Skulduggery Pleasant/Bio & Battles

Skulduggery Pleasant is the titular character of the Skulduggery Pleasant Series. Born as a normal man, Skulduggery got into magic at a young age selecting elemental magic as his discipline. He soon got involved in a War which was raging in sorcerer communities involving two opposing factions; those who wanted to return a race of maniacal gods called the Faceless One, lead by Mevolent and those who were opposed to this because they weren't clinically insane, lead by the Sanctuaries. Joining the side of the Sanctuaries, Skulduggery soon caught the attention of Neferain Serpine, one of Mevolent's top generals, who took a dislike to him. Serpine captured Skulduggery's wife and child and killed them in front of him to lure him into a trap, whereby he captured, tortured and eventually killed him, burning his body and throwing a sack with his bones into a river.

By some miracle Skulduggery was somehow brought back to life and went back to fighting against Mevolent, forming a group called the Dead Men. However his grief at the deaths of his wife and child drove him to all consuming anger and he turned to Necromancy, losing his original personality and becoming Lord Vile. Joining Mevolent's side he rose through the ranks and became one of his generals, slaughtering thousands of people, until he eventually snapped out of his rage, abandoning the armour and rejoining the Sanctuaries. They eventually prevailed but Skulduggery was denied his revenge against Serpine by the Truce. Turning to detective work, Skulduggery was still obsessed with his revenge on Serpine, eventually leading to him meeting Valkyrie Cain, which kick started a whole bunch of crazy shit that's too complicated to get into here.