Raine of Atlantis

## Raine

### Aliases

King of Atlantis, Watcher and Defender of the Throne, Lord of Wind and Wave, Keeper of the Tomb of the Guardians, Warden of Azhacadis Castle, Protector of the Isles, and Saint of the Deep, the Assassin King, Rebel Raine

### Relatives

Philoktia (wife), Esyn Vuhlanath (former wife)

## Rebel Raine, the Assassin King

*"The bottom of the ocean ain't no part of this world. Monsters lurk above the waves. Madness lurks below. No one's been lower than me. I've floated all the way to the bottom, found there ain't none. Went too deep, part of me is still down there... swimming."*

-Raine of Atlantis

## History

His closest friends are Lorn Longstaff and Butcher Knight Kade, who serve him as the leaders within the Raine Knights. They were amongst his earliest followers and adventuring companions after his home was taken into the deep.

King Raine professes to admire the system instituted by the Tritons, but is incapable of understanding its true purpose. He has killed the majority of the Guardians, and forced the remainder to kneel in submission. He rules by decree, and empowers the military at the expense of everyone else. He has passed laws seeking to obliterate personal agency, such as forcing the people of Atlantis to have children in common, and outlawing information from the outside world, and certain forms of music.

His trident, Drown, was plundered from a temple of Olhydra that he explored with Lorn and Kade. His ring, the Blue Vow, is traditionally worn by the Queen of Atlantis, as is given by the King of Atlantis to the Queen upon their coronation. Raine took it from Queen Atheryn and gave it to Princess Esyn, and when he killed her, he took it back to wear for himself. His enchanted Ramscale Armor was taken from the crypt of a great Water Genasi hero, as it fit him best, unlike King Mandas’ Pearlscale Armor, which was too small for him. Beneath his golden armor, Raine is a compact, athletic man with childlike, almost cherubic features and cold, pale blue eyes.

## Project Revenge

There used to be some nobility to Raine; his hatred of the old royalty did once come from a righteous place. As an island king, he was admired for his valor and shrewd mind. He did interfere too much in the lives of his subjects, some thought, by presenting himself as the ultimate arbiter between private quarrels. He was a brave huntsman, often wading into the seas to kill sharks and other predators that menaced fishermen. When his people drowned, he lost everyone who was dear to him, and blamed the old royalty for letting them die. Since then, much of his soul’s darkness does come from the curse of being the usurper of the throne. He has becoming consumed by avarice for power and wealth, desiring more and more, and never giving up anything he has taken for himself. He has become increasingly delusional with regards to his power, considering himself the true heir of Atlantis, and believing no one worthy of holding the throne. These traits are not native to him, but intertwined with his bloodthirst and capacity to harbor grudges, they make for an increasingly unstable and menacing ruler. Ultimately, there two sides to him. On one side, there is the hunter of leviathans, who protects his people from the horrors of the deep. On the other side, there is the avaricious and arrogant monarch, for whom no amount of bloodshed and terror will be enough. The closer he is to the Throne of Atlantis, the worse these negative traits become. His closest friends within the Raine Knights see these shifts most dramatically, and have begun to worry for his sanity. Ultimate, what unites his fractured mind is his pseudo-philosophical worldview, in which he has been wronged by the old royalty and the surface world, where he is the only man strong enough protect his people, and that the rightful place of his subjects is one of abject submission to his will. In his heart of hearts, Raine is aware of his change, and it disturbs him, though he rarely acknowledges it.

After his marriage to Philoktia and rightful possession of the Throne of Atlantis, Raine would recover the slivers of his damaged mind. Possessed with a new focus and purpose, he would realize that Philoktia and the Deep were one and the same, and that he would have to defeat both to become a true monarch.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

Some would accuse King Raine of initiating the war, though the accusation lacked merit. In response to a prisoner escape, Raine would lead his knights to recapture his prize. On the shores of the Final Empire, he would do battle with a force of Janissaries dedicated to his fall. In retribution for their action, he would declare war on Aglazdere, dragging the Final Empire into a conflict that would engulf the whole world. Raine would use the Throne of Atlantis to flood the Great River of Akkhe, destroying most of the nation's arable land and plunging them into a famine from which they could never recover. Using the engorged river as a staging ground, Raine would amass a great army of his own Genasi, backed up by a large force of islanders and the navy of the Final Empire. This invasion would prove ill-fated, as his men would find themselves trapped in the wastes of Akkhe, besieged on all sides by the Pharaoh's undead armies. Eventually, Raine would break through the enemy lines through luck, ruthlessness, and persistence. Casting aside many of his men in a diversionary attack on Akkhe's capital, Ashkethis, he would lead the majority of his men directly into Aglazdere, where he would sack the cities of Ta-al Kayji and Al Basazar. Finding that the men he had cast aside had deserted him, Raine and his knights would slip away, their dignity in tatters but their bloody mark splattered across the wastes. Raine would amass a new force from his seemingly inexhaustible army, leading around almost the entire world to attack Guilddon, a nation he saw as allied to his enemy, Emperor Arthur of World's End. Raising terrible storms with the Throne of Atlantis, he would cripple Guilddon's fleet and batter the island in a terrible deluge. His attack would leave the nation ravaged, and he would succeed in capturing Queen Mercy and imprisoning her in Sunken City. Raine's next target would be the islands of Karres, in World's End, which his men would swiftly overrun and use as a staging ground for their invasion of the mainland. His armies relentlessly take ground, but find it a barren kingdom of the undead, scarcely worth fighting over. Word is brought to Raine of the fall of Padishah Rick and destruction of Aglazdere. Emperor Arthur takes the opportunity to reveal his true identity, cheating Raine of his revenge. Realizing that the war was over, Raine took grudging satisfaction with the fall of Aglazdere and returned home with the remains of his army.

After the arrival of Philoktia to Atlantis, Raine would be told of her presence, and asked to wed her. Raine and Philoktia would marry, and by the blessing of the Soul of Lorelei, Raine would enter into full possession of the Throne of Atlantis. Philoktia, crowned as Lorelei the Reborn, would swiftly turn on her husband, leading to the deaths of both Jamkas Wolfswift and Lloyd. Philoktia would flee, leaving the two at odds yet in joint control of Atlantis. The two would clash in Sunken City during the Lorelei Uprising, leading to his death at the hands of his wife and his former friend, the corrupted knight Kade.

## Project Revenge

The world was not finished with Raine. Indeed, his greatest enemies, the Aglazderians - those amongst them who opposed their new Padishah's alliance with the gods, saw use in him yet. Raine's body was different from - indeed, believed to be more primitive - that of other gear knights, in that his utilized a soul gem rather than a transmutation circle, rendering his existence independent from the Maker.

After of Ludwig's disseaperence, Raine would make his way to the shore of the destroyed Thunderdome, determined to kill Tholorhee. By the time of his arrival, he would discover that the god had disappeared after a battle with Ludwig of Ragnarok, dragging the King back down into the depths, bleeding all the way. Following the stench of the god's polluted blood, Raine would recklessly follow Tholorhee into the depths and do battle with the wounded god at the bottom of the sea. Neither of them were seen again. Neither were his greatest servants, Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The surface dwellers, in relief and wonder, credited their deaths to him.