Lyronis Arvendi

Lyronis Arvendi

Mental characteristics

Education

Early Education (1367-1379)

Tutors and instructors marveled at Lyronis' aptitude for learning and retaining knowledge. It became a testament to their abilities to discover new ways to stymie the youth's growth, only for him to shortly thereafter learn the answer and find ways to challenge their original thinking. To describe him as gifted would be to downplay his capabilities; from a young age, Lyronis promised to be an impressive scholar.
This intellect did not make him friends with his peers, however. Most of his students grew to resent the aelferi's vastly superior knowledge on every topic. Several took action outside of the classroom, hoping their physical prowess could cow the youth. Often their attacks were successful; unfortunately, their pride soon would be dashed because Lyronis studied how he failed in order to perform better. A bully's first successful confrontation could quickly be countered by a weakness exploited by Lyronis at the next meeting, and soon it became clear that the best choice would be to ignore Lyronis entirely rather than risk embarassment.

Higher Education (1380-1420)

The independent studies of his adulthood granted Lyronis more freedom to explore areas of study that aligned with his personal goals. He took up religious studies, digging into the mysteries of the The Prime Deities, often traveling to the far corners of Taermidra to learn diverse points of view. His debates with others often ended with his opponents not committing to his ideas, yet at least thinking of him favorably overall.
The Ascension of 1396 exposed Lyronis to new ambitions. With the Ascension of the penultimate Ascended Gods, Lyronis realized that the next Ascension in 1496 would be the last. The announcement that the gods would be raising a paragon of innovation and growth caught his attention, and Lyronis realized that he may be able to Ascend through his brilliance. He spent several years researching how best to showcase his skills to appeal to mastercraftsmen who may accept his application, and at last he settled upon the smith and inventor Canexus. The derivos had gained renown as a creator, and Lyronis hoped that the reputation of the smith would boost his own.

Apprenticeship (1424-1434)

Lyronis spent the majority of his apprenticeship surpassing the capabilities of his fellow learners due to how quickly his mind intuited how things worked. Within a few years, Canexus despaired of teaching him anything further as his skills surpassed his. However, by Aelferi tradition he needed to complete his ten year apprenticeship to ve considered a master craftsman. The years were challenging for his patience, yet rewarding as he learned considerable talents in his ample spare time. A concept he toyed with was finding ways to create an alloy of aurichalis and sylvonis. In his theory, he outlined that he could house the raw magic of aurichalis within a sylvonis shell, then transfer the contained power with thin aurichalis fibers. Canexus refused to fund this research and tests for his difficult apprentice. However, the mastercraftsman began secretly tinkering on the idea before abandoning the pursuit.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Early Years (1434-1439)

Initially, Lyronis struggled to gain support from the public for his prototype combination of aurichalis and sylvonis. Whenever he approached inventors and members of the states in both Isilmar and Vanheim, the response was always the same: the old ways worked, and aelferi and derivos technologies should not be mixed.
It did not help that Master Smith Canexus had started a smear campaign against his former apprentice, describing the youth's work as ridiculous. His own demonstrations of the proposed combination of metals continually failed, and he used this as proof that Lyronis' concepts were flawed. Whether this antagonism rose from jealousy or being threatened by the aelferi inventor's genius and how it would affect his own rise, no one can say. The effect, however, was that it delayed Lyronis' attempts to get started on establishing himself as a paragon of innovation in the public eye for at least seven years.

Rising Star (1440-1495)

At last, Lyronis found a sponsor when he approached the great dragon queen of Eldaria, Vilgrima. After he promised to deliver the prototype to her once the concept was proven, Vilgrima granted Lyronis access to elements of her treasury, having collected both aurichalis and sylvonis in the past. This access gave Lyronis the means to create his first design: the flaedivoris (glowing heart).
While small and unassuming, the flaedivoris' design proved that the art of melding aurichalis and sylvonis could be done. Lyronis' design encased crystals of raw aurichalis ore within a shell of sylvonis. A thin strand of aurichalis wire connected the interior of the capsule to an unlit torch. Heat then radiated from the trapped aurichalis down the short wire to the head of the torch, and a flame ignited as if by magic and remained lit for longer than a normal flame would be.
Although far from a groundbreaking moment, the creator community immediately heralded it as a fantastic first step by a rising star. Some still spoke against Lyronis' achievement, including Canexus, yet commissions and sponsorships began to flow in for Lyronis. Over the next fifty years, he went on to develop marvel after marvel, including a gearwork clock powered by a larger flaedivoris, a telescope capable of viewing planets far beyond the sight of mortalkind, and enchanted vernari glass.
The rush of achievements and acclaim across multiple continents did little to dim Lyronis' ardor and ambition. His meteoric rise, though impressive, did not satisfy his drive to become one of the next Ascended Gods. To do this, he would need to achieve something truly marvelous, and he set to work developing a fully functioning and autonomous construct. Over the years, he had tinkered with new methods of manipulating aurichalis, finding the right means to process it and develop it so that the magic could be channeled in various ways. This time he poured all of his knowledge into creating something that could think, learn, and react to the environment around it.
At the end of eleven hard years' work, Lyronis unveiled his grandest achievement: the clockwork sentinel. The hulking creation had four arms - two with blades affixed to their ends and two with crude hands. A large flaedivoris at its core powered smaller ones in its hands, its legs, and connected to another large capsule within its domed head. Magic from its center would sustain feeling for the creation, while the power source at its head featured a new method that processed the clockwork sentinel's feelings into thought. The balance of aurichalis within each provided a form of sentience, allowing the automaton to assess and react to stimuli.
The clockwork sentinel inspired awe in the community, and with this creation Lyronis at last felt he had achieved something that no inventor could possibly rival. He was therefore not surprised when an invitation came early in 1495 for him to attend the Ascended Gods and their champions; this would be his moment to rise and complete his greatest accomplishment.

