Karok
Description
Karok the Fallen hails from the icy planet Glacera. He is the leader of the Frostspawn Horde and a powerful ice mage who goes by the title of the "Worldbreaker", as well as one of the main villains of AdventureQuest Worlds alongside the Queen of Monsters, her Generals, and the Chaos Titans after Drakath and the 13 Lords of Chaos.
Karok was once a noble hero who fought to protect his world from evil. He sent his wife and his children away for their safety, but they were captured by the enemy. He was promised to have them back in exchange for his army. He agreed to the terms, but unfortunately for him, they had already been killed by the enemy when they were given back to him. Enraged, he laid waste to the enemy, and with that, his army came to fear him as he grew increasingly monstrous, making him into the ruthless tyrant he is today.
During the Queen of Monsters' rampage on Lore, Karok saw an opportunity to begin his own invasion of Lore, out of intent on succeeding where his brother, Kezeroth the World Ender, failed. He manipulated Syrrus and the hero into gathering the seven Elemental Starstones to open the Horologium Gate for him, which allowed the Frostspawn Horde to pour into Lore itself. Karok arranged for Lorentz and the heroes to claim his Scythe of Vengeance that he placed back in his fortress in Glacera so that when they returned, the world would be his. After the Frost General's defeat following their return, Karok murdered Lorentz and destroyed the Horologium Gate to ensure that the Frostspawn Horde would remain on Lore. It soon also became apparent that the Frostspawn were turning the refugees from the mainland into mutant ice monsters. Karok even received service from an ice monster that served the Queen of Monsters. In time, after said monster's defeat, the hero and Syrrus faced him in battle and blasted him away. They were unable to find his body afterward, but he survived the knockback and was rescued by the Queen herself. The Queen offered for him to come into her service so he could rule the world and she could feed off of its emotions. Karok agreed, albeit with a full intent of betraying her later.
One year later, Karok, now having sprouted wings and become the Queen's Ice General himself, gathered his troops and began the search for the new Champion of Ice without permission from the Queen. He set his sights on Cryostorm Tundra, said to be the birthplace of the Ice Champion, and attacked with his horde. He gave the residents and refugees until Frostval before the time he decided he would crush them himself. After he left, the residents of Cryostorm along with the refugees, the hero, and Syrrus began to fight against the Frostspawn Horde to defend Cryostorm. When several reinforcements, including Laurissa and Thermax, arrived to help in the defense of Cryostorm, Karok decided that the people should experience the full might of his army as he sent more of his minions after them.
As the war between the heroes and the Frostspawn progressed, it soon became apparent to Karok that his footsoldiers were falling too quickly. Realizing his mistake of sending his lowliest monsters to attack them first, he decided to rally more of his troops to ensure that his victory would be at hand. But just when there seemed to be too many Frostspawn for the heroes, Drakath, knowing that the heroes who defeated him shouldn't give up so easily until he crushed them himself, sent several Chaos monsters to help out by plowing through the Frostspawn. Enraged, Karok decided to finish the fight himself. Karok threw a blade created by himself at Thermax, killing him, but just when it seemed that he was proving too much for the heroes on his own, Abel stepped in and attacked him, and then he found himself suddenly weakened. Syrrus told the heroes that they should finish it now, and Karok was ultimately defeated again. Karok has then pulled away and realized that the Queen had repressed his power to provide the heroes with hope (but not out of the goodness of her heart; rather because she wanted to smash that hope later for a more powerful response made by fear and broken hope). He was then teleported away by the Queen.
Glace and Kyanos, who had been watching the events of past years and learned of The Beast Quetzal's death at the hands of Kezeroth, knew that a new Champion of Ice had to be born soon. They decided Abel should inherit the title next. Kyanos and Abel vowed to see that Karok and the Queen of Monsters pay for what they had done.
