Aspeleus of Stygias

Aspeleus of StygiasCogent Sheet

> "*With his sorrow in hand and blood upon his blade,
> Aspeleus yelled to the sky and said,
> 'Goddess, give me your honor;
> Delegate to me Your grace and I shall abide by it;
> Grant me Your light and with it strength;
> Grant me Your wrath so that the killers of my liege may find it so;
> Of these are all that I ask, and so I shall ask no more.
> Of all other needs I shall only demand and receive of the mortal kind;
> For revenge is what I seek, and You shall not agree with such.'*"
>
> **- Excerpt from the *Fates of Stygias***
>
>

**Aspeleus of Stygias** is the given name of a combatant in the Angelbane Arena. Named after a character from an early Post Ruinam epic, he is an Aoshanti templar equipped in a colorful yet blank suit of powered armor. Little is known of his true identity, as he speaks little of his personal life and history.

However, if the name he has come dubbed under is any telling of his intents, then Aspeleus comes to the arena under the pursuit of glory and higher, immaterial causes.

## History

### Origins

The origins of the warrior’s name, *Aspeleus*, comes from the series of ancient Aoshanti poems collectively in an epic known as the *Fates of Stygias*. The poem consists of eight different 'fates', each containing the perspective of a different figure surrounding the life of the protagonist of the epic, an Aoshanti praetorian by the name of Aspeleus.

Born in a destitute and impoverished hinterland of the isolated city-world of Stygias, Aspeleus was orphaned through unknown means and was eventually taken in by the Mother of a local Rhyan church. In the early years of his life, Aspeleus was shown to be a rambunctious and adventurous boy, wandering the streets and wider countrysides with his adoptive brother Netor. While he and Netor would cause issues with the local folks, this would all stop as soon as the two children were caught by a group of bandits and barely escaped, with Netor being severely injured in the process. After this, Aspeleus became much more serious and protective of his family, devoting himself to the faith and enlisting in the local limitanei.

In the service of the limitanei, Aspeleus would prove himself in various skirmishes with bandits, including a conflict with the group which had injured Netor, who had accompanied him into the service. His one-on-one combat with the bandit leader was commended and seen by the King of Stygias, an aging Aoshanti by the name of Cerantiphius. With the respect of the King, Aspeleus was recruited into the service of the King's Praetorian Guard, though insisted that he enlist his brother as his retainer and personal assistant.

Under the service of Cerantiphius, Aspeleus met a wide cast of characters and individuals, including his rival in the guard, a human by the name of Iristem. Jealous of Aspeleus’s favor with the King and wishing to take the throne for himself, Iristem plotted behind the scenes, speaking in secret with the Tesari warlord Qu'Baran and working out an agreement with him that he would be allowed to take the throne as a subject of the Tesar if he were to slay Cerantiphius. To ensure that he was able to do this, Iristem fabricated a threat to the kingdom in the form of a small Tesari invasion. Terrified of the consequences of the invasion, the King sent nearly all of his praetorians to quell the sudden attack, leaving only a few who had sworn their loyalty to Iristem in secret save for one: Netor. When Netor discovered their plot and was told that he may either leave the side of King Cerantiphius or die by his side, he stood beside his king and brandished his blade. While his fight was short and he was cut down by the traitors along with his king, the valor of Netor was still strong.

When the praetorians returned to the palace to find their king dead and the false king Iristem in his place, none were more enraged than Aspeleus. As he was exiled by Iristem, he vowed to the Goddess and to all divine powers that he would have his revenge upon not only Iristem, but upon every man which had ensured the death of his brother and his king. For ten years, Aspeleus traveled the stars, gathering a small cohort of warriors and companions who shared his disdain for Iristem and Qu'Baran, sharing battle with one another as they fought against the forces of the dark king and his draconic ally. Eventually, Aspeleus had gathered enough strength and rallied enough of an army behind himself to attempt to attack the king himself.

On the night before the battle was to begin, the former praetorian is said to have been visited by his brother Netor in a dream, a specter of his former self appearing before him and attempting to warn Aspeleus of the folly he put himself through. He insisted that his brother did not go into war in the next day, for he was sure that *'revenge is the killer that will come for Aspeleus'*. Aspeleus refused to listen to Netor’s warning, declaring that he could not set aside his revenge after all of the efforts he had made to achieve it, and that he would return the glories and honors that his brother and his liege had lost, as well as making right on what he had been given by the Goddess Rhya: a second chance.

In the next day, Aspeleus would be the one to lead the army to the palace of Iristem, where Qu'Baran had come upon the invitation of the king to quell the uprising. The descriptions of the battles in the texts are many and are often considered to be great revelries as warriors of light and dark, Aoshanti and Tesar, great and feeble clashed and died against one another, with Aspeleus facing Qu'Baran in single combat and only barely defeating the massive Tesar, beheading him. However, in the heat of the moment, Aspeleus failed to notice when Iristem, false king of Stygias, approached from behind him and stabbed him through with his blade. Where normal men would have fallen, Aspeleus stood for a few moments longer, giving himself enough time to retaliate and plunge his blade down into the crooked man’s heart and for both betrayer and betrayed to die looking one another in the eye, a revenge made in blood and sacrifice that leads one to question whether revenge had truly been done.

## Stats

* PROFILE
* RENOWN
* FINANCES

 Arena Combatant

INCOME/EXPENSES

𝔛0 million