?I, Corvo Tyranos, scion of Tokíros and Astrayia, name you, the offspring of Worldgard, the only and rightful lords of Divislor. Neither the blood of heroes, nor smiths, nor dragons is superior to yours. Upon your backs is now engraved the crest of the Herokans. And in my right hand, Eradication, and in my left, Tyranny, which, together with the Conquest I bear upon the bow of life, shall weave the thread of the supreme over all that the golden eye of heaven gazes upon?

  —"The Plagues of the Conqueror, Chapter II." Adalstein, Karantos. The Chronicles of Kaarthazhilos, Cycle 22 of the Herokanian Calendar.

  How many times, gentlemen, have you heard of the feats of untarnished heroes from our world’s history? Heroes whose names are either forgotten or whose very figures transform into specters of light, absorbing colors not their own, attributing them to themselves—resulting in frauds.

  As The World Conqueror once said: "You shall not pass into history; history shall pass over you. Not even the dust into which you shall turn will remember you. And as I have spoken, so it shall be." And so it was. A total of eighty-four heroes from the glorious, majestic, Herokanian Era of Heroes were forgotten—or rather, erased from history. Once again, the Oskram khu Oskram* warned us of this: "You are no conqueror, and never shall be. Your name, sand hidden beneath the stones in the ocean’s depths, buried there never to be discovered. And even if honored by a discoverer, what would set it apart from any other grain of sand, just as insignificant and indistinguishable? I shall give you the answer: nothing." And so it came to pass.

  The Conqueror’s words were fulfilled because they had to be—there was no other resolution to the War of Heroes. All were forgotten, save for a select few who—if you will permit me, knights—were remembered more for their malevolence than their magnanimity. Take, for example, the legendary Askires: though still beloved by mankind, the other races remember him for his fall, his lust for the Crown of Drekon in a place where Lumentaria’s eye did not shine and Tenebraris’ eye did not watch. Every journey he undertook was forgotten, eclipsed by the wickedness of a single small act. And just as Askires is remembered, so too is Corvo Tyranos today. Or, if you need another example, Eukra Aditis, his direct counterpart.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The Infamous and the Noble. The Noble and the Infamous. The Infamous and the Infamous. The Noble and the Noble. Do you see? How the moral line darkens? How good and evil become so alike that one can no longer be distinguished from the other? What if the world, so drunk on wickedness from the very alcohol we feed it, can no longer tell either? What if it no longer matters whether one does good or evil—only that one passes into history? These two distinguished lords understood perfectly what it meant to live: to pass into history. The means do not matter. The end does not matter. What matters is this: to become immortal. And the only way to achieve immortality? To pass into history. Thus, the purpose of life is: to transcend history—which is synonymous with immortality.

  Immortality is the end of all things, and the perpetuation of others. For even with a body incinerated, lost to the wind as ashes, that man or woman shall be remembered—the one who, by playing blind to good and evil, passed into history and ensured that history did not pass over them.

  These remarkable men and women, immortal today, whose deeds shall inspire the immortals of tomorrow, are called: Conquerors. And the cornerstone, the model for the figure of the Conqueror, shall be—of course—Corvo Tyranos, The World Conqueror.

  In our world, adrift without purpose since its creation, we can only take refuge in immortality. Nothing else. Is there anything beyond life? What do others matter when one perishes? I shall give you the answer: nothing. So kill. Destroy. Burn the world to ashes—but ensure you leave witnesses to your conquest. For to seek extinction is the antithesis of immortality. If no beings remain to remember your wickedness… did you ever truly exist?

  Oskram Khu Oskram --> “Conqueror of conquerors” in Heroic. One way to call Corvo Tyranos.