Merkurio Zellurys

Illustration by godofwar [1]

Aftermath

Tides of War

**Merkurio Zellurys** is a human planeswalker from the world of Khaliz-Dorahn. He is the son of the planeswalker Heletrios Zellurys. He specializes in pyromancy and mind magic.

## Birth and early years

Merkurio was born in 1519 NKY in Lafterwal, Khaliz-Dorahn and, upon birth, he received a blessing from Pandora, protector of the plane. He was born a blue-essence Lafterii, and so was trained in illusion magic as he grew, but his teachers always noted his powers extended beyond what he was taught. They realized he had inherited the telepathic talents of his father and encouraged his learning of them.

The first ten years of his life were mostly uneventful, except when he contracted a grave disease at the age of five, which Pandora healed at Heletrios's request, rescuing Merkurio from the verge of death and making him admire Pandora.

As he grew up, his favorite stories were those his father told him about the multiple worlds he'd visited, and the adventures he'd lived. Merkurio was delighted with all these tales, and always craved to be able to live adventures of his own in foreign worlds.

## The Evil One

When he was ten years old, the Evil One was created and began its destructive rampage over Khaliz-Dorahn. His father was recruited by Pandora to fight it. However, the Evil One was not defeated, and Pandora banished Heletrios from Khaliz-Dorahn.

Heletrios left Merkurio a charm to help him reach him in case things went awry and Merkurio and his mother were sheltered in a fortress Pandora had built to fend off their enemy.

Merkurio spent the next few weeks in isolation. He barely ate or spoke. His respect for Pandora still stood, and his father had said nothing to defend himself when he left Khaliz-Dorahn, so Merkurio was struggling with losing the ideal of perfection he had over his father.

However, Pandora recognized her mistake and came to him in order to summon Heletrios back to Khaliz-Dorahn, which he did. He rejoiced at both being able to see his father again and at knowing his father had done nothing wrong. However, that joy wouldn't last, for a stronger ideal about his father was soon to be shattered.

## Ascension

As Merkurio waited safely inside the fortress, the League of Five was off fighting the Evil One. After It was defeated and The Shield was created, Pandora returned to Merkurio and his mother, but Heletrios wasn't with her.

Pandora explained that Heletrios had died in battle. Merkurio couldn't believe his ears. Knowing how powerful his father was, he'd always assumed him immortal. Now that he had actually died, Merkurio was at a loss. The trauma of knowing his father could actually be killed by finding out he'd died was too much for him to take. Realizing he'd never see his father again, his spark ignited and he ascended as a planeswalker, leaving his mother and Pandora shocked.

He entered the Blind Eternities and realized he'd become the same as his father. He knew he was still close enough to Khaliz-Dorahn to planeswalk back, but he decided to instead head into the unknown. As he arrived at a plane, he felt something shift inside him once more. He could feel an oppressive feeling in his chest, to which he attributed the feeling. He began crying inconsolably for his father, and when he punched the floor in rage, two bursts of flame exploded from his fists. His planeswalker's spark had enabled him to assimilate red mana inside of him, making him the first Lafterii human to ever be able to wield both blue and red mana at the same time.

He spent the next ten years roaming the Multiverse, exploring and studying it. He wanted to know as much as he could about the different cultures, and so he did. Ten years later he returned to Khaliz-Dorahn, but not to rejoin his people. He set up a hut in an uninhabited part of Lafterwal and magically hid it in order to have a place he could return to if he needed to rest from his travels.

## Gallord

Merkurio spent the years that followed travelling the Multiverse, learning more and more each day. The more he discovered, the fewer reasons he found to return home. However, that would change eventually.

In the year 1619 NKY, after he'd returned to his hut, he decided to roam Khaliz-Dorahn, realizing he hadn't actually paid attention to the multiple changes that had taken place in the world, so he decided to experiment by exploring it as if it were a new plane. As he learned of both the sociocultural changes that had occured to the different people and the geographical changes that occured to the plane itself, he came upon Gallord, a sixteen-year-old Danuri.

