PCs:Archibald Skybreaker
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| Race: Avariel |
| Classes: Wizard |
| Guild affiliations: Green Order of the Forest, The Guild for Advancement of Knowledge in Nature, Le'Nofaythen'T'Nanshi, Academy of the Bardic Arts |
| Most active on server: Wilderness |
| Contact: Leave a message |
Definition of Archibald - Truly Bold
Personality
Personality: 2004-Mid 2009
For most of his years, Archibald was generally viewed as a crazy obsessive-compulsive mage with tons of ideas and unique but bad solutions to problems. In general, he was actually somewhat nice to people though never close enough to anyone to call them a friend. He was prone to fits of rage whenever he felt he was being mocked and insulted by others and often responded poorly to this. He rarely thought through the consequences of his actions as well many times to the detriment of himself or those around him. In most situations, he acted overly confident to a point of foolishness as well. Even though it took ages for it to happen, something finally gave that caused all of this to change...
Present Day Personality
These days Archibald is no longer considered mad or insane by many. He tends towards being a kind man, though very fiercely protective of that which he cares about, especially his friends. His creativity while somewhat diminished by his now stable mind tends to be put to better use as well and he can see both simple and complex solutions to problems that many don't and he can immediately act upon them or offer ideas to others. He is a remarkably good listener and very helpful and wise in concern to the issues of others thanks to the great variety of different experiences and things he has gone through over the years. However, he does tend to make friends with women more easily and seems to be a natural at helping them with their problems. Despite his occasional lack of tact, he does remarkably well at being a charming gentleman, a trickster and joker, and just showing a boastful air of confidence for the sake of it for unknown reasons. He tends to approach most situations confidently, though he is more than aware of his own limits and knows when it's best to admit to them, yet also knows when taking a risk is the best possible approach.
Archibald's Story
Background and History
OOC Author's Note: Some of these events occurred many years ago and my memory of them may not be entirely correct or missing some things. Please feel free to check with me and fill in any blanks you see.
The Chaos Comes
Archibald suddenly arrived on the scene many years ago and almost immediately began to cause an uproar or a scene anywhere he went. There's little more to say on this part aside from the fact that in most cases the typical response from onlookers ranged from amused to downright hostile and annoyed. Archibald also did some planewalking to Ysgard and even briefly had a poorly wrought campaign to join the Council in Elysia There is some speculation he may also have been a Forianite at the time.
Archmage Archibald Thel of the Flame, Novice Sorcerer
Archibald eventually began to seek out joining a mage order and attempted to attend several Academy lectures, however, due to his conduct and nature at the time, he ended up either invalidating his attendance or getting kicked out of them. His only option at the time as well as the Ashen Order of the Stars and he certainly wasn't about upholding balance in the world or in magic.
Having no place in the Trust and the contempt of many of what would be considered the elite of mages at the time, Archibald decided to just create his own mage order and obtain the notice of Andrinor himself. So Archibald announced the creation of the Yellow Order, a mage order dedicated to the free practice of magic and spreading its use among as many as possible and began to attempt to recruit non-order mages into it. This surprisingly angered much the Trust even more as some considered it as an attempt to poach potential members into their own Orders. Archibald did not relent though and even sought the council of Melonious Mennallin on the matter to which he strangely got support on. Soon, Archibald entered the Academy of Mortal Magic in Elysia and proceeded up to Andrinor's Shrine. There he prayed to Andrinor and converted and in an overt show of divine power, flames appeared around Archibald and a pillar of fire descended from above, leaving a set of red robes, a holy symbol, and a Trust Mark on Archibald's shoulder.
Archibald's sudden ascent to Archmage did cause a commotion, and what's more he never actually completed the Academy curriculum. Some of the Trust still viewed him with contempt while others had become supportive. Archibald, however, shunned those who treated him poorly and mocked his efforts to create an Order and had suddenly changed their attitude towards him. He immediately began to recruit, the Red Order having formed right around the time of the settlement of Visimontium.
The Brightest Flames Burn Out Fastest
Archibald quickly realized just how difficult recruitment for his Order was. Unlike the other mage orders, the Red Order at the time required followers to also be a worshiper of Andrinor and he lost a few recruits due to an unwillingness to have to convert to a god to join. Some others he recruited also suddenly took off and vanished, further adding to his frustrations. The few mages he did recruit at the time, he found lacking in initiative and far too dependent upon him for a mage order in which he envisioned the archmage not being the central leading figure unlike the other mage orders with its own unique structure. However, a combination of these Order along with personal issues lead him to suddenly abandon his station and disappear, believing that the Order would end up dying early unless it's few members were forced to take action.
