Selnaris Khi'Marinae
Crown Prince Selnaris Khi'Marinae (a.k.a. Selnar)
Relationships
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Don't forget that you can click on the blue compass on the left to access the Table of Contents at any time!
Oroaias, the flowering of love. Selnaris means Flower (specifically Orchid) of Trust, but specifically the trust you have for family and Kaelaris means Flower (again, Orchid) of Love, but more specifically the love of elvenkind.
1.5 months before his 3rd Birthday, Selnaris is kidnapped in a raid of Svartalfar against the city of Tohvassneris. Arcorael Tiveris Khi'Marinae is killed in the fighting; his wife Arcorael Arianea Khi'Marinae doesn't last until Selnar's birthday and says she is "going out for air" on the 17th of Green Moon and steps out her tower window; no body is ever found.
On the 10th of Bloodmoon, Prince Mourn Spidersinger, a 3 year old Shiv'Veth, witnesses the birth of his little brother, the Crown Prince Aurak. Mourn remembers nothing of his late family, nor the name Selnaris, and feels pride in witnessing his brother's birth. He knows that his condition prevents him from inheriting the crown, but his mother loves him, if only he wasn't such a bad child and stopped making her angry.
On the 11th of Rose Moon, Crown Prince Aurak and Prince Mourn are kidnapped on their way to the Academy, a search of the city began, but Queen Balesmah fears a play by her rivals. In otherwords, a sacrifice of her sons. On 12th Rose Moon, slightly before breakfast at sundown, the Jungle claimed House Duskdweomer. It literally rose up and swallowed the entire estate, and Mourn and Aurak walked out of the jungle their skin as stone, not a scratch on them. Aurak clamed that Mourn did it with his magic and that he, Aurak, turned their skin to stone. Their mother never got angry with them again.
Before noon on the 16th of Green Moon, Queen Balesmah summons Mourn and Aurak to her deathbed. She reveals Selnar's identity to him and begs him to stay with the Dark Elves. He refuses, saying he must know the truth, and tells his mother he will never forget her. She passes later that hour and the two young men steal away the next day for Tohvassneris.
In a tavern in Taloncity, Taloncrest, on the World of Gorna, Selnaris and Aurak meet Count Tatsuryu Tora and his barbarian companion, Connel. In an attempt to facilitate the two Arcanists in learning Taloncrest Elemental Magic, Count Tora, offers to introduce them to his court mage an Alfar named Jade Oakenleaf, and the five of them make a pact to form an adventuring party and get rich, powerful and famous. They called themselves The Faceless Ones.
During this period, the Faceless Ones recruited and lost members, ultimately boiling out to;
King Tatsuryu Tora of Taloncrest, Human Ninja/Martial Artist
Kornungr Connel the Giant of Aquilar, Human Barbarian
Prince Selnaris, Star Elf Arcanist
King Aurak Spidersinger, Dark Elf Arcanist
Lord Jade Oakenleaf, Alfar Diviner/Ninja
Lord Merlin the Magnificent, Gnome Illusionist/Rogue
Lord Selgorn Starrysky, Bar'Tor Psion (Telepath)
Baron Steven Blackmirror of Blackmire, Human Necromancer
Grand Druid Thorvorak Bloodreaver, Minotaur Witch/Druid
Great Druid Seldan Mistriver, Nunnehi Shaman/Druid
Shogun Mitsurugi Tokama nee Gareth Strongarm, Human Slayer/Martial Artist
Chief Drathnar Strongarm, Werewolf Barbarian/Gladiator
Prince Valdelock Spellbound, Allyri (Gold) Arcanist
Prince Oolong Tesseract-Troi, Allyri (Black) Slayer/Martial Artist
Princess Carmen "Dragonsong" Tesseract-Troi, Allyri (Copper) Bard
Prince Orion Spellbound, Human Magus
Princess Summergold Avena-Lars, Allyri (Gold), Oracle
Most of the "Adventuring" portion of the careers of the Faceless Ones takes place within this 20 year period, though they were involved in many incidents since then, they made most of their power, fortune and fame in this time.
