Kagetsu Aurelac de Maar Sul

	Kagetsu Aurelac I
	Profile
Status:	Dead
Age:	Unknown
Race:	Andain
Gender:	Male
Class:	Red Mage
Nation:	Maar Sul
Faction:	House of Aurelac; Maar Sul;
Era:	First Age

This article is about the first Kagetsu Aurelac. For the second Kagetsu, see Kagetsu II.

"Kagetsu was not born dark. He suffered. Had he found peace instead of misery later in life--O, how brightly he could have shone!"

—Pooka about Kagetsu Aurelac

Kagetsu Aurelac de Maar Sul, also known as Kagetsu I, was the founding father of the House of Aurelac and Lord of the Andain once dedicated to destroying the world and re-creating it anew by distributing the powers of the gods amongst mortals. He was most famous for his role in the War of the Andain and Arawn Losstarot War, being directly responsible for slaying the goddess Gaea and causing the Explosion which ended the Second Age and killed off all the living Andain, himself included. He was the founding father of the nation of Maar Sul and the late husband of Marya. His name was passed on to one of his descendants, Kagetsu II.

Biography

Early Years

Formation of Maar Sul

Kagetsu was born of Mardük, the God of Chaos, and a mortal, which made him a demigod called Andain. Details about Kagetsu's mother are lost in the mists of time, but it is presumed that she must have had a rack on her of mammoth proportions to catch the attention of Mardük. Kagetsu made a lot of mortal friends, and became very sympathetic towards them. Mardük forged a sword, Dokubaraken, and gave it to Kagetsu who began using it as his primary weapon.

Kagetsu and several of his Andain friends built a city beside the Golden Lake from which Kagetsu took his surname. He dubbed it Maar Sul City for a reason nobody remembers. Ancient Maar Sul became a hub of commerce between the Andain and mortals in the Land of the Living. During this time Kagetsu also studied magic and eventually wrote the Book of Kagetsu which contained a list of powerful spells which required so much lifeforce that only Andain could cast them.

For his work in promoting interspecies harmony, Kagetsu was elected Lord of the Andain by his peers. Around this time he met and fell in love with the mortal Marya and married her. Marya became his most loyal friend and companion.

War of the Andain

"There's only one thing that matters to me right now. I want you to live. No matter what. Live."

—Kagetsu to Marya Aurelac

Kagetsu eventually began to see how mortals suffered due to crime and death. He began devising a way to put an end to the suffering and, thanks to a voice whispering to him, he saw that only one thing could truly bring balance to the world: giving all mortals power of the gods. This, however, was seen as an act of open rebellion against the gods who sent Gaea to the Land of the Living to talk some sense into Kagetsu. The plan failed when Kagetsu slew Gaea much to everyone's shock, proving to everyone that gods can in fact be killed if they manifest in the Land of the Living in their corporeal form.

The War of the Andain raged on between the Rebels supporting Kagetsu and Loyalists supporting the god-worshipping Taliesin, another powerful Andain lord, for decades. In the end Kagetsu was betrayed by Amaranth, one of his most trusted allies who sold him to Taliesin. Kagetsu, realizing that he was about to be beaten when Taliesin and his forces invaded his airship, still refused to give up and instead ordered his wife to be taken to safety. Before Kagetsu and Marya parted, he granted her the gift of immortality, a powerful spell which he had written, and asked her to wait for his return no matter how long it would take.

Not long after Marya had been forced to flee, Taliesin finally located Kagetsu. The two Andain lords had a duel worthy of legend, but Kagetsu was weakened by fighting as well as distraught over his wife's departure. He was eventually defeated by Taliesin who, while unable to kill Kagetsu, managed to seal him into a magic stone where he would presumably remain trapped for all time. Seeing their lord defeated, the remaining renegades surrendered, and Maar Sul was abandoned.

The war had come to an end, and Taliesin claimed dominion over the remaining Andain, taking over the position Kagetsu had once held. From that point on Kagetsu became known as the Dark Andain, a traitor to his kind, whom later generations except the Maar Sulais would view as a villain.

