• Casim Carnarvon Lore
• Gortcas Lore

Casim Carnarvon

Casim was always the stronger of the two, and their parents knew it. Malachi came into the Hells frail and malformed, while Casim was strong and grew fast. However, Casim was a hateful and malicious child. Yet, their mother doted on him the most, believing herself to be blessed by Asmodeus to birth greatness, and she endured every insult and cruel act that Casim threw her way. Malachi, despite being weaker and unloved, also adored his twin. He followed Casim everywhere he went and tried to imitate him, desperate for his approval, even if Casim mocked and harmed him whenever the possibility arose. Sometimes, Casim would show him scraps of 'mercy' by teaching him lessons in cruelty and violence, usually by practicing on helpless, lesser devils. Casim still grew up isolated and preferred to be alone, not that there were many other 'children' aside from his brother. He thrived in his solitude and took great pleasure in tormenting weaker devils—he’d hang them on pikes until they bled out or feed them rocks until their stomachs couldn’t take it anymore.
Malachi was always there—less out of choice and more out of his growing, unhealthy obsession with his brother. His admiration soon turned into an incestuous desire to be closer to Casim, which Casim did not reciprocate. Instead, it angered him, and his resentment towards his twin only grew.

Late Childhood

After that, Casim left his childhood home in Avernus. Malachi begged Casim to allow him to follow, and though Casim wanted to refuse him, he also recognized that Malachi shared some of his talents. So, for the time being, Casim allowed him to come along, if only until he became more of a burden than an asset.Casim set out for Nessus, the deepest layer of the Hells and home to Asmodeus and the greatest infernal army, the moment he and Malachi left their childhood home. Malachi tried to talk him out of it, warning him that Malsheem, Asmodeus’ fortress-city, was no place for nameless children. But Casim told him he refused to waste away in Avernus, a realm he thought fit only for lesser devils.There was no direct path to Nessus, especially not from Avernus. Their journey took over a year, a trek that included a crossing of the river Styx to reach the layer. They survived, more or less unscathed, but once they reached Malsheem’s gates, they were, unsurprisingly, turned away instantly. They had no title, no standing, and no one to vouch for them. While the twins lingered around, desperate for a way in, they were approached by a devil named Yoziel Veyth Vale. Yoziel introduced himself as the head of The Organization, which was also known as the Whispers of Cania amongst devils.Yoziel revealed that their father had belonged to The Organization—and by extension, to Mephistopheles. His soul had already been claimed, but as a final act of revenge, his contract also doomed his children to the same fate. Casim thought he had finally won some sort of freedom when he left home, only to have it torn away as Yoziel brought them into Cania’s hidden city, buried deep beneath the frozen surface with only Mephistopheles’ citadel visible on the surface – Mephistar.

After Yoziel finished reciting the contract, it took hold immediately, binding Casim and Malachi to Mephistopheles and placing them under Yoziel’s authority. They were to serve as true incubi in The Organization.Casim brought The Organization trouble from the very beginning. Even after a year, he refused to bend. He fulfilled only what the contract demanded, and devil contracts always left wiggle room. He studied his contract from the moment he had it in his hands, trying to find every possible loophole to test the limits of it. He also refused to shapeshift or rely on the seduction spells incubi were trained to master, dismissing them as, "sex fiend tricks," that were beneath him. His pride insisted he did not need them to command attention. His defiance made him a constant nuisance for The Organization and brought him many beatings and lashings. But Casim was also beautiful—striking, even by devil standards—and he didn’t fit cleanly into the existing hierarchy. Yoziel considered Casim too valuable a specimen to discard, no matter how much of a problem he was, so he demanded that Casim be protected and kept alive.Usually, young devils are trained for centuries before being trusted with missions. Casim, though, was different. His teachers envied and despised him in equal measure, eventually giving up trying to simply break him into obedience. Instead, they forced him into 'special missions' long before he was officially ready. Casim’s young age appealed to the vilest devils among the Hells, targets that often eluded otherwise. To The Organization, using him in this way was just another method of breaking his spirit while profiting from it.Casim, for his part, managed to adapt, though he had little choice otherwise. He learned to seduce, to manipulate, and to kill when necessary when he was only fourteen years old—and disturbingly, he grew good at it.Malachi, meanwhile, became mentally weaker after being separated from his brother. Unlike Casim, he lacked any will to resist. He submitted quickly and did everything demanded of him. By all accounts, Malachi took to the role of an incubus well, mastering especially the incubi art of transforming into whatever a person may desire perfectly. Yet even with his compliance and skill, he never earned the respect of those around him–-something that Casim did indeed succeed in later.

