Tolumvire of Arendur

## Tolumvire

### Aliases

Lord of Numorea, Emperor of Arendur, Guardian of the Twin Thrones, and Protector of Oranor, Sanctuary, and Forester’s Town, Grand Master of the Illuminated, Spokesman of Ragnarok, Tolumvire Arenzhou, Maximilian Tatham, the Reconciler, Master of the Final Incantation, President of the Royal Academy Student Union

### Relatives

Brannon Tatham (father), Fortune (mother), Vitreous (brother), Jang (wife), Ramander (son), Toranna (daughter)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Green

*"If fate is a principle beyond human comprehension which capriciously torments man, then it is karma that man confront fate by embracing sorcery."*

-Tolumvire of Arendur

## Brief Overview

Tolumvire of Arendur, the chronomancer and psionist who was raised in an orphanage in Guilddon and would rise to become the Emperor of the mightiest nation on Terra, would act out many roles in life; as orphan, student, adventurer, mage, seer, teacher, revolutionary, nobleman, jurist, politician, soldier, lawmaker, exile, emperor, diplomat, and madman. He was considered the first of the eight so-called Philosopher-Kings, and his ideals, though widely repudiated, would influence the generation of leaders that followed him. He was remembered principally for the founding of Arendur and the Illuminated during Jotunheim's Rebellion, the splitting of the timeline that would lead to the realignment of the world order and the collapse of the Shield, and his disastrous war with the Kingdom of Ragnarok, which would bring about the death of thousands and sow the seeds for the destruction of the empire he had built. According to common wisdom, he perished along with his countrymen during the Demon Wars, but has in fact ascended to become the Demon Lord himself, his once-human soul corrupted to become a great force for evil.

## Standard of the Emperor

The man who would one day be known as Tolumvire was born in Guilddon, the the illegitimate son of Brannon Tatham, a Queensguard, and a Countess named Fortune. Named Maximilian Tatham, he was dropped off an an orphanage, where he spent the first eight years of his life. He grew to hate the institution, and gathered a group of fellow orphans and ran away to peruse a life of crime. Max Tatham and his gang of orphans would find meager employment on one criminal group after another, but they were always exploited due to their vulnerability. Many would end up in prison, and Tatham himself would eventually find himself alone and destitute. Worse still, he was suffering a mysterious affliction where he would suffer from a fit of visions and find himself enfeebled for days to come. He did not yet know that he was a sorcerer, and that left untrained, his untapped power would kill him. For a short period of time, he worked as a sideshow attraction at a circus, where his visionary fits were of some entertainment to comers and goers. In the time being, he performed tarot and palm readings. As he grew sicker and sicker, he was eventually noticed by a mysterious elven archmage of great power, who saw his magical spark. The archmage bought Max from the circus owner, and brought him to his tower to be trained as his apprentice. There, Max met the archmage's other apprentice, Silvius, a water genasi. Max would nickname him Pix - misremembering the name of a character he had seen in a play at the circus. Max's peculiar breed of sorcery - that which wracked him with visions of the future - enabled him to learn that rarest of arts, chronomancy. It was not long either before he could control his visions, and learned to predict the future in the stars, which his master taught him to read from the observatory at the top of the tower. Once Max reached the age of sixteen, he chose for himself a new name - Tolumvire. He had read the name in a tale in his master's library, about a great chronomancer in eons past. Little did he know that he was reading his own tale, and had in doing so named himself - he had discovered his true name. His training finished, he mid goodbye to his master and to Silvius. He was enrolled in the Royal Academy at Guildhall, his tuition paid in full by his master. There, the young mage studied political philosophy and time in physics, and stood out amongst his classmates. Poor and arrogant, he rubbed many of his wealthier classmates the wrong way, and infuriated everyone by his vagueness about his past. It seemed that his story changed every time he told it. Functionally illiterate (though his master tried to teach him to read, Tolumvire seemed incapable of learning), he persuaded a besotted female friend of his to secretly read him all material, and to take dictation from him for his essays. Peculiarly, Tolumvire appeared to have few if no hobbies or friends, spending his time either trying to cow the members of student government to his will, or being absent from the college. In truth, Tolumvire had already begun adventuring on the side with his compatriots, the Queensguard knight Jamkas Wolfswift, and an elven druid named Elrond Treemaker. In time, Tolumvire graduated, though he nearly failed the defense of his thesis (which had been written for him from contemporaneous dictation, and though it was in front of him, he could not cite from or refer to it, nor follow his professor's instructions to turn to certain sections), having delivered a long and rambling monologue on his philosophical and metaphysical ideas instead. Aged twenty, he was growing dissatisfied with life in Guilddon, a country which he deemed stifling and tame. He had a yearning to go to a land where magic was still wild, and in time, convinced Elrond Treemaker and Jamkas Wolfswift to accompany him on a harrowing voyage to the Final Empire. And so his story would begin.

## Full Account

*"I control the vastest territory in the world. I won't relinquish it. Even if it's blood-smeared and defiled... this world belongs to me. I'll reign over this unclean world as a demon king and rebel against the gods."*

-Tolumvire of Arendur

### Part One

The party arrives in the unnamed town. Their members are Tolumvire, a chronomancer, Darius Roch, a cavalier, Shanto Eln, a sohei, Elrond, a druid, and Jamkas Wolfswift, a queensguard. He learns that the inhabitants despise magic, and when it is performed in front of them, they bleed from the eyes and face. He meets Sharra, a village girl, on the road, leading a donkey cart, and frees her from the curse. He takes her on as his apprentice. They meet an imperial nobleman, Lord Fazo, the Four of Hearts, who has burnt a rebel town to the ground. He offers the party a chance to join the empire. They refuse, and return to the unnamed town. They meet Doctor Curtin, an orc alchemist and scientist, in his laboratory. Tolumvire declares the town to be free from the empire’s rule, and names it Arendur. He founds an organization called the Illuminated, dedicated to magical research and political manipulation. Its first members are Curtin, Sharra, and Arendur’s captain of the guard, Zonan. Jamkas Wolfswift takes Jang, another girl from the village, under his wing, and shows the town guard how to make their signature red armor from the mines. After a fight, Tolumvire masquerades as Darius’ god, granting him minor clerical power. An unnamed jester joins the party. The party encounters Berentin, the Four of Clubs, an imperial general, who demands surrender. The party gathers some of Curtin’s chimeras, and under cover of fog, ambush him. They string him up while Tolumvire tortures him, and eventually kills him. The party finds their first time totem, and travels past 200,000 years ago, to a war between a human army and a goblinoid army. Tolumvire claims to be a deity, but is not believed. They return to the present. During his time in the past, he receives a piece of paper with the rules of time travel written on it. The party meets the Paradax, extra-dimensional creatures, for the first time, who appear as cloaked observers. The jester steals the time totem and flees. A samurai names Miyamoto Kai joins the party. Tolumvire forges a letter to Kai claiming that his Daimyo is dead, and that Kai must serve whoever rules locally - in that case, Tolumvire. Kai is skeptical, and figures it out quickly. The party explores some mines in goblin territory. The next discover the twelve symbols that, if tattooed on the body, grant control over four-dimensional magic. The party fights a one-eyed titan. Tolumvire uses magical ventriloquism to give a plant the ability to speak to Elrond, so that he might think it his god. Elrond believes it at first, but grows suspicious and sees through it. Sharra’s wild magic calls down fog, drains water, and discolors the sun. The party finds a temple to the previous, deposed emperor. Lord Bazzel, the Four of Spades, attacks them at the temple, leading a cohort of zombies, demanding surrender, before disappearing. The party learns of how the emperor was deposed by his mad brother. Lord Bazzel returns, and demonstrates his power to warp through time. He eventually retreats. Another Paradax appears, and shadows the party. He never uses the knowledge, instead keeping it to himself. Sharra panics about her family, and states that she must go see her foster father. Tolumvire tries and fails to restrain her. The party comes across another town, which Tolumvire tries to liberate by casting magic in front of its inhabitants. He accidentally kills many of them by triggering bleeding from their eyes and face, and the party is imprisoned. They meet the wizard Merlin in prison. Merlin works for the rebellion, and smuggles people out of jail. He teleports the party to the rebel army’s base. They meet Jotunheim, the mage who leads the rebels, and takes the form of a baby. Tolumvire and Elrond come up with an idea to create a massive tree-fortress that can travel through time. Tolumvire duels Jotunheim for command of the rebellion. Jotunheim uses his familiar to triumph. Tolumvire accepts Jotunheim’s command. The party serves the rebel army for three years. During this time, they learn about the lords, particularly Lord Alpha, the psionist responsible for the bleeding curse and the mind control of the empire’s citizens. In addition, a strange even occurs, in which a mysterious entity called the Hand of Fate brings the party members to a colosseum to engage in gladiatorial duels. They party triumphs, and receives gifts, among them, Darius receives a ring that allows him to summon horses, and Tolumvire receives a ring that lets him travel short distances back in time. The party participates in a defense of the rebel camp against an imperial attack, led by Lord Fazo, Lord Dubstep, and summoned spirits. The party engages them in combat, and forces them to retreat. Fazo is struck a deadly blow, and loses the bloated form which he relied on, stripping him of much of his power. Tolumvire asks for permission to take the party to the capital, so that they might become recruiters. The request is granted, and the party travels to the great domed capital of the empire. They are accompanied by Tan, a mage in the rebellion, who serves as Tolumvire’s apprentice. He has the unique power to move four-dimensional symbols from one person to another. Tolumvire learns that Jang, Jamkas’ apprentice, is the daughter of the deposed emperor, and this the rightful heir. He also learns that she is Sharra’s half-sister; Sharra was the old emperor’s illegitimate child. The party learns of Lord Thorren, a defector from the Queensguard and rival of Jamkas Wolfswift. The party comes across Lord Dubstep, surprising him and overpowering him. Tan removes his symbols and transfers them to Tolumvire, giving him control over a strange, unique form of one-dimensional magic. The loss of his symbols and lordship reduces Dubstep to a near-senile state. The party leaves him locked in an apartment. During a parade, Tolumvire speaks to some of the other Lords; Fazo mocks him, Bazzel threatens him, and Alpha says little at all. The party witnesses Bazzel slay a dragon with his Mace of Hammertime. Lord Thorren expresses anger towards Jamkas. The party meets Lord Ravenfreak, a vain and popular lord. Darius is overcome by Alpha’s curse, and his personality is erased, replaced by that of Bob Schmidt, an ordinary imperial citizen. The party arrives at the party and feast that followed the parade. A man named Lord Master Max arrives, wielding a talking axe. He offers Tolumvire Dubstep’s place among the Lords. Tolumvire accepts, and earns the name Lord Tick Tock, signifying that most of the Lords have not kept their old names, or identities. He also learns that the one-dimensional symbols once worn by Dubstep mean that if any of the Lords die, he will instead die in their place. Tolumvire approaches Lord Fazo with an offer of alliance, which Fazo rebuffs, either incoherently or sarcastically - Tolumvire is unable to tell. Tolumvire tries to get appointed as a military commander, with the intent to lure one of the lords, as well as an army, towards the rebel territories, with the intent of killing whichever lord is sent with him, and convincing the army to change sides. Tolumvire is granted the request, but learns he will be paired with Ravenfreak, and that Ravenfreak will be the senior commander. He backs out, discarding the plan. The party is interrupted by an attack of the Paradax. Elrond and Lord Alpha lead the defense against the Paradax. Alpha psychically possesses Darius’ body to use as a vessel. After departing, he restores Darius’ identity and personality. Eager to be rid of the possibility of dying in the place of a Lord, Tolumvire has Tan restore the one-dimensional symbols to Dubstep, who regains his presence of mind. The party decides to enter the dome to confront the emperor himself. On the way, they find a prison in which the gods are imprisoned. They learn that the gods were trapped by Alpha when they were young, their energy used to power a shield that keeps out extraplanar beings. The party tries to free the gods, but are confronted by Lord Bazzel, who fights them. The party retreats, and enters the strange world of the dome, which is full of natural flora and fauna, including a talking tree. They are attacked by Lord Ravenfreak, who is killed by Jamkas Wolfswift - the first of the Lords to die. They continue through an increasingly strange landscape, finding and isle of birds, and eventually reuniting with Sharra, who has travelled to the capital of her own accord. She rejoins the party, and they continue. The next find Vampyr, a vampire, who bites Tolumvire and turns him into an undead. They behead him, and keep his still-living head around for awhile, before destroying it. Tolumvire decides against remaining as a vampire, and manages to cure himself of his undead state. Lord Bazzel confronts the party again, and they reach a temporary accord. He explains that he is the only Lord to still retain his mind, and has been fleeing Alpha’s curse since the founding of the empire. An alliance is nearly made, but Jamkas insults Bazzel, who loses his temper and attacks. Jamkas kills Bazzel by choking him against a tree, giving him no chance to warp through time. The party traverses a secret passage and a hall of mirrors, before confronting Arazon, a warrior woman who trained the Lords in battle. Tolumvire hills her using the Mace of Hammertime, which he took from Bazzel. The party comes across a trove of treasure, and enters the emperor’s throne room, where they find what appears to be the emperor’s corpse, dead upon a throne. The rest of the lords arrive, and acknowledge Tolumvire’s claim to rule. Their obsequiousness is suspicious, and the situation becomes chaotic when the party is attacked by Lord Earthbore and Lord Rainbore, two renegade Lords who appear to take the form of hideous, humanoid moles. Bazzel appears to turn into a demon, and the party is next attacked by six balors. Jamkas fights them off, cleaving through them. In the chaos, the emperor himself appears, old and haggard, but very much alive, and furiously rejects Tolumvire’s surrender demands. It becomes clear that save for the emperor’s appearance, everything that happened in the throne room was an illusion. The party departs the dome. Rattled by what he saw, Tolumvire tries to get a letter out to his homeland, explaining the horrors that were taking place in the empire. The letter is intercepted by Blackjack, the leader of the thieves’ guild in the capital, who steals a time totem that Tolumvire had managed to acquire earlier. The party acquires a flying carpet and chases Blackjack through the city, to no avail. After regrouping over dinner, Tolumvire decides to start a rebellion by freeing the capital’s prison population. He proves unable to control them, despite killing several criminals who disobey them. They disperse throughout the capital. Dismissing any moral culpability on his part, Tolumvire washes his hands of the incident. The party next goes on a fact-finding expedition, where they end up in a museum dedicated to the history of the Lords. They find some helpful information, but mostly a great deal of propaganda. After leaving, the party comes across a strange talking cat, by the name of Spot, with the power to shape stone. Tolumvire requests a statue of himself, and Spot agrees. Blackjack reappears, and attempts to reach an agreement with the party, which Tolumvire furiously refuses. Darius, however, takes interest in his offer, and Blackjack trains him in some of the arts of thievery. Tolumvire, still a Lord in name, decides to see what powers he can exercise. He learns that the law courts lack a judge, as that was Lord Ravenfreak’s duty. He presides over a name of cases, but, egged on by Jamkas and Elrond, he oversees several miscarriages of justice, including arbitrary executions. He sows resentment and hatred amongst the population, leading to several plots against his life. He decides to abandon the duty, and gives a defiant interview to a reporter from the capital’s press, exhorting the population to rebel. When approached by a child in the street, he goes so far as to tell the boy that he plans rebellion, but realizes that he has placed the child in danger at the hands of Lord Alpha. Feigning laughter, Tolumvire tells the child he was joking. Elrond proposes marriage to Sharra, which Tolumvire vehemently opposes, even going so far as to propose marriage himself. Sharra is horrified by his cynical and controlling behavior, and angrily asks him why he did not take advantage of her earlier. She accepts Elrond’s proposal, and Tolumvire, furious yet chastised, grudgingly officiates the wedding. The party agrees that the dark nature of the capital has soiled them, and decides to travel to the north. An incident occurs in which Jamkas and Tolumvire come into conflict. Jamkas, who had gained control over a group of bandits, manages to ride Tolumvire down, and Jamkas manages to extract from Tolumvire his true name. They come to a border city in the empire, where they encounter a mask-maker, who crafts a water-breathing mask for Tolumvire. In the border, they meet a young man with a greatsword, who gives his name as Farcraft. Farcraft states that he lost his father, a great warrior, three years ago, and the party pieces together that Farcraft was the son of General Berentin, killed by Tolumvire during the rebellion. Tolumvrie admits the need, and offers Farcraft a chance to attack him. Cloaking himself in displacing magic, he tells Farcraft that should he miss the attack, Farcraft must serve as his apprentice. The sorcerous illusion saves Tolumvire, and Farcraft swears loyalty to him. He proves to be a less then receptive apprentice, being much more a warrior than a mage. Tolumvrie fails to recreate the feat with Axeall, the local captain of the guard, who cuts his arm off. Tolumvire, soundly chastised, finds a witch doctor to reattach his limb. Tensions between him and Elrond, which had been simmering since the wedding, boil over, and they end up in a fight. Tolumvire comes out on top, and tears Elrond’s testicles off with his hands, determined that he never consummate his marriage. Elrond goes to the same witch doctor that healed Tolumvire, and reattaches his torn privates. Battle ensues when Paradax attack through a living rift, setting much of the surroundings alight. The party finds an abandoned infant, who Tolumvire gives to Elrond. Elrond manages to lose the child, who is never seen from again. After the battle, the party departs again, finding a cave and an illusory river. They are confronted by a pack of werewolves in service of an institution known as the Arctic Time Temple, devoted to ensuring that the rules of time be observes. They demand Tolumvire’s arrest. Though Darius is willing to see Tolumvire face punishment, Tolumvrie refuses, and there is little interest on anyone else’s party to give him up. The werewolves retreat. Tolumvire experiments with the water-breathing mask, creating a contraption by attaching a waterskin to the mouth hole. Through this, flight magic, and magical protection from the elements, he flies in low orbit. He glimpses the planet of the Paradax, as well as the great spaceship that they fly upon. The party returns to the rebellion, meeting once more with Jotunheim, after which they all split up. Wolfswift goes adventuring, Kai explores some dungeon, Darius meets with the King of the Dwarves, and Elrond travels north to the Arctic Time Temple. During Tolumvire’s absence, other members of the party met Dax, the master of the Paradax, and fought him, although they were unable to harm him. Tolumvire travels to a kingdom in the west. He meets the king, and claiming to be a renegade lord from the empire and the leader of the rebellion, proposes marriage to the king’s daughter. Though he makes a fool of himself in court, the king flatters him, promising him an army to lead. Tolumvire meets with the kingdom’s high priest, who gives him a holy avenger, and the blessing to go on a crusade. The crusade is launched, but at the king’s instruction, Tolumvire is drafted to serve as an ordinary sailor, and careful watch is kept on him to make sure he does not escape. Tolumvire feigns insanity for four months, and takes the time to learn how to fight with the blade he was given. After one failed escape attempt, he breaks free by throwing himself overboard, letting the ship pass him by, and flying away. He makes landfall in the jungle of another country, whose inhabitants are being captured by slavers. He meets a tribe, the Dirt Runners, and takes command of them, renaming them the World Runners. He leads them to fight the slavers, and a battle ensues on the shore. Tolumvire, protected against nonmagical weaponry, flies above the ship and demands surrender. He is gunned down, for the soldiers used magical bullets that pierced his shield. Tolumvire is slain, and the World Runners are taken as slaves.

