View source for Atlantic:Dante Darkheart

{{Biography
| image = Insert image here - no larger than 300 pixles wide
| name = Dante Darkheart
| player = Dante Darkheart
| placeofbirth = Necropolis (Catskills)
| class = Noble
| guild = Clan Darkheart
| realname = Dante Darkheart
| aliases = The Other, The Crimson Shadow, Blood Knight, Daniel Sose, Danny Mitchel, and Edward Dantes, The Shard Walker, Dante Lightbring 
| race = Vampiric Half Elf Human Caucasian
| age = Born 295AC
| height = 5'11"
| weight = 175lbs
| eyes = Blue
| hair = Dark Black
| residence = Necropolis (Catskills), Red Fang Pointe (Atlantic), Nekhaim (Europa)
| previousguilds = Crimson Alliance (Catskills), Undead (Catskills), Winterfell (Catskills), Covenant of Blood (Catskills), Dark Empire (Catskills), Darkheart Vampires (Catskills), Paladins of the Everburning Flame (Catskills), Paladins of the Wood (Catskills), Citizens of Luna (Catskills), Citizens of Umbra (Catskills), Citizens of Britain (Catskills), Citizens of Yew (Catskills)]], Clan Darkheart, The Crimson Shadow Syndicate, Crimson Alliance Resurgent. 
| marital = Twice Widowed, Once Annulled
| relatives = Isabella Darkheart (mother), Brock Darkheart (grandfather), Edward (Father), Isha Shade (grandmother), Ceini Darkheart (Wife), Keshia Darkheart (Wife), (Evil) Dante Darkheart (Clone), Elms Grimswood (Foster Brother), Roman Storm (Great x3 Grandchild), Rosette Storm (Great x3 Grandchild).  Up to four generations of grandchildren have surfaced in recent years.
| accolades = Herald of the Guardian, Commanding Lord of the True Britannian Faction, Archon,  
| abilities = Jack of all trades of the Dark Arts from Assassin to Necromancer
| equipment = The Darkheart Blade, A Silver Serpent Kryss, Oath Maker, the Darkheart Ring 
|}}


== History ==

3rd day of the 9th month of the year 281
Born in a Cult devoted to the Guardian to a young lady named Isabella Darkheart and a father whose name remained a secret for many years.  She had promised herself to be turned to vampirism in turn for service to the Guardian in the Crimson Alliance .  The baby was born with a tattoo on his left shoulder blade.  She gave the baby up to a Yew family, the Grimswoods. The Baby’s name was Dante.  When the boy was age twelve he witnessed his adopted parents murdered by a hulking methuselah of a vampire named Watchet.  Somehow the boy was spared as he was hidden in the cellar of the modest house along with his adopted brother Elms.  Isabella lived in the Necropolis, not far from the Grimswood farmhouse.  When she made her rounds to check on her son and his adopted family a few days after the incident she found the boys half starved.  She thought it best to send her son to Britain to live with an old friend, Engrimm.  Elms was sent to an orphanage in Yew. Engrimm tutored the boy for the next five years into early manhood.  

RL September 3rd 1999; 72nd day of the 1st month of the year 298 (17 years old)
From Britain he often visited his home city of the Necropolis where he visited with his mother. But would leave to enjoy the company of Heaven Storm the Daughter of the Lord Dark Storm the leader of the Crimson Alliance.  During one of their trysts Heaven bore Dante's child. Lord Storm was furious at his daughter banishing her to another shard. Dante would have been summarily executed but he instead went into hiding.

Dante would secretly visit his mother just outside from time to time.  However, one time she did not show up. He sent word to her friends and associates he could trust. She had not been seen for several days.  Dante set out to find her.  He searched high and low.  Clues were pointing to a small kingdom in Northwood called Winterfell.  Winterfell was a small conservative kingdom despite knowingly sharing their territory with a coven of Vampires called the Covenant of Blood.  From what Dante could detect Isabella had been trying to earn the trust of the Coven to try to merge the Covenant of Blood with the Crimson Alliance.  Dante suspected a vampire of the Covenant betrayed her.  He did his best to hide who he was in relation to Isabella.  Despite the nature of Dante’s visit to this kingdom he enjoyed his time there especially when in the company of a young girl named Sabrina.

Eventually, he came upon one of Isabella's arrows stuck in a tree deep in the woods not too far from Winterfell.  He noticed the leaf bed was greatly disturbed.  He followed the path to the base of a tree where he found Isabella's body drained of all its blood.  Her body was covered in large slashes but her belongings had not been taken.  It reminded him of the work of the vampire that killed his adoptive parents five years earlier.  Engrimm had told him tales of the vampire and how it had hunted Darkhearts for generations and that was one reason why Isabella wanted to become a vampire. It seemed there was now a reason Dante felt he had to become a vampire.  Dante took Isabella's body back to the Necropolis.  Lord Dark Storm granted him a pardon only long enough to properly take care of the remains. There her body was prepared for burial and taken to the Demon Temple on Fire Isle where she was turned and her body was cast into one of the lava flows.  Dante took her twin katanas which had been reforged from her father's broadsword known as the Darkheart Blade that had been a gift from the Guardian himself.  He took them to Necro Sanct, an Ancient One of the Undead, to have the Darkheart Blade reforged. Dante asked to be turned by Isabella's closest friends Skry and Synnabel but they obeyed Lilith Stynovitch and Ceverin's orders to not turn Dante.  Dante felt betrayed but understood the rules they had in place.  