Descent Into Darkness (1495-1498)

To Lyronis' shock, the council explained that he would not be chosen for Ascension. A myriad of reasons were given—too many aelferi had been raised to godhood. Instead, the gods suggested Lyronis could provide more benefits to Taermidra as a mortal with the remainder of his lifespan, as he had just reached the middle years of his aelferi life. Worse still, the council admitted that they intended to raise Canexus instead—his achievements, while lesser than Lyronis', were still formidable, and the aging derivos would die of old age and be of no more benefit to the world. They had instead invited Lyronis as a courtesy to explain prior to the Ascension day on the first of 1496.
To say this revelation destroyed Lyronis would be like claiming water was wet. He returned to his home devastated, piecing together what he had been told. The Covenant of Ascension he had studied during his higher studies made it clear that the greatest of all individuals would be selected to rise. He poured over his old notes, comparing historical figures to those raised to godhood. At the end of his review, he determined that the Covenant had always been a lie; the greatest were sometimes chosen, but most filled a particular function for the gods or were selected for other reasons. True greats had been passed over in the process, just as he was. Disgusted, Lyronis swore off ever bettering society with his inventions ever again and instead fell into listless depression.

Mental Trauma

The Death of Yvennis (1498)

While Lyronis wrestled with despondence over the revelation, others were more vocal. His sister, Yvennis, joined protests decrying the falsities of the Ascension. She often tried to drag Lyronis to these events, yet he refused. However, he at last attended a protest in 1498 to satisfy her whims.
Perhaps it was Lyronis' silent presence at the protest, perhaps it was that the Ascended god Canexus had come to grace the city with his divine presence, or perhaps it was the frustration of various injustices—whatever the cause, the event became violent. In the madness that followed, Canexus defended himself from an angry mob of protesters. Lyronis and Yvennis got separated by separate currents, and she was killed by the Ascended God. The moment of her death destroyed what little faith remained in Lyronis, and he screamed his pain toward the heavens as Canexus fled the scene.

The Fate-Shorn (1499-1515)

Shortly after the funeral for Yvennis, Lyronis was approached by members of a radical group of rebels against the Ascended Gods. These insurgents had risen due to the disparity the Ascension had caused, and they sought his aid in waging a war of attrition against the Ascended Gods. The rage and pain of Yvennis' death still ached in Lyronis' heart, and he agreed because he may have an opportunity to avenge his sister's death and free the world from, as he viewed it, the tyranny of Ascension.
History has been unkind to this time. Annals of religious texts that followed decry this period as the Covetous Revolt, an uprising by a few upstarts that could not accept that they were not chosen for Ascension. Yet these chronicles were written by those who survived the trying times, and they trivialize the battles fought for their own purposes. Lyronis' name does not appear within these texts, nor do his inventions; the last written words on this meteoric inventor's career is that he wandered into the northern mountains of Vanheim and disappeared from all records after 1515, never to be seen again.

Show spoiler

The Rise and Fall of Grishtar

However, Taermidra did see an incarnation of Lyronis emerge from these mountains. Much changed by an encounter with a horrifying spirit, Lyronis returned to the war in the year 1518. With the corruptive powers of dark magic at his disposal paired with Lyronis' intellect, Grishtar turned the floundering revolution into a full-scale war. Automatons designed for death and destruction sped into battle, changing the balance of power and setting the Ascended Gods reeling.
Yet Grishtar's focus shifted from winning the war on Taermidra to destroying the Ascended Gods entirely. He devised a vessel that would transport him and his closest allies to the moon, where he had learned the Prime Deities retreated to after establishing the Covenant of Ascension. His goal would be to divert the flow of divine magic from the Ascended Gods and into himself, and from there he would undo the tyrranny established by the Covenant.
Had this plan succeeded, the world would have collapsed into death and decay. Instead, the Ascended Gods banded together in an all-out attack against Grishtar in the year 1543. Though the battle claimed nearly all of their power, they managed to seal Grishtar in the nightmare void and destroy his vessel. Yet with no power to stop the plummeting vessel, the Ascended Gods could only watch in horror as the impact devastated the land. Dust and debris billowed into the sky; quakes rattled Taermidra. The world cooled, falling into a terrifying ice age that froze the surface from 1543 until 2185.
In a way, Grishtar had won through a different result than intended. Although he planned to secure the power of the gods for himself, the weakness that fell over the Ascended Gods limited their influence. The tyranny of Ascension was thwarted, and the world's faith in gods weakened by the destruction the war had wreaked.
And through the centuries that spanned the ice age (known as the Era of Ruin) and the subsequent years of recovery (named the Age of Remembrance for the rediscovery of ancient creations), Grishtar bided his time to return to Taermidra and finish what he started. In the year 2415, his resurgence from the nightmare void would begin anew....

Species

Aelferi

Date of Birth

6th Day of Month 13, 1359 GA

Date of Death

15th of Month 3, 1516 (Age 157)

Life

1359 1516 -157 years old

Circumstances of Death

Mysterious/Unknown

Sex

Male

Gender

Male

Presentation

Male

Eyes

Violet (on black)

Hair

Long, sleek straight blond hair

Height

6'3

Weight

140