This article covers the events unique to this version of Rohen Tahir. If you wish to read more about the character's past and future, please click here.
‘ You have done me excellent service. Return to your Order now, and tell them that the time of dawn is past. The time of war has begun! ‘
~ Dark One to the Phoenix Bearer
The Dark One is a younger, more sinister Rohen Tahir and the main antagonist of the Battle for Fiara. He came to exist at the same time as the older, wiser Rohen by undergoing a time loop which intertwined their fates.
Biography
Post Convocation
Following the Convocation, the Dark One kept his identity as the Circle Mage Rohen Tahir hidden and mainly worked from the shadows, influencing factions and events to further his ambitions with little to no regard for the lives of others.
His ultimate goal was to construct a portal through time, allowing him to return to a time before the Convocation, as he believed that the knowledge of its outcome would allow him to decide it for himself. To that end, he spent the first years after the Convocation searching across Eo for powerful artefacts and ways to set his plan into motion.
Amra and Lea
During his search, he caught word of the Pledge of the Gods, a powerful artefact, given by the goddess Elen to a woman named Lea. Believing the artefact to potentially possess great power, he used his power and influence to become Lea's groom, much to her dismay, as she had already fallen in love with a warrior named Amra.
Before being forced into marriage with the Dark One, Lea had given away the Pledge of the Gods to Arma, which greatly angered the Dark One, as acquiring the ring was the principal goal of this charade. In retaliation, he murdered Lea and her family, leaving only her then-absent sister, Shan Muir, alive, before setting out to find Amra and bring the ring into his possession.
The two confronted each other and the Howling Mounds and after a brief battle, the Dark One slew Amra, leaving his comrades for dead as he took the Pledge of the Gods from him, disappearing from the scene. However, his victory would be short-lived, as he would soon come to realise that the ring was symbolic in nature, holding no power inside it.
Godstones
Continuing his work on the Time Portal, the Dark One realised that the Godstones, crystals holding Aonir's power, should be a sufficient power source for the task. Though he was right in this assumption (according to the wiser Rohen Tahir), he ultimately decided on a different approach as a new opportunity presented itself during the events known as the Battle for Fiara.
Back Fist
Not long before the year 8 after the Convocation, the Dark One decided to use his wealth and influence to support a band of mercenaries under the leadership of the war-veteran Brannigan called the Black Fist. His money allowed them to not only acquire better equipment but to also hire various Ork mercenaries, turning them from a minor annoyance in the region to a threat needing to be respected by the inhabitants of Nortander.
Whether the Dark One had any long-term plans for the Black Fist is unknown, but it seems more likely that he was using them as a distraction to destabilise the region and to force Order of Dawn to react to their increasing presence, not allowing them to work out his true plans and identity.
Hokan's Blades
At an unknown point after the Convocation, the Dark One ventured into the city of the dead, Whisper, to seek out the burial site of his once fellow Circle Mage Hokan Ashir. Though dead, as the most powerful necromancer of all time, Hokan managed to keep his soul bound to the world of the living, allowing the Dark One to confront and belittle him, before stealing the secret of his powerful Blades.
Much like Hokan did during the Convocation Wars, the Dark One would create a Soulforger, which he would then use to amass an army of the iron terrors under his command. However, he wouldn't actively use them in combat until much later during the Battle for Fiara, likely to keep them a secret from the Order of Dawn and the one person who posed a threat to his grand plan - his older self, Rohen Tahir.