Second Coming

Manster Rebellion

During the Manster Rebellion, Leon Alcibiates broke the Third Law of the Andain by swearing, on the strongest possible terms, an oath--to defeat the demon lord Yurius and bring peace to Manster--that was far beyond his ability to fulfill. Thus his words of power ended up accidentally releasing Kagetsu from Taliesin's magical prison. Initially, Kagetsu was linked to Leon for this reason, and he was locked in the form of his totem familiar, a black dire wolf. Kagetsu formed an alliance with Yurius and fought against Agarwaen during the events in Manster in order to break free from the bond between him and Leon.

When Yurius was banished by Agarwaen and the Fellowship of Miletos, the resulting magical surge helped sever the bond between Kagetsu and Leon, and Kagetsu left everyone else to their own devices. Kagetsu was also reunited with his wife Marya at long last, and both of them were full of hope as they began preparing setting the stage for the founding of a new incarnation of Maar Sul.

Arawn Losstarot War

"Arawn Losstarot is quite mad, and madness is nigh indistinguishable from genius. I will try to use Arawn, and he will try to use me, but we will be open about it, and not insult one anothers' intelligence."

—Kagetsu about Arawn Losstarot

During Arawn Losstarot's rise to power and the following war, Kagetsu was busy rebuilding Maar Sul on the sly within the borders of Verdane. Initially, he thought to use Arawn and try to avoid being used in turn. Arawn, however, saw through this ruse and ended up kidnapping Marya and raping the shit out of her to force Kagetsu to work for him instead of the Grand Alliance in the war. This made Kagetsu kinda mad.

Things got even worse when Kagetsu's old rival Taliesin showed himself and turned out to have turned Kagetsu's once-loyal ally Gordius Highwind into a traitor. However, Kagetsu was too distressed over Marya's capture to really concentrate on the threat posed by Gordius and Taliesin.

Kagetsu couldn't strike against Arawn directly, though, because then Marya's life would be forfeit. Because Arawn keyed the wards around Marya specifically to Andain, neither Kagetsu nor any of his minions could get through to his fortress, so he needed help--and that meant the mage Raistlin II who had helped banish Yurius in the Manster conflict. Raistlin agreed to help in return for Kagetsu's oath to cease his attempts to destroy the world. Kagetsu reluctantly agreed because ultimately Marya's safety was more important to him than his plans for the world, and he sided with the Grand Alliance in the war after Marya had been successfully rescued from Arawn's stronghold.

Death

Kagetsu, though a creature of honor, found a loophole in his pact with Raistlin II. At the end of the war, he confronted Arawn face-to-face and harnessed the energies unleashed by their battle within the magic blade Krystallopyr and used them to siphon off the powers of all of the Andain and distribute them to the mortals. This not only slew Arawn but also killed all of the Andain in the world, including Kagetsu, and shattered Krystallopyr. It also kinda accidentally blew up the world.

Legacy

"I remind you that Arawn's powers were so great that it took Krystallopyr being wielded by Andain to bring him down before. The threat then was so great that we even had to trust Kagetsu Aurelac, who had sworn to destroy the world--and almost did so."

"Have you not been a friend of House Aurelac all these years? Was Kagetsu not a great hero?"

"The present House of Aurelac is a noble and honorable clan, but Kagetsu himself--no. Had Arawn not been on the scene at the time I'd have considered him to be the greatest danger the world had ever faced. What aid he granted was only given under the most extreme duress. I reiterate, he wanted to destroy the entire world. The work of the Faerfolc and even the demons of Yamato would be as nothing beside the havoc that Kagetsu would have sewn."

—Leon Alcibiates and Alistair Wisteria

The continents were rearranged in the aftermath of Kagetsu's sacrifice, and the survivors--excepting the Maar Sulais who still viewed him as a hero--considered Kagetsu to be a traitor to the Alliance for causing that disastrous Explosion, so his name because further vilified. On the bright side, the Explosion killed Arawn, too, and gave mortals something called the Innate Abilities.

The Dark Andain's shadow would loom over the world even after his death, though. His descendants, the House of Aurelac, would rule Maar Sul for generations after his death. His name would be given to one such descendant, Kagetsu II, a future king of Maar Sul who was even called the Earthshatterer by bullies as a reminder of the first Kagetsu's actions.

