Ali-Ksir

In a land marked by feuding city-states, Sultan Emir Al-Malik I yearned to bring unity and power to his homeland. Fueled by desperation and ambition, he made a perilous pact with the ancient and manipulative demon known as Ali-Ksir. The cost of his rule would be his own soul, and in return, Ali-Ksir promised Emir the power to consume and collect souls, specifically the souls of two generals who would be entangled in an imminent skirmish. To solidify this pact, Emir received a mystical artifact—a screaming glass gem—that supposedly contained the captured souls of these generals.   Unbeknownst to Emir, the generals had also made their own pacts with Ali-Ksir, each hoping to end the relentless conflicts among the city-states. Ali-Ksir never truly collected the generals' souls, the screaming glass 'artifact' was just a mundane compound fabricated by Ali-Ksir, pseuo-sentient glass. Ali-Ksir was able to end the generals' contracts early causing their bodies to waste away, corroborating the fabricated story of soul consumption. This deception allowed Ali-Ksir to maintain control over Emir's rise to power and run his own propaganda machine.   As the plot thickened, it became clear that the outcome for Sultan Emir would have been the same regardless of the pact. Ali-Ksir had managed to extract one extra soul out of the deal and wrap up all three pacts in a much quicker time span. As Sultan Emir ascended to power, he became increasingly ruthless under the sinister influence of the demon. Eventually, when Ali-Ksir deemed the pact fulfilled, Sultan Emir met a mysterious and grim demise, his final breath echoing the demon's name, a haunting reminder of the dreadful bargain he had struck.