| Aloysius | |
| |
| Profile | |
| Status: | Dead |
| Age: | 55 (at time of death) |
| Race: | Human |
| Gender: | Male |
| Class: | Paladin |
| Nation: | Libaterra |
| Faction: | |
| Era: | Third Age |
- "Behold the might of a paladin of Alent and the power of the Beacon of Hope! We have abjured the madness and despair of Mardük and the rest of the selfish pantheon and replaced them with the persevering will of mankind."
- —Aloysius to demons of Threshold
Aloysius was the oldest member of a group of paladins who worked for Richelieu. He was an honor-bound man who commended opponents he deemed worthy, and he saw following the law above anything else while understanding that sometimes tough decisions had to be made for the greater good. He and his companions defeated Drishnek with help from the Fellowship of Maar Sul, helped the fellowship flee from Akai Tora captivity in Vulpengaard Keep and fought in the Battle of Vanna alongside the Grand Alliance. After returning to Alent, Aloysius participated in the Raid on the Den of Chaos with the rest of the Cursed Company under Richelieu's orders to put a stop to the underground demon threat in the city. While there, he ended up dueling with Stylianos Kinley who tried to help demons flee from the Den. Aloysius perished when the Den collapsed, taking many enemies with him while doing his best to protect Richelieu and his companions from attackers.
Biography[]
Early Years[]
Little is known of Aloysius's early life. Some rumours claim he might've been a dark knight working for the Clergy of Mardük in Vulpengaard Keep. What is known is that Aloysius's history with the Magicracy of Alent truly began after Richelieu had returned from raiding Vulpengaard Keep at the end of the Great War and brought several promising knights to his tower where he began training them rigorously for over a decade, dismissing most of his disciples as failures who had been driven mad by his experiments.
Godslayer Era[]
Empowered by the Beacon[]
Aloysius was one of the few disciples who survived Richelieu's rigorous trials. He helped his fellow knights Ariadne, Seth and Sophia train their youngest member Maitreya who they believed would become the greatest knight of them all if given time.
In late spring of 1017 AE when the Feast of Paedün was taking place, Richelieu took the five knights with him and went to the throne room of Alent's central ziggurat to thwart a dark ritual between Archmage Jemuel and his advisor Drishnek who Richelieu believed had been manipulating Jemuel for far too long.
The knights had been trained to face Drishnek's undead powers and finally revealed why their training had been so harsh when they invoked the magical power of the Beacon of Alent and abjured the powers of the god Mardük, turning into paladins in purple, shining armor and proving that mortals can gain divine power without relying just on gods.
Richelieu and the purple paladins managed to save Jemuel from Drishnek who escaped to the streets below to target his old enemy from the fellowship, Leon Alcibiates. The paladins gave chase to the runaway lich while Richelieu tended to the disoriented Jemuel. Eventually the paladins tracked Drishek down as the lich was fighting against the Fellowship of Maar Sul who were protecting Leon from him. The fellowship and the paladins worked together, and ultimately Ariadne and the fellowship's leader Khasra III managed to destroy Drishnek's lich body, believing him to have perished for good.
Chasing the Fellowship[]
The fellowship used the chaotic aftermath which had attracted a crowd to the scene of the battle to flee from the paladins and the city. The paladins reported the fellowship's escape to Jemuel and Richelieu who ordered them to chase after the fellowship with the newly revealed airship, the Imperator while the rest of the magicracy would prepare for an eventual showdown with a newly risen threat to their interests, the Crimson Coalition led by Glaurung Losstarot.
The paladins wasted no time and did their best to track down the elusive fellowship all the way to Yamato. They eventually learned of the fellowship aiding the Akai Tora in taking over Vulpengaard Keep from demons. When the fellowship was imprisoned due to them being framed for an assassination attempt on Shogun Hiroshi Takamoto, the paladins decided to intervene with help from their Alentian ally Greg before the fellowship could be executed. They met with the fellowship within Vulpengaard Keep and offered them the means to escape aboard the airship.
