NOEM ADONIS SIRAN
115 years old
16/12/1090
1145-1151Noem was torn between the two sides during the rebellion. The royals were his former companions but they sent assassins after him once he escaped execution and he could not be with them if he wanted to. On the other hand, the rebels were once his enemies but they had saved his from death and people from the past he had left behind were once again in his life. He had people he cared for fighting on opposing sides, and had no idea how to handle fighting against his old and new comrades. To make things worse, he was also constantly on the run from assassins. After Pemendra tracked him down in The Under, killing his caretaker Amerii and orphaning her children in the process, Noem avoided staying in one place for too long. He did some missions on behalf of Seraphion at times and helped when he could, but most of his time was spent evading the assassins.
1151-1161When the end of the rebellion came and Seraphion emerged victorious, Noem felt incredibly happy for Belladonna when she became queen. Still possessing romantic feelings for her, he had complete faith that she would be just what Wiz needed to heal. Seraphion, having taken control of the council, gave Noem a pardon and he was finally free of assassins chasing him. He spent his newfound freedom aiding in rebuilding areas of Wiz that had been destroyed during the fighting, and volunteered to aid Symphony help young orphans.
When Belisario arrived on Wiz years later, many of Seraphion’s former rebellion members were killed by demon forces. Noem managed to fend off those who came after him but to his dismay many of his friends, including Symphony, perished in the attack. Symphony’s death filled him with the most despair he had ever felt in his life and as he mourned over the fallen corpse, he vowed to avenge his friend’s death. Noem was already losing control of himself because of Symphony and he probably could have reigned himself in, if it wasn’t for the fact that Belladonna died so soon after.
Belladonna’s death filled him with grief, but more importantly
rage. He hated Hades and Belisario with every part of his being for killing his beloved queen. His love for Belladonna was one sided and he never acted on his feelings, but that did not make his feelings any less real. It was that love, combined with the wrath born from his grief, which pushed him towards the path of revenge.
He cursed his fate. He cursed his life. His whole world had shattered yet again. The first was the abandonment of his parents, forcing him to live on the streets as a child. The second was his failure in protecting Bellona, leading him to a life on the run from assassins. Finally, this third time was the death of Symphony, Belladonna, and everything Seraphion had fought for – the war they had fought almost seemed
meaningless now that Belisario had usurped the throne. Noem could have walked the path of peace and turned away unnoticed, never giving Belisario and Hades a reason to make note of him. But Noem’s path of revenge led to him battling with Hades – and he nearly won, but in the end Noem experienced defeat once the demon’s bodyguards finally found and stopped him from killing Hades. With him gaining Hades’ attention, Noem sealed his fate into becoming the minion of those he hated most in the world.
1161-1164Instead of killing Noem, Hades saw an opportunity to gain a powerful wizard on their side and imprisoned him instead. Many wizards felt the same as Noem and were not happy about demons crawling around after killing the queen and the council. Tensions between demons and wizards were high, and hatred for demons and Belisario were not uncommon. To Hades loyalty was one of the most important things to inspire in followers so he was determined to make every single wizard loyal to his husband, even if he had to fabricate it. He would not allow the hatred, disloyalty, and tension run rampant in the kingdom. Therefore, Hades turned Noem into a test subject for developing a powerful loyalty potion. Noem hated them and was magically powerful as well as resistant to loyalty potions due to his time with Seraphion during the rebellion, since all rebels were given antidotes and counters to loyalty potions. In Hades’ eyes, this made Noem the perfect subject.
