Tal Authorus, the Iron Machinist

---

Humanity is a... flawed design, to put it politely. Wouldn't it be pleasant to keep our personality without all the mistakes? To have all our cognizance without any of the error? I shall grant that.
~ Tal Authorus ~

---

Road to Perfection

Tal Authorus always wanted to be more than what he was. It wasn't enough that he survived on the streets as an orphaned child. It wasn't enough that he achieved success where the odds were against him. It wasn't enough that he rose to become one of the Tenelean Empire's greatest names. It was never enough for him.
In his early life, Tal didn't have a name. He was nothing more than a homeless nuisance to the imperialists walking the streets. It burdened him that he was always made to feel so low. But at the same time, it angered him greatly. To the extent that he couldn't just sit around and do nothing. He needed to make a change himself, because nobody around was going to do it for him.

So he did. He trained his body and he trained it hard. He recruited into the imperial corps just so he could have clothes to wear and a bedroll to sleep in. He distinguished himself with elite weapon training just so he could hunt for food on his own. He was knighted by empress Zara Civilius III as a centurion just so he could make a name for himself. And he adopted the powerful and authoritative name he has today just so no one would disrespect him anymore.
He forged House Authorus out of the sheer weight of his accomplishments, of which he has always been its only representative. But, this

wasn't what anybody remembered him for, nor the fact he sat in close relationship to the empress herself. He wanted to be remembered in ways that far surpassed even those.
He wanted something greater, something more, as he always had since he was a child. And this drive guided him to look on the people — even himself. Everywhere he looked, there was only one thing. Inconsistency. To Tal, if these errors were removed, if everyone was able to perform their best life without mistake, then man would truly reach perfection.
The trick was what needed to be removed, and how it was to be done.

Age of Artifice

He toiled away tirelessly studying mortal anatomy and behavior. His experiments were alchemical, and then arcane, and then a dabble of divine through the Cosmic Warrior, and then back to alchemical and all over again. Years passed. Decades, and if at least for his own success, he learned everything about a mortal, inside and out, down to their smallest molecule and slightest thought.
Soon, in her late years, the empress opened the a doorway of opportunity which would allow Tal to achieve that. His peak intelligence landed him in a partnership with the machinist Azariah Umbrius over a new project of warriors. To Tal's delight, this group sought to replace the more inferior parts of an organic being with better, more precise metal augmentations. They were the Metallons.
Their partnership was great, and Tal had finally discovered the avenue through which his agenda could succeed.
But, this friendship didn't last forever. Over time, Tal saw where Azariah's methods and results differed from his own, accomplishing nothing more than the death of a soul. Subjects underwent countless procedures overseen by Azariah. The intent behind them was merciless, veiled by a false glory to Zanreer, and ultimately erased the subject's conscience and left them as a mindless, metal, robotic husk to be used as the Tenelean Empire desired.
This was not what Tal Authorus strived for.
He yearned for the realization of a perfect person, not the construction of simple machines. What good was augmenting a human soul when there was nothing left to appreciate it? No, if someone was to utilize the full potential of their very self, these people were not supposed be to replaced by machine. Machine needed to become an extension.
This conflict quickly escalated between Tal and Azariah as he made his objections very clear on multiple occasions. Azariah, if out of stubbornness, refused to listen to any of Authorus' complaints. The two began to disagree on more and more things before the Metallons were a divided group altogether. For a while, Tal wondered if this would ever change.
Perhaps to his benefit, things did change.

