Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus

Imperator Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus Dux Phasma 
The Ghost
Admiral of the FleetCommander of the Eleventh LegionCaptain of the Silver Wake
Emperor of Lexum
==Stats==
===Mark Tracker===
Marks: 11
Afflictions:
*Married to the Empress (Her being alive again makes this worse) (Infamy)
*For the Greater Good (Taint - Cut away part of morality)
*Tortured (Wound - Was tortured for several months by the Shadowfell, with lasting repercussions)
===Advances===
*11th Legion Barracks (Voting, +1 Defence)
*Psychopomp of the Broken Lands (Story, +1 Spectral Speedster)
*Assassin's Lair (Story, +1 Commander of the Secret Intelligence Service)
*Admiral (Voting, +1 Defence)
*Living Scry Spell (Voting, +1 Academia)
*Trusted Voice of Corellius Larethian (Story, +1 Spectral Speedster)
*Officers of the Silver Wake (Voting, +1 Defence)
==Significant Relationships==
Geltius
Geltius and Tacitus formed a close friendship during the battle with the archons. During that time Tacitus and Geltius spent much time working together to push back the threat to their home, and rescue the oppressed elementals. Tacitus considers Geltius his Battle Brother. Geltius was one of four who went into the Shadowfell to rescue Tacitus after his capture. The debt that Tacitus feels is beyond measure. Working together to reforge the elven gods has only increased their closeness.
Lionel
Lionel was once his commander 1000 years before in the 11th Legion and something in Tacitus remembers that. Because of this, Tacitus trusts Lionel and will listen to him even when he doesn't always listen to others. When he lost his ability to write down his story, he entrusted his memory to Lionel.
Slath
Tacitus commissioned Slath to make a song about his memories when he lost the ability to write down his story. The song was spread about, but it contained only minor details, but Slath wrote a longer version and that version was shared with Lionel and Tacitus alone. More recently, Slath died defeating the Mind Plague and as such Tacitus has vowed to try and complete Slath's own goals as best he can.
Salthazar
Tacitus and Salthazar joined the Athesian Council at the same time, and quickly realised that their ideals and goals for Athesia were largely the same. They also realised that they would be more effective working together. As such they founded The Southern Alliance.
Arianna
Arianna wasn't always a close friend. However, time changes all things and Tacitus now considers Arianna to be a dwarf of some sense, though perhaps she could do to learn some small subtlety. He most of all wants to help cure her of her afflictions, and help her deal with the damage done to her from her earliest childhood days.
Fenxi
Fenxi and Tacitus are on the same hide and seek team. They have thought of many good hiding places, of which they have yet to try any. That might be because Buttercup keeps forgetting to tell them when its their turn to hide.
Fenxi was one of the four who went into the Shadowfell to rescue Tacitus. He doesn't know the details of what happened there, but he knows that the debt is beyond measure.
Appoline
Appoline was one of the four who went into the Shadowfell to retrieve Tacitus from the Shadow Emperor's clutches, and whilst he doesn't see her often, he knows that he has a debt he can never repay.
Morgan
Tacitus sponsored Morgan onto the council, and he doesn't sponsor many. But he saw something in her that day when he rescued her from her accidental wanderings onto the Paths of the Dead. She had the makings of a hero. That turned out to be more true than he knew. Morgan was one of the four who went into the Shadowfell to rescue him, and while she may feel the debt repaid, he knows that he owes far more than he could ever give back.
Gaius
Tacitus sponsored Gaius into the council after seeing him fearlessly strike the Empress. The strength of his blow and his willingness to defend strangers revealed his heroic qualities immediately. Time spent walking the Paths of the Dead together and reforging the three elven gods into one has helped build an unbreakable bond. Tacitus hopes that Gaius will succeed in his tasks to Greatness, and will help him achieve that goal.
Ceryndra Silverflame
Ceryndra is one of Tacitus' oldest companions on the council. They once formed a bond of friendship when trying to find the presumed captive Markus, former council member. Though various duties prevent them from adventuring often together, years of long service has formed a strong bond between them.
Krunk
Tacitus and Krunk don't have much in common beyond a love of sharp blades. And Tacitus has never liked been repeatedly called a 'poncy.' Nevertheless, years of long service has created bonds of mutual respect.
LifaThyr Fjallanner
Lifa also calls Tacitus a poncy. However, she also trusts him to eggsit for her. Tacitus is not sure why.
Family
Titus Meridius Silvanus and Aurelia Meridius Silvanus are his twin children. They are elves that look like half-elves. They turned up randomly at his barracks when they were five with just a note explaining who they were to him. Sadly Tacitus lost the memory of his first year and a half with them because of the Mind Plague.