He was imprisoned in an isolated cell, fed loyalty potions to see how effective they were on him. The first batch was completely negated and had zero effect. Hatred or anger could break a person free if they had enough of it towards the person they were being forced to be loyal to, which Noem had plenty of. The next few potions were altered until they finally found one strong enough that lasted consistently and he could not break free from. But the experiments did not stop there; Hades wanted to measure just how much anger it would take to render the potion useless. Noem was tortured brutally and painfully, getting healed then tortured then healed then tortured in a vicious cycle. They wanted to make him despise them as much as possible and tortured him to increase his hatred. Whenever he had enough anger to break free of the potion they merely wrote down their observations, fed him another potion or an altered dose of it, and increased the torture. After months of testing his limits, the “perfect loyalty potion” had been developed. No matter what was done to Noem – the physical, mental, and emotional torture – he never broke free from the enchantment. It was this potion that Hades used to create the hypnotic spell used by Angelic and was the prototype for the loyalty potion eventually given to newborns.
But this was not the end for Hades’ experiments with Noem. He was fascinated by the effects of the potion, of course, but he wanted to challenge himself. He wanted to see if he could convert Noem into a loyal subordinate without using a potion, despite all that had been done to him. Hades fed him the antidote, and Noem felt his head clear before memories of what the past few months had been like for him rushed pass. Noem utterly loathed Hades, and for putting him through months of horror, could easily say he despised him more than Belisario. Noem vomited on the floor thinking of what happened; there were memories he felt no concern for while under the influence of the potion that disgusted him now. They messed up both his mind and body; there were even a few scars still visible that the healer could not completely remove. He felt his anger spike as Hades just laughed at his pain, and Noem was horrified to learn that Hades still had plans for him. He didn’t want to be imprisoned anymore; he wanted to escape, but Noem felt that the only escape for him would be death.
But he didn’t want to die; he was terrified of dying. Terror gripped him and he began to have a mental breakdown over what had happened to him and what he feared would happen. The laughter from Hades thankfully snapped his mind back to reality, somewhat, but he still felt uncomfortable being in the same room with the person responsible for his state. And he could not fight back; even if his magic had not been suppressed, Noem could barely find enough strength to stand.
Noem was physically beaten by Hades until he was near unconscious, and he was forced to face reality that his situation was utterly hopeless. There was nothing he could do anymore to escape; there would be no miracle like the rescue from his first imprisonment when he was to be executed for his failure as a protector. But as if Hades could tell Noem had finally broken on the inside, the pain stopped coming. The demon abruptly began to heal him and treated him very gently, saying words in sweet tones, although him cooing degrading phrases like
“You’re like a broken doll now, Noem. Utterly worthless. Poor you, I’ll help you get all better…I’ll save you, and make you worth something again. You’re crying, but that’s alright. You were treated so terribly…those who are loyal to Belisario won’t ever be hurt like you were. I’ll help you become loyal so you’ll never be hurt again…don’t you want that?” frightened him. But despite Hades’ sinister words, those were the first somewhat kind things he had heard in months after continuous torture and Noem couldn’t help put place his hope in him. Hades moved him into a nicer cell – a nice bedroom that reminded him of his old quarters during his time as Bellona’s protector – and with a promise
“be loyal to Belisario, and you won’t be hurt again”.
Noem still hated him, but he felt too relieved over Hades’ mercy that he didn’t try to attack or escape. He compliantly stayed in his room with a lingering fear in the back of his mind that he would get even worse torture if he did anything wrong and get sent back to his previous cell. Unknown to Noem, Hades’ manipulation had already begun to set, to the point where he wasn’t even protesting his imprisonment any longer. Hades returned the next day with a bracelet and gave it to Noem – and warned him that if he showed any disloyalty to Belisario, his followers, or Hades himself, he would get shocked painfully by an electric spell. Noem made the mistake of giving Hades an angry scowl at that information, which ended up with him getting mildly shocked. It was the first of many, since Hades would purposely antagonize Noem or put him through degrading tasks that ended with Noem getting shocked. Those shocks were usually the only time Noem was ever hurt, however, so it did not take long for him to subconsciously understand that pleasing Hades meant safety, no harm, and no pain. And what pleased Hades was loyalty, obedience, and devotion to serve him and Belisario. Sometimes Hades would even secretly send a subordinate to harm Noem and let Noem get hurt, and then Hades would suddenly appear to “rescue” him while saying reassuring words like
“I’m sorry, I should not have let this happen, I promised to protect you from harm. I won’t let this happen again, I’ll keep you safe”, in order to manipulate Noem’s emotions. It took a few months of this conditioning, but eventually Noem began to fear showing any type of disobedience and felt genuine terror at being thought disloyal towards Belisario. If he believed he did something wrong, even after the bracelet was removed, Noem felt phantom pains as if he was punishing himself.