In the Britannian cities the factions had begun a massive civil war that was tearing Sosaria apart.

May 5th 2000 (the day after UO: Renaissance launched and Trammel was created) 59th day of the 1st month of the year 302
Dante went back to Northwood to plead his case to Myca.  Myca had little respect for Isabella and even less for Dante so it seemed odd at the time that he so readily agreed.  Dante was lead to the center of the hedge maze on the night of a full moon.  There one of Myca’s lieutenants, Alex Kumar, turned Dante.  After the change was complete Myca gave Dante a two minute head start before setting his coven on a blood hunt after Dante through the hedge maze.  It was this very night that Nystul and Lord British created Trammel. Due to the storms and earthquakes Dante managed to escape.  

Dante sought refuge with Isabella's friend Skry.  It was Skry that taught Dante of how to be a vampire.  Skry even taught Dante the forbidden act of diablerie, the theft of a vampire's last essence of life.  The two began tracking down Watchet.  They eventually came upon him in the valley near Wind. Dante impetuously attacked the methuselah only to be killed if he were a mere mortal.  He quickly healed and the two attacked again.  They managed to fight Watchet for nearly eight hours but the sun was coming up soon.  The two should have been ripped apart and died several times over had they not been vampires themselves.  Synnabel showed up to aid the two.  Watchet was now trying to make a mad dash for his den, an abandoned mine, where the three followed.  Skry managed to pin Watchet by his arm to a timber holding the old mine up.  Dante jumped on the methuselah's back and began to drink his blood.  Skry and Synnabel began to drink as well.  Watchet grew weaker by each drop of  blood consumed.  Skry and Synnabel stopped drinking as they could be punished for dialberizing such an ancient methuselah.  Dante not bound to any law or code continued drinking.  Dante began to take on Watchet's essence.  Dante's fingernails turned to claws which dug into Watchet's flesh.  Finally Watchet went completely limp as Dante absorbed the last of Watchet's vitae.  Dante reverted back to his less feral form and sat laughing covered in blood.  Dante could feel his power had grown many times greater than it had been just a few hours earlier.  The three slept in the mine that day.  When night fell Skry and Synnabel waited outside of the mine while Dante Broke the timbers holding up the ceiling of the mine just barely making it out in time and burying Watchet body deep below the rubble.  

Skry and Synnabel went back to the Necropolis.  Dante returned to Northwood to find out that the Kingdom of Winterfell had relocated to a small keep in Trammel called Stark Keep while they built their new Kingdom in a similar region as their former home of Northwood.  This region later became known as Enden.  

It had been a month since his blood hunt began.  With his new power he decided to put them all on a blood hunt of his own.  He snuck into the hedge maze.  The first of Myca's Brood to be cut down was Burzum a young vampire followed by Konrad Von Noctis.  Konrad was quite the challenge until Dante ripped off his sword arm.  Alex Kumar, his own sire, even fell to Dante and his stolen power.  Dante finally stalked behind Daca, Myca's favorite, and took him hostage.  Myca not wanting to see his favorite harmed reluctantly called off the blood hunt.
Dante went back to the people of Winterfell at Stark Keep to resume what he had hoped would be a peaceful life.  Despite no one of Winterfell knew he was a vampire he resigned himself to only feeding off animals.  He ran a night watch of the kingdom.  He struck up a relationship with a local maiden named Sabrina. She was arranged to be married to her fathers friends son Xavuer Sterling. Sterling did not much care for Dante's romantic advances of Sabrina. It was also during this time that Dante was granted a small piece of carved blackrock in Elms Grimswoods' last will and testament. Elms had apparently died of suicide according to the will. However, Dante heard whispers of his old friend when he held the stone close. At first Dante passed the whispers off as his imagination. But after a while Dante learned that the piece of carved blackrock was a fetter. A necromantic object used to anchor spirits to the world of the living. 
One night he was tracking a band of orcs that had passed through the area.  He followed the orcs deep into the forest to their camp.  He slaughtered most of the orcs.  One member, Brok’orba was allowed to live to tell other orcs to fear and respect Winterfell.  Before Brok'Orba ran off Elms whispered to Dante to leave the fetter with the Orc. Dante jammed the small piece of carved black rock into the orc's empty eye socket. When Brok'orba left Dante still heard a whimpering.  He found a young girl about his age tied up and stuffed into a large wooden chest.  She was badly injured but Dante managed to heal her by feeding her his blood.  Her name was Ceini.

