Cyvar Tun, The Lord of Ashes

Cyvar Tun (a.k.a. The Exalted Flame, The Red Reaper, Lord of Ashes)

Lodia paused for a moment, examining the mural in front of her more closely. The painting was of a man with his entrails torn out, wreathed in fire. "This is a really disturbing thing to paint. Why is this here in the middle of the Capital?"
Rathnait frowned. "That would be the story of the Lord of Ashes. During Unification, one of the petty kings in southwest Saibh killed the messengers that the First Princeps sent to request terms. The Princeps ended up responding in kind."
"I suppose war on that scale is a foul business. Why is he named the Lord of Ashes?" Lodia gazed up at the face of the man, his expression contorted in an agonized scream.
"I was never the greatest history student at the Academy, but I believe it was actually a joke? I'm not sure. Iocathe would know more about this sort of thing." Rathnait paused. "Now that I think about it, this mural is probably why the cafe across the street is perenially empty. Nobody wants to drink a cup of tea and look at a painting of a screaming dying man. I'll have a chat with the proprietor later."

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Cyvar Tun was an unusually fast growing child, being at full height at the age of 14 when he took the throne and continuing to grow since. Most contemporaries desribed him as the largest person they had ever witnessed, a massive figure with colossal strength. Though he suffered many injuries in battle, he remained in top physical shape his entire life.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Cyvar Tun was the fifteenth Exalted Flame of the Kafteros Holy Realm, a major pre-Principality of Etoile state in the southwest of Western Saibh. Kafteros was a theocratic monarchy centered around fire worship, with its leader accorded the status of God-King, and Cyvar, a true believer, ascended to the throne at the age of 14 after his forebear was slain in battle. Within a year, the restless Tun declared a mandate of conquest, named himself the divine Firelord, and the fanatical of Kafteros pledged their lives to him and to the Flame - thus began thirty years of low level warfare between Kafteros and its bordering states.
Tun was noted for his incredible courage, often leading his infantry into the fray himself, and his mere presence on a battlefield was enough to rout lesser armies - he preferred fighting at night, and wore armor that was covered in pitch and lit aflame for the duration of each battle, earning the sobriquet of "Red Reaper". For all of his fighting acumen, however, Tun had little mind for grand strategy; Kafteros was never able to secure any of the lands Tun conquered, and the Holy Realm grew incrementally.
The advent of The War of Unification changed the dynamics of the area, as Kafteros was able to form a temporary alliance with its former enemies to unite against the greater threat. Famously, envoys sent by the King of Nasse to request terms of safe passage were crucified and lit aflame within line of sight of Nasse's main battle encampment. In response, the King of Nasse gave no quarter, crushing the Kafteros allied forces under the weight of twenty armored power-ram divisions and leaving the battlefield strewn with over ten thousand dead and dying. Cyvar Tun himself was captured alive; he was brought to the capital of Kafteros and, in a grisly public display, disembowelled by the King of Nasse while the Kafteros Flame Temple was torn down in front of him. All in Kafteros who pledged to give up flame worship were spared; those that did not were executed, marking one of the most brutal chapters of Etoilean Unification.
Shoftly after his death, the King of Nasse was overheard making a snide remark about how the Exalted Flame had gone out, and thereafter, Cyvar Tun became known as the Lord of Ashes, with Kafteros entering the realm of history.

Education

All nobility of Kafteros were sent for religious instruction to learn the intricacies of fire and flame worship - the knowledge of the origin of the world in fire and its eventual end in fire. Tun was said to be a fast learner, but his coronation at 14 ended his education prematurely.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Over the thirty years of pre-Unification fighting, Cyvar Tun increased the land holdings of Kafteros by roughly 40% at the expense of the neighboring ducal states. The price was paid in blood; the population of Kafteros actually shrank by about 5% over the course of his rule due to the relentless warfare, though as divine ruler Tun never had issues raising levies to fight. Tun himself was said to have personally slain at least three hundred men in brutal combat.

Morality & Philosophy

As the divine Firelord of Kafteros, Cyvar Tun was exalted as he who would purify the world. In Kafteros flame worship, all of the world that was flammable was impure and temporary, whereas all that was 'pure' withstood flame - stonework, etc. It became Cyvar Tun's religious mandate to spread the flame as far as possible, in order to purify the dead and ensure their passing as 'sinless'.
Cynical modern intepretations of Tun regard him as merely a brutal slaughterer, using the Kafteros religion as pretext for his malice, but all contemporary accounts describe him as a fanatic believer in flame worship.

Social

Religious Views

As head of the Kafteros fire-worship religion, Cyvar Tun was both the political and spiritual leader of the Kafteros Holy Realm. As such, not only were his proclamations law, but divine mandate. Flame worship carries with it a not-small element of apocalyptic fervor, and Tun himself believed that he had a divine mission to bring about the prophesied end of the world in flame, an event that would ostensibly result in the purification of all life and a return to an earlier 'untainted' state.

Life

581 M 630 M 49 years old

Gender

Male

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Grey

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Grey

Height

6'10"

Weight

350lb

Quotes & Catchphrases

"If the King of Nasse forgets his place, he will burn as the rest of the unbelievers."