Bound Prince

The Bound Prince
The Oinodaemon

Externally hosted image

(Deity)

Titles

The First Daemon
The First Horseman
The Fifth Horseman
Lord of the Forsaken

Realm

Ruined Spire, Abaddon

Alignment

Neutral evil

Worshipers

None

Source: Inner Sea Gods, pg(s). 192

The Bound Prince, also known as the Oinodaemon (pronounced OIN-oh-day-mon) and the First Daemon, is the eldest and most mysterious of the Apocalypse Riders of Abaddon. The Riders once bowed to him as their creator and ruler until they rebelled, bound him at the heart of Abaddon, and devoured his flesh.

The Bound Prince is rumoured to have more power than the other Riders combined, although only the Riders know for sure. The Bound Prince is mentioned only in whispers for fear of somehow awakening the shackled beast.

History

According to the Windsong Testaments, the future First Daemon was one of the first deities of this incarnation of reality, but as death had yet to exist, the Prince was Bound to a throne in the Spire's shadow to await his time. When these deities first turned their attention to the Universe to create mortal life, the Bound Prince waited in the darkest place to welcome mortal death, although Abaddon started off empty, and remained so even as the first souls died and were judged by Pharasma.

When Rovagug rampaged through creation, spreading death and devastation on a hitherto-unprecedented scale, the consequential vast influx of souls overflowed the banks of the River of Souls and they washed up on many places, including Abaddon, and never reached the Boneyard. According to the Windsong Testaments, the Bound Prince glutted upon these souls and became the First Horseman, while the Book of the Damned claims that a single such soul that entered Abaddon was filled with such hatred, rage, and self-loathing more than all the others combined, and coalesced into the first daemon. It devoured otherwise evil souls to gain power and began to twist Abaddon into something as corrupt as himself and called fellow evil souls to him. These souls were unable to resist; most were eaten, while some became the first daemons.

The daemons continued to consume the souls that washed up on Abaddon's shores, and the Bound Prince taunted the deities that all souls that came to Abaddon would be devoured. Pharasma listened, and created the Devouring Court within the Boneyard, where she sent the souls damned to Abaddon, delivering them to the Riders.

Creation of the Riders

As the daemons diversified in form and grew in number, the Bound Prince created the first Riders as his chosen servants, who worked alongside their deacons to satisfy the daemons' hunger for souls. Suspicious of the Riders' servitors and still hungering for the River of Souls, the Bound Prince created the astradaemons to be his own deacons.

Imprisonment

The Apocalypse Riders saw this act as a sign of distrust and an insult from their leader. Eventually, the Riders trapped the First in a hidden tower they call the Ruined Spire. The Bound Prince's thrashings created, destroyed, and twisted many kinds of daemons, and poisoned whole portions of Abaddon and the Maelstrom beyond repair. The Riders erased all mention of the Bound Prince from the records, and few beings remember his existence. When they heard him speak for the first time since he was chained, the Riders were so terrified that they barred the doorway leading to the Ruined Spire, only opening it when they alone come to visit and worship the Bound Prince.

Appearance

The First Daemon's size and shape frequently change, depending on the Riders' hunger and torture. Sometimes he is massive; other times he is merely human-sized, and yet at other times he simply appears as darkness. In all such forms, the piercing red-violet eyes and ivory teeth are always present.

Although the Riders bound him and gorged themselves on his flesh, the Bound Prince yet lives: the Riders cannot simply seal him away and steal all of his power. His great, only remaining eye became the perpetual eclipse looming over and peering down on the surface of Abaddon, as his essence somehow merged with Abaddon itself. Although the Riders rendered him powerless, he remains omnipresent and conscious, in constant pain. Within the Ruined Spire, the eye is open and focused on the surrounding coronal shadow.

Resources

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