This is very interesting. Hold on while I get a sheet up.
Edit: I took some liberty and worldbuilt a bit. What do you think, boss?
Thoric the Great
Appearance:A skeleton of one of Noreik's greatest heroes stands, clad in his battle gear and robes. The air buzzes in his presence as powerful magic swirls around his person. There is a blue hue around him, and at times a semi-transparent facsimile of his appearance before his death covers his bones with false muscle and his eye sockets with great radiance. When Thoric exerts effort, especially during combat, this mirage remains constant. One can then see how the Right Hand of the First King of Noreik looked as he did five centuries ago, except tinged in blue and his very bones are visible through his illusory skin.
Just as he did in life, Thoric favors a chain-mail hauberk over a thick hooded robe when he rides to battle. Otherwise, the hauberk is simply put away. He may also don a steel war-mask forged in the shape of a skull depending on his mood. In close combat, he fights the enemy with his mace, leaving his other hand free to cast somatic spells. In more rearward positions, he uses potent focusing objects like wands and staves to cast devastation from far away.
Date and Cause of Death:
Year 43, assassinated by his very own Master Mages, when they discovered that he had secretly been experimenting extensively with lores as taboo as Necromancy, Demonic Binding, and the creation of hybrid abominations.
Skills and Talents:
Archmage: Thoric was the First Archmage of Noreik. He is a master of Elemental lore and is able to cast up to mid-level spells of it in a freeform capacity - that is, he does not need to recite words of power or gesture signs in order to cast them. Higher-level spells that affect large areas require more effort on his part, but his mastery over magic gives him quicker cast times.
One of his signature spells is "Break the Sky." This requires plenty of preparation on his part. This is a wide area-of-effect spell that is cast before Noreik's army has even skirmished with the enemy. A sudden thunderstorm of incredible fury erupts over the enemy encampment, killing some, wounding many, and making merry hell with their logistics and levels of combat readiness. This spell has given ancient Noreik quite a few victories.
Commander: Thoric's service as the First King's Right Hand has given him moderate experience in generalship. He is not the best commander, but he is able to lead large formations competently. The King should not expect brilliant victories should he assign Thoric to this capacity.
Veteran Soldier: Thoric actually
fights. That is, close in with the enemy and engage him in hand-to-hand combat. His swordplay is of course eclipsed by people like Sir Maximilian von Eichenwald, but Thoric can hold himself against regular foes even without magic. But he never fights without magic! This makes him very deadly in close quarters against lesser opponents, and the sight of him pulping heads with his mace and incinerating others with lightning is enough to rout most peasant levy formations.
The Path to Hell: Thoric first delved into the Forbidden Lores with good intentions. He still claims he has good intentions. Whatever the veracity of this claim, Thoric is able to reliably cast mid-level Necromancy and low-level Demonology. He has yet to master these two Lores and is unable to cast their spells in a freeform manner. He was also dabbling in creating monstrous hybrids for the Kingdom's use as super-soldiers. If His Majesty the King Roland would give Thoric the resources, perhaps continued research into these areas would give Noreik enough power to decisively win the current war...
Equipment:
Thoric's loadout as he goes to battle:
- Steel war-mask, forged in the shape of a skull
- Steel chainmail hauberk of fine quality over over thick hooded robes spun from cotton and dyed deep blue
- 1x One-handed steel mace
- 1x Meter-long magical staff made from the wood of an ancient, venerable oak
- 1x Steel Shortsword
- Up to 10 scrolls with one prepared advanced-level (usually anti-formation) or higher spell each (Greater Fireball, Earthquake, Sea of Vines, etc.)
- Up to 8 alchemical flasks, half dedicated to refilling mana, the other to mend wounds
History:
Thoric was born before Noreik even existed. Perhaps a century or half a century before the Crown was forged. Nobody alive today remembers the details of his childhood and adolescence as the histories mostly speak of his brilliant service to the First King during the tumultuous decades of strife that would ultimately end with the Kingdom of Noreik. Many details have been lost now, but it is known that Thoric first served the First King - before he was a King - as a member of his armed forces, after his primary magical education under the great thaumaturgist Bordyr. This was before Thoric split the Noreik Army into magical and non-magical, and he fought side-by-side with lay men as their lightning-throwing sergeant. This was normal for all mages during the period.
Eventually he would become Captain. The First King then noticed Thoric's good leadership and excellent combat ability and took him into his Personal Guard. The two men became fast friends and after Noreik's founding, the First King made Thoric, already his most trusted advisor, into his Right Hand, creating the position in the first place. This meant that Thoric spoke with the voice of the King and could act in His Majesty's stead. And together with the rest of the Royal Court, they built Noreik.
Thoric built Magical Universities and other places of sorcerous learning. He helped to organize the new Kingdom's magical potential by creating the Noreik Order of Mages, with him as its first Archmage. All the while he sharpened his magical ability through study and practice - with the latter mostly involving the subjugation of barbarians. As the years went by and the Kingdom truly established itself, Thoric eventually came to master the Lore of the Elements. The official histories then go on to say that he died heirless, but of natural causes due to aging.
But the truth is much more sinister. Thoric had actually begun to worry about his mortality. Someone with his energy and ambition would simply not allow death to take him. So the Archmage began delving into deep and very taboo lores. He ordered criminals on death row to his Tower so he could kill them and practice raising the dead. He built himself a dungeon and performed unspeakable blood rituals on his new journey to master the denizens of the Underworld. Along the way, his sense of duty towards the Kingdom clashed with his moral compass, and he began ordering mermaids, fairies, trolls, rocs and other magical creatures to experiment on them, to see the viability of hybrid abomination super-soldier slaves.
Within an organization like the Noreik Order of Mages, secrets are notoriously hard to keep, given the abundance of brilliant, curious minds. Several Master Mages eventually found out about the Archmage's descent into corruption and confronted him one foggy night at the top of his Tower. Thoric tried to convince them of the moral soundness of his actions and invited them to join him. They were not persuaded. A fierce battle took place, but Thoric simply could not win outnumbered eight to one.
Thoric remains one of the Kingdom's most celebrated heroes and has two holidays to his name because the scandal was never made public. The Ten Master Mages of the Order ultimately decided that bringing the issue to light would raise too many questions about the Order and opted to quietly pin Thoric's death on his advanced age. However, the First King was informed of the incident, although His Majesty never did anything about it.
Thoric's written works on Necromancy, Demonology, and Abominatry were destroyed and forgotten by the Order despite widely using his texts on the Elements and Natural Sciences even to this day. Although entirely unknown outside of the organization, the higher-level adepts of the Order know well about the First Archmage's descent into madness. They use his tale to remind each other of the dangers that pride and arrogance lay upon anyone.
Thoric was buried as a hero in his own small but opulent mausoleum.
Zoldyck