Gallord had been travelling a forest carrying a duty for the Order of the Shield when he was attacked by a wild lion. Merkurio found him bleeding on the ground, not fatally wounded, but incapacitated enough to be easy prey. Merkurio defeated the lion and tended Gallord's wounds. When Gallord woke up, he immediately tried to kill Merkurio given the hatred towards the Lafterii that Leem had spread over the years.

Merkurio would've punished the teenager right then and there, but Gallord seemed to have a strange allure that Merkurio couldn't quite understand. Instead he cast a spell that put him to sleep and he took him to his hut, curious to find out what exactly about Gallord was calling his attention.

Gallord woke up and once again attacked Merkurio. The planeswalker made him note he'd tended his wounds and saved his life, and Gallord retaliated how he'd also kidnapped him. Something about that interaction made both of them laugh. As if destined to meet and befriend each other, they actually started talking about their lives.

Merkurio helped Gallord return to Danuria without anybody knowing of their secret friendship. Gallord asked Merkurio to convince Dorthos II, the Lafterii Magistrate, to agree to peace talks, but Merkurio refused, claiming that Dorthos would never listen to him and would go out of his way to turn things against him. However, Merkurio did promise he'd return to Khaliz-Dorahn more frequently to check on the state of things and, when the time was right, help restore the relationship between Danuri and Lafterii to what it once was.

## The War of the Shield

One day, as Merkurio was exploring, he received a distress signal. It was Gallord, using a technique Merkurio had taught him to communicate with him through the Eternities. Merkurio immediately returned after figuring out Gallord had been kidnapped by the Fellors, who were now under the leadership of a mysterious lady.

Merkurio traced the leylines of the plane and figured out the lady was a planeswalker as well. He headed for Lafterwal, where the Lafterii tried to apprehend him, since he was still wanted for insulting Dorthos I. After dispatching the soldiers, he was approached by the Magistrate himself: Logayr.

Logayr took him into his office, and Merkurio told him about the planeswalker stranger. Logayr disregarded everything he heard, saying that all of that was for the Order of the Shield to deal with, then told him he was no longer interested in his activities and forgave his "crimes" against Lafterwal, not without insulting his pride in the process. Humiliated, Merkurio left Lafterwal and headed towards the Temple of the Order.

He planned to arrive at the door in order to avoid creating a commotion, however, he got unwillingly dragged into Leem's quarters. Leem greeted him, explaining how he'd installed a security system against planeswalkers that forced Merkurio into his current position. Merkurio tried to escape but he was paralyzed with electricity as he tried to, another feature of the magic field Leem had set.

Merkurio brought Leem up to speed, and the Danuri got mad at him for turning Gallord into a traitor and blamed Merkurio for his kidnapping, starting to beat him. Merkurio, incapacitated by the spell, could do nothing to defend himself, but when Leem mentioned his father would be ashamed on him, his anger burned inside him, blinding him to the pain and having him retaliate.

As he began turning the tide on Leem, he felt a sudden rush of energy and heard Logayr's voice advicing him to leave. Merkurio did as told and planeswalked to Logayr's office. The Magistrate confessed he'd cast a tracking spell on him to figure out the location of his hiding spot. He applauded Merkurio's bravery of going to the Danuri, recognizing that if he was that desperate, something needed to be done. He granted Merkurio an army of Lafterii in order to help him get to New Fellorie and rescue Gallord.

Merkurio got to enemy territory, and there he found out the identity of the mysterious lady: Elspeth Tirel. He confronted her in battle and beat her, leaving her at his mercy. He offered his mercy in exchange for Gallord's release, but she refused. He was about to kill her when Rallios, the Fellor Leader, brought Gallord before him and threatened to kill him if Merkurio damaged Elspeth any farther.

Merkurio offered Rallios a deal: Rallios would release Gallord and in exchange he could have Merkurio himself as hostage. Rallios agreed and got a hold of Merkurio, shackling him with special chains that would prevent him from planeswalking and letting Gallord go. Merkurio then cast one last spell he'd learned from his father: a mist that would transport Gallord and the Lafterii back to Lafterwal to keep them safe.