### Farcraft’s Story:

With Tolumvire’s death, Farcraft took his place in the party. Realizing that Tolumvire’s legacy was fractured, and that he had no clear successor, he declares himself the Grand Master of the Illuminated. Returning to the border of the empire, he finds the old commander of the garrison on his deathbed. Claiming his father’s legacy, he takes command of about sixty men, backing up his claim by force of arms. He explored the dwarven realm with Darius, Kai, and other members of the party, proving himself and able warrior and earning a measure of respect. Within the dungeon, the party found a mysterious entity named Beyonder, which claimed to travel between worlds. The party returned to Arendur, finding that in Tolumvire’s absence, the city had grown and prospered, fighting off threats from all fronts and attracting explorers, pilgrims, entrepreneurs, wanderers, and adventurers, all in search of a new life. Farcraft met with Doctor Curtin, who along with Sharra was his greatest rival to rule over the Illuminated. Curtin, who preferred to guide events from behind the scenes, recognized that Farcraft, though not a mage, was a capable leader with armed forces under his command. He recognized his claim, solidifying Farcraft as Tolumvire’s successor. Farcraft, his forces, and the party next went to bring down a fortress that had been conquered by Paradax. Farcraft proved an able general, fighting beside his army’s battering ram and leading his vanguard to victory. Within the fortress, Farcraft found a portal, which he opened, heralding the arrival of an entity known as the Hand of Fate. The Hand of Fate was a being that regulated the control of destiny, and with its presence came every creature that had ever come in contact with a time totem. Among them was Tolumvire, brought back from the dead by the will of fate. Farcraft welcomed his master’s return, and gave up his title, for things had been made right once more.

### Part Two

Now reborn, Tolumvire rejoins the party. They are approached by the Hand of Fate, which offers them a choice. They can remain in the present, and try to fix the broken world, or go back in time 300,000 years, to the time the Shield was made, and start the world anew. After debate, in which Tolumvire changes his mind, the party agrees to go back in time - save for Darius Foemaker, who adamantly refuses to leave the future behind. They go, along with everyone else who has come into contact with a Time Totem. Depending on the proximity, some people and places arrive in the past sooner then others. The entire city of Arendur is transported into the past, but others are not so lucky. Farcraft, among many, remains trapped in the future. They find themselves in the Dome just as the heroes who would become the Lords were about the claim it. They engage the heroes in battle, and come across the druid who would become Lord Alpha, in the form of a squirrel. Tolumvire seizes him and tries to strangle him, but is persuaded to let him go. The combatants back off, and the party explains their position to the Lords. Alpha is shocked and grieved to learn of his fate, and backs off from the throne in tears. The heros and the party piece together that the man they knew as Alpha was an amalgamation of the man they were speaking to and a crystalline psychic parasite vastly empowered by the throne. The heroes depart. This out of the way, Tolumvire orders Jang up to sit on the throne, and claim her birthright. She does so, but is torn to pieces by the magic of the throne. Tolumvire reverses the events using chronomancy, and has Sharra sit on the throne. She survives, but his wild magic is empowered, and transforms the moon into a tomato, an event that would not be fixed for a long time. Tolumvire himself sits on the throne. He overcomes its volatile nature, and it enhances his psychic power, allowing him the ability for his mind to exist independently of his body. He then declares himself the new emperor, demanding obedience. In contempt, Jamkas, Elrond, and Kai impale him to the throne with their blades, killing him for the second time, before departing. Using his newfound power, Tolumvire’s mind, untethered from his body, hunts around in search of someone to resurrect him, and in this task, he comes across Imish, the young god of the dark elves. Imish, who has the power to bring back the dead in return for the soul of one of his followers, resurrects Tolumvire in return for a future favor. This being settled, Tolumvire returns to Arendur and rejoins the party, who fully expected him to find a way to cheat death. Tolumvire marvels at how the city has grown in his absence. It’s people are robust and industrious, its defenses well build, its economy bustling, and its army fierce and dedicated. The party celebrates the prosperity, but their celebrations come to a halt when a werewolf kidnaps Sharra and disappears. Incensed, the party goes on a hunt to track the creature down. They find themselves in an underground cavern, going along a river by boat. They find Sharra, but no sign of the werewolf. On their way out, they are attacked by crocodiles in the water. Shanto Eln is pulled overboard, seemingly to his death. Sharra shows a surprisingly amount of distress at his loss, prompting both Tolumvire and Elrond to regard her with suspicion. One of them manages to grasp Sharra in its jaws and drag her underwater. In a wild rage and thinking Sharra dead, Tolumvire blasts the water with lightning, thinking to electrocute the beasts. The hasty magic backfires, incinerating Tolumvire and killing him for the third time. The party, along with Tolumvire’s psychic ghost, returns to Arendur, where they learn more about its government and its people. Tolumvire is proud of his home, and how far it has come, proclaiming it the “Jewel of Cities”. He seeks out Imish, and is resurrected again, in return for a second favor. Shortly afterwards, Tolumvire encounters Dax for the first time, in somewhat murky circumstances. He learns that many people who did not come immediately to the past will come over time. In detail, he learns that Farcraft will arrive in sixteen weeks, and that Spot, the cat sculptor, will arrive in six weeks, although more time will have passed for them in the future. Among the first to return is Merbol, the deposed emperor, the father of Jang and Sharra. His arrival is horribly botched, and his travel through time and space goes wrong, tearing him to pieces before both his daughter, who had expected to see him safe. The sight leaves Jang shocked and traumatized, and Doctor Curtin, trying to help, gives her a drink from a potion he has made. The potion, which the doctor flippantly refers to as “calming juice”, dulls wild emotions of any kind, leaving the inhibitor relaxed, at ease, and somewhat docile. Doctor Curtin reveals that he has laced the drinking water in Arendur with this potion, leaving Tolumvire deeply disturbed. Nonetheless, he condones the deed, allowing Curtin to keep pacifying the population in this way. As the other members of the party continue adventuring, Tolumvire eagerly takes to the task of governance in Arendur. Though he lacked a political position, he was the Grand Master of the Illuminated, which had grown in size and influence. He invited himself to the ruling City Council, and used charisma, influence, and intimidation to get his way. He gives interviews to the press, and hosts public speaking events to introduce himself to the people of Arendur, most of whom only know of him by reputation as the city’s patron. He proves well-liked, and many begin to see him as a knowledgeable, if distant leader. He discovers that Arendur has built a train system, and marvels at the invention. Tolumvire is later angered to learn that several elven ambassadors have set up an embassy in Arendur, and that the council negotiated with them without consulting him. While they were not obliged to involve him, given that his presence on the council was only in an advisory capacity, Tolumvire takes matters into his own hands. He travels to the elven lands and the dwarven lands, representing Arendur and making trade deals with both people. His encounter with the elves is more positive, as the dwarves find him deceptive and self-serving. He returns to find that an arsonist has burnt down his house. He finds and speaks to the detective leading the investigation, and does not look into the matter further. He finds that despite Doctor Curtin’s best efforts, Jang has gone into a mental breakdown, having witnessed her father’s gruesome death and learning of her sister’s apparent death at the hands of crocodiles. In an uncharacteristic turn, Tolumvire feels a rare pang of guilt, but is unable to do anything for her other than order Doctor Curtin to keep her medicated. The party, which has continued to adventure during this time, and keep their distance from Tolumvire, is joined by a new member. Named Zadira, he is a ranger from farther north, a wandering freeblade and explorer. Tolumvire grows to respect him, and is treated with courtesy in return. Tolumvire finds that Blackjack, by virtue of having stolen his time totem, has been brought back to the past, and has set up his thieves’ guild in Arendur. Tolumvire speaks to him, and is assured that the thieves’ guild, despite its criminal activities, has the best interests of Arendur at heart. Tolumvire is neither surprised, convinced, or happy, and vows to hunt Blackjack down. Tolumvire meets with Doctor Curtin, and learns about the duties he has undertaken. In addition to his often unethical scientific experimentation, Curtin is a guiding force behind many of the city’s institutions, and was in large part responsible for its current strength and prosperity. Against all odds, Sharra returns to Arendur, having survived her encounter with the crocodiles. She is reunited with her sister, and they grieve for their father together. Shanto Eln has survived as well, and returns to adventuring. At this point, Tolumvire come into grief conflict with a mad scientist in Arendur, and defeats him with Doctor Curtin’s help, wryly commenting that his own mad scientist is far more deranged. Both he and Curtin aim to discover what the scientist was researching, but Tolumvire, unable to get much from reading the scientist’s mind, leaves Curtin to deduce what happened. He learns of some of the more unsavory aspects of Curtin’s research, such as his use of criminals and prisoners of war as test subjects. He discovers what happens to test subjects that survive; one, for instance, has been confined to a house, and given humanoid chimera to represent a facsimile of his lost family. Tolumvire is disturbed and revolted, and rebukes Doctor Curtin, but takes no steps to correct his behavior. Curtin tells Tolumvire that someone must do the unsavory work in a city, and that he is willing to work in the darkness so that Tolumvire can work in the light. Tolumvire refuses to accept the premise, maintaining that he himself will do light and dark deeds alike, and will turn a blind eye to anyone’s work. Curtin agrees verbally, but it is clear that he plans to ignore Tolumvire on that count. Tolumvire decides that he must not squander the opportunity of having returned to the past. Keen on avoiding the creation of a world as squalid as the one he came from, he declares a “Great Crusade”, in which the armies of Arendur will go on the offensive, and conquer the lands around them. Once Arendur’s neighbors had been subjugated, in Tolumvire’s plan, their forces would be turned on any other people who did not submit. This would be for the good of all mankind, Tolumvire reasoned, although he was counting, naively, on the idea that there were no cultures able to match Arendur in might and sophistication. Keen to avoid the perception that this was a power grab, he institutes Curtin in the newly created position of Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of Arendur’s military and civil institutions. He orders the creation of a seperate war council, unaccountable to the city council, and staffed by hand-picked people loyal to him. Satisfied with his work, he decides to join the party on one of their adventures, helping Zadira kill a powerful dinosaur that had been menacing the nearby elven population. He returns to the city, where there is mounting anger against his power grab, not least on the part of Sharra. He coldly dimmisses her anger, and faces more opposition on the part of the city council, who take umbrage to being ordered around. Loosing his temper, Tolumvire states that their authority stems from him now, and that he is free to rule by decree. As a show of protest, the council members rise and turn their backs on him. Tolumvire implies a threat, making oblique reference to the fact that he could use his magic to kill them. As time passes, more and more individuals arrive from the future. Spot arrives, to Tolumvire’s amusement, but Tolumvire is disappointed to find that his statue did not come with him. Farcraft is next to return, and Tolumvire marvels when he learns that Farcraft has spent around two decades in the future. He reports that the world did indeed die; that he and a band of survivors had to face off increasingly terrifying threats as institutions, sanity, and reality began to warp and crumble. Now an older man and a great warrior, Farcraft inspires respect from Tolumvire, who appoints him as General of the Arendurian Army. The next to return is Monopoly, the emperor, who appears through a portal in a rage, determined to kill Tolumvire and everyone else he associated with his downfall. Jamkas engages him in combat, killing him. Tolumvire is presented with a prototype of an airplane, invented by Doctor Curtin, and marvels at it. Arendur weathers an attack from an army of spider-like creatures. Tolumvire hopes to retire from adventuring and devote his time to ruling Arendur and shaping its civil institutions, but it is made clear to him that things will not be so easy. Crises will demand his regular attention, and his active defense of the city. He learns Doctor Curtin’s origin from the man himself; he was created by Alpha, who killed the entire orcish race and melded their minds into one body, creating an unstable, bloodthirsty genius. He helped create the empire, retreated from the work he was asked to do, distancing himself from it until he was obliged to hide his laboratory in a small, unnamed town. From his perspective, he was reliving his past, in Arendur, and was determined not to repeat the mistakes he and others had made before. Tolumvire, determined to train a generation of young mages, gathers twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls, and sends them into the wilderness with a few members of the Illuminated. He intends for them to learn magic and brave the harshness of the outside world. Disaster strikes when the group is attacked by orcs, and seeming slaughtered to a man. Only one girl, a young woman named Rushgrin, survives and returns, traumatized, with the implication that she was raped. Tolumvire makes her a member of the Illuminated, Doctor Curtin gives her some of his potion to calm her down, and Sharra takes her into her care. Tolumvire next travels into the astral plane, curious to explore and see what he will find. He comes across a massive amount of soul energy, much more than is typical for the astral plane. He realizes that it comes from all those who died in the future before they could travel back in time; yet, despite their deaths, the souls came. Determined not to let them go to waste, Tolumvire harvests the souls for his use. He uses much of the power to grant himself the psychic ability to raise the dead, and uses the rest to create five artificial life forms. Called the “Arendurians”, these five are created fully grown, already knowing magic, and with the ability to teleport to Arendur from any location. He has them join the Illuminated. Tolumvire next decides that Arendur would benefit from the presence of an organized religion, and directs the erection of a temple to a sun deity, Ra. Tolumvire appoints a young man named Aertut as the high priest, but quickly comes to distrust and dislike him. He allows the project to continue, but backs off from fully supporting it. Tolumvire hears a rumor of a great ice dragon living in a deep cavern, and along with the party, they go in search of it. Within the caverns, the party makes the mistake of splitting up. The rumor was spread by Imish, who intended to entrap Tolumvire as punishment for not being repaid. Each of the party members had to fight their way out alone. Tolumvire himself came face to face with Imish and the dragon, which Imish ordered to attack him. Tolumvire ended up trapped in its jaws, only kept alive by an amulet that protected him from its freezing breath. Satisfied, Imish departed. Tolumvire psychically contacted the dragon, reasoning with it. The beast had been trapped in the caverns by Imish, and Tolumvire promised it freedom in return for the right to fly him into battle. The dragon accepted, and Tolumvire gave the nameless beast a name - Treskriri, or Treski for short. Tolumvire’s maiden flight on dragonback takes him to the elven city of Iberian. A prosperous community with skilled mages and a disciplined army, they make a good impression on Tolumvire, who makes them an offer of alliance. With the implicit threat of the dragon behind him, the elves have no choice but to accept. When Tolumvire returns to Arendur, he is notified of the approach of a flying gnomish city. They are still far away, but will be reachable shortly. The next threat to Arendur comes in the form of the orc army that was behind the death of the mage trainees. Arendur prepares its defenses for the battle. During this time, Tolumvire learns of mysterious and worrying prophecies concerning an apocalyptic entity known as Wormwood. Tolumvire resolves to look into further, but must focus on the impending orc attack. When the orcs do arrive, Tolumvire takes command of the Arendurian Army personally, and rides Treskriri into battle, raining spells and the dragon’s freezing breath from above. The orc army breaks against Arendur’s walls, and the battle is won with a minimum of casualties. After the battle, Doctor Curtin informs Tolumvire that had the city been overrun, he had a secret weapon hidden deep beneath Arendur, a chimera the size of the entire city. He added that the chimera was uncontrollable in normal circumstances, would serve only as a way of making sure any enemy that defeated Arendur would go down as well. Tolumvire notes the information for future use. The orcs having been defeated, the Arendurian Army goes back to their crusade. Tolumvire makes an overture to the heroes who would become the lords, inviting them to Arendur, to join the Illuminated. Remembering their initial conflict, they arrive cautiously, but their meeting goes well. Those members of the lords who lived at the empire’s founding: Fazo, Bazzel, Frazon, Ale, Perduke, Alpha, Ravenfreak, and Master Max - agree to join the Illuminated, and to be ready to serve if called upon. Not long afterwards, the flying Gnomish city arrives, and Tolumvire leads a delegation to meet them. Things go well at first, until a child with a toy sword runs in Tolumvire’s direction. Unable and unwilling to analyze the situation, Tolumvire lets battlefield instincts kick in, incinerating what he percieved as a threat. Horrified by the result, he immediately uses his psychic power to resurrect the slain child, but the boy’s mother tries to prevent him from doing so, seeing both him and his magic as foul and unnatural. Arendurian Guardsmen pull the mother way, but the result is ugly for all involved. Tolumvire meets with the city’s mayor, and learns much useful information from them. Most importantly, he learns that the imperial dome was half of a larger sphere; a spacecraft piloted by the gnomes. The throne was a control mechanism, and the second hemisphere, it found, would contain a similar throne. Tolumvire, the delegation, and the party explore the gnomish city further, and find signs of horrific scientific experimentation. A lab is uncovered in which a subject’s head’s skull is drilled open, and their life essence transported via a green elixir. This allowed for lives to be stored within the elixir, and for minds to switch bodies. When Tolumvire finds the lead scientist, he tortures him into explaining the method, before subjecting him to it as punishment, bottling his life essence up for an eternity of stasis. He gives the research and materials to Doctor Curtin, who continues the work on his own test subjects. In this effort, he is aided by Elrond, who has taken an interest in the work. At a certain point, Elrond grows suspicious of Curtin, suspecting him of having experimented on himself and in doing so, loosing or replacing his own identity. Elrond reports his belief to Tolumvire, who, in a state of paranoia, begins to question Curtin aggressively. He comes to the conclusion that Elrond’s observations were borne of suspicion, and dismisses them. Nonetheless, the seeds of paranoia remain and fester. It is only a matter of time before they bear deadly fruit. Now free to return to investigate the prophecies concerning Wormwood, Tolumvire follows them to a horrifying plane of existence, where a half-angelic, half-demonic creature gives him a bell made from organic material. Tolumvire rings it, without ever knowing the consequences. He would later theorize that the bell was given to him to summon what would follow, so that he might stop Wormwood. He did not comprehend this at the time; nor, even, did he understand what Wormwood was. Soon after, the looming presence of some kind of spacecraft is sighted. He learns that it is called the Leviathan, and that it heralds the apocalypse. Its pilot, a fallen angel by the name of Ender, has the duty of determining when the world was must end. As everyone in Arendur tries to figure out what to do, Miyamoto Kai approaches Tolumvire with advice. It is a tense meeting, as Kai and Tolumvire have never seen eye to eye. Kai sees Tolumvire as arrogant and power-hungry, with tyrannical impulses, and Tolumvire scorns Kai as self-righteous and sanctimonious, sarcastically pinning the name “Kai the Honorable” on him. Kai, who has been adventuring, largely alone, tells Tolumvire that many of his assumptions are false, based in theories that do not match what he himself has seen. He presents Tolumvire with a miniature golem called the Glorious Key. Tolumvire has seen it before, and taken little notice of it, it is a talking golden key which proclaims to serve only the righteous. Kai tells tolumvire that he has reason to think the Glorious Key may grant some kind of control over the Leviathan, possibly even self-destructing it. Kai adds that Tolumvire misunderstands how the Leviathan works, and what its purpose is. He presents his findings. Firstly, the Leviathan is from the first universe to ever exist, which was destroyed. Secondly, the Leviathan followed the Gnomish spacecraft through a rift. Thirdly, the scientist who was experimenting with immortality knew much about the Leviathan, information now lost. Fourthly, in the first universe, in an alternate timeline, Tolumvire failed to stop the Leviathan, leading to everybody’s death. Tolumvire dismisses Kai outright, doubting his judgement and maintaining that he will not make any mistakes in this timeline. During this time, a rabble-rouser in Arendur comes across a speaking monkey, and starts a cult in its name, even getting a few followers in the Arendurian Army. Tolumvire throws the cult leader and his monkey in prison, and chastises the soldiers for buying into it. Leviathan grows closer, and at the eleventh hour, Tolumvire announces that he intends to board the Leviathan and fight Ender for control of the ship. He asks all the party members to accompany him, but his words fall on deaf ears. Darius had stayed behind in the doomed future. Shanto Eln still remembers the lack of concern with which Tolumvire viewed his apparent death at the hands of crocodiles. Elrond considers the mission suicidal. Zadira is absent. Kai shrugs it off, saying that in his view, no one in Arendur - least of all Tolumvire - is innocent. Only Jamkas steps forward, confirming his support for the mission. They board one of Doctor Curtin’s prototype airplanes, and he flies them towards the Leviathan. As they approach, they see that beings from other planes, angels and demons alike, are trying to fight their way onto the ship, only to be repelled by its guns. Curtin manages to maneuver Jamkas and Tolumvire close enough for them to teleport inside. The ship’s crew is made up of non-combatants, and the two make it to the pilot’s bridge. Ender welcomes them aboard, for they - and this crew - will be the only ones who survive the end of the world. Tolumvire orders him to stand down, which he refuses. Seeing that they will not back down, Ender attacks, killing Tolumvire for the fourth time. As before, his psychic spirit lives on without his body. Ender turns next to Jamkas, and it is clear that neither of them will make it out. Tolumvire’s spirit observes the control panel of the ship, and makes a judgement call. Jamkas has a chance to try and attack Ender, but Tolumvire instead exhorts him to trigger the end of the world. Taking a leap of faith, Jamkas does, annihilating the universe around them, leaving the Leviathan hanging along in the void. Tolumvire had made two judgements - firstly, that the ship had the power to create as well as destroy, and secondly, that each cycle of the universe meant a new pilot for the ship. A surprised Ender confirmed Tolumvire’s statements, and departed to parts unknown, leaving the ship to the two who had claimed it. Tolumvire and Jamkas take in the souls of the universe’s dead, which lack an afterlife to go through. They ascend to divinity, as the new pilots of the Leviathan. Tolumvire takes on a new identity; as Aoskar, the deity of planar travel. Jamkas retains his own name. The two, given a chance to make a world, make it exactly as it was before. They make two small alterations: Jamkas and Tolumvire’s memories are altered to reflect a timeline in which they managed to overcome Ender and return unharmed. The two men - now gods - wait for the universe to unfold, for much time must pass until they reach their point in the timeline.