Dante provided a home for Ceini to live in and over the following year they grew fond of each other.  Ceini asked for Dante to turn her but Dante refused because he allowed himself to be turned for a purpose.  In those days it was widely believed that progeny would be damned to relive the sins of their sires.  Dante thus saw his and Myca's mutual betrayal as a sign of such an impure bloodline.  Though he did not confess this fear with Ceini, he did bring her to Skry and Synnabel.  The Crimson Alliance was falling apart.  The elders left the Alliance to form a new clan and released all their progeny to shape their own destinies if they so desired.  Skry and Synnabel left the alliance and the service of their masters, Ceverin and Lilith Stynovitch.  The four went to the Demon Temple on Fire Isle as the vampires of the Alliance had done for generations.  Skry drained Ceini and Synnabel gave Ceini her vitae while Dante held off the Dragons and Demons of the temple.  Hours later Ceini awoke in Skry's Britain apartment as a fledgling vampire.  Dante then took Ceini on her first hunt.

1 2001 Ceini and Dante moved into a small tower just on the outskirts of the Desert of Compassion in Trammel. It was equal distance between the area known as Enden which was ruled by the Kingdom Winterfell and that of Satamarin. Satamarin was another city devoted to the Guardian. It was both a project to begin corrupting the newly created Trammel and proof that those that worshipped the Guardian were beginning to split into factions. The vampire elder Ceverin had slipped into torpor. Lilith was beginning to show signs she would soon do the same. Lord Dark Storm had begun to descend into madness even killing his wife Arianna. The Orc tribes of the Shadowclan were dispersing. The Drow rekindled their worship of Lolth. Many of the new splinter groups were highly distrustful of one another and outsiders. The groups had growing distrust of one another.  Some even had good reason. In the case of vampire covens one group would often tip off a squad of vampire hunters on rival coven of vampires. Xavier Sterling happened to be the leader of one of the more ruthless squads. 

2 2002 After a time some of the newly assembled covens began to honor a formal code of ethics amongst vampires in an effort of mutual survival. The code was called the Masquerade. The idea being that the world outside of vampiric culture would think vampires extinct. With luck over time vampires would be considered a myth. While Dante never flaunted the fact that he was a vampire he felt it dishonorable to his heritage to outright hide what he was. The covens under the masquerade saw this as a threat. They set out a plan to kill a citizen of Winterfell and leave a trail of evidence leading to Dante's door step. It was all the more unlucky that the victims chosen was Sabrina and her two children of Xavier Sterling's. Sterling and his men came after after his family with a vengeance. Dante and Ceini knew what was coming after they found the bodies. They managed to break out the back door of their small tower to get a head start before Sterling  burned their home to the ground. They were chased through the woods by the vampire hunters. They managed to capture Ceini. They bound her in silver chains and tortured her for hours. They began with ripping out her fangs. They injected silver nitrate into her veins.  Dante watched in horror hidden and fearful that a similar fate awaited him should he reveal himself. Just before dawn Sterling prepared four horses to quarter her just as the sun turned her to ash. Dante despite his grief managed to remain hidden the entire day and fled just after sunset. 

3 2003 Dante fled to Ilshenar to hide from Xavier Sterling. He set up camp in some ruins near the Shrine of Sacrifice. He lived off the blood of meer and pixies. He prayed to the Guardian for guidance.  It was then that the Guardian spoke to Dante directly.  A bargain was offered. Dante had nothing left to lose became a Shard Walker for the Guardian. The official title from then on was Herald of the Guardian. The task set forth by the Guardian was to prepare worlds for the Guardian's arrival. And for centuries Dante existed outside of the  time that normally passed on his home world of Catskills. He traveled to Earth, the World of Pagan, Tarna, the world of Killorn Keep, Anodunos, Talorus, Scintillus Academy, the world of the Pits of Carnage, Rhiannon and dozens of alternate versions of Sosaria. Dante even stood in the presence of the Guardian Himself. But alas after several centuries Dante grew weary of the task set out by the Guardian. 

4 2004 He began to see that he was a pawn of the Guardian and was merely being used. The Guardian sends Dante back to the time and place from whence he came from. Dante returned to his normal life still trying to keep a low profile so as not to attract attention. Still fate was not without a sense of irony for Sterling and his men had finally tracked down Dante while he was out trapping pixies for a midnight snack. The vampire hunters tore out his fangs as they did to Ceini. They lashed Dante to a giant tree. They drove large silver stakes through his hands and into the tree. Dante was paralyzed with pain as the silver nitrate was injected into his veins. They thought their work would be completed with a sunrise. The hunters ended up being chased away by a swarm of impish minions of the Guardian. The imps toyed with and tortured   Dante for a bit before losing interest and wandered off. 

