Blackguard

The Blackguard is an organization that primarily opposes Matthias because of its recent leader, Alistair.



Beginnings
The Blackguard is an ancient gathering of assassins, trained for centuries and augmented by demonic magics to become the best killers any realm would ever see. They started with intelligent limitation, only hiring off one per organization, and usually at a great cost to the buyer. Not simply currency, but very often the soul of someone they care deeply about. It's these souls they twist and help aid in their supernatural power. They also desire the buyer to murder someone close to them, to prove their worthiness of hiring one of their assassins.

Sinister, yes, but they weren't outright evil until the elf Alistair conned them and murdered the leading council, taking thousands of trained Blackguard for his own.

General Abilities
They do not have the disadvantage of a mortal lifespan, so hundreds of years are spent refining every combat ability before they are sent out into various realms.

Blackguard are trained to be masterful martial artists, knowing dozens of styles. Their weapon of choice is often a melee blade, they're never seen with any ranged weaponry.

They regenerate extremely quickly, the main way to dispose of them is decapitation. A bullet to the head or spinal column might work, but their bones are thick, and very durable. It'd have to take some severe heavy weaponry. An alternative solution is dismemberment, but they regenerate -very- quickly and will continue to fight if they have just a forearm left. But without any of their limbs, their regenerative ability slows down as it's generally too much work for it to handle, and that's the best time to take their head off.

After being defeated, their body dissolves into a black watery substance.

Alistair and Aftermath


Alistair is technically a Prince of Death. A couple steps below a Demigod, but not far behind. But it's why he wears yellow-greens, the color(s) of sickness and death. He has his sights on Matthias' title, wishing to become a God of Madness... Not to balance the two faces of sanity and stability, but to use it to create chaos on various realms for his twisted amusement and godlike complex.

He seized control of the Blackguard by personally assassinating the council that lead it, first using trickery around their customs and rules. He posed as different people via shapeshifting, and killed many people to continue "proving his worth", gaining far above the standard quota of Blackguard assassins at his employ.

And the Blackguard become overpoweringly loyal to their hire, Alistair used them to murder the council and take control of the rest. He uses them to attack some of Matthias' best underlings, to carve a road to him directly. They have had direct confrontations, but Alistair comes second every time.