Aldir’tor Zaithrall
 | |
| Title(s) | Therri'cill of the Enlightened Kingdom
of Luminion |
| House | Zaithrall |
| Born | 1386 AFS |
| Spouse | A'mos Celephin'nel |
| Issue | Cirlia Zaithrall |
| Rule | 1521 AFS – 1535 AFS |
| Realm(s) | The Enlightened Kingdom of Luminion |
| Race | High Elf |
| Culture | Elven |
Physical description:
Aldir’tor stands at around 198 centimeters (6’6). He has bright green eyes with thick dark blonde eyebrows and long straight blonde hair. He is frail and may come off as physically weak on first sight. He prefers to wear his official magister's outfit in the colors of his house. Besides that he has a wide range of more of loosely fitting clothes he sometimes wears on his free days. Yet it is a rare sight to see him outside his beloved blue robes. Whenever he leaves his room he decorates his head with a elegant silver or golden crown carefully crafted by the jewellers of the ancient elven realm of Tetheris the first. He does not wear any jewellery besides the white golden wedding ring he has decorating his finger.
Characteristics:
Aldir’tor has the attitude and insightfulness of a mage destined. He is extremely thorough and calculating in nature. He will never answer a question straight. He loves to discuss and debate for hours over seemingly mundane topics and tends to endlessly contemplate any question he gets presented. This indecisiveness has proven to be an issue for Aldir’tor during the times of the Rotting Plague. It was he who was in charge of the Luminous Enclave at that time. This was because his father was on a pilgrimage to Hadriana to research the plague and try to discover a cure. While that was happening, Aldir’tor was very slow to react to the destructive rampage that the plague was on his realm. While crops were withering away and the cattle and steeds of the enclave were literally rotting away in their pens, he was unsure what the right course of action would be. He locked himself in his private study and resorted to conducting research, looking for ancient tomes describing the plagues from ages past and how previous Therri'cill's handled those situations.
Like many of his family before him, Aldir'tor is also a prideful man who believes that his bloodline has the divine right to rule the Enlightened Kingdom. He is a devoted believer in the Elven Pantheon and the supreme position of the Mother within it. But despite his seemingly strong outlook on any outsider. He is a deeply emotional person in private spheres. One thing that has been haunting his mind since 1525 is the sudden severe unknown illness his beloved wife A’mos got afflicted by. He had to single handily raise his three children and rule the lands without her guiding hand. This exhausting period of his life took a heavy toll on him and it made him realize that he would not be able to pursue his dreams of exploring the secrets of the Aether realm while also taking care of his family and kingdom. After his wife recovered from her illness, Aldir’tor had developed a more retreated lifestyle. He preferred to spend more and more time away in his study, endlessly researching the teachings of ancient Aeromancers because he wanted to know the true secrets of magic. He hopes that by doing so, he may one day find the ultimate knowledge on how to finally rid the world of the forces of the voidal realms once and for all.
This new Aldir’tor had a high toll on his family life who grew distant from him. He simply allowed this to happen since he was so drained from the previous period of his life that he could not endure any more social interactions besides the bare minimum. Now after he has had some helpful conversations with the Scinar Kharis about his state of being, he carefully started rebuilding the bonds that he had with his family. And despite it still being difficult for him, he feels a strong desire to do so as under the thick wall he built between himself and them, he still loves them dearly.
History:
Early life
Aldir’tor was born in the year 1386 A.F.S. in the Luminous Enclave of Aerial as the first and only son of Therri’cill Aethis Zaithrall. As his mother died during childbirth he spent most of his life in the Aerial Zaithrall mansion with his father. Because his father was Therri’cill, the young prince enjoyed a life of luxury and immense wealth. Just as any other child of the Luminous Enclave, he was to enjoy youngling education, where he met his first set of close friends, those being Eldrin Faerondaerl and Thalanil Larethael, then princes and heirs of two great houses of Luminion. He did not know this yet, but his youth friends would one day play a pivotal role in the upcoming High Elven civil war. Aldir’tor enjoyed his time in the youngling school and already at a young age spent much time studying the topics presented to him such as ancient Elven language studies, art, math, and magical theory. After wrapping up his youngling education he was to serve in the military, training to become a horseman in the Tyr’es Alari. Because of his status as prince, he was allowed to skip past the stage where he would train with a spear and bow as a basic infantryman. Yet despite his given advantage, he found little success in the martial arts of the Tyr’es Alari. His frail body and general disinterest in the martial side of the armed forces led to him often being bested by his peers during his training. This made him swiftly leave military service after he completed his one year and turn back to what he desired most, his studies into the arcane arts.
