Oh joy, just how I wanted to spend my day... There was a paper in Lernin's hand and he was reading it front to back with a bemused expression. Surprised that some of these things had been observed, and others that he'd never noticed. A personality profile of sorts and 'ability list' of Tyr Faeron, second prince of Haran. Mostly in context to what his various crimes were. It was, to say the least... Extremely poorly organized, whoever had put this together had been thorough, surely – but they'd done it in a rush. It was little more than a modified adventurer's resume. As if this had all been thought up last minute. That may very well be the case, better to do it fast and conclude an issue before the primus' came to shake their fragile castle apart.
Lernin doubted they would, they'd have been here already.
The inquisition was making a terrible mistake, they simply did not know it yet. Too much time had passed since a primus had revealed what they were capable of to the world, and mankind felt safe. Lernin had seen what Tyr could do, exponential metamagic the likes of which he'd never seen, the boy just hadn't had the right teacher for that specific discipline.
It was a great shame, but also an extreme relief to anyone aware. Metamagic was exponentiation, the ability to use it at will and with no perceivable fault 60+ times was absurd. How to turn a spark into a city destroying bomb, essentially, but they weren't here to discuss that.
Rather everything else.
[Tyr Faeron]
Race: Unknown, assumed human (data indicates otherwise)
Age: Assumed 23-24 Hjemland time (see notes)
Threat Rating: Class-5 minimum (true extent unknown) Extremely dangerous exceeding that of most known hero class individuals.
Class: Unknown (see notes) – Paladin(?) / Spellbreaker / Mid-ranged Elementalist Battlemage
PE: Fire
*Subject captured due to contrived use of psychic magic and is expected to have allowed himself to be taken into custody. Motivations unknown. It is the opinion of the Sorcerer's College that this is not a sign that this sort of thing would work in the future. It is the opinion of the churches that he is no stronger than a well trained battlemage.
Notes:
* Extensive crimes involving forbidden magic. Including the clear subversion of free will via his unique primus-borne abilities, coercion, and assumed ability to willfully ensorcel sentient races. Documented examples included for review, possibly virulent – not contagious.
* Known associate of monster category sentient life forms, perhaps able to control their minds as well. Unknown, but assumed due to previously unheard of synergy with various races not conventionally friendly to man. Uplifting monster class beings is forbidden, three accounts of this marked and verified.
* Reality bending (forbidden) – has shown feats both physical and magical that cannot be explained. It has come to the conclusion of the Amistad Mage Council that this individual is capable of bending reality to his will in unknown circumstances. Proof is enclosed in the dossier. Without this, his feats are unexplainable otherwise, even by the standards of categorized primus'. At the baseline, ignoring supposition and half-theory, our resident runesmiths are unable to understand how artifacts crafted by Tyr Faeron work – positing that they shouldn't, given the runic structure.
* Soul magic (forbidden). It has come to the conclusion of the Inquisition that while the defendant claims these are paladin-esque gifts, they are anything but. Possibly a manifestation of an arcanum, but unlikely considering the damage it managed to inflict on Saint Lucian. Bears traces of magic not unlike what could be termed soul magic, up for debate, not admissible in the courts but included for posterity. With no pillar among the faith to sponsor him directly as a faith militant, the exhibition at the most recent ascendancy trials is clear evidence of dark magic.
* Tests on individual's blood involve remarkable similarities to deathfog found at the periphery of the known world. Highly acidic, direct contact or ingestion of this blood should kill, but it has not... Why? Further study is required, but it is assumed that he has undertaken multiple attempts to alter his own biology. Race unclear, but beyond all reasonable doubt Tyr Faeron is NOT human – we believe that he has managed to change himself via anima, supported by the next point.
* Forbidden class anima magic to an unknown degree. Creation of sentient life is explicitly forbidden under the three Accords and treatise of magic. Individual had been in contact with a black book and is assumed to be willfully pursuant of Solomon's legacy.
* Forbidden class necromancy (?). As a youth, Tyr Faeron managed to reach beyond the veil and resurrect his now wife, Alexis Goldmane-Faeron, long past the recovery point of traditional resurrection magic. Even our most powerful clerics do not understand how this process unfolded, but it is no doubt very troubling.
* Recent revelations suggests individual was responsible for the death of Primus Cortus, primus' have refused to comment. Inadmissible, but notable.
* Death toll, including proxies, numbers at approximately 101,460. Likely far beyond that, including 89 officially sanctioned paladins. Mass murderer, well documented psychopath.
