Created by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, the character is an homage to Cerebus the Aardvark and his creator, Dave Sim, after Sim featured a villain named "Professor Charles X. Claremont" in early issues of Cerebus. S'ym always refers to himself in the third person, a trait shared by Cerebus. S'ym also has the same purple-grey coloration as Cerebus, and the same vest. "S'ym" is pronounced the same as "Sim".
S'ym was a minion of Belasco, the ruler of the demonic dimension known as Otherplace or Demonic Limbo. S'ym battles the X-Men when the team is transported to Limbo via teleportation "discs" in their search for 7-year-old Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of the X-Man Colossus. During Illyana's seven years in Limbo, Belasco takes her as his heir and apprentice. She ultimately defeats him, becoming Limbo's new ruler, and S'ym's master, before returning to the X-Men. S'ym challenges Illyana's newfound status as Limbo's ruler. Illyana defeats S'ym, leaving S'ym to agree to serve Illyana whenever she visits Limbo. S'ym allies himself with the extraterrestrial Magus, allowing himself to be infected with a techno-organic virus. Though Illyana tries to take Limbo back from him several times after this, she is unable to defeat him and S'ym's hold on Limbo only increases as he spreads the techno-organic virus to other demons. S'ym also took an interest in Madelyne Pryor, and even toyed with her self-doubt, and tempted her with great power. S'ym was later revealed to be partners with the demonN'astirh in manipulating Illyana into opening a portal to Earth so they can unleash a demonic invasion. Once the invasion had begun, S'ym betrayed N'astirh and the two fought each other for rule of Limbo and Earth. Shortly after, Illyana sacrifices herself to banish the invaders back to Limbo, including S'ym, and N'astirh is killed. Now the undisputed ruler of Limbo, S'ym plots a new invasion of Earth. He plans on using the Nexus of All Realities to invade Earth, but is stopped by his former master Belasco, who manipulates Cable into confronting S'ym. Belasco reasserts his control over both S'ym and Limbo. The two are later defeated by Nightcrawler as his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, takes over Limbo. S'ym turns to an alliance with the Archenemy, a powerful magical entity, and disguises himself as Duke Bleys, becoming one of Sefton's most trusted advisers. As Bleys, S'ym tricks Sefton into allying herself with many other demon lords and merging their various realms and dimensions into a single bastion against the Archenemy. S'ym then reveals his true identity and reveals that the single, united realm is an easier target for the Archenemy than the countless dimensions he was fighting before. Nonetheless, Sefton and her army manage to slay the Archenemy and undo the merging of realms. S'ym is next seen in the New X-Men "The Quest for Magik" storyline. Illyana returns to rule Limbo and S'ym is shown to be one of her servants. He appears to be free of the techno-organic virus, with no explanation given. When Witchfire learns that Magik has left Limbo during the X-Infernus storyline, she assumes control. She stabs S'ym through the chest, seriously wounding him. Magik teleports in to find him chained to the throne. She asks what happened and he informs her that Belasco's daughter, Witchfire has taken control in her absence. During the storyline, a recovered S'ym is seen reporting to N'astirh that a small squad of X-Men had come to Limbo to rescue Magik, revealing in the meantime that N'astirh was the mastermind behind the abduction of Magik in the first place.
Powers and abilities
S'ym possesses great superhuman strength and is nearly invulnerable. At the time of S'ym's first encounter with the X-Men, he was easily able to overpower Colossus and resist both his blows and Wolverine's adamantium claws. Illyana Rasputin's Soulsword was one of the few weapons that could kill him, before having been infected by the techno-organic virus. As a techno-organic being, S'ym can repair himself and reform from a single molecule, should he be destroyed. Also due to his techno-organic state, S'ym can infect other organisms and feed off their life energies, or turn them into techno-organic beings as well.