Like a victim of Stockholm syndrome, Noem began to think of the demon in a positive light because Hades always made sure to reward him after good behavior and treat him kindly. Additionally, Hades was usually his only contact during his imprisonment. Every word out of the demon’s mouth was used to manipulate Noem in some way, and while Noem was aware deep down that everything was
wrong and Hades was a
liar, he was broken enough to stop caring and allowed Hades to rebuild him however he wished.
1164-1176After three years of imprisonment, Noem had been successfully conditioned and brainwashed into a loyal subordinate. Hades could taunt Noem about Symphony or Belladonna’s death right to his face and barely get a reaction from him. And if he was ordered to do something, Noem would do it without question. Hades took full advantage of Noem’s obedience; it was one thing to be loyal, but to be devoted and obedient was another.
Noem did jobs on behalf of Hades and Belisario. And most of the time, they were terrible jobs that Hades didn’t trust with assigning to other wizards, but discreetness was needed and his demons could not blend in as successfully among the population. Noem did not enjoy most of his missions, but he kept telling himself that he could not afford to displease “Master Hades and Master Belisario”. Among some of his jobs was being a part of the team tracking down the wizards on King Belisario’s hit list, including his siblings, and Noem did not dare ask why they were assassinating members of the royal family. He also felt too afraid to ask why people from the noble families were being kidnapped, and forced himself to look away when his old comrade Angiel and his daughter had their hearts sacrificed in some bizarre dark ritual by the king.
1176-1180Belisario had been declared the Dark Overlord soon after, and with his power so great and his rule unquestionable, there wasn’t as much for Noem to do anymore. Hades mercifully allowed Noem free as a reward for his services and loyalty, as long as he would return if he was ever needed for something. Noem had no idea what to do with himself after so many years of servitude so he went back to Candiland, where he was welcomed by Peppa and rehired as an Éclair under the name Adonis Ludo. Noem spent most of his time in Candiland and had no desire to do anything else with his life. After all the fighting and pain he had been through, Noem was tired of it all and going to take advantage of any peace he could get. But his peaceful days became a lot more eventful with the arrival of Symphonia Zylan.
She was the niece of Symphony and Symphonia had been interested in Noem ever since she saw him speaking with Symphony one day, so when she found out he worked at Candiland she started requesting him. In addition to her connection to Symphony, Noem became quite fond of her after seeing her so many times so he wasn’t
too annoyed when she became pregnant. He had no interest in being together with her romantically, but Noem made an effort to help her through the pregnancy and be there for the birth. He felt surprisingly happy when his son Noel was born and took a leave of absence of his job for a few months, so he could help raise the baby while Symphonia recovered. They took turns taking care of Noel, but it was mostly Symphonia watching him since she had no job.
A year into their arrangement he was caught off guard when she gave him full custody of Noel, and she started to spend less and less time with both of them. He didn’t ask what she was doing, even when her vanishing for days turned into weeks and then months. The few times he saw her she had a serious expression in her eyes, and Noem grew concerned when she began to look pale and feel constantly sick. She closed herself off from him and Noel, even her mother Symphaerie and her siblings. He decided to not think much of her situation, but he regretted this decision when one day he suddenly received news from a distraught Symphaerie that Symphonia had died. All they were told was that she was in an "unfortunate accident” and Noem never uncovered anything more about her suspicious death. Or rather, he did not try to. In the past he had caused several “unfortunate accidents” for Belisario so Noem had a feeling he was better off never figuring out what she had been up to.
