Aefaren Thrangur

Like all elves of Mir'Heled, Aefaren embarked on his Peregrination (a pilgrimage into the wider world to seek new knowledge for the leves) almost immediately following his 10 years of Sentinel service (which immediately follows the completion of an elf's worldly studies). He first made his way to Crucible, initially shocked to see what had become of his people's ancestral home, but soon took an interest in the day to day lives of humans: they lived so quickly, constructed things so fast (and pretty decent quality considering the haste at which they were built), and learned so enthusiastically (this being the strangest to Aefaren, who comes from a culture where one could spend the entirety of a human lifespan studying just one subject and still not fully reaching its depths. Meanwhile, humans seemed content to merely scratch the surface in many subjects). He had come to Crucible during a tumultuous time where the ruling line for several centuries had been ousted; the people were so very divided. Keeping track of all the varying opinions he encountered was one of the biggest reasons he turned to keeping a journal.
Eventually, he learned of the Lunar Forum and visited their Citadel, fascinated by the apparently political nature of magic in human lands. From there he travelled south, visiting the great city of Eodur, another city built on the bones of his ancestors. There, he witnessed the Twilit War and saw first hand how human mages could corrupt and channel dark magics for their own gains. His role in putting a stop to those events earned him serious clout with a number of mage guilds. He was approached by a number of elves, many from Mir'Heled who decided to stay out in the wider world who offered new perspectives to the young mage. However, he still had much world to see.
He travelled east to Requiem, the heart of human civilization, or so he was told. Once again he wondered at the advancements of humanity, crude though they be compared to the elves. He was amazed at how differently separate human kingdoms applied magic. He travelled southward to the islands of Lapis Teras and then back westward where he spent many years in the jungle kingdoms of the Sylvanlands, spending a great deal of time in the northern kingdom of Laminar, a city sprouting out of the canopies of the great northern elms.
Now, having spent nearly as much time outside of Mir'Heled as within, Aefaren realized that there was simply too much to do and see. Even for someone as long-lived as he, the world was simply too vast to spend his life postulating on the nature of the multiverse amongst his peers. If the purpose of the elves peregrination was to find new knowledge to bring back to the Eternal City, then did it not behoove him to learn all he could from as many places as possible?
And so Aefaren returned north, not to Mir'Heled, but the Lunar Forum once again, believing them, of all the mage guilds he had encountered, to have the most sensible outlooks on magic and how it can benefit the common man. In the year 890 EP, he officially joined the Forum in full standing.
From there, he quickly rose through the ranks and was responsible for a number of magical discoveries. He helped transform the Forum into the entity it is today, gently guiding it along a path that would most benefit the common man without overburdening them with undue magical influence. There he stayed until his research brought him to a world-shaking discovery: the long-lost magical formula of the Wish spell. Fearing what could happen if this spell fell into the wrong hands, Aefaren vanished from the Forum and sought seclusion with his old friend, the silver dragon Kruzikmaar.
There he remained until a boisterous and brash sorcerer sought him out on the behest of the enigmatic Palios Pseftis. The sorcerer came seeking Aefaren's "secret" and inadvertently struck a lethal blow when attempting to use a talisman Palios claimed would make him "more influential," that in actuality was a talisman of ultimate evil. Fortunately, this turned out to be a simulacrum Aefaren had left behind in secret. The real Aefaren had set out on an expedition to study magical anomalies that had been cropping up with increasing frequency across the land.
When he learned of Cataclysm and his machinations across Archaios, Aefaren sought out is long-time friend and mentor Christoph Heulen as well as the wizards of M.A.G.I to begin organizing a taskforce to counter whatever Cataclysm had in store. This Alliance proved to be short-lived, as Aefaren grew increasingly suspect of Christoph's growing political interests, and in the early days of 1219 EP, he broke off from the main Alliance to work with a small group of elite adventurers to combat Cataclysm directly.
This small group proved to be the linchpin in concluding The Extinction War, but unfortunately, Aefaren would not live to see its conclusion. In order to make the attack on the Lower Plane's Planar Spire, Aefaren brooked a deal with the archdevil Zariel, who had been compelled to hunt down one of Aefaren's allies, Allston. In exchange for disabling the Spire, Aefaren promised Zariel Allston's soul. However, he made the deal with no intention of following through, and thus fofeited his own soul to the archdevil.
The one silver lining was that Aefaren's friends would not let him be condemned to this fate. Kruzikmaar marshalled the allied adventurers once more and stormed Avernus itself, felling Zariel and allowing Aefaren's soul to depart to a proper afterlife.

Life

664 1221 557 years old

Relationship with Christoph

Aefaren met Christoph in the late 790s during his tenure in Eodur. At the time, Christoph was a prominent mage within the city, well-known for his magical baubles and doodads and his refusal to commit to any one Circle of mages. The two quickly discovered their mutual enthusiasm for the great mysteries of the cosmos and had much to share from each others centuries of experience. When the Twilit War broke out, the pair of them were at the heart of its resolution, along with their own team of adventuring comrades.
While the two drifted apart over the years, they never truly lost contact with each other, and would sporadically pop back into each other's lives with a new discovery or theory to discuss. They often wrote each other letters or shared magical messages, and each considered the other to be their most trusted confidant. 
Throughout their long relationship, they only ever experienced one major point of contention. As Christoph aged, he became more aloof and ambivalent towards the common man, whereas Aefaren always remained an idealist. Before Aefaren disappeared with his secrets of the wish spell, he very nearly shared his discovery with Christoph, but hesitated; believing he could not fully be trusted with that information. 
The pair would not speak again until Aefaren began seeking allies to combat Cataclysm. He had hoped that Christoph would see the existential threat to humanity even if he did not care about the common man, but ultimately Aefaren was again disappointed by his friend when it became clear Christoph was more interested in setting up "a better tomorrow" at the expense truly dealing with the threat at hand.

Areas of Expertise

Over his long life, Aefaren has researched multiple fields and made a multitude of discoveries of varying degrees of import. In the most general sense, Aefaren was drawn to the nature of the Outer Planes; their laws, their magics, and their denizens. 

• Most notably, Aefaren made great strides in the subjects of demonology and the nature of the fiends of the lower planes. He spent several decades as a consultant with the supernatural threat counter agency, the Night's Song, where he became renowned as an exorcist. 
• He has spent many, many long nights considering the nature of gods and the divine, noting that many human pantheons have overlapping and reoccurring domains. He postulated greatly on the relationship between gods and their followers and theorized that it is often one being that inhabits a domain that merely presents itself differently to different groups.
• As more of a hobby than a true field of study, Aefaren has learned a great deal about the ancient world and its protectors, the Former. He has also looked a great deal into what geological event could have possibly been responsible for half of the province of Horizon sinking into the sea, though he has yet to discover what that could be.