Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord, or any related series or titles, this is solely a work of fanfiction written for the enjoyment of myself and others.
Skeletons in the Closet
The Secret Truths behind the Overlord…
There are many secrets hidden in the world. Some have been lost forever, some are known but never spoken, and others lurk beneath the surface, undiscovered because no one bothered to look.
Overlord Vessperion
1. Vessp never was what anyone would call a hero, even before his stint as Overlord. As a child growing up in the village of Spree, he carried an unbelievable amount of hatred, rage, and spite in his soul. He was feared by nearly the entire village and he knew it. It was for that reason; he never expected a single bit of help from them. Nevertheless, he never felt more betrayed in his life, when he fell into the river, and they left him to drown.
2. He washed up somewhere in Evernight; where a clan of elves took him into their care. They showed him nothing but patience and kindness, and in time it is likely they would have completely soothed the rage within him. However, it was not to be so.
A group of mercenaries from Angelis Keep wandered into the forest one day. They were searching for a legendary lost city, rumoured to be made completely of gold. No such city had ever existed, and the elves told them so. The mercenaries, refused to believe them and slaughter the whole clan for "lying" to them. To this day, Vessp is still not sure how he survived.
The experience relit the fires of hatred within him, and gave him a deep loathing for humankind which never faded.
It is interesting to note, that when he marched into Evernight as the Overlord, he spared the elves his rage. If just simply for the fact, that he believed their gratitude was more useful than their fear.
3. Vessp has nearly died at least five times in his life.
The first was when he nearly drowned in the River Spree.
The Second, when the mercenaries slaughtered the elven clan he once called family.
The Third, when he plummeted off the balcony of the Dark Tower, after dealing the current Overlord a mortal blow.
The Forth, when his predecessor came back from the grave in the body of the Wizard and retook the Dark Tower.
The Fifth, when the doors of the Abyss closed in front of him leaving him trapped.
He has no clue how he survived the first four "deaths." All he has from those experiences are patchy memories and the occasionally aching reminder. He knows perfectly well how he escaped the Infernal Abyss, and he is the only one who does.
4. He was never really part of the Seven Heroes who slew his predecessor. At most he was just someone who happened to be going the same place they were. They were never his friends and he was never their ally.
That was why they never mentioned the eighth person, who drove a sword through the Overlord's back, and was thrown off a fifty foot drop for his trouble.
Whether or not Vessp originally intended to slay the Overlord is anyone's guess. Vessp himself does not remember, as the resulting head-trauma from the fall left large blank sports in his memory, and anyone who might have known are now very dead.
5. Vessp is actually a half-elf, though you'd never guess it. His hulking body is the farthest thing from elven imaginable. Yet, if you know what to look for, you'll start noticing things. His ears, while not pointed, have a subtle slant to them and narrow near the end, his face shows traces of elven ancestry, his natural mana-reserves, while by no means extraordinary, are significantly larger than the average human, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot grow a beard.
He is the last of an ancient sect of the Evernight elves; a group who fell to darkness, and who dedicated their lives to ending the human race.
6. Despite everything, all the hate he carries with him, all the rage that goes into everything he does, he actually cares for his family. As far as he is concerned, Rose was, and still is, the best choice for Mistress. She is one of only two people in the tower he trusts completely and he actually considers her comfort one of his top priorities.
His son Sayron is the second person he trusts completely; which, even he admits, is rather foolish on his part. Regardless, he is proud of the man his son is becoming, and has no doubts whatsoever the Sayron would be an Overlord like no other.
Gnarl thinks the whole thing is revolting.
7. Many would describe Overlord Vessp as a terrifying man of great strength, skill, and magical power. Many would be scarred out of their minds to learn that during his stint as Overlord, he was fighting against a mangled mana-system and lingering injuries leftover from his initial fight against his predecessor.
His fall from the dark tower brought him to the brink of death, and even the healing magic of the blues could only do so much. Combined joint trauma and nerve damage killed his former agility and speed, and his unauthorized exit through the tower wards destroyed his ability to cast magic.
He compensated by using the power of the Tower Heart to restore his damaged body, even though he never recovered anything near to half his former dexterity. He also relied on the various magical focuses in the Tower to enable him to cast spells again.
That was the case through his entire reign as Overlord. On his escape from the Abyss however, he showed renewed vitality and agility. His magic had flowed back into him in full force and he could once again cast spells without a focus to aid him. Vessp has told no one how this came about.
What happens in Hell stays in Hell.
8. Vessp has always had a talent for beating the odds, and doing things which no one expects. No one expected him to live five days after he was born, but he is easily over forty years of age at this moment. He surprised everyone when his sword severed his predecessor's spine, and again when he returned as the new Overlord. Everyone was sure he was doomed when Gnarl betrayed him to the Wizard. Yet he shocked them all by not only surviving, but by actually besting the former Overlord. When the gates of the abyss close before his eyes, everyone was sure his luck ran out. But he beat the odds again, and triumphantly returned to the tower six months later.
It should have surprised no one that he took that moment to announce his decision to retire.
It still took the blues a whole hour to convince Gnarl it was not some sort of terrible hallucination.
Rose
1. If there was a scale for evil, many would be shocked to discover that Rose is actually eviler than her sister Velvet. Velvet may be a sadistic, gold-digging whore, but that only goes so far.
Rose sees people as nothing more than means to ends. Systematic genocide, cruel inquisitions, and even the occasional apocalyptic disaster are all acceptable, as long as they achieve the desired result. She has manipulated kings into turning on their own people and then brought them down in violent revolutions of her own instigation.
The desired result: Order. Rose despises chaos, where her gifts of manipulation and prediction are at their weakest. Nothing angers her more than a perfectly laid out plan failing because of a random and unpredicted factor.
