Alzaren

I'll fulfill my duty, no matter what may come.

## **Humble Beginnings/Finding Purpose**

Alzaren group up in a remote village in the mountains Southwest of Babel. Growing up, he'd always wanted to be a great knight of the Empire and upholding the laws that kept the people safe. Like many kids, he ran around with the best stick he could find and swing it around like a sword. As he got older, he enlisted to learn to become a knight and took several steps towards reaching his goal. As time went on, he found he was no good around horses, but was able to form a bond with a drake named Kaivyss. Due to his peculiar partner, his training took much longer than originally intended. As the rebellion came into full swing, Alzaren was still in training and wasn't allowed into actual combat, but was instead to continue training.

Towards the end of the war, Alzaren witnessed the true colors of the empire and could no longer stand up for them. Biding his time and waiting for an opportunity Alzaren and Kaivyss made a plan to escape while being deployed to reinforce the capital. They managed to flee without engaging anyone and then spent the rest of the war trying to defend small villages from monsters while they finished thier training. According to what Alzaren would find out later is his entire unit was killed in the Emperor's last effort to achieve power.

Months after the fall of the empire, Alzaren took up becoming an adventurer as he did not wish to let his skills go to waste. Thus far he has had a fair amount of success as he continues to improve his equipment and hone his skills. He seeks to be come a paragon of knights and perhaps found his own order someday.

## **Adventuring Career**

### Assorted Jobs!

Alzaren has not been credited yet as being a hero saving Babel or anywhere else for that matter, he has participated in numerous tests of combat ability and some explorations into the ghostlands and the Labyrinth in the Tower of Blood. He is also currently a member of the Adventurer's guild and hopes to make a good name for Adventurers where he can.

## Side Quests

### The Power From The Stars

Alzaren heeded the call to help with the expedition that was going out to see to recover whatever fell from the sky. This took a fairly significant amount of time and pushed him to the limit of his skills. He worked together with Kaivyss to help fend off monsters attacking the fleet along with putting his alchemy know-how to good use in producing food preservatives for the long trip. Kaivyss was invaluable for this expedition as it made moving supplies between the ships much easier for Alzaren and helped him locate remnants after some of the ships were destroyed.

In the end, his efforts were payed back in a significant fashion. Part of his reward is what was recovered during the expedition. He and a number of other Adventurers now have what are called "Mecha" large beings or constructs that require pilots and are blessed with the "Raiment of the Gods" - making them suitable to fight foes such as Kaijus. Alzaren's mecha is name Alhazard, in it's humanoid form, it resembles a knight wielding a long sword. It also possesses the ability to transform into a dragon-like mecha that has the ability to fly, making transportation much easier.

### Striking the Behemoth

After having spent a long day once again working with alchemical reagents Alzaren was tired and while he thought he would be able to take the night off and relax with his party Kaivyss, luck was not on his side. Having been quickly spotted by a messenger, Alzaren's short lived break was interrupted with an urgent request for help to deal with the raiders of Behemoth. He sighed and thanked the man for the letter. "Alright Kaivyss, we have another job, are you okay to fly tonight? We need to reach Meita by sunrise." The drake excited nodded "Excellent, I was beginning to get bored." The two quickly packed what belongings they needed and flew through the night to arrive in Meita.

The pair arrived in the Meita base camp just after dawn. Flying in such a way to be spotted from some distance away to not raise suspicions or alarms. A bit tired, but more excited than anything, Alzaren makes his way to the people coordinating this effort to receive his orders in preparing for the attack. He quickly finds out due to the number of adventurers they are expecting, they don't have a set role for him, so they recommend just doing tasks around camp that he is well suited for. After some further discussion Alzaren is assigned to helping moving supplies due to Kaivyss's strength and speed as well as helping train the troops in swordplay and mounted combat. Alzaren seemed pretty pleased with this, at least he would be able to make good use of what he'd learned thus far in life.

