Komidus Darksmile

Murderous performers are not unheard of in Teleria. Gaius the Gleeful, Timit the Fool, and Kaja the Wry are but the three. The true star of the show however is Komidus, Demonspawn prince of comedy and tragedy. He is a fickle and temperamental overlord whose performances leave audiences splattered with blood and gripped with terror. Komidus was not always a homicidal dramaturgist. He was once Gormsel, an Ogryn who worked with a company of traveling comedic actors as a porter, transporting heavy trunks and setting up and taking apart the stage. He longed to act with the troupe, jealous of the laughter and admiration they received. But they kept him out of the spotlight, deriding him as slow-witted and graceless. He proved them humiliatingly right the one time he took to the stage, freezing in terror, incapable of even stammering out his single line. Though Gormsel resented this, he never wished for the terrible fate his troupe eventually suffered. One late night in Kaerok's countryside, the party was packing up after a show well done. A hooded figure approached them, asking if they might perform for her. They told her they had finished, but when she shook a bag heavy with coin, they changed their tune. Within seconds, the figure drew a clawed finger and opened a portal to Anathraad, and all were sucked in. They found themselves on a stage of volcanic rock, the smell of sulfur scratching the back of their throat and making their eyes water. The figure coughed expectantly. By this time she had removed her hood, revealing a face with eight black eyes and a trio of circular mouths with rings of teeth. The troupe were to perform. Shaking and crying they all tried except Gormsel. No one brought so much as a sniff of pleasure to their captor, who killed and ate them all. She then peered into Gormsel's heart and saw his anger and desire. She laughed with diabolical glee, seeing a future star, and decided to make Gormsel the performer he always wanted to be. She summoned a Demon called Komidus, a pet of hers with a flair for drama. He bonded with Gormsel, turning the Ogryn into a histrionic, egotistical, melodramatic diva of a Demonspawn. Gormsel abandoned his old name and returned to Teleria to spread mayhem and mischief as Komidus. He has done so with aplomb for centuries. Komidus has two forms he switches between on a whim: both equally dangerous and impossible to reason with. When he dons his blood-red mask, he embodies tragedy, melancholy, and high drama. He performs elaborate monologues, his vocabulary obtuse, his lines layered with esoteric allegory. These can last days, sapping listeners of strength and locking them into inescapable grief. Komidus demonstrates his themes with gruesome performance art using captured mortals – he might force them to murder or torture one another, or do it himself, amputating their forelimbs and forcing them to hobble like horses, or suturing braggarts' own buttocks to their mouths. When Komidus tears off his mask he reveals a massive toothy grin. He then casts off his robes, and in a flash of Demonic energy his body grows in bulk and musculature, with blazing wings sprouting from his back and his crimson horns expanding to their full menacing size. In this form, he is the essence of manic comedy and feverish madness. He discards his morose tone, rendering it deeper, boisterous, and guttural. Filthy and ribald humor pours from his frothing lips, his prodigious belly wobbles, and his volatile, gory antics fly by at frantic pace. Komidus believes his performances would be nothing without spectators, and only the most debauched and jaded souls willingly attend his circus of horrors. To fill the seats, Komidus abducts unsuspecting victims and makes them a literal captive audience. He lashes them to chairs with thorny vines, or impales them on hooks and raises them like chandeliers. Victims have their heads fixed in crushing vices, their eyelids cut off, or both, to ensure he commands their undivided attention. If any audience members seem insufficiently enthused, Komidus magically puppeteers them via his flaming torture prisms, forcing them to clap and cheer until their hands are bloody, fractured lumps and their throat seizes shut. The fortunate ones perish relatively quickly from the trauma of their restraint or after being dragged onto the stage to serve as a fleshy prop for one of Komidus' acts. Most are driven insane, finally willingly laughing along with his jokes, or sobbing uncontrollably at his tragic soliloquies. Their faces contort correspondingly into rictus grins or mourning frowns. These survivors delight Komidus. Together they form a worshipful, sycophantic troupe of perverse merrymakers who scour the countryside to ‘invite' more ‘privileged' souls to Komidus' performances. Legend has it that Komidus once came across the bloodthirsty jesters Timit and Kaja, who at first glance were kindred spirits. But Komidus, being the prima donna he is, insisted they bow to him as their troupe-master and acknowledge his superior talents. They refused. Komidus demanded the matter be settled with a contest of skills. It lasted weeks and terrorized swathes of Anhelt. Whole villages were overrun and used as set pieces for gory theatrics. Townsfolk were turned from horrified audience to eviscerated performers at the fancy of the three deranged comedians. In the final contest, Komidus acted as maestro, conducting a captive choir and an orchestra, who played instruments made of their own flesh and bone. Together they played notes so low their bowels emptied and, in a grand finale, so high their heads exploded. Kaja and Timit responded with a dance and tumbling routine carried out over a carpet of bound and gagged villagers, the crunching of bones and muffled screams forming their accompanying musical score. Neither side admitted defeat. But, both parties agreed, it had been a laugh riot. They vowed to meet again to settle their score and have more bloody fun, this time before much larger audiences.