Dusk after turning to evil...
Dusk as he is known by some, and Horizon who he is remembered as by others, is a sad story who used to be a devoted paladin of Torm, but through a tragic turn of events went down a steep slope trying to avenge his mother and his fiance's death at the hand of Szek'Thuul and Malark. He was then twisted and possessed by the infernal denizen known as Szek'Thuul who had rendered Dusk's mind powerless to resist. This was made possible when Dusk donned an artifact known as the Crown of Thuul under the pretenses that it would help him kill Malark. Later on while working a task for the Death Queen he defied her logic and decided against her plans for the future and after a huge battle against thousands of shadow creatures Dusk's mortal body was defeated. The Crown of Thuul was removed and cast into a black pit of which return is not like likely. Unless freed... Which he then was later on from Black Sun.
History[]
Horizon was born to a devout family of Torm. His father was a very highly respected member of the Temple of Torm in a small town called Berdusk east of Baulder's Gate. From birth he was trained as a warrior of justice and was taught all of his virtues from his father who raised him with a stern hand and expected a great deal from his son. His ubringing was rather uneventfull and he grew and learned very fast soaking in every scripture of Torm that was thrown at him and he was loved by everybody in town as a handsome young man. Loved by all except his father who he felt never trully felt that Horizon lived up to what he could. Training in the classic greatsword he became an excellent swordsman and paired with his excellent physical fitness made him quite the catch amongst the women of the town. His father however deeply forbade him from that path insisting that he should wait till he was a more mature accomplished man. Regardless he began seeing a beautiful young woman named Kelly and after a short year together at the age of 20 he proposed to her in secret. Of course needing Torm's blessing he eventually had to reveal the lie to his father who frowned upon it. However, his mother forced his father to comply and gave the couple his blessing as long as they waited till Horizon was the age his father was when he married, 24. A long wait but he felt it was worth it and waited. The town however began to go into a gradual downward spiral shortly after and famine struck. Most of the people made their way to Baulder's Gate, but there was word of Bandit's looking for easy targets that way. The town in an uproar Horizon's father told his boy to take his mother to the coast and to find ship passage to a different location with a temple for them to stay at. Obeying his father but knowing he might never see him again he listened and left with his fiance and mother to the coast where they shortly after found a captain heading to a town named Beldin. Taking it as it was the cheapest trip by far, they boarded and left immediatly.
They arrived at the coast of Beldin and set off for the Temple of Torm. While not overly famous the temple had heard of his father and so gave shelter to Horizon and his company. This however, would soon be realized as a folley as Szek'Thuul always watching the newcomers to Beldin took notice of the young impressionable in love paladin and simply couldn't help himself.
Not long after their arrival the Malark regiem began. Siding with the Temple rather than the heroes of Astrid Keep , Horizon he and his family went relativly unaffected by the change in rule. That is however until Malark launched an attack upon the temple after realizing that he was being crossed by many of the clerigy there. Horizon who was off adventuring at the time, had no knowledge that as he was hunting the temple was being torn apart by the crazed fiend Szek'Thuul and his minions. Everybody was slain... his mother his fiance, everybody in the temple that he had come to love was incinerated by the blazing heat of the hellfire. By the time he had heard the news he was to late and the building had been ravaged and stripped. Being madly in love with his fiance and loosing his mother who was very dear to him triggered something in him. He lost all sight of his faith blamming it all on Torm who did nothing to prevent this or warn him about the oncoming danger. He managed to escape from the south and eventually made his way to to the NKA territories of the north, where he joined the rebellion.
By the rebellions end, Malark had escaped, much to the chagrin of Horizon. Lost in his faith and in his hope for anything good in the world, he turned into a dark brooding young man and took up excessive drinking to drown out his thoughts of suicide. All he wanted from that point was for Malark to pay for giving the order to have his loved ones slain.
After hunting after Malark to no avail on his own, and deciding that neither Beldin nor the Astrid Knights were doing enough to track him down, he turned to darker forced in order to find him finding hope in a lich named Arguile. With a cadre of other shady characters he did horrendous acts in the name of revenge all in hopes that he was getting closer to Malark. In truth it was all part of the "fallen" Szek'Thuul's plan to reinstate himself on the material plane in a new body, yet with his newly enlightened mind and soul. The plan worked perfectly and in the end Horizon who now called himself Dusk donned the artifacts created by Arguile and his allies and was possessed by Szek'Thuul so ending Dusk/Horizon. After working with the Death Queen for some time, Szek came to question her sanity and the purpose of her goals, deeming them foolish and rather chaotic he turned on her and in a battle against thousands of shadow creatures and Arguile Dusk fell. When the Mythal Guard re-enforcements arrived, they found nothing but Dusk's mutilated body, leaving the where abouts of Szek Thuul a complete mystery...
See Szek'Thuul's page for what happened.