He was held prisoner in a tent and, a few days later, Elspeth came to interrogate him. Merkurio tried to tell her the truth about the Evil One, since he realized Elspeth had been lied to and was fighting to liberate It from the Shield without realizing what It actually was. But, just as Elspeth was starting to listen to what he had to say and believe his words, Rallios manipulated his shackles from the outside to have him attack her. Rallios then entered the tent and "saved" Elspeth from Merkurio, punching him so hard he drew blood from him.

Once Rallios was alone, he drank Merkurio's blood to assimilate his essence and protect himself from the forcefield that surrounded the Shield, which had been cast by Heletrios in his last moments as a cautionary measure. Merkurio could tell what had happened using his mind powers and realized the true nature of Rallios and how they'd all fallen into his trap.

He telepathically reached out to Logayr, who'd already dismissed Gallord from Lafterwal, and convinced him to join the Danuri in the fight against the Fellors. Logayr agreed, and that landed him in prison, from where he reached back to Merkurio and caught him up to speed.

Completely isolated from the rest of the world, Merkurio could only hope for Rallios to be stopped. However, Gallord eventually reached him with the aid of the Danuri and the Lafterii. As New Fellorie was invaded, some Fellor grunts tried to kill Merkurio on Rallios's orders, but Gallord managed to stop them. Merkurio thanked him and immediately fainted. When he woke up, he was told the Danuri, the Lafterii and the Fellors were now allies since they all realized their true enemy was Rallios.

Once Merkurio recovered some of his energy, he used his teleportation spell to take everyone to Fellorie, where Rallios had raised an undead army to overwhelm the Danuri and destroy the Shield. Merkurio had warned everyone that Rallios only needed to come into contact with the Shield in order to destroy it and he should be the top priority. However, Rallios managed to avoid all assaults on him and trespass the invisible barrier set by Heletrios.

Being the only other person who could do the same thing, Merkurio chased after him, but was stopped by Rallios. Gallord managed to kill Rallios in the nick of time, but through a cruel twist of fate, Rallios's blood trickled towards the Shield, dissolving it and liberating the Evil One.

## The Evil One Returns

Now free to conquer Khaliz-Dorahn once more, the Evil One embarked on a quest to recover its full power. Merkurio returned to Lafterwal to free Logayr. There, he confronted Roggar, the general in charge of the coup that had ended Logayr's reign, and challenged him to a duel, where the winner would be named Magistrate.

Merkurio won the duel and used his new power to liberate Logayr, immediately passing over his title to him. He then returned to Gallord and the rest, and formed the New Order alongside them in order to stop the Evil One. The New Order decided to ambush the Evil One and Its forces in Lafterwal, and Merkurio agreed to use all his power to cast a devastating spell that would obliterate the Evil One, knowing he would die as well in the process.

When the time was right, he attacked the Evil One with a brutal pyromantic attack, and for a few seconds, it seemed as if the plan had worked. However, the Evil One managed to establish a telepathic link with him, and exploited his fear of death (which he'd developed after Heletrios's death) in order to have him stop. Merkurio cowered out and the Evil One assimilated the spell, developing a fiery breath. However, Merkurio had used the few seconds their minds were intertwined to stare into the Evil One's psyche, and discovered that Leem was under Its influence. Unfortunately, he fell into a coma as the spell had drained most of his energy.

When Pandora returned to Khaliz-Dorahn, she used her healing powers to wake Merkurio up, and he was once more grateful for her help. He revealed the truth behind Leem's possession, leading Pandora to suggest killing Leem and use him to fuel a spell to destroy the Evil One and erase the parallel reality of Khaliz-Dorahn. Merkurio agreed to distract the Evil One while Elspeth got ready to cast the killer spell.

A few days later, the final battle against the Evil One took place. Merkurio did what he was planning, and relentlessly assaulted the Evil One to keep Its focus on him while Elspeth got ready. Despite this being barely short of a suicide mission, the pain from his failure was stronger than his fear of death, and he fought giving it his all, barely evading death at every retaliation from the Evil One.

