Marcus

**Marcus Alacer** is the protagonist of Tales of Nebezem: Four Fates. He's a Pyrean.

## Plot

Marcus is a shade from the Alacer clan who goes on a quest to find a cure for his chief who was recently poisoned by unknown assassins. Depending on the path he chooses, he may either fullfil this quest or abandon it. There are four possible routes.

### Path 1: Usurping the Alacer

Marcus takes the advice from his mother Antonia to finish off the dying Chief and take his position for himself, but to do that, he has to kill Fabius, the clan's Grand Magus first. The Grand Magus is strong with his fire magic so Marcus needs something to counter this. He heads to Oasis Vitae to request help from the Gnomes. The gnomess Xev says that she can make a dampening amulet for Marcus but she needs three sapphires first. Marcus finds one of the Sapphires in Verax village in possession of Veronica who agrees to part with in in exchange for three different paintings. The second Sapphire is located in the Pyromilites village where Marcus has to trade it for a Ruby with Domitius. Marcus acquires the Ruby from Primus Jonas after giving him Lucilla's rose in Verax village. The last Sapphire is found in Praxipolis courtyard where Marcus has to solve a puzzle first in order to get it. After acquiring the last Sapphire however, he's captured by the gate guards and put into prison from which he escapes with the use of Getaway Powder he acquired from the gnome Plürd. With all three Sapphires in hand, he heads back to Xev who makes the dampening amulet for him. After acquiring the amulet, he heads back to the Alacer village and attacks Grand Magus Fabius. Fabius retaliates with fire magic which does not harm Marcus thanks to the Dampening Amulet. At this moment, Antonia enters the Chief's house and tells Marcus to finish the job. Fabius realizes that Antonia was the one behind this scheme and attacks her with a fire spell, killing her instantly. An enraged Marcus then kills Fabius by stabbing him multiple times. With the Grand Magus dead, he then proceeds to kill the Chief and takes his seat.

This path leads to the "Ambiguous Achievement" ending. After becoming Chief, Marcus ruled the Alacres relatively wisely. But having lost the grand magus and the experienced chief, the clan was significantly weakened. It was in grave danger of being wiped out by the other clans.

When Valentina found out that Marcus decided to kill the grand magus as well as the sick chief, she felt disenchanted and started avoiding Marcus.

Eventually, most clan members were recruited into the Praxipolitan army to fight against lizardmen. Marcus lived a lonely life and when he died, he was the last of the Alacres.

### Path 2: Seeking Veraces' Help

Marcus decides to visit the Verax village to find help. Chief Verax states that he can help but he needs to do the Veraces a favor first. Veraces have been at war with the Pyromilites, who currently have the upper hand thanks to their primus Cyprian and his superior tactics. Chief Verax tasks Marcus with eliminating the Pyromilites' primus, which would cripple their war effort. In order to defeat him however, Marcus has to acquire a better armor and a better weapon first. Marcus finds the armor in the Pyromiles village where he trades a fire scroll he acquired from Basilius for it. Afterwards he seeks out the weapon and finds it in Praxipolis in possession of a Windel warrior named Bjarni Halvorsson. Bjarni however wants a snake skin first in exchange for the dagger. Marcus heads back to Verax village and asks Corvus' help to defeat the three-headed snakes east to the village. After Corvus kills the snakes, Marcus takes one snake's skin and brings it to Bjarni, who then gives Marcus his dagger as promised.

Now properly armed, his next task is to catch the primus alone in order to assassinate him. He heads to women's area where the Chief's meal is and poisons it with the laxative he acquired from the gnome Plürd. Once the laxative starts taking effect, the Chief leaves, leaving Cypian alone. Marcus strikes at this point and manages to kill the primus. The guards however take note of this and throw Marcus into prison. Marcus however manages to escape after distracting the first guard and then killing the next.

With the primus out of picture, Marcus heads back to Verax village and reports his success to the Chief. Chief Verax then tells Marcus to talk to Iosephus, who will now create a cure for his Chief. Marcus also learns from Iosephus that the poison used on Chief Alacer was used by the Pyromilites, meaning it was them who wanted to assassinate him. With the cure in his hands, he heads back to the Alacer village and gives it to the Chief, who recovers almost instantly. With this success, the Chief names Marcus his new primus.

This path leads to the "Clan Coalition" ending. The Alacer and Verax clans begin working together, which makes them both stronger. The Pyromiles clans, having lost their main military strategist, become less of a threat to the other clans in the region.

Marcus performs well in his new role as primus and lives a fulfilled life with Valentina by his side.