Although the fellowship was skeptical about accepting Alentian aid at first because they didn't trust Jemuel or Richelieu, they eventually gave in and led the airship to their destination, the Silverbranch Tree. After exchanging words with the tree, the surviving members of the fellowship were teleported to a distant location where they could find the periapts they needed to end the threat of the Blood Fever. The paladins teleported as well, not wanting to lose sight of the fellowship again, while the airship returned back home to Alent.
Teaming Up[]
The fellowship and the paladins found themselves aboard the Hiltraud, a ship which belonged to the Grand Alliance. After initial confusion about this group's sudden appearance among Alliance members was over, the groups introduced themselves to the crew and the leaders of the Alliance's expedition, helping one another get up to speed with what was going on. At this time stowaways from the Grey Cult made themselves known as well, and although the paladins recognized High Prophet Xerathas d'Zarnagon and Captain Varalia Earthhaven among the stowaways, they chose not to address the issue. To them the Grey Cult could be just as potent allies against the Coalition and demon hordes as the Alliance would be.
The Alliance learned of the fellowship's quest to end the Blood Fever and the rise of the Crimson Coalition, as well as the existence of the Magicracy of Alent which wanted to form an alliance with the Alliance, both the fellowship and the expedition. The paladins and the fellowship learned of the Alliance's quest to liberate Vanna and all of the Sultanate of Karaganda from the yoke of the Clergy of Artemicia and replace Sultana Adela al-Saif with the Alliance member Khalid al-Saif.
To show Alent's goodwill, the paladins promised to help the Alliance in its quest in exchange for the Alliance's higher-ups visiting Alent and discussing terms of a potential alliance with Jemuel and the Council of Mages. The terms were deemed acceptable, and from that moment on the fellowship and the paladins would work alongside the Alliance and the Grey Cult in their quest as they entered the Tronin Desert in Southern Libaterra. While on the way to the Sarquil capital through the desert, they picked up a disoriented man along the way who turned out to be some of the Alliance members' old comrade Jono Renfield.
Court Intrigue[]
After reaching Vanna, the groups witnessed the tense confrontation between Adela and Khalid in the throne room of Vanna but were just as surprised as everyone else when Adela, against Khalid's expectations, showed them a boy she claimed was her son. Although the Alliance remained oblivious to the boy's importance, the paladins did notice a noticeable scar above the boy's eyebrow which immediately alerted them to the possibility that the boy might be a Losstarot.
The goddess Artemicia revealed herself and trapped both Khalid and Xerathas inside a giant hourglass while giving an ultimatum to the group to bring back the head of the leader of the sirithai, who had been waging a guerrilla war against the sultanate from the deepest parts of the desert, in exchange for Khalid and Xerathas's lives. Left with no choice, the expedition's leader Axikasha Keiran accepted the terms.
A hasty meeting was held afterwards where the group discussed their next move while meeting with the Sarquil Azriel al-Zarar who wished to help them in their quest to depose Adela. It was decided that they would go to the desert and find the sirithai but instead enlist their aid against Adela and Artemicia than massacre them as the goddess expected them to do.
The paladins accompanied the group to the desert in search of the sirithai, only to witness the sirithai ambushing some of the group members later on and taking the captives, Ariadne, Greg, Varalia and Refan d'Zarnagon, to their lair. Realizing that time was of the essence, the group split in two: one half followed the sirithai and the kidnapped group members to the underground tunnels below while the other half would continue the trek to the sirithai lair above land at the same time.
After several dangerous confrontations, the groups reunited in Xibalba, the sirithai lair, where they met not only with the sirithai leader Qadohi but also the god Shakkan who was planning to unleash the sirithai in the desert to wipe out all Sarquil and any other supporters of Artemicia who threatened the sirithai's existence. Ax tried to negotiate a deal with the angry god and Shakkan eventually relented albeit with a twist: he would reconsider the Alliance's words and integrity if they defeated his champion, Plushiebunny, in the lair's massive arena.
A deal was struck, and the Alliance went to the arena to free their comrades and then faced Plushiebunny in combat, eventually besting evil in its cutest form albeit with casualties such as Greg. The negotiations continued as the sirithai, impressed by the Alliance's bravery, reconsidered their offer. Before a deal could be made a squad of Black Guards led by Sergeant Obama appeared in the lair, ordering the Alliance to kill the sirithai now as they had pledged to do, or die. To make matters worse, Awar, one of the members of the Alliance, revealed himself as a mole and betrayed his companions by using magical artifacts to trap Shakkan, his true target, into a magical shard. Awar and the one he served wished to use the god's essence for something, but he chose not to reveal what.