Later he learned that they were actually one thousand years old and were only pretending to be five in order to get to know their father. Their time spent as heirs to their mother, The Empress of Lexum, has left them spoilt and wilful, though immensely powerful. Tacitus is attempting to give them a sense of responsibility, with little success.
It must be noted that The Empress (Imperatrix Augusta Octavia Vitalion Silvanus Magia) is also technically family, but since he married her in a complex assassination plot a thousand years before, and since he aided in destroying her after she threatened to burn Athesia, he likes to pretend that this is not the case...That is much harder now that she is both sane, and back from the dead. He might have to get round to trying the married life for real at some point.
With the help of Paavi Karjalainen and Senyab, Tacitus prevented The Empire from killing Augusta in a show trial. She is now in Athesian hands.
Story Tacitus
Story Tacitus is the result of dealing with the Fey. After accidentally giving away his story in an effort to rescue some children (a deal he would make again), he heard rumours of someone claiming to be him promising to restore Lexum. Investigating this he came across Story Tacitus and, in an effort to prove him an imposter, he challenged him to a race. Moments before the race began he saw out of the corner of his eye, a rabbit, and it winked at him. This was certain proof that the Fey were messing with him... again. Naturally, he won the race, though technically he also lost, because story Tacitus was him, his past, made out of magic and words and bound by narrative causality. Due to some complex events to do with Story Tacitus' nature, the mind plague and some good luck, Tacitus was able to convince Tacitus of this and they became sort of one... sort of. Tacitus and Story Tacitus don't always get along. Story Tacitus is not happy with how little Tacitus knows, and doesn't like how much he is prepared to give up for others. Tacitus doesn't like how horrifically racist Story Tacitus is.
When Tacitus was rescued by the Shadowfell, he was not bought back anywhere near whole. His mind was shattered. Story Tacitus didn't hesitate. He joined together with Tacitus permanently, sacrificing his everything to fix Tacitus' mind, if only a little. That moment of self-sacrifice was perhaps the moment where Tacitus and Story Tacitus were most alike. Perhaps though, some remnants of ruthlessness remain to remind of the other's existence.
==Background==
They say that the Broken Lands is haunted. For two hundred years rumours have spread of a being who can run through foes and not be touched. They say he is swift as if air does not slow him or earth break him. They say he is dressed as a warrior from before the dreaded plague and that he does not know that he is dead or that his land is destroyed. He is only ever seen in battle and so some believe him a portent of woe and terror and others believe him their protector, a dead guardian. They all call him The Ghost.
In the beginning of these years, when rumours first arose, The Ghost was a lone spirit, but as time past The Ghost gathered together those alike to itself, a motley group of hunters each dressed in ancient, tattered cloaks and perhaps they too were dead, the people thought, for why else would they follow The Ghost and be so fell.
So The Broken Lands is haunted by The Ghost and his Wake.
Excerpt from the scroll of The Ghost
I have been told that my name is Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus. I may have had other names once, and indeed I probably did, but these are the only names that have been remembered and so I hoard them preciously. My name is Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus. I have been told that I am the oldest elf in the village. I have been told that I have lived here for as long as anyone remembers, that it is a village built out of the remnants of a great fortress. There is only one part of the fortress that remains, an old watchtower that many want brought down. I am told that I have insisted that the tower is used, despite the groanings and the creakings and the sense of loss that surrounds it. I don't know why I insisted that.
My name is Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus, but I only learnt that this morning, when I woke up in an unfamiliar ruin facing unfamiliar, human faces who had come searching for me when I didn't return from hunting. I woke up surrounded by torn and shredded parchment, already mostly blown away by the wind, leaving behind scraps of useless words, completely meaningless. 
Someone or something had destroyed the only memory that I had, and now I am but the remnants of the person that once was. I think, perhaps I ought to move on, and yet, there is something. Destroying a scroll is perhaps the greatest crime someone can commit against an elf and it is not something done lightly. Why was my scroll destroyed? What knowledge did it contain? What did I know?
The house I have been brought back to is... comfortable. There are two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom, and a small plot of land out back which I use to grow vegetables... or so I have been told. It is a simple place, made out of wood and old stone, made warm by hide and leathers and furs. Nothing of the house itself would hint at some great history. But in the corner of the bedroom, there is a large chest, and in that chest there is some curious items... two swords, carefully maintained. When I grip them, they feel familiar and as I swing them, I know they are mine and not an heirloom or a friends. There is an amulet which seems of greater worth than the entirety of the house almost, and then there is the armour. It is ancient, but well kept, built to fit, embroidered with careful skill, each stitch still in perfect form, which showed the quality of the make. There is a cloak to, slightly more tattered than the other items, restitched and patched time and time again, some more roughly than others. I think that I must have done the stitching and the patching. 
