Celian Maleficium

The Firstborn of Shadows

Celian Maleficium is not only the most infamous Nevaelyth in Ebbavion’s history - she is also the firstborn of her kind. Unlike other Nevaelyth who emerged passively from the ebbing tides of chaos, Celian was crafted intentionally by Linos, the god of darkness. She was designed as a paradox: to understand chaos so that it might be contained. But what Linos created instead was a vessel of deep, inner darkness - not malevolence, but a pure, infinite hunger for understanding, transformation, and dominion.

Celian did not fall to darkness. She was born with it burning in her core.

To this day she is known as one of the most powerful mages to ever walk the lands of Ebbavion, being the one responsible for the creation of demonkind and oppression of large parts of Ebbavion for more than 150 years. These accomplisments landed her a legend like reputation, her pure power and skill puzzling scholars and faithful to this day.

Ambition and Dominion

Her reign was not one of senseless destruction. It was conquest driven by vision. Celian believed that the gods had failed Ebbavion - that their complacency bred stagnation. Through arcane dominion, demonic progeny, and unforgiving order, she sought to replace divine will with her own.

She created artifacts of immense power, often buried beneath the ruins of cities she conquered or hidden within the vaults of fallen kings. Each was left with intent - a message, a curse, or a challenge. Scholars believe Celian’s passage through a region could be traced by the lingering corruption of her artifacts, strange nightmares, and anomalous magic.

Where she walked, civilizations either rose in her image or crumbled in defiance.

In 20013 BCE, the powerful necromancer created the demon species, sculpted from raw chaos and bound by her will. These were not twisted imitations of mortals but unique entities forged in purpose and might. Created from an twisted experiment, combinging multiple elemental souls into one body, they were so powerful that even the gods begrudgingly acknowledged demonkind as Gandor in their own right, despite lacking divine origin.

Some whisper that each demon was born from a different aspect of her soul: wrath, hunger, despair, seduction, pride, and loyalty. Each demon general of her armies was a living shard of her will, still hunting for her return.

The Wars Against the Gods

The gods could not ignore her growing empire. Xelene and Randia created the angels to oppose her Gandor and demons. Yet Celian crushed their hosts not once, but three times, in the Wars of Light and Darkness. It was only when Gretris and Linos personally intervened that Celian’s armies were scattered and demonkind imprisoned in the depths of the Realm of Chaos.

But Celian was never imprisoned.

She disappeared in 18979 BCE, her presence vanishing without trace. Even the gods were uncertain of her fate. She simply ceased to act - like a hand withdrawing from the board before the final move.

The Long Silence

After her disapperance, many theories arose, although most just hope her power was sealed away alongside her demons. Some claim she is still waiting in a state of suspended slumber in the shadows, waiting for a moment when the prisons of the gods weaken so her demons can rise again. Others believe her spirit was torn into multiple shards as the gods dispersed her magic when locking away demonkind for good. But one thing is for sure: She is still watching and never left, corrupting those who are careless and pulling the strings from the shadows in order to shape the next chapter of Ebbavion's history.

Whichever is the truth, her name remains a curse and a warning uttered by seers in fear and remembered by angels with loathing.

Legacy

The Spider Queen

Her daughter, Nirathael Maleficium, became a divine figure among the drow, rising as the Spider Queen. Though now a goddess in her own right, she openly acknowledges her mother as the source of her power. Celian is honored as an ancestral force - both feared and revered in drow scripture.

The Black Scripture

A fragmented tome believed to contain glimpses of Celian’s philosophy and forbidden spells. No known copy is whole. Some pages are bound in demon flesh, others etched into obsidian shards.

Artifacts