Ariston Everric

"What you do here today, will change the fate of Humanity, and the course it takes throughout the centuries. Choose wisely, or I will make this decision for you."

- Ariston Everric

 Ariston Everric (Ah-riss-ton Eh-vehrr-ick), is the Accursed Human Founder and Progenitor of the Everric Family. He is the son of two lower class human citizens from Senntisten. Upon his training, he was dubbed as the Apex, the Herald or  Forerunner, as he has established himself as the head of the Everric Family. With his return, he has taken on the persona of Michael De'Caelum. Though, the Everric Family Crest was not created after his ideals, he still has accepted it. A powerful, humble mage, warrior and brooding person. Yet, he is still a free spirit, Ariston was also thought to have gone mad by his friends during the God Wars.

Ariston was created by, and is role-played by Matt.

History
This section covers the biographical history of Ariston Everric.

Origins and Early Life
Ariston Everric was the only child of two lower-class humans, Argus "Gus" and Gratiana. He was born within the grand walls of the  Zarosian Capital of Senntisten sometime after the arrival of the Mahjarrat and their establishment as Zaros' Elite. This was only a decade or two before Zamorak's Rebellion. With this, Zaros had found his way into seclusion, and his Mahjarrat ran rampant. Ariston, at the young age of seven, was left orphaned once some of the Secret Police came and took his parents away from him for speaking out against the regime and the poor living conditions.

With no parents, Ariston was placed directly into one of the many Priesthood Academies, where he eventually was met by a Mahjarrat by the name of Augustus. Augustus was a Warrior-Monk, and a powerful Mage, as were all Warriors from the Mahjarrat Tribe. In his short time there, the loss of his parents had turned the young Ariston into a recluse, sticking to his books, and learning spells and becoming quickly fluent in the language of Infernus, or the Language of the Empire.

Augustus found that the young man had an affinity for magic, and decided to take him under his wing, something very rare that Mahjarrat had. Augustus had compassion for Ariston, who quickly came to find Augustus as an older brother, maybe a father even. Eventually, Augustus was able to get the young man to open up about his past a little. Augustus already knew the details of how Ariston was placed within this Academy, but still he listened, an ever silent statue towering over the other trainees.

Ariston, after ten years, had reached what those thought to be his peak, at the age of seventeen, he had already taken down a pack of rogue Avernic Demons of all types and their Cthonian Demon leader with a mixture of his own creations in the streets of Senntisten, yet his usage of Ancient magick was the most notable. The Hellhounds were first to be sent out, and in response, Ariston created a large layer of smoke that covered the entire battlefield, which were a few blocks of Senntisten. By the time the Hellhounds had reached Ariston's known position, the Mage had disappeared. In a few moments, a burst of Gale magic was sent through to clear the area of the smoke.

In a few moments, a shockwave from the nearest building was felt, the very bricks in the buildings had cracked and several pillars made of pure stone emerged from the earth below, each sharpened to a point. One by one, Ariston changed the Hellhounds back into ash and sent them back to Infernus. The rest of the pack, now reduced to a large group of ten Lessers, a greater and their Cthonian Commander were sent forth. The Lesser Cthonian, Caecillius and The Greater Avernic, Sazarchus stayed behind. Ariston had already been charging, taking his place amongst the pillars of stone, knowing full well that the Lessers couldn't fit within the confined space between each, lest they impale themselves. He stood within the center, the Lessers charged forward, but stopped once more as they neared the sharpened pillars. They began swiping at them with their sharp claws, and with brute strength in numbers, they were able to crush a few of them.

This bought Ariston plenty of time to prepare his shadows to their fullest potential, after this, he called out, something in the Infernal Language akin to shadow. As they approached, the Shadows around him weaved heavily, and a mystical amethyst aura shined brightly on his hands, as well as his eyes. In a few moments, he sent his arms forth, controlling the Shadows with a delicate mastery. They resembled the claws of a Ripper Demon. Using these claws, Ariston took two mighty swipes over the area of the Lessers, and a cloud of dust loomed in the area. After a moment, the dust had cleared, and the pillars were cut in half and crushed, as well as ten piles of ash were pooled where the Lessers had been.

