Aestrin Qirienos

Voice of the Tempest (a.k.a. Sahim ar'Sattaab)

Whether Aestrin Qirienos is a villain is a matter for the moralists and philosophers to decide. For you, I will lay out the facts. Aestrin was determined and strong-willed. He was uncompromising and unbending, fighting to the last breath for his principles. But like Issad, he was always aware and ready to accept that maybe sometimes, it is necessary to bend so that you do not break. I cannot profess to know as much about him as I do Issad, nor do I want to make guesses that might make him angry, but Aestrin, in the very least, is not the kind of man that you would immediately paint as evil.
His only goal was to restore the centhiri, to bring them back to the world stage, as a united race, as they were meant to be. He spoke of empire, but his philosophy was fundamentally different from the tyrants of Mulrakh. For one, he is alossi centhiri. His people suffered the most under the tyranny of the tussari. But he evoked Mulrakh not as it came to be, but how it was in the beginning when the centhiri were united at the height of their power, serving as stewards and defenders against the harsh desert and its powerful storms.
Issad and I never agreed with his methods, and we would, if asked, admit that we thought some of them evil, but Aestrin's cause was true. The tussari had suffered a grave injustice at the hands of the Krosha. Yes, they were tyrants, but not all of them, certainly not enough to warrant a genocide against them. It is why Issad and I stepped in when we did, opening channels of communication between Aestrin and the Dominion. It is why Issad convinced him that bending the knee was his best option, that the Dominion was not a beehive he wanted to be antagonizing.
Because we thought that for all the methods he used, all the lives that had been taken as a result of his pursuit of a unified centhiri empire, we believed his cause to be true and just. He could be rotting in a prison cell, but that helps no one and gives no true justice. Issad and I thought that the best way he could atone for his sins was by working to undo the damage that he had done.

— Taaka Sunspinner
The Chronicle of a Common Thief

Aestrin Qirienos was an alossi centhiri who lived from the 2nd to the 5th centuries in the 31st millennium NL. His actions precipitated the Stormcaller Crisis, which he used to destabilize the political and economic landscape of the Pāll-tanír in order to further his plans of reviving the old centhiri empire of Mulrakh under a new banner and a new philosophy, doing away with the caste-like division between the alossi and the tussari centhiri that had caused much pain in the ancient past.
He accomplished his goal, albeit in a limited fashion, as he was able to take over the city of Tan'Ayya and its surrounding region for some time before the Dominion, resolving the situation with the necromancer Shiera Alcarnis in the northeast set its sights on retaking Tan'Ayya. It is only by the timely intervention of Issad Harman and Taaka Sunspinner that Aestrin was able to open diplomatic channels with the Dominion, securing for him and his hope for a place where the centhiri can live together as equals a place in the world stage: the nation of Eledast just north of the Skywall range.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Not much is known about the personal history of Aestrin Qirienos, only that he appears on the history books soon after the coronation of the Stormcaller as caliph of Tan'Ayya. By his own testimony, Aestrin was born into a secret society that was working toward restoring the empire of the centhiri, a group that aimed to reclaim the glory of the highborn. He never relates how and why he developed his own personal philosophy, only that he kept it in his heart always and used it to inform his decisions as he climbed the ranks of the organization, slowly building his own plans for the future.
Much of the motivation behind the events of the Stormcaller Crisis remains inexplicable, but Aestrin's plan was the one that stood to benefit from all the chaos that it incited. With the Dominion distracted, the Hooded Eye spread thin and decapitated, and the whole continent undergoing an economic upheaval, Aestrin took over the city of Tan'Ayya and its surrounding region, declaring himself the king of a new empire where centhiri, both alossi and tussari, could live together without fear of reprisal.
He drove the Ayyanesha out of their homes and claimed the city for his own as alossi flocked to his side, and a slow trickle of tussari that had thus far hidden away from the public eye started coming to join Aestrin's new empire. Success was short-lived, however, as the Dominion was soon knocking at Aestrin's doors, and unwilling to bend the knee, Aestrin was getting ready for war. It was only thanks to Issad and Taaka that Aestrin realized what was at stake if he threw his life away beating a beehive with a stick and he capitulated.
After a short period of time, Aestrin was granted a parcel of land in the north of the Skywall to start building his kingdom, and his alossi and tussari followers came with him through the mountains to start a new life. He was not pardoned for his crimes, but his sentence was amended to encompass helping the entirety of the Pāll-tanír rebuild from the damage that he had caused for the rest of his life.

Education

Apart from an in-depth education in the true history, culture, beliefs, and values of the centhiri, posing as Sahim ar'Sattaab, Aestrin was able to complete an academic program in Tan'Ayya with highest honours, and he had the chance to learn an immense amount about arcane magic from one of the region's finest schools for the arcane arts. Much of his other skills, however, were self-taught.

Species

Alossi Centhiri

Eyes

Sharp green eyes

Hair

In his human form, he has short black hair, but in his true form, like other alossi centhiri, his head is bald and is instead covered in scales.

Height

6'1" or 185.5cm

Weight

170 lbs or 77 kg