"Listen up, I'll be your instructor for the time being. You'll refer to me as Sir Alzaren. Got it?" He started with his group. "If you want to quit, then quit now, otherwise I expect the best from each of you in defending Babel and any other civilians." As he looks around, all the soldiers seem to stand firm, none seem to be second guessing why they are here. "Good, let's get started with some riding exercises." Thus began a daily regimen of mounted hit and run tactics. Using their mounts superior speed to close gaps, strike and get back far enough to make it difficult for their foe to make a counter attack. Kaivyss obviously was a significant upgrade from a standard horse, but the troops seemed to be doing well nonetheless. As time passed, the troop was able to pull of more complex maneuvers and coordination with their attacks.

"Next, putting those swords and shields to good use or whatever other weapon you prefer." Next was weapon training. It wasn't going to be good enough just to be good at riding and passable at wielding weapons, Alzaren was determined to turn them into experts. Each day, he seemed to be wielding a different weapon for practice, keeping his prized sword in it's sheath. His ability to use these weapons was never questioned, as no matter how strange it was, he seemed to be able to use it. Over the course of the training, the troops became masters of their weapons of choice, turning this cavalry troop into a formidable force. Alzaren just hoped it would be enough as he'd heard of how skilled the raiding parties of Behemoth were.

Having finished passing on what skills he could to the troop, Alzaren spent most of his remaining time in camp helping move supplies around and patrolling the surrounding area. As stealth was by no means his forte, he stayed fairly close to camp to keep a lookout for any suspicious activity. Though he did find time to go back and spar with his troops a bit to make sure they weren't slacking in their training.

### Incandelth Peninsula

A warm wind blew over the Incandelth Peninsula as countless groups gather to fight for the right to live against the advancing forces of the Fifth Horseman.  Alzaren made one last aerial pass to get a glimpse of the oncoming forces atop his trusted drake Kaivyss before heading back to rally any forces that had chosen to follow him.  He looked upon his group, most of which were mounted as he was in some fashion, horses, griffons, pegasuses, all outfitted in the weapons of war needed to protect Chronus.  He briefly recalled the hellish battles against Behemoth, knowing that this would be even more brutal, but steeled himself and held his sword aloft to prepare his followers.

"Today, we hold the line and ensure that there is a tomorrow.  Time after time we have been called to defend our cities, our homes, our families, and each time we gather, we have succeeded in defending what we must.  Now, we must do the same, for if we fall here, it's not just that which we've fought for before, but this whole world and maybe more.  To Arms! Today we show that not even that which made the Gods fall can crush our spirits!" Having said his piece he turns to the oncoming Hollow Hoarde, ready for whatever is about to occur.

The battle itself was an unending legion of monsters.  Alzaren found himself providing front line support for his troops while his flying compatriots patrolled the skies.  Kaivyss was an excellent flier, but due to the sheer size of the Hollow undead, the front is where his expertise was required.  The two found themselves smashing into and tearing through countless undead.  Alzaren's Sword - Defiant Promise making short work of most while Kaivyss's bites completely destroyed many others.  The goal was to keep bigger threats on himself while others worked through the lesser hoards.  For quite some time all was going fairly well, Alzaren's previous war experience had payed on in limiting the casualties, but this couldn't last forever and other groups wouldn't be able to hold on indefinitely.

Suddenly Alzaren felt a foreign magic wash over him and he found himself falling through the air.  Looking around he locked gaze with some sort of undead dragon coming right for him.  "Just my luck" he thought as he managed to briefly orient himself before focusing on Kaivyss to call him back to his side.  Just before he could finish \*\*SLAM\*\* the undead dragon smashed into him trying to take advantage of the situation.  Alzaren barely manages to put his shield up before the vicious attack. He takes a breath, probably just a few bruises, his shield and armor doing their job to protect him.  He concentrates again and suddenly his trusted companion is back at his side ready to take on this threat together.  This thing had terrifying power, even with Kaivyss's help, they were still being pushed back.  While his stalwart shield and armor protected them from the greatest bursts of magic and flame, they weren't able to make much headway in defeating it, it seemed to be resistant to almost every attack they had made. Something had to be done, and almost without a thought he tapped into the source of his mythic power - the balance of Creation.  The pattern on his blade becoming that like the night sky he felt that he now possessed the answer.  "One last time, we'll crush it, let's go!" and they charged straight into the beast allowing their armor to take the brunt of the damage while they made their move.  Alzaren thrust his sword deep into it's chest causing the energy from his sword to disperse and shatter it's protections while Kaivyss took advantage of the situation to gain leverage and tear off a limb from the undead dragon.  They fly back and watch as the fell dragon falls to the ground and shatters.  Both take a moment to collect themselves before continuing the battle, they would need to be vigilant for more foes like that going forward.

