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[h3][color=d698d0]ARIUS MASTEMA[/color][/h3]
10/03/1095
died age 76 in 1171

The death of his father hurt him, despite the hatred Arius had harbored towards him from the moment they met. He would never dare admit it but deep down he secretly wanted Belzeneff to care about him, and Belzeneff had died before they could ever resolve their issues. Even worse, Bellona had changed from the kind mother he came to see her as. She was distraught over her husband’s death and determined to continue the war in Belzeneff’s name. She had completely lost reason and only cared about destroying the rebels in revenge for her family, not even concerned over what happened to anyone else anymore. There were few people she still trusted, Arius being one of them, and he was ordered to take his remaining siblings into hiding, and to protect them with his life. That was the last time he ever saw his mother. 

Months later, he received devastating news that Bellona had finally fallen and that the rebels claimed victory. To make matters worse, nobody knew who had actually killed her, her corpse was just found in the royal graveyard in front of the tombstone of Bellissiah Black. He brought his siblings back to the castle and Belladonna was made into the queen. He considered leaving the castle and disappearing, but then he remembered his promise to Bellona to protect his siblings, so he stuck around and made sure they were protected from the rebels.

He did not trust Seraphion, but he made no moves against him out of fear that his siblings would be used against him if he tried to continue Bellona’s fight. In Seraphion’s opinion the biggest threats to the new government out of the remaining royalty were Arius and Bellerophon. He believed the younger ones were not as strong as their older brothers to be a real threat, and he felt Belladonna was not foolish enough to try anything to make her job as queen more difficult after being on the losing side of a devastating civil war. Arius behaved himself due to the threat of his siblings’ safety otherwise they would all be imprisoned just like Bellerophon, who had constantly tried to fight Abiel and Seraphion ever since he woke up from his coma. Arius was on bad terms with Bellerophon the last time he saw his brother, because Arius said he couldn’t help him and that it would be better for the family to follow Belladonna’s lead for now, and Bellerophon disappeared a few weeks later. Feeling guilty over his brother’s disappearance, because he thought Bellerophon might have stayed if Arius had tried to help, Arius decided to spy on the new wizard’s council. Even if Seraphion was pulling the strings, Arius wanted to at least know what he was up to and make sure he would do nothing to harm his older sister. After just a few meetings it wasn’t hard for Arius to feel that the new government was a vast improvement from his father (he had hated Belzeneff for a reason, after all) but he didn’t want to come out and say he supported Seraphion’s ideals, because he blamed him for Bellona’s death. Instead, Arius credited Belladonna whenever he had something good to say, as he reluctantly got close to the wizard council for the next decade with a false smile always on his face.

Arius was caught off guard when Belladonna, Beluga, and Seraphion all died within a few months. He took temporary control of the wizard council after Seraphion and Beluga, but he didn’t expect Belladonna to die and he certainly didn’t expect to feel the overwhelming headache that came with it. Arius woke up in a strange place, face to face with Oz, and found out he was the next prophet. Arius instantly did not like Oz; blaming him for the deaths of his parents and yelling at him for all the bad things that happened on Wiz. He called him a false god, saying a true god should have been able to prevent his sister’s death, his brothers’, his father’s, and Bellona’s. Oz did not defend himself and only gave Arius a sad smile, telling Arius that “even with his warnings of the future, time desires to remain on its original course, and changing fate is difficult”. Arius thought he was giving him a poor excuse and told Oz he should have just tried harder to change fate then.

After that first disastrous meeting, Arius did not acknowledge Oz’ presence in his mind, but it had still somehow gotten out to the public that he was the new prophet. With Belladonna dead, Belisario ascended the throne and Arius relinquished his position on he wizard council after becoming the prophet.
Bellerophon was no longer on Wiz, so those who did not accept Belisario claimed that Arius should become king instead, despite him being illegitimate because he was the oldest after Belladonna and was “chosen by Oz”. However, Arius believed Wiz needed stability and Belisario was the only royal that was married in order to become king anyways. He wanted nothing to do with a power struggle and he definitely did not want to rush into a marriage; so, he told everyone that Oz spoke to him and claimed Belisario was the next rightful king. It was a lie of course; Oz did not say a thing to Arius about Belladonna’s successor. Unknown to Arius, Oz had seen a vision of Arius having a very sudden death in the near future (the next week) if Oz warned him of Belisario’s horrible reign, where Arius dared tried to take the crown for himself in order to prevent Wiz’s downfall, and had judged Arius better off to just not have any reason to gain an interest in the throne. Oblivious to the future Oz saw, Arius trusted Belisario to be a good ruler so he did not do anything else to interfere, and spent most of his time unwillingly at the church with Symphora Zylan. He replaced her as the Head Priest of Oz, because he was the prophet and she was getting old. Arius still hated Oz and anything to do with the religion, and could not believe he had actually been made the leader of it. 