Meanwhile Marya would live on thanks to the spell of immortality which Kagetsu had cast on her, and be driven to madness for grieving for her fallen husband, which would eventually lead her to manipulate the rise of the True Aurelac faction which would carry on Kagetsu's vision of a strong, militaristic Maar Sul and bring Maar Sul into an era of strife once more.

Aliases and Nicknames

Dark Andain: Used by his enemies after the war he had waged against the gods.

Kagetsu I: Used later on by Maar Sulais to distinguish him from his descendant, Kagetsu II.

Lord of the Andain: Used by his followers.

Appearance

Kagetsu was a dark-haired guy with a well-built body. He was often clad in an armor of black and gold. He looked like a big bad wolf in his animal form.

Personality and Traits

Kagetsu was fiercely loyal to his loved ones and brutal to his opponents. Although he was determined to destroy the world and create a more equal word for everyone, he was willing to forsake this goal for the sake of his beloved Marya although ultimately he did sacrifice his life to give mortals a chance to build a better world. He occasionally did petty things like exploding squirrels for no apparent reason.

Powers and Abilities

Kagetsu, as a demigod, could do practically anything he wanted power-wise save resurrecting people from the dead or going against his father Mardük's power since that power surpassed his own. His totem animal was a big black wolf and he could transform into a wolf form at will. This shapeshifting ability was passed on to his descendants.

Symbolism

Kagetsu's personal banner was a golden phoenix on a field of black; this was later adopted to be the coat of arms for the House of Aurelac and the nation of Maar Sul that rose from the ashes of the explosion. His personal guard were called the Citadel Home Guard, which eventually became SAVAGE under the administration of Kagetsu's mortal descendants.

Relationships

Arawn Losstarot

Kagetsu and Arawn hated each other's guts although initially they acted nice to one another while still trying to manipulate the other for their own ends. In the end they died in each other's arms. Although their rivalry was originally an intellectual one, it changed when Arawn kidnapped and raped Marya, which made Kagetsu swear vengeance and ultimately side with the Alliance to oppose him.

Gordius Highwind

Kagetsu trusted Gordius, one of his generals, with his life. Thus it came as a devastating surprise to him when Gordius turned against him by siding with Taliesin who had promised him power. Ultimately Gordius was dealt with, but after that Kagetsu could never see any of his allies the same way and became more convinced that he had to finish what he had begun to put an end to schemers and usher in an utopia where no such backstabbings would be needed anymore.

Leon Alcibiates

Kagetsu was released from his magical prison in the Second Age when Leon accidentally linked their lifeforces together by triggering one of the Laws of the Andain. Kagetsu was stuck in his totem wolf form, however, and although he saved Leon a few times while in this form, he sided with Yurius to break the connection between the two. After Leon fulfilled his oath, it broke the link between the two, allowing Kagetsu to return to his Andain self once more, and he didn't interact with Leon much afterwards.

Marya Aurelac

Kagetsu loved his wife Marya dearly, and she loved him back. When he found out that Marya had been raped and was bearing Arawn's child, he let Marya keep the child and promised to raise it as his own, showing how much he trusted in his wife's judgement. He loved her so much that ultimately he sided with the Alliance against Arawn to keep her safe from Arawn even if it meant not being able to see his plans come to fruition, and this act ultimately led him to his demise.

Raistlin II

At first Kagetsu and Raistlin were at odds, Raistlin wishing to harness Kagetsu's power. However, once Raistlin had softened and became a true member of the Alliance and managed to trick Kagetsu to fall into a trap, he suggested that the Andain lord team with the Alliance in exchange for Marya's safety. Once Raistlin succeeded in saving Marya from Arawn's stronghold, Kagetsu reluctantly agreed to aid him due to owing a debt to him.

Taliesin

Kagetsu and Taliesin came to oppose each other during the War of the Andain when Kagetsu wanted to distribute the powers of the gods to mortals. Taliesin couldn't allow this due to his obedience to the gods, which made the two Andain lords clash. They remained bitter enemies even when they were forced to work together with the Alliance to stand a chance against Arawn.

Yurius

Kagetsu and the demon lord Yurius teamed up briefly during the Manster Rebellion although Kagetsu only sided with him in order to wrestle free from the connection he shared with Leon. Once Yurius was defeated, Kagetsu disappeared into the shadows while rebuilding Maar Sul in secret.