Nakroth

The Executioner's Blade

"All are equal before the executioner's blade."

Nakroth is the 23rd Hero in the game Arena of Valor, classified in the category of assassin and warrior.

Profile

 * Date of Birth: 20 Sep
 * Place of Birth: Kingdom of Norman
 * Height: 183cm
 * Age: 20
 * Status: Lokheim lord, former noble of Norman
 * Info: He often gets into fights with Zephys when the latter gets a Or too touchy.
 * Secrets: His favorite food is the flower pastries of Rosenberg. Deeply dislikes loud noises. Strongly dislikes physical contact, especially with men.

Introduction
Nakroth is a nimble Assassin with lightning mobility and incredible damage. Once targeted, few enemies can Escape Nakroth’s assassination.

Story
Where the first rays of sunrise meet the land, there is a silver castle resting high up a mountain, threatening to pierce through clouds and reach the limit of the sky. The chanting of a hymn floats in the wind, gentle and beautiful.

Nakroth opens his eyes and wakes up from the dream. Cold, blue flames flicker from a candlestick on a nightstand beside the bed. The ceiling that Nakroth is gazing at, like the room itself, is dimly lit by this hellfire from the abyss.

Lifeless, Nakroth thinks, but of nothing in particular.

He allows himself to stay like this for a few more minutes before getting out of bed. Breastplate and cuisses… he wears everything in order with a great amount of care and concentration—he does not like it when things are out of his control. Yet today, perhaps because of his dream about the past, or perhaps simply because he has nothing to do at the moment, Nakroth stops in front of the mirror right before putting on his helmet.

The man in the reflection does not look at all the same as creatures native of the Inferi: he has a pair of scarlet eyes, delicate facial features, soft skin, and long, silver hair that cascades down his shoulders like a waterfall.

He looks like a Veda. In fact, he used to be one of the Vedäs, living in the mountain range of Mount Orün, serving Ilumia in the Temple of Light. It is always easy for Nakroth to recall the image of the temple from his memory, even though he has long lost count of the years and decades since he has left it.

Staring into his own visage stirs a well of madness inside Nakroth. He was not one of them, and will never be. A life for a life, a soul for a soul; that is what Nakroth has always believed in, not laws that give murderers a second chance, not prisons that feed and clothe thieves and thugs.

That is mercy—and mercy means weakness.

Solemnly sliding on his intimidating helmet, Nakroth cuts off all recollections of the past and exits the room.

He did not expect to find Preyta in the office.

“You could’ve had someone inform me of your arrival,” Nakroth says as he closes the door behind him.

“It is not my intention to rush you, my lord.” Preyta bows. His dry, hollow voice cuts through the air like a saw.

“May I know what brings you here?”

“It’s lord Maloch. He wishes that we can work together in the gathering of souls, for the expansion of his army.”

Nakroth knows full well of Preyta’s power: how he can spread disease and pestilence in the snap of a finger, how he can easily produce a pile of corpses that otherwise takes one a whole month to accumulate, and how he can be a great tool for punishing those Nakroth has deemed sinned. Still, at the thought of the plague’s aimless and undifferentiated killing, Nakroth grows disgusted.

“I don’t think we’d make a great team.”

“You speak my mind, my lord,” Preyta sounds delighted by their rare agreement. “But lord Maloch seems to be very fond of you. He insists you have someone to help you accomplish this task.”

Help me or keep an eye on me? A sneer curls Nakroth’s lip beneath the helmet. He does not care whether Maloch trusts him or not. He did not come to the Inferi to impress him.

“Fine,” Nakroth says. “But we’ll do things my way: I have the right to choose the souls we need, and those we don’t.”

“Certainly.”

Indeed, Nakroth may not have come to the Inferi to impress anyone; yet he did come to the Inferi to overthrow the orders that the Temple of Light has established. Once the light is extinguished, the darkness will be the next to fall.

He will kill until there is only one true order remaining in the world: the only just and righteous order that he upholds.

Lore
Nakroth was born in a valley in the Kingdom of Norman. Compared to the fertile central plain and the economically prosperous western coast, the valley was an isolated rural backwater. Despite being born into a noble family, Nakroth was a country boy through and through. Back then, little Nak was still unaware that he was different from others born into a noble family.

However, this all changed when he went to the capital for the first time.

Fate had afforded his father, an earl, the opportunity to take his most outstanding child to the capital for an audience with his lord. To him, this was a supreme honor. However, for little Nak, the joy and excitement of the journey would soon be marred by series of unpleasant experiences. The new "friends" he made seemingly treated him with respect, but this could not hide the disdain they clearly had for the country boy.