Despite his father disapproving of his swift leave from the armed forces, he was no fool and knew that the young prince was of no use to them. Yet he was determined to make him a useful asset on the battlefield, if not as a martial hero, it would be as an arcane support. This decision would radically change the course of Aldir’tor’s life. His father approved of his ascension to magical student in the colleges of magic where he was to study the arts of Aeromancy. This is because that has been a magic that is historically intertwined with the Zaithrall family and many of his family members have been renowned Aeromancers before him. This academic path set out for him by his father brought the prince much more success as he was swift to connect to the Aether realm and learn the art of spell casting. His many years of previous private studying in this instance provide an advantage over many of his peers. He would graduate from the college of magic choosing the path of tempestacy as he wished to practice a more offensively oriented magic. The young prince grew more serious during his years in college as he also went along with his now-aging father on diplomatic missions, making his first official public appearances and speaking to officials of other nations, finding friends and allies in the Hadrian and Mitronan courts. Yet his first real challenge as leader of his people came sooner than expected in the form of the Rotting Plague.
The Rotting Plague
It was in the year 1506 when the nation was suddenly shaken to its core with the news of a great plague taking many lives in the Hadrian Kingdom to the west of the Enclave. Human, cattle, crop, and insect all fell victim to the relentless plague. Messengers and diplomats working in these human nations reported scenes of mass graves, black fields where golden acres once waved in the wind, and zealots taking over the streets in a desperate attempt to save themselves from the impending doom. At first, the Luminous Enclave seemed safe from this plague as Therri’cill Aethis swiftly closed all borders to western nations, yet it was not enough as the diplomats and messengers that returned from earlier ventures already carried the plague with them. The Elves themselves appeared to be immune to the disease directly, but the crops and cattle certainly were not. Yet the disease seemed to lay dormant for the time being. It was in the year 1507 when the then Hadrian king asked for aid from the Elves of the Luminous Enclave, which Aethis was willing to provide in an effort to contain the disease that also slowly started to take hold in the glade. He assembled a host of medics and silver cloak bodyguards and moved out to the Kingdom of Hadriana to aid them in developing an efficient cure for the plague.
It was when Aethis left that Aldir’tor was given command over the homeland for the first time, to watch over the lands until Aethis returned. The young prince has had some training in the art of ruling, yet nothing could prepare him for the outbreak that was just around the corner. The plague started taking a stronger hold on the glade in the year 1508. Crops withered, cattle died, and all those who the Azari’cill deemed to be of lesser blood swiftly died due to the murderous nature of the plague. The glade that once deemed itself safe from the rotting plague was now ravaged by it all the same. Since his father was still away, Aldir’tor was acting as Therri’cill within the glade, and upon his young untrained shoulder now lay the fate of his people. The biggest challenge for the Elves of the glade was not that they themselves caught and died from the plague since they were immune to it, it was the fact that their food supplies were withering away beneath their feet. As 1508 progressed famine struck the Elves as the last of their supplies started to run dry. Aldir’tor ordered a complete territorial lockdown of the provinces of Ilumnia and Caliatha as they seemed as of yet the least affected by the plague and thus acted as the last food source of the kingdom. Rations were issued and all public events were banned by the prince-therri’cill, but despite all these measures in a desperate attempt to preserve the glade, it was unavoidable that many lives were still taken by the great famine. The kingdom seemed in peril and it was up to the prince to find a solution to preserve his people.
His solution came about halfway through 1509. He then created his own research group akin to the one his father sent out to the Hadrian kingdom to work on a cure, yet Aldir’tor’s party had a different goal, as they had no hope of developing a cure while the vast majority of their medical staff was away from the kingdom. Aldir’tor’s group was attempting to find a way through the power of Aeromancy to create pockets of land where the power of the Aether would quite literally blow away the particles that spread the plague and through that create areas where farming could be done safely without the plague entering those regions. He would call these areas ‘storm bastions’ as they were villages that were literally surrounded by a wall of storm clouds blowing outward. To the naked eye, these storm bastions almost seemed like stationary tornadoes. Yet this was ultimately not the case since as soon as one entered through the barrier, the air turned calm again and little effect of the spell roaring outside was directly felt. Many months of research were conducted by those involved and the storm bastions seemed to be effective to a degree. More food could be farmed safely yet many bastions still fell to plague-carrying elves or cattle slipping through the cracks.