### Part Three

Tolumvire and Jamkas return to Arendur, having triumphed over the Leviathan - or so they perceive. Not long after, the god Aoskar comes to Arendur, proclaiming itself the city’s one true divinity. Despite his altered memories, Tolumvire gains a glint of understanding into what happened, and recognizes himself in Aoskar. Aoskar raises the city of Arendur aloft, into its own plane of existence. He creates a system of portals throughout the city, leading to any conceivable place on earth or elsewhere in the planes of existence. He creates another city on the earth, called Oranor, in the exact mould of Arendur, so that should anything happen to Arendur, its people will have a home on the ground. Finally, he brings a number of people back from the future who were not able to make it - the remaining lords: Paralance, Dubstep, Thorren, Rainbore, Earthbore, and Nylock - as well as the deposed emperor, Merbol, and Jotunheim, along with the members of his rebellion. These deeds being done, Aoskar returns to the Leviathan. Tolumvire immediately begins taking charge amongst the chaos. He directs Emperor Merbol to begin settling Oranor. Many imperial noblemen from the future had made it back, and seeing a return of their old life, join the court in Oranor. Jotunheim and his men take up residence in Arendur, where they all join the Illuminated and begin undertaking arcane research projects. Tolumvire gathers the heroes, and confers the title of Lord upon them all, confirming their position in his nation. He makes it clear that he considers himself a member of their company. He sends each one of the Lords on an expedition in the furtherance of the Great Crusade. Five Lords - Bazzel, Nylock, Master Max and Ravenfreak, Frazon and Ale - are sent on exploratory missions. Two - Fazo and Alpha - are sent as ambassadors. Two - Rainbore and Earthbore - are sent to recruit soldiers and settlers. Paralance is given a position of command in the Arendurian Army. Thorren is directed to guard Emperor Merbol. Dubstep is asked to remain in Arendur. Only one - Perduke - refuses their mission. Perduke, the leader of the heroes and an archmage with power of all things earthen and stone, lives deep underground, where he fights as a one man army against terrifying subterranean beasts. Perduke refuses to abandon that duty, and Tolumvire accepts, realizing that unlike the other Lords - with perhaps the exception of Alpha - Perduke is not a man he will ever be able to impress or order around. As a final decree, Tolumvire orders Aertut, the high priest of Ra, to convert to the worship of Aoskar or be stripped of title and influence. Aertut agrees with surprisingly little resistance, making Tolumvire suspicious. As before, he backs off from fully supporting the concept of organized religion. On his way to Oranor, Lord Thorren runs into Jamkas, his great rival. Both men are armored and visored, and do not recognize one another. They greet each other cordially, and part way. Tolumvire returns to the task of ruling Arendur with zeal. His power had grown tremendously, for a number of reasons. The membership and importance of the Illuminated had swelled. He had tremendous goodwill as a result of his war leadership and triumph over the Leviathan. The City Council had atrophied to a toothless organization, and all signs were pointing to the War Council becoming a permanent institution. Arendur’s new existence as a flying city of portals demanded an arcane expertise that only the preeminent mage in the city could provide. There existed no credible political opposition to his rule. He had the army’s complete loyalty through Farcraft, and Curtin, who effectively controlled Arendur’s civil institutions through his position as Warmaster, took his lead from Tolumvire as well. Though he held no civil office, and only had an advisory role on the War Council, Tolumvire effectively ruled by decree. Increasingly, citizens of Arendur no longer called him the patron, but instead, the leader. His responsibilities were also vaster, as with the expansion of the crusade and the expeditions organized by the Lords, he had to maintain a global reach. He had to increasingly rely on telepathic communication to express his commands, but inevitably, delegation became necessary, and a bureaucracy began to form around him. Frustrated with political and logistical problems, as well as a flurry of contradictory advice, Tolumvire began to micromanage, often undercutting his inferiors authority and sowing a great deal of confusion. He began to solve non-existent problems, ignore genuine concerns, and refuse to cede control to those best equipped to do their jobs. His first new initiative, was the implementation of a new constitution and criminal justice code, which was hastily drafted and poorly thought through, and often ignored in favor of existing custom. The legal codes contains provisions for sweeping social reform, aimed at eliminating poverty and achieving universal education, but there existed no good mechanism or desire to implement these policies. His next initiative, the “Planeswalking Project,” aimed to send explorers to other planes of existence, and to pay them a handsome sum of money for their findings. A few volunteers were found, but Tolumvire was less than impressed with them. They were largely would-be adventurers and army rejects. Disappointed, and secretly eager to be rid of them, he sent them off through the portals, half-hoping they might never return. The first disaster occured when an experiment of Doctor Curtin’s - a man name Zork, who had been granted magical control over gravity - broke free from his cell. He wrought terrible damage and killed many before Tolumvire, Curtin, and Dubstep were able to bring him back under control. Tolumvire brought the slain back from the dead, but the event had rattled the city, and made things seem like he had less control over events then he publicly claimed. Tolumvire made overtures to the Druid Society, requesting that Alpha set up a diplomatic engagement with them. They agreed, and Tolumvire arranged a great display of hospitality, hosting a feast with music, dancing, and all the splendor Arendur had to offer. Tolumvire was less than impressed by Entrice, the druid ambassador, a disconnected and light-hearted man far more interested in the festivities then in discussing the terms of any alliance. Despairing of any real progress, he left Entrice to join in the dancing, and observed the proceedings with great irritation, and the sense that he had been slighted by the Druid Society. This would be one of many things that left a poor impression of druids in Tolumvire’s mind. This event marked the last time that Kai set foot in Arendur. The party had been distancing themselves from Tolumvire for a while. Elrond remained, and Jamkas and Zadira would return there from their adventuring. Shanto Eln had not been seen for a while, and Kai travelled farther and farther from Arendur each time he went exploring. After leaving the feast, he decided he wanted no part of Tolumvire’s world, and never returned. After the feast, Tolumvrie checks in with each of the expeditions. Most had not produced any results, though Rainbore and Earthbore had collected a tribe of barbarians loyal to them. Most of what Tolumvire was problematic. Bazzel was running into problems from hostile warrior tribes, and had many rational and irrational phobias about the future. Ravenfreak was issuing false reports, and neither he nor Master Max - a pair that were proving particular ill-thought - were discovering anything that either of them could comprehend. Thorren was chafing with his position as the Emperor’s bodyguard, feeling - not incorrectly - that he would always be sees as a glorified soldier rather than a hero. Jang had disappeared, and her father, the emperor, seemed to care very little and was doing nothing at all. More worryingly, there were signs that the crystal psychic parasite that had infested Alpha - a parasite Tolumvire had nicknamed “the Gem” - had returned. Tolumvire came into contact with it, an encounter that sent him into a state of panic, for he did not know what it’s motives were, or who else it had encountered. He telepathically contacted Lord Bazzel, the only man known to be able to resist the Gem’s influence, and ordered him to found an intelligence agency that he referred to as “Zactar Intelligence”. Their purpose would be that of a secret police, and their immediate task would be to ferret out any signs of the Gem’s presence. The order was an ill-conceived one, for Bazzel was far away and surrounded by enemies, but his fear of Alpha was such that he agreed without question. The next crisis happened when Tolumvire contacted Farcraft to check in on the progress of the Great Crusade, and found nothing, which either meant death or some kind of magical interference. Tolumvire teleported to the war front, and found no information about his whereabouts. Worse still, the Arendurian Army had razed a city of dragonborn to the ground, on the pretext that they had resisted occupation. From Tolumvires perspective, the act was an atrocity that went far beyond what he had intended, but in retrospect, it was not outside the scope of his original orders. Tolumvire found the unit’s commander, an arrogant officer proud of his recent victory and eager for advancement. Tolumvrie considered stripping him of his rank and rebuking the unit, but chose not to for several reasons. Morale had plunged with Farcraft’s death, and the army had a lot to risk by loosing its general and second-in-command within a span of a day. Moreover, while the act was an atrocity, he could not truly say that the army had exceeded the letter of his orders - only the spirit. The only valid solution, reasoned Tolumvire, would be to choose a capable successor to Farcraft who would be capable of reigning the Arendurian Army and channeling their zealotry towards better ends. Tolumvire settled with admonishing the commander, but praised the troops for their victory. Tolumvire’s choice of successor for the position of General was Lord Paralance, who had recently been appointed to command the Arendurian Army’s small but growing cavalry division. Paralance was arrogant, but was known for his courage, martial honor, and capability on the battlefield. Tolumvire telepathically contacted him, and found him in an inconsolable state. Immediately teleporting to him, he found the lord in a nearby city, numb and overwhelmed by horror. He was inarticulate, but Tolumvire was able to piece together that after Farcraft’s death, he witnessed the army’s discipline become corrupted by zealotry and bloodlust. The atrocity at the dragonborn city had been the final straw for him, prompting him to desert. Tolumvire told him that he sympathized with him, and would let him think about his actions while he explored the new city he was in. From its inhabitants, he learned that it was called Ragnarok, and that it was a small, heavily fortified settlement with many priests and holy warriors devoted to the worship of the messenger god Hermod. He asked to speak to its king, and was brought to the throne room. The King of Ragnarok, a man named Bolgar, was a towering warrior that Tolumvire nearly mistook for some kind of giant on first glance. As he had with the leaders of Iberian, Tolumvire proposed an alliance, which Bolgar dismissed out of hand. Tolumvire spoke about his Great Crusade, and how he intended to unite the scattered people of humanity under one banner. Bolgar laughed this off, repeatedly telling Tolumvire that he was nothing. Insulted, Tolumvire decided that the King of Ragnarok needed to be taught a lesson. He attacked, intended to kill or subdue the king with magic and conquer Ragnarok by force and intimidation. Bolgar shrugged off the magical attack and went after Tolumvire with his greatsword, nearly killing him before he could escape. Tolumvire went to Paralance again, and told him what had happened. Paralance managed to explain that he had, on Tolumvire’s behalf challenged Bolgar to single combat in a joust. Had Paralance won, Bolgar would have surrendured to Arendur; had Paralance lost, he would swear service to Bolgar. For the first time in his life, the great cavalier lost a joust, and lost his honor. However, Paralance came to the conclusion that Bolgar was a great man and a noble lord, worthy of his service. He could not in good conscience continue serving in the Arendurian Army after what he had witnessed. Tolumvire bluntly told him that he was a deserter, and that he could not allow soldiers to make decisions based on conscience or a personal code. He, as the leader of Arendur, would determine the nation’s moral choices. He gave Paralance a final chance to reconsider, which the lord turned down. Tolumvire embraced the weeping cavalier, and stabbed him in the back with a dagger. From Tolumvire’s perspective, it was likely that Paralance had allowed himself to be killed, as his honor was in shambles, and a warrior of his caliber would not normally fall so easily. Deciding that he would not be satisfied with anything less than King Bolgar’s capture or death, Tolumvire gathers the Arendurian Guard, minus their commander, Zonan, who was not present. He also enlists the aid of Lord Dubstep and Lord Thorren, and teleported them to Ragnarok. They storm Bolgar’s throne room, but the King of Ragnarok quickly cuts through the Arendurian Guard and badly wounds Tolumvire. Thorren interposes himself, fighting Bolgar while Dubstep blows up a section of Ragnarok to buy time for Tolumvire to escape. Thorren is killed, and a state of war is declared by both leaders. Before immediately starting battle preparations, Tolumvire returns to investigating the re-emergence of the Gem. He manages to trace it psionically, and enters its artificial mind. Among other surprises, he finds the psionic ghost of a man named Brineheart, a psionist who was one of the heroes who never became a Lord. Tolumvire manages to free Brineheart’s psychic spirit by claiming it for himself, before retreating from the Gem’s mindscape. Brineheart swears loyalty to Tolumvire, and begins to act as an often invisible source of knowledge and psychic energy. Having accomplished enough regarding the Gem for now, Tolumvire turns his attention to war preparation. He convenes the War Council, and officially declares Ragnarok to be an enemy of Arendur. The first order of business became finding a replacement General of the Arendurian Army. Shortly before that time, a dwarf warrior by the name of Bron Ironstout had joined the party, and adventured with Jamkas, Zadira, and Elrond. Tolumvire had initially been impressed with his fighting prowess and easy-going yet level-headed nature. After a short interview, he granted Bron the title of General, and instructed him to prepare for war with Ragnarok. During the interview, Bron had warned Tolumvire that if he were to take the position, his loyalty would be to the city and people of Arendur first, and Tolumvire second. The position seemed acceptable to Tolumvire at first, but began to worry him later on. He began to sour on Bron after observing him assign what he percieved as inane and pointless military drills to soldiers, such as an endurence run around Arendur’s perimeter. Soon afterwards, Tolumvire was engaged in conversation by his fellow party member, Zadira. Zadira mocked Bron behind his back, asking Tolumvire why he would choose such an incompetent leader for the position of general. He began to describe what he would in his place. His plan focused on technologically enhanced warfare, listing ideas such as improving Arendur’s metallurgy, vehicles, and firearms. He suggested spyware, biological warfare, and the rapid insertion of troops from above. He was particularly interested in the mining and grain harvesting machines used for civilian purposes, thinking of what could be done with them if repurposed for military use. The ideas excited Tolumvire, who, still smarting from having lost Thorren and the entire Arendurian Guard, had revenge on his mind. He appointed Zadira to general on the spot, sending Bron a painfully courteous yet condescending letter dismissing him from his post. While a falling out between the two was likely inevitable, this would be the first nail in the coffin on any chance of a friendship between them. Zadira began to put his projects into effect, working closely with Doctor Curtin. He proved an effective but removed commander, distant from his troops and dismissive of civilian needs, stripping tools and resources from the city to build ever greater engines of war. Though it was not immediately obvious to Tolumvire, this led to a cultural and economic shift in Arendur; the creation of a military-industrial complex. As the army grew in importance, it began to dominate and even replace civilian institutions. Many within Arendur could see the writing on the wall, and hitched their fortunes to the war effort. Among them was a man Tolumvire would soon meet - Isaac Icarus, a young, wealthy, and secretive industrialist. Icarus’ fortune came through metallurgy and machinecraft, and he was quick to become a driving economic powerhouse behind Zadira’s war preparations. It was not long before Tolumvrie heard of him, and sought a meeting with him. The young titan of industry charmed and flattered Tolumvire, presenting him with the gift of a personally crafted pistol and appealing to a shared ambition and drive to change the world. Icarus managed not to undercut Tolumvire, while presenting himself as a figure Tolumvire could see elements of himself in. Icarus left with the support and patronage of the most powerful man in Arendur. His industry secured, he could rest assured that no competitor could possibly threaten him, for he was now indispensable to Arendur’s future, for better or worse. It was around this time that Elrond died. His fall was swift and perplexing, for one moment, he was walking confidently around Arendur, and the next, an avenging angel descended from on high, striking him down. The angel gave only cryptic answers as to why he had been hunting Elrond, save that Elrond had committed some kind of grave offense. Tolumvire’s feelings were deeply mixed, for they had certain been close friends - amongst the party, Tolumvire had always been closest to Elrond and Jamkas. They all shared a homeland. Of late, Tolumvire had begun to sour on Elrond, something had begun ever since he married Sharra. That, he had never forgiven him for. He felt that Elrond took advantage of his position as Tolumvire’s friend, lording it over Arendur, acting as if he was above the law. In particular, he felt that he was a danger to Sharra, with his grandiose and erratic behavior. They were similar in that way, and it was what drew them together and made them so intolerable to one another. Tolumvire had begun to treat Elrond with contempt, doing his best to make his marriage as difficult as possible, even doing so far as to post guards to ensure that the marriage was never consummated. In one instance, he ordered Elrond arrested simply to demonstrate his own power and authority. He had gone so far as to threaten Elrond’s life, and now, the duty fell on him to inform Sharra of his inexplicable death. Sharra was left in disbelief, and Tolumvire felt unable to maintain that he was not responsible. He left Sharra alone with her grief, and returned to his war preparations  Elrond’s death would create a rift between them that would never truly heal. While boarding the train to cross Arendur, an incident occurs when the ticket collector demands he pay, and Tolumvire, not carrying any money on him, is embarrassed and insulted. Growing angry, he considers using force, before the situation is diffused by Blaze, a mysterious druid from a distant land. Blaze pays for the train, and the two have a conversation. Blaze reveals that he is from another world, a leader in the Druid Society in his home, and the mediator between sides during a war of the gods. Tolumvire takes a liking to Blaze, asking him for advice on how to better lead Arendur. However, he does not take in the spirit of what Blaze tells him, and wise words fall on deaf ears. The first true conflict of the war occurred when Tolumvire was brought a message from a visitor who wished to see the “heroes of Arendur”. Immediately suspicious, Tolumvire gathered the men he considered to be Arendur’s heroes; he got Doctor Curtin, and recalled Lord Perduke and Lord Nylock from their missions. Nylock, the greatest warrior amongst the Lords, was temporarily staying in Arendur, and Perduke quickly teleported to Tolumvire’s side. The four of them went to Arendur’s central square, where King Bolgar awaited them. His priests had invaded through a portal connected to the realm of their deity, Hermod, and alongside the king were two paladins on dragonback, several beasts of war, and a squad of crossbowmen. Bolgar delivered his surrender terms - death to Arendur’s civilian and military leaders and tribute from the city. The only alternative would be the complete annihilation of Arendur. Tolumvire rejected the terms as ludicrous - even if he was inclined to surrender, those conditions would be intolerable. Both sides attacked at the same time. Tolumvire overwhelmed the mind of one of the dragons, manifesting his will in the form of an older, more dangerous dragon swooping down upon it, driving it out of the sky. Doctor Curtin was the first to engage Bolgar, and was cut in half and pulled into Hermod’s realm. Only through his own powerful healing magic did Curtin survive. Bolgar made straight for Tolumvire, but was intercepted by Lord Nylock. The greatest warrior among the Lords could barely match blades with the King of Ragnarok, and all around them, Bolgar’s forces were beginning to encircle the city square. One of the dragonrider’s was still aloft. Lord Perduke ended the battle by summoning a wave of earth to hurl Bolgar’s ground troops back through the portal, and transforming the wave into a wall that sealed it off. The dragonrider, now alone, flew off. The battle left Tolumvire shaken, as there seemed to be no way to fight Bolgar head-on, and much about Ragnarok’s military capacities that he did not know. In addition, he had lost Doctor Curtin, who in many ways was the most crucial figure in the war effort. Tolumvire soon received reports that the elven army of his ally, Iberian, had attacked Ragnarok, and been nearly slaughtered to a man. Tolumvire had already ordered the Arendurian Army to engage the enemy, and had little way to call them back. Tolumvire decided to reach out to Bolgar telepathically to communicate with him directly. Bolgar was more measured in private, and said that he did not see a way for Tolumvire to emerge victorious. He stated that he might reconsider his peace terms, and that Tolumvire should recognize that in some circumstances, surrender was more honorable then defiance. Tolumvire took the words poorly. Out of humiliation over having starting a potentially unwinnable war, Tolumvire committed himself totally to the idea that victory was the only solution. Even if it might save his people, giving up would be an acknowledgment that his judgement was flawed, that his Great Crusade was over. Any sacrifice could be justified as long as Arendur won in the end. Tolumvire lectured Bolgar about Arendur’s advantages in the war, and upbraided him for thinking them defeated. Thinking that he had to bargain for time, he suggest that each nation take fourteen days to prepare. After the fourteen days, each army would array its forces on neutral ground, and decide the war in one stroke. Bolgar accepted, stating that Arendur stood no chance, but admitting that such a war might be satisfying for him. Both sides immediately starting casting around for allies. For his part, Ragnarok hired mercenaries, and allied with local dwarven and giant populations, as well as a neighboring human kingdom feared for its hoplite warriors. In defiance of the fourteen day armistice, the kingdom sent its forces to attack. Tolumvire expressed fury, but Bolgar claimed that he had no direct control over their forces, and that they were free to act as they wished. Arendur shored up relations with its elven neighbors, and would have sought more allied had events in Arendur not waylaid Tolumvire’s plans. Without a word, Zadira deserted his post as General of the Arendurian Army. Though his projects were still being implemented - largely by Icarus at this point - his absence shook the morale of the Army. Tolumvire cast around for a new general, asking Jamkas if he would be willing to serve in the position. Jamkas refused, saying that Tolumvire would likely not want him in that role, and, more cryptically, that he might have to play a role in Arendur’s destruction. Tolumvire never discovered what he meant by that. The next disaster came when Bron, during an exploration of Arendur’s caverns, came across a crystal imbued by Aoskar with the magic that held Arendur aloft. Whether through ignorance or spite, Bron brought his hammer down upon the crystal, cracking it. Arendur began to tilt, inclining further and further by the day. Most estimates gave the city a week before it would become uninhabitable. The final disaster came when a mysterious aronist began to torch buildings in Arendur, and elude capture. Tolumvire went to hunt down the arsonist himself, and found a mysterious young woman armed with futuristic technology. She gave no clear explanation for her actions, seeming to think them perfectly acceptable. Worse still, Sharra and Jang were aiding her. Though relieved to find that Jang was alive and well, Tolumvire fell into a state of fury, demanding that she return to her father immediately. In the face of his rage, Jang backed down, but Sharra remained defiant in the face of Tolumvire’s accusations of betrayal. She remained determined to stand by the mysterious arsonist, and suggested that in doing so, she was channelling the woman’s destructive intent towards something relatively harmless. Arendur had a fire brigade, healing, and the capacity to rebuild. What if the woman, unguided, did something far worse. She accused Tolumvire of only being able to think in terms of confrontation, and unable to resolve problems through subtlety and foresight. Incensed, Tolumvire attacked the arsonist, and received a nearly lethal burst of gunfire. Nearby citizens rushed to his aid and brought him to medical attention, and the arsonist faded away into the smoke. Tolumvire went back to seeking allies, and came across a kingdom in the south, ancient and powerful, and well-versed in powerful psionics. Each of their citizens was connected to a hive-mind intelligence known as the Node, and they spoke with one voice. Tolumvire presented them with his vision for the world, and won their alliance. They presented him with the gift of an orb that could teleport him anywhere in multiverse, a token of their support. In another conversation with Bolgar, the king exhorted Tolumvire to surrender once more, and revealed more details about his kingdom’s might. Tolumvire, unwilling to accept that the war had been lost long ago, refused to consider it. With most of the Arendurian Army gone on its way to Ragnarok, and potentially dead, he had no way to interview its top officers. Nor did he have a Warmaster anymore, for Curtin was lost in Hermod’s realm. He appointed Nylock to a new position, Knight of Arendur, which in practice was the same as Warmaster, save that Tolumvire did not want to take the title from Curtin, as his death had not been confirmed. Nor did he wish to make him General, for he was not a soldier of the Arendurian Army, and the previous non-soldier generals - Zadira and Bron - had proved disastrous in their own ways. With Arendur tilting further and further every day, Tolumvire would not have so long as his fourteen days. Restorting to his powers of augury, he asked of the fates where his chance of victory lay. The answer he received was that Lord Nylock held the keys to survival. Tolumvire mentioned this to Nylock, asking him what he had been hiding. Troubled, Nylock revealed that his own four-dimensional symbols, possessed by all the Lords, gave him the power to suppress all magic on the earth via a planet sized antimagic field. He could only keep it active so long, and if he died with it active, all magic would be lost forever. Tolumvire immediately came to a plan, and teleported the two of them to Ragnarok’s gates. Flying into the sky, he delivered an ultimatum to the soldiers present - he was going to end the existence of magic on earth. Nylock activated his power. Immediately, the priests of city lost their connection to their deity, and the paladins found their oaths powerless. Magically empowering his voice, Tolumvire spitefully demanded of city’s citizens to know who their king was. Knowing what he wanted to hear, the demoralized people of Ragnarok chanted his name, giving Tolumvire a single delusional moment to imagine himself victorious. From down on the ground, Nylock shouted that his power came at the price of stopping his heart, and that he would soon die and render the antimagic permanent. Tolumvire commanded him to endure, and was rewarded by Bolgar’s appearance. Grim-faced, Bolgar pointed out that Tolumvire and his people would be powerful in a world without magic, and that he would certainly kill them all after he was done. Tolumvire admitted this to be true, but replied that he was not bluffing - he would pay that price, and that if he were going down, he would take Ragnarok’s god, Ragnarok’s clerical power, and Ragnarok’s oaths from them. All he wanted, he said, was to surrender on his own terms. If Arendur would be spared and allowed to remain free, he would go into exile to another world, never to return. Bolgar refused to reply, and Nylock shouted that he was soon to die, and begged Tolumvire to spare him. Bolgar again refused to speak, and Tolumvire turned to Nylock with fury. Yet, Nylock, ever-loyal, could have ended the effect whenever he wanted. His defiance crumbling, Tolumvrie caved in and commanded Nylock to stop. Bolgar, who had remained silent, told Tolumvire that he would honor his terms. Tolumvire and Nylock left to return to Arendur, but began to realize he disastrous consequences of the antimagic field. Unsecured, Arendur had fallen from the sky, and its people spared only by Icarus’ foresight - he had ordered an evacuation to Oranor through Arendur’s portals just in time, for they would soon shut off, trapping anyone still inside with the falling city. The entire people of the southern empire with which Arendur had allied were dead, their connection to the central Node being severed, sending them into a state of brain death. These were the things Tolumvire knew - there were surely many similar catastrophes around the world. Nonetheless, as far as he was concerned, the people of Arendur were alive and free, and had a home in Arendur. Tolumvire briefly conferred with Icarus, giving him a set of directives about the future of Arendur. Chief among them was his decision to choose a peacetime General of the Arendurian Army. At Icarus’ recommendation, he choose Camron Marz, a rebel from Arendur’s earliest days, who had risen through the ranks by dint of his heroism. He then gathered the Lords, and invited any of them to follow him into exile. Ravenfreak, Master Max, Fazo, Bazzel, Rainbore, Earthbore, and Nylock vowed to follow him till the end. This being decided, Tolumvire used the orb given to him by his slain allies to take them all to a parallel world. Such had Tolumvire won a bitter victory, even if it was only in his own mind.

