"Yes. You will end his life, but not before he meets someone greater than you, one who holds the destiny of Ashan in his hands."
—as the Seer predicts to Arantir that he will kill Menelag and be killed by Sareth [src]
Sareth is the Demon Messiah who has been prophesied by Sar-Shazzar and the protagonist of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. The son of the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth and the Queen Isabel Greyhound of the Holy Griffin Empire, he was born at the conclusion of the first act of Queen Isabel's War, and was raised in Sheogh until an indeterminate point at which he was handed over to demonic cultists. Later, he trained under the demonist mage Phenrig who summons Xana to share his body then joins Leanna's expedition to the Shantiri ruins of the Spider Temple Island for the Skull of Shadows which pits him against the Necrolord Arantir while managing his relationships with his conflicting lovers Xana and Leanna.
His generic english voice-actor is Tercelin Kirtley while his charismatic french voice-actor is Pierre Tessier.
Story[]
A dedicated student raised by Phenrig, a stern mentor, Sareth knows little of his past. He has nevertheless absorbed his lessons in the mastery of the arts of warfare, becoming proficient with both weapons and spells. Sareth has now been sent on a mission by Phenrig, whose uninformative hints and curt explanations tell Sareth only one thing - that there is much more to this task than he has been told.OffBck
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic[]
Sareth explores a Shantiri ruin under his teacher Phenrig's guidance to acquire the Shantiri Crystal and has to battle his way through Black Guards mercenaries hired by the Necromancers.
Once he gets the Shantiri Crystal, Phenrig congratulates him back home and tasks him to deliver the Crystal to a fellow mage Menelag in the Free City of Stonehelm and to join his expedition to "fulfill his destiny" but not before summoning Xana to accompany him inside his body as an inner voice.
Sareth (and Xana) travels then to Stonehelm as it gets attacked by the Necromancers which he assists in battling them until he kills an undead cyclop, earning the city's admiration, then he reaches Menelag's mansion where he first meets Leanna who has been waiting for him and who introduces herself as Menelag's niece and pupil, triggering Xana's perverted imagination.
Sareth gets instantly interested in Leanna, much to Xana's jealousy, who introduces him to her uncle Menelag who notices his interest into her and warns him to stay away from her as she doesn't know who he truly is as opposite to him, which Sareth doesn't understand as he is not aware of himself either.
Then during the night, a servant wakes him up to warn him that necromancers are attacking the mansion, which he assists in battling again while Xana tells him that the Shantiri Crystal is more important than Menelag who is "expandable" until he reaches the attic where a necromancer inquisitor is interrogating Menelag while a ghoul is holding Leanna however Sareth's arrival distracts the necromancer enough for Menelag to kill him but then the ghoul strikes him back, steals the Shantiri Crystal, then runs away onto the city's rooftops while Leanna cries her uncle's death and both her and Xana command Sareth to pursue the ghoul and get the Crystal back!
Sareth then chases the thief ghoul across the city's rooftops in the night while Xana warns him to mind his steps until they reach a warehouse in the city guarded by Black Guards hinting at the Necromancers using it.
He then battles his way through or stealthily infiltrates the warehouse until he discovers a necromancers' lair under the city where he first sees Arantir who is preparing to open a portal from under Stonehelm to Nar-Heresh while Xana warns Sareth to not get spotted by Arantir as "his power is beyond anything Sareth has ever seen", so Sareth releases the captured citizens from their jails in order to use them as a diversion to distract Arantir while he steals the Shantiri Crystal back and escapes.
He falls down a river during his escape, loses consciousness, and gets a flashback from his first meeting with Xana which is different from his memory and starts to be cautious of her however she reassures him that this "fake memory is merely a necromancer curse" and that "she is a friend, and ally, and she could be even more...".
He then joins Leanna in the port who has been battling the Necromancers on her side and who expresses relief and concern for him and is still determined to lead the expedition to the Spider Temple Island even without her uncle and relies on Sareth instead as she asks him to take back Menelag's boat from the Necromancers who stole it, which he does under Xana making fun of him for "trying to impress the pretty girl".
Then he battles the Necromancers' counter-strike and their attempt to take back the boat while Leanna supports him throwing offensive spells around and healing him, and after the battle, she invites him into her cabin where she tries to express how she feels about him, much to Xana's jealousy, until one of her mages interrupts her to inform her that the boat is ready to sail away.