How He Fell
After some time wandering, Archibald returned and initially attempted to re-join Red. However, he was immediately kicked out of the tower by a slaad bouncer they had summoned at the time and he was entirely shunned by the membership of the time.
Having no real place to go or any allies in the south, Archibald left on a ship from Mikona and departed for Kuras. There he assumed the name of Fell Baldwin and during his stay, he blended in remarkably well and even at one point helped to hold off invading barbarians in one of the northern fiefs. He also attempted to set himself up as a god to a goblin tribe, claiming to be an avatar of Maleki, but that did not quite work out. With new roads built leading to Visimontium and with time though, Archibald decided it was time he tried to return south once more.
The Flame Burns Again
Archibald did return indeed to Visimontium. There he found a band of Red Order mages heading into the Gnomish Memorial for training and decided to follow them, trailing far behind. He ended up getting blown up for his efforts, but once they learned who he was, their attitude had changed. Red's leadership and higher ranks had changed significantly since then and were now headed up by Elyl, one of the initial mages Archibald tried to recruit. They amazingly welcomed him back to the Order with no argument and even let Archibald give himself the rank of "High Magus of Arcane Research" which no one contested. With that, Archibald had at last returned south and to stay. During this time he aided in temporarily creating a ward on the spider caves that prevented the cultists and spiders from leaving, helped with fighting the Death Army, and other various things. He was obviously still not viewed very favorably by the Trust, and for good reason, since he had abandoned the Order in the past.
Wildfire
Eventually, after much convincing and effort, Archibald managed to talk the transmutant, Vesdrac Noss'tau into teaching him transmutation under a condition that he could no longer use most conjurations for the duration of the training. Archibald did indeed follow through...mostly. He still cast Dimension Doors with regularity, even at times they weren't needed and even a few other spells such as Improved Mage Armor. This caused Vesdrac to slow his teaching and as Archibald watched Vesdrac become more and more likely to be banished or declared an enemy combatant, along with his own anger as he thought that interweaving conjuring and transmuting would help to advance the art, Archibald became infuriated at Vesdrac and resolved to end his apprentice status with him, one way or another and simply snapped.
Archibald lured Vesdrac north of Elf Gate one day under the pretense of an arcane demonstration. Then, without warning, Archibald executed an essentially defenseless Vesdrac without remorse and stole his spellbook, successfully escaping to Visimontium where he managed to acquire much of the knowledge inside it and got what he was after.
Archibald did send the spellbook back to the Ebony Tower and to Vesdrac under some conditions, but Archmage Vintrinia caught up with Archibald though and executed him there and threw him from the Order. There is speculation that she did this as much because of her own friendship with Vesdrac than anything else and perhaps even political reasons as shortly thereafter she suddenly departed her own office and left for the Ebony Order. Archibald was again without an order and no one to turn to. He again went into hiding.
Heart of Madness
At the time, Archibald was filled with many emotions. Hate, sadness, regret, anger, and a desire to have revenge on Vesdrac. He brought his information on Vesdrac's activities to Thorfinn, the Speaker of the Hands of Dru'El and somehow became friends with him, his wife Ellowin, and a few others of the Dru'El faith. Archibald also formulated a brief plan to oust Vintrinia from the order, but this was redundant as she left of her own accord before anything could come to pass. With the assistance of Bedlam and Sophie Dender along with Sophie's "sisters", Archibald even sought to hurl his soul into the vortex to ask Andrinor for advice. He did so successfully and was told to seek forgiveness. Archibald did attempt to in his own odd way with Vesdrac and was denied, but Archibald had fulfilled Andrinor's conditions, though very few mages of more mortal inclinations cared and their feelings regarding Archibald had not changed.
Archibald then began a campaign to make sure Vesdrac's illegal activities and aid to the shaahesk became known. However, his lack of physical evidence was a problem and despite many armed forces in the nations at war agreeing with him, the governments never acted.
Meanwhile, Archibald began research into a few new projects and became more and more entwined in T'Nanshi. Unfortunately, due to a combination of what spending prolonged time as an illithid did to him for part of his research, and his overworking himself, Archibald began to suffer heavily from stress, culminating in a complete mental breakdown. Much of this stress was temporarily relieved when Sophie learned that Archibald surprisingly had gone his whole life untouched by a woman. She then conspired and trapped him, not letting him leave until he picked one of two sets of twin O'Man nymph sisters, of which afterward he remained with them for days. This actually helped improve his mood greatly and along with Finn and Ellowin's influence, he was very slowly changing.
More to come...
Mage Orders
Current Mage Order Status
Archibald Thel is the founder of the Red Order of the Flame. He is currently both the Great Mage of Arms and Senior Mage of Zvidureth in the Green Order of the Forest.