In a move heralded by a speech about intelligence, wisdom and foresight, King Tora names Selnaris as his Court Mage, as Jade also retires, due to early onset dementia. Though still mostly in charge of his faculties, Jade chooses to retire while he is not a danger to the security of the Crown. King Tora, took council from Jade, who recommended Selnar as his replacement. The Wizard (Conjurer) Danith Greycloak, a newer member of the Faceless Ones and uncommonly competitive with the other magic users in the group, took offence to Selnar's appointment and vowed revenge for the slight (Danith seemed to be offended Selnaris' very existence and openly plotted about his demise in front of other Faceless ones.)
In 3651, Danith Greycloak, claiming to be an Archmage, returned to Taloncity to try to provoke Selnaris into doing something stupid. Selnar challenged him to a duel, under the Taloncrest Rules of Magical Dueling. Selnar told him to choose the time and place, Danith chose the courtroom, immediately. Selnaris chose the weapons; "By Blade or Blast" literally meaning physical weapons and direct spells. That meant Danith got to choose the terms, "Death"; his second mistake, he gave himself no wiggle room. When Danith, who had never read the Taloncrest RoMD, a conjurer, summoned a dire bear to fight, he broke the weapons rule and forfeited the duel. Since the terms were death, the guard of Taloncrest riddled him with arrows before he even knew what he had done wrong. As he knelt, with dozens of arrows protruding from his flesh, Selnar approached and said, "Arrogance is the handmaid of Ignorance, Ignorance will kill you faster than my fireball you Arrogant Fuck! What you didn't know, killed you."
Though unofficially formed in the summer of '52 with the initial members clubbing up to create a cliche, 1st of Weeping Moon, 3653 AC is the "official" foundation of the Adepts' Council. Initially made up of Selnaris and Valdelock as co-chairs, Selgorn, Aurak, Merlin, Steven, Thorvorak, Seldan, Summergold and Carmen, the Council took it upon themselves to decide who in the multiverse should have access to magic and at what level.
In spring of 3656, the Adepts' Council invites Tora, Jade, Tokama and Oolong to a seat on the Council for their expertise in clandestine activities. The four of them realize they are being used by the council for their assassin's abilities and secretly form their own council to moniter the Adepts' Council.
The laws of magic being what they are, Gnomes are forbidden to timetravel by the decree of the Gnomish Scientific Advancement Council (GSAC (pron. Geesack)) . Well, gnomes, goblins, gremlins and any species calling itself half-gnome or half-goblin are forbidden timetravel by the GSAC. Why? Some gobbiltygook about "Quantum Entanglements" and "the Butterfly Effect". In any event, gnomes will not deal with time travellers. That said, Selnar, an Elf and Selgorn, a Goblin, didn't feel they answered to the GSAC. In the 47th Century, they used forbidden magic to timetravel back to 3665 to speak with Aurak about the acquisition of a magic item before Aurak went into sequestership over the death of Merlin and was unreachable until his death in 4277.
They confronted him as he prepared his resignation speech in his office in Eveningcrown and traded him the Secrets of Ravager Magic for a magical artifact constructed by Merlin, called The Force Blade. They knew that after his speech he gave away all of his and Merlin's worldly possessions and disappeared (with his basic things and his spellbooks) until just before his death in the 43rd Century.
Something Selgorn said to Aurak struck a chord with him and he tore up his resignation speech as they left, thus beginning the butterfly effect that caused the destruction of Qurrani, Trinhea and the Blasted Lands.
On Moss Moon 19, 3761, at the age of 459, Selnaris sets foot in Tohvassneris for the first time in 456 years, having never worked up the courage after leaving Vel'Sirra. Passing the tests of the Elders' Council of Tohvassneris, and being presented to the Royal Lords' Council, he was declared Crown Prince and Regent of the Empire which has always sat uneasily with him, and given the reins of power. It is here that he would gain the wisdom for which he becomes known in a millenium. With the caveat that wisdom comes from experience, most experience comes from displaying a lack of wisdom.
