demonic form. Strung along by this hope, Skorid redoubled his efforts to serve as a living vessel for Siroth’s vilest curses. Other Demons now called him the Halfspawn, in equal mockery and revulsion.
Though far from the combatant he once was, Skorid remained dangerous, and his jagged and pitted weapon was no less capable of causing horrendous wounds. His twisted body, along with his spite and malice reaching new heights, made him an even more effective conduit for dark magic the curses fed on his festering hatred and constant pain. His Halfspawn form was also easier and faster to reproduce in the spawning pits, meaning that his defeats bought Teleria’s defenders precious little time before he returned. Eventually the Arbiter herself was compelled to take action. With the help of several Sharded warriors and mages, she lured Skorid into a confrontation, slew him, and intercepted the Halfspawn’s soul as it departed. Instead of awakening in the spawning pits of Anathraad, Skorid was bound to a Shard. Siroth has noticed he has not returned. He will never know what has happened to him unless released.
It would take extraordinary circumstances, threats, and promises to wring obedience from Skorid, making his use to the Arbiter questionable. If nothing else, she has taken a potent weapon away from Siroth, and brought a measure of peace to Telerians, who need not fear the skinless, gibbering monstrosity that once stalked their lands.
So, Plarium got impatient and released a half formed champion instead of a Hound for all the Shy’ek owners?