### Path 3: Defecting to the Pyromilites

Marcus decides to pay a visit to the Pyromilites village to request their help. Even though Chief Pyromiles is unwilling to help at first, Marcus manages to convince him by telling that he's willing to desert from his own clan and join his. To do that however, Marcus has to assassinate his former comrades. He visits his mother to ask about the other shades and their weaknesses. Antonia says that Cornelius is the weakest one so Marcus targets him first, who's in Praxipolis.

After killing Cornelius, Marcus takes his equipment and heads to the Verax village, where his next target, Octavius is. He heads to the brothel but notices that there are no shadows to hide him. He asks Fido, the Verax assassin for help, who says he can lend his stealth ring if he can bring him his tobacco which he dropped into the gorge earlier. After doing that, Fido gives his stealth ring to Marcus but also asks him not to leave town with it. With the ring in his possession, he heads back to the brothel, equips the ring and strikes Octavius down, much to the awe of the girls in the room. Before leaving, he also forcefully takes Mariana's perfume from the table.

Marcus finds his third target, Atticus, in Oasis Vitae, where he's waiting for the "miracle cure" to appear near the pond. Marcus sees the opportunity to fool him into thinking that the cure has appeared by placing the perfume he got from the brothel onto the slab near the pond. Just as Atticus attempts to grab the perfume, Marcus strikes from behind and kills him.

With three targets down, he heads back to the Pyromiles village where his final target, Maximus can be found. As he's out in the open, Marcus needs to create a shadow behind him in order to strike. He pushes two crates behind Maximus and attacks him from their shadow.

After all four targets have been eliminated, Marcus reports back to Chief Pyromiles, who congratulates him for having guts to betray his ex-comrades and announces him as the newest member of the Pyromiles clan.

This path leads to the "Switching Sides" ending. After losing the chief, the primus and all their shades, the Alacres could offer no resistance. The Pyromilites killed the rest of their men and turned their women in to servants of the lowest caste.

The Pyromiles clan grew stronger and soon became the most powerful force in the region. Later, they started waging a war against Praxipolis, weakening the human efforts to suppress the lizardmen invasion.

Marcus became one of the more famous Pyromiles warriors and lived a life of relative luxury. Yet, he could never shake off the feeling that had he made different choices, he would have been a lot happier.

### Path 4: Joining the Praxipolitan Army

Marcus decides to seek help in the city of Praxipolis, which lies to the southeast near the border of Wind Plains and Marshlands. General Brutus, the commander of the Praxipolitan Army states that they cannot help anyone who's not a citizen of Praxipolis and in order to become one, Marcus has to join the Praxipolitan Army. According to General Brutus, the Veraces and the Pyromilites clans have been at war for a long time and this has been stalling the war efforts against the lizardmen. Both clans possess an Orb of Fire, which symbolizes their power. Brutus tasks Marcus with stealing them, which would weaken both clans significantly.

Marcus first seeks help from the Gnomes in Oasis Vitae. The gnome Plürd says that he has what he needs but tasks him with solving a puzzle first. After Marcus does what he asks, Plürd gifts him a Getaway Powder. First he heads to the Verax village and requests a Verax clothing from Phoebe, who wants an exotic piece of jewelry first. Marcus pays a visit to his girlfriend Valentina and asks for the jade necklace she's wearing. When he bring the jade necklace, Phoebe states that it's not what she wants. Marcus then heads to Praxipolis and talks to the female Windel named Gudrún Frigadottir. Gudrún takes the jade necklace from Marcus and gives him her blue necklace. After Marcus brings the blue necklace to Phoebe, she eventually agrees to give Marcus a Verax clothing.

After disguising himself as a Verax member, he heads to the Magi Tower and then upstairs, where the Orb is located in a locked chest. After opening the chest with the code which is the number of certain objects withing the village, he grabs the Orb and escapes the tower using the Getaway Powder.

With the first Orb in hand, he heads to the Pyromiles village to steal the second one. This time, he heads to the women's area, steals a servant's clothing and takes the meal to the Pyromiles Grand Magus. As the grand magus is busy eating his meal, Marcus opens the chest and takes the second Fire Orb within.

With both Orbs in his possession, Marcus reports back to General Brutus who congratulates him for the job well done and enlists him in the army. Afterwards his girlfriend, Valentina also comes and becomes a citizen as Marcus' future wife.

This path leads to the "Greater Glory" ending. Marcus gained many skills as a Praxipolitan soldier and lived a meaningful life fighting off the lizardmen hordes. Whenever he returned home from the battlefrield, Valentina greeted him with a joyful “Oh!”.

Chief Alacer was cured, and although the Alacres remained a separate clan, their population grew and they started training more men and sending them to Praxipolis as reinforcements for the fight against lizardmen.

Having lost their Fire orbs, the Verax and Pyromiles clans were weakened. As they began focusing their war efforts solely on each other, they continued getting weaker. The whole region became more stable as a result.

Trivia: This is the only route where Marcus does not have to assassinate anybody.