Alderath the Ageless

Alderath was born in Iisadium, Arnas, the heart of the Theden Empire in the middle of the Sacred Age.  He was born to a small family; his father, Laurion Flasca, was an architect and his mother, Asceda Flasca, was a scribe.  She taught him her trade and he became her helper.  The First Purple Order of Magi at Amoniroth, the ancient order of mages that was tasked to find and train magic-users in the youth of Theden, came one day and informed them that Alderath was a magician, like his grandfather.  This immediately elevated his family, the Flascas, to a more exalted level of society.  Alderath was taken at the age of seven to train and live at the imperial mages' academy in Amoniroth.  He lived in the dazzling capital of Theden for ten years during the reign of Magus Imperatora Ascerea, advancing particularly in the arts of lumomancy, pyromancy, and warding.  When he turned seventeen and left the Purple Academy, Alderath stayed in Amoniroth, working first for an alchemist and then the imperial infrastructure system.  His skill and his renown grew slowly as a talented mage, and he even caught the eye of the Eight Magisters after his clever use of light manipulation won the Empire the Battle of Hedring's Dike.  Alderath had to leave the political stage when his parents died of plague and he had to care for his young sister.  A year and a half later he married her off to a Magistrate and then returned to the capital.  When Userius' master, one of the Eight, Ascdra the Hunched-back died, he chose Alderath, who was only twenty-one, as his apprentice.  He had just learned to master his ring of power, which all Magisters—master or apprentice—wore, when Muldorn, God of Vanity, broke free from his prison and raised the Second Scourge, sweeping forth from the Red Mountains; right in the center of Arnas.  Three of the Eight were killed trying to quell the Scourge in the first few weeks and thousands fled the ancient Theden cities of Arnas for the better protected cities of Naren.  The elves united with Theden to drive the Scourge back, containing the thousands of orcs and gorrlocs in Arnas.  Then, while purging the port city of Tema, a barronaug burst from under the city and wiped out the legion of soldiers.  Alderath, still an apprentice to Userius, went with another apprentice, Kalorin of Esgilith—who lost his master in the first week of the Scourge; together killed the barronaug.  The Scourge was being pushed back when Muldorn himself led the horde and slaughtered three armies sent to stop him.  Again, Alderath went to face the fallen god; but this time he had with him an unknown artifact that he kept secret.  Legend says that he had found the artifact in the ruins of an ancient Naren city-state.  Alderath with an army of Guardians and Theden legionnaires met Muldorn at the Fields of Farithas, just south of Naren Vale.  The apprentice Magister unveiled the item he had found in the ruins: the Shield of Boleras.  The radiance of the Sun-god's shield burned Muldorn and sent the dark god fleeing back to the Red Mountains.  Fifteen days later, Legionnaire Vessarian Cairrus imprisoned Muldorn and ended the Second Scourge.  Alderath and Kalorin became Magisters and lived through the Sacred Age, taking on and training apprentices.  But Alderath, called the Ageless, could sense that Theden was waning and with the advent of the Third Scourge, his doubts became realities.  The escape of Duman and the coming of a Third Scourge to Mundus, with Underborn pouring out from the ancient Mountains of Dusk and along the Theden-Thray border caused disaster in both empires.  Alderath and Kalorin fought to preserve Theden, but the God of Silence ravaged all the lands of men.  Dorlúin promised to help, but they mobilized slowly and did not rush to help men fight the Scourge.  The Thedes and Thrayans united and the dwarves sent an army to help, a battle was staged at the old city of Manauris.  An Archon, the Thede Titus Nescus of Orthulium and his lover the high elf Silerré journeyed to Mustpavadas where Duman was dwelling, engaged the dark god using the Horn of Findelas, imprisoning him deep within the mountain.  The orcs were defeated at Manauris and fled down into the Deep.  Theden was crippled by this Scourge and the Magus Age began soon after with the defeat of fellow Magister Iscadethus defeated by the eastern sorcerer Theporos at Lothferen.  The Empire was split; with the heartland of Theden becoming the Kingdom of Lortheas, the five provinces of Nariath received sovereignty, and the eastern provinces became the Arannis Empire.  The Fourth Scourge came and went in the east and then the Fifth Scourge arrived, Alderath and Kalorin were the last two ancient Magisters still alive to fight their third Scourge.  The traditions of Theden were broken.  Urydrell, the God of Rage, destroyed Lortheas and sank Amarilius' island, that held Lortheoren on it, under Lake Naren.  Alderath, escaping the destruction and slaughter, fled to Narenior and disappeared from the world.  Kalorin the Wise, Alderath's friend and fellow Magister, fled to his home city of Esgilith in Arannis, where he became Asdoriin II's Archmage.  Kalorin sacrificed himself as he destroyed an invading horde of Dumunites in the Amaranthine Mountains several decades later.  Whether Alderath died or not is unknown, but many rumors and countless legends have grown around him.