This left the Cthonian and the Greater Avernic to stand alone without their cohorts. Ariston slowly approached, he gave them a brief smile as he did so in a deafening silence. The Cthonian and Avernic Greater approached to close the distance after Ariston had made it about a quartet of the distance. Ariston's eyes glowed gently in an amethyst hue as a crimson substance began to weave both around his hands and his body. The Cthonian shot a large ball of fire at him, only to see that it missed easily with a simple change of his direction.

Only a few moments after, Ariston streamed to a quick halt. He dug one knee into the ground and slammed his palm into it. It seemed on have made a strange circle with a hexagram within it. Separating from the hexagram were crimson veins that appeared in the ground. They appeared as the vessels in the body of any human before they expanded and combined, and once they reached the position of the Cthonian, blood tendrils emerged from the ground. These tendrils wrapped around the legs and arms of the Cthonian, restraining him. It did the same for the Greater, except the tendrils wrapped around his mouth and arms, constricting until the demon cried out in a mighty roar. The roar rang out throughout the streets for only a few moments, and then there was complete silence. The Greater had been defeated, and converted to ashes.

Finally, Caecillius was left alone, the blood that had constricted the Greater looked to have retracted, only to reappear and emerge with the others, this time fully restraining Caecillius the tendrils lingered away from his mouth. Ariston began to question his motives, and after a few belligerent moments, he found it best to bring Caecillius to Augustus. Caecilius managed to free a large claw, which seemed to cut deeply into Ariston's left eyebrow, though it looked as if a blade had cut there.

Taking little bits of focus, the blood separated from the ground, and he had meant to bring the Cthonian to Augustus, instead he found Kyros, Augustus' older brother, who ended up bringing him to Azrael. Soon enough, Caecillius was brought to Azrael, and Ariston was commended for such and then gifted with greater knowledge of the Ancients, including most powerful spells and Curses. Azrael then dismissed him, and they waited whilst news spread throughout the city and the Legion.

He achieved great praise from those within the city, and even greater praise from his Mentor, Augustus. This earnt him the nickname "The Herald of Death" or just "Herald", as some believed he would be the bringer of great deeds. Others said it simply to mock him for his unusual quiet and solemn demeanor.

Military Service
After learning of this, Augustus, both a soldier and a priest, whose father, Azrael, was a higher up in Zaros' military, and had decided to try to get Ariston into the military.

After a few days, Augustus, along with his brother Kyros approached Ariston with a proposal: To fight alongside them in the newly formed Legion of Shadows as the head of their Sentinels, or Mage Division at the rank of War-Mage. War-Magi are considered equal to Commander Rank, which command the Legion's Cohorts.

At this proposal, Ariston staunchly accepted, as he was humbled by it. On his eighteenth birthday, he was placed in his position, to where he began training the Sentinels, and he quickly found himself the best of his trainees, six of them, all finding their own aliases, also known as the Sentinels.

The Agema
The Agema were those who found the highest degree of control in their respective fields, and they were selected through display their outstanding skill and resolve in a combat life-or-death situation as well as their merit and leadership skill.

Each member was met in some different way, the foremost being Flavia Ithell, a golden-haired, fair-skinned and emerald green-eyed Elven/Human Crossbreed. She caught Ariston's eye whence he came upon one of her spars. Not only had he been impressed by her skill, he was also mesmerized by her beauty. It was indeed love at first sight, perhaps she was bound to his fate as well. This is what he thought proper. After she had finished a short fight with her sparring partner, Blaine Clayton, he approached her, commending her on her use of Nature Magic and several other styles to overpower Blaine. This was the moment where they fell for one another, though their relationship was kept professional for the next year. They began to teach one another what they knew, in exchange for Nature Control teaching, Ariston taught Flavia different uses and mixes of spells, and the more damaging magicks, such as Miasma.

