Didact Victus I
Lucian Fedrona
Didact Victus I, born Lucian Fedrona, was the last Prime Didact to oversee the reclaimed Southern Sinderlan and the instigator of the War of the Starfall. Alleged creator of the Warforged and architect of The Didacy's northern expansion, he is remembered eons after his death due to his pivotal role in the history of all of Perradin. Much about him has faded into memory and myth as the Warforged who knew him personally have all but forgotten his nature and motivation.
After the war, much of the information of the buildup to war was lost as surviving Warforged refused to discuss it after witnessing the atrocities justified by his rhetoric.
Early Life
What survives of Victus' early life history recounts that he was born Lucian Fedrona to Didact Sabina. His parents died in 1491 in a Roilreach Cyclone, leading to Lucian becoming Didact Victus at the age of 15 in 1493. It is alleged that at this time he redirected the efforts of the Didacy to finding a path to immortality, but specifically designed as to become "immune to fate."Creation of the Warforged and Buildup to War
Show SpoilerVictus, in his studies, believed he had discovered a massive conspiracy surrounding the creation of the Kingdom and the very nature of free will on Perradin. He claimed to his colleagues at the Didacy that he had found evidence that the Kingdom and the Augurs were manipulating the innate Fate of Termina to their own advantage, and that all who were bound by it would share in the fate the Kingdom desired. His claims, apparently backed by evidence, led many to seek a solution. In 1499 at the Silver Citadel, a massive research and military complex in Southern Sinderlan, Victus claimed to have found a solution.
Victus revealed he had created a way to unbind an individual from fate and grant functional immortality. His creations, the Anvil of Emptiness and Hammer of Souls in conjunction with the Soul Cloisters were key to the process, as he claimed it isolated a soul from the material and spiritual plane, thus severing it from fate. He believed that doing so would be able to throw the Kingdom's plans into disarray and would result in an armed force which the Kingdom could not predict with Augury. He, along with the most skilled artificers of the Didacy, devised a series of apparati to house the Soul Cloisters. These new constucts became known as Warforged, and were seen as a step toward immortality.
Victus then began soliciting members of the Didacy and its colonies to become Warforged. He portrayed it as a step toward immortality and a way to resist the machinations of the Kingdom in a war that he planned to declare. He additionally portrayed it as a means to break free of Fate, to live a life of true free will, which would come after the war with permanent bodies of flesh to house the Soul Cloisters. His tactics inspired millions to begin the process of Warforged transition, as he built an army larger than had been seen in Perradin's history.
War of the Starfall and Death
After an amassment of nearly 2 million Warforged across the Domain of the Didacy, Victus declared war on The Final Kingdom. The War raged for seven years, mostly standing at a stalemate in the Snowmelt Lakes Basin. Victus is said to have mostly resided during this time on Greenwave and in the great fortress known as the Silver Citadel on the south coast of Sinderlan. On his orders, recruitment was drastically increased for Warforged conversion. On 10 High Tide 1507, Victus personally led an assault on the southern Kingdom city of Scepter. The circumstances of the Battle of Scepter are shrouded in mystery, but what is certain is that the battle ended with the destruction of Velnor, the Starfall destroying most of southern Sinderlan's Domain of The Didacy, the extinction of Sinderlan Dragons, the entire destruction of Victus' host of one million Warforged, and Victus' death. The only survivors of the battle were the Queen of the Starfall and her two retainers, who delivered the terms of surrender to Warforged 2.Legacy
The legacy of Victus I is considered complex, disastrous, and far-reaching. In the wake of the war, Sinderlan was marred and the Didacy was reduced to Greenwave and a massive crater. For decades after the Starfall/Velnorclast, stellar debris rained down across Perradin causing temporary ecological collapses. The Warforged were later told of the true nature of the Anvil, Hammer, and Soul Cloisters, indicating that they were simply the arcane copies of souls which had been torn apart in the process. They also discovered that their deaths would be absolute and permanent should it occur. The shock and trauma from this revelation led to the Warforged Diaspora. The Didacy, while surviving the devastation, would never regain its strength. It maintained a loose, and at times nonexistent, control over the newly created Stargash Crater for the next two millennia until the Didacy Civil War in 3434, which led to the ceding of power to a new civilian government that would be known as the Didacian Consulate, founded in part by Warforged 2. By the 91st Century, Victus is viewed by many historians as one of history's greatest villains and fools. Much of his motivation for war has been lost to time and faded Warforged memory. The surviving Warforged view him with simultaneous veneration and malicious contempt, even if they do not know why. The Kingdom views his actions as a dangerous threat to their existence, justifying the extreme measures to end his war. Many Lizardfolk of Perradin view his and the Queen's actions as a major reason for Velnor's loss. The Free Cities view Victus' actions as a major reason for a period of famine and desolation across Pillarin. The Didacy officially views him simply as a fact of history, with their lives of little consequence to a historical figure so far removed from the modern day.
Current Status
Deceased
Species
Date of Death
10 High Tide
Life
1478 FFC
1507 FFC
29 years old
Circumstances of Death
Killed in battle by the Queen of the Starfall
Birthplace
Greenwave
Place of Death
Scepter (Later Victus' Fall )
Family
Children
Sex
Male
Eyes
Grey
Hair
Light Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Olive Skin
Height
6'
Aligned Organization
Comments