5 2005 Dante's near lifeless body laid out in the element for several days before a band of gypsies found him. The gypsies descended from a lost  paladin order devoted to fighting the Guardian. The gypsies saw Dante as a follower of the Guardian and saw that he had been forsaken by the Guardian. The gypsies begin to places hexes and enchantments on Dante in preparation for their plans for him.  The enchantments forced the vampirism to a tiny scrap of flesh that already held the tattoo of the Darkheart Rose. He awoke to the gypsies about to cut the piece of flesh from his shoulder. The gypsies gave him a choice. Follow the virtues and be their champion. The other option was death. Dante considered his options and chose life. He chose to follow the virtues. The tattoo was cut from his shoulder and he was cured of vampirism. (Good) Dante is reborn. But the Guardian had other plans for Dante. The scrap of flesh with the tattoo is taken by a minion of the Guardian and Evil Dante is created from it. 
((From this point on there are two Dantes, one good and one evil. To avoid confusion I will note whether the Dante is the Good Dante or the Evil Dante. Both Dantes continue using the name Dante Darkheart for their own reasonings. Both would refer to the other respectively as their "Other". Good Dante continued to keep the last name Darkheart as a repentant reminder of his past.  Whereas, Evil Dante uses Darkheart as a means to annoy Good Dante and trick others.))
Good Dante wanders as a healer and evil Dante leaves to live in the desert near Umbra. (Evil) Dante is able to resume living in the open as a vampire. He even begins plotting his revenge on Sterling. It began with turning Sterling into what he hated most, a vampire. The next part involved ripping his fangs out and sending them to a fellow vampire hunter with a detailed explanation of Sterling’s fate but with Dante's identity conveniently left out.  The final part involved locking Sterling in an iron coffin lined with silver and bound with steel chains.  The coffin was then buried with a unicorn to sustain Sterling indefinitely. The unicorn's horn was snapped off and fashioned into a dagger and the unicorns spirit was bound within. The location still remains a mystery to all but Dante to this day.

6 2006 Good Dante makes a home in Aegis near Yew.  He becomes good friends with the unofficial mayor Aedon Durreah. Good Dante begins training as a paladin. Evil Dante takes on the alias of Daniel Goodspeed. With his alias he leaves for Tokuno and poses as an agent of the Britannian government. While there he learns the Tokunoese martial art of Ninjitsu.  Shortly after he moves to Umbra and contracts his skills as a scout for the Umbra Guard. He becomes good friends with the a young sergeant of the Umbra Guard, Verbals Klawstar.  Dante conducted something of a "service" for Umbra by helping to uncover "corrupt" officials. Of course it just so happened many of these corrupt officials were political enemies of Verbals.  Few seemed to notice. Those that noticed and lived made sure to appear to have a blind eye. 

7 Evil Dante’s even begin hiring himself out in the world wider than Umbra as an assassin known as the Crimson Shadow.  He was a clever assassin by making sure not to publicly announce or draw attention to himself as most assassins would. But more so than most assassins he often stalked his potential clients before taking on their request. Even once he decided to accept a job offer he still never met face to face with the client.  One evening his services had been requested by a client named Clive Duathi in the Trammel Yew area. As it turned out the requested mark was his Other, the Good Dante who had been asking too many questions about Clive's motives with Aegis. Evil Dante at first had reservations about effectively killing himself albeit his Good half. But after stalking his prey he realized that it would be far more entertaining to toy with Good Dante. Dante made several veiled attacks against the Aegis, friends of Good Dante, and Good Dante himself. Eventually, Good Dante managed to corner and confront what he thought to be a common but skilled terrorist. It was only when Good Dante removed Evil Dante's mask that Good Dante's surprise afforded Evil Dante the opportunity to narrowly escape. 

8 Within the year Verbals is promoted to Major within the Guard of Umbra. For Evil Dante's service he is awarded a Silver Serpent Blade which he prizes to this day. The publicity of the award was ill placed as it alerted Good Dante to go on the offensive to bring Evil Dante to justice. Good Dante marched alone on Umbra hellbent on arresting Evil Dante. Verbals personally met Good Dante at the gate and refused him further passage into the city. When Good Dante attempted to proceed anyway the pole of Verbals halberd quickly swung and crushed Good Dante's knee. Evil Dante stepped out of the shadows and made his presence known. Good Dante realizing he was outnumbered emitted a holy light blinding the Umbra Guards, Verbals, and also burning Evil Dante. Good Dante limped back to his horse and rode back to his home in Aegis to heal himself. 

9 Evil Dante began planning his next endeavor to spend his vast and growing fortune on. The plan was to purchase the groundskeeper's chateau of the Hedge Maze in Felucca. He planned on retrofitting the cellar to work as a dungeon. The main floor would be used as an opium and nightshade den. The penthouse was then used as the guest and private quarters for Dante. The hedge maze would then provide all the needed herbs and ingredients to mix with the various drugs Dante planned on selling out of the Den. Evil Dante often took on the form of a wolf in order to stalk Good Dante. Good Dante had been healing fairly well though his knee always remained stiff at best. He had been frequenting a tavern in the nearby Elven town of Silverwood. Mostly because he had fallen for a young bartender named Keshia. Keshia too had fallen for Good Dante and had moved in with him. 