Then during the night, Sareth dreams of Arantir dancing with Leanna on the boat's deck until they notice him and Arantir tells Leanna to dance with Sareth "for as long as he allows it", which she does until Sareth suddenly stabs her, much to both Leanna and his own surprise, while Arantir tells him to not worry because she will not be his last victim.
Then the boat reaches the Spider Temple Island and Leanna warns Sareth that the island is inhabited by an orc clan and explains that orcs were created by wizards during a war against demons by transfusing demon blood into human bodies.
On the island, Leanna basically sends Sareth dungeon-crawling alone battling his way through tricky goblins, mighty orcs and poisonous spiders while she always stays behind for some reasons, which Xana mockingly points out while she does nothing at all herself, and Leanna keeps trying to express her feelings to him but always holds back, which Xana makes fun of and starts hinting at him about his destiny and his father making him curious, until he FINALLY reaches the room where to use the Shantiri Crystal to power the Temple but then, a group of orcs ambushes him and the island's Clan Leader introduces himself as Aratrok, challenges Sareth to a fair fight of might without any magic, and swears onto his honor that should Sareth prove mightier than himself then he will be free to walk away and the other orcs of the clan will not attack him if he doesn't.
Sareth can then either accept this challenge and battle Aratrok only with might while the other orcs watch the duel and let him walk away after or not care and use everything he can, triggering the other orcs to join the battle since he has no honor.
Then Sareth joins Leanna as Arantir reaches them too and Leanna gets in the way between him and Sareth, yelling to this latter to run away and continue the mission, to which Arantir expresses disappointment at Leanna "for getting in the way as she has potential but she chose the wrong side" while Sareth is powerless to help her and Xana sarcastically comments that she is "soooooo sorry" about Leanna but then gets serious and urges Sareth to run away, to which Arantir answers "Yes, run, you abomination, I will find you." hinting that he can hear Xana as well.
Sareth then continues alone (with Xana) and explores a crypt where he battles his way through zombies, ghouls and a lich to find the 3 Aspect Gems (the Matron's Heart for life, the Soul of the Crone for death, and the Maiden's Eye for fate) required to insert them into the Spider Statue in order to access the Altar of the Skull of Shadows and he finds the Sword of Dragonclaw which hurts him when he tries to wield it to which Xana tells him that "it is an evil and dangerous weapon from holy fanatics Dragon Knights" but Sareth keeps it anyway.
Xana guides Sareth in his search of the 3 Gems as she can sense their proximity then once he inserts each of them into the Spider Statue, he sees Xana who is surprised and tells him that this must be the Gems' effect on them and she gets excited because the Skull of Shadows is finally at reach and even more because "the Gems draw them (Sareth and Xana) closer together", she even calls him her prince and moans as she proclaims that "they will be together forever!"
Then Sareth enters the Altar of the Skull of Shadows at last where Asha speaks to him through her Spider Goddess Statue as she warns him that he is treading sacred ground and summons spiders to challenge him, which he kills, then Asha speaks to him again through her Spider Goddess Statue as she grants him the Skull of Shadows as prophesied and warns him that should he prove unworthy of it, then she will enjoy watching his demise.
And as he gets his hands on the Skull of Shadows after so much dungeon-crawling, he gets a vision of his teacher Phenrig pushing him on the ground where Leanna is lying lifeless and he sees Xana as a naked succubus who climbs onto him then stops when a powerful voice starts to speak to him, she gets away and kneels down as the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth explains to Sareth that it has been a thousand years since their kind has been banished from the surface of Ashan by the mage Sar-Elam the Seventh Dragon and that ever since, the demon kind has been waiting for Sareth who is the Demon Messiah prophesied by the mage Sar-Shazzar, Kha-Beleth then reveals to Sareth that he is actually his son and heir, which Xana confirms while she takes Sareth's hand to bring him closer to his father while this latter explains to him that Xana is Kha-Beleth's gift to his son Sareth "to use her as he pleases", which triggers her to hiss at Kha-Beleth, then Kha-Beleth commands his son Sareth to "use the skull of his ancient enemy to shatter his prison which holds him then once he is free, Ashan and all of its souls will be theirs".
Then Sareth wakes up from this vision and struggles to get up after such unexpected revelations, and as he picks up the Skull of Shadows, Arantir arrives in his back, telekinetically throws him away, and steals the Skull as he claims that "the Skull of Shadows is not for the likes of the demon-spawn Sareth" to which he adds that "the Seventh Dragon did not sacrifice himself so that some demon bastard could undo all his labor", then he claims that "he does this for the sake of all of Ashan" before he throws Sareth to get impaled onto the Spider Goddess Statue which bends down onto Sareth as Arantir leaves with the Skull of Shadows proclaiming that "the Prophecy of the Dark Messiah ends here".