Early Time at the Organization

The Organization's headquarters are located in Mephistar. It's the residence for hundreds of incubi and succubi—specifically those who had not yet proven themselves enough to earn postings elsewhere. Casim spent the majority of his early years among them.Casim was disliked almost immediately. His presence drew attention, and this attention bred resentment. The others envied his appearance, his potential, and the fact that Yoziel seemed to see him as worth protecting and treated him as special. Casim did little to correct their opinions, as he was abrasive, arrogant, and openly dismissive of those he considered beneath him—which was everyone. A few years after Casim's arrival, a group of succubi made it their purpose to target and bully him in particular. They disliked the way he carried himself as though he were above them and how he held Yoziel’s favor, which was something that they also desired. Over the years, they attempted to stain his name and reputation, spreading word of his Abyssal nature, implying he was unstable, lesser, and unfit for the work of a true incubus. When they had the opportunity, they sexually assaulted him in his sleep while outnumbering him. They also targeted his beauty—one of the few sources of pride he had in those years. They would restrain him and cut away strands of his hair when they could, knowing how it unsettled him, or place illusions on reflective surfaces so that his own face appeared ugly and wrong. Back then this only fueled his vanity, warping his self-perception until it became an obsessive fixation. His appearance became the single measure of worth he allowed himself and others, and everything else fell short.This continued for several years. The succubi were trained by The Organization as well, and therefore difficult to harm or corner. Casim’s hatred and resentment grew with time. He returned the cruelty where he could—directed not at them, but at any succubus he encountered in his day, matching the bullying with acts of violence that grew more skilled as he studied the arts. As he could not reach the actual succubi who had harmed him for so long, the anger he carried generalized into a hatred for all female creatures.

Casim endured it for years, continuing to rise through the ranks and building up a reputation and prestige of his own. Yoziel took note of this early on. He was acutely aware of what Casim endured under his command and chose not to intervene, as devils had no interest in protecting the weak from the strong, only in watching which side survived. What drew his attention was the manner in which Casim grew, gaining power without relying on souls, which was considered the 'standard path' to advancement among lesser devils. His strength instead came from the cultivation of his magical abilities, an art many, especially lower ranking, devils had long abandoned in favor of capturing souls through contracts or other means. He spent little time at headquarters and in Mephistar when he could avoid it, preferring isolation to improve himself.Meanwhile, Casim’s reputation spread outside The Organization. He was known and wanted, even by devils who saw The Organization as little more but a network of brothels, seeing him as merely a sex worker. Devils talked about him, requested him, and desired him. He became someone that high-ranking devils would specifically ask for, whether they wanted a private assassination that went unnoticed by Mephistopheles—which Yoziel did entertain, for the right price—or someone expensive to spend a night with.As Casim grew stronger, the bullying from the succubi slowed as well. By then, most of The Organization had started to avoid him, partly because of his connection to Yoziel, but also because of the things he had done. Word spread about the psychological and physical torment he had inflicted on not just his targets, but also on fellow incubi and succubi.Yet, Casim still did not go after the succubi who targeted him directly. Part of it was simple disdain, he wasn’t going to dirty his hands with succubus blood. Besides, killing members of The Organization was forbidden by contract, and doing so meant being branded a traitor to Mephistopheles, which was a death sentence.Over the years, he quietly sabotaged their work instead. He manipulated their mission targets or made sure those targets no longer responded to their charms. He interfered with their magic with small wards or subtle disruptions—just enough to make their influence fail. He never had to confront them directly, and they never confronted him. Casim made sure to quietly ruin whatever standing they had left in The Organization. He wanted them to simply lose their function and usefulness to Mephistopheles, while having to live with the slow, utter shame and humiliation of failed missions, being beaten and punished just as he was back then—if not worse.By the time they were called into court before Mephistopheles, they had nothing left. Their repeated failures were enough to warrant reduction into lemures. They were allowed a single defender, and conveniently, only Casim remained. When the time came, Casim simply stated that he did not even recall their names anymore, and therefore would not speak to their worth. With no defense, the sentence proceeded. They were painfully dissolved back into the mass of the Nine Hells with their identities erased. Casim left before the process was even finished. The point was not their physical defeat for once, but the fact that they had been forced to witness their own undoing, while being fully aware of who orchestrated it. For Casim, it was a return of control—something he had been denied for years. They could no longer touch him as he had moved too far beyond them.

Casim spent around sixty years within The Organization, using the time to build his power and to search for any possible way to free himself from his contract with Mephistopheles. During this period, he gained a reputation as a cruel torturer—someone who didn’t just take out his targets, but who took satisfaction in breaking them, physically and psychologically, before killing them. He was someone who dared to study and wield Abyssal magic to his own benefit, and still, he was respected. The early mockery that came from the rumor, thanks to Malachi’s loose tongue, that he might be half-demon faded away. He was now viewed as a devil who was violent and lawless, but disciplined in the manner devils valued.His vanity also grew during these years. To him, his looks were the reason he survived in the first place, and the reason he had been targeted and hurt. This contradiction turned into fixation, into obsession. He spent hours every day honing his body, pushing himself to exhaustion and shaping his appearance. It became his primary measure of worth, his own and everyone else’s. Everything he did paid off, which only reinforced the obsession. By the time he was fully grown up, he was desired and pursued even by important devils—spoken of as the incubus who refused to rely on shapeshifting or seduction magic, yet was still known first and foremost for his looks.