1180-PRESENTNoem moved in with Symphaerie Zylan, so that Noel could get to know his grandmother and that he had a free babysitter while he worked. They became good friends and Noem was sad when she passed away of an illness in 1184, when Noel was only six years old. Since Noem didn’t know any of the Mancinis that well, Noem just brought him to Candiland and let him play in the recreational areas until it was time to go home. Besides a few intimidating visits with Hades or an occasional random job for the demon, raising Noel were the most peaceful and fun years of his life and Noem felt happiness he had not had for a long time.
After seeing how strong the half demon child of Valiance Mancini was even as an infant, Hades gave permission for demons to freely pursue a relationship with wizards; something he had restricted before and allowed only with special permission. So much time had passed since Belisario took over that demons were not as discriminated against by the wizards and newer generations fully accepted them as a part of society. Despite all of this, Noem was still surprised when he ended up in an odd relationship with the demon Anhura. Demons had tortured him for months when he had been imprisoned by Hades so Noem always felt a tinge of fear when around them and he never expected to willingly spend time with one.
But spending time with Anhura was so unlike what he was used to. She wasn’t exactly kind, but she never hurt him the other demons. In fact, she couldn’t even hold his hand without feeling faint from nervousness, and literally paid a large amount of money just to talk to him in the room at Candiland. She told Noem that she was only at Candiland on a bet from her twin sister, and she didn’t care how pretty he was, she would never let him touch her. He was confused, but accepted the explanation and easy money. Of course he tried his best to persuade her to come back and said to request him anytime, like he said to all his clients, but Anhura just called him a disgusting wizard and ran off embarrassed.
After that strange encounter Noem didn’t expect her to ever return, but she came back a week later and then the following week, until it was normal for her to just be there once a week. She had become strangely obsessed with spending time with him and Noem didn’t mind at all as long as she was a paying customer. The more time he spent with her the less he started to fear demons. He eventually became attracted to her personality, finding it hilarious how she blushed when she called him rude names and how annoyed she became whenever he teased her. It took Noem months for her to even accept a kiss on the cheek from him and Anhura was shy getting a hug, so he never expected to eventually have children with her. Their first daughter, Noesferatu, was a surprise and he got full custody of her since he already had experience with children. Noel finally met Anhura when Noesferatu was born and while his son thought Anhura was weird and did not like her much, he instantly liked his little sister and declared she was ten times cuter than “that evil demon baby cousin” of his. While not in an official romantic relationship with Anhura, she still takes the time to see him at Candiland, which led to the birth of their second child Noebella.
He adores all three of his kids and they live in the house Symphaerie left to Noel, though his daughters do worry him because they are extremely competitive with one another and start fights over trivial things. Once, they argued about who had the better favorite color and Noem came home to the living room furniture half destroyed, the room colored in a mix of blue and pink paint, and an unconscious Noel on the floor. Another time, Noesferatu had been using Noebella's large stuffed animal as a pillow but accidently ripped it in half with her horn. As soon as Noem saw the stuffing fall out, he knew that it was not the only thing going to be ruined that day, and after a difficult struggle he was forced to take Noebella to her mother's house while Noel took the toy to his uncle Vallix in hopes he could sew it back together. The absolute worst was when Noebella got gum in her sister's hair and in retaliation, Noesferatu tried to cut off Noebella's hair. Noel, his brave son whose bratty tantrums as a child never compared to the girls' vicious fights, was caught in the crossfire trying in vain to stop their fight and had to visit his grandfather to fix his hair afterwards.
Despite all of the trauma and horrible experiences in his past, Noem is content with his current life and tries to forget all of the bad things ever happened. He is haunted by nightmares and there is always a dark thought in his mind once in awhile, wondering if his happiness is real or the result of another potion, but he just has to take one look at his children to feel reassured that his emotions are his own. Noem is sure that without them he would have died along time ago and all alone without anyone caring he was gone.