10 Nearly a year had passed since Good Dante and Keshia had fallen in love and moved in together. Good Dante worked up the courage to ask for her hand in marriage. Of course Keshia said yes. They planned for months. But just a few days before the big day Evil Dante drugged Good Dante while alone and kidnapped him. Good Dante was taken to a cell at the Necromancer's Arena just outside of Umbra. There he was tormented by bound spirits. The spirits gave him visions of his bloody past and told him he would never be able to atone for his past evil deeds. Evil Dante in an effort to further amuse himself disguised himself with a mask of bandages to appear as a badly burnt and injured Good Dante. He refused to call the wedding off. Thus Evil Dante stood in and married Keshia in Good Dante's place. They were married by a good friend and fellow citizen of Aegis, John McDermont.  Beleg and Ahmya Mengil of Silverwood and his two wards Ranis and Sinar were amongst the witnesses. Later that night Evil Dante begins the process of slowly try to corrupt Keshia to abandon the virtues. This continues on for several weeks until Good Dante manages to break free from his prison. He wandered several days through the dark forest disorientated from the hallucinations but made it back to Aegis in tattered clothes and covered in scrapes, bruises, and cuts. Upon finding Good Dante return to the Knight's Rest of Aegis Aedon and Beleg left to confront the imposter with Keshia. Upon Aedon and Belegs arrival at the Darkheaet Home Evil Dante revealed himself and fled. Keshia nursed Good Dante back to health over the following months. 

11 Evil Dante had retreated back to his drug den at the Hedge maze in Felucca. It was around this time he first started hiring smugglers Brock Blackheart and Mary Wartex to send small shipments of his drugs to far off cities and other odd jobs.  Some of the other odd jobs  involved staging bank robberies as a diversion while Evil Dante cooked the banks’ ledgers in his favor.  This was done for two reasons.  First his name would be changed on official documents further erasing evidence of his existence; the alias’ most often used were Daniel Sose, Danny Mitchel, and Edward Dantes. It was during one of the bank heists that the guards were alerted and Brock was caught.  He was sentenced for 20 years in the Yew Prison. He could have had his sentence reduced to 10 years if he gave up Mary or Dante’s names and whereabouts.  Out of fear of Dante he remained silent.  Brock only spent a year in prison where he fell into a gang of pirates led by Black Tom Vane and Nathaniel Hawk.  During his stay in prison he was frequently visited by Mary in disguise who passed messages between Brock and Dante.  By the end of the first year Dante had formulated a plan with Brock to break free the gang of pirates.  The Pirates were able to break out of the prison without a problem.  The problem was the route they chose left them stranded out in the open on the island the the prison was built on.  This was part of Dante’s plan all along as Mary had been waiting in a medium sized fishing boat just barely off shore.  The fishing boat took them to Buccaneer’s Den and they named their band the Brutal Buccaneers after acquiring several larger ships.  Again Dante contracts the Brutal Buccaneers for his odd jobs often paying them in product.  It was also around this time that Skry awoke from torpor and help Dante run his enterprise.  Skry revealed to Dante who his father truly was; an unborn at the time named Edward who later became a full undead minion. Skry in an effort to fully understand the state of vampires in this new world under the Masquerade sought out other vampires.  As a result Dante was introduced to Aravis a relatively young vampire of the Solvanto Syndicate, a vampire clan that could trace its roots back to Satamarin. A clan thought responsible for alerting Sterling to Dante and Ceini's true nature so many years earlier. The clan was lead by a beautiful vampire named Zendra and her husband Azrael. 
The politics in Aegis were shifting to be more accommodating of groups with darker motives.  Groups such as the Drow House Qu’Ellar D’Szith Szithrel Solen (House of Ten Thousand Eyes) and the Black Rose Society had moved into the area.  This did not sit well with Good Dante.  Rather than start a civil war amongst the citizens of Aegis he decided to leave.  He moved to Trinsic the City of Paladins in Trammel and resumed his training.  There Keshia discovered that she was pregnant. 
About a month before Keshia was set to give birth brigands burst into their home and kidnapped her while Good Dante was out training.  A note had been left that no ransom was wanted.  Keshia’s kidnappers had been hired by Evil Dante.  She was brought to Evil Dante who kept her in the mage tower at the center of the Hedge Maze. Evil Dante’s plan was to turn Keshia just to what would happen to the baby.  Luckily for Good Dante and Keshia Evil Dante wanted to wait for the full moon so Keshia would be turned properly.  Good Dante had cast a trace spell to help find his wife that brought him to the hedge maze on the night of the full moon. Good Dante had arrived just in time to distract Evil Dante while his wards, Ranis and Sinar, rescued Keshia and took her to safety. The fight between the two Dante's lasted for hours and destroyed much of Evil Dante's operation at the Den. Still enough of Evil Dante's henchmen remained to distract Good Dante while Evil Dante and Skry escaped.  Good Dante eventually escaped as well. Evil Dante returned before dawn and gathered what valuables weren't destroyed. Good Dante returned in the morning just after dawn and burnt the den to the ground and salted the earth where it stood. 

