Chapter Text
A baby boy is born on an auspicious day. He has dark hair and darker eyes, which pleases his father, as they are a reflection of his own features. He grows up in a home with all the trappings of a happy family - a father who raises him with a firm hand and a proud smile, a plethora of women serving as surrogate mothers, and a room filled with all the books and toys a young boy could ever want. He grows up studious and quiet, devouring knowledge and watching the world around him with sharp eyes, always learning, always considering.
A baby boy is born on an auspicious day. He has blond hair and soft blue eyes, which pleases his mother, as they are a reflection of her. He grows up in a home that tries very hard to mimic the trappings of a happy family - a mother and father who rarely touch, who speak in hushed tones when they think their son can’t hear, and a room filled with only the bare necessities. It doesn’t really matter, because the boy won’t be old enough to remember much of this place by the time he is taken from it.
A young man grows up in a position of power, status bestowed upon him by his birthright and his upbringing. He is no longer a boy who looked up and saw a father who held all the answers to the universe. Now he questions, wonders, secretly , if this life of dispassionate cruelty in the pursuit of power is one he wishes to inherit. He looks around him and sees followers milling about like worker bees, blindly following orders, and feels pity for them. His heart aches for the lives his father will callously take in the service of his ultimate goal, but he is a coward at heart. And so the young man turns his back and runs.
A young man grows up in a gilded cage, status bestowed upon him by his innate power and his ultimate destiny. He is no longer a boy who looked up at his parents and wished for them to take him into their arms. Now he exists as an object of both reverence and abuse, terrified of his eventual fate yet longing for a chance that it all might end . He looks around him and sees faceless minions acting without a second thought for those around them, and feels rage begin to bubble up beneath his skin. His teeth ache for the feeling of flesh beneath them, to take some measure of revenge on those that have wronged him for his entire life. He is a beast at heart, and so the young man becomes what they had always meant for him to be.