Nakroth was both sensitive and proud, and after a brief period of dejection, he began to actively change the way he dressed and spoke as he tried to fit into the new world in which he found himself. These efforts required considerable expense, but the earl believed the money was well spent.

After all, he could see that his son was becoming one with the future of the kingdom.

However every jouney must come to an end. On the day when Nakroth left, his new friends held a grand banquet in his honor. Nakroth's name had become etched in the minds of the nation's leaders.

After returning to the valley, Nakroth did not maintain his noble demeanor as his father hoped he would. Instead, he took off his robes of silk, put on his old rustic clothes, and listened to the sounds of the common people as he walked through the fields.

"I wanted to prove that I can achieve anything I put my mind to," Nakroth explained to his father, "but that life is not for me."

To have an heir such as Nakroth, the earl was truly fortunate, as were the people of the valley. Even when war suddenly broke out, every mother and father believed that it would not destroy the tranquility of their homeland, for the benevolent and strong Nakroth would surely lead their children to glory and return them home safely.

Events would indeed prove that Nakroth was a genius the likes of which the Kingdom of Norman had not seen for centuries. His understanding of warfare and instinctive aptitude for strategy far exceeded what was expected from someone so young. His successive victories on the battlefield, coupled with support and encouragement from his ol friends in the capital, quickly saw Nakroth become a highly celebrated war hero.

However, as the war dragged on, Nakroth became ever more withdrawn and felt increasingly conflicted. He had begun to realize that the so-called war was nothing more than a game between the rich and powerful members of the two kingdoms. Both sides originally wanted to defeat the other, but after realizing that such an outcome was unlikely, they began to use the was as an opportunity to pillage wealth. Civilians became slaves without rights, farms became barren wasteland, and even the weaker neutral lords were driven from their territories, after which their castles, gold, jewels, horses, ironware, food, livestock, and even people were reduced to spoils up for grabs by the cold hands of greed.

Nakroth protested at what was happening. However, the king was the greatest winner of this game. The old man did not blame Nakroth. After all, the young can be impetuous.

He wrote a long, friendly letter to comfort Nakroth as he fought on the front line.

After reading the letter, Nakroth locked himself indoors and did not set foot outside for three days.

The next time his knights saw him, the young commander issued a series of strange orders. Before long, the army called the Blood Knights became known far and wide, even in the enemy Kingdom of Okka.

They never lose, they show no mercy,

and they leave no survivors.

It was only now that people witnessed the full extent of Nakroth's natural aptitude for warfare: His forces were unstoppable as fire, swift as the wind, tenacious as wolves, and cunning as foxes.

His fearsome reputation was built on mountains of corpses and carried by rivers of blood,

yet Nakroth did not enjoy killing; he was simply using the most direct means of bringing the farce of a war to an end.

However, there were inevitably those who were displeased by his actions, among both his allies and his enemies. The tacit understanding between the two sides finally brought the dominance of the hitherto undeated Blood Knights to a grisly end: Nakroth's forces were caught off-guard by an intricate ambush. The stream of enemy soldiers seemed unending and reinforcements never arrived.

His back to a hill, Nakroth struggled to hold out against the onslaught until he was finally forced to abandon his delusion, smashing a path through the attackers and fleeing.

A contingent of hundreds of knights and over a thousend of attendants was reduced to only seven men and nine horses.

After retuning from his defeat, Nakroth was still treated with respect, for the wise king knew that the young man could still create much wealth for Norman. Of course, this would only be feasible as long the royal court could bring him to heal and ensure that his loyalty lie with the king and the king alone.

However, Nakroth chose to decline.

He held tightly in his hand a black, shiny fingernail. It was a gift from a demon, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it an invitation.

With his remaining comrades, Nakroth left the front line, but he did not return to the valley.

Everyone is now terrified by the knowledge that he will one day return.

Relationship

 * Friend and Foe: Zephys
 * Subservience: Maloch
 * Royal foe: Thane

Skins

 * Nakroth: Nightmare
 * Nakroth: Demonic
 * Nakroth: Neon
 * Nakroth: Vanquisher's Gift
 * Nakroth: Mecha Templar
 * Nakroth: Thunor and Fulgora
 * Nakroth: Cybercore

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Balance changes
Old stats:

Trivia

 * 1st of November 2016 — introduction of Nakroth.