12 The baby boy was born and named Uther after Dante's great grand father Uther Lightbring. And for a month Keshia and Good Dante were happy. Evil Dante holed up in the city of his birthplace, the Necroplois for a month. It was long enough for Evil Dante to consult the demon Hapelitch and reswear his oaths to the Guardian in turn for the use of an abandoned world.  Evil Dante managed to kidnap the newborn babe and take him to the world of Anodunos. It was on this world that Evil Dante began to raise young Uther as his own as Hapelitch had done centuries years earlier with Brock Darkheart, Dante's grandfather. Years passed and Uther grew and learned from Evil Dante. However, in Catskills only days had passed. Good Dante, Ranis, and Sinar managed to track Evil Dante back to the Necropolis. Good Dante conjured the power to activate the Well with which Evil Dante had passed through to Anodunos. Evil Dante was immediately aware of the arrival of Good Dante and company. Good Dante found his way to the Castle of Anodunos as he had been to this world years earlier to conquer it on the Guardian's behalf. Uther, now a young man in his late teens, pretended to be a prisoner of evil Dante as Good Dante, Ranis, and Sinar broke into the castle. Again Good Dante confronted Evil Dante while Ranis and Sinar looked for the baby. What they found was a young man named Uther who was feined weakened from years of torture. The duels between both Dante's made its way up the top of a tall tower within the castle. Ranis Sinar and Uther followed the wake of destruction left by the duel between both Dante's to the top of the rower as well. In an effort to break up the fight Sinar and Ranis fired their crossbows at Evil Dante. One of the bolt hit and distracted Evil Dante long enough for Good Dante to get an edge and break from the duel. Evil spent his effort trying to dodge the barrage of bolts being fired at him while Good Dante reopened the Well to get back to the shard of Catskills. Good Dante helped his weakened son to the Well but just as Ranis and Sinar approached the Well Evil Dante charged Sinar. Ranis tried to jump between then two but evil Dante swatted her aside breaking her arm. Evil Dante made contact with Sinar grabbing her. But Sinar grabbed Evil Dante back and jumped off the balcony. Ranis could do nothing as she watched in horror as her sister fell to her death. Good Dante pulled her through to Well convinced Sinar's sacrifice also resulted in Evil Dante's death. The Well was closing. Good Dante had sent Uther through and was now pulling a distraught Ranis back home. Evil Dante had used Sinar to break his fall so he could survive. He woke up laughing despite being sore. 


Upon arriving back home at the home in Trinsic Keshia was relieved to meet her son, although shocked to see him fully grown. A few weeks passed, Good Dante and Keshia expected their son to be distant after technically not growing up with his parents. They even moved to Luna for Good Dante to take on the job of training the paladins of Luna. What was not expected was for Uther to slit Ranis' throat in her sleep and kidnap his mother one evening. Good Dante chased after Uther and Keshia eventually catching them before reaching the Umbra. Uther faced off with his father. Good Dante maintained defensive moves and submissision attacks only carefull to not harm his son. But Evil Dante had trained Uther well. Uther managed to strategically knick Good Dante several times throughout the duel. As father and son fought. Evil Dante crept in and grabbed Keshia who had been struggling to release herself from her bonds. Evil Dante whisper maliciously to Keshia "Watch this!" and forced her to watch what happened next. Evil Dante threw a small dagger hitting Uther in the back of his calve.  The sudden pain caused him to fall to his knee placing his throat in the path of Good Dante's blade during a defensive maneuver. Uther bled out in minutes and died. Good Dante fell to his knees holding his son and screamed in remorse and anger. Evil Dante walked up dragging Keshia with him. He smiled looking down at Good Dante and bit into Keshia's throat. He drained as much blood as he could in the few seconds it took for Good Dante to rise to his feet once more. But he made sure to use his fangs to rip at her thoat and let her bleed out as well thus killing her. Evil Dante laughed maniacally as he dodged Good Dante's wild and unfocused attacks. Evil Dante further taunted Good Dante before raising the corpses of Uther and Keshia to hold Good Dante back from following Evil Dante. Evil Dante ran through the forest laughing and chanting "You killed your own son!"  Good Dante was left to deal with the mindless undead corpses of his wife and son. He wept as he spoke the words "Dispiro Malas" (Dispel Evil) and watched their bodies go lifeless once more. He took the bodies back to his home and prepared the funeral pyres for Uther, Ranis, and Keshia. He took the ashes and dispersed them at the eight shrines of Virture.  Evil Dante fled  to the forgotten town of Avernus having heard the nights during the winter last for a month at a time. An advantageous circumstance for a vampire. 

[[File:Atlantic_dante_darkheart.jpg]]

