As a skeleton, Xykon would be unaffected by the virus and get many new powers. However, Redcloak is unaffected by the virus due to the powers of his dead mentor's cloak, and hatches a plan to turn Xykon into an undead lich.
Without his powers, Xykon is nothing, and is trapped in a prison beneath the ground a frail old man. Xykon and the goblins attack the forest, but are defeated by a virus created by Lirian which removes all the army's magic. The gate is in a forest inhabited by elves and lead by druid Lirian. He believes he is doing the bidding of The Dark One, the goblin god. Redcloak twists the facts slightly, making the Snarl sound more controllable than in actual fact. This entails an arcane caster (Xykon) and a divine caster (Redcloak) gaining control on the gate which contains The Snarl which they will use as their weapon to kill the gods who the goblins despise because of the lack of resources they gave sub-humanoids upon their creation. Redcloak and his brother manage to ally with Xykon and tell him of their plan for world domination. Xykon, flying over head sees the commotion and sets about laying waste to both human and lizard forces alike. Redcloak's small goblin army is about to lay seige to a castle occuppied by his human nemeses, the Sapphire Guard, when a horde of lizard savages attack first. It is as an old man that Xykon meets Redcloak, the goblin cleric that will become his accomplice. At some point many years later, he kills Fyron, tutor of Eugene Greenhilt who spent many years trying to avenge the death. In a rage he storms off, quickly ending up in the jail of a local town. Slightly later on, Xykon tries to become the Dark Master of a people living inside a volcano, but loses the position to sorceress Yydranna and game designer Keith Baker. He then goes on to kill his own parent with the animated corpses of the professor and his grandmother. Xykon turns against the old man, killng him and taking the name he would be known as for the rest of the story. Xavion, who tells him of his sorceror powers and the potential of what they could become with training. He is seen maliciously heading off with his new zombie dog to kill birds.Īs a teenager, Xykon is visited by a mysterious wheelchair-bound Dr. In Start of Darkness, the prequel book set chronologically first in The Order of the Stick, Xykon is first seen as a young child discovering his necromantic powers when his dog Barky dies.