Aor'merath

Blue Archmage Noraxis Axol (a.k.a. Aor'merath)

The life of Noraxis Axol, better known in the tail end of his life as Blue Archmage Aor'merath, can be best summarised as 'delusional mediocrity'. Forever hoping to coast off a relatively small set of achievements both before and after he joined the Order, the dark elf was born into nobility during the reign of Yal'gerar Boathis, a fellow elf and known perpetrator of nepotism. As a second son of an aristocratic house in Deathsport, Noraxis was expected to embroil himself in the royal court in some capacity. Indeed, in his twenties, this was Noraxis's goal; to ingratiate himself with King Yal'gerar, become his advisor or trusted friend, and secure himself a cushy job either as an advisor or even the heir to the kingdom as life continued.
However, Noraxis could never quite hide his aura of short-sighted entitlement, even from the haughty, elitist Yal'gerar Boathis. For example, when the very much struggling Lord Rhaeus Abraxas, famously the son of the Abraxas Rebellion's leader, Eridius, came to Deathsport asking for financial assistance, Noraxis spotted a 'perfect opportunity' to prove his loyalty. He proceeded to verbally eviscerate the lord and talked about the bravery of his father in the rebellion (after all, Noraxis himself was only two years old when the rebellion occurred, and Rhaeus nine) before referring to Rhaeus's own line as 'the blood of traitors'. He was so utterly contemptuous that, despite fundamentally agreeing that he had no obligation to help the Abraxas family, the king had Noraxis expelled from the throne room, as having him as an ally made him look terrible.
After numerous incidents of failed lickspittling, Noraxis turned his sights to other ill-conceived bids for prominence. First, he would attempt to become a magitech weapons manufacturer, spending time in River's Fork to gain insight into the booming invention market. He would quickly tire of this, however, when he realised how much time he'd have to spend underground with gnomes. He then attempted to become a great warrior, only to give up after losing one too many fights against orcs. It seemed that every time Noraxis committed to an endeavour, he would back out the moment effort was required. It was during a contemplative walk through the streets of Deathsport that Noraxis was stopped by an elven member of the Order of the Shade, who claimed she recognised his special potential.
A simple unearned compliment from a somewhat pretty dark elf in a robe was enough to lure Noraxis into the local Order lodge, and after a brief discussion of Order ideals, he decided that his destiny had to be serving a magical organisation that aimed to put great men (like himself) into power. While he ineffectually played hard-to-get, claiming he didn't want to give up his noble life, he ended up joining the Order in the year 532, at the age of 34. All he left his knightly brother, Vargax, was a note saying that he had a higher calling than rotting in some manor, and for all intents and purposes, his brother disowned him, encouraging his sons, Mortix and Komekk, to do the same.
Once within the Order, Noraxis was renamed Aor'merath, and was generally regarded by the scourges of the blue division as a shit-talker who could never back up his words. He did, however, find a niche as a liaison of sorts between the blue division and the red division, showing a passion for invention on par with the red engineers. While he would spend much of his time reinventing guns and attaching magitech to devices that didn't require it for the most part, he would stumble upon one notable invention that would propel him into prominence: The concussive ANP bomb.
Invented in 536, this portable magic suppressor would replace the bulky, low-range arcane nullification field generators the Order had experimented with and ultimately abandoned development on. It wasn't sophisticated or efficient enough to utilise genuine antimagic, instead being a small, detonatable device which released a concussive wave that disrupted all within a certain range's ability to concentrate and channel their will into magic. Aor'merath would proudly use this achievement to secure his spot as an expert, and despite the red division going on to replace his concussive model with more reliable, genuinely antimagical ANP bombs within two years, he would brag about his achievement for over a decade.
He would also use his position as expert to stalk his archmage, Aor'langneng, and found that for all his skill at gunnery, he was terrible in a fist fight. A such, he would prepare for his duel by sabotaging the vast majority of the blue division's firearms, then hastily demanded a duel to the death before the fact the entire division's guns were jamming would be noticed. Once he killed his superior by, amusingly, bringing a knife to a gunfight, he would go on to 'investigate' the sabotaged guns as archmage, and 'concluded' that it was simply terrible luck. At any rate, he was now archmage, in a comfortable position despite his mediocrity.
As archmage, he would continue to ride off his achievements of inventing the long-since redundant concussive ANP bomb and managing to rise to archmage at all. He would ensure that any new experts appointed would be brown-nosers much in his own image. In the late 540s, when Orange Archmage Chen'razghul, a man who, in Aor'merath's eyes, was little more than an abominable mockery of a creature, was seen to be personally training a young acolyte called Aor'kirin, he decided to play along with his bid for influence and make her an expert. In his eyes, Aor'kirin, being mentored by such an unstable, unworthy archmage, would be little more than another filler expert whose lack of ambition would ensure his survival.
In 549, his luck seemed to increase even more when Aor'merath was given the opportunity to have the ultimate laugh at the expense of Chen'razghul; the young woman he'd mentored and clearly grown to love, Aor'kirin, offered to have sex with him. The Order, as a repressive hierarchical system, often left their members sexually frustrated; despite the young woman's unsettlingly youthful figure, the prospect of getting one's rocks off while also insulting a despised fellow archmage was too much of a prospect to pass up. The end result was Aor'merath's penis being chopped off, followed by numerous stabs in the bowel, courtesy of the expert he never considered ambitious enough to surpass him.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Aor'merath was somewhat weedy by his family's standards when he was a nobleman, shorter and weaker than his older brother. However, in the Order, he bulked up, but always came off more toned than bulky. Slightly short by male elven standards, he still built muscle relatively quickly once he dedicated himself to it.
He had the standard Axol looks by nature; copper red hair, deep crimson eyes, a prominent, straight-bridged nose, and a naturally infuriating grin. As an archmage of the Order, he wore a turquoise cloak with green highlights, usually with his hood up, and would often wear a utility belt outfitted with numerous inventions of the red division (that he took credit for).

Social

Contacts & Relations

Blue Expert Aor'kirin (lover and ultimate successor, title became Blue Archmage)
Red Archmage Ark'golom (invention associate and subordinate)
Orange Archmage Chen'razghul (despised subordinate)
Yellow Archmage Kir'selai (subordinate)
Green Archmage Mid'seran (subordinate and soothsayer)
Indigo Archmage Ran'galchen (superior and target of schmoozing)
Purple Archmage Mar'goritz (superior)
Grand Witch Yal'queran (superior and leader)

Family Ties

Religious Views

Aor'merath was always a secular man, and viewed attaining personal greatness to be the ultimate fulfillment in life, as opposed to any metaphysical, higher calling. This was why the pseudomeritocratic Order of the Shade appealed to him in the first place; its philosophy that the Gods were apathetic at best and incompetent at worst appealed to his sense of grandeur. As such, he embraced the Order's ideals wholeheartedly, albeit while failing to live up to its visions of strength and magical dominance.

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Species

Dark Elf

Ethnicity

Arkheran

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Blue Archmage of the Order of the Shade

Date of Death

549

Life

498 AGA 549 AGA 51 years old

Circumstances of Death

Assassinated by Blue Expert Aor'kirin

Birthplace

Deathsport

Place of Death

Nightshade

Family

House of Axol

Parents

Aldrix Axol

Vinaxa Kazaros

Gender

Male

Eyes

Crimson

Hair

Copper-Red

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Dark Brown

Height

6'1''

Aligned Organization

Order of the Shade

Other Affiliations

• House of Axol

Known Languages

Common Tongue
Old Galdusian
Jaranese (poor)