Takes place between RL Nov 2007 - Feb 2008; Mondain defeated by Stranger July 31st, LB defeats Mondain 339  - March 11th, 341; July 31st, 364 - March 11th, 366; 
13 2008 Avernus began as a mining town that took up much of Dagger Isle. It had been abandoned sometime in its past under somewhat mysterious circumstances. In recent years it had been rediscovered by a traveling bard named Alex and his sister Beatrix a paladin. Alex saw an opportunity for a fresh start and began hiring the dregs of society to reshape their lives in the former ghost town. These men took up all sorts of jobs. From the hunters that gathered think hides of the beast accustomed to the cold. The hides were turned into the thick coats  used by the growing population. To the fishermen of the icy waters that gathered the mainsay of the Avernian diet. To the veritable army of miners that produced the ore that was often traded with towns of warmer regions for wood.  Other men signed on to be members of the militia to ward off the roaming clans of orcs. The few women that came to the town were often forced to become barmaids or innkeepers. 
The people of Avernus were rarely harmed by the undead of Deceit unless one stepped into the cursed dungeon. The largest threat were the small roaming bands of orcs. Although there was no central leadership to the orcs they were typically referred to as the orcs of the Wintermaw Clan. It wasn't until Evil Dante arrived in Avernus that the attacks seemed to stop. 
Evil Dante had presented himself to Alex and the rest of the people of Avernus as a wealthy aristocrat and offered his services to the mining town as the primary financier. This role was gladly accepted and several projects were undertaken. The original forge of the town founded by a man named Tancred had been renovated. A greenhouse was built to grow vegetables and grains. A large series of docks were built to accommodate the various imports and exports leaving in the town daily. Dante even brought the Brutal Bucaneers to Avernus to work as a legitimate shipping company. With the rowdy demographics of Avernus several outlets for entertainment were needed. An abounded cathedral was converted by the Brutal Bucaneers in a casino called the Dead Mans Hand. Dante built a fighting arena just next door and named it the Arena of Ellysium. 
While the town was officially ran by Alex much of it was subtly manipulated by the towns mysterious benefactor Evil Dante. The forge traded weapons with the orcs in a racketeering scheme. The greenhouse also grew Nightshade, Opium, and several other narcotics. These were then sold at the Dead Mans Hand Casino and the Arena of Ellysium. They were also smuggled out of Avernus by none other than the Brutal Bucaneers. 
Still the Guardian had to call in his favor with Evil Dante for allowing him the use of Anodunos. The Guardian required Evil Dante to aid the demonic invasion of Magincia. Those that fell into debt with Evil Dante were often reported missing.  It seemed likely that they were skipping town to avoid paying.  In reality these men were held captive until they were ghouls, slaves of Evil Dante's blood. Once the addiction took hold they would be sent to Magincia to aid the demons. 
Ghouls were not the only nasty export of Avernus. The orcs of the Dagger Isle had found a leader to unite them, Brok'Orba, the very orc Dante had let live all those years ago. This was not a coincidence. Dante's old friend Elms Grimswood the wraith had been guiding Brok'Orba through the fetter Dante placed in his empty eye socket. Not being able to take out their normal orcy rage on Avernus due to the pact struck between Evil Dante and Brok'Orba. Instead the orcs set out in small parties and began raiding the towns of the mainland. Occassionally making it as far inland as Enden, the former holding of the Kingdom of Winterfell now know as the Kingdom of Inerthia. 
Good Dante had been removed from his teaching position due to his frequent outbursts of anger. He had no tolerance for any for of wickedness. He would often challenge students who questioned his intolerance for anyone not following the virtues. The student would lose every time. Instead Dante began working with the True Britannian Faction. His over zealousness proved a useful tool for hunting down members of the Minax and Shadowlord Factions. Those he hunted were shown little mercy and as such Good Dante rose through the ranks. After a few months he found himself being elected the Commanding Lord of the True Britannian Faction. It was only a few weeks later that the invasion of Magincia began. Dante assumed the demonic invasion was the result of some mad mage's spell gone horribly wrong. From that point even members of the Mage's Council were not safe from Good Dante's deadly brand of justice. Throughout the chaos of the invasion Good Dante would come across ghouls from time to time. He did not immedeatly recognize that they were pawns of his other. It was only after an old man and a young girl of the Mage's Council came to Good Dante. The old man revealed himself to be Engrimm, Dante's childhood mentor. The young girl named Juna Mune was his new pupil. As it turned out Juna had cast a spell on one of the ghouls to to track their sire. However the trace spell lead to Good Dante despite him no longer being a vampire. This fact was all the evidence Good Dante needed to link the ghouls to his other. As a reward Dante allowed Engrimm and Juna to live so long as they left Maginca. Before leaving Engrimm confessed to Good Dante that he had failed in his teachings with Dante. The invasion raged on for several months. Dante made it a point to capture the ghouls alive so they could be tortued and interrogated them before they begged to die. Dante eventually allowed them peace in death. None of the ghouls gave up their masters' lair. 