Killing of an Archduke

After around 50 years at The Organization, Yoziel entrusted Casim with the assassination of Avernus’ former Archduke and now-Warlord, Bel. The contract came from Belial, not from Mephistopheles, but Yoziel was not inclined to refuse an Archdevil. Bel had grown increasingly reckless in the Blood War, draining Avernus’s resources in his obsession with being the one who would finally destroy the Abyss. Removing Bel would stall the front and shift resources back to the lower layers of Hells, where Belial wanted them. Yet, Bel still operated under Zariel’s protection, which made a direct, political move impossible. An external kill was the only viable route, and The Organization existed for precisely that kind of work, given you held enough power in the Hells to contact them..Yoziel took a rare personal hand in arranging the mission. He desired a direct confirmation of what Cas had become under his guidance—his favorite asset, and something he considered his own creation. He ensured Cas access into a sacrificial site in Avernus, a place Bel often passed through to pray on his way to the front lines. Bel recognized him immediately. They never met, but Bel knew the reputation of The Organization and understood the reason he had been sent.The fight was straightforward. Bel fought like a commander used to crushing through armies, heavy and overwhelming, but Cas carried a blade forged of Canian ice, chosen specifically for its ability to prevent resurrection. In a single moment of carelessness he drove it up beneath Bel’s jaw, killing him instantly.Word spread quickly– Casim had killed the Warlord of Avernus with his own hands. From then on, his name carried weight throughout the Hells. Devils recognized him on sight, and more importantly, they respected him. Yoziel upheld his end of the contract. Casim was granted his own residence in Malsheem, in Nessus, a privilege given only to important devils.

Cas was hesitant, knowing that failure would mean being branded a traitor and executed immediately. But Raphael claimed that once he took the crown and killed his father, Mephistopheles’ contracts would be nullified—including Cas'. The promise of freedom clouded Cas’ judgment. He was already scheming how to take the crown for himself from Raphael afterward and ascend in Mephistopheles’ place. So he agreed in the end.

Raphael’s plan seemed sound at the time, however they made the calculation without knowing of Mephistopheles’ incubus (also from The Organization) that he had sent to Raphael to keep an eye on him. Raphael, attached to said incubus, was none the wiser of having been spied on.The heist moved smoothly at first, Raphael brought in a small handful of outside devils for manpower, and Cas led them through back passages in Mephistar he knew from his years under Yoziel. They slipped past the first wards and made it all the way to the vault, crown already in their hands, before the air got cold–That’s how Cas knew it went wrong. Mephistopheles had been aware the entire time. The guards hadn’t been absent either, they had been waiting. Before Cas could even turn around, Raphael had already taken the escape route he’d prepared for himself alone. The others died where they stood. Cas was the only one left when Mephistopheles appeared. The confrontation took place not in the vault, but on the roof of the citadel, the highest place in all of Cania. Cas stood alone, having no choice but to face the Archdevil whose contract he had tried to break. Running or begging would have been cowardly.Cas fought back bravely, even managed to wound him—enough to draw infernal blood. That however, only made things worse. Mephistopheles decided the punishment for this would be public. He split the ice of Cania itself so that every devil on the layer could hear Cas’ screams and see Cas’ blood seeping into the glacier beneath him. Before all of them, Mephistopheles tore the wings from Cas’ back and laid a curse on him: every pain Cas had ever inflicted on another (which is a mark that a devil’s soul bears) would now be returned to him, slowly, until it killed him.Mephistopheles let him fall, assuming he would die within days, living out his last breaths mocked by the devils of the Hells as he would attempt to find a cure. Instead, Malachi intervened. He dragged Cas out of Cania, and the two of them forced their way upward through the layers of Hell, fighting past devils trying to stop them. They reached Avernus and took the first portal they could find. Cas had little choice but to flee to the Material Plane, hearing his sentence of eternal exile carried and chanted through the Hells behind him as he vanished.

The Material Plane

On the Material Plane, Cas bled out and died, the curse took its full effect without Hells’ magic to dull it. However, the God of Murder, Bhaal, reached for his soul before it could be pulled back to the Nine Hells, now that Cas was within the grasp of mortal gods. Bhaal offered rebirth in exchange for a single drop of his divine blood to be mixed into Cas’ internal blood, believing that doing so would grant him control over Cas as a Bhaalspawn (as it would have for any mortal being) to be used as a chosen that would be able to overpower any other god’s. Cas accepted, he had nothing left to lose– But the outcome was not how Bhaal expected.

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