Profundis Rax

Profundis Rax is considered one of the most influential people in Falaran and indeed Aesalian history. Seeing life in the mythic, first and second age the Genie turned Genasi shaped the evolution of the subcontinent and left an enduring legacy on the Falaran Empire and its subsequent evolutions so profound that the first colony ship to leave Aesalia would carry his name.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The tale of Profundis Rax begins before even recorded history in the War of the Realms. It was here that he first set food upon the Realm of Balance leading forces of Order to battle against those of the other outer realms. A cunning fighter Rax preferred to observe battles from a distance using magic to convey his orders to commanders on the field who could execute his stratagems. It was in this time he left his first mark casting a clear net over the oceans of Aesalia for the water court. His forces would leave magical items, texts and other remnants passing the primordial tongue of Aquan onto the species below. Yet as with all Rax was forced to flee the Realm of Balance when the pathways between the realms were sealed forcing the acclaimed general to return to a realm in stasis where his military mind would see little application beyond those of the schemes of his fellow genie. For a time this game proved curious to Rax offering him a new chance to hone his skills, manoeuvring his way through the court yet the rigid rules of realm could not fully wet the ambition within him. In his dreams a realm lay beyond devoid of order and structure and in need of a strong hand to guide it. It was this ambition, or perhaps arrogance, that led Rax to be drawn back into the Realm of Balance not as a conqueror but at the whim of a conjurer.
Aesalia was not as the genie recalled as he arrived into its chambers. In place of primitive life yearning for his steady hand he found the vast Draconic Imperium manipulating the essence of nature in ways that even his own kin would struggle to achieve. He saw thralls beyond count crafted from the animals of the wilds in service to the gargantuan masters that now ruled the land unrivalled. Yet it was not for him to experience this world. As eager as his return was he fell victim to a ritual of binding ensnaring him to an orb of azurite in the possession of one of these great beasts that identified themselves as dragons. Initially seeing himself as an advisor to these beasts believing his captor having snared him to use as a tool to gain power he soon learned that he was nothing more than a parlour trophy to amuse and entertain the creatures as they basked themselves in the assorted luxuries of the land atop beds of previous gems and metals.
Day and night called forth he served reluctantly seeking a means to free himself from the bonds. He learned what he could of the world, cryptic as the answers upon him would be, and reflected in the isolation of his cage upon the learning. Yet as the knowledge of his world began to grow greater so too did the time between his callings. Days in his cage would become months, years, time and time passed until eventually he found himself imprisoned for an eternity. Within the magical prison he knew his mind began to fray. Memories fought with dreams to define his reality, his schemes of escape became elaborate adventures of his mind, escapades in the water courts evolving into dramas he could scarcely picture. His mind a symphony of madness he found himself propelled forwards once more into Aesalia. Not into the grand court of a dragon but unto the dirt floor of a creature he once knew as their thrall.
Claiming the title Warlord a man named Decimo called upon Rax with a respect he had long forgotten. He sought the wisdom of the genie to secure his inheritance and control of the Karaklese Horde. Rax offered it happily paying little mind to his formal title as slave whilst he led soldiers for his master once more utilising his tactical mind into a reality he could be sure of. Under his command Decimo did not merely secure the throne but a horde ready to expand and a right hand eager to aid him.
Rax was afforded a new title of Chief Mancer and a hold of himself in the old grounds of his former draconic master's now decrepit palace. From here he sought knowledge of the collapse of the great Draconic Imperium learning only of a name Tatham whose kin faded from the land as he ascended. He focussed his magical knowledge breaking him from the cage that once bound him and rendering it not a weakness but a focus for his own power. Undeterred Rax pushed forth with his ambitions for the Horde seizing new lands and rising a pliable son of Decimo's to power; a youth named Arnauldi.
Yet as is oft the case Arnauldi proved a wild beast, at every opportunity countermanding the actions of Rax and undermining his effort. With no recourse the genie enacted his only option; the murder of Arnauldi and the seizure of power himself. With command of the armed forces Rax found his coup with little resistance. The Horde not understanding what had occurred until it was already complete and Rax sat upon the throne as Sultan. Here his ambitions were no longer restrained by a need to maintain a weak ruler. His forces pushed further consolidating swathes of land in areas that would one day be known as Celium, Istria and Vostros.
In the peak of his power Rax once more felt betrayal however. Enraged that a foreign monster might rule over them and depose the divine line of Arnauldi the chieftains of the Horde staged their own coup seizing the sorcerer and separating him from his magical focuses. He was taken to the crypt of Arnauldi and bound in magic cuffs that prevented his aging and any weakening to the bonds that ensnared him to this realm.
Once again Rax was a prisoner, at first with guards though over time they ceased to come. His mind would rely on pilgrims come to praise Arnauldi and scold him for his corruptive ways. Then even pilgrims failed to come. Time would pass over and over as once again he was left with his mind. He was not to make the same mistake however and hardened his thoughts to a new stratagem. Humans it seemed to him were the natural new masters of this land and he devised himself to study all that he had learned of then. He considered there strengths and weaknesses, their desires and fears, their dreams and follies and derived a thousand plans to his ascension until a band of mercenaries finally stumbled upon his place over a thousand years later.