Unlike the prophets before him and despite his animosity, at first Arius made an effort to speak to Oz because he wanted to try to understand him better, but their conversations were far from civil and he began to use him as an outlet for his anger instead. Arius always took time out of his day to let him know how much of a horrible “god” Oz was and demanded to know why he never did anything worthwhile to really help wizards. All Arius heard were excuses and he did not accept Oz’ decision to remain neutral in most conflicts. But Oz never seemed to hate him, and Arius could not comprehend why he didn't retaliate against him. He could not understand why Oz cared for every single wizard when there were so many horrible ones who Arius did not believe deserve such unconditional love. And he definitely did not understand why Oz looked happy to speak with him, even when Arius just said hurtful things to him daily.  He mildly complained to his protector, Gracidea, about him all the time but like always he made just made her uneasy, especially since she could not bring herself to see Oz in a bad light and was afraid of offending her god. So he stopped speaking to not only her, but everyone, about his beliefs on Oz. He returned to his persona with the false smiles, keeping his true feelings inside and having nobody to truly confide in and open up to. 

He did not begin to doubt Belisario until years later, when Arius finally managed to get Oz to admit why he remained neutral. Oz gave the same reason he spoke about during the first meeting, except Arius had finally given Oz a chance to give a full explanation. Oz explained that events that are fated to occur will almost always happen, even if the things leading up to it or the people experiencing it are different. Most interference in time only results in minor changes that still lead to the original fated path and it takes a lot of effort to truly change something and drastically alter time. The visions Oz sends are usually futile attempts to prevent disasters and usually the changes he influences just ends up making the future worse off or he would create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and that there are only a few instances when he managed to make a real positive change. There was a time when Oz did make a huge effort to influence the timeline, but several prophets in the past had claimed they were better off not knowing what happened, so Oz decided to stop showing frequent visions and to only interfere in important matters. He would take no sides in conflicts between wizards and let things play out as they were meant to be, no matter how painful. 

Arius disagreed and said he should try his best to help, not just watch idly as wizards die in wars and suffer tragedies. Arius once again said he hated him and blamed him for everyone’s trouble, but unlike every other time, Oz finally became angry and lashed out against him. He showed Arius multiple visions of the future and taunted, “Try and solve all of these problems then…you cannot, can you?” Arius saw the terrible fate Wiz would suffer, his siblings dying one by one from Belisario’s cruelty, and the land dark and desolate. Arius was shocked and yelled at Oz again, exclaiming, “You don’t consider stopping Belisario from killing my siblings and all those people to become this ridiculous Dark Overlord important?!”

Oz looked at him coldly, explaining that the dark overlord he originally foresaw been someone else and that Belisario ended up a rebel working against him, but because he interfered with a vision Belisario somehow ended up taking that role instead and was an even crueler ruler than the original. But Arius was determined to stop his brother and scolded Oz for giving up so easily. Arius then claimed it would be up to himself to make a difference, since their god was cruel and abandoned them.

While Arius bottled up his negative feelings and used Oz as an outlet, on the surface Arius acted as if he had not changed at all. He maintained a permanent creepy smile that he directed towards everybody and continued with his spontaneous behavior. Nobody saw past his calm exterior, the anxiety and worry that plagued him after witnessing the horrible visions. He had no idea how to save his siblings – Belisario included – and the deaths that would occur would begin with the catatonic Bellarino. In the end Arius was unable to succeed in saving Bellarino and he felt like it was the worst thing he had ever done in his life, and he could swear he heard Bellona's voice in his head whispering that he did not keep the promise he made to protect his siblings. Shaken by the realization he failed his wonderful mother, Arius impulsively confronted Belisario without a real plan. Still having faith that his brother was ultimately a good person, Arius explained that he knew that he was behind Bellarino's death and that he had been shown a vision of his future plans for the family. In desperation, he asked the king to cease his ridiculous plot to kill their siblings, and that it was not too late to change the future. But all Arius received in response was the most evil expression he had ever seen on Belisario, who claimed that it was too bad that Arius had foolishly confronted him like this since he could have lived a little longer if he had just stayed out of his way instead. Arius was attacked and forced to fight for his life, and it was a fight that he eventually lost: Belisario dealt a serious injury to his heart.

As he lay dying, Oz visited him in his mind one last time and mercifully cut Arius off from his senses so that Arius would not feel himself die, only like he was falling asleep. Oz let Arius rest his head on his lap and comforted him by quietly stroking his hair, a sad nostalgic look on his face. Arius felt truly despaired that he had been unable to save anybody and cried, feeling truly vulnerable, apologizing to Oz about how cruel he had been to him and that he was just taking out his anger on him. He regretted that all their conversations had gone bad, but he wished he really could have understood Oz like he desired in the beginning and pleaded for Oz to forgive him. Then Arius, finally beginning to lose consciousness, begged Oz to help his sibling. To for once not remain neutral and to save Wiz instead, and not let those he was leaving behind to suffer under Belisario’s rule. He also feared Oz would assist Belisario, thinking he would be the next prophet after him, but Oz soothed him with words that he loved and forgave him, and not to worry about Belisario becoming the next prophet.

Arius closed his eyes and never opened them again, while Oz solemnly watched his life disappear. Touched by the heartfelt final words, Oz took Arius’ wish to heart, and promised to actively try to help Wiz to the best of his abilities alongside the next prophet. 
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