Prince of Darkness



"'Blinded by the treacheries and false hope of an unattainable dream, he dances further and further into a fate worse than the death he worked so hard to avoid. I pity such a creature, so afraid of the end as to pretend to embrace it. It must be hard being so lonely and hollow...'"

The Prince of Darkness is the main villain of Bloons TD 7: Dark Times. He is regarded as a faraway evil force that has controlled the events of the world for decades since he brought about the Soul Fracture.

Origin
The Prince of Darkness was not always the lord of the dead and master of the world that we know him as today. He began his humble origins as a magical scholar in the Monkey Kingdom, before retreating northward into the Outlands and to the mountains to further his goals and studies into every art of magic.

He was obsessed, and his dream... no his unrelenting desire, was to learn all of the world's secrets and command them to his whim. No spell would go unknown and no scroll unread. As the years passed, the old wizard became isolated and hermetic, residing and stowing away in his mountain lair for years at a time doing nothing but study and practice.

That was, until the day he emerged at last after decades and toured the advancing society of the Monkey Kingdom. He was disgusted by what it had become in his absence. To spare his legacy and all of the hard work he had gone through, the soon-to-be Prince of Darkness gathered eight promising magical students and took them to his lair in the north.

After much teaching from the now aging wizard, he had grown more fearful of his coming demise. Not ready for his curtain to close, the archmage taught his disciples a final lesson. After holding the dark arts within himself for so long, he finally bore to his students the forbidden knowledge of necromancy. He then instructed them to work in unison to enact a powerful spell that could bring even a powerful wizard such as him back from death. It was not too long after this event that the mage would die of his own old age.

Revival
Once his disciples had mustered the magical power to bring to life once again their old teacher, they worked together to cast the mighty spell. From the grave rose the Prince of Darkness, the reanimated husk of this once renowned mage. Blessed or cursed, be it your call, with the untold might of death, the Prince of Darkness made his throne and shrine within the catacombs of his old lair.

He had been long scheming plans to take control of the Monkey Kingdom. It was not until now, in his undeath, he could finally go through with them. Having gathered his eight disciples into his throne room, he was ready to dispatch of them now that they had out-served their purpose. With a magical blast, he had attempted to kill all eight of his now useless students. And yet... he let one survive, a mistake that would forever haunt him.

Now in a permanent state of between the lines of life and death, the Prince of Darkness had all of the time in the world.

Preparation
The Prince of Darkness used his necromancy and status as powerful lord of the undead to bring together a massive army of resurrected bloons and monkeys alike, both present in the Outlands where he resided. He knew however, that it would take centuries to wait for enough hollow husks to muster a large enough force to present even a moderate threat to the now powerful kingdom.

Instead of waiting, the Prince of Darkness sought powerful allies in the Outlands. His name and presence were already feared and well established, so when a rather small and soon-to-die-out faction by the name of the Defiled Horde received invitation to take part in his master plan to bring down the oppressive empire to their south, the Horde's leader, Hordelorde Aulgart, hesitated not a moment in joining.

Now with a sound army and established presence in the Outlands, he just needed one more element to ensure his domination over the world... The Soul Fracture. An ancient spell barely legible in even its ancient scripts, the Soul Fracture was an apocalyptic event that could be brought about through immense amounts of preparation, and a cast of exotic material... one of which was seven souls.

He had taken this into account when killing his disciples. Their only purpose was to bring him back to life and then serve as components to enacting the Soul Fracture. He had left Festeri alive for that very reason, not expecting her to switch sides. He had grown fond and actually quite attached to Festeri, his prodigy pupil and she almost seemed as if a surrogate daughter to him in his eyes. Putting together the rest of the pieces over the next few years, the Prince and Hordelorde Aulgart were ready to finally put into motion their master plan.

The Soul Fracture
The Soul Fracture began with a beacon of light, and the permanent darkening of the skies. The sun has not shown its face over the world in decades, since the beginning of the Soul Fracture. The dead had begun to rise again all across the world, loyal immediately to the likes of the Prince of Darkness.

It has been 28 years since the Soul Fracture had begun, and during it's events the Prince and his forces had established total domination over the world, taking advantage of the divided and isolated remnants of the Monkey Kingdom. The Defiled Horde are just as his disciples were however... expendable and only useful until their purpose has been served...

Now the Prince of Darkness is threatened by a light amid his age of night. In the far south, where his armies could never truly get a foothold, a large settlement by the name of Prideshead threatens his malevolent reign. Now again, he shall be given a reason to at least fear death once more...

Fight
'''Wont come for a long time. Until the rest of the story and game is fleshed out.'''

Trivia

 * He pretends like he doesn't care that Festeri has turned on him, but deep down he does. It was never his intention to truly hurt her, and she will never be able to know that as she plots his end.
 * Obviously based on the Path 3, Tier 5 upgrade for the Wizard Monkey in BTD 6 of the same name.
 * Prone to stabbing backs and breaking deals. His only desire is power (both magical and literal) and control.