Through many of such measures were the Elves of the glade able to survive, but many lives were still lost. After a ravenous period of five years, the plague seemed to die down, having run its cycle of destruction. Aldir’tor’s rule during this period, despite it being chaotic was deemed to be worthy of a leader. Many of the disasters thrown at him were completely out of his control during this brief period. His father returned home shortly after the plague was officially deemed over and was visibly aged and scarred by what he had seen. His health rapidly deteriorated after he returned and many of the offices held by the Therri’cill were already passed on to Aldir’tor. This decline continued until the year 1520 when Aethis went to bed early after complaining about an itching pain in his chest. He died that night in his bed and was found by his chambermaid the next morning.
Eldrin’s Rebellion
Aldir’tor ascended to the throne in the year 1521 after an extensive period of mourning over the loss of his father. The young now Therri’cill was visibly scarred by the loss of his last parent and did little in terms of actual ruling after his father’s crown was planted on his head. He would oversee the completion of the new capital city named Luminion his father commissioned and redistributed land to his now Lord status friends Eldrin and Thalanil. Yet despite things seemingly being calm and the kingdom making many great leaps forward, he felt lonely and somewhat depressed due to the dark thoughts haunting his mind constantly. This ultimately resulted in him deciding to abdicate from the throne in the year 1522, only one year into his rule. Since he was at the time without children he chose his closest friend, Thalanil Larethael, to take the reigns of the nation and lead the now Enlightened Kingdom of Luminion to a greater future while he lived out his years as a retired spellcaster.
This decision was frowned upon by many, yet the one who took it the worst was his childhood friend and now noble Eldrin Faerendaerl, as he always felt like he was the one closest to Aldir’tor and thus was more deserving of the crown. Thalanil came from a young lesser noble family only known for their blacksmithing skills and real estate dealings. The family had no land of their own and had no history of rulership. In response to Thalanil being placed on the throne by Aldir’tor, Eldrin conspired with the head of the guard, Fynenar Aey’flir to depose the new Therri’cill before he could cement his rule. And so it was done, within only a few months the new Therri’cill was deposed and replaced by the “council of princes” made up of Edrin himself and Fynenar. This new council was to be used to eventually officially plant Eldrin on the throne. Thalanil was dragged off his throne during a lord’s meeting towards the end of 1522 and placed under house arrest with the intention to be executed after the ascension of Eldrin. Though Aldir’tor prevented this fate for Thalanil as he could not bare to witness one of his childhood friends being brutally murdered by a usurper. During the night of Thalanil’s arrest, he insisted that due to his noble status, Thalanil should be kept prisoner in his home and not in some dank dungeon, to which Eldrin and Fynenar agreed. And it was during the following night that Aldir’tor freed Thalanil from his home and led him outside the capital under a cloak. He prepared a steed just outside the walls for Thalanil to take and ride west, to their allies in the Hadrian kingdom. And just as planned, Thalanil escaped and made his way to Ceril’s keep to meet with king Roderick Withmond.
Aldir’tor would ride after Thalanil the next morning after informing Eldrin and Fynenar of his escape. He told the princes that Thalanil left him a note telling him to meet him in Hadriana and that he went to lure him back to Luminion, yet that was simply a ruse to ride out without anyone following him.
He rode to Ceril’s keep and met Thalanil there, having been welcomed warmly by King Roderick Withmond. From there they discussed how it would be best to retake the kingdom. Roderick offered Thalanil to march upon Luminion with his armies to retake the throne by force, an offer Thalanil refused after discussing it with Aldir’tor as he did not wish to see his kingdom returned to him by the hand of a human king. After careful deliberation it was decided to send out a pamphlet around the realm, calling everyone loyal to Thalanil to come to Ceril’s keep, in an effort to see how big the support was for the exiled Therri’cill. After receiving a lukewarm response to his call, only having a small force of loyal ‘cill actually answering the call, he turned to Aldir’tor and returned the crown to him, asking him to release him from his burden. A request Aldir’tor swiftly accepted as he was sure that only a Zaithrall could restore the peace. Meanwhile, a similar request came from the council of princes, asking for his return as they feared a Hadrian invasion force, completely unaware of the fact that Thalanil refused to use human force. Aldir’tor swiftly returned to Luminion to claim his rightful place on the throne and restore the peace.
As a final action to restore any sentiment of rebellion against the Therri’cill, he would hire a host of Hadrian rebels during the Hadrian Civil war to shoot Eldrin in the back using crossbows as he was sent to them on a diplomatic mission. Eldrin was unceremoniously shot in the back ten times with crossbows and died on the spot. His dead body was delivered to Luminion where it is preserved to this very day.