Fleeing an attack from the apparent Empire of Celium the mercenaries had fell into his prison quite by accident with no knowledge of Arnauldi or the Karaklese Horde that he had once ruled. His name quite removed from history Rax saw the opportunity and took the group under his guise forming a bond with an imprisoned devil Gelganar who offered to aid his conquest of the land for the binding of his soul to his own master.
Rax had no intention of passing from the realm. Agreeing and taking strides in his power. Yet the world he would emerge to lacked even the order of his last appearance. Undead swarmed the land consuming and destroying all that they fell upon as mindless beasts. His companions barely able to protect him navigated them through a land evolved by time. Structures were once more raised of stone yet the grandeur of the Draconic Imperium had been long forgotten with those societies that lived considering dragons to be folk stories, no more that imaginative ideas of wyvern.
In such a curious world Rax found his plans both perfectly place yet missing. In all his time he had held resolute to the idea of Order yet the innate chaos of this world seemed impossible even for him to fully predict. So he resolved a new stratagem; if the mer could not be ruled from an iron fist he would dictate them by shadow to a finer cause in which an order suited to the realm could be forged.
He formed a mercenary company the Azurite Spears who he used to expose a changeling plot within the Istrian County of Castera. He sent his tendrils forth aiding his Half-Orc rescuer into seizing power over the Bardun Tribes and his Celian rescuer, Gabrielle de Maisondeux, to reclaim her ancestral home of County of Maisondeux. He used these ties to leverage his own position securing admission to a grand bardic ball in Rolén where he conspired with the Circle to assassinate Emperor Charles de la Morte plunging the Empire of Celium into civil war.
Amidst the war Rax forged ties with the Count of Eracney jointly funding a nautical expedition based on his own memories to recover an ancient and powerful magical item he had been forced to abandon many ages ago; the Eye of the Ocean. As the ships travelled forth Rax interceded into the Celian Civil War using his connections to the Bardun Tribes to recruit hordes of mercenaries for a new faction dedicated to placing Gabrielle de Maisondeux upon the throne.
With their foes divided and weakened the forces easily secured the former Celian Kingdom of Avignet. Upon which Gabrielle de Maisondeux was crowned Queen restoring the throne for the first time in near 700 years. With a careful blend of diplomacy and coercion the nobility of the south swore their allegiance to Queen Gabrielle I with Rax being granted the Duchy of Orest for his efforts.
With him now holding lands in Istria and the former lands of Empire of Celium questions began to raise regarding the allegiance of the genasi, questions that collapsed following a summit between the southern states hosted in the very Draconic palace that was once Rax's prison. The events of the summit are still shrouded in mystery; rumours of coercion, subterfuge, bribery and speeches of legendary impact are told from a thousand conflicting sources. Yet at the end of the summit the Empire of Celium, Unified Duchies of Istria and Bardun Tribes ceased to be separate and agreed to unite beneath a new nation the Karaklese Expanse with Profundis Rax as High Protector at its head.
In this short tenure Rax saw his control made absolute with the tactical passage of laws, offers of marriage and other such measures transforming the three states into one cohesive territory whose old rivalries began to disapate and wain in the space of the clear advantages and peace the new status quo brought. His first trial came as the Mathisean nobles offered there own loyalty, which would grant the Expanse access to the Free States, in exchange for the head of Lord Protector Cosivich who hid in sanctuary alongside the Istrian College of Magic's Archmage Timoteo Eche. With the Archmage being one of the last major rivals in the south to Rax he saw the opportunity to achieve two victories at once.
He was not so naïve however to believe it an easy task, the Archmage was well loved in Istria far more than even he and many in the court owed him favours. How exactly he then succeeded in deposing the Archmage remains a mystery yet the head of the Lord Protector arrived and with it the next expansion of his territory.
His greatest success however came in the Pact of Aarn where his own mighty Karaklese Expanse unified with the Milesian Empire to form the first Falaran Empire. While at its head sat Emperor Cassius Rodorian Rax was granted the title of Grand Vizier of the Falaran Empire with a purview to govern the internal affairs of the state whilst the Emperor would see to its expansion.
Rax would hold the role of Grand Vizier for near four centuries advising numerous Emperors whilst engages in quite battles for power that ebbed and flowed with time. In his rule the Empire saw interconnected roads and unified legislation, a functional judiciary and organised aristocracy and a balance of power between the Falaran Tathamite Church and the state that ensured the state could never risk civil war. Yet perhaps his greatest achievement was the conquering of his own mortality as he forged a ring of such power that his binding was made unending and he was forever tethered to the Realm of Balance. Yet it was not all glory some legends attest him to having been involved in Blood Moon Massacre that saw an Emperor and eleven of their children slain at a point of his lowest power. Others have claimed he ruled through a network of spies and hedge wizards who divined the will of his rivals manipulating against it. Indeed rumours like this contributed to the disdain that marred his final days. For when the Great Annihilation beset the Falaran Empire it was the leadership of Rax that saw the survival of the nation.

