Ort+Sol: Leoric, the Skeleton King

by Whitney "Neinball" Fairchild - 7 years ago

“From the east shall come a monarch whose rule begins in blood and ends in bone. In the light of a comet he will die a third and final death…”

Leoric, King of Khanduras, was a proud figure who stood for justice and faith, but such ideals are but fleeting thoughts before Terror. The tale of Leoric and his family is one of the saddest within the world of Diablo and should serve as warning to those who would fight against the might of the Burning Hells.

Monarch of the Light

Leoric’s story begins far to East in the city of Kurast, the capital of the Zakarum faith. Not much is known of Leroic’s time in Kurast except that he was very devoted to his faith and a noble of some standing within the courts of Tranvical. The High Council of the Zakarum selected Leroic to be the new monarch of Khanduras and from there he set out to the lands of the West. Leroic brought with him an army of knights, paladins and priests that would become his Order of the Light to keep order under his rule. Alongside his martial forces he brought his family; his wife Asylla, his eldest son Aidan and his younger son Albrecht along with his most trusted advisor the Archbishop Lazarus. Unbeknownst to Leoric the decision by the High Council to send him and Lazarus to Khanduras had a far different goal in mind than bringing order to these leaderless lands. It would be this duplicitous plot that would ultimately bring about the downfall of the soon to be monarch and his entire family line.

Arrival in Khanduras

At this time there was no ruler of the kingdom of Khanduras, there are no texts that detail the history of Khanduras from the time of Rakkis’ march through the West to the arrival of Leoric. While the arrival of a new monarch from foreign lands did cause some misgivings from the natives, these rumblings were quickly quieted by the wise and just rule of King Leroic.

Lazarus convinced Leoric to establish his new seat of power in the ancient Horadric monastery near the town of Tristram. While originally skeptical of these broken down ruins Leoric’s son Albretch took to their new home. During this time the populace of Khanduras came to love their new king. Leoric was a good king, he established peaceful relationships with the neighboring kingdoms and grew trade routes so that his people prospered. Although Leoric’s family grew to love their new home Leroic began to find himself unnerved.

The Awakening of Terror

While Leoric was busy ruling his new kingdom, Lazarus was busy working on his true mission in Khanduras. Although the citizens of Tristram had long forgotten the true purpose of the Horadric monastery, Lazarus’s masters in Kurast had not. Lazarus’s true mission in Tristram was to free the Lord of Terror from the soulstone locked deep beneath the new capital of Khanduras. Upon being freed Diablo’s essence reached out to find a powerful being to be his host and his sights fell directly upon Leoric. Diablo, however, was overconfident in his strength after being imprisoned for a few hundred years as he wasn’t able to outrightly possess the strong willed Leoric and this started a secret battle for the mind of the king of Khanduras.

The Reign of the Black King

Leoric’s pride and his devotion to the Zakarum faith is what helped him fight off Diablo’s initial attempts at possessing him, but these qualities would also spell his downfall. Leoric could sense that something was attempting to enter his mind and influence his thoughts but he chose to hide this fact from his priests and advisors thinking that he could exorcise this malicious corruption on his own, but he was sorely mistaken. Diablo waged a ceaseless war for Leoric’s mind and the strain broke the poor king’s sanity. Within a few months the once kind and just king had become cruel and paranoid. Leoric thought everyone was against him, everyone but Lazarus who was still secretly working for the Lord of Terror. Lazarus would whisper dark thoughts and ideas into Leoric’s ear further taking the king down the dark path of insanity. It wouldn’t be long before Leoric started executing citizens and royals for plots of conspiracy against the crown.

