Val Garena

Val Garena is a Mage of great power and is the principle objective of the Auric Lodge.

## Early Life

Prima Vizier Val Garena of Alaca is a talented half-elven mage, born of an adventuring elven father and a human woman in the town of Alaca, a small fishing settlement on the western coast of the Cushuran continent, within the Xsukanate of Pontia. Intelligent, cunning, and hard working, his talents were recognised and he was tutored in the arcane arts at the Tower of Bones in the capital, Tros. Over the course of his studies, he would come to be a prodigy at two great arts.

His topic of excellence: the mysteries of the Wealm – the interrealm, the space between the different planes of existence. Val Garena became a renowned expert on this strange locality between the worlds. Its mysteries, its nature, its history, how it interacted with the mortal realms and the divine, and how it had become impassable since the Demontide nearly five thousand years prior – he would know it all. This fascination gained him global renown, as the mysteries of his focus became ever more interesting to the nations of the world.

The second of his talents was politics, and the power thereof. Over the century since his induction to the Tower of Bones at the age of 14, he cultivated a political network of favours, friends, and followers that spanned Pontia and beyond. Outliving many in the Xsilamate, time and talent him at the centre of a large web of patronage. Prima Vizier may have been his title, but many would view him as the true power in the realm – despite his talent for the arcane, magical mysteries were always but a vehicle for his true passion: Power.

## The Cycle and Downfall

His downfall from the palace in Tros was rapid, and bloody. To the north of Pontia is the Valley of a Thousand Times – a mysterious valley separating the Palentine, the home continent of the Avum Empire, from the Cushuran continental peninsular. The Valley is nominally safe to travel, but at times issues becomes engulfed in terrible storms. From these storms issue the Shadow Multitudes, echoes of armies from the Divine Eras, marching forth and unleashing suffering and destruction. Normally, these storms – called Cycles – are predictable, allowing for armies to be mustered to contain the threat. Val meddled with the rhythm of these cycles, and in doing so set in motion his downfall and the death of thousands.

Seeking to understand the Cycles, and the origin of the Shadow armies, Val deliberately triggered such an event in pursuit of his own studies, giving no warning or time to prepare. Unprepared for the Cycle, as the normal warnings had not occurred, thousands paid the price before the incursion was eventually put down by the Imperial Legions and Pontian phalanxes after months of fighting.

Val’s involvement was discovered in part due his own arrogance, and in part due to the heroic actions of a group of defenders of a minor Pontian Fort. Garena had a measure of control over the cycle warriors, able to wield them under his control to a very limited extent. Val, his identity concealed, took part in the Siege of Fort Chamenae, the lynchpin of the defences of the town of Suna. By chance, a small band of Athánatoi - elite Pontian Warriors of the Xsukan, all of whom were familiar with Val in his Capacity as Prime Vizier - was within the town, and assumed command of the defenders. Growing frustrated by the delay in capturing the fortress, Val took to the field personally to end the struggle. High on the arrogance innate to his being and from his successful triggering of the Cycle, Val underestimated his opponents. One of the Athánatoi, Nebuchadnezzar, succeeded in wounding Val, and in recognising him. Nebuchadnezzar was able to start shouting a warning before Val slew him, but the other survivors of the band would escape and share the half hear words with others of their order. In time, it would direct suspicion towards the Prime Vizier, and eventually to the discovery of his actions.

With the wrathful Imperial Legions mustered and fresh from battling the wraiths, and all within Pontia horrified by the suffering he had unleashed, Val’s political web collapsed. He fled as guards stormed his tower, escaping from the realm with the Xsukan's assassins at his tails. Recovered from his laboratory was information that far from a bungled attempt to stop the Cycles, the archmage had sought to master them, and had gained communion with some entity within the storms. The assassins would be found dead – and the manner of their death caused further alarm, for they bore all the signs of having fought the shadow warriors.

With the possibility that Val gained some measure of control over the wraiths, and uncertainty about the full extent of his research, a chase has begun. One of the teams dispatched in Pursuit of Val Garena is the Auric Lodge.