In the throne room of Karouk, capital of Armesia, sat the monarch of the land, King Nardek. Nardek was not the true king; he was but the adopted son of the last king, Elias. Elias had found the boy outside the gates of Karouk after Nardek had been orphaned and abandoned by a mob of undead. As he had grown, he had become jealous of the king and his sons, totally ungrateful for Elias's kind treatment of him. Eventually, he had dared to ask the king for dominion of the land. For they had another name for this terrible being: The Black King.