### Interlude I:

For reasons unknown, Ravenfreak and Master Max did not survive the journey to the alternate world. On arrival, Tolumvire and the Lords paid their respects to each other, and split up, each one making determined to make their own path.

### Interlude II:

Following Tolumvire’s banishment and the loss of Arendur, the god Aoskar came down from the Leviathan to challenge Bolgar. Bolgar accepted the challenge, and Aoskar, knowing that he might prove no match, used his deific power to summon Wormwood. Aoskar had no idea of the ramifications of what he had done, and little understanding of what Wormwood was. The creature was a titan formed of a mass of worms, an elder evil from an ancient time. Able to see it in person, Aoskar recognized Wormwood for what it was, an entity he knew as the Worm that Walks. Horrified by what he had brought into the world, he turned on the summoned creature, fighting it alongside Bolgar. When it proved that even Bolgar was no match for it, Aoskar reversed time to the moment before he had summoned the creature. He instead went to one knee before Bolgar, affirming Tolumvire’s surrender to Bolgar, and requesting Bolgar’s forgiveness for the nearly catastrophic and reckless act he had performed. Bolgar granted his forgiveness, and Aoskar returned to the Leviathan.

### Part Four

A year and a half has passed since Tolumvire went into exile. He has been travelling and adventuring for that time, and is currently on a train in what seems like the middle of nowhere, going to its final destination. He has not seen any of the Lords since their arrival, nor has he made any effort to contact them. Though part of him misses Arendur, he experiences a certain contentment with his newfound solitude and lack of duties. He has taken up sketching since his arrival, and creates a passable rendition of the sunset. The train drops him off in the Town at the End, a community of exiles left to make their own way. Shortly after arriving, he meets John of the Lantern, a lantern-bearing warrior and a leader amongst the exiles. He welcomes Tolumvire to their town, and tells him that in fact, the inhabitants here have been sent to die. In the mountains, John explains, there lives a powerful dragon queen, who sends his minions to attack the town sporadically. No exile survives for very long. Tolumvire expresses no fear, and tells John that he may in fact be able to help them triumph over the dragon queen. He is given a house to stay in, and sees that there are many homes to pick from - the homes of those killed by the dragon queen’s drake servants. He continues to sketch, making artwork of the house, an eagle, Lord Dubstep, and a dragon. The drakes attack in the night, and Tolumvire defends himself and the town. In the morning, he meets some of the other exiles over breakfast, where he outlines his plans to rescue them. He is met with skepticism, but is able to win some of them over. One of the exiles, a truenamer named Lib, challenges Tolumvire, first to a duel, which Lib loses, and then to a card game, which Lib wins. Tolumvire asks Lib a number of questions about the dragon queen, and learns a great deal from the exile. Another exile arrives by the train, a young woman and skilled warrior named Mio Shuhart. She immediately takes up Tolumvire’s cause, as she too is an adventurer. Tolumvire is swiftly impressed by her, for unlike the other exiles, he still has a certain spark and will. The mayor of the town dies that day, and Mio wanders off to loot his house. Tolumvire is somewhat scandalized, but Mio realizes that all of the empty houses may have valuable items. She strips them all bare, and Tolumvire puts aside his irritation and helps her. Tolumvire and Mio decide that they will explore the mountains where the dragon queen lives, and tells the exiles that if he returns, he will lead any of those willing to follow him to attack their foe. John of the Lantern is the first to agree, and many of the other exiles agree that a quick death with a chance of victory is better than a slow and inevitable death. The pair enter the mountains, she they find a number of strange murals and a stone statue of a dragon. They fight some of the dragon queen’s followers, and are able to make short work of them. They find two imprisoned individuals, a human and a warforged. The human’s name is Bob Schmidt, which alarms Tolumvire somewhat - that had been the name given to Darius when Alpha had overriden his personality. He decides it must be a coincidence. The warforged is named Napoleon Winters, and Tolumvire sends Schmidt back to the town, and decides to make Winters his apprentice. He sends him back to the town as well, to wait for him. Tolumvire and Mio come across a great dragon, the queen’s consort, and they are able to take him down. They realize that the queen is deeper in the mountain, within the darkness. Having come far enough, they return to the town, where John of the Lantern greets them. They explain how far they were able to come, and Tolumvire states that if the exiles band together, they can certainly push on and kill the dragon queen. The experience Tolumvire had in the Town at the End has strengthened his resolve. He realizes that, like the exiles, he had lost his way and lost a certain spark. His place was not at the Town of the End, not in this strange world. He had entertained silly dreams about become the leader of the exiles, but they were not his people to save or to rule. Mio Shuhart confirmed that if he left, she would lead them against the dragon queen, and Tolumvire trusted her enough to believe that she would emerge victorious. Determined to return home to Arendur, Tolumvire withdraws the orb given to him by his long dead allies, and bids goodbye to Mio and the exiles.

### Voidwatcher’s Story:

Voidwatcher, a kineticist and soldier in the Arendurian Army, begins his search for power and recognition in post-Tolumvire Arendur. On his own initiative, he travels underground to the dwarven communities that live in the mountains hear Oranor. He presents himself as speaking on behalf of Arendur, and speaks about improving relations and trade between the two nations. He is received favorably, for those in Arendur have a tendency to ignore the underground folk in favor of the elves. The only man to visit them was Tolumvire himself, who the dwarves found him insincere and self-serving. Voidwatcher stays for a time in the underground, visiting various dwarven communities and aquanting himself with their ways and what they might have to offer. When he returns to the surface world, he attracts the notice of the enigmatic Master of the Illuminated, the Doppelganger. The Doppelganger takes Voidwatcher under his wing, making him a member of the Illuminated and assigning him to a team investigating a growing formation of solid clouds that have formed above Arendur. Voidwatcher and one of the team’s leaders go above the clouds in an aircraft, where they find curious flora and fauna. They take samples and return, and Voidwatcher is surprised and revolted to find his commander eating parts of what appears to be a sentient block of cloud. He presents his reports, along with his doubts about the commander. The Doppelganger praises his work, and redacts all complaints about the superior officer without explanation. Voidwatcher asks for a chance to lead his own squad, which the Doppelganger grants. Voidwatcher finds two gunners, diviner, a gnome with extraordinary vision, a shield wielder, and two particular unusual individuals. The first was Davin, an otherwise ordinary soldier who had gotten his hands on the Black Blade of Disaster, a unique and devastating weapon capable of cutting through any substance. The second was none other than Princess Jang, heir of the old empire, who had been eager to leave Oranor and adventure. Access to such a powerful individual pricked Voidwatcher’s ambition, and he began to think about how he could make use of her. On their mission, they explore the solid cloud formations further, before encountering a colossal dragon devouring sections of the cloud. They report back to Oranor, and discover that the dragon has followed them, and now looms over the city. The War Council is convened, and Voidwatcher, as the squad leader who witnessed the dragon first, is allowed to attend and present his findings. Many of the army’s top brass favor a peremptory strike against the dragon, as the city lacks a credible method of defending against it were it too attack. Doctor Curtin, who is in attendance, states that he could facilitate such a strike, but that the costs would be great and potentially devastating. Worried about the turn of events, Voidwatcher steals away, flying his aircraft up to the dragon. Reasoning with it, he convinces it to leave, stating that its presence frightens the people of Oranor, and that only devastation will follow if it remains. The dragon agrees to leave, and Voidwatcher returns. The Doppelganger summons him, and reveals that he has been scrying on him. He states that he respects Voidwatcher’s actions only because they were successful - they would have been reckless and treasonous had he failed. The Doppelganger arranges for Voidwatcher to help Jotunheim and his mages with a project they have been working on in the Tower of the Illuminated - the alternation of the human species. Voidwatcher is offered a chance to determine the course of human evolution is he volunteers as an experiment. Many humans had already been experimented upon, with varying results. Voidwatcher agrees, and makes the choice to give humans superior vision, including the ability to sense magic, make them faster, and give them a little bit of control over fate. He survives the transformation, and Jotunheim, pleased with the choice, decides to perform the transportation on other citizens of Oranor. Voidwatcher and his squad continue to explore the clouds, and find that the solid plane of clouds has nearly formed a ceiling above Oranor, and that pillars from it are beginning to descend to the ground. They search for the source, and while they do not find it, their hunt takes them far north, to Xiclotl - a great domed city and the home to the second throne. Seemingly impregnable, they are able to enter when Davin cuts his way through with the Black Blade of Disaster. They find the throne at the center, and Voidwatcher sits upon it. It greatly empowers his kinetic powers over the void. Satisfied with his find, Voidwatcher brings the squad back to Arendur. He does not report his journey to Xiclotl, and decides to abandon his search for the source of the solid cloud. Instead, he convinces Jang to accompany him to Ragnarok. Voidwatcher knew of Tolumvire’s story, and having sat upon the throne, felt himself a worthy successor to the founder of Arendur. Tolumvire was gone, exiled, and the Doppelganger and the War Council were fighting a loosing war against an inevitable decay. Arendur had lost its identity. His plan was to marry Jang to Bolgar of Ragnarok, thus reviving the empire with Bolgar as emperor. Thus the Great Crusade could begin anew, with Oranor and Ragnarok as the jewels of the new empire. Xiclotl could be conquered, and the ruins of old Arendur could be reclaimed. On the way, the two get into several fights against monsters, leaving Voidwatcher wounded. They nonetheless make it, and slip into Ragnarok, but find that there is no particular prejudice against them. They stay with a local family, and as Voidwatcher gets a better measure of Jang, he begins to have doubts about giving her over to Bolgar. He also begins to realize that not only does he have no real control over her, she is far shrewder then he assumed, and has a greater hold over him then he first assumed. Voidwatcher visits the Church of Hermod and arranges an audience with Bolgar the next day, and returns to rest at the house of the family he was staying with. He wakes up the next morning to find Jang gone without a trace. He cannot pretend to be surprised by her absence, but is surprised to realize that his dismay comes more from her absence then from his plan to marry her to Bolgar being ruined. In fact, he was more relieved then he could possibly know. Jang had left the aircraft behind, so Voidwatcher had a choice - he could stay in Ragnarok, or could fly back to Oranor, or fly anywhere he else he wanted. He decided to plan carefully. His opportunities were as great as risks, although of course, he did not know the full reason for Jang’s departure. Tolumvire had returned.

