Legends of Belariath

Nobles and Other Significant Characters

Scathien

The Emperor, in his infinite wisdom had seen the potential Scathien had, and with his control already solidified in the region of the Kolight wetlands with the Western Guild of Fire Mages two weeks march away from the lands of Nanthalion, Stormbringer gave him the entire surrounding area to rule as he saw fit.

While Scathien has no true army of his own, with the Western Guild of Fire Mages at his command he has a rather formidable force indeed and uses those forces to aid the surrounding armies under the empire's control. Because the main forces are more of a support unit than a true army, Scathien has erected various outposts amongst his land and recruited various forces into his army in elite groups headed by his guild's highest ranked Fire Mages.

While he was not raised of noble blood, his background that of a simple miner in a desert town, his claim to it is nothing more than miraculous at best. His homelands destroyed by a dark necromancer, he had forsaken all gods and was taken in by the elements themselves. Transformed into a powerful pyromancer, a true weaver of the flames he ventured to seek out Flameforger, guided by the sole fact that he could not be truly powerful until he received the secret of elemental mastery by the elemental master of fire. His mission failed, as Flameforger would not give him the information he sought, and even went so far as to seal the power within him as Scathien attempted to kill him in retaliation.

Returned to the simplicity of a humble mage with barely any working knowledge of magic, Scathien (going only by Soulic Dorean, his true name) began his studies at the tower of Unigo, slowly gaining power as all people must do when learning properly. In time the seal on his true power began to weaken, and he prepared to travel to find Flameforger once again in order to unlock the secrets behind elemental mastery without having his powers control him like they did before. However before doing that, he received a message. A summons really to venture to the western lands of the Kolight wetlands and to the Western Guild of Fire Mages to aid them in retrieving something important.

It was truly a test of his skill, and for his hard work he received a small token of power, the Scars of Firamos that reached along his arms and gave him increased ease of casting certain magic. Scathien could not be trusted in this instance however, for instead of returning the item they had sent him to retrieve (the Scroll of the Sacred Fireball) he instead kept it for himself and returned home while evading the watchful eye of the guild master’s cohorts that were awaiting his return (The guild master simply didn’t care one way or the other).

The power of the scars unlocked made his training easier, as he found himself once more guided by otherworldly knowledge and using it he ventured to Flameforger and unlocked the secret of elemental mastery, transforming him once more into his chosen name, Scathien. It was this time he undertook the study of smithing under the tutelage of Krom the Barbarian, and learning through him grew stronger both in the ways of smithing, and in its own way, strengthened him as a fire mage.

The time eventually came where he pledged himself into Qu`Selashya's army as a smith, forging for her and several of her vassals weapons that they could use with his personal brand. Using connections through her army, he traveled back to his homelands and through no small feat destroyed the forces that had set him on this particular little adventure. As he traveled though, he realized that something dark and destructive had taken hold of his soul, as the scars had allowed one of the truly powerful fire elementals to guide his actions, in turn making Firamos stronger and stronger as the days passed. Scathien began to worry that in time Firamos would control him entirely, and if there was one thing the mage could not stand, it was being controlled...

Soon he was contacted once again by the Guild master of the Western Guild of Fire Mages. This time he was to venture to the Sunken Tower of Furnak, and retrieve the man within and return him to the Guild master as he has not seen him in quite some time. Looking back on it as he faced the various traps attempting to escape the sunken tower, he should have known it was a trap, the guild master seeking to be rid of Scathien before he grew too powerful for his own good. Unfortunately, he underestimated his own traps, and Scathien escaped with the very thing he was hoping to retrieve should Scathien escape with Furnak, a special relic which held the strength of a phoenix.

Scathien returned home, the guild master thinking Scathien dead, and he continued his life free from the man's influence, spending the time trying to unlock the secrets of the artifact which he now held, as well as advancing even further on his path as a smith. During this time he advanced so far in smithing ability he grew able to manipulate and forge Mythril, mastering it and creating his masterpiece, the perfection of his skill as a smith and his own personal weapon "Defender of the Flame".

He had also unlocked the power within the artifact, and with it came a new outlook on life, for when his body was reborn by the strength of the phoenix locked within the Scars of Firamos were eradicated from his body. He was now prepared to take proper revenge against the man who had him killed and once more ventured to the lands of Kolight, masquerading as a noble he infiltrated the tower with 9 soldiers he had borrowed from Qu`Selashya's forces with her permission, and staged an attack on the guild master one morning which ended up with his men killed and the Guild master’s guards incinerated. A battle of will occurred between the guild master, who once held the strength of the phoenix, and could not be killed because of it, until Scathien submitted, returning the relic to the Guild master upon heeding a vision from Raysure the Phoenix god himself.

Raysure stole the guild master’s power and returned it to the relic once more, allowing Scathien to kill him. As such, Scathien assumed the role of Guild master, and left a puppet guild master in place, someone he could easily control when the time arose. He returned home, replacing Qu`Selashya's lost forces with members from his own guild and returned to his life in Nanthalion.

Given his accomplishments up to the present, the emperor was rather impressed by Scathien's fortitude, and offered him the region of Kolight and its surrounding areas to rule over since he had no one else in that area with the kind of foothold that Scathien already had.

Oddly enough this coincided with Scathien's most recent rebirth, the strength of the phoenix having changed him immensely...