One year even later, Karok, having realized that he wasn't able to use the Queen to get what he wanted, decided to revive Kezeroth from his imprisonment. He arrived at Ice Rise Keep on IceWind Pass where Kezeroth's icy prison was currently resting and succeeded in freeing him, hoping to convince him to work with him in his quest for world domination. Unfortunately, Kezeroth, who had somehow lost his memory of what happened four years prior to his re-freedom, was furious when his brother told him that it had only been that exact amount of years. He again believed that Quetzal's comet would only come 26,000 years later and that his brother had robbed him of his chance to finish his work. Karok attempted to remind him that Quetzal was already dead and that he destroyed the beast himself when it failed to bring about the end of the world for him, but due to his lack of memory, Kezeroth would have none of it, saying that he wasn't interested in conquering Lore and instead was destined to destroy it. Kezeroth vowed to kill his own brother before allowing him to control him, and from there, a fierce battle between the brothers started. Abel, Syrrus, and the players, who had been watching this recent argument between the brothers when they arrived, decided to use this falling-out between them as a chance to use one brother to take down the other.
Kezeroth destroyed many of Karok's Frostspawn minions and overpowered his own brother. Before he could finish him off, though, Karok binded him to chains bending him further to his will, to the shock of their spectators. They summoned the Soricomorpha, which they referred to as the Seismole, to attack the heroes as they made their getaway.
Later, the players and Syrrus were able to retrieve the Crystal of Glacera, an artifact that would have enough power to defeat Karok and Kezeroth, just as the Frostspawn arrived to attack them. Eventually, Karok appeared and the players prepared to fight him with the crystal in hand. Karok attempted to convince them to give the crystal to him, but they refused, stating that it was the one thing that would be able to overpower him and that they wouldn't be so stupid as to hand it over to him. Karok agreed that they wouldn't be that stupid, deciding to save his strength for later as he had Kezeroth fight them instead. Thanks to the Crystal's power, however, the players were able to defeat Kezeroth and freeze him in place, but just as they were overpowering him with the crystal, Karok intervened, finally deciding to handle them himself.
The players managed to defeat and overpower Karok using the Crystal of Glacera. Before they could finish him, he convinced them of the reason why they had beaten him easier the year before; the Queen had stolen his power and weakened him so that they could best him so suddenly. When those words baffled the players, Karok even stated that the Queen was incomprehensible and arcane, and that he was proven wrong when he thought he was using her to get what he desired. He revealed that he wanted the Crystal because he felt it might empower him enough to destroy her, to which the players replied saying that he couldn't have it because it knew it had great potential to cause destruction if it fell in the wrong hands and thus was picky about whom it allowed to wield it. Karok allowed them to keep the Crystal then, convincing them to use it against the Queen instead, promising that they could finish their fight after it was all over, even making his point about the oblivion that his brother wanted to bring would be better than the nightmare she had in store. The players called a truce with him for now, surprising Syrrus. Despite knowing that they couldn't trust Karok due to the horrible things he did in the past, including but not limited to the murders of Lorentz and Thermax, they knew right away that he was right for now and that they would need all the help they could get.
Trivia
- Karok seems to be just using the Queen of Monsters for his own purposes and is going to betray her sooner or later, not knowing that the Queen knows it and is just playing with his scheme.
- He already had killed at least two characters in the game: Lorentz and Thermax.
- From the event: Cryostorm Assault, the Queen of Monsters repressed Karok's power so that the heroes could gain hope. It wasn't out of the goodness of her heart, though, she wants to smash that hope later for an even more powerful response driven by fear and broken hope.
- He then understood that he's incapable of defeating the Queen yet on his own after seeing her power over him.
- While he was the first of the Queen's Generals to appear, he wasn't a "General" at the time of his first appearance. He was later revealed to have only become said General after the Fire General Tyndarius' defeat and Nevanna's revelation as the Earth General.
Gallery
Karok during Cryostorm Assault
Karok's new form in-battle
Karok disobeying the Queen
Thermax hit by Karok
Thermax killed
Karok withdrawn by the Queen
Karok's inferiority to the Queen
Karok kneeled by the Queen's power