However, Sareth hears Xana's voice who calls out to him and tells him "Wake up, Sareth, my Love, my Prince, my Messiah, and arise!" and he wakes up with horror without his equipments amidst a mount of dead bodies thrown away by the island's orcs asking what happened to which Xana answers that Arantir killed him however she used the power from the Skull of Shadows to revive Sareth who answers that he feels different to which she answers that she and he are joined even closer now to the point that he can now use her demonic power while Sareth is determined to get his vengeance on Arantir!
Since the orcs stripped him from all of his equipments when they dumped him with all other dead bodies, Sareth has to make use of his demonic power to battle his way through orcs until he gets his equipments back while Xana asks him if he feels good being a demon to which he blissfully approves and she playfully tells him to not worry about the tail as he will quickly get used to it, then he gets his inventory back and goes through more dungeon-crawling battling his way through orcs, spiders, a cyclop, goblins, flying electrical octopi but also evading a giant worm chasing him throughout a castle to get out of this island and never come back ever again as both him and Xana are fed up of it, him stating that he will not miss it and her suggesting that "they'll have to do something about this place once he comes into power" and starts hinting that he might not need his father to rule the world...
When he FINALLY reaches the mages' boat to leave the island, Duncan asks him where is Leanna, to which he answers that Arantir killed her and stole the Skull of Shadows but he is going back into the necromancers' lair under Stonehelm to settle his score with Arantir, to which Duncan swears loyalty to Sareth as his new Lord, much to Xana's appreciation who congratulates Sareth for starting to build his own army.
Sareth then returns to the necromancers' lair under Stonehelm which Xana points out that it has changed since their last visit as Arantir has opened its portal to Nar-Heresh which Sareth crosses without any hesitation to seek Arantir wherever he is, leading Sareth to explore Nar-Heresh for more dungeon-crawling because he didn't get enough of it yet while Xana considers it as "more territory to conquer, that's all" as Sareth battles his way through necromancers, vampire knights, ghouls, zombies and Black Guards mercenaries and is horrified at the necromancers' abominable experiments which he witnesses, until he hears a familiar voice angrily yelling that "if she gets free then she's going to tear this place apart with her bare hands!" and is happy to recognize Leanna's voice as it means she's alive but he witnesses her being pushed down a pit so he continues dungeon-crawling Nar-Heresh with a new objective in mind.
Indeed, as Sareth continues dungeon-crawling Nar-Heresh, he eventually hears Leanna's voice calling for help again and wants to rescue her, much to Xana's annoyance and jealousy who tries to convince him that he must focus on Arantir and forget Leanna as she would slow him down and he can either rescue Leanna or ignore her and if he chooses to rescue her then he descends into a spiders' nest where he has to battle a giant spider to rescue Leanna who is so happy that she almost lets her love for him slip away from her lips but notices his demonic aura and asks him to purify himself into the Sanctuary of Ylath back in Stonehelm, much to Xana's anger who reminds Sareth that she saved his life and that a true friend would accept him as he is and not expect him to renounce his heritage and power, but he reminds both of them that the priority is to stop Arantir from slaughtering Stonehelm before anything else because regardless of what he chooses about Leanna, he reads Arantir's journal and learns his plan to sacrifice all of Stonehelm's inhabitants in order to fix the flaw in Sar-Elam's barrier between Ashan and Sheogh and seal Sheogh away forever, much to Sareth's horror who is more determined than ever to stop Arantir for good!
Sareth then battles his way out of Nar-Heresh back to Stonehelm while Leanna supports him with offensive spells and healings as usual, then she stays behind in order to close the portal while he goes forward back to Stonehelm as Xana keeps trying to convince him to accept his demonic nature and that Leanna has been using him, to which he retorts than both Xana and Leanna have been using him, before he returns to a ravaged and burning Stonehelm which has turned into a warzone between its guards and the invading necromancers and he battles his way through the city's chaos to the necropolis where Arantir is preparing his spell to sacrifice all of the city's inhabitants.