However, the day was saved when the sirithai decided to side with the Alliance and the Alliance decided to remain loyal to the sirithai instead of the sultanate. Together, the sirithai and the Alliance defeated Obama and his squad, and Azriel managed to intercept and knock out Awar before he could escape to safety. A deal was made: the sirithai would help the Alliance depose Adela and the Clergy of Artemicia in exchange for them helping free Shakkan from the shard.
Battles and Betrayals[]
More info later.
Descent into Darkness[]
- "When did beacons of Order, Truth, and Laws begin to serve a horde of Liars like the Mage Council?"
- "Who dares?"
- "You throw around a word like 'justice' without cause, because Alent was never just to these. You and your precious Councillors abandoned them to live in filth and poverty, left them open to depredations by invaders to the city, and by your own acts you now condemn them to death. I am Stylianos Kinley, acting at my own behest. I will serve Alent and its Beacon of Lies no more. Face me, Defender of Liars."
- "What are you? Demon? Some subject-slave of theirs? I suppose it matters not. Your blood will spill, just as theirs will."
- "Don't be too sure of that. Unlike the boy you just murdered, I have weapons and armor fit for war."
- —Stylianos Kinley and Aloysius
More info later.
Death[]
- "I've lived a long life, serving the path of Knowledge and Wisdom in a world full of Chaos to the best of my ability. It's high time I earned some well-needed rest for these aching bones. Others shall fight for you now in their own way, Paedün, God of Wisdom. Wherever you may be now, guide their steps no matter where they may lead in the end."
- —Aloysius's last thoughts
As a last ditch effort to prevent demons from fleeing, Richelieu had the Den of Chaos collapse to take as many people with it as possible. Aloysius witnessed some of the demons managing to flee just as the Den collapsed and accepted his death gracefully and without fear as he believed to the very end that he had served Alent to the best of his ability.
Aliases and Nicknames[]
- Sir Aloysius
- What he's called.
Appearance[]
A tall, aging man with a white beard and hair clad in purple armor. He wields a claymore in battle.
Personality and Traits[]
He's an honor-bound man who shows respect to his opponents if he deems them worthy of it but will not hesitate to kill anyone he deems a threat to Alent's interests or if he's ordered to judge the guilty with his sword. He believes in Alentian ideals above all else and, despite the mages' shortcomings, he thinks it's still possible to realize the magicracy's ultimate vision of a land not dictated by the whims of gods and where mankind can thrive on its own terms in pursuit of wisdom.
Powers and Abilities[]
He's an experienced swordsman and despite his advanced age can still wield his mighty claymore efficiently, boosted by his white magic as a paladin to heal wounds and protect himself from attacks. His light-based magic is a good deterrent against demons, undead and people with dark magic who are distracted by its brilliance.
Relationships[]
Richelieu[]
Aloysius has come to respect Richelieu a great deal, understanding the councillor's sometimes ruthless actions to achieve a greater good. He understands that Richelieu is looking at the big picture and that some sacrifices have to be made to reach those goals. He, like his fellow knights, is willing to die for Richelieu and Alent if needed to reach a better future for everyone.
Stylianos Kinley[]
Aloysius faced Stylianos in the Den of Chaos when the latter tried to open a way for the demons to flee while Aloysius and his forces did their best to prevent the demons from escaping. He saw Stylianos as a man who was either seduced by demons or whose heart was leading him down the wrong path despite noble intentions, but commended his bravery and determination nevertheless. Despite his respect for his opponent, Aloysius saw Stylianos as yet another obstacle to cut down to ensure the success of the Cursed Company's mission. The two had a fierce duel with no definite winner when Janus's betrayal caught them both off-guard, and the Den collapsing prevented either of them from having a rematch. Stylianos appeared to ignore Aloysius showing respect to him in combat and called him out on hypocricy for killing children, refusing to see the more experienced paladin's point of view and why the Cursed Company had to do what they had to do to the very end.
See also[]