Modern Life
After the turbulent period of the civil war, Aldir’tor found renewed strength, the pain of his loss started to fade away, and he did not want to again abandon his people, as the civil war showed what would happen when the kingdom loses the guiding hand of the Zaithrall family. To strengthen his bloodline Aldir’tor would after many years decide to look for a suitable candidate for marriage, and one swiftly came, recommended by his new right-hand nobleman, Fynenar Aey’flir. A young woman of noble descent was recommended to him known as A'mos Celephin'nel, yet it was up to him to take the first steps toward her, which he swiftly did. He opened talks with her on a regular basis and at a ball in the then-newly independent state of Królestwo Ràdymie, he asked her for a dance, during which he turned their friendly relationship into a romantic one.
They entered into a more open relationship around halfway through 1523, when they announced that they were courting. They swiftly married later that year after a medi’cilus confirmed that A’mos was pregnant with triplets. The royal wedding was considered a grand success as many lords and ladies, kings, sultans, and Denur clan heads came to the event. Many gifts were donated to the newlywed couple and new fruitful alliances were signed. Towards the end of that year, Aldir’tor and A’mos’ children were born. The eldest was their daughter Cirlia Zaithrall, a name chosen by A’mos to honor her family. The second-born was a son, Tetheris III Zaithrall, a powerful name to honor the ‘cill’s first Therri’cill, and their third child was another son named Respen Zaithrall, a name again chosen by A’mos to honor her family. These births cemented the future of the royal bloodline and ensured that a Zaithrall would take the throne once Aldir’tor left the mortal plain. For the following years, he led the High Elves into a golden age, finishing magnificent works of architecture, opening the grand colleges of magic of Luminion, and protecting the glade from both Demonic and Undead incursions led by the Lord of Bones and Zarzareth the plague lord.
The Liberation of Mitrona
An age of relative peace persisted under his rule up until the year 1530, when their eastern allies and neighbors from the Mystical Empire of Mitrona led by the wretched Solana Faestra, the Khari’cerr that took control of the empire after Mythanthar retired, betrayed the alliance by straying off the path set out to preserve the glade. She allowed Dark Elves to enter the glade freely and inbreed with her people, creating a subbreed of Wood-Dark Elf hybrids. This taint on the glade manifested itself in increasing hostility towards the High Elves who stood firmly against this increasing threat. This all came to a head when Aldir’tor visited a tourney hosted in 1530 to decide who would be the new chieftain of the empire. Mythanthar Vidarr returned to reclaim his dying empire from the chieftess that ran it into the ground, yet was unable to defeat Chieftess Solana in single combat after a long duel. Mythanthar accepted defeat yet Aldir’tor could no longer bear to witness his allies be ripped to shreds by Dark Elf intrusion and he offered Solana an ultimatum that demanded her to step down and return power to Mythanthar, abandon the glade with the Dark Elves she led in, and to never return afterward. No reply came so Aldir’tor called for his Lord Regents to raise their banners and prepare to forcefully evict the false Chieftess from the forest.
War was declared by Aldir’tor on the 17th of Highsun, 1530, and his troops swiftly after started to surround the forest. The defenders, being the supporters of Solana’s regime were unable to resist the impending High Elven host and decided to flee the glade in mass, choosing to retreat to the far northern bastion of Avalheim. Mitrona was swiftly defeated afterward and Mythanthar was restored to the throne. This brief but brutal conflict marked the first military victory Aldir’tor achieved and would pave the way to a second golden age where Aldir’tor would aim for a more expansionist policy to expand the influence his kingdom held beyond its borders.
Trivia:
- Aldir’tor is a night person. He likes to stay up and retreat to his study after he children and wife retreat to their chambers. It was a habit he had acquired in his youth when he had difficulty sleeping because of the everlasting unrest in his head keeping him awake during the years of the Rotting Plague.
- Aldir’tor was the first Therri’cill to deny the wife candidate that the temple presented after he became the Therri’cill elect. His first wife, Erinae died shortly after they married. Some say this was a punishment from the mother for breaking tradition.
- Aldir'tor's chosen colour for the uniforms of his guardians is naval blue.
- Aldir'tor holds many titles, most of which he gave to himself, a few examples of these titles are:
- Therri'cill of the Enlightened Kingdom of Luminion
- Guardian of Purity
- Warden of Luminion
- The Diplomat
- Aeromancer and Ar’mágoi of the 'cill
- The great Bessi'inn of Luminion
- Kinna es Kerr'os ann Cellitil
- Llerr es Ellaminor
- Therri of the Glade of Dragons
- Slayer es Dragoi
- Past-Therri'cill of the Luminous Enclave of Aerial
- Liberator of the 'cerr