The Bizarchives has a perfectly offbeat stable of pulpy heroes. Reuben Bennett, Count Choralure, Berfrand and Grim the Viking. But here we’re going to take a deeper look at mankind’s monster. A hulking heap of human being whose only purpose is to rain terror and suffering upon the fiends that victimize his homeland.
This character overview may contain some spoilers but I will confine it to just what has been published and what Lex himself knows. I really dislike this modern instinct to create full detailed wikis that reveal every single detail of characters and settings which leaves little mystery. I loved the old sword and sorcery pulps and how each contained story unraveled a piece of the lore with little Easter eggs. So only true lovers of the characters eventually had the privilege of seeing the whole.
If this is the first you’re hearing of Lex, you’ll have to get your hands on copies of BZA 1 and 2. In these issues you’ll find Lex and the Lost Girl, Lex and the Odd Village and Lex and the Horror of Bernwick Hollows. The third issue is slated to drop very soon and will contain Lex's fourth appearance. In this story he gets sent to the underworld where he punches a demon to death.
Lex's world
To understand Ser Lucious Lex, you have to have to get an idea of the environment and age that produced him. Grimeorth (GRIM-urth), the continent Lex calls home is a haunted primeval traverse populated by bizarre monstrosities, carnivorous fungi, savage subhumans and paranormal evil. On top of the constant threat of being eaten and terrorized, the people of Grimeorth live in utter darkness. Many centuries prior the people known as “Foundlings” arrived on this continent after fleeing a great cataclysm in their motherlands. After a century or so of colonization, the civilization they built was attacked and destroyed. Their cities were overrun by mongrelmen and all of their libraries were burned. The subsequent centuries are known as “The Displacement” where almost all knowledge is lost and the people live in decentralized settlements.
The foundlings don’t know they’re foundlings, don’t know the name of the Gods and live under the rule of various regional lords. Some are benevolent rulers but many are uncaring at best. For the most part the people of Grimeorth are at the mercy of the cruel and hungering denizens that rove this hopeless realm. But among the wilds of Grimeorth lay the ruins of an ancient antediluvian civilization that seem to have great secrets and technology buried within.
Origins
Lex claims to be “The last of the last of the Tivarian Order”. An ancient knightly order that stretches back to the old world through patrilineal descent. He reveals in Odd Village that his father fell in battle and he may have never even met him. But Lex wears his father's battered plate armor and carries the divine Tivarian spark in his veins. An inheritance that holds potential even Lex doesn't know.
Anatomy and abilities
Lex is big. Freakishly big. He’s described as being “two heads taller than average men”. This would clock him in at around 7’ tall. He’s not your typical Jupiterian hero with golden locks and chiseled physique. He’s barrel chested with a working man's frame and hunched posture. Ugly, grimacing face with a crow's eye. He’s not nice or charming or handsome. Lex is mankind’s hatred manifested in flesh.
Throughout the stories Lex uses a variety of magic abilities and mysterious tools. He’s been compared to Batman with the amount of weapons he utilizes from exploding acorns to his trusty magic mace that illuminates the dark corners of Bernwick Hollows. But his most notable ability is his healing magic. Lex can place his hands on nearly any injury and mend the damaged flesh and bone. However this comes at a cost. Lex's healing never restores the wounds back to normal. The healed area will be left with scarring and abnormal bone alignment. After hundreds of battles Lex has healed himself countless times. This is why he has a slight limp and the cause of much of his foul mood and impatience. Lex's body causes him constant nagging pain.
Another ability that gives him an edge in his quest is simply called “sight”. He has the innate talent to see right through disguises, false forms, and illusions. It also gives him the ability to sense intention in conversation and battle. This ability allows him to predict attacks seconds beforehand. It's extremely difficult to trick or deceive Lex and even harder to fell him in combat. In combination with his size, skill and superior athleticism, sight makes Lex nearly superhuman in the arena of violence.
Motivation and morality
Grimeorth is a very lawless place where there are no unified armies and city defenses are generally ill equipped guards for hire. So, Lex does what he wants. He tends to view laws as man made obstacles that stand in the way of his mission. And most of the time he is accommodated out of either respect or fear. This is a hypocrisy that Lex often struggles with. In Odd Village you see his interaction with the mindsoul where he uncharacteristically flies into anger at the entity's words about his nature.
The duality within him where he has goodness in his heart and desires a world of order. But he knows he has no place in that world. The reality Lex fights to restore is one that would reject him and his lawless nature. Due to the untold amount of horror and death that Lex has seen, he could never acclimate to polite society. He has fought so many monsters that he has become a monster.
He is the last son of an order that no longer exists in a world where he has no place. He can't take a wife or else they’d be put in immediate danger. Lex has accepted that happiness and peace are not in the cards for his fate. He is heaven’s living sword whose only purpose is to relentlessly hunt evil without mercy. And after he passes, it’s very likely he will be forgotten. But none of that matters. Lex is here for one goal only. To spill the blood of the wicked. All of it.
Ser Lucious Lex may not be the hero children read in folk tales. But in the bleak and hopeless realm of Grimeorth, there couldn't be a better hero to stand in the way of the nightmarish hordes that seek mankind’s destruction.
When men have nightmares they see devils. When devils have nightmares, they see Lucious Lex.