* Has armed and militarized no less than four nonhuman species (forbidden by the Kriegstad accords). Possible additions could be made to this list given more data, we have not managed to find these monster havens in order to snuff them out, investigation is ongoing.
* Cannot die. While there is no specific law regarding this, the inquisition insists that this should be illegal, however. High Cleric of Tormund, Haldan, protests that we cannot simply invent new laws – but the high council disagrees.
* Has discovered (and implemented) an unknown method of 'awakening' monsters into their higher forms. Forbidden, again, by the Accords.
* Extremely forbidden texts relating to the outer plane of 'Brazil' discovered on his person.
* Near immunity to deuritium poisoning, and has gone so far as to replace much of his skeletal structure with this same material. Cannot be removed, it had become a part of his biology. One must consider the effects of deuritium, even on the primus'. According to Lerivel's study of...
There was more, most of it provided by Lernin's own homeland, but it was all drivel at the end of the day. Lernin almost found it funny, they had no idea what that boy was truly capable of. All of this nonsense was irrelevant to a person with the level of metamagic capability Tyr had displayed. There was no mage in the entire world, Lernin was sure of it, stronger than Tyr Faeron.
Lernin had stopped believing that Tyr was as ignorant as the boy asserted a long time ago, this was just confirmation of that. Nobody was that lucky, and this evidence was beyond circumstantial.
Some of it was plain ridiculous.
Tall tales about Tyr forcing people to 'drink his blood', and 'eating the flesh of man' – which was obviously taboo on both accounts. Tyr, of course, would never do such a thing (?), he was far too wily for that sort of exposure to occur (???). They didn't know much of anything after all, so many unfounded accusations, but the body count was shocking – and that was verified.
Of course Amistad was doing this to save their own skin, Lernin felt sick just looking at it regardless.
Sending him as their representative was clearly to rub it in his face, ensuring that he knew his place. He'd been quite successful lately in his career, both as headmaster and as an archmage, and that had clearly earned him some enemies. Lernin and most of the his department heads sat around a large 'U' shaped table, alongside nobles and luminaries from all sorts of places. The whole world coming to condemn one young man.
There were two senators of the republic, several guild representatives, and more cardinals and bishops than he'd ever seen in one place in his life, all hailing from different churches. And right now...
They were screaming at one another.
“Do you think you can threaten me, little man? Hmm?” A crimson haired warrior priest of Astarte slammed the table with a fist, but it seemed playful rather than furious. In fact, he didn't look nor sound angry at all – almost happy to be having this kind of argument. “I'll drag your geriatric ass into the street and beat your cheeks like drums for all the maidens to dance to. Not those on your face, mind. What do you say, elder? Might we make some music together?”
“Why, I never!” Some red faced bishop of... It was hard to tell, there were over fifty 'important' gods and some of their embroidery was made so bizarrely convoluted. Attempts to associate by region or sect so as to be near impossible to identify. There'd be the symbol of a god, superimposed over their position within the church, and then their order below that. It was like trying to read an ancient text written in the language of the western continent. House of air, so he was either Vortigern or Tormund's, most likely the former. The king of the sky had a penchant for scholars and limp wristed bureaucrats. At least in this era, apparently he changed his mind every so often and his church changed with it. “How dare you speak to a bishop of the Sky Father's faith like that!?”
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Yep. Lernin nodded, would've even been amused if not for the context of this meeting. When the church called, everyone answered. Or at least they were supposed to, most had but there were a few surprising absences – must be they didn't all agree.
“What does the Sky Father have to do with me putting you so deep into the earth?” Raddick smirked mischievously, all his kind were lunatics, without exception. Those who walked the path of flame.
“I'll have order.” Horrifyingly, this meeting was led by none other than Hastur Casterling. More of a formality, Tyr was long past saving in terms of his crimes. That had been decided some time ago, and Lernin was forced to sit through his father's farce because the man had somehow earned some kind of clout with the Eight Pillars. Naturally, very few people even knew this, wearing a different face – but Lernin knew his own father. Right now, 'Hastur' was the 'sorcerer supreme' of the Milanese inquisition.
A man of many hats, replacing so many people and few were the wiser, and those that were either feared him too much, agreed with his fanatic beliefs, or didn't care to push their luck. In any case, the assent to his request for silence was unanimous, even Highlord Raddick of the Flame Eternal nodded respectfully in his direction.