The cloak, I discover, has no special properties, but perhaps there is a sentimental value to my keeping it, or perhaps it was merely a reminder of a past I always forget. It is comfortable, and familiar and reassuring. The other items though, are wondrous! They make me think that maybe once I was something more than this simple elf, ancient though I may be. I think perhaps that I once was a noble or a general, and somehow I suspect the latter. These weapons have seen use.
There were other items in the chest, each older than most of the village.
I am told that I have no family, or no family that the villagers no of, so as I don my armour and my amulet and my two swords, I make a decision. There is nothing to hold me to this village, but there is something for me out there, in the Broken Lands. There is a stolen memory and the thing that took it . There is knowledge which has been hidden, but not destroyed. There is parchment scattered in the wind, but the words are still written.
My name is Tacitus Ajax Liber Silvanus, and I will know.
They say the Broken Lands has a protector, and they call him The Ghost. They say that he and his men are dead. But no one in this village in the far east of the Broken Lands has ever seen The Ghost or his Wake before and so do not hold much hope or dread for him.
An elf approaches the village. He runs faster than any elf or man has any right to run and he's dressed in ancient garb and he does not give his name, merely states a warning.
"There are Archons on the way."
And with that, there is panic in the streets and people running there and about, but the stranger in strange and ancient garb calls their attention.
He says, "My men are far away from here, but do not worry. Do as I say and you will fight them off. I have fought greater battles than this."
In the distance fire and smoke can be seen and so the people rally to him, trust in him, for what else can they do when the flame is in sight. There is no rumour to save them, just this single elf.
They stand where told and listen to his shouts and when the Archons arrive, they see to their surprise, the elf turns and runs into the flow with a sword in each hand, swinging about. And the people see that the rumours are true, for the elf slips through the bodies and not around, an ethereal being, slicing through the throng. In that moment, they believe in The Ghost and his story.
Yet, when the battle is over, and the village has survived and the Wake have arrived to help in repairs, The Ghost slips to the ground, covered in wounds.
And they see that he is alive.
Excerpt from the scroll of The Ghost
It has been two months since I woke up in this half-burnt village, to be told that I am responsible for it surviving. I have no memory of it. My writing stops just before the battle, but I see that it is not something that I haven't done before, only perhaps the scale is larger than the usual. I was... hurt in the battle. It has been a long month full of inaction at first and then a slow recovery to full strength. My men, the villagers call them The Wake (They call me Ghost, though I've tried to get them to call me Tacitus), seem anxious to be off and I agree with them.
I have read in my scroll that my original was destroyed and that I am trying to find the culprit, but it has been two hundred years, the scroll says. Two-hundred years of wondering the wilds and sleeping in abandoned ruins or under rain and still no clue or thought. Yet, I lose me memory every few years as do over half my men, so I suppose I could keep searching for forever and not get bored or tired of it.
I received a message this morning. It is from the King. It invites me to join his crusade to unite these lands and bring them safety. I am considering it. It is a worthy cause and... I have been searching for some clue in the Broken Lands for two-hundred years and I still am no closer to finding the truth. Answering this call,it may bring the chance I need. There may be someone who can help, or answers in other lands. The trail is cold by now but... yes..
I have made up my mind. 
==Ongoing Quests==
*Foster peace inside the realm as a member of the Southern Alliance. [Ongoing]
*Find the mother of my children. [COMPLETE. Oh Gods Why!]
*Deal with the mother of my children. [COMPLETE]
*Find out the reason why my scroll was destroyed two hundred years ago.
*Find out what I did 1000 years ago at the fall of Lexum. [COMPLETE]
*Find whoever is stealing the memory of the elves. [COMPLETE]
*Deal with the creature that is stealing the memory of the elves. [COMPLETE]
*Deal with Luciana.
*Fulfil divine mandate to shepherd the souls of the dead to their eternal rest in the Broken Lands (Ongoing)
*Get Augusta and children divine jobs.
=== Vault Items ===
*Vault Needle (stolen by Scion of Thought)
*Magic Dispelling Hoop (stolen by Scion of Thought)
*One of a pair of rings (stolen by Scion of Thought)
*Oracle Box (stolen by Scion of Thought)
*Commanders Sceptre (stolen by Scion of Thought)
*Soul Pinning Technique (kept hidden and protected)
*Mask of Becoming. (Presumably lost with the merging of Tacitus and his story)
*Soul eye (Part of Tacitus, cannot be removed)
*Badge of Psychopomp (Part of Tacitus, cannot be removed)
*Blades of Blood (taken by Scion of Thought, when arms were fixed)
*The Blade that Can Cut Through Anything (Protected by primal spirits and kept hidden, hopefully to never be used again)
Category:Characters