How she ended up with a partner who would throw open the gates of the Infernal Abyss, "because nothing interesting has happened lately," and a son who thinks chaos is synonymous with opportunity; she has no clue.
2. Rose is in every way, the Wizard's daughter. Magic comes as easily to her as walking. It is rumoured that there is not a single spell in existence that she does not have knowledge of.
She does not usually flaunt her talents however. She lights fires with a match, gets up to grab something on the other side of the room, and keeps her tea pot warm with a knitted cover.
Her incredible magical talent, coupled with Vessp's elven heritage, has gifted their son Sayron with some of the strongest magical potential ever seen. This potential became apparent when Sayron accidently conjured up a gigantic lightning storm during Nordberg's Spring Festival.
No one actually knows if Rose's infamous "Skin Rot" spell exists, or is merely a bluff to keep unwanted attention away. Even Vessp does not know, and he is in no way eager to find out.
3. Rose had a deep respect for her father. He was a man of action, who would not stand by and watch evil grow.
While she did miss him during the long months he was gone, she comforted herself with the knowledge he was out changing the world. He was the one who delighted her with stories of his travels, about the people who could now live in peace because of his actions. He was the one who taught her the basics of magic, and showed her how one person could change the world.
She was the first to notice something was wrong when he came home after successfully besting the Overlord. His friends saw nothing of the vile creature that wore their leader's skin, even as it corrupted them. Her mother was too excited by his return to notice the new dark shift in his behaviour, and if Velvet noticed, she was all too eager to overlook it in face of the gifts that were heaped upon her.
But she saw through it all, and one day she packed her bags and simply left.
4. At first she tried to change to world as her father had done. However, despite her best efforts the forces of chaos seemed to conspire against her. No matter how she tried, unexpected events would bring ruin to her plans, and often made things worse.
Weary and worn, she then came to the conclusion that if she was to change to world, she would have to get everything organized. This quest for order turned into a downward spiral, as anything became acceptable as long as it lead to the desired result.
5. The plague in Angelis Keep was just another battle in her campaign for order. Sir Williams merely sealed the city, and turned his attention back to his lavish parties and the Order of the Red Dawn.
All she could sneak out of the city were a handful of people who had escaped infection. It would not do to have the entire city decimated, simply because the fool of a paladin was too busy partying to do his duty.
But yet again, things went wrong. Castle Spree was attacked out of the blue by a whole team of Ruborian raiders. Most of the refugees were killed in the chaos, and soon she found herself trapped in a storage room while her plans when up in flames, yet again.
Then Vessp and his minion army showed up. In mere hours they had completely cleared the entire castle of invaders, not to mention retrieved her luggage mostly intact.
It was the turning point for Rose. While Vessp may not have been as smart as her, he was by no means stupid and was smart enough to know a good idea when he heard one. But, more importantly, he could get things done. He could easily work around the random twists of luck that had crippled her earlier efforts. For once in her life, Rose could look at the world, and see order being wrung out of the chaos.
6. Truth be told, Rose does not actually hate her sister. Nor does she envy the attention Velvet cultivates with the rich and powerful. Rather, she looks at Velvet with a mix of annoyance and pity.
Their mother tried to compensate for their father's absence with gifts and toys, and Velvet soon learned that her mother would not deny her anything. Then she hit puberty, and she realized she could manipulate the opposite sex into the doing the same things.
While Velvet may not have Rose's intelligence or magical power, she does have one thing her sister does not. She can read people, know what they want, and how to make them give her what she wants. She can make the masses dance to her tune, or the mightiest men bow down to her. Velvet could bring a thousand nations under her control if she used her talents to their utmost; instead she uses them to convince rich men to buy her presents.
That is why Rose pities Velvet. Because her sister could become so much more than the gold digger she is now. Yet, she cannot feel complete sympathy for her sister, because every time she tries it always dregs up the bad blood that flowed between them during childhood.
In fact, one of Rose's most treasured memories is the look on Velvets face after Vessp refused her. The look of sheer shock was partly due to the way fact that Vessp brushed off her advances like dust on his armour, but more for the simple fact that for the first time in her life someone had simply denied Velvet what she sought.
7. Rose never seriously considered being a mother before she became pregnant, and the development figuratively blew her over. With Vessp gone, locked away in the Infernal Abyss, she almost went insane wondering just what she was going to do with a child on the way.
Then, against all expectations, Vessp returned from the Abyss. Suddenly they were leaving the overlording life behind, and living as merely a normal (relatively speaking) young couple in Nordberg.
Their son Sayron came into the world in the middle of the night during a spring thunderstorm. The terrified midwife doing the best she could, with Vessp pacing back and forth outside taking out his worries on passersby.
Sayron proved to be both a frustrating mix of both her and Vessp. He possessed his father's dominating attitude, and headstrong self-confidence, while at the same time mixing it with her talent for observation and magic. Anyone with half a brain would agree that he was destined for greatness.
She had to wonder when he showed up at home with a giant one-eyed yeti and the plea "Can we keep him?"
8. In her life Rose has seen the cycle start, end, and go back to the beginning. Evil dominates the world, good rises, evil falls, the good weakens, and evil rises to the challenge, only for good to take them down again.
She though they had broken free of the cycle when Vessp decided to retire to Nordberg. But then the Empire came, and she saw Vessp don the crowed helmet again. She saw her family pack their bags and retreat to the Netherworld.
She watched her son best his father, and don the crowned helmet in turn.
Despite Vessp's assurances, despite the fact that Sayron is now a man of twenty, she still worries about her son, and she cannot shake the feeling that a dark and gruesome fate awaits her family in the future.
Authors Note: Okay, just something I did ages ago based on my other Fic EROP: Evil Overlord Retirement Plan… going a bit deeper into both my original Overlord and his Mistress Rose.