The people of Khanduras began to notice the change that had come over their once beloved lord, but there was little they could do. Anyone who questioned his authority was promptly executed. Leoric also began sending knights to villages to force them into submission to his new ways. Leoric, now known as the Black King, continued to lose his grip on reality and his court began to question whether he was still fit to rule. Not even his own wife was spared. Leoric personally executed Asylla himself at the suggestion of Lazarus. Lazarus began to sense trouble brewing within the circles of the king’s advisors and hatched a plan to convince Leoric that the neighboring kingdom of Westmarch was planning to invade Khanduras. Leoric’s blind trust in Lazarus sent him into frenzy upon hearing of the false rumors of impending war. The advisors’ pleas and warning against the conflict fell on deaf ears and for their troubles many were either executed or sent to Einsteg on diplomatic missions. Leoric’s elder son, Aidan, and his captain of the royal guard, Lachdanan, were sent to the front lines to lead the forces of Khanduras. With all obstacles now removed Lazarus continued his mission to find a suitable host for Diablo to possess.

The Darkening of Tristram

Despite the battle of wills that had transpired over the past few months a portion of Leoric’s spirit continued to ceaselessly fight against Diablo’s attempts at possession. Leoric had done the impossible and successfully fought off Diablo’s essence but this feat of sheer willpower could hardly be called a victory, Leoric was left a broken man and all pretense of sanity had long been shed by the now Mad King of Khanduras. Leoric’s suffering was far from over , even though Diablo no longer sought control of Leoric’s soul he still would inflict horrific pain upon the mad monarch. Diablo and Lazarus had turned their sights to Leoric’s younger son Albretch and soon the boy would act as the vessel that would bring Terror into the mortal world once more. When Leoric learned of his son’s disappearance he went into a blood-thirsty rage, in his eyes the townspeople of Tristram had stolen his son and they would pay. He began to have the remaining townspeople rounded up for mass executions.

By the time that Diablo had given up on trying to possess Leoric the war in the West had gone horribly wrong. The meager army of Khanduras could do little against the war machine that were the Knights of Westmarch. The forces of Westmarch were better equipped, better trained, had superior numbers and merely had to defend their own lands. Leoric’s armies were routed and Lachdanan saw continued effort against Westmarch as futile, he ordered what was left of his men to return to Khanduras. When Lachdanan arrived back in Tristram he confronted Leoric, but in the king’s maddness he only saw his once most trusted knight as a vile traitor to the throne. Leoric ordered Lachdanan to be executed but the former captain of the guard fought through the palace guards and finally brought an end to the Mad King’s reign.

As Lachdanan’s blade pierced Leoric’s heart the king let loose an unearthly scream and fully gave into the forces of darkness that had been gnawing at his soul. With his dying breath Leoric spat a dark curse upon Lachdanan and what few survivors that had sided with the former captain.

Rise of the Skeleton King

Although Leoric had plunged the kingdom into chaos and darkness he was still king and he would be honored as such in death, but there would be no peace for Leoric there either. Diablo had far more nefarious plans for the now dead king and used his newly reawakened powers to bring Leoric back from the grave. All vestiges of the once proud king were gone and all that was left was an entity of pure evil, the Skeleton King. Leoric immediately set about raising a massive army of the undead in the catacombs beneath the cathedral to lead an attack against the living on the surface.

During this time Leoric’s elder son, Aidan, had finally returned from the war only to be faced with the tales of his brother’s kidnapping and the madness of his father. Aidan went down into the catacombs and it was he that finally put his father’s long tormented spirit to rest. Having killed the corrupted spectre of his father, Aidan had no time to grieve and instead continued down into the catacombs to search for his brother, but Aidan’s sorrow was only just beginning… Aidan however would not live to see his father’s final torment.

Return of the King

Some twenty years after the original horror in Tristram the Falling Star would descend upon the ancient Cathedral and awaken the long resting dead. Enraged at his continued torment and the power of the Star fueling his thirst for justice for the wrongs committed against in his previous life, Leoric began raising an army of the dead yet again. This undead army and their king would only terrorize the citizens of Tristram for a few days as a new hero would arrive to put down the Mad King a third and final time. The Nephalem hero would fight through the hordes of the dead to confront the Skeleton King and at the end of the battle the Skeleton King would lie in pieces, Leoric’s soul could finally rest.