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It is said that Meldrath had a conjoined twin with whom he
was connected at the chest. One boy's heart was as pure as the waters of the
Vasty Deep and his eyes shone with a beautiful light and the other's heart was
as dark and cold as the waters of the Ink Sea and his eyes were as black as two
pools of oil. Their two hearts beat as one, each balanced by the extreme of the
other. So balanced were they, in fact, that they were both known as Meldrath
because no one thought of them as two, let alone suspected the extremes of their
souls. They lived in peace, gliding through Ak'Anon wrapped in each other's arms
like slow dancers.
Meldrath's mother, however, wanted the two sons she thought
she deserved and constantly sought a way to disconnect them. One day
Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, ruler of the Plane of Mischief disguised himself as a
healer and gave their mother a magic sword to disconnect them. She ran home and,
finding them asleep, plunged the sword between them. Both were unharmed and the
two rubbed their eyes sleepily.
She rejoiced, but as she looked from one to the other she
noticed for the first time that one was beautiful and the other ugly. One looked
at her with loving, sweet eyes and the other with hatred.
Suddenly, the beautiful Meldrath began to rise higher and
higher into the air. His mother screamed and tried to hold him down but the ugly
Meldrath bit her leg and stomped on her foot. The beautiful Meldrath floated up
to the surface of Norrath and into the sky and was never seen again.
The extent of the ugly Meldraths wickedness and insanity was
not at first apparent to the citizens of Ak'Anon. Meldraths temper tantrums and
fits of rage abated as he matured yet still he had the look of hatred in his
eyes, thus found few friends amongst his fellow gnomes. Those who did associate
with the ugly spiteful Meldrath tended to be other gnomes of notorious repute.
Eventually Meldrath managed to join the Eldrich Collective
under the tutelage of a wizard who believed Meldrath was simply suffering from a
traumatized youth and could yet become a respectable citizen of Ak'Anon. To the
surprise of many and the pleasure of his mentor, Meldrath excelled at the
wizardly arts and quickly rose through the ranks of the Eldrich Collective.
Meldrath became particularly fascinatged: some would say obsessed, with magic
that dealt with teleportation, translocation, and alternate planes of existence.
Meldrath's talent for the sorcerous arts grew to the point
where he was rivaled, if not excelled, his mentors and he began to select pupils
of his own to aid him with his research into what he called "other worlds". It
was obvious to those who associated with Meldrath that he sought something in
these other worlds, but whatever it was, Meldrath never spoke of it. Then one
day, Meldrath was gone. Meldraths pupils did not admit to knowing the
whereabouts of their mentor, or the nature of his passion with other worlds.
It is not known precisely when Meldrath returned to Ak'Anon,
but it has been estimated based on events that we now know were tied to
Meldraths return. Over a period of time Meldraths pupils began to also vanish
from the Library Mechanamagica, despite the Eldrich Collectives inquiries into
the disappearances no clue as to the nature of the disappearances were found.
The mines of Ak'Anon had long been used as a source of
materials for the construction of Ak'Anons clockwork guards and servants. That
changed the day the whereabouts of the missing sorceror Meldrath and his pupils
were discovered. The miners that toiled in the mines had gone to the mines early
that morning and did not return to their homes and families that night. King
Ak'Anon ordered a small patrol of guards to investigate the whereabouts of the
miners and they to did not return from the mines. What did emerge that night,
shortly after the patrol entered the mines, were creatures of death, shadow, and
flame.
The animated corpses of the miners, along with creatures
summoned from other worlds stalked the tunnels of Ak'Anon slaying and destroying
all in their path and swelling their numbers with the animated corpses of the
freshly dead. By the time King Ak'Anon could organize the Gemcutters, Eldrich
Collective, and Deep Muses to defeat the monstrosities the devastation had
reached proportions never before afflicted upon the city of Ak'Anon. A powerful
charm was cast by the most powerful of the Eldrich Collective that temporarily
nullified the use of magic within Ak'Anon while the Gem Cutters and Deep Muses
fought their way through th tunnels of Ak'Anon towards the mines.
When the forces of King Ak'Anon reached the mines they found
them devastated far worse than the rest of the city. The mechanical mining
apparatuses utilized by the miners had been destroyed and the clockwork miners
and ore haulers had been reprogrammed to slaughter. To the chagrin of the good
gnomes of Ak'Anon, Meldrath and his minions had already fled the city, their
tainted seed of corruption already planted.
Meldrath and his apprentices, exiled from Ak'Anon and
collectively dubbed the Asylum of the Mad, began construction of a fortress deep
in the Steamfont Mountains. For years the Asylum of the Mad constructed
clockwork war-machines, far more advanced than any clockworks previously
constructed by the tinkers, that plagued the Watchmen of Ak'Anon.