The Evil One managed to pin him down and mock him for his failure but Merkurio revealed he was a mere decoy. Before his enemy could process the information, Elspeth stroke, and the Evil One was defeated. However, the amount of energy needed to destroy It took a heavy toll on the world, and the parallel Khaliz-Dorahn began clashing with the real one, threatening reality itself.

## The Aftermath

The survivors, Merkurio included, fled to the Unknown Continent, where they came accross Allagras, self-anointed protector of Khaliz-Dorahn. Allagras took them under his protection and began showing them his domains, however, when they reached Endris-Dorahn, Merkurio learned a grim secret: Mawdryk, the Endrison leader, revealed Pandora had killed Heletrios when the Shield was created in order to save her own life.

Blinded with rage, Merkurio attacked Pandora. Despite the group trying to stop him, Merkurio was relentless, and he violently injured her. When Gallord intervened, however, Merkurio realized that killing Pandora would just make him a monster like her. Instead, he told her to leave Khaliz-Dorahn forever.

Everything seemed fixed. Life in Allagras's Domains seemed like an enjoyable prospect, but unfortunately, the clashes reached them, forcing them to head north, into unexplored and hostile territory.

As reality itself began reshaping around them, a Lafterii chronomancer known as Savrios offered his knowledge to help the group survive. Merkurio helped him in whatever way he could, learning new arcane spells he'd never heard of before. As he did, he began getting the aid of a familiar voice: the telepathic spell he'd used to communicate with Logayr had left an imprint of the Magistrate's mind in him, and now he was speaking inside his mind to guide him.

When the group was almost out of the land of undeath known as the Deadlands, a new clash occured: Fellorie intertwined with the Deadlands, and the dead-raising aura resurrected Rallios.

Merkurio, Gallord and Elspeth joined forces to confront Rallios while the rest of the group escaped the Deadlands, and Elspeth gave the finishing blow. After that, the group headed to Reolem, where Merkurio fought the drow with the rest.

The group finally arrived at Subturgia, home of the vampire leader Tharyen and the last remaining enemy to Khaliz-Dorahn. As the group fought off the undead forces, Merkurio and Roggar collaborated in the fight, putting their differences aside to fight as one and complement each other with their powers. However, in the middle of the fight, Logayr spoke once more, telling Merkurio he needed to protect Gallord.

Merkurio did as told, making sure nobody got close to his friend, but he soon got overwhelmed, and Tharyen focused on Gallord. As the vampire drank Gallord's blood, Gallord's spark ignited, and his ascension began. Merkurio rushed in his aid, but by the time he reached him, Gallord had already given up his spark and his life to undo the clashes and save Khaliz-Dorahn.

Merkurio blamed himself for Gallord's death, knowing that if he'd sacrificed himself to kill the Evil One then they wouldn't have found themselves in that position. Merkurio asked Elspeth, Allagras and Koth for their help to create a new Shield, one that would surround all of Khaliz-Dorahn and prevent planeswalkers for ever planeswalking there again. The four planeswalkers did this as they exited Khaliz-Dorahn.

## Tides of War

Merkurio spent the next years aimlessly roaming the Multiverse. He was no longer driven by curiosity, but by self-loathing. He tried to commit suicide more than once, yet he could never bring himself to do it. He also attempted to use his mind powers to erase Gallord from his memory, but realized he'd be insulting the memory of his friend if he did so. He instead decided to join battles around the Multiverse, hoping to die during one of them.

During one of these battles, he was approached by Jeska, who tried to recruit him in the battle against Phyrexia. He refused, intent on continuing down his path of self-destruction. However, the next time he went to battle, a Phyrexian army had been sent his way. After defeating them, Merkurio realized the threat Phyrexia represented for the Multiverse, and agreed to join the fight.

## Trivia

* The last plane Merkurio visited before taking part in the War of the Shield was Medranos. In there, he had a fight with a local, and the powers he used to defeat him caused an early awakening of the lahessi.