Lucithel (AoC Universe)

"There is no evil. There is only...power. Power and control."


 * - Lucithel, the Prince of Pride

The monstrosity known as Lucithel was a demon prince who lorded over the Lucent Kingdoms from -65,000 until his defeat and assassination during the Sin War. His success in black magic, terrorism and manipulation made him the Prime Evil of his day, rivalled only by his archnemesis Mammon. He is the only demon prince to have been killed by the Carnal Armies because his chaotic and destructive energies would have almost certainly damaged Middle-Earth's inner structure!

Lore
After the Fall of the Pantheon, the rebellious archangel Sargamon turned to the worlds that his former masters had created in order to bring chaos to them. He knew that the process of destroying Middle-Earth would take a while, thus he decided to corrupt the planet from within, to weaken its natural defences. The Seeds of Discord crafted by his hand crash-landed into Middle-Earth, each sinful Seed going in a different direction, and out of them rose the parasitic eldritch horrors. As soon as they emerged from their shells, the demons began their plans for world domination. This gave birth to the Black Empire (the period in which it was active referred to as "Hell on Earth").

Lucithel, seeing himself as first among the demon princes, wasted no time in setting up the Lucent Kingdoms. A master of shadow magic (an inversion of the pure, creative power of light magic), the Lord of Pride immediately began to warp the serene magics of Middle-Earth into dark and twisted forms, which he channeled into his Spire of Darkness like a saver would deposit savings into a bank. His aim was not to rule as a prince, but, like Sathanas also desired, a king. His aim was to steadily bend nature to his will, corrupting it as he went along, in order to build up a lethal reserve of demonic magic in the Spire that he would one day let loose onto the world, devouring everything in its path and leaving him as the sole ruler of the resulting shattered realm. To this end he ensured that, when conquering new territory, his blight percolated into the innermost fibres of the ground in order to leave no root free of his blackening presence. The other demon princes, particularly Leviathan, were not happy with his desire for destruction, but went along with it.

To increase his power, Lucithel cashed in on the fervent demon worship of the mortal races, destroying their psychological independence to the point where they relied upon paying homage to him for sustenance, lest their bodies suffer the terrible wasting effects of Wither sickness. His temple, constructed at over 500 metres tall, was named the Sacred Temple of the Most Revered Sovereign Overlord and Autocrat of all the Midlings in order to intimidate his weaker opponents. When Sathanas made similar claims to kingship Lucithel was not impressed and destroyed his capital, Sathjatar, in revenge for the perceived insult.

End
Lucithel was killed by the Aesir during the clash at Hellfire Plateau, the ultimate battle of the Sin War, when Ram'Sed distracted him long enough for the archangels to bombard the demon prince with light halos. Saturated with holy magic, he exploded into a million pieces, his body unable to cope.

Trivia

 * Lucithel is named after the fallen archangel, now known as Sargamon,who is the main antagonist of the Aeon of the Champion story series.
 * Mezarel once mentioned that Lucithel had power so extraordinary, he may even be the one being in the universe with the ability to twist the souls of gods into something dark and terrible, though he implies here that Sargamon's slaughter of the Pantheon was a positive in this case.
 * Lucithel is the only prince of Hell whose Spire of Darkness was activated during his battle; at Hellfire Plateau, his seat of power, he deliberately toppled the structure in order to turn himself into a dark god.
 * The Spire did not grant him as much power as he had hoped, possibly because other princes were sapping it.
 * His eyes and heart were later used by Azathoth during the Middle Age to craft a black temple to his name.