### Part Five

The rate of time between his current world and his home world are not quite the same, leaving the portal he has creatures warped and twisted, and no small danger to cross. Musing on its nature, Tolumvire calls the phenomenon the Twisted Gate. He displaces himself enough to avoid its lethal energy, and uses his sorcerous ability to influence fate such that he might enter a timeline where he survives, rather than the many where he might die. It is still a very risky journey, but on the first attempt, he makes it. The priests in Ragnarok had been prepared via augury for his coming, and had gathered to bar his way. Led by King Bolgar himself, and the High Priest of Hermod, Freimund, they form a cordon around the exit of the Twisted Gate. Bolgar steps forward and shoves Tolumvire back through it, a warning. He will give Tolumvire one chance to reconsider. Tolumvire survives the way back, and determines, makes another journey through. This time, he brushes up against the Gate’s energy, and is killed for the fifth time. His will manifested as a psychic ghost makes it to the other side. Bolgar orders Freimund to kill Tolumvire, and the high priest eagerly obeys, casting an antimagic field that destroys Tolumvire’s psychic ghost and closes the Twisted Gate. Tolumvire does not remain dead for long, for in a manner of speaking, Sharra’s wild magic has a hold on his soul, like a lich’s phylactery. He returns from the dead by her side in the woodlands near Oranor. It is nighttime. She gives him some clothes to wear - specifically, the clothes he wore as an adventurer, despite his request for the robes he wore as Grand Master of the Illuminated - and tells him that in his world, two years have passed since he left. The people of Oranor continue to be ruled by the city council, and Curtin has returned from Hermod’s realm to continue his work. The Illuminated is led by a mysterious changeling known only as the Doppelganger, and Lord Dubstep has been imprisoned as a threat to public safety. Oranor has sent settlers to start nearby communities, such as an enclave led by a man named Forrester, and a community for those who shun magic and distrust its wielders. Tolumvire is disquieted, and decides that his leadership is the solution. He and Sharra slip into Arendur, and Tolumvire meets Curtin and Jang in Curtin’s laboratory. Curtin discreetly informs him that Merbol, Jang’s father, requested Curtin to engineer his physical form to empower him. He is currently comatose as Curtin performs the the surgeries upon him. Sensing opportunity, Tolumvire proposes marriage to Jang, telling her that the time has come to make good on his promise to restore her birthright. She is flattered, but Tolumvire continues. All she must do, he says, is sign her father’s abdication papers. As he is incapacitated, she has control over the imperial seal. Increasingly disturbed, Jang agrees, and Tolumvire discreetly commands Curtin to never take Merbol out of his coma. Curtin officiates the hasty wedding, and with her father’s abdication complete, Jang claims her birthright as Empress of Arendur. As her husband and consort, Tolumvire invokes his right to the title of Emperor of Arendur. He summons one of Curtin’s alchemically created zombies, and dictates a document making his ascension formal. He then orders it to make copies and distribute them to every citizen in Oranor. For the imperial flag, Tolumvire decides to combine the old empire’s flag with his own personal heraldry as a Lord. He creates a banner depicting a five-clawed dragon clutching a clock, rather than a pearl, in its hand. Similarly, for the imperial house, he chooses to reference both their lineages; Jang’s own House of Zhou, and his own lordship of Arendur. He names the imperial family the House of Arenzhou. The new Emperor and Empress go to the city council chamber and clear out all the chairs but two, which they put in the place of thrones. Tolumvire orders nearby soldiers to wake up all Oranor’s citizens who happen to be nearby to be brought before him. Exhausted and confused, a number of the population enters the council how. Tolumvire informs of them of his return, tells them that he is now their emperor. The assembled citizens quickly get on their knees without proposed, acclaiming him as their sovereign. Tolumvire, remembering the city’s fierce struggle against imperial rule, is dismayed to see how readily his people accept the return of monarchy. He realizes that in many ways, he had always ruled Arendur as something of a dictator, and that his people saw him as the logical successor to the old emperor. Tolumvire next turns to his augury to divine his next course of action, and learns that he must visit a great domed city in the far reaches of the north, and that there, he will find the second throne. The next day, Tolumvire and Jang convene a meeting, gathering a group of men with the intent of forming a ruling council - for this body, he picks Curtin, Lord Alpha, Lord Dubstep, Forrester, and Icarus. He instructed each of them on their duties, but before he could end the meeting, everyone in the room went blank as they suffered a psychic attack. Tolumvire himself used his psionic powers to partition his mind into three sections, and using a section of his mind still free to him to communicate with the entity that initiated the attack. It proved to be the crystalline psionic parasite known as the Gem, and it revealed little about its motives. After a short conversation, it expressed admiration for Tolumvire’s psychic defense, and departed. Immediately afterward, a black-scaled dragonborn burst into the room to attack. The dragonborn declared his intent to claim revenge, a statement which confused Tolumvire - he had already forgotten about the atrocity against the dragonborn city during the Great Crusade. Curtin, the only other figure in the room to retain his wits, attacked the dragonborn, cutting off his arm before he could depart. It transpired that the dragonborn, in their quest for revenge, had secured the Gem as a weapon. Still forgetting about the atrocity his soldiers had committed against them, Tolumvire broods about revenge. He orders Curtin to reanimate the dragonborn’s arm and torture it as if it were some kind of grisly voodoo doll. Sharra bursts into the room, having caught wind of the attack, and is reassured by tolumvire that everyone is all right. He explains that he is already planning a counteroffensive to wipe out the dragon. Sharra expresses skepticism, stating that to her understanding, the dragonborn were holed up in caverns beneath the ruins of old Arendur, and thus inaccessible. Tolumvire doesn’t process the statement, and repeats his intent to exact revenge. Sharra embraces Jang, but the contact triggers some kind of inexplicable and deadly magical reaction - there is an explosion of gore, and Jang begins to bleed from her eyes and face, just as with Alpha’s curse so many years ago. Sharra flies into a hysterical panic, and Curtin shoves her out of the way, healing Jang. He mutters something about a control mechanism, something used only on Chimera, prompting a now enraged Sharra to threaten Curtin into revealing what happened. Tolumvire shouts for calm, and orders everyone else to leave the room. Curtin explains that the Gem’s psychic attack had stolen the essence of everyone in the room bar himself, including Tolumvire - his psychic defense had been insufficient. Tolumvire would infer by what he observed that the process was very similar to the one the possessed Lord Alpha had inflicted upon the entire empire. As they spoke, an unfamiliar soldier entered the room and reported to Curtin. Irked, Tolumvire reminded the soldier that he was the one in charge, and that he was to leave the room. The soldier casually dismissed him and refused the order, stating that he was present on Jotunheim’s orders, and that he was present to be of help to Tolumvire. He added that Jotunheim and his mages had been neglected for the two years of Tolumvire’s exile, and intended to prove themselves useful to him. Irritation mounting, Tolumvire found himself unable to command the soldier’s respect, let alone his actions, and settled for ignoring him and his snide comments. Curtin explained that without a replacement essence, Tolumvire would lose his magical powers within a few hours. Tolumvire commands Curtin to select a number of prisoners whose essences must be extracted to heal everyone who had lost theirs, and that if he ran out of prisoners, he was to resort to prisoners of war. Curtin explained that it was not as easy as that, for the essence had to be a close match. Curtin, who had a better sense of what was going on, correctly divined that the soldier - whose name was later revealed to be Faldor - had an essence close enough to Tolumvire own. It was for that reason that Jotunheim had sent him. Brimming with unseemly spite, Tolumvire ordered Faldor to help as he had promised he would. Faldor blanched at what was asked of him, but obeyed, and Curtin was able to sacrifice Faldor’s essence to restore Tolumvire’s own. This being completely, Tolumvire observed that Sharra was looking at him with utter hatred. He had completely ignored Jang during this time, leaving her in pain and in a pool of her own blood. Tolumvire lashed out, stating that Jang was not truly human, only an empty shell bereft of essence, and that he would do right by her by fighting Arendur’s enemies, not tending to the hurt. Jang concurred, telling Sharra that it was all right, and that Tolumvire needed her help more then ever now. Ordering Curtin to handle the task of restoring essence to the ruling body of Arendur, Tolumvire departed, intending to depart soon for the prophesied northern city. He telepathically contacted his dragon, Treskriri, who had been flying free for two years, asking for him to return to help him in his battle against the dragonborn. Treskriri agreed to come, through his arrival would not be immediate. Tolumvire and Sharra teleported to the city he saw in his vision, taking with them a soldier named Davin, unique in the respect that he wielded a legendary and frightful weapon called the Black Blade of Disaster. Upon arrival, they discovered Xiclotl, a seemingly impregnable and abandoned dome-like city. It had evidently been home to a mysterious ancient civilization, but was now hauntingly empty. Davin used his Blade to cut a pathway in, and the three found themselves beyond the throne - not broken, like the one they knew - thus holding far greater power and danger. They were greeted by a mysterious, gaunt, robed figure leaning upon a staff, flickering in and out of existence. The man was human, with familiar features, even though Tolumvire did not know them. The figure explained that he had come from a future Arendur had been overrun by demons, a future where Tolumvire had won his war against Bolgar. He refused to give his name, but stated that he knew Tolumvire’s future self. He stated that he had come to give the staff he was holding to Tolumvire; that it had been crafted by Sharra for his use, to avoid the mistakes of the future. He told Tolumvire that he was to take the throne, and use it to enhance his psychic powers further. In terms of the staff’s properties, it would give him the power to open portals to any location in the universe. It would be a replacement for Arendur’s destroyed portal system, at Tolumvire’s command. During this time, Tolumvire had come to the conclusion that the man before him was his own son - with Jang, presumably, since he possessed his own features, and those of the emperor’s daughters. He did not state so outright, but offered an apology for any wrongs he might have done. His son laughed, and told him not to give him an empty grave this time, in other words, not to let him die in vain. Upon releasing the staff, he disappeared. Tolumvire asked Sharra whether she agreed with his unspoken conclusion, but she refused to consider it, saying that it would be a burden to contemplate the possibility. Tolumvire ascended the throne, and despite the risks, survived its threats, gaining a limited measure of control over the course of fate. Sharra looked at the throne with fascination, but did not take it. Tolumvire offered her a chance to do so, reasoning that with its power, she could bring Elrond back from the dead. Sharra refused, and Tolumvire realized that much in the way Sharra had brought him back, she could have brought Elrond back, yet chose not to. He did not dare speculate why. Davin chose to ascend to the throne, empowering his Black Blade of Disaster. The soldier asked if there was any way he could share Tolumvire’s burdens, to which Tolumvire laughed and said that he could not. Davin seemed hurt, but accepted the answer. As the three moved to leave Xiclotl, the found Bolgar grimly waiting for them. Seeing no way out, Tolumvire furiously attacked, and for a time, it seemed like Davin might be able to hurt him with the Black Blade of Disaster. Even so, they failed. Bolgar killed Davin, seizing the Blade for himself. He turned next to Tolumvire, killing him for the sixth time, and taking the Staff. Sharra managed to escape, and in his dying moments, Tolumvire was able to dream of his son’s timeline, a timeline where Davin was able to cut Bolgar down, and where Sharra’s wild magic killed everyone in Ragnarok. It was a ghastly and beautiful future, and it would never come to pass.

