Frozen Souls of Rais

Gilles de Rais had long abandoned all the precepts of the honor to which once hailed him a great knight, brother-inarms to the incomparable Joan of Arc. His object now was to dazzle her by his unrivalled powers and the prodigies of forbidden sorcery. His obsession led him down to the very ancient and malevolent arts of ice magic-a type of sorcery feared by so many, able to bind and imprison the soul. Such was his derangement that Gilles really seemed to feel that mastering the dark sorcery might prove himself worthy of the admiration of Joan, long since gone from the world.

His castle, situated in the cold regions of Darkeden Awaken, once the badge of his nobility, was to become a fortress of nightmares. Gilles encased his stronghold in a barrier of ice so cold and malevolent that it defied the natural order. The path to the castle was treacherous, lined with deadly ice spells that would freeze any intruder in place, their hearts turned to ice within their chests. The air around the castle crackled with dark energy, a chilling warning to all who dared approach. The actual dread had been inside the castle-the souls of innocents chained there in eternal, icy torture.

Gilles had snatched the lives of dozens and dozens of children, promises of safety and warmth leading them to his castle. There, he employed his repellent form of sorcery and bound their souls to the walls of the place, essence retained by torturous agony. These souls fueled his power, which was the only thing controlling the ice magic surrounding his fortress. The castle seemed to live, as if the echoes of the children`s cries reverberated along the halls, their suffering feeding the dark spells that protected Gilles from his enemies.

He wore a necklace around his neck unlike any other-a pendant surrounded by beads, each bead infused with the soul of a child. The pendant formed the heart of the necklace, wherein lay the essence of the magic binding their souls to his will. This necklace was a source of his immense power, commanding the icy forces that surrounded his castle and ensured dominance over all who sought to challenge him. "They use magical jewels to control their power. Each of the masters has necklaces made of such jewels," he would mutter, obsessed with his dark creation. "The pendant is the essence of the magic."

Where his power grew, his madness did, too. Gilles de Rais, once the great knight of dkAwaken, had now become a monster, driven by an unappeasable hunger for more souls to feed his icy empire. The castle of ice and death became his prison, much as it had been to the children whose lives he had stolen. Trying to impress Joan of Arc, he had damned himself, and his soul was as cold and twisted as the magic he wielded. But even then, at his most desolate, he could not avoid the voices of the children, forever echoing in his mind with their cold whispers, reminding him of the cost of his ambition.