Janus Ivilious

Janus Ivillious was a Quinarian born mage who began his time in Travance in 1206. He was quick to further his arcane studies, taking tutelage under some of the greatest minds the town had to offer, including some of its most prominent sorcerers. His aptitude for such powers were a clear foreshadow to the deeds and feats he would accomplish later in his career, including his transformation into an exemplar of the Pegasus, and the invocation of his Legacy.
Among his earlier feats, only two short years after his arrival, he narrowly escaped the dangers of a castle lost in the spirit realm by creating a portal from positive energy, along with the assistance of Apollo Abendroth and Angelica Tellinghast, while on a mission from the kingdom. It was through this portal, many heroes were saved from the Arch Devil of Galmachis that were threatening the very souls of every one trapped. And only two years after that, he saved and purified the souls of several heroes corrupted by the vile powers of the Markovian villains. Notably among these were Keillor Tuvsin and Angelica Tellinghast, who would have been doomed were it not for his intervention. This was a feat of incredible significance, as it was done so early in his training as a white sorcerer.
Janus had become one of the most dedicated and well-learned sorcerers of Travance, and turned to imparting his knowledge of magic onto the next generation, many of whom still carry on his teachings and pass them on like he did before them. Some have even gone on to follow in his footsteps as exemplars.
In time, he had turned his studies to the primal drudics of Arawyn, becoming just as dedicated in his mission to protect the world as he was the Weave. He took on the totem of a Lion, apt for his own nature and drive in life. It was due to his watchful and protective nature, as well as his incredible supernatural talents, that he was chosen by the Fey to bear the Yellow Spark - a keystone in completing the structure of the Weave. To him, this was one of the greatest honors he could have been bestowed. The sorcerer was never one for grand parades of admiration for his work, and so much of his deeds have been passed down through oral telling, rather than scribed into tomes. He had always preferred celebrating his victories and accomplishments with a few close friends and equal bottles of wine.
For Janus, life would continue on this way until he was called to by a higher purpose, one that would ultimately seal his fate. On a journey that drew him toward the Ivory Tower - a place valued greatly by exemplars - he was beset by a vision of calamity. He was given a horrible prophecy of the future, one where demons raged across the face of Arawyn, decimating everything they came across until the land and people were lifeless cinders. It was after the vision had subsided he made the most difficult decision of his life, one that would take the ultimate sacrifice - invoking the power of an exemplar’s greatest ritual, the Ritual of the Legacy.
And so, in the months that followed, the Demon War began as he had foreseen. Too many lives had already been lost and the face of Arawyn was scarred in ways that would never heal. Xualla, the demon lord of fire, who had led the invasion and started the war, watched the hope of the last bastion of heroes, Travance, wither with each fallen. Xualla stood on the blood-ridden battlefield in the courtyard of Castle Alieander, sure of his victory.
What Xualla could never have accounted for was the sacrifice Janus had made to invoke his Legacy. While the battle had persisted, a Pegasus had flown across the world at incredible speeds closing the demonic portals from which the demons poured. It stifled the enemy, and healed the wounded, until its flight took it over the final battlefield, where the heroes of Travance laid dying. The magic of the Pegasus raised the heroes with renewed vigor and a strength unseen before, and with it, they gained the upper hand against Xualla, who no longer had anywhere he could run. The heroes defeated the demon lord, only made possible by the sacrifice of Janus Ivillious.
In the years following, in both reverence and mourning of a fallen friend and hero, a portrait was commissioned of Janus by the kingdom’s best painters, which now resides in Travance Proper. A statehouse within the proper was dedicated in his honor, marked by a placard bearing his name. Further, his tower in the swamps of Drega’mire remains standing as a monument to his achievements. And last, a town in Alisandria was named after the great hero, as the land was once the place he called home. All of this was done so that his great sacrifice would never be forgotten, and the generations to come would be able to learn of the elf who saved them.