Sao Diasonori, Oyabun and master of undead, caused one of the greatest disasters of modern time, his doing marking the end of an era. The name and figure of Sao still inspires dread and fear in the hearts of men, and his power is still told in legend by the numerous bards and historians who chronicle the history of this most feared creature.

Hiro Diasonori, a nomad monk of Nypoh, who claims to be the last descendant of the Diasonori family, has the answers to those numerous doubts about his infamous ancestor. And is willing to reveal them to anyone who cares to listen. This strange man travels all across Nypoh, supposedly in penance for the innumerable atrocities commited by Sao. It was from this person that the information presented here was drawn.

Approximately 450 years ago, a beautiful maiden, the daughter of a rich oyabun of southern Nypoh, fell in love with a foreign merchant from another land. Her father, however, did not approve of this relationship, not only because the man was not of noble birth, but above all because he was a foreigner (many people in Nypoh are xenophobic). Based on this reasons, the oyabun ordered her daughter to never see the man again.

The love between them was strong, and they managed to have secret meetings on a nearby forest once a week. After doing so for a year or so, they married in secret. Fearing the wrath of the Oyabun (Yoshi Diasonori), the couple fled across the sea to Latis, and established a shop of rare spices.

A year later, Sao was born (he had his father's surname, but it is unknown), with the arrival of the child, everything seemed to go perfectly for the couple. But the father of the maiden hadn't forgotten the defiance of her daughter, and had hired many men to seek her out and bring her back, and one of those men already knew where she was.

By the Oyabun's orders, the father was killed and his shop burned to the ground, and the daughter and her child were taken back to Nypoh. Upon their arrival, the oyabun saw the child, and considered him a taint to the family and to his name. Ignoring her daughter's pleas, the oyabun sent one of his servants to abandon the child deep into the woods, so that the wild animals may take care of him.

The servant, however, was good-willed, and was not about about to leave a small child to die. Once in the forest, the servant found a traveller, a strange man covered in black cloth carrying a black scepter, the servant spoke to him, and pleaded him to take the child and save him from the oyabun's wrath. The man, in an act that puzzles historians to this day, agreed. This act puzzles historians because it is said that the man was the Dark One, probably the most misterious figure in the history of Raokrá, said to be the most powerful necromancer of all time. This same person supposedly instructed Naram Sun in the dark arts centuries after this incident.

Nothing is known about Sao's training with the Dark One, and not even Sao himself ever talked about it. The next known appearance of Sao ocurred 22 years later, when he appeared in Latis.

Sao became an adventurer, a wizard for hire, but contrary to what many believed, he was a good man, and fought evil whenever he could. As an apprentice of the Dark One, he knew full well of the teaching of the Dark One, the one that says that necromancers cannot escape the fate of turning to evil, but Sao believed that it was not so, and that necromancy could be used for good.

Sao spents many years adventuring, and building his already enormous powers. But he always felt a need to meet his mother, the Dark One had told him all he knew about it, of how a servant of the Diasonori family had given a baby to him all those years ago.

When he had made his fortune, Sao abandoned his party and parted towards Nypoh, in hopes of finding his mother. When he arrived at the house of the now old oyabun Diasonori, he was treated badly and the oyabun refused the whole story, even though Sao told him he held no resentment and all he wanted to do was see his mother.

As he was leaving the house, an old woman beckoned him. The woman revealed himself to be the one who delivered him to the Dark One, and told him all of her mother's story, including that a few weeks after her baby was taken to the forest, she had killed herself, and now laid in an unmarked grave, since she was a shame to her family.

Sao was enraged, to say the least, he ordered the woman to run away as fast and as far as she could, his eyes were that of a madman. On the next full moon, the halls of the Diasonori house ran with blood as Sao slew every single inhabitant, and then burned the structure to the ground. The oyabun did not die that night, he was turned into a life of undeath, destined to walk the very woods in which he had ordered to abandon Sao for as long as he lived (?).

Sao returned to Latis and resumed his life and studies as if nothing had happened. His power had grown impressively, and in order to augment it further, he became a lich, seeing this as a logical step in the hopes of harnessing the true power behind necromancy. Even in this condition, Sao was still known to be a good man, and never used his powers for evil.

A few years later, hired mercenaries of the few remaining descendants of the Diasonori family arrived to Latis. They went to Sao's former battle companions and told them all about his horrible deeds (not mentioning the oyabun's wickedness, of course). The former companions, believing that Sao had finally fell to the lure of evil, decided to kill him before it was too late.

On the night the warriors decided to take action against Sao, he had finally found what he was looking for, what he believed to be the power from which all necromantics flowed from, he had discovered an entire dimension of negative energy (the plane of Chaos). Seeking to explore his discovery, he locked himself in his lab and began a spiritual travel, sending his soul to explore the dark dimension while his defenseless and near inert body remained behind.

When the warriors and mercenaries arrived, Sao was still travelling through the plane of Chaos, oblivious to his surroundings. And as such, it was child's play to destroy Sao's body, after which they believed him to be dead.

Sao did not die, but his soul was trapped in the plane of chaos. A dimension that was unlike what Sao expected, it was wild, and his very spirit was constantly being torn apart by entropic forces. The fact that Sao's soul was not destroyed in the plane of Chaos makes sages believe that Rao or some powerful force of Chaos had a role in this.

After what seemed an eternity (time is not the same in the plane of Chaos), Sao somehow learned some degree of control over the entropic forces that surrounded him, and eventually managed to coalesce a small part of chaos into a somewhat material form. A form he inhabited and used to return to reality.

When he returned amidst the destruction caused by the opening of the vortex, several centuries had passed, and the person that Sao once was, was no more. He had been driven mad by his time among Chaos, and now all that remained was an incredibly powerful creature with an enormous hatred for all living things.

History does not chronicle the true purpose behind the year of the dead, but Hiro Diasonori claims to know it, a claim that the remaining lords of soul and steel had agreed to, and is as follows;

Sao was angered at the whole world, seeing how his family and former friends had wronged him so much, he saw all the misery and suffering of the world, and in his madness, he had found the reason behind it all; People, cold, evil, greedy, dirty people, people were free to do as they pleased, and it was this freedom that made them do horrible things.

The year of the dead was not meant to destroy just for the sake of destroying, Sao believed that a world filled with undead would be an utopia, a perfectly working society where everyone would do his part and never complain or want more.

This, it is said, was the madness filled true purpose behind a disaster that killed thousands of persons, old, young, men, women and children.