14 A regiment of Knights from Inerthia (formerly Winterfell) came across some orcs using strangely sophisticated weapons for orcs. It took a few months to track down the supply chain that provided the orcs with such weapons but eventually a lead presented itself when one of the knights found a Brock Blackheart in Cove. Brock was seen with a sword of a similar design the orcs had. When questioned Brock told them his weapon was crafted in Avernus at his boss', Dante Datheart's forge. They released Brock as he had committed no crime the knights could prove. Brock returned to Avernus. Upon his arrival his tounge was cut out by Evil Dante to set an example for cooperating with the authorities. The knights stopped in Magincia to pick up some of their members. It was only by chance that Good Dante had made a name amongst the Inerthian Knights in Magincia. Initially there was some confussion amongst the knights that there were two Dante Darkhearts. Once that matter was resolved Good Dante joined the knights on their way to Avernus. 
The ship nearly ran aground on the shore of Dagger Isle as the light house had been turned off. The lighthouse had been overrun with orcs which the knights cut down. After their arrival they made their way to the Avernus Town Hall where they met the defacto mayor, Alex. Good Dante and the Knights of Inertia confronted Alex regarding Evil Dante's deals with the orcs and how he sent ghouls to Magincia and the drug smuggling the Brutal Bucaneers were responsible for.  Alex was in disbelief that the towns generous benefactor, Evil Dante, was behind such an organized crime ring. Alex sent some members of the Avernus militia with Good Dante and the Knights of Inerthia and showed them to the casino. On their way there they were ambushed by a orcs and wraiths. Still they pressed on fending off the assault. By the time they reached the forge it had been set on fire. The blaze was meant as a distraction ordered by Evil Dante and carried out by the Brutal Bucaneers as they prepared to flee the island. The Brutal Bucaneers fled on their ships save for Brock Blackheart who stayed behind to pilot Evil Dante's ship. 
As the fighting went on and the town burned to the ground Good Dante got seperated from the knights. Whilst isolated he was attacked by Evil Dante. The two faced off even as the ice beneath their feet broke off from the main glacial shelf surrounding the mountain. As they fought the chunk of ice grew smaller. Both had mortally wounded the other. As a last act Good Dante shoved Evil Dante into the icy waters as he himself collapsed. Good Dante was found hours later by the remaining knights in their ship. They managed to get him to a healer in time to save his life. Evil Dante was later found by Brock. Of course Evil Dante was again presumed dead but as usual he returned to Umbra to regroup. 



15 Good Dante was left crippled after the Avernus skirmish. He walked with a limp in his right leg. He had no feeling in the right side of his face. His right arm, his sword arm, couldn't be lifted above his shoulder without extreme pain. His war weary eyes weren't as sharp as they once were. His broken body was covered in a latticework of scars and most of his joints frequently made a popping noise. He was no longer suited for battle. However his exploits as a faction commander during the Ophidian War and the Battle of Magincia had caught the attention of the new king, Lord Casca and other notable politicians. Good Dante knowing battle was no longer an option decided to take up politics. As such he moved to Britain in Trammel to offer his services as an advisor in military tactics. Instead he was subtly brushed aside tasked to train young paladins. His first pupil was Allen Klawstar, a young and impetuous paladin, and estranged son of Verbals Klawstar. Lord Casca purposefully kept Good Dante and his pupil at a distance. Often sending them on fools errands.
Evil Dante grew bored of life in Umbra, ignorant of his Other's whereabouts, moved to Britain.  While there he met a damaged young girl named Marie De'Custeau.  Evil Dante turned the girl to a vampire and took her under his wing. Evil Dante and her killed her abusive family and used the home as base of operations.  While there he spent a good deal of time reflecting on the mistakes made at the Moonlight Den and in Avernus. He began drawing up the plans for his next project with that in mind. The project was known as the Undercrown. When not working on his blueprints he kept himself busy tracking down his scattered allies. He found Elms studying rats in the marshes east of Britain. Brok'Orba made his way to the Cove orc fort. He was found cracking in the skulls of his fellow brutes. Mary Wartex was working as a barmaid in Jhelom. Mary told Evil Dante about how Brock Blackheart was pursuing fae in an attempt to get a new tounge. Eventually though Evil Dante rounded up enough workers to begin breaking ground on the Undercrown in an area near the Yew crypts. 

16 mid 2008 - 2012 After Lord Casca was revealed to be corrupt Good Dante left Britain disillusioned and took up a home back in Aegis. Allen Klawstar frequently visited his mentor though because he kept his ties to the Royal Guard he was frequently called away on duty. Good Dante took up the role of a healer once more. 
Evil Dante's Undercrown project had been completed. The work resulted in a network of tunnels that interconnected a series of underground lairs. At the center was the largest of the lairs which provided a throne room for Evil Dante. A fighting pit for Brok'Orba. The main entrance was at the center of the Yew Crypts. But other entrances were available. Most notable was the entrance that lead to a small secret port called Deepwater Horizon. The facility managed to house a a great assortment of amenities. There was an arena, a lab, a crypt, a vault, several apartments, even a few common areas to include dining halls forges workshops greenhouses lounges and libraries. Of course on the surface it appeared as a series of mausoleums surrounded by the Yew Crypts on one end and a shanty port town along the coast. The port was used as a depot for smuggling. Within was a small tavern where smugglers and pirates rested. The less fortunate ones were lured or taken below and never heard from again. 
Despite living in such close proximity neither Dante affected the other directly. Good Dante went about his life serving Aegis and Yew as a healer. Evil Dante prospered greatly as he was careful to not sell his drugs and weapons in the Yew area so as not to draw attention.

== Expanded Appearance ==

Distinguishing Marks: A tattoo of thorny rose on the left shoulder blade 

Build: Slightly muscular 

== Other Information ==

There are actually two Dante Darkhearts.  The original was born in the Necropolis and became a vampire but later redeemed himself by becoming a champion of the Virtues.  In doing so he cured himself of Vampirism.  However, part of the ritual to cure himself he had to cut a piece of his skin off.  From that skin a new vampiric Dante was created.


[[Category:Characters]]