### Part Six

Not long after killing Tolumvire, Bolgar decides that he can make use of his foe. He orders Tolumvire brought back from the dead, and the two rivals talk face to face for the same time since the war. Initially surprised and amused, Tolumvire divines Bolgar’s intent, and swears loyalty to him through gritted teeth. He states that he will be the Lord of Arendur, Bolgar’s feudal vassal. Barely restraining laughter, he promises to be a paragon and to take the paladins of Ragnarok as an example, and to spread the worship of Hermod in Arendur. Bolgar is skeptical but amused, enjoys a moment of self-satisfaction when he sees a draft of the speech Tolumvire plans to read to his people. Tolumvire leaves and returns to Oranor. His first step is to approach Jang and offer her a divorce, explaining the terms of his surrender, and noting that he knows she had no desire to be a feudal vassal. A part of him hopes that she will remain, but Jang cooly accepts the divorce and leaves Oranor shortly thereafter. Tolumvire calls a meeting of his handpicked ruling council, and sees that its members have managed to restore their essence. Many of them have also enhanced themselves through Jotunheim’s human engineering project. Tolumvire sees that the council is growing increasingly independent from him and his authority. He telepathically summons General Camron Marz, and after a moment of hesitation, Blackjack. For the purposes of what he is about to do, he immediately gives Blackjack a position of command in the Arendurian Army. He asks the two to arrest everybody in the council on the charge of essence theft, for stealing the essence of innocent victims without permission. Marz and Blackjack burst in, the general with a sense of purpose and the thief guildmaster with an eager grin. They round up everybody in the room, announcing Tolumvire’s charges against them, and reminding them of the penalty for illegal magic. Satisfied with his demonstration of power, Tolumvire lets ignores their protests for a while, but is genuinely surprised to hear Icarus maintain that it was Jotunheim who restored their essence, and not through any theft. Tolumvire contacts Jotunheim, who confirms that he has researched a method to restore essence without having to steal it from anyone. Tolumvire offers Jotunheim a place on his ruling counsel, and tells him that he must speak to him about his future and that of his research team. He also tells him to restore the essence of Faldor, who had sacrificed his own for Tolumvire. Accepting this explanation, he orders the councilmen released, and invites Camron Marz and Blackjack to take the seats. He also invites the newly restored Faldor, granting him the title Knight of Arendur, which had prior only been bestowed upon Nylock. To the rest of his counsel, he makes Curtin the Governor of Oranor, Alpha the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dubstep the Minister of War, Icarus the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Jotunheim the Minister of Research and Science, and Forrester the Minister of Law. He confirms Camron Marz’s position as General of the Arendurian Army, but establishes that he is subordinate to Dubstep’s civilian authority. He confirms that Blackjack holds a command position, and legitimizes his thieves guild as a branch of the special forces. He tells everyone present about his surrender to Bolgar, but maintains that within Arendur, his authority will remain absolute, and that things will continue as before. Tolumvire orders the citizens of Oranor to gather for a speech. He informs them of his surrender, and accuses warring factions of endangering Arendur’s safety by fighting over his legacy. He appeals to shared humanity, and apologizes to families of war dead. The citizens accept his speech silently; it is clear that they are unhappy, and would not have countenanced it from anyone except him. Tolumvire gives an interview to the press, explaining some of his decision-making process. Tolumvire is told by General Camron Marz that many of the top brass in the army were debating whether he had been possessed, in light of his abrupt surrender to Bolgar - and that a possible military coup was in the works. Enraged, Tolumvire ordered Camron Marz to suppress the coup and make clear that the army was never to take such decisions into their own hands. Arendur is visited by a stranger, a primitive dwarven warrior of great combat prowess. Tolumvire, who had been hearing reports of Paradax activity nearby Oranor, decides to attack them, and requires the warrior’s help. He learns that the warrior’s name is Kahn, and along with some soldiers, they attack the Paradax. Kahn is nearly killed, and Tolumvire reverses time to bring them all back to Oranor. He decides to postpone the attack, but is pleased to have learned about their positions and combat prowess. Tolumvire plans for how he will use the Tower of the Illuminated, and speaks to Jotunheim about altering members of the Arendurian Army to create improved soldiers. Jotunheim confirms that he had already been thinking about that. Tolumvire enters the Tower to alter his form somewhat. Tolumvire has been growing distrustful of Icarus lately, thinking him opportunistic and manipulative. Over lunch, he absent-mindedly draws a sketch of him as he thinks about what he will or won’t do with him. Over the same interview, he reads the newspaper, curious to see how his interview was portrayed. He is disgusted to find that the paper’s quality is declining. They editors had doctored images to make him appear in the best possible light, and to show the crowd as larger and more enthusiastic than it was. The coverage was fawning, even going so far as to call his adopting the title of Lord as a “promotion” from his title of Emperor. Tolumvire is revolted, but cannot muster the will to do anything about it. His next task is to restore a body to Brineheart, who had been following him as a psychic ghost ever since Tolumvire found him. He fetches a murderer from death row, and brings him to the Tower of the Illuminated. As they go, he chats with the murderer, and learns that a member of the citizens council had kills a member of his family with impunity. With no authority being willing to hear his case, the man had taken justice into his own hands and killed the councilman. Tolumvire tries to push down his sympathy, as well as his horror about the idea that the the high and might could behave with such impunity in Arendur. He remembers his rebel days, and tells the murderer about them. Allowing himself to grow cold, he adds that regardless of right or wrong, he would brook no resistance to his authority or to the authority of his nation. He was the arbiter of all moral questions, and the murderer would be punished. The murderer cynically accepts this, and when they get to the Tower, his soul is annihilated to make room for Brineheart’s. Brineheart inhabits the body, and uses his psionics to mould the murderer’s features to resemble his own. He thanks Tolumvire and departs. Deciding that he must come through on his promise to spread Hermod’s worship in Arendur, he asks Bolgar to send him one of his highest-ranking priests. The High Priest of Hermod, Freimund, who in particular harbored a great deal of contempt for Tolumvire, dispatched a man he considered particularly worthless. A man named Erebus, who considered himself second-to-none, he had an overbearing manner and an unbearable high-pitched voice. Insulted and amused, Tolumvire ordered him taken off to the Tower of the Illuminated to be reshaped into a form that suited him more. Jotunheim happily obeyed. Tolumvire made sure to tell Bolgar and Freimund of his action, to be clear that in Arendur, he was still the absolute authority. Neither of them seemed to care, for they held as much contempt for Erebus as he did. Erebus emerged an imposing, deep-voiced man, but with the same arrogance as before. Tolumvire allows him to build a temple to Hermod, and as with all efforts to establish organized religion in Ragnarok, he put no effort into helping him. He also gave him a seat on the council, with full intent to ignore and marginalize him to every extent possible. He decided next that he would launch a raid on the ruins of his ruined ally in the south, as he imagined that there would be many valuable psionic artifacts left behind. Taking a sizable portion of his forces with him, he encountered resistance in the form of several psionic constructs, golems, and dragons who had survived the destruction of his empire. He percieved that he might not come out victorious, and ordered his own forces to back out. He encountered a man named Yggdrasil, who established himself as one of the empire’s ten “Node Controllers”, independent minds who facilitated the existence of the now destroyed Node. Tolumvire expressed a willingness to help him try to rebuild what had been lost, and a skeptical Yggdrasil agreed that such help would be welcome. After returning to Arendur, Tolumvire receives summons to the Holy Council, a meeting of various divinities and heads of mortal nations, calls only in the most dire circumstances. Tolumvire learns, to his surprise, that he will also be representing Ragnarok, as Bolgar had declined to attend. He telepathically contacts Bolgar and asks him what his title is to be as Ragnarok’s ambassador. Bolgar thinks on it, and appoints him Spokesman of Ragnarok, knowing Tolumvire will find the title somewhat trite and insulting. Tolumvire is told that another person will also be representing Arendur, is spots Icarus coming to join him. A careful inspection reveals that the man before him is not, in fact, Icarus, but someone wearing his features as a disguise. He confronts the man, who reveals that he is in fact a gunslinger in service of a distant god of light, and that he had been on the hunt for an entity that had been devouring gods. After piecing things together, Tolumvire realizes that the entity was his own chimera from old Arendur, having freed itself since the city fell. The man also added that his search had brought him to Arendur, where in a separate context, he had discovered that Icarus employed slave labor in his factories. He tells of how he tracked Icarus to the Tower of the Illuminated and dueled him within the chamber Jotunheim used for human engineering. Though he was loosing the duel, some kind of magical feedback transformed him into Icarus, and transformed Icarus into a hideous ogre-like creature. Icarus fled, leaving the gunslinger to keep his identity. Disgusted by talk of slave labor, and pleased to have a reason to be rid of Icarus, Tolumvire allows the man to keep Icarus’ identity, place on the council, and all of his worldly assets. The two men take their place on the council, and look around for familiar faces. Tolumvire spots Imish, and is surprised to see Bron Ironstout present alongside Mars, a young god of war. He learns that the leaders of Mars’ pantheon had put Bron in charge of training Mars for war. Thinking of how poorly Bron had trained the Arendurian Army, Tolumvire laughs to himself. Seeing Hermod, Tolumvire and False Icarus sit beside him, and Tolumvire takes the opportunity to taunt and needle the god of Ragnarok. The council is presided over by the god of time, who has many names. Tolumvire knows him as Lendor, and feels no small awe at meeting him. The first order is business turns out to be about Bolgar. Tolumvire had not known any of what was about to be discussed, but learned in the meeting that Bolgar had less than positive relations with the gods. As a young warrior, before his kingship, Bolgar had loathed the gods for what he percieved as their abandonment of humanity, and threatened them. Even Hermod himself was little more than a object for Bolgar’s clerics to worship; the King of Ragnarok himself was far too cynical than that, and would kill Hermod if reason presented himself. Tolumvire was pleased beyond words to hear thus, and even more pleased to see the extent of Hermod’s humiliation. The gods considered Bolgar a threat, and turned to Tolumvire for advice, as he was the only man who had fought Bolgar and lived. Tolumvire rose to speak, and laughed at those present, telling them they should make their peace with Bolgar as he had, and reevaluate their role. They were the protectors of mortals and the objects of the faith, not their masters. He added that they had lost the chance to defeat Bolgar long ago; the King of Ragnarok had acquired might power from the mythic beasts he hunted, from the blessings of his clerics, and from the many artifacts his wielded. The next matter on the agenda was replacing the gods killed by the Devourer of Gods, the name they had given to Tolumvire’s chimera. False Icarus, who knew of a similar entity from his own mythology, named the creature Aldrich, a name Tolumvire found suitable. To replace the slain gods, candidates were nominated and voted upon. The first spot was the god of swords, for which Tolumvire nominated Lord Nylock, and was successful. The next spot was the god of earth, and Tolumvire and False Icarus decided, as a cruel joke, to nominate Bron Ironstout in the hopes that he might be killed by Aldrich. False Icarus revealed that he knew Bron, and knew Jamkas Wolfswift as well, he had adventured with them. He told Tolumvire the stories of Bron’s poor attempts to train the god Mars, and of how he had allegedly led the pair of them into an encounter that ended with an orgy with a number of harpies. They failed, and a powerful gnome was granted divinity instead. At one point during the counsel, Tolumvire became paranoid that one of the present members was Aldrich in disguise, and convinced False Icarus of the truth this. They brought their accusation public, and pulled the being aside to interrogate him. They only came to the conclusion that he was a mysterious entity of some kind, but decided that he was likely not Aldrich. The council continued. The next spot was the god of dragons, for whom Tolumvire nominated his own faithful dragon, Treskriri. He then switched his nomination when he learned that a particular powerful dinosaur was being considered, a thought that amused him greatly. A powerful dragon of the storm was nominated instead. The next spot was for the god of light, and for this, False Icarus nominated an entity from his own distant world, his own god of light, Gwyn. They won the nomination, and Gwyn was confirmed. The next spot was the god of life, and Tolumvire made an impassioned argument for the ascension of the destroyed Node. He admitted his own role in their destruction, and about how such a collective consciousness would be suitable for such a divinity. The delegation from the destroyed empire seemed touched, but the nomination was lost, and a mysterious four-armed race was confirmed instead. The meeting was adjourned, and Tolumvire took the time to taunt Imish before leaving, asking him what he had earned for all the times he had brought Tolumvire back from the dead. Before returning to Arendur, Tolumvire psychically spoke to Jang, to determine how she was faring, and learned that she had gotten herself stuck in a pit of tar. Amused, Tolumvire went to rescue her, making a lasso with which to fish her out. Despite it being an easy task, he managed to stumble and fall into the tar pit himself, entrapping himself. Without the ability to move his arms, he could not cast spells. The pair were rescued by a young mage sent by Jotunheim, who had anticipated such a mistake from Tolumvire. Tolumvire thanked the mage, and bid goodbye to Jang, who continued on her quest. Upon his return to Arendur, reports are brought to him that reveal that a nearby town - one in which a segment of Arendur that distrusted magic dwelt - was destroyed by dragons. Tolumvire is horrified, for although many in that community loathed him, he considered himself their protector. In addition, he knew rumors might spread that he orchestrating the attack in an effort to consolidate power. Deciding he needed to shore up local alliance, he seeks out the Faerie King, a local fey of great power. The people of Arendur had a fraught history with the fey, with whom they had fought often in their early days. The Faerie King, a majestic and aloof being, received Tolumvire courteously and accepted his offer of alliance, although he made it clear that there was only so far he would go for him. Unspoken was the fate of Tolumvire’s other allies. Tolumvire convened the War Council to discuss the threat of the dragons, and leaves Doctor Curtin in charge of that effort. Ne next meets with the Doppelganger, who had been acting as Master of the Illuminated during his exile. He asks for the Doppelganger’s life story, and he tells Tolumvire of his youth, his marriage, and how he was compelled to make a change in the world. He tells Tolumvire that he had been a member of the fifty young mage trainees killed by the orcs, and had only survived due to his ability to shift shapes. Tolumvire takes a liking to his successor, but tells him that he intends to strip him of his title. The Doppelganger does not represent his vision for the future of the Illuminated. The Doppelganger took the demotion without any sign of resentment, impressing and surprising Tolumvire. Tolumvire then told him that he wanted the Doppelganger to form a clandestine intelligence, reviving his old project for Zactar Intelligence, which had been assigned to Lord Bazzel originally. Tolumvire explains the details of his project to the Doppelganger, who seemed interested, and departed to carry out his orders. Tolumvire then appointed Jotunheim the Grand Master of the Illuminated, and vowed that he would not interfere with Jotunheim’s right to lead the organization as he saw fit. Tolumvire had been receiving reports about a encroaching demon incursion, but received more detailed information from False Icarus, who had by his account met the demon king leading the force, Xiloxi Drutreu. False Icarus’ account alarmed Tolumvire, who decided it would be time to kill the demon king. He gathered a group of men and women to help him, first recruiting Faldor, and then seeking out Jang. She was surprised and somewhat irritated, asking him at first to leave her alone, before agreeing to help him. His next recruit would have been Sharra, yet scrying and telepathic contact revealed nothing, which alarmed him. For the fourth member, he sought out a cleric from Ragnarok, a young woman named Fedora who disdainfully referred to Tolumvire as a demon. Her fury irked Tolumvire, who began to pedantically explain what a demon actually was. His explanation would be more ill-timed then he could know at the time. The four of them teleported to the fortress of the demon king, Xiloxi Drutreu, Surprisingly abandoned, the first room they entered was inhabited by a succubus lounging on a bed. Tolumvire demanded to know where he could find Xiloxi Drutreu, but the succubus ignored his question, asking the four to stay. Tolumvire scorned her request, but she rose and began to use her power to control the minds of those present. Only Tolumvire remained free-willed, and demanded to know who she was. As the succubus embraced Jang, she told Tolumvire that her name was Sharra. Enraged, Tolumvire told her that she had no right to use Sharra’s name. The succubus insisted that she knew who she was, and that given her power in the situation, she would dictate who she was. Revolted, Tolumvire told her that he would be willing to bargain for the release of his comrades. The succubus asked him what he would be willing to give, and Tolumvire, sensing what she might want, told her that he could provide her with a half-demon child. His lineage would be potent, likely to produce a child with magical power. Pleased and amused, the succubus accepted, dismaying Tolumvire, who had hoped that she wouldn’t. She released her hold on his allies, who fled as Tolumvire commanded them to do. The succubus summoned her handmaidens, and slept with Tolumvire, conceiving a child. Tolumvire maintained the freedom of his mind, but the act began a corrupting process within his soul, tainting him with a sliver of demonhood. Sickened, Tolumvire was led to meet Xiloxi Drutreu in his throne room. A towering demonic warlord, horned, wielding a sword, Drutreu greeted Tolumvire courteously. He explained the succubus was indeed Sharra, that he had captured her and transformed her into a demon that would do his bidding. Demoralized, Tolumvire pathetically offered his obedience, asking if he might be transformed into a demon lord himself for his loyalty. His self-worth was demolished, for he had lost himself and endangered his comrades, and Sharra had been lost to a horrifying fate. The unspeakable acts he had committed had left him a rare state indeed - stripped of his pride. Somewhat amused, Drutreu demurred, but Tolumvire he was free to do as he wished now. Mind still reeling, Tolumvire seized on a pathetic hope. His dream of a Great Crusade and a unified humanity might still live on, if only Bolgar would continue it for him. All that he needed to do, thought Tolumvire in a deluded state, was free himself from his god, Hermod, become the undisputed master of Ragnarok and Arendur. Tolumvire told Drutreu that what he wanted was a chance to kill Hermod, and that he could lure Hermod back to the fortress. With Hermod present in physical form, he and Drutreu could kill him. Intrigued, Drutreu told Tolumvire he was willing to let him try. Tolumvire telepathically contacted Hermod, spinning an ever-changing narrative to convince the god to be curious enough to arrive in person. Hermod did come, but grew swiftly suspicious. Tolumvire attacked, and within moments, paladins from Ragnarok had arrived to aid their god. What Tolumvire had expected to happen, he did not really know, but Bolgar stepped forward with the clear intent to execute him. This time, he drew another weapon, a sword, which the king explained would wipe all memory of Tolumvire from the earth. Tolumvire told Bolgar that he welcomed that, and knelt to receive the headsman blood. Bolgar killed him for the seventh time. Memory of him was wiped from the minds of everyone on earth. Tolumvire’s psychic ghost appeared at the gates to the Arctic Time Temple, where he was greeted by the god of time, Lendor. Lendor informed him that he had two choices. He could enter the Time Temple, as was his right as a chronomancer. No one would be able to perceive him within, but he could exist for an eternity if he wished. Lendor noted that the only person who could ever perceive him in this state would be his yet unborn daughter by Sharra, should she ever choose of her own accord to come to the Time Temple. Alternate, he would walk through the final gate of the Temple, and give his soul utterly to time. Tolumvire entered the Time Temple, thinking to retire peacefully, but found that in his current state, he could not interact with any of the objects there. He had hoped to read in its great library, but was doomed to a bodiless existence. Horrified by the thought, and realizing that his daughter would have no reason to come, he walked through the final gate, to give his soul to time. It would be as if he had never existed at all.

Ramander’s Story:

Nothing was ever as simple as it appeared on the surface. Tolumvire’s son from the alternate future, Prince Ramander of Oranor, a gifted shadow mage and illusionist, intended to make it to the past. He was the son of Tolumvire and Sharra, for after the destruction of Ragnarok, Emperor Tolumvire had made good on an project he had long considered; instructing mages to conceive children together, so that their progeny would be more likely to possess magic. Ramander was accompanied by Davin, who had cut his way into Xiclotl in his timeline just as he had cut Tolumvire’s way in originally. Demons were descending upon Xiclotl, hunting him, and they had to escape. They fought valiantly, but Davin was killed, and Ramander soon followed. Death would have no claim over Tolumvire’s son, for like his father, Ramander’s soul was tethered to Sharra’s wild magic, and he would appear beside her. Sharra was hiding, laying low in a cavern complex. The world soon fall, as Xiloxi Drutreu’s demons conquered all in sight. Sharra told Ramander that he must go back in time, to help his father, and flee the doomed world. That was easier said than done, but Ramander accepted the task, traveling to a place known as Ascension Island, the home of a powerful and mysterious entity that Ramander would call the “Sphere of a Perfect World”. The entity was almost impossible to communicate with, but Ramander managed to use his illusion magic to spell out a message for it. He explained his predicament, and the entity agreed to help him, sending him back to the past. He found himself nor far from Xiloxi Drutreu’s fortress, where he could see the demon king’s armies laying waste to a nearby city. He began to explore the area, where he found a temple to an unknown war god. Inside, he got hold of an enchanted ritual dagger, and found a pile of sacrificed corpses deep within the temple. Among them was the corpse of a vampire. He had not been able to best the demons even with Davin’s help; he was not powerful enough. Using the vampire’s skull, he sank its fangs into his body, using its residual power to drain his life force and transform him into a vampire himself. He explored further, finding a way into the astral plane, where he met a mysterious traveller with strange requests that he was unable to fulfill. Upon his return to the prime material plane, he travelled further, and unable to teleport like his father could, realized he could not go anywhere. Going to his knees, he began to pray to Hermod, beginning the god to forgive him for his father’s sins. The god heard him, and brought him to his realm, and then arranged for him to have an audience with King Bolgar. Ramander quickly caught on to the fact that no one was aware who Tolumvire was. Bolgar caught on quickly, explaining that he had a sword which could erase the memory of an individual from the earth. Tolumvire, he reasoned, was likely someone he had killed. Bolgar was able to ask questions of his sword, which was sentient, and it explained to him who Tolumvire had been. Ramander explained the purpose of his arrival to Bolgar. Xiloxi Drutreu could only be killed, he said, if he was slain in his own realm and in the mortal realm at the precise same time, something only a chronomancer and a skilled warrior could do. Tolumvire of the future had been unable to do so, for despite his chronomancy, there was no one alive who could kill Drutreu. Bolgar of the past would be unable to as well, for though he could kill Drutreu, he lacked Tolumvire’s chronomancy. To that end, Bolgar must bring Tolumvire back. Bolgar agreed, and the two of them travelled to the Arctic Time Temple. The wizards who guarded it attempted to bar Bolgar’s way, and might have had a chance to freeze time, but Ramander twisted fate a little bit to give Bolgar the chance to act. Without hesitation, the King of Ragnarok killed the wizards who barred his way, and made it to the final gate. Though Bolgar could release Tolumvire’s soul from his sword, it had gone farther then his priests could raise. Someone would have to take Tolumvire’s place for this to work, and Ramander volunteered himself, stepping into the final gate. Bolgar observed Ramander’s sacrifice with bemusement and grudging respect, before plunging his sword into the final gate, freeing the souls within, and destroying the Time Temple. Tolumvrie and Ramander emerged free, but the rest was lost. The wizards of the Time Temple all came from different timelines; only Tolumvire came from this one, and without a shared tether, the wizards were scattered. Powerful artifacts and tomes of lore were lost as well. Tolumvire, reborn, was the last chronomancer of his time, and if Xiloxi Drutreu was successful, the last demon of all time. Ramander might have been willing to sacrifice himself for his father, but Bolgar was willing to sacrifice everyone in the Time Temple for Ramander.