Though Lernin didn't miss the flash of amusement passing through the aforementioned man's eyes, he was looking forward to this. Whatever 'this' was.
“I think it's quite obvious that the only recourse we have is death. Or as close as we can get to it. I was thinking of an iron maiden wrapped in mithril chains and dropped into the sea. Thoughts?” Hastur's face was flat, his voice monotone, waiting for an answer.
The room was silent for naught but a split second before it erupted into howls again. Agni's church claimed Tyr as their own, splitting the House of Fire. It made sense, he was a primus and his documented prime element was flame. The dedication of a primus to a single god was worth more than enough to look the other way in the event of a little degeneracy, or so some might claim.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a little degeneracy. Not on paper. It was... a lot. The vast majority of the House of Earth insisted a primus could not be tried by anything but a primus. Air almost universally damned him, and water was, as always, relatively uninterested in the debacle unfolding before them. All calm and serene to the point of being creepy, but they'd let them do whatever they wanted to. Veles chosen were a very odd bunch. Those who revered the deep dark of the sea were all cracked in the head, even Nyx's paladins and those of the Blue Rose seemed leery compared to the others.
Which was interesting, really, since Lernin saw all faithful at that level lunatics to begin with.
Surprisingly, though, the House of Light was split as well. Vestia, Aphrosia, and even Aotrom all threw their support towards wholesale acquittal. Also announcing Tyr as one of their own, something Lernin couldn't possibly understand. “It is the will of both Aotrom and Saint Lucian that custody of the boy be released from the churches. We as mortals have no right to pull a child of the gods from his path, and we will surely suffer for ignoring their will! Open your eyes, this is a travesty!”
All of the priests wore robes of some kind except for Raddick, and a man of Sunhammer's faith. An elder without a single hair on his body – not even eyebrows – and not a shred of emotion in his voice to match. Armor that looked to be a little too heavy for any human to move in, and yet the man stood with no apparent difficulty, wearing it like anyone might their trappings of cloth.
Silencing them all, too, clearly he was important – Lernin did not know him.
The Highlord and Vindicator Marshall of the Order Aotrom, generally considered the leader of that particular god's church. As far as Lernin's memory served, and it did, Aotrom and Vanator's faithful weren't friendly with one another by principle – but they rarely disagreed publicly. There was significance in the fact that such a normally silent church as Aotrom's was defending such a well documented black mage.
It was simple. So much as sniff the bindings of a Black Book and you were and enemy of the House of Light, and yet they seemed to be keen on breaking tradition here today.
Lernin liked Tyr, truly, he was an interesting boy, but the result of this debacle was self evident. At so much as a cursory examination, it was damning. And there was an incredible amount of proof behind it all. That wasn't the issue for him, it was how little they actually knew. They thought they knew it all, some things Lernin had been aware of, but a great deal more was missing.
These 'issues' of theirs were 'resolved' by capturing him like this. A bit of irony in the fact that they'd used the Noctis Labyrinth on him, which was... Well, it was forbidden, to the point where the Red Dragon had refused to do so for Tyr even though he'd consented to it.
But when the churches were involved, what was accountability? A myth. The council thought they sold Tyr out for safety, it had been an easy thing for Hastur to worm his way into their government and convince them of that. That Tyr was the target, not them. It was beyond idiocy, Tyr had been their deterrent, with him they were in a much better position, untouchable for the short term. Lernin hadn't known that until Abaddon had told him in a dreamwalking about the boy's true potential – or rather just his aspect.
That of belief, of faith.
As in, anything someone believes hard enough, Tyr could, or can do. In fact, this whole ridiculous display of posturing was proof that Hastur knew or at least wanted that to be true. He had to, or there was no way he'd have convinced them he'd 'confirmed' ridiculous things like 'has the ability to kill a person instantly when staring at them with his left eye'.
Hastur was helping Tyr, but weren't they enemies? It was insane...
Lernin didn't know why his father would want that... It was a sign that Hastur was trying his best to make Tyr stronger, not the inverse, and it seemed like he'd been about this task for some time.
He could make conclusions of his own. One of them being that Tyr's ability – just like Iscari's, was a reality bending force. Something beyond 'strength' or 'warflame'. One person was irrelevant in the grand scheme, Tyr had surrendered his power to save his wife. It had become something else, warped towards less savory emotion. These two youths waxed, and waned, far more violently than other primus' – these emotion related aspects were tremendously fickle.
