Berengarius Graves

Berengarius Graves II, often nicknamed the Baron or Baron Graves, grew up in a village west of Auelian, called Carpiune. He was born into a wealthy family on 6/262/3/49 and was able to go to school to learn how to read and write. He was fascinated by the great authors of the time and this fascination inspired him to write his first short story titled, *The Carnage of Carpiune*, at 16 years old. It was a crudely written book about a small murder mystery set in his home town. It was a flop and he later moved to the great city of Auelian to pursue a career in blacksmithing. He found success and settled in the city. He didn’t stay long, as the massacre occurred just 15 days after he bought his home.

### **The Auelian Massacre**

The infamous massacre had a big effect on Berengarius’ life. He had a wife and 2 kids when it happened and lost all of them. The dragon, who was in the process of the affliction, slaughtered 180 people that day. Berengarius was able to survive by hiding in his cellar, but was unable to save his family as they were crushed in the initial blaze of the city. He left the city and moved back to Carpiune and decided to pursue his interest in literature again.

### **Baron Graves**

He revised his first book from when he was 16 until it was an entirely different story. This time, the story was a success. He found small amounts of fame, especially in the surrounding areas. This financed his trip to the capital of the Thacorian Kingdom, Thacoria. He set up a bookstore and made a profit buying and reselling books. He took inspiration from many works in the Great Library and was able to write numerous other books. He was now a prominent author known as Baron Graves to most. He was intrigued by the religious fanatics of Etherealism and based a lot of his books on the more horrific aspects of the religion. The books featuring Etherealism did significantly worse than the other stories and he shifted his literary focus on more general horror and mystery. He wrote his most famous novel, *Blightbury Hill*, after visiting a town that was slowly succumbing to the swamp it was built on top of. His career was winding down after nearly 8 years straight of writing. He was still interested in Etherealism and all of its beliefs so he decided to officially convert. His induction ceremony took place near a gate that led to the Maw. The ceremony concluded with him passing through the gate and experiencing the Maw for the first time. He was awestruck as the existence of other realms was a big part of the religion that he had very serious doubts about.

### **The Baron**

Berengarius stopped writing so many fictional stories and began writing accounts and journals as he traveled the Vale. He visited numerous obscure places and wrote notes on even more obscure religions, cults, and practices. After years of traveling the Vale, learning new languages, and exploring the Maw, his funds were dwindling and he decided to give the military a try. He was inducted as a soldier but started as a Druid due to his previous arcane abilities his parents had taught him before he left. He fought in the Seventh Company on the border. He mainly fought savage tribes and exterminated necromancy near the border. He obtained the nickname of The Baron after slaughtering over 20 soldiers in a war. The Baron served for 10 years in the military. His loose assignment on the border gave him plenty of time to write about his experiences in combat and in the peculiar towns that seemed to line the border. Over the years he was able to be promoted to a Commander but was given minimal amounts of troops to form his own Ninth Company. He kept the border secure and regulated trade, mostly. He saw very little real combat against armored and prepared enemies. One day, while patrolling with some of his soldiers, he encountered a large mass of afflicted creatures. This hive was the first time he had seen real afflicted in person. Many stories mention the afflicted but they are largely considered fictional. He was outnumbered severely and half of the patrol succumbed to the afflicted before he ordered the retreat. He had underestimated the intelligence of his opponent, and he was cut off from running as the afflicted forces had surrounded him in the forest. He was able to find a dilapidated fort from the great wars and made his way inside. Inside the fort, he found another Gate that led to the Maw. He had since forgotten his time inside the other realm when he was inducted as an Etherealist. With no choice, and facing utter defeat, he ordered the men into the Gate. The freezing realm was pitch black, and with his small arcane knowledge, he was able to create a flame to guide them after a few attempts. They scoured the realm for hours. It was filled with peculiar relics, ruins and semi-flat grasslands spanning continents. Running out of food and water, they found another Gate. Not much thought went through the Baron’s mind when he entered it. Unbeknownst to him, this was a fragile Gate, and it fell apart after his entrance. But Berengarius was not there to see it. He was in a strange realm. His location was a great mystery to him but he seemed to be in an odd part of the Vale. This went against all his prior knowledge of the realms, however, because the Maw was a transition world into deeper realms filled with many portals to these abyssal worlds. No Gates led back to the Vale without being specifically opened by a magick user with sufficient knowledge of how to do so.

### **Eldham**

He traveled far before finding a village. The knowledge of his new location was given to him by a local. He was in a place called Valreach. He had never heard of this nation but he understood that there were lands far from the Thacorian Kingdom. He inquired about his Kingdom and asked directions but was met with no answer, as the villager had not heard of such a place. After hours of consideration and exploration, the fauna and flora of this land was clearly different from his own. The geography itself was distinctly alien to him. Worst of all, he was unable to perform any of even the simplest spells he had learned. After a quick check, the amount of magick in the air was zero. He had never been anywhere that had absolutely no magick in the air. Low amounts were rare but they often had reasons they were low, such as a short term golem in the area, but never zero. He settled in a town named Nidaros. The locals welcomed him. They didn’t accept his small amount of coinage as currency, rather for the gold it contained. He was able to locate a small residence that was extremely cheap, for he only had to produce 2 golden coins for it. He soon learned of the area’s culture. He met with a cartographer and learned that he was no longer in the Vale, for he was in a realm named, ‘Eldham’. There were many things about this new world that he had to learn, but he also had lots to tell about how things differed in the Vale. The locals found the prominence of magick and the creatures they considered fanatical the most interesting. He held on to his Etherealist beliefs, hoping for a like-minded individual to find a solution to his problems but he found no one. He made a living by rewriting his books he previously published and selling them. He also had a few copies of books that he kept with him. One was named the Pagithanimas and it was the main religious text of Etherealism. He spent a lot of time studying this book in a desperate search for a way to get back home.