Born the child an unholy union
of an arch angel and one of the first demons. Sylas, or “silous”, as the angels called him, their word for abomination, had a rough start in life. With no one sure how to kill him, and all afraid of the repercussions of trying and failing, he was left in a state of sedated imprisonment for millennia. Finally he was cast out of heaven and into Eden, now a limbo dimension between heaven and the mortal world. He remained trapped there as he learned by watching animals and weather. He learned that everything living dies, and that the main drive of all living things was to have a family and protect it.
Sylas thought for a long time that he was the only creature of his kind. That ended when a banished angel was sent to Eden to await forgiveness for his transgressions. The bitter fallen angel taught the silous more about where he came from, why he was hated, and what his reality would be for most of his life. Eventually the Angel passed into the mortal realm, giving up what remained of his angelic powers to live a mortal life.
After some time of watching the mortal world through the thin veil that his first and only friend had stepped through, Sylas finally decided to risk it, and stepped through himself. Sylas did not lose his powers or his memories. He was instead gifted a human form. Starting out as a mere child. When he happened upon a child, dying from a plague illness he wished very hard that he could make the boy well, and to both their surprise, when Sylas’ tears touched his wound the boy was healed. The boy took Sylas to his home and explained what had happened to his family, and they took him in, welcoming him with open arms.
Soon, however, Sylas found himself their prisoner, being forced to heal others on demand, by force if necessary, earning his “family” easy wealth in the process. Eventually, he was captured as a witch, and burned at the stake. Much to everyone’s dismay, this did not kill him, and in fact he healed quickly from the damage the flames did to his human vestige. He and his family were run out of town, insisting that he was a demon and had enchanted them.
Once again treated like a prisoner, Sylas was kept under lock and key once the family had settled anew. Now, however, he refused to perform any healing, learning in time to withhold his tears. In trying to force his cooperation, the family discovered that angering him brought out his demonic side, making him into a violet, blood thirsty animal. And so, he began to be entered into gladiatorial competitions, always winning.
It took decades for Sylas to learn to control his temper and thus, his demonic form. So long in fact that he now had several generations of captors while aging slowly himself. When at last he learned control, he refused to turn for them, no matter how much they tortured him.
Just as it looked like he was going to earn his freedom by being useless to the now very wealthy family, they discovered that his blood acted as an addictive drug to other immortals, particularly vampires, and his bone marrow held the secrets of youth and beauty. With no way to prevent himself from making blood or marrow, Sylas resigned himself to a life of being used by humans, his spirit broken.
One night, however, Sylas saw what it looked like when a vampire was addicted to his blood. The creature was desperate and hurting, and denied relief for not having enough money. The sight enraged something within the half-angel. Suddenly he took on a never-before-emerged Angel form, breaking all of the demon-based confinement the humans had placed upon him, and in a fit of self-righteous rage, slaughtered the entire family, taking their fortune for himself. He took in the Vampire, wanting to help him wean off of his blood. This turned into a symbiotic relationship of sorts with the vampire continuing to feed on Sylas, often times draining him completely and leaving him to a long and painful recovery, but for the first time, Sylas felt valued, and he confused that feeling with love, allowing himself to fall for the creature and become complacent in the toxic relationship.
Sylas returned home one evening discouraged and looking forward to the grounding pain of being fed on, only to find a graphic murder scene. Angels had been sent to kill his “love”, complete with a message that he was to live in the world alone, not to form attachments. His walking the Earth was intended to be a punishment for existing, and pleasure and happiness would not be tolerated.
As he grieved, Sylas went on a violent killing spree. He took it upon himself to purge the world of the humans who were as evil as his former captors. He decided if he was going to live in this world forever, then he might as well make it a nice place to live. He realized however that for every human weed he pulled, more grew back in their place, filling the power vacuums they left behind. Eventually he settled into the shadows. Taking odd assassination jobs here and there to quell his boredom. Ironically, heaven didn’t care how many human souls he sent their way.
One day as he was sent to kill a thief and recover some stolen property, he discovered that the property was another immortal being. One that was kept captive to be used for his Master’s profit. Unable to stomach it, Sylas set the being free and became his unwitting guardian. As a romance blossomed between them angels were once again sent to teach Sylas the lesson that he was intended to be forever alone. And so this pattern repeated until Sylas finally learned his place, and stopped yearning for love or family.
Instead, Sylas opened a bar that catered to the immortals and the preternatural beings. He was allowed contact and even friendships with supernaturals as long as he was being a good influence on them and keeping the peace. He was always allowed to have happiness dangled in front of him, but just out of reach.
Finally, one day, a creature made from magic came into Sylas’ life, and he fell cautiously in love with the creature that could not die. Angels tried to kill this lover repeatedly and failed. However, divine intervention was not needed, as the magical being fell hard for Sylas’ closest friend, and Sylas had to wish them the best and step aside.
Unable to take the pain of such a loss, Sylas had a breakdown. He went on a tangent of self-harm, self-risk, and loss of self-control. When he found himself so near death that he ended up feeding on the first person that walked by, he ended up having to give the human boy a piece of his own soul to keep his soul from crossing over. This created a unique situation. One in which Sylas had created a being that could not die unless he took back the piece of his soul, an act that could only be done willingly.
The angels begrudgingly allowed Sylas to keep the boy, so long as he had him turned immortal, so as not to attract those that would exploit an immortal human. The boy chose to become a vampire, and was to be turned by one Sylas trusted. He grew impatient of waiting, however, and found one to turn him himself. For a while, all seemed well. They were left to live alone in peace. Heaven even asked Sylas for a favor, which he granted in exchange for the right to have children. The right was granted, and magic was used to give the two immortals a mortal child.
That peace was soon interrupted, however, as the boy’s vampire maker became a corrupting influence, causing the colitile nature of the piece of Sylas’ soul to taint what was left of his human soul. Soon the boy grew cold and heartless and left Sylas and their child. The angels punished Sylas by taking his baby son, and then with increasing physical pain until he could get the immortal he was responsible for in line. Ultimately, Sylas had to recall his soul and allow the boy to die, thus losing everything he loved and held dear.
During his time of fighting the pain to try to avoid killing his former lover, Sylas had been entrusted with the care of a half demon child. However, as soon as he had carried out his needed mission of killing his lover, the angels revealed that it had been a trick to give him someone to protect and spur him to action. In reality the girl had never existed as anything more than pretty lies.
This sent Sylas into a deep depression, allowing himself to become the subject of every torture the arch angel Raguel could come up with. His own form of self-harm. There he is stuck in a circle of self-loathing and deep mourning.