Think of it this way, a person is a grain of sand. Right? A primus is a boulder in comparison to the conscious belief shared by others in relevant to Tyr. Jartor believed something, and it became true. His fears and anxieties about his son required possibly hundreds of thousands of individuals with commensurate inner power to believe Tyr was something more than what he believed. Someone competent, skilled, or strong. In essence, Jartor believed his son to be worthless and Tyr had become so, at least initially.
First, by Lernin's estimate, it was the evolved kobolds. Tyr's relationship with things made them stronger and he in return would share in that by proxy, but it wasn't consistent in the slightest. It seemed that physical intimacy was important, but that didn't necessary mean sex. It could, very simply, be a consideration of friendship. Either that, or his own belief unconsciously drove passive growth in others, awakening an entire race of monsters with little difficulty, but it didn't really matter. Evidence simply indicated contact with his bodily fluids could speed the process for anyone, and already the church had begun gathering it and distributing it to their paladins.
The idea that they could make themselves stronger through contact, nothing about it needed consent.
The kobolds worshiped him as a pseudo deity of the sun, redemption, and fire, and Tyr had suddenly been better at magic. Especially fire magic, whether that was his prime element or not, it had been too perfect to call it coincidence.
Making massive gains with it until he had more magic than his body was able to handle. So on, and so forth. Their belief in him produced a reaction and Tyr, perhaps realizing it, or not... He acted in specific ways. Accumulating multiple dao to access more gates than the average person was capable of, spread out between his 'followers'. Which had both held him down and yet simultaneously allowed him to survive, existing in a conflict of contradictory beliefs.
It must've been painful, in any case.
That's how dao worked. Achieving the beginning stages of one diluted the essence of an individual, later defining them. A conglomerate stronger than the sum of its parts, but only in activation. Now, he possessed over a hundred, easily, Lernin had been told this by Tiber who'd been made aware of the mechanics via a westerner they'd worked with in the past. Beyond that, Lernin didn't have much to go on, he wasn't a daoist and found the belief to be ridiculous.
Though it was quite obvious that Tyr had driven development in those closest to him, those who believed in him – and prospered from it. A symbiotic relationship not unlike that of parasite and host, with Tyr being the former. Latching onto their spirits and elevating himself.
The largest component of this faith was Alexis, Astrid, and Sigi, who were... Bizarrely significant, Astrid in particular was born exceptionally weak to the point where she'd never be admitted into the academy without her position. But now... Combat strength was a lie, that's how people measured it but it was imperfect for the purpose of knowing how strong someone was. Tyr was not the equal of a primus, but as long as people believed he could not die, which they did across multiple nations full of millions of thinking people, he couldn't.
Perhaps his first resurrection was a fluke, or as he claimed – Thanatos had truly gifted him with a second chance. And through one contrivance or another, enough people had considered it as fact – and he'd therefore become immortal in the process.
Thus, either he'd been lying to Lernin, or Tyr too was unaware of this fact. So... Lernin had been spending nearly every waking moment spreading rumors through his channels that Tyr was immune to poisons. It didn't work as well as he'd hoped, the churches weren't completely aware of this gift Tyr had, they'd burnt his pamphlets and killed his apparent agents regardless. To them, Tyr was the primus of 'death', and that was all. Mastery over strength was great, very novel, but mastery over death itself? Transcendent.
However, this would be a grave miscalculation. Faith and belief were even more so, evidenced by the fact that those same things had made Tyr immune to death and offered far more abilities beyond that. Lernin's thoughts were jumbled by the mass of screaming men, wishing it would end soon so he could get back to work.
Left wondering if his theory was actually true. As soon as the regeneration-affecting wyvern venom left Tyr's blood, he stood a good chance of waking up. And when that happened. Well, suffice it to say that it was a good thing all of the enemies of Amistad would happen to be in the same room. Tyr had called himself a weapon once, and asked Lernin to use him like one. The Headmaster had refused at the time, because he cared about all the impressionable young men and women under his wing, and was an educator first. But now... The situation had changed, most assuredly. And these people had just put the world's sharpest blade straight to their necks.
They couldn't hold him.
Not just one of them, either. That Noctis Labyrinth of theirs was about to throw them into their own little nightmare. Because it had worked.
Tyr had been right all along, and now there were 12 of him. Him. A sense of self so large and conflicted that it couldn't be contained by one mind. Lernin would prefer not to be in the city when they arrived, but he doubted his fiend of father would give him leave to flee. Magnus was here, in any event, and Lernin would stay if only to ensure the safety of his only son.