The Legend of the Beast, and John Guythier
I'd been reading Dune's excellent account of the GSTK period of strife, the period where i was away for, and i thought perhaps of putting a little bit about the Beast and that character Guythier. Where they started, what they did, and what brought them into creation. Some of this is GSTK history, some is spontaneous creation, but seeing as it is GSTK history, i thought i'd put it here. Enjoy!
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The BeastAccording to legend, the history of the Beast began in 43AD, the time of the Latin Roman invasion of Britannia. As the legions upon legions of Roman foe began to mount the beaches in aim of conquest, the druids, priests and monks of the faith in Britain at that point, began to create a defence against the enemy forces. This creation was a huge creature: skin harder than diamond and stronger than any kind of metal or stone, fur as dark as a moonless night, claws sharper than any sword or spear, eyes that penetrate the soul, teeth that can swallow the spirit of any man and speed faster than an eye can see. It was a craetion that was depended on to single handedly destroy the legions of Platius. But, the creature could not be created from nothing, it required a host body. Instead of forcing anyone to take on the form of this creature, the druids decided amongst themselves who would be the one to be the creature. The ne to acceppt after two days of discussion was Malburgh. He was only twenty at the time, a family man and true holder of his faith. He was good man. When he assumed the shape the Beast, however, the memories and experiences Malburgh melted away into nothingness, replaced by the ferocity, the bloodlust of the Beast. He was cursed to never turn back to Malburgh from that moment. Needless to say, the mission the druids failed, because the Beast killed them all. As soon as it was created the Beast began its first feast. The druids aimed to create a weapon to destroy the legions of Rome; they certainly created a weapon to destroy. The legions took control, and Malburgh vanished into history. Only rumours were spoken of him, or rather the Beast that controlled him. Woodcutters would babble in stupid demented languages speaking of a creature that moved like the wind and killed like wildfire. They used to say the eyes of the Beast could turn a man insane.
When the year 560 AD arrived, Malburgh awoke one day to find himself feeling peculiar, or more exactly, less covered in fur. He had slept as the Beast, but awoke as a human. Malburgh kept some sense of himself, but the voice of the Beast kept control of his mind. What the Beast wanted, the Beast got, and Malburgh would get it for him whilst it lay dormant in his heart. By this time, the number of creatures had risen from one to near one hundred. The process is poison and many dies during the process. The bite of the Beast, or a single claw, can turn a man, but the venom of the Beast is lethal and many die instantly.
One of these Beasts resided in Sherwood Forest, not three miles way from one Geoffrey Wilsons castle. A band of knights, Sykes, Blackadder, Reece-Llewllyn, Germati and Wilson, and an Archbishop called Caradog, left the safehouse of Nottingham in search of the creature. A number of things were to happen, men died, and another creature not of Malburghs line was found. Tow children were also found strapped to a treaa branch with their entrails cut from their bellies and their hearts impaled upon the base of the tree. When the creature was slain by Wilson's fabled spear, all of the knights thought it was over. But this was not Malburgh. No, this was a very recently changed one from one of the diluted bloods. Malburgh was never seen again after the incident in Scotland. Some say he is gone for good, that Ramirez banished him to Hell... but one cannot chain the Beast... that is its curse on humanity. It is unyielding and uncaring... it will always kill.
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John Guythier
The man named Guythier was once human, and had been human for thirty eight years. Sometime in June, in the region of Provence, Guythier witnessed something abnormal. Guythier was travelling towards Marseilles, or what Marseilles was for we cannot be sure when Guythier existed, when he began to walk up a hill. When he ascended the peak of the hill, something creaked, and then Guythier fell through the hill into the base of the mound of earth. What he witnessed we cannot be sure, but some swear, told from the tongue of Guythier himself, that he found the Gate to Hell. When he saw the Gate, dripping red with blood and pulsing as if it was alive and thinking, the skull emblemed on the entrance began to glow an eerie blue. The eyes looked straight into Guythiers heart, and the eyes turne red. A huge rush of blood filled the room almost instantly, and left just as quickly as it had come. Guythier was not a man anymore... he resented the sun, treasured the night and fed from the life of the living. His skin began to pale, and his eyes began to redden. Guythier had become the Vampyre.
Just as Malburgh dissapeared after his creation, so did Guythier, and he did not re-appear until 1094, when the Caliph Al-Muqtadi passed away in the night. It was stated that he died in his sleep. What really happened was that, after the guards heard a strange sound they opened the door to the Caliphs room and would never forget what they saw. Upon the bed lay a carcass of strewn flesh and bone. The Caliphs body had been opened from the base of the gut up to to the sola-plexis. The guts and organs inside surrounded the body of the Caliph, and they eys had been plucked from the head, and lower jaw ripped away to be left on the windowsill. All of Guythiers victims suffer a similar fate.
Some say he has direct contact with the Devil, some say he is the Devil. What we know for sure is that, when the knights went in search of Malburgh, they stumbled across the hut of Guythier and his "Apostles" (vain believers that Guythier will turn them, but guythier cannot turn his victims, he is the only one of his kind). Guythier was "killed" they believed, and his body pulled apart. But somehow, and the procees is unclear, the body remained and regenerated. Guythier could live through being pulled apart, limb by limb.
He too reappeared in Scotland, and some think he was banished to hell by King Davis of Scotland. Davis never penned what he experienced, but a soldier at the time described "a pillar of fire rose from the earth, and the realisation that Hell was protruding into Earth was apparent among us all." No doubt Davis fought Guythier, and no doubt he won, but not conclusively, for Guythier still lives.
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