NovelPantheon

Burn-Saw

Tiashiva demon warrior and tracker of the Traveller’s powerDemonic forces of Jaretha

Burn-Saw is the name Alex Roth gives a scarred tiashiva demon who recognises the Traveller’s power and mistakes Alex for Hannah Kim. His escape from their first battle drives Alex’s long search for answers, ending only when they meet again in Cretalikon.

Biography

The Wrinkle of Recognition to A Man of Culture...and Planning

Burn-Saw notices the Traveller’s power within Alex during the demonic attack on Orecas Fall Island. Calling him “Hannar-Cim,” the demon claims to recognise the scent from an older battlefield and refuses to reveal his own name, prompting Alex to nickname him after the ragged scar across his chest. Burn-Saw attacks with his bone axe and supernatural reflexes, but Alex overwhelms his senses with a potion and manipulates his rage until he cuts down fellow demons. Burn-Saw ultimately escapes after wounding Alex, leaving a physical scar and the first direct clue that the Traveller came from beyond their world. (Chapters 240–253)

Alex tries to identify and summon Burn-Saw afterward because the demon’s knowledge could explain Hannah and the Traveller’s power. The attempt fails because Alex lacks the demon’s true name and reliable planar address, while Burn-Saw has explicitly anticipated and rejected being summoned into service. The unresolved pursuit therefore changes Alex’s research without giving him control over his quarry. (Chapters 246–279 and 302–395)

The pursuit in Cretalikon and posthumous legacy

Burn-Saw later serves a demon master in Kaz-Mowang’s palace. When Alex’s use of the Traveller’s power resonates nearby, Burn-Saw detects it, warns his master, and urgently tracks the intruders through Jaretha. That loyalty brings him directly into the thieves’ ambush. Alex focuses on the old enemy, continually summons more beasts than Burn-Saw can banish, and watches hellhounds, hell-boars, and air elementals paralyse, gore, trample, and finally kill him. The long hunt ends through the summoning discipline the demon once feared Alex would use to enslave him. (Chapters 521–525)

Burn-Saw appears only through memory after his death. The scar he left runs through the arm where Alex later operates on the Mark of the Fool, physically linking the demon’s attack to Alex’s attempt to reclaim control of his soul. Alex also measures his later strength against the beach fight, recognising how far he has advanced since he could barely survive Burn-Saw. These recollections establish legacy, not survival: the corpus explicitly includes Burn-Saw among the dead former powers of Jaretha. (Chapters 546, 709, 739, and 763)

Appearance and personality

Burn-Saw is a large tiashiva with three eyes, a horned form, and scores of old cuts, punctures, and abrasions. A deep, jagged scar crosses his chest as though made by a heated saw, inspiring Alex’s nickname. He is perceptive and secretive but prone to overwhelming rage; provocation makes his attacks increasingly wild, allowing Alex to redirect him against his own allies. (Chapters 240–243)

Magic, abilities, and skills

Burn-Saw possesses supernatural reflexes, strength, and senses. His third eye perceives or smells the Traveller’s interplanar power, enabling him to recognise it in Alex and later track its resonance within Kaz-Mowang’s palace. He fights with a massive bone axe, and his swings are powerful enough to blast aside summoned monsters. His perception is not exact identification: he mistakes Alex for Hannah and cannot immediately pinpoint the hidden intruder’s location. (Chapters 240 and 521–525)

Sensory acuity is also a vulnerability. An enhancement potion overloads his eyes and ears, leaving him disoriented, while his anger makes him predictable. He can banish individual summons through force, but cannot withstand an army replenished faster than he can destroy it; lightning paralysis and massed beasts ultimately prevent escape and kill him. (Chapters 240 and 525)

Relationships

  • Alex Roth: Enemy whom Burn-Saw mistakes for Hannah, scars, tracks, and is ultimately killed by.
  • Hannah: Interplanar traveller whose power Burn-Saw recognises and whose name he applies to Alex.
  • Kaz-Mowang: Demonic ruler whose palace Burn-Saw helps defend while serving another demon master.

Items

Burn-Saw carries a massive bone axe, but it is not identified as a separately catalogued notable item.