### Part Seven

Reborn on earth, Tolumvire thanks Ramander and Bolgar for bringing him back, and vowed that he would certainly use his chronomancy to kill Xiloxi Drutreu. He tells them that there several things he must do first, but that when the time comes, he will come to Bolgar to aid him. Tolumvire returns to Oranor, and finds that it has been sacked by demons in his two day absence. Few survivors remain. His return brought with it all memories of him, and the people of Oranor, who were aware of his inexplicable two day absence, blamed him for failing to protect them. Tolumvire found it difficult to disagree, and began to search for survivors amongst those he cared about. He found Jang first, in a shell shocked state, inhibiting greater and greater amounts of the mind-numbing elixir of Doctor Curtin’s. Enraged, Tolumvire the bottle from her, shattering it against the wall, and ordering her to find her own strength. Even as he did, he realized that something would be forever lost from Jang. She remained essentially unresponsive. Ring, Tolumvire telepathically contacted others, determining that most of the ruling body of Arendur survived. Among those who didn’t was Blackjack. Tolumvire manages to reach his mind as he lies dying, lost in an unknown place. Though he hated him in life, he feels a certain amount of pity for the thief guildmaster, who was facing death with melancholy stoicism. In many ways, Blackjack had proved loyal despite his untrustworthy nature, for he had made Arendur his home, and defended it for his own selfish reasons. He had not abandoned Oranor in its final moments. Tolumvire meets with Doctor Curtin, and requests a number of magic items to replace the ones he has lost. Curtin comes back with a few useful items for Tolumvire, including a powerful longsword known only as “the Terror”. Curtin explains that things are not as they seem. Xiloxi Drutreu and his demon army were only the pawns of a far more malevolent force, an elder evil from another world which could control the minds of those it came into contact with. It had been playing a long game with the world, tweaking events with seemingly no pattern, setting the stage for its arrival. Xiloxi Drutreu, its most powerful yet unwitting host, was but a herald. The being’s name was O’Rangus, and its motives were unknown. Some of the details of his plan gaused Tolumvire no small amount of grief. O’Rangus had been behind the death of Farcraft, and of more immediate danger, had gained control over Nylock’s mind - Nylock, who Tolumvire had made a god and brought back from exile. Nylock, who possessed the power to end all magic on earth. More and more evidence was piling up that Tolumvire had, for years, being playing into O’Rangus hands. Whatever O’Rangus’ motives, part of his plan had involved the destruction of Arendur at the hands of demons, making him Tolumvire’s enemy. Luckily, he was now Bolgar’s enemy as well, for the demons were beginning to attack Ragnarok, which had put up a barrier against attack. The city was defending itself effectively; indeed, Bolgar’s loss in the alternate future may well have been what crippled the world. Tolumvire mused on Emperor Monopoly’s creation of the shield, which he and the party had so vehemently opposed. He lamented that Emperor Monopoly was not alive to advise him, and bitterly realized that in many ways, Monopoly had better protected the world than he had. Nonetheless, Tolumvire still had matters to attend to. The first was to free Sharra. According to his understanding, she would regain her free will and her powers if she gained enough divine power to ascend to a demon lord. This was a process that Tolumvire could attain as well, he realized, and he was closer to that dark threshold then he liked to think. Tolumvire traveled to Xiloxi Drutreu’s fortress, and went to the room where he had met Sharra in her demonic form. She awaited his arrival, and asked him if he wished to sleep with again. Both amused and sickened, Tolumvire refused, maintaining that he had only done so the first time out of duress. He told her to follow him, and offered to show her heaven. Curious, Sharra left Drutreu’s fortress with him, and Tolumvire began to pray to Hermod, asking for entry to his realm. Suspicious, Hermod answered his prayer, letting the two into his heaven. Sharra was wickedly amused at the thought of being a succubus on holy ground, a fantasy Tolumvire had realized would be ingrained into the form Drutreu had fashioned for her. Tolumvire petitioned Hermod, begging him to free her. Only a god could, and he would have to go far. Drutreu’s control was powerful, and Hermod would have to recast Sharra in divine metal, and make her his instrument, his exarch, his proxy. He could not simply free her, he would have to remake her a commit a significant amount of his own power and essence to her. Tolumvire would have to give her up to him forever. Hermod found the offer somewhat distasteful, but realized that Tolumvire would not do something like this if it was not very important to him. Tolumvrie reminded Drutreu that Sharra was one of the most powerful mages in Arendur, and that in her new form, she would be one of the most powerful entities in earth, full stop. He also exhorted Hermod to take pity on her. Hermod relented, casting Sharra in divine metal and making her an avatar of his will. Reborn as Hermod’s valkyrie of silvered steel, with all her wild magic and will regained, Sharra turned on Tolumvire with fury, castigating him for having taken advantage of her while she had been under Drutreu’s control. Tolumvire could only sneer at her and remind her that he had freed her at his first opportunity. There was no way he could have faced down the depths of his shame. Shame had undone him before Xiloxi Drutreu, and if he was going to beat O’Rangus and win, he needed every ounce of his once bottomless arrogance and reckless pride. Tolumvire left her in Hermod’s realm and told Bolgar that he was ready to attack. After receiving all the blessings his clerics could give, all the anti-demonic wards and curses possible, Bolgar stepped out before the gates of Ragnarok and demanded single combat from Xiloxi Drutreu. Knowing he could not die unless menaced by chronomancy, Drutreu appeared, eager to fight. Knowing he had to time it perfect, Bolgar beheaded Drutreu in a single blow of his sword, shocking even Tolumvire, who had ceased trying to estimate the King’s combat prowess. Tolumvire immediate reversed time and teleported Bolgar to Drutreu’s throne room. Again, one blow, and Drutreu was dead. Using powers beyond Tolumvire’s understanding, Bolgar cloaked himself in Drutreu’s form and appeared before Drutreu’s army, ordering them to array themselves before him. Bolgar drew the entirety of the demon army into a demiplane and killed them all at once. At at this time, Tolumvire did not the source of Bolgar’s power, which had transcended swordsmanship and begun to bend reality to his will. On the surface, King Bolgar was a mythic hero, a living archetype, but he was not the only one - Tolumvire himself was a mythic hero, as was False Icarus, and other men he did not know. Whether Bolgar was the incarnation of some prophecy, or an anomaly of fate, Tolumvire did not know and could not explain. Overwhelmed, he asked Bolgar if he intended to become an immortal god. Bolgar rebuffed the idea, scorning the gods and stating that he would die a mortal man, of age. Tolumvire asked if Bolgar would take up Tolumvire’s dream of the Great Crusade and unite mankind. Bolgar simply refused. Though he left it unsaid, it was a matter of principle. He had opposed the idea when Tolumvire tried to make him kneel, and it was not out of personal pride or hatred of Tolumvire. No one, in mind, not even himself, should be the master of mankind. Bolgar returned to Ragnarok, and Tolumvire departed to continue the work of bringing down O’Rangus. Bringing Sharra with him, they went back to Xiloxi Drutreu’s fortress, where the last vestiges of the demon army remained, led by the minor demon lords who served as Drutreu’s castellans. Sharra demanded obedience from them, for she, a demon lord, was Drutreu’s true successor. Tolumvire briefly entertained the thought of gaining control of them himself, but in a lucid moment, realized this would not be wise, and backed up Sharra’s claim. The minor demon lords prostrated themselves, and the rest of the demons followed. Tolumvire informed Hermod that Sharra would command an army of demons, but that they would be in his service, in Ragnarok’s service. Hermod was confused and disturbed, but Tolumvire knew that Bolgar would know how to make use of them. Without any meaningful goodbye, Tolumvire and Sharra parted ways. They had conceived two children together, but any warmth between them had been destroyed. Both had shed their shared humanity to the point of being unrecognizable to one another. Tolumvire went to the Tower of the Illuminated, which Jotunheim had managed to teleport wholesale out of crumbling Oranor. This gave Tolumvire a moment of happiness; the Illuminated had survived, and with them, several years of valuable arcane and scientific research; chiefly, the key to the architecture of the human race. Faldor awaited him there, as did Jotunheim. Jotunheim greeted him with cold courtesy and barely restrained anger. Tolumvire plaintively asked his advice, and received a meaningless non-answer. If what Jotunheim said had any mean, he had lost the ability to understand. Either way, Jotunheim despised the result of Tolumvire’s gradual metamorphosis, and no doubt considered himself partly responsible for having so enabled him during their rebellion days. He considered himself complicit in Tolumvire’s government, which must have been a betrayal of ideals he thought they had shared. Taking Faldor with him, Tolumvire departed. He gave no instructions on how to lead the Illuminated, having realized in another moment of lucidity that he was best off divesting himself of them. Tolumvire could see, in flashes, his own burgeoning madness, and the danger he posed to the people around him. In these moments, he could plan around his own instability. Tolumvire returned home to Oranor next, where the people were struggling to rebuild. Demons flocked around the city, waiting to prey on anyone vulnerable. Instead of speaking to city’s rulers, Tolumvire appeared in front of the people. Only because of their deference to him could they restrain blinding hatred for the leader they saw as having abandoned them. Tolumvire used his own authority, and an invocation to Sharra’s authority, to force the nearby demons to aid in the rebuilding efforts. He spent the rest of the day working beside his citizens, helping the work crews with his own hands. It did not matter at all to the people of Oranor. Why would it? Tolumvire visited the Faerie King next in his garden, and asked him to protect the people of Oranor. The Faerie King reminded Tolumvire that there was only so far he could go, and warned him that even so, he could only do so much. Tolumvire next telepathically contacted Jang, to make sure she was safe, and found her almost incoherent, in a somewhat dreamy, euphoric state. He immediate teleported to her side, finding her a short walk away from Oranor. With her was a woman in red and black armor, humanoid but yet clearly inhuman. She coldly told Tolumvire that her name was Blightun, and addressed him as father. She added that she would only consider him a true father when they arrived at Oranor. Tolumvire was not surprised to meet his half-demon daughter, but recoiled at her name. He had intended to name his daughter Toranna, and he told her that. Blightun seemed dismissive. She had been raised by Xiloxi Drutreu, either supernaturally aged or kept in a plane where time did not pass. She was as powerful as Tolumvire might have suggested; she had a potent magical bloodline like Ramander did, but the might of a powerful demon as well. She told Tolumvire that she had been in some way corrupted by O’Rangus, and that at his bidding, she was to go to Oranor. Then, depending on what transpired, O’Rangus might make her his host on earth or not. Jang was still in a happy, dreamy state, and followed father and daughter as they walked to Oranor. Only she spoke, about nothing at all.Tolumvire thought frantically, trying to divine O’Rangus intentions. Toranna gave no clue as to what she might be thinking. By the time they arrived, Tolumvire had come to the conclusion that O’Rangus intended to use his daughter as his host, to spread his control to the survivors of Oranor. They would all become his slaves. Unable to tell the difference between brilliance and delusion, Tolumvire decided that he had to take action, and telepathically contacted Lord Perduke. After explaining the circumstances to him, he told him to destroy Oranor and wipe out all life that lived there. Perduke accepted the order and arrived. Before Perduke could act, Tolumvire magnified his voice and spoke so all those in Oranor could hear. He was their emperor, and he had decided that they must die. If they wanted a way out, they must pray to Hermod with true faith, and their souls would be received into his heaven and protected by him. He was heard clearly by all, and many fell to their knees to supplicate the god. Perduke summoned a vast spike of earth beneath the city, piercing upward and shattering everything in its past. He pulled the mountains inward, crushing everything beneath them, and killing entire dwarven settlements in the process. Toranna began to shake with horror, and Tolumvire, speaking to her and O’Rangus, shouting that he would more ruthless and unpredictable then anyone could imagine. O’Rangus had managed to manipulate him thus far, but he would outdo him and surprise him with the depths of his resolve. In terror, Toranna told him that he had doomed her to become O’Rangus’ puppet. Jang was in a state of catatonic horror. Tolumvire could not allow himself to acknowledge either of them, for to do so would have crumbled what determination he had left. He departed, leaving them to their fates. He could not help but wonder why Perduke had carried out such an appalling order without question - Perduke, who did not take orders - but would later realize, to his sorrow, that Perduke, who took the long view, determined that more harm then good had come of Arendur’s existence. Returning to where he and Faldor had been, Faldor admitted to him that he had become aware of O’Rangus’ corruption within himself. At any point, he could become the entity’s pawn. Without a word, Tolumvire drew his sword and handed it to Faldor. The meaning was clear, and Faldor impaled himself with it. Now alone, Tolumvire reasoned that he needed more power. Now alone, there was other person to moderate his increasingly deranged mind. He knew that the Paradax had a power to possess people, and wondered what power he could gain if Dax himself possessed him. At the same time, he was conceiving a plan to trap O’Rangus soul within a soul gem - providing, of course, that he could find a gem valuable enough to trap an elder evil’s soul. As a one-stop shop for both tasks, he travelled to a Gnomish space suit, where he brazenly requested one of their flight crystals, along with a suit of armor to breathe in the void. To his unending surprise, the gnomes granted both requests without comment or charge. Tolumvire teleported to Dax’s warped, alien home planet, where he was attacked by a titanic lifeform that nearly killed him. He immediately returned to earth, abandoning that scheme. Alone, and desperate for more power, he shouted a defiant prayer to any divinity that might be listening. Defeat him in single combat, and he would serve that deity for all time. He went to sleep, and was woken by a tap on the shoulder. It was the young war god, Mars, trained by Bron Ironstout. Tolumvire grudgingly accepts the duel, worrying about the consequences of losing, but eager at the thought of shaming Bron. Tolumvire turns the ground beneath Mars to swampy quicksand, and transforms a nearby branch into a useless copy of Mars’ sword. Other trees he turns he turns into dummy imitations of Mars himself; walking humanoid creatures, but with no divine power. All the while, he maintained the bluff that these hollow imitations had real power, cowing the young divinity into surrender. Tolumvire told him to return to Bron, and to pass on from that Bron’s training had never worked; it hadn’t worked for the Arendurian Army, and it wouldn’t work on this young war god. Proud of his triumph but without the power he so craved, he began to search for Time Totems, thinking to create a staff made of seven of them. He found three in the hands of a young gnomish time thief named Ashton Wood, The threat of death implied, Tolumvire told Ashton that he could either hand over the totems, or agree to become his apprentice, and keep them. Ashton Wood cooly agreed to become Tolumvire’s apprentice. Even with these three, Tolumvire only had four total, since he owned one of his own. Tolumvire then decided to seek power in other methods. He returned to the gnomish space ship, and requested to be given mechanical parts; to be made a half-golem. The request was granted, and Ashton Wood made a similar request, gaining, among other things, an inbuilt cannon. Pleased with the result, Tolumvire found his son, Ramander, and asked for the curse of vampirism to be passed to him. Ramander solemnly agreed, and Tolumvire put his life in his son’s hands. Ramander killed him for the eight time, and the next day, Tolumvire rose as a powerful and dangerous psychic vampire, unafraid of the sun, feasting on memories instead of blood. Tolumvire was very pleased, his new physical form was powerful, nigh-impervious, and immortal, even if it came at the price of his humanity. Tolumvire was a looming creature, with what mortal flesh remaining pale and dead. Much of him was silver and chrome, mechanicum, all ablaze with hellish energy. His was white, his single eye dark, his features inhuman, half of it covered with a silver facepiece. Ashton Wood was clearly growing bored with following Tolumvire around. He had been taking away from his adventure with the promise of apprenticeship and the threat of force should he refuse, and that seemed to involve following his new master around on inexplicable tasks. Realizing this, as well as the danger Ashton was in, Tolumvire had a moment of lucidity, and brought him to the Tower of the Illuminated. He asked Jotunheim to give him basic training in preparation for his return. Tolumvire then contacted Doctor Curtin, and found to his horror that Curtin had been pulled into O’Rangus mind. In a rage, he had tried to fight the elder evil, and paid the price for it. Tolumvire remained in contact with his last remaining friend, reminiscing, philosophizing, and promising to free him. Nonetheless, whenever he went too far in Curtin’s own mind, the dark menacing presence of O’Rangus would manifest, driving him back for fear of corruption and loss of self. Tolumvire, speaking to Curtin and knowing that O’Rangus could hear, stated that he wanted to negotiate with the elder evil. Curtin told him that O’Rangus agreed to that. To this end, Tolumvire traveled to Ascension Island to await the elder evil. He had time to see that someone had erected a number of pillars, and that if activated - or even left alone, they would alter the nature of magic itself, spreading a net around the world. The concept was the same as that of the Spellweave, which did not exist at the time. Studying the pillars further, Tolumvire realized that they could be controlled to limit the spread of the Spellweave, to an area as small as the island itself. Even if Nylock used his powers to turn off magic, magic would remain within the pillars. Tolumvire began to dream of a world in which he lived alone on Ascension Isle, the last man on earth to control magic. He would be God. O’Rangus emerged from the void, a dark figure wreathed in tendrils of shadow. He explained himself to Tolumvire, saying that fundamentally, he was opposed to the Hand of Fate. The Hand of Fate was a Paradax entity, he explained, that occupied a cosmic role as the neutral arbiter of destiny. It was his dream to take that role for himself, and to be a fair and just arbiter for all things. A fate that was not uncaring, or dispassionate. Tolumvire wondered how a creature with such a poor understanding of mankind and its suffering could possibly be a fair arbiter of fate, but he did not ask. Perhaps O’Rangus took the long view? Tolumvire had always been loyal to the concept of fate, believing that man, at his greatest, should devote himself to understanding and mastering it. To give it over to O’Rangus seemed wrong, but Tolumvire saw no way to fight. Perhaps there might be concessions to be gained if he negotiated with O’Rangus. Without warning, Bolgar emerged through a gate in Hermod’s realm. Without giving anyone time to react, he slew O’Rangus, who was vulnerable in his true form, without any host body. Had Tolumvire been intentionally baiting O’Rangus, the elder evil could have read his mind, or sensed his intent, and never would have presented itself. But Tolumvire, who neither planned Bolgar’s arrival, nor expected it, could give nothing away. Bolgar had not abandoned the war, but instead waited, and made plans that did not involve revealing anything to Tolumvire. King Bolgar departed as quickly as he had come, leaving Tolumvire alone on Ascension Island. Tolumvire inhibited O’Rangus soul, and it empowered him enough to complete his transformation into a demon prince, a transformation that had begun ever since he had been corrupted by the succubi. Though he had a chance to stop or contain the pillars, he chose not to - let them run their course. The nature of magic - and fate itself - would change, but it would be a natural process, without the manipulative and ammoral O’Rangus at its helm. Now fully transformed, a god, Tolumvire was free to ponder his future alone on Ascension Island. He could create a plane for himself if he wanted to; his magic was powerful enough. For better or worse, had finally shed his humanity. Nearly everyone who had been close to him had suffered, from individuals to entire civilizations. Even some who survived had lost themselves. Jang was a shattered shell of a woman who would drink herself to death. Sharra was a god’s servant, half holy and half profane. Ramander had made himself a monster in his father’s image. Toranna would live knowing her father had twice abandoned to unspeakable evil. The people of Arendur had been obliterated by his command, and there was no way Hermod could claim all their souls. Some good had remained. The Illuminated would remain under Jotunheim’s leadership, along with all their research. Curtin was now free, and his laboratory remained safe in the ruins of old Arendur. Most of the Lords remained, powerful heroes in their own right. There were some survivors from Arendur, men and women who had been outside Oranor when it had fallen, or who had made trips through its portals. These concerns were no longer Tolumvire’s to consider, and nor was the world something he could change any more. He had made his mark, and it was time to take his place among the divine.

## Demon Lord of Numorea

*"The demon has been vanquished."*

*"Then why am I still standing?"*

-Bolgar of Ragnarok and Tolumvire of Arendur

After becoming a demon lord on Ascension Isle, Tolumvire created the demiplane of Numorea, which he situated in the Abyss. Though he retained no followers - Xiloxi Drutreu's Demon Army served Sharra now - his magic was potent enough to make him a force to be reckoned with in the lower planes. No other demon lord could truly match his capacity to shape the raw matter of the Abyss, and Tolumvire was able to protect his new realm through the creation of many dreamscapes and chronal anomalies. Within time, the demon lord was able to amass servants, namely constructs and bound elementals from the plane of time. Some lesser demons chose to serve him as well, though Tolumvire would treat them with contempt, and forbid them access to his capital. Numorea was to be a perfect world, fit for habitation by all mortal races in peace, with a city for the gods at its heart. Similarly, Tolumvire showed no liking to his few clerics, instead favoring warlocks who made pacts with him, and providing them with a sliver of his oracular insight.

