Ebon

A stooped colossus draped in a ragged bone‑white shroud of chains; height indiscernible beneath gaunt layers of sinew and bone. His skin is an ashen canvas marred by countless fracture‑scars, each etched with faded runic script. Around his shoulders coil living chains—each link a demon‑forged vertebra, polished to a sickly sheen. The chains slither like serpents, biting into his flesh where they meld. His left arm has fused entirely into a mass of rib and spine segments, forming a grotesque club; the right is gnarled, jointless, ending in a blunt stub. His hollow eye‑sockets drip thick, amber ichor, and his jaw is wired shut with bone pins, forcing him to rasp commands in grinding echoes. With every breath, his chest rattles like a distant tomb door. His legs, bowed and tethered by chain‑fetters, leave scorched footprints as he lumbers. A stench of burnt marrow and old dust clings to him, and faint rattling accompanies his every step.

Jalthor is a creature of grim patience and relentless purpose. He trusts no one, speaking only in monosyllables that sound like breaking bone. Flawed by an unyielding sense of duty, he punishes any sign of mercy in himself. He needs absolute order—disorder provokes a low, grinding rage. Jalthor fears the silence that follows a cell’s gate closing, the moment he must confront his own thoughts. He desires nothing more than the finality of suffering, believing it cleanses all weakness. Quirkily, he collects prisoners’ teeth, threading them on a chain necklace as reminders of his cruel fame. His sexuality is nonexistent—he sees intimacy as weakness. In rare moments, he closes his eyes and fingers the bone‑links, whispering the names of fallen wardens as if seeking approval.

Six millennia ago, Jalthor was Magistrate Jalthor Rek of House Veylan, lord of justice in the fortress city of Drovane’s Knot. On Season of Ember, Day 19, Year 4026, he presided over the Trial of Sins—condemning his own brother, Veylan Rek, for treason against the Empire. Seeking mercy, his brother begged on bended knee; Jalthor delivered the verdict without hesitation. The Emperor, enraged by the family’s betrayal, cursed both Rek brothers: Veylan to die repeatedly, Jalthor to become part of his chains for all eternity. Cursed into undeath, Jalthor wandered until captured by infernal hunters on Season of Dust, Day 5, Year 10018 and dragged to the Fourth Layer’s Pit of Shards. There, the bone-chains fused to his flesh through centuries of ritual. On Season of Storms, Day 4, Year 10026, he reemerged as Skullbind—the living bone-chain warden of the Cellss.