Klarion

History

Born in Limbo Town, where the former residents of Roanoke ended up after supposedly disappearing centuries ago, Klarion Bleak grew up in a sort of perverted version of Puritania, where necromancy was common (and in fact was a vital staple of the local industry) and every witch-man, witch-woman and witch-child had their own draaga, or familar. His true father having disappeared years earlier, Klarion always suspected there was a world beyond, but was vigorously discouraged from asking questions by the strict Submissionary Judah. However, when a spine-rider of the Sheeda arrived in Limbo Town one day, Judah and his fellow submissionaries panicked, convinced that the spine-rider had been sent in advance of their extermination. They transformed themselves into a Horigal, a monstrous gestalt form bonding the three of them and their familiars together. They then attacked all the witch-men in town, including Klarion's stepfather Ezekial. Klarion, who had found out about the Horigal and had tried to warn everyone, was pursued by the monster and fled upwards. In the process, he was separated from Teekl, his familiar.

Klarion ended up in the Manhattan subway system, and escaped the Horigal after it was hit by the pirate train called the William Jefferson Clinton. He ended up in the company of Ebeneezer Badde another runaway from Limbo Town, who showed him the Leviathan (an hive-mind collective of children) and the Foundation Stone (actually the Fatherbox Croatoan, an ancient Fourth-World device). Klarion pocketed the small thing, thinking it to be little more than a die. Badde later turned on Klarion, attempting to sell the boy into slavery. Klarion in turn summoned Teekl and had his familiar lead the Leviathan to Badde, who was summarily killed by the multitude of children. One of the Leviathan told Klarion that Badde had long been capturing its component children in order to sell them into slave labor, and so the Leviathan offered Klarion and Teekl a place among its ranks in gratitude, but Klarion declined, wanting to see more of the world.

He traveled above ground, to Manhattan, where he was discovered by Melmoth, who offered the boy food and a place to stay. Melmoth was secretly looking for Limbo Town, as he himself had created the original witch-men and witch-women by interbreeding with the humans at Roanoke. He thus sent Klarion with a gang called the Deviants to steal a giant subterranean drill for him. Klarion used Teekl to case the museum where the drill was held, and gang leader Billy Beezer set the Deviants loose within the museum.

When the Deviants returned with the drill, Melmoth deliberately played Beezer against Klarion to see what the witch-boy was capable of. Billy secretly feared being usurped, and Melmoth played to those fears, telling him that Klarion's skill with magic made him a strong contender to replace Beezer as the leader. Beezer attacked Klarion, who threatened him with a death curse, humiliating him.

Later, Klarion was awoken to see Melmoth forcing Beezer through an Erdel gate in order to be enslaved on Mars. Realizing that Melmoth intended to enslave all of the Deviants (and then discovering Melmoth's plans to use the drill to invade and plunder Limbo Town), Klarion warned his erstwhile comrades, but resolved to simply leave instead of trying to fight Melmoth. However, Teekl convinced him that he had a responsibility to return home to stop Melmoth.

Klarion returned to Limbo Town, only to be nearly burned at the stake for blasphemy when he tried to explain that there was a world beyond Limbo which intended to invade. Melmoth's arrival halted the burning, and Klarion ran to ring the alarm bell. There, he was confronted by Judah, who had been gravely wounded in their previous encounter. Judah, realizing the imminent danger facing the town and accepting his own death, named Klarion as his successor, teaching him how to become a Horigal. Klarion merged with Teekl and attacked Melmoth's forces and knocked Melmoth himself into a fire. Severely burned, Melmoth boasted that he was immortal and retreated. Afterwards, Klarion was offered the chance to become a full-time submissionary, but declined.

Klarion returned to the surface world just as the Sheeda were attempting their Harrowing. He was accosted by Misty Kilgore Melmoth's daughter, who demanded that he hand over his half of the Croatoan to her so she could avert the Harrowing. Realizing the importance of the device, Klarion stole Misty's own part of the Croatoan and hitched a ride aboard Castle Revolving, the Sheeda time-dreadnaught. Taking advantage of the attempt by S.H.A.D.E. agent Frankenstein to take over the ship, Klarion commandeered the ship and traveled to the Sheeda's homeworld, where he used the Croatoan to take over.

Perhaps growing bored of ruling the Sheeda, Klarion traveled through time to the Infinite Crisis where he aided the world's magic-users in summoning the Spectre and later aided the heroes in Metropolis. After the battle in Metropolis, Klarion wandered, at one point tricking Felix Faust into trading his soul for more power. He later appeared in Gotham City where his cat Teekl was nearly kidnapped by another young Limbo Town native who had wandered to the surface and who'd been kidnapping other witches' familiars in order to create a monstrous Judgement Beast. Klarion teamed up with teen superhero Robin to rescue the kidnapped familiars and returned them to their proper owners.

Most recently, Klarion encountered Mary Marvel,and offered to help her control her new powers in exchange for a small portion of her soul, to which she agreed. However, he got greedy, attempting to steal her power, and she knocked him away.

Powers and Abilities

Klarion is a skilled sorcerer, specializing in black magic. He is able to turn into a Horigal. His familiar Teekl also has magical abilities.