As the battle raged on, Alzaren and Kaivyss continued to throw themselves at strong foes and in the way of terrible magics to protect others.  As defeat was not an option, their only choice is to fight until they can no longer do so.

### Naga Cuisine

After hearing of the friendly cooking competition being put on for the residents of Siacros, Alzaren decided to try and see if good ingredients and recipes would help bridge the gap with regards to his cooking skills and his rather bland palette years of knightly training had saddled him with.  While he'd only heard of Gorgon Ramsey in rumors, he was very aware of the 'incident' that was caused the last time the Nagas interacted with adventurers from Siacros and Etera.  Alzaren was determined to do his best to show good will towards them and do what he could to prevent another problem.

The first day of ingredient preparation, Alzaren decided to head to chat with some of the Nagas that had showed up for the competition about what kinds of cuisine they enjoyed and looked forward to.  He took rigorous notes on types of dishes, ingredients and flavors and made extra sure to note down some delicacies as well.  After that, he decided to hit up some libraries to find some recipes that fit the notes he had mentioned along with figuring out where to find some of these ingredients that he'd not heard of before.  On the second day of preparation Alzaren headed out with his trusted companion Kaivyss to gather some of the more exotic spices and fish on the list of recipes he was looking into attempting.  First stop were the markets in Babel.  He figured it should be pretty safe to gather most of the dry ingredients here as well as any special spices would be a bit easier find in a large city.   The city was bustling as always and it seemed to be even more active as other adventurers may have had the same idea, and other chefs as well that wanted to partake in the challenge issued by the Nagas.  Things took a bit longer than expected as some places were out of stock by the time he arrived, but after scouring the markets, Alzaren was able to gather most of the items on his list.  Fortunately for him, this also helped to narrow down what he would make from the myriad of recipes he had marked the day before.  On the last day, Alzaren had decided to get the most important ingredients, the ones that needed to be fresh.  Along with his companion Kaivyss, he headed to the area around Sunken Island, the location where the last 'Incident' occurred.  By this point the barrier around the Islands affected him, but that didn't prevent him from navigating the waters outside the island with his drake.  Apparently in areas around the islands, there are some fish that are fairly easy to cook and were the perfect regional addition to the recipes he'd selected.  After a few hours, Alzaren and Kaivyss surfaced with quite a variety of fish based on the information he was able to gather on what would be 'good' to cook.

With his ingredients fully collected, he checked his recipes one last time and needed to come to a decision.  After some thought and recollection on his own abilities he decided to go with an herb crusted smoked fish with seasonal greens on the side.  Simple yet flavorful, or so he hoped.  The next phase was to actually cook this and he'd hope that the basic cooking skills he'd learned during soldier training would pay off in the end. Whatever he had leftover, he'd donate to some of the other contestants, he's fully aware he won't be a winner, so others might as well benefit from his over preparedness.

## Appearance

Alzaren is a tall Half-Elf man with short brown hair and brown eyes. He's often seen wearing his mithral full plate with his sword at his side and tower shield on his back. His companion Kaivyss is a large drake with yellow and purple scales.

## Personality

Alzaren is patient, understanding and mostly accepting of others. He will often put himself in the line of danger to shield others if he is able. Despite his serious nature on the battlefield he is a bit more cheerful when not working or on duty.

## Artifacts

Alzaren is in posession of three artifacts that that form the Regalia of the Intrepid Knight:
Immortal Memory - Alzaren's prized armor that not only protects him from physical harm, but supposedly also helps fortify his mind and spirit. This beautiful set of Mithral full plate helps to protect Alzaren from even the most brutal of strikes and he his rarely seen without his armor.
Defiant Promise - Alzaren's unique longsword. Made from horacalcum this longsword is said to be able to strike grievous wounds in even the most stalwart of foes.
Dauntless Aegis - Alzaren's Masterful Tower Shield. Made from a thick sheet of Mithral this this shield is considered to be nigh impenetrable while protecting the wielder for all kinds of injuries and magics.