While Sareth is in Stonehelm, he can either ignore Leanna's suggestion or go to the city's Sanctuary of Ylath where the Seventh Dragon speaks to him as he recognizes him as the son of Isabel and invites him into Ylath's Sanctuary while Xana tries to dissuade him and if Sareth enters inside then Xana begs him to stop because she wants to be with him forever and if he still goes all the way then Xana gets banished from his body back to Sheogh while swearing vengeance on him and still calling him her love and Kha-Beleth gets furious at his son for having rejected his gift then the Seventh Dragon blesses Sareth and grants him some Dragon Knight's weapons which are overpowerful against undeads, then encourages him to get his skull back from Arantir.
Then as Sareth enters into the necropolis, he meets Leanna who either expresses her happiness for his purge from demonic corruption if he banished Xana from his body and asks him to go in front while she rests here because she has been battling necromancers all over the city and needs some rest, either rejects him and turns hostile if he did not banish Xana from his body, leaving him no choice but to kill her, much to Xana's joy who "has been waiting for this", either returns as a vengeful lich if he did not rescue her in Nar-Heresh then she died and she wants to kill him and be reunited with him, both as undeads in service of Arantir, and he has to kill her for good.
Sareth has to choose who he prefers between Xana or Leanna before he reaches the necropolis as he cannot continue with both of them from this point onward and regardless of who he chose, he dungeon-crawls the necropolis until he reaches Arantir for their final confrontation, which both Xana and Leanna are now confident that they can defeat him together (either Sareth and Xana or Sareth and Leanna), but since Arantir is spending his power into the spell to sacrifice Stonehelm then he summons a bone dragon to defend him as Sareth attacks him.
After Sareth finally defeats Arantir, he has to make a final choice between using the Skull of Shadows to either fix the flaw in the barrier between Ashan and Sheogh and seal Sheogh away for good, which is what both Leanna and Xana try to convince him to do as none of them wants Kha-Beleth to be free, or either to break the barrier and free the demon kind from their prison against both Leanna and Xana's advice.
Indeed, Leanna wants to seal the demon kind away from the world to keep order whereas Xana wants to specifically seal the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth away for good for Sareth and herself to be free to rule the world by themselves instead of handing it over to Sareth's father and having to obey him.
Sareth's story can conclude into 4 different ways depending on who he chooses between Xana or Leanna and between his lover or his father.
If he chooses Xana over Leanna and over his father then he seals Sheogh away while his father promises both him and Xana that he will return eventually and then he will teach them the deep meaning of pain and fear before getting sealed away leaving Sareth and Xana free to do as they please in Ashan.
If he chooses Xana over Leanna but his father over her then his father is proud of him while Xana pretends to have been loyal to Kha-Beleth to which Kha-Beleth answers that he is aware of how "loyal" she has been to him and that "Hell will echo from her screams of loyalty", much to her despair, which Sareth ignores as he has already chosen his father over her and his father rejoices because together, father and son, "will bend Ashan to their will or break it to pieces" and is happy to be free at last!
If he chooses Leanna over Xana and over his father then he seals Sheogh away while his father curses him "for being as weak as his mother Isabel" and promises that he will return eventually and then he will get his vengeance on both him and "his pretty girlfriend".
If he chooses Leanna over Xana but his father over her then his father is proud of him while Leanna is horrified as his father grants her to him as a reward "to do as he pleases with her", rejoices because together, father and son, "will bend Ashan to their will or break it to pieces", and is happy to be free at last!
Ubisoft has chosen to continue Ashan's history from the fulfillment of the Demon Messiah's Prophecy as the sequel to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms whose premise is that Sareth has actually fulfilled his prophecy and has broken Sar-Elam's magical barrier between Sheogh and Ashan, freeing his father Kha-Beleth and all demons but also offering an opportunity to Urgash to escape his prison and start the Second War of the Primordial Twins which ended with Asha's defeat and exile whose tears were scattered in the world while four of the Elemental Dragons began to vanish, leaving their respective children-races to fend for themselves in the now broken world.
The goal of the game was to acquire the Tears of Asha in order to restore Order in the world and resurrect the fallen Elemental Dragons.
The game took 4 seasons, one for each fallen Elemental Dragon to resurrect and its corresponding faction to restore (for instance, Sylanna's return restored the Sylvan faction).
The events of the game were classified as the "War of the Tears" and this is the actual last event in Ashan's current history.
Appearances[]
Sareth is the protagonist of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic which is the only game where he currently appears however he is mentioned in the trilogy of Heroes of Might and Magic V as he is basically the goal of the game as the Sixth Eclipse is all about giving birth to him which is why the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth is obsessed with Isabel who tries her hardest to not give birth to Sareth to no avail as she can't defeat the Prophecy involving them.
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