Rule of Wulfick V

The late empress had died. The heir, her son, Wulfick Civilius V assumed his mother's throne as emperor. Looking at the state of one of the empire's most crucial organizations, he was very quickly displeased. Unlike his mother, Wulfick would not warm up to Tal so easily, and his authority made it abundantly certain if Tal or Azariah did not do something to unite the Metallons, the emperor himself would, starting with its disbandment.
An imperial decree on the table, Tal recognized there was no other solution than what he prepared for next. Between the two of them, Azariah continued to craft more of his obedient automatons, but Tal equally grew in his support for a perfect being. The only way the Metallons would remain and be united was if he or Azariah was no longer a part of the equation. And Tal would certainly not be it.
So he set out for the lab where it all began, where Azariah and his subjects were. The ranks of Tal's own subjects joined him as the two sides collided inside this factory.
The lab became a battleground of wire, electricity, and magic as the city, Enendale, faced tremendous damage. Azariah's automatons were effective, but Tal would not allow himself to be defeated. The ingenuity of man could not falter to the clockwork of machines.
Unlike Tal's men who acted with a will of their own, Azariah's automatons were under his complete control, their humanity lost. As Tal spotted, there was one vital weakness Azariah carried, something Tal did not. In their fight, Azariah wore a wired gauntlet on one hand, a hand Tal made sure to cut off before smashing it to pieces. As he had thought, the glove had been the source of control over the automatons. They fell dormant and defeated.
His army lost and an arm gone, Authorus wasted no breath in executing Azariah, who assumed full leadership over the Metallons. The organization underwent a massive overhaul to his liking, focusing on the peak of humanity, rather than the production of machine.
When asked what had become of Azariah, Authorus simply said the man had chosen to step away.
Now, Tal leads one of the empire's most elite operation programs. And it is exactly the tool he needs to achieve the dream he has for himself, and every other imperialist he fights for. With every passing day, he plucks away at his old body, replacing it with something new. Better.
Soon, he will uncover innovations so powerful, that not even the emperor himself will be able to resist. Should the emperor still be alive to see the results.
Tenelea prides itself on iron. Tal shall make the land worship it.

Tal Authorus and his Metallons continue to expand and innovate in secret in the Silver Piece Islands, using a combination of the arcane, lichdom, and the elder brain, Xenithiaxyes, or Xen. He is no longer the man he once looked like. Instead, every inch of him, as well as his subordinates, runs on devices, alchemy, and metal. Tal longer looks to the god Zanreer for guidance, but to the Transcendent Mind, Xisriel.
His Metallons, especially those of the lizardfolk Fikfik are changed in many ways and equipped with all kinds of powers. Xen is a brain half-wired with metal artifice, and through him, Tal has even brought into service illithids who have taken on the metal image with him as a way to further ascend.
But, even in the dawning of Greater Tenelea after the end of the Great of Westerin in 1566, he does not see a land the empire can hold on to, and under the guise of an independent venture has extricated himself and his work. Even as the day approaches when Westerin erupts in a last ditch rebellion to end the empire's reign, should it succeed, will Tal fall with it? Or will he meld into the shadows and disappear, continuing his work while he awaits the day it can be unleashed without recourse?

---

I have fought. I have grown. I have experienced things no being has ever felt. Even then, all that I have achieved shall pale in comparison to what I will discover in yonder days; when this world walks upon steel feet and flies upon metal wings.
~ Tal Authorus ~

---

Species
...Elf?

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Ethnicity

Tenelean

Year of Birth

1142 AC

Aligned Organization

Tenelea

Lich Artifice

The practice of lichdom has been a taboo topic for many cultures across many eras of all time. But, its aura of mystery is like a parasite that continually finds its way into the thoughts of others, and Tal was certainly one of them who took interest to it. During his peak research back even during the reign of Zara III, the processes behind such a practice as lichdom became one of great backbones that even today fuel Tal's ingenious experiments.
It just didn't start looking overtly physical until the days when he and the Metallons stumbled upon the forgotten dry elder brain, Xenithiaxyes and its Lo'orgoron knowledge of the arcane. By that point, he had gained the tools of the arcane, the power of lichdom, and the capabilities of psionics.
The possibilities for results had expanded extraordinarily, as was the power he wielded.

Strange how you find eternity in machines and the arcane. What might come of their combination?

~ Tal Authorus