The Scourge was a simple foe.
Simple, yet terrifying.
For the Scourge was less a force of evil, more a force of nature. It was not led by anything or anyone. There was no purpose they held other than spreading their existence.
In the most elementary of terms, the Scourge was a malignant infection upon the world.
An Infection where all it would take was contact with a living creature's skin to kill and mutate. Even the grounds of the land were not immune to the vile nature.
It didn't matter how strong or weak a person was in the face of the Scourge; a single splatter of the black matter in the wrong place was enough to kill even Hope.
As for Hope…
Hope and his brother were two legendary heroes born in the slums of Catatran's capital of the same name who rose to prominence on strength and merit alone.
It was by his and his brother's strength that the Scourge, which felt so close and overbearing, was able to be shoved away in the minds of the people.
But, of course, Hope, the noble knight that he was, wasn't satisfied with the passive nature of defense against the Scourge. He wanted to take the fight to them like they once had. Yet, the new King of Catatran, Ixion, wanted no part of that fight and refused to give such an order.
It was no secret to the people that the once noble Ixion had given up on the future and traded it in for the present, choosing to indulge in his desires while he had the leisure to.
He'd let the Chrys Commonwealth, a coalition of tons of beast tribes, hold off the Scourge without aid while he sat back and watched.
Fed up, Hope decided to follow in his brother's footsteps, who'd left long ago.
Ixion didn't particularly care that Hope and Despair had left.
In his eyes, the world had already ended.
He was content with walking the path of madness. Yet he was only one of three who knew the end his madness strived for.
Unbeknownst to most, Ixion's noble nature had never waned, but he'd sworn an oath of calamity.
Calamity upon the Scourge at the cost of his world.