Meanwhile Meldrath's influence festered within Ak'Anon, in
what are now known as the Mines of Malfunction. Evil gnomes practicing the dark
arts first brought to Ak'Anon by Meldrath the Mad took refuge in the destruction
of the mines where they practiced their dark arts and recruited other gnomes to
their wicked ways. These evil gnomes, surrounded by death and destruction,
abandoned their patron deities Brell Serilis and Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, and
vowed allegiance to the dark god, Bertoxxulous. Thus the Dark Reflection was
born. Eventually the Asylum of the Mad were captured, slain, or disappeared,
never to be seen again. Meldrath however remains at large, plotting and
executing his mad schemes. The mad sorceror has somehow earned the allegiance of
a tribe of minotaurs that capture gnomes to toil in Meldraths mines and complete
his twisted mechanical fortress. Many of the Eldrich Collective have speculated
as to the nature of Meldraths madness and talents with both sorcery and
mechanics. As long as Meldrath still lives they may have a chance to discover
the answers they seek.
After his separation with his evil conjoined twin, the good
Meldrath ascended into the planes. What deity is responsible for his ascension
is unknown, but most attribute the act to Bristlebane Fizzlethorpe, the deity
that provided Meldrath's mother with the means to separate her sons. A
demi-plane came into existence as the good Meldrath ascended to the realms of
the gods. This young demi-plane, the Plane of Innovation, was ideally suited for
the purest and brightest of any gnome to ever walk the face of Norrath, and its
ruler was to be Meldrath the Marvelous.
Meldrath matured from his childhood in his new home
surrounded by clockwork companions of his own design and an endless stockpile of
supplies for which to tinker marvels never before imagined by mortal or god. For
decades Meldrath the Marvelous tirelessly planned and constructed his mechanical
marvels while his brother, Meldrath the Malignant, honed his magical abilities
on Norrath and sought the whereabouts of his lost "perfect" sibling.
Eventually through his intensive study and mastery of spells
dealing with teleportation, translocation, and the planes, Meldrath the
Malignant discovered what had become of his lost brother. The rage and hatred
that festered in Meldrath the Malignant's black heart overcame him and he was
driven mad with jealousy and a desire to best his "perfect" brother that had
been gifted as a child with immortality.
While his brother was gifted with an amazing mind for logic,
reason, and invention, Meldrath the Malignant was gifted, or some would say
cursed, with a passion, a thirst for power, and a talent for the magical arts.
It was not long before he found a way to penetrate the barrier between worlds
and enter the Plane of Innovation to seek his revenge. Meldrath the Malignant
quietly performed a ritual in the confines of his study at the Library of
Mechanamagica and unbeknownst to the Eldrich Collective or his own pupils,
transported himself to the Plane of Innovation.
Cloaked in magical darkness and silence, Meldrath the
Malignant slipped past the clockwork guards and alarm systems with ease, not
realizing that he surely would have been detected if not for his resemblance to
his goodly brother, the clockworks did not recognize the look of hatred in the
evil Meldraths eyes or see deep enough to notice his sickly black heart. Thus
Meldrath the Malignant moved unhindered through the Plane of Innovation,
sabotaging the creations of Meldrath the Marvelous and stealing many of his
diagrams and plans for mechanical constructs.
When his work was done, Meldrath the Malignant hastily
retreated from the Plane of Innovation but by some mishap of his teleportation
spell, ended up in a place called New Tanaan. The planar city baffled the
already mad gnome so he stuck to the shadows cloaked again in magical darkness
and silence. Huddled quietly out of sight, Meldrath the Malignant observed magic
the likes of which he had never seen, and thus immediately desired to possess
it.
Stealing a magical tome and the reagents necessary for his
teleportation spell from a Teir'Dal inhabitant of New Tanaan, Meldrath once
again performed his ritual to return home and this time succeeded in arriving at
his study in Ak'Anon.
In order to prevent his fellow sorcerors of the Eldrich
Collective from discovering his pilfered clockwork diagrams and Teir'Dal tome,
Meldrath the Malignant gathered his most prized possessions from his study and
snuck deep into the mines beneath Ak'Anon to study the tome that would bring the
secrets of the dark arts of Necromancy to the Gnomes of Ak'Anon.
After his brother's retreat from the Plane of Innovation, it
quickly became apparent to Meldrath the Marvelous that something was amiss.
Meldrath hastily attempted to undo the damage that had been wrought but was
overcome by the sabotaged machinations and imprisoned by his own creations. It
is in this prison within the plane of his own design where Meldrath the
Marvelous remains in captivity.
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