Inter

Inter, The Maze Master
An ancient chaos demon born long before the fall of Nekaru. Inter had many bodies through his life, but the final one he settled on was based on a kraken. He is a large fleshy monstrosity about 4 meters in height and his tentacles are between 5 to 7 meters long. He moves either by crawling on his tentacles or swimming through corrupted ground he creates and because of that he is not really fast. His arms are disproportionately long and his “face” consists of a large maw with a single glowing eye inside. He also has a few additional jaws under his ribs, on his right hand and on his tentacles. Inter’s demon magic allows hit to re-shape any matter, organic or not. He uses his power mainly to terraform the areas for his games or conjure flames he loves to use as decoration. His body also emits a magical radiation which causes rapid decay of living creatures. This effect is much stronger on any matter Inter recently affected, but quickly wears off and what he created can be safely approached and touched.

Inter views most of other living creatures as nothing more than his plaything. He has no empathy or compassion, and while killing is never his main goal, he loves tormenting his opponents both physically and mentally. Despite this, he respects it if someone wins in his challenges fairly and always grants them the promised reward, although in most cases the winner is too exhausted and broken to ever enjoy it.

Inter is a demon and biologically has no gender. He uses male pronouns. As a demon he feeds on negative emotions, preferring regret.

Story
When he was young, the monkeys used to live deep underground, scared of the beasts who ruled the surface. He witnessed as the monkeys evolved, from letting his kind to feed off them, to crawling out of the caves and building their empire on top of the ruins of the snakes. The monkeys known as humans always amused him. They eat, compete, breed and die like every other animal, but unlike dragons or snakes, humans had a unique lust in them. Not all, but enough for his plan to work. Humans were greedy.

With a promise of a reward, humans were lured to the challenges of Innh’me-te Ter’r, The Game Master, a great demon architect with a vast amount of material goods and a taste for their self-inflicted suffering. They faced many ordeals in the demon’s cavern: obstacle courses, team sports, bloody duels, games of chance, even card games. The rules were always simple - winners take all, losers die. For centuries the demon organised his games. He never forced anyone to join, always gave the reward promised and executed the losers personally. The legend of demon’s horrific games was known to entire Greavesoyl and he never made it a secret how many died while facing his challenges, yet many brave and desperate fools still came to play and die for Innh’me-te’s amusement and sustenance. It was only the matter of time to The Eternal Slayers from Nekaru to get invested.

The Slayers hunted all eternal ones in the name of The Emperor, both gods and demons. Any eternal one suspected of posing a threat to human society would be captured and brought to Nekaru where the merciless Emperor sentenced almost all of them to permanent banishment into The Void. That was the horrific fate of The Game Master. Banished and forgotten... but not dead.

For over 2000 years he was trapped in the darkness of The Void with only the plans for The Greatest Game of All Time he wanted to create upon his return to keep him sane. He knew for sure it was possible to leave his prison. And he was patient. When he finally saw the crack in the dark matter he crawled right through it, and found himself in an underground chamber, surrounded by mages and a bearded man who introduced himself as Zoril Ooran. The man demanded from the demon to help him in exchange for his freedom, and asked for his name.

''What was.. my name?''

Inhre… no?

Inret… teer?

''Inn... tre?''

The Ooran man threatened that he will push the demon back if he won’t help him. Then, the demon remembered. The throne room. The bearded Emperor. The man in purple robes who pushed him in.

''Irennt? No it’s not it.''

''What was it? How do I say it?''

The demon ripped Zoril Ooran and his mages to pieces, leaving just one alive. Then, he painted letters on the wall with their blood and viscera. He remembered the shape of the letters making up his name and wrote in on the wall. The first game he made upon his return was quite modest, but important to him personally. The last mage was tasked to read his name and the demon would let him go.

The mage had no idea how to pronounce it and the demon tore his spine out.

''Innhh... ret? Is that it? There must be someone who can say my name out there.''

He encountered a team of guards on his way out. He killed those who attacked him first and repeated his game with those survived, with the same result. None of them could pronounce his name. He moved on leaving a trail of corpses behind.

''Inhre... tee terr? I must be close!''

He blasted off the pathetic barricade they made to slow him down and emerged from what appeared to be some sort of dungeon. Fresh air touched his fleshy skin for the first time in ages. All the people around ran in panic and he delighted in their fear. He almost forgot how great the taste of human fear was. The demon stood there, enjoying the moment and quickly melting down anyone who tried to interrupt him. At this point he noticed that many years passed since he left this world. Guards who tried to attack him surely wouldn’t know how to pronounce his name. He needed to find someone smarter. A scholar, perhaps a mage.

In the crowd he spotted a woman giving a scarf to a small boy. She wore a robe similar to the robes of the mages he slaughtered down there. She had to be a mage too. Would she know how to say his name? He didn’t had to wait long as the sorceress approached him first, striking him with lightning and fire. He stood unmoved and grabbed her as soon as he had a chance.

“Let’s play a little game” he said to her, cutting the letters on his own neck. “''This is my name. Read it. Tell me how to pronounce it and I will let you go.''”

“''How… how old is this name?! This is the ancient alphabet! I don’t know how to read it, NOBODY KNOWS ANYMORE!''”

The demon strengthened his grip.

“''I’ll try! I’ll try!” the sorceress cried “Is that Irneh? Inret? INTER?! Is it Inter?!''”

It was not. The demon was sure his name was pronounced differently and with one swift slash he beheaded the sorceress.

''Inter. Inter, hmm. It doesn’t sound bad, actually.''

- - -

15 years later the entire world knew about the Greatest Game of All Time created by Inter, widely know as The Maze Master. The Ooran Dungeon was a large underground complex, full of monsters and traps and someone has just beaten his challenge and defeated the final guardian. Whoever it was, they wanted to face Inter in a fight. He would never reject a challenge like this.

He was waiting in his lair at the very bottom of the dungeon when a man in a green scarf walked in. Did he saw this scarf before? It wasn’t important. The man approached him with his sword drawn.

Inter grinned.

In-game
Inter heavily relies on his passive to deal high damage over time with Decay. His other abilities have additional effects on decaying enemies, such as additional damage or root.

Trivia

 * Despite being a major characters since 2017, his real name was revealed in 2020 Songs of Greavesoyl comic. Before he was only known as Maze Master.
 * Inter was the main antagonist and the final boss in Deep in Dungeon.
 * Him being playable in Songs of Greavesoyl map doesn't mean he was somehow ressurected or that he survived his fight with Cane. Inter is still canonically dead.