Animalistic, ruthless, dwindling.
On the dense, generously-forested world of Belai, the Pantheon general Kasumnan led a brutal siege against a Vanguard outpost, spanning several decades of savage battle. While the Vanguard held strong, their determination waned under the constant assault and Kasumnan’s uniquely vicious fighting style; he would often flay his opponents, living or dead, and snatch a visceral trophy from their defeated corpse, if he felt his enemy had earned the right to join the other trophies he draped from his carapace.
The Nephilim Saxom strode out to challenge Kasumnan, daring the Pantheon general to meet him in single combat. To the bloodthirsty cheers and savage smiles of his fellow Pantheon, Kasumnan accepted. This was during the Apex era and long before Rose would challenge Veritas, and it was seen as a bold, brave, and borderline suicidal endeavour.
Kasumnan and Saxom clashed in the green forests. Their fight stormed across the world, levelling the lush greenlands, toppling ancient trees whose roots had rested in the moist dirt for thousands of years, blasted the planet and exploded wide, barren craters; the rich forests peacefully slumbering in the soil fractured into a grey, lifeless wasteland.
With a vicious crack of his bruised fist against the Nephilim’s stone-like skin, Kasumnan shattered Saxom’s body, but was not satisfied that the Nephilim had suffered enough. He pummelled what was left of Saxom until there was nothing, reducing his very essence into dust under his knuckles. The Nephilim’s blood and energy leaked into the scraps of green that had survived the clash and poisoned them. Over time, Belai became an infested, toxic swamp, a corruption of the universally-alien Nephilim and native, organic life.
Kasumnan ordered his troops to flay the remaining Vanguard and turned their gathered skins into rotting banners flapping above Belai’s dimming vibrancy. In honour of his victory, the Tearskin were formed: savage berserkers trained to feel nothing but the heat of the fight, who gleefully hurl themselves into battle, ripping skin for pelts and reaping trophies from their terrified victims.
In recent times, the Tearskins’ numbers have dwindled, with many in the Pantheon favouring the more orderly and finessed Thorns, or the tactical prowess and practised hunting of the Executioners. The current leader of the Tearskin is Priya, a fearsome brawler adorned in the pelts of her many defeated foes.
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