Though controversial Rax's flooding of the Great Forest of Falarin and Destruction of Bergano were pivotal to the defeat of the Great Horde. Yet following his tactical brilliance in the Battle of Maisondeux Rax was betrayed by loyal servants of Emperor Ezio Rodorian. The nobles, in a telling already known, were dissatisfied by a Genasi holding such office over them and kidnapped the Grand Vizier to his ancient prison in the Riverlands where his cuffs still remained waiting.
What exactly occurs remains a matter of debate. Some claim Rax still lies in that forgotten prison, others that he now serves his fiendish master in the Realm of Darkness and yet others that he still roams now powerless within the land. Whatever the truth Profundis Rax forever altered the history of Aesalia.

Relationships

Emperor Lucien Rodorian

Friend

Towards Profundis Rax

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Profundis Rax

Mentor

Towards Emperor Lucien Rodorian

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Species

Genasi

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Captain of the Elemental Tide
High Commander of the Oceanic Forces
First Slave of the Warlord of the Karaklese Horde
Chief Mancer of the Karaklese Horde
Sultan of the Karaklese Horde
(Mercenary) Captain of the Azurite Spears
Count of Castera
Duke of Orest
Lord Constable to the Archduke of Istria
Keeper of Peace to the Unified Tribes of Bardun
Lord Marshall of the Avignet Guard
High Protector of the Karaklese Expanse
Grand Vizier of the Falaran Empire

Year of Birth

844 PE 2765 Years old

Spouses

Siblings