Balki was born on an unseasonably stormy night on one of the smallest islands in the Grafdosa Archipelago. His parents were humble, hard-working folks. His father, Elmon, was a fisherman and his mother, Lyrei, tended to the hearth at home. He was an only child but from the first moment air entered his lungs after being birthed, it was obvious that he was going to grow up to become something special.
“It’s a boy!” the midwife exclaimed excitedly but that excitement faded once she began to examine the child. “Do you see this? He’s been born with a marker.”
The parents hurriedly looked on and found that it was true, Balki had been marked at birth with a small crescent moon birthmark on his right shoulder blade. No one could have foreseen at the time what this meant but it soon became apparent that Balki was unique.
From an early age, Balki was more than just a little gifted. Absorbing new knowledge like a sponge, he constantly sought new information to the point that his parents couldn’t keep up with his constant desire to learn, and thus they gathered all the money they could and sent him to the outskirts of the island where he could get a proper education. He was only eight.
Upon his arrival at West Shores Academy, rumors began to spread far and wide of the young prodigy. Balki was at the top of every class he took and sailed through each year of his education with very few problems. He was well liked by his peers and respected by the faculty. Throughout his time in school, however, Balki became increasingly aware of his superhuman abilities.
While some other students in the school had already bonded with Wisps which allowed them magical capabilities, Balki found himself able to mimic some of their abilities naturally. Through careful concentration and breathing exercises, Balki could withstand extreme temperatures in either direction and had the stamina and strength of a world-class athlete despite never training a day in his life. Not only was he mentally and physically gifted, but he was also spiritually gifted as well.
In all of his years at West Shores Academy, Balki gravitated towards one man more than any other. It wasn’t another student and it wasn’t a teacher, it was the groundskeeper who maintained all the beautiful flowers and the zen garden that the academy kept on the grounds, his name was Carpus Honeyfield. From him, Balki learned many things about life and spirituality. Lessons that he would take to heart as he grew into a young man and started to form his own views of the world.
After leaving West Shores Academy with honors, Balki decided to travel all around Erridose and served as a guru to those who sought knowledge and wisdom; a gentleman philosopher as it were. Constantly he was stopped on the streets by those who wanted to learn his secret techniques and skills and he was always happy to help those who were serious about learning.
Thanks to this, Balki’s personal magical power grew exponentially over the next few years. Sprites were drawn to him like moths to a flame, and Balki was able to accumulate many different types of Wisps. While no one else realized why, Balki’s intuition told him that it was the special mark on his shoulder which allowed him to be such a perfect conduit for the Sprites to bond with him. Life was made for the young Balki and he couldn’t have been happier.
In the winter of his 27th year, however, things turned tragic for Balki. Out of nowhere, Balki began to hear a voice in his head that would not stop at any hour of the day. He couldn’t eat without feeling like someone was watching him, he couldn’t sleep because the voice would keep him up through the night. He sought the help of every doctor and wise man he could find within Erridose but no one could figure out how to make the voice go away. For months, the voice tortured Balki and slowly poisoned his mind against the same humanity that he had helped, nurtured, and guided for many years.
By the time his 28th winter rolled around, Balki was a weakened husk of his former self. His mind riddled with hatred and paranoia as he walked the worn paths between the cities that used to welcome him with open arms. It was during a particularly cold night that Balki finally succumbed to the darkness that had festered inside of him.
He was walking alone along a snowy forest path when suddenly he was attacked by a Possessing Wisp, which tried to possess him! Though he was a shell of his former self, he was able to fight off the Wisp for a while, but then a second Possessing Wisp appeared and attacked, which proved to be too overwhelming for Balki to resist, and shortly after he fell under those Wisps control. What Balki didn’t realize at the time, is that the Possessing Wisps didn’t attack him for no reason, but really they were in fact being controlled by the Dark Order god, Soren, who was actually the source of the demonic voice Balki was being tortured by.
