Saint Aldia

Saint, Founder of Dragonwind, Spirit of Torm

Saint Aldia is one of the five Incorruptible Saints of Imperilism, and the mythological founder of Dragonwind. A man of great historical mystery, no one account accurately covers his entire life. Only a scant few deeds and stories have survived through the new millennia.

Artifacts

Saint Aldia's Armor, Shield, and Sword are some of the most sought after artifacts in all of Istoria. All 3 have been missing for centuries, and the plethora of fakes and scandals has made finding the true set even more difficult.

Physical Description

Body Features

Saint Aldia is often depicted as a tall, strong, robust man with long hair and a medium-length beard, both greyed with age. Most of these depictions are believed to be conflated with Torm, however. The real Saint Aldia was said to be surprisingly short, with a small crop of light brown hair and hazel eyes.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

No one knows exactly when Saint Aldia lived, but most agree that he was born somewhere in the Far West, either descending from the nomadic Urians, the expansionist Nurzites, or even coming from beyond the Shadow of the World entirely. According to myth, he guided a whole host of "his people" to the East, seeking safety from "Great Monsters". Many sources state he was following a "Divine Star", which Imperilists and Twilight Watchers believe to be the Pinnacle of Torm, a famous point in the night sky associated with the Nine Gods. 
Saint Aldia travelled across much of what would become the Ashardian Empire, during the time of the Emergence. There was little in the way of settlement during this period: the land was a ruin, filled with the corpse cities of nations that had been obliterated during the apocalypse. Aldia followed Torm's Star all the way to the ocean, eventually finding the ancient ruins of a Tethyrian hold. This city held a great new threat, however: the massive red dragon Ashardalon. It is said that a great duel occured within the hold, as Aldia and Ashardalon fought to the death. According to the myth, Aldia was struck down by the flames of the Dragon, only to have his armor, sword, sheild, and courage tempered by the dragon fire. He rose up and quenced his reheated armor in Ashardalon's blood, turning it gold.
Aldia's host tore down the Tethyrian hold and reused the materials to build what would become the city of Dragonwind, named for Saint Aldia's triumph over Ashardalon. His supposed bravery attracted tribes from across the coast of Argyros, and eventually Dragonwind grew into one of the world's largest and most powerful city-states. When he passed, the primarily Heartlander population of Dragonwind held him up as their "Greatest Ancestor", thus making him the first Incorruptible Saint of Imperilism. 
In the modern day, some doubt the accomplishments of Saint Aldia. A few rogue scholars claim that Aldia's battle with Ashardalon is merely a historical allegory for early Heartlanders' conflicts with the Ashardians, hence the similarity in names. Others claim that Aldia is merely a modern version of any number of mythological figures dating back to before the Emergence.

Divine Classification

Incorruptible Saint

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Heartlander

Church/Cult

Imperilism

Gender

Male

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Short, Brown

Height

5'7"

Aligned Organization

Ashardian Empire

Founded Settlements

• Dragonwind