In fall of 3807, the Tyrannian Invasion of Caer-Thun begins with a Blitzkrieg-like mass assault on Tornn, Inhydea, and Saharah, subjugating all three nations in a little more than 2 months. Over the next 6 years, 80% of Caer-Thun would be subjugated to the Tyrannian fascism under the dragon Kalisus.
Wingsister, Cliath Lyrisande seeks an audience with Crown Prince Selnaris to beg him for military aid as the Tyrannan War Machine marches on Veladin. Reluctant to risk his troops on "allies when it's convienient", as he says, Selnaris refuses aid and dismisses Lyrisande with a "this is not the Alfar's problem".
The Tyrannan take Tohvassneris. The Alfar are forced to launch all spacecraft and destroy the docks before the city falls to keep the Tyrannan out of space. The spartan-like Tyrannan are disgusted by the opulence of the City and in spite, they burn it to the ground and salt the earth where the city stood. The Crown Prince is evacuated to space and returns to the planetside only in time to fight the final battle against the Tyrannical army.
Two hours into the furious fighting, the beleagered forces of The Last Free Peoples of Caer-Thun are falling back onto themselves, and beginning to fold under the pressure. Out of the Morning Sun comes a Flarras of over 6000 Pegasi mounted with Alfar Skyknights, and the thunder of hooves from the east as a great blessing of 3500 unicorns with Alfar Shieldmaidens astride, crash like a tide into the rear flank of the Tyrannan Forces. The Alfar return with Elven Space Warships, and rally the armies of the people, and the Tyrannan are broken and routed only to die fleeing as they are run down by the armies of the UWV, Wolfen, and Khel'Kathar.
Selnaeris is gravely injured in the fighting and is not expected to live.
Selnaris took the lion's share of the damage from the Dragon's retributive strike as he died. He and Valdelock used Elemental Taloncrest Magic to absorb the brunt of the effects, where Valdelock concentrated on absorbing the magic, Selnaris focused on the elemental power. So, in the end, ten thousand were killed instead of a million. Valdelock lost all access to his magic, and Selnar was encaged in energy that vaporized anyone who touched it, and was slowly dying within.
In desperation, Valdelock revealed Selnar's insurance plan, a clone of himself. As Valdelock activated the clone, it began to grow into Selnaris over the course of a week. However, Selnaris didn't die, instead the temporary effects on himself and Valdelock wore off after 4 days. The clone was still 3 days out when Selnar opened his eyes.
Selnar and Valdelock, with help from Steven determined that the clone would develop normally, but lacking a soul would never achieve consciousness and would therefore die moments after emerging from the coccoon. They were wrong! Loki loves to make a fool of the arrogant.
On the morning of 12 Buck Moon, Selnaris emerged from the coccoon, hale and hardy, one week younger than the existing Selnar, and was quite perplexed by his older self.
Over the next 6 days, the Selnars discussed what to do about the situation and they decided on the hardest thing for their companions. They will continue doing things as though they were the only Selnar, and meet daily to discuss the days events. They will call themselves Selnaris and Selnaris the Younger, and in any situation where they are of two minds on something and can't decide, they will defer to Selnaris' greater experience (of about 4 days).
Over the 10 days following the Selnaris Pact, the Faceless Ones, and especially the Adept's Council, learn the utility of being duopresent. Selgorn incarnates a Mind Link between the Selnars, and though minor differences in personality begin to show as life experiences diverge, effectively, Selnar can be in two places at once.
In short order, the Council, in consultation with Steven Blackmirror, begin to clone themselves.
On his 550th Birthday, Selnaris, with help from The Adepts' Council, founds the University of Symerrin at the base of Mount Seriak, west of Tornn and Velmailain. The University's Mission Statement is " To teach magic and magical ethics to all who are willing to learn."
The University initially had 16 classrooms and boasted "The largest student library in the multiverse".
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