It was Soren who chose Balki to be his puppet, and it was Soren who bestowed the birthmark upon Balki’s shoulder blade during his conception. The reason Soren did this was because he always needed a vessel, a pawn which he could control in order to exact his revenge upon humanity and the world of Erridose, as he had many reasons for his hatred. Soren’s plan for revenge consisted of bringing down a giant crystal full of foul and negative energy and dark magic, to come crashing down upon Erridose with the impact equivalent to that of a giant meteorite. As Soren desired to do this, he was unable to do so, due to the fact that he was confined to his realm of the Underose, and was unable to interact with the physical realm of Erridose. And though the giant crystal of dark magic was formed from within his own realm and under his supervision, Soren was unable to extract the crystal from his realm on to Erridose; he needed a powerful spell caster on Erridose to use potent magic to pull the giant crystal from the confinement of the Underose, and have it enter the physical realm of Erridose. This crystal extraction could only be achieved by being summoned by the most powerful of spell casters, and this is the reason that the birthmark was bestowed upon Balki, he was always intended to become the world’s most powerful spell caster, only to be powerful enough to summon the giant dark crystal, and have it descend and crash upon Erridose, in order to release it’s dark magic energy upon the world and corrupt the planet to its core.
Under the control of Soren, the Possessing Wisps guided Balki into a beautiful area on the Erridose mainland where he hid in a cave, shielded by a waterfall. Inside the cave, Balki chanted a dark magical spell for three days and three nights, in order to pull the giant crystal from the Underose into the physical realm, and then have it crash upon Erridose.
After he chanted the forbidden spell, Balki fell into a deep sleep which allowed him to not witness the destruction that he had brought down on the world. When he woke, he was startled and amazed to see how much of the planet had changed. The earthquake and poison that had been unleashed on Erridose from the impact of the giant crystal was more than he ever could’ve imagined happening, and it was all because of him.
It was at that moment that a small voice inside of Balki whispered. He could hear it deep down inside of him, it was crying. He kept trying to push it out of his mind but that small sliver of humanity and decency still haunts him to this day.
The crystal that crashed down formed a huge crater, and came to be known from that day on as the Black Pit. From the depths of the Black Pit an army of demons arose, lead by their five demon generals, known as the Pit Lords. The area surrounding the Black Pit became arid and hostile, giving birth to new monstrous species, including the dreaded insect-human hybrids known as the Skab People. After the demons and Skab People formed an alliance, and under the influence of Soren and the Pit Lords, it was these villains mission to conquer the world of Erridose, and enslave all of humanity within it.
Now brimming with powerful dark energy, Balki continued to attract more Sprites to bond with him, but these were mostly now all Dark Order Sprites. The more Dark Order Wisps he obtained, the more corrupt and evil Balki became. Still under the control of the two Possessing Wisps and saturated with corruption, Balki embraced the darkness, feeding off from its raw power, and he then formed an unholy alliance with the Pit Lords as he now came to admire their intent of taking over the world. Willing to help the Pit Lords when they needed his services as a powerful spell caster, Balki’s own personal intent now become to attract and collect all Wisps types within existence, and to gain so much magical power that he would be transmuted into godhood.
After the Black Pit formed and it’s darkness began to spread across the land, Balki then returned to his small island home where his parents used to live, and declared himself as the island’s new ruler, easily eliminating all those who resisted him. With his magical powers, Balki then created a grand pyramid out of pure jade stone in the center of the island, making it his new home. In order to further remove himself from humanity, Balki concentrated his powers and caused the island he was on to rise high above sea level by extending its cliffs, resulting in the populace renaming the island to High Island. And so it came to pass that from that day onwards, High Island became Balki’s domain, and he became known throughout the world as the most powerful and evil spell caster, and chief ally to the Pit Lords. And though he exuberates pure evil, he still remains under the control of the Possessing Wisps, and though the Wisps influence is slowly turning Balki into a demon himself, there still remains a small sliver of humanity within him, and he secretly wishes to end his own corruption, and to destroy the Pit Lords and the Black Pit from within.