## Great Crusade Speech

*To my colleagues on the Council, to the men and women of the Illuminated, and to my fellow citizens of Arendur, I entreat you to hear my vision for a new chapter in our shared history.*

*We are wanderers on the sea of time, lost and adrift in a strange and mysterious world. We have faced momentous change and overcome insurmountable threats. Many of you have shed blood and tears for Arendur, or know a loved one who has paid the ultimate price. I bow to you. I acknowledge your sacrifices. You are the mortar and brick of our nation.*

*No longer shall your sacrifices be in vain. I have seen, both as participant and spectator, the endless cycle of strife and bloodshed that dictates the course of mankind’s destiny. We have been taken to a singular point in history, to our world’s youth, before the birth of gods and the rise of empires.*

*Do we stand aside and watch fate repeat itself? No! We have come too far, and lost so much, to not recoil at those words. We in Arendur dare to challenge fate. We claim the right to define fate. We claim primacy above all other nations of this world. We claim this world, Terra, as our own.*

*To this end I declare a Great Crusade, to unify mankind beneath our rule, so that we might be one people, with one purpose, with one shared destiny. We shall wage war to end all wars. There is no limit to the blood we will shed. There is no limit to the tears we shall shed. The sacrifices of the past and the future will not be rendered meaningless by inaction. They will be the mortar and brick of a nation for all mankind.*

*No matter what obstacles we must overcome, we will endure. We will always endure. That is who we are as a people, long-suffering and imperiled by an uncertain future, but always able to count on our resilience.*

*Effective immediately, we will transform our tools and institutions into weapons of war. To this end, I have directed the formation of a War Council to manage the affairs of our Great Crusade. The position of Warmaster will go to a familiar face. Doctor Curtin, who rallied the defenses of Arendur in its earliest days, will continue to lend his knowledge and expertise to this new and momentous endeavor. Place your trust in him.*

*May we ever know victory. May fate be ever in our favor. May our cause ever be just. Always endure!*

-Tolumvire of Arendur

## Personality

*"What good is regretting it now? This is the path I have traveled. To get what I wanted... If I apologize, if I repent... everything will come to an end. I'll never get to reach that place. I'll not... betray my dream. That is all."*

-Tolumvire of Arendur

The Emperor of Arendur was above all else profoundly narcissistic, seeing the world as a stark battle between himself - self-evidently the only man with the wisdom and virtue to lead humanity - and a host of enemies, who by opposing him opposed all mankind. Tolumvire was a natural leader, one who inspired others to put their trust in him; the sort of leader that men would die for. He was seen - not without some merit - as competent and knowledgeable, a man to guide his people through chaotic and uncertain times. A forceful and grandiose orator, he was often unthered from the truth. Perhaps the best that could be said of him was that he was utterly without fear. His idealism was genuine, yet he rationalized great atrocities by telling himself that no matter the price, it would all be worth it in the end. His vast energies and talents were applied to a project far beyond the ability of any one man, and his self-worth - delusional in its scope - would drive him to fits of rage when faced with failure.

After his ascension to demonhood, Tolumvire's worst qualities have crystallized, and his noble traits have nearly vanished. Bitter and apathetic about the world he left behind, he feels almost nothing but rage, and broods about the past. He still tries to play divine politics, and fights over the souls he feels belong to him. He recognizes his failures and feels a feeble imitation of remorse. He dreams of reincarnation, but knows that it is a perilous process for a soul as damaged as his.

Even as a young man, Tolumvire was domineering and haughty. Having spent little time amongst non-humans, he had a deeply prejudiced streak that never truly left him. Though he was no monster, he had a menacing and violent side. Alone amongst the Philosopher-Kings, Tolumvire despised the adventurer's life. His dream was to be the ruler of a peaceful and enlightened nation, serving as lawgiver, protector, and inventor. Though he was a master of arcane arts and accepted the service of mighty heroes, he saw the way of the spell and the sword as relics of an age best forgotten. His fervent desire was for a world without warrior-kings and magic, a world ruled by civilians and citizens, guided by the light of science and reason. These dreams of his were entirely in vain, for Tolumvire had a violent and warlike soul, capable of seizing and consolidating power, but unsuited for the intricacies of governance. When asked what position Tolumvire would be suited for in a hypothetical government, Doctor Curtin was known to have remarked that if he had his way, he would have sent Tolumvire adventuring - the life he hated and sought to leave behind was truthfully all he was good for.

Those who knew him the best tended to emphasize three qualities that characterized him.

* His being a genuine visionary whose whose ideas were necessary to humanity's advancement.
* His inability to fully understand the forces at play rendering him too flawed to carry out his chosen role.
* His immorality, his cruelty, his pettiness, and his ego being the drivers for his personality.

Tolumvire's familiar took many forms, most prominently that of a hawk from the Elemental Plane of Earth, seemingly constructed from blue gemstone, and at another time in the body of a winged cat. The two never spoke; Tolumvire made little use of her. Her name was Hercinia, but no one ever called her that.

## Leadership Style

*"Jotunheim began to see Tolumvire as a kind of malign genius who, behind the various postures, concealed an ice-cold contempt for his fellow human beings and a methodical determination to control and ruin them. His easy chat combined blunt truths, partial revelations, and outright deceptions. His extraordinary double ability to see how groups would react and the willingness to use violence to make them obey, the capacity to read group behavior and the force to make them move to his will, gave him the chance to exercise what Jotunheim called his "sovereign self." His was a political genius of a very unusual kind whose success rested on several sets of conflicting characteristics among which brutal, disarming honesty mingled with the wiles and deceits of a confidence man. He played his parts with perfect self-confidence, yet mixed them with rage, obsession, narcissism, paranoia, and irrationality... He used democracy when it suited him, negotiated with criminals and the industrialists, who might have contested his authority. He utterly dominated his councilmen with a sovereign contempt and threw them to the wolves as soon as he no longer needed them. He outwitted the Lords, even the strongest of them, and betrayed all those ... who had put him into power. By the Demon Wars even his closest friends... realized that they had helped put a demonic figure into power."*

-Tan Blackhand

Tolumvire believed firmly in his own vision, and preferred to rule by decree, devaluing civilian institutions in favor of micromanagement from the top. He was a restless, one-man bureaucracy, issuing a stream of telepathic commands to his underlings and dictating official documents to an undead scribe that followed him everywhere in Arendur. To better anticipate and shape public opinion, he demanded that newspapers be brought to him in advance of their publication, and dictated responses to individual headlines. Tolumvire frequently made alterations to the structure of Arendur's government, naming new positions and scrapping old ones, and rotating key ministers through roles as his whim suited. This had the unintended side effect of creating two governments in Arendur; one of dedicated soldiers and civil servants who kept their heads down and did their duties, and another of Tolumvire's confidants and allies, who carried out his commands. Despite the potential for a clash, the system more or less worked, allowing Arendur to largely govern itself, and freeing Tolumvire to focus on his grand schemes. Later on, as Tolumvire consolidated power, the system began to buckle, with some officials slow-rolling or outright ignoring his commands, and others appeasing his whims and flights of fancy. There was little room for an in-between. The army would become the most stable institution following Tolumvire's exile, creating a situation that was fast approaching that of a military dictatorship. Tolumvire cared greatly for his people in the abstract, providing for their welfare and happiness, but it was a conditional benevolence that hinged on the satisfaction he received from their praise and adulation, from the roar of the crowd.

Tolumvire of Arendur was a staggeringly incompetent military leader - easily the worst amongst the the Philosopher-Kings - who dangerously overrated his own ability. When he had the sense to let his best generals - Farcraft, Curtin, and Camron Marz, among others - handle warfare for him, the nation prospered.

It was said that a man had to be foolish, idealistic, or self-serving to wish to serve Tolumvire of Arendur. Luckily for the him, the world never ran short on such men.

## Feats of Magic

*"The old Emperor of Arendur.. he must have been desperate to save his crumbling little empire. The sacrifices he imposed on others... all for nothing."*

-Flavius Luteus Scaevola

As befitted his reputation, Tolumvire was considered among the mightiest wizards of his era, second only to Perduke. Though not much of a theoretical researcher, the Illuminated under his leadership produced and preserved an unrivaled corpus of lore. Tolumvire himself had seemingly mastered chronomancy and psionics; his control over time, the mind, and fate being second-to-none.

* He was able to unify arcane magic and psionics, a feat never before heard of. It enabled him to overcome the need for a spellbook, or for verbal and somatic components, casting spells with force of will alone.
* He was able to partition his mind, breaking his ego into component parts. This allowed him to resist the full brunt of Lord Alpha's mind-slavery, by sacrificing a sliver of his consciousness.
* He could bend almost any creature to his will through words, psychic might, and illusion, up to and including dragons and lesser deities.
* On the other side of the coin, he was seemingly impervious to attempts to dominate his mind, resisting Lord Alpha's mind-slavery and the control of a mythic succubus.
* Though psionic power alone, he could restore the dead to life, an act thought only possible through the intercession of the divine.
* He could likewise transcend the need for a physical body, being able to persist after death as a pure thought form.
* He could traverse the Twisted Gate by displacing himself, and was one of the few to travel the dangerous pathway on multiple occasions.
* Possessed of the gift of prophecy from birth, he transcended the need for outside modes of augury, posing questions to his own mind.
* At the height of his power, he exuded a small measure of influence over fate, continually bending it to his favor.

## Nicknames

Tolumvire was fond of referring to his compatriots by nicknames, often relating to an action or physical quality.

* Silvius - Pix, Stormchaser
* Darius - Foemaker
* Curtin - the Orc Doctor
* Fazo - the Fat
* Bazzel - the Time-Traveling Necromancer
* Elrond - Treemaker
* Kai - the Honorable
* Shanto Eln - the Barber
* Jamkas Wolfswift - Shieldbreaker, Lordslayer
* Zadira - the Deserter
* Jotunheim - the Childlike Mage
* Tan - Blackhand
* Monopoly - the False Emperor
* Thorren - the Betrayer
* Alpha - Deathmask
* Sharra - Ravencloak
* Frazon - Coldshoulder
* Perduke - Atlas
* Tiovonen - Voidwatcher
* Bolgar - the Giant, the Demolisher
* Hermod - Valiant-in-Battle
* Ramander - Ramander of the Unmarked Grave
* The Devourer of Gods - Aldrich
* The Summer King - Oberon
* Toranna - the Fateless
* Ashton Wood - Ashwood
* Rick - the Wonder-Maker
* Cordelia - the Fearless, the Kindhearted
* Vamnas Vuhlanath - the Royal who Ran
* Lorn - Longstaff
* Kade - Butcher Knight
* Khamsa - the Red Knight
* Brennan - the Shepherd of Fire, the Black Phoenix
* Flavius Luteus Scaevola - the Yellow-Robed Demagogue
* Annakiya - Anna Dressed in Blood
* Kuldeep - Demon King
* Astinus - the Mad Count of Ansalon

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

*“Keep in mind that no one thinks himself a villain, and few make decisions they think are wrong. A person may dislike his choice, but he will stand by it because, even in the worst circumstances, he believes that it was the best option available to him at the time.”*

-Doctor Curtin

The architect of the war, Tolumvire would sow the seeds of strife from his realm of Numorea. It was he who pushed the ruins of Arendur back into the Prime Material Plane, and who corrupted King Alphius and Queen Cynthia of Aurum, so that their daughter Cordelia might rebel against them and take the throne. He would retrieve the soul of Lorelei from the Abyss to fashion a true heir for the Throne of Atlantis, and dispatch his son Ramander to rouse Aglazdere to war. As the alliances took shape, he would sway Lothaire Parvaiz of Celymnaia and Bolgar of Ragnarok to his side, telling them that their kingdoms would be bulwarks against the Great Old Ones. During Twin-Emperor Brennan's attack on the Arendurian survivors, the Illuminated would summon Tolumvire from the Abyss. From atop his undead dragon, he would wreak havoc on the imperial troops, bending time and fracturing minds. He would duel Brennan twice, wounding him on the first encounter but loosing his dragon. On the second duel, Brennan would defeat the former Emperor of Arendur, banishing his corporeal form back to the Abyss.

During Skycity Alliance's attack on Aurum, Tolumvire would offer his aid to Cordelia. She would deny him three times, but upon seeing the devastation wrought upon her people, she would accept, binding the demon lord's spirit into a sword of great power. With her newfound weapon, she would turn the tide of battle, wreaking havoc and woe upon the enemy. Upon victory, Cordelia would realize her corruption, and fall upon her sword, stymieing the demon lord's plan to possess her and rule over Aurum through her vessel. In accordance with her last wishes, her followers would turn the sword into her grave marker, and keep close watch over it. With his corporeal body slumbering in the Abyss, the blade would become Tolumvire's prison, preventing him from swaying others to his dark cause. Shortly after the conclusion of the war, his daughter Toranna would undertake the long journey to Aurum, to the grave site of Princess Cordelia. There, she would easily overpower the guards, and take the sword for herself. Before departing, she informed those present that she would be a worthier and more effective prison for the demon lord then anything the guardians of Aurum could create. Tolumvire would try to possess her, and when that failed, to sway her to his ways of thinking. Toranna would ignore her father at every turn.

## After the War

*“I envy you, that it’s so easy for you to think of things in terms of black and white. I’d like to think I’m a good person, believe it or not. Everything I’ve done, I did because I thought it was right at the time. In hindsight, some of the ends didn’t justify the means, and sometimes there were unforseen consequences. But I don’t think of myself as a bad person.”*

-Tolumvire of Arendur

After the War of the Philosopher-Kings, Toranna would pledge her service to Kuldeep of Shangare. Tolumvire would rage at the thought of being wielded in the service of a demon king against the heroes of Atlantis and Ragnarok, yet in time come to accept that the Emperor of Shangare represented the only chance mankind had against the old ones.

When Shangare turned on Ragnarok, Toranna fought Khamsa in the abandoned streets of the Final Empire's capital. Though Toranna was wielding Cordelia's Sorrow, she was defeated and forced to flee by the Red Knight. From within the blade, the demon prince was staggered by the might of the Philosopher-King, power the likes of which he had not witnessed since his legendary battles with Bolgar. Tolumvire howled in triumph to his daughter, proclaiming to her that his plan to exalt a mage-king from the fires of a world war had succeeded. He commanded her to tell Khamsa that it was his duty to take up the mantle of the Master of Mankind, to conquer the world and take the Keys to the Multiverse for himself. Toranna silenced her father, telling him that she was his jailer, not his mouthpiece, and that even if Khamsa hadn't shown an aversion to power, he was no longer anything that could be called human.

Over the course of half a century, Toranna has kept her father's seething boredom at bay through ceaseless combat and by telling him about the events of the world. Tolumvire has some residual fondness for his son Ramander, and is pleased that he is trying to carry on the project of the Philosopher-Kings in his own way. He similarly has high hopes about his grandson Astinus, who he believes may yet do his family proud. He rages when he learns about the state of things in New Arendur, and reserves venom for Flavius Luteus Scaevola, who he refers to sometimes as the "arch-traitor." His feelings about the *damnatio memoriae* are mixed, for he is able to understand that Arendur must move on from its traumatic past. Nonetheless, the worship of the great old ones horrifies and dismays him, and he would rather see his people wiped from the face of the earth than watch them grovel before the King in Yellow.

## The Great Awakening

*“I pray that doubt comes to you, that it tempers you with its wisdom. Those heroes in our legends, Tolumvire, they were terrible, they were monsters, for they were strangers to uncertainty.”*

-Jotunheim

Toranna sunders Cordelia's Sorrow to free Tolumvire, recognizing that now that the Long War has begun, he must be part of it on the side of humanity. Tolumvire returns to Numorea to reconquer his realm and regain his power. He begins by making a series of Warlock pacts with aspiring arcanists, and establishes a new mortal triumvirate, declaring Robert Patenaude his Mortal Sword, Mogget his Shield Anvil, and Viola Broughton his Destriant.

Tolumvire considers the Godhunter's project to be a half-finished version of his own vision, and comes to the conclusion that he must be the one to unite the world over one god. Discarding the plot of puppeteering another Philosopher-King to gather the seven Keys to the Multiverse and bringing them to Acsension Isle, he decides that he must do what he himself firmly opposed years ago - destroy Ragnarok, reclaim Sharra and the Demon Army, and master the Abyss, becoming the King of Demons.

Tolumvire remains closely involved with the Free Arendur faction, and on the one hundredth anniversary of the War of the Philosopher-Kings - a century after being banished by Brennen - he is summoned to the prime material plane by Damaris of Ostoria for the battle against Tsathoggua.

After battling Tsathoggua, Tolumvire and Nylock travel to Caprakan in order to slay Aldrich, but are overwhelmed by the great old one, who devours the god of swords. Tolumvire is able to retrieve the Final Incantation and flee.

Prompted by a vision of the future, Tolumvire gives the Final Incantation to Axel Heiberg, but explains nothing about it.

Tolumvire leads Annakiya to Valusia for the purposes of killing Sertrous. Tolumvire was aware that Axel Heiberg, being the receptacle for Sertrous' soul, would be unable to kill the great old one. In the great battle with the serpent, Sertrous would devour the helpless explorer as he stood, hypnotized. As Sertrous began to digest his prey, Annakiya would use the oppertunity to strike, killing the great old one with the Blade of Echoes.

This would not prove the of Axel Heiberg. In a process forseen by Tolumvire and little understood - involving Axel Heiberg's connection to Sertrous and his mastery of the Final Incantation - a new entity would arise from the slain bodies of the serpent and the devoured demon lord, calling itself Abraxas.

## Legacy (The End of History)

*“In his case, what had been hardness became cruelty, while a tendency to bluff became plain dishonesty. He often lied without hesitation and assumed that others lied to him. He believed no one any more. It had already been difficult enough dealing with him: it now became a torture that grew steadily worse from month to month. He frequently lost all self-control and his language grew increasingly violent. In his intimate circle he now found no restraining influence.”*

-Jotunheim

No Philosopher-King would have a legacy as divisive of that of Tolumvire of Arendur. In many nations, he was reviled as a monster, a genocidal warmonger whose ideals would sow the seeds of strife and bloodshed for years to come. In Arendur itself, many bitterly regretted that they had done his bidding and enabled his dreams, while others looked back on their work with pride, wholeheartedly embracing his beliefs. Among practitioners of magic, Tolumvire was seen with a more mixed view, with most acknowledging that few men had done more for further the cause of the arcane. By and large, the one thing posterity would agree upon was that no leader before him had spilled so much blood in their quest for absolute power. What they disagreed upon was only whether or not it was, in the end, justified.

Tolumvire had a grand mausoleum in New Arendur beneath a statue of him. For a while, the crypt was empty. After his demonic form was killed by Brennan of Alara, the twisted metal magitech that had replaced much of his body was recovered by the Illuminated for study. After the fall of the Illuminated, his statue was torn down, but the mausoleum was kept, and the magitech scrap - no longer magical - was respectfully interred there at the command of Wolfram Panzer. After the rise of Flavius Luteus Scaevola and the institution of the *damnatio memoriae,* all inscriptions on the mausoleum were scoured off.