This relationship would soon blossom into something more when they found themselves alone one night after a mission, that the two had gone on by themselves. They had been sent out to kill a rogue Ripper Demon that was terrorizing Caravans and Pilgrims. Through teamwork, and the usage of both Shadows and Nature Control to control trees, the two incapacitated the demon and brought him before Azrael, the Legion's master, who commended them for this, and with that, Flavia became Ariston's second in command. The following night, the two were talking together over a meal, and after they finished, they spoke of the future. This led, eventually to Ariston's expression of his feelings for Flavia. She, in turn, told him that she reciprocated his feelings. Ariston stood from the table, and moved to her seat and then wrapped his arms around her waist, Flavia offered no resistance and the two promptly kissed. This led to the two to make love that night upon his hay-stuffed bedroll.

The following morning, Ariston awoke, sheets wrapped around his delicate parts and hers, legs intertwined with Flavia and her head resting against his chest. Alarm bells had began to ring, and it seemed as though a Saradominist Paladin and Soldier force marched toward the Legion's camp, which lay a few miles east of Senntisten. At this time, two thirds of the Legion had been sent to secure lands in modern Kadarin, a few days had gone by and the Legion was unable to return.

This left only a handful of soldiers now from each branch, about a hundred against three-hundred, the relef forces of the Dawn's Tide hadn't arrived as of yet. The Saradominist force's Commander exited formation, the only one in heavy armour, through an opening in their shield wall. He aimed to speak to a commander, a Hunter (also known as an Archer) answered him first, before Ariston found his way to the Battlements to offer his response: He ordered the Hunter to fire his Longbow, setting an arrow only feet away from the Commander's feet. The Commander, known as Tristan, simply chuckled as he ordered his men to march forward, bringing forth the Siege Engines.

From within the Palisade, Ariston gathered his volunteers, every man and woman had vowed to stay, this handful consisted mostly of the Legionnaires, about sixty of them were Legionnaires, ten Knights, ten Hunters, Fourteen Spearmen, six Sentinels, and Ariston, who was the highest ranking officer at the time. With this small force, Ariston decided that he'd place his Hunters upon the walls, whilst placing forty of the Legionnaires to guard the front, while a force began to move from the rear. The Paladin forces chuckled at seeing what they thought was the entire force. From the other side of the camp, the Paladins decided to surround the smaller force, though they were slowly being picked off.

The flanking force of Knights, Spearmen and Legionnaires came around to flank the south side of the force, about this time, Sir Tristan's forces broke through the Legionnaire's lines and quickly Overwhelmed them, yet, at least a hundred of the Paladin's forces had been lost, a half of the force stayed behind to fend off the flanking ones while the others broke through the gate. The Hunters continued picking off people until they were overwhelmed and slain, albeit the effort put out by the Agema to prevent such, through spells cast, the numbers had easily been cut down to less than seventy within the fort. Commander Tristan seemed to be the bane of the Legion Soldiers. The forces on the outside remained quite even, despite the difference in numbers.

Tristan's Mace, Devilcrusher was almost over the top, and was claimed to be blessed to have extra effectiveness in all fields of killing. The Sentinels retreated back into the camps, splitting into teams of two. After about five minutes, the first pair was found by a force of ten. Upon sight, this pair, Marius Burke and Cleto Gaspar quickly began their group. Marius placed both palms into the ground, from it, emerged a large Steel Minotaur, which he was easily able to control. Cleto launched magic from his personal created wand, and then surrounded himself in Water, as if making a suit of it and began to use the water to attack the Paladin soldiers, leaving him towering high above even the tents.

This quickly attracted the attention of the other groups, Gallus Orsi and Blaine Clayton found themselves paired up. Gallus used his abilities of telekinesis to lift himself into the air, along with a large amount of rocks hovering around him. This left him in view of Blaine, who was a specialist in killing in all it's art-forms by usage of magic. He simply used extremely powerful and destructive shadows, blood and ice to kill the approaching forces, which numbered about twelve.

After this, there was the pair of Flavia and Saif, per request of Ariston himself. Flavia used her nature magic, whilst he Saif used his skill in the restoration department to create wards and magical defenses throughout the camp, as well as around them, and attempted to strengthen the ability of the Nature creations that Flavia  had made. Ariston soon found himself at the center of the camp, the Master's Tent, with a mixture of his own creations, and the usage of Telekinesis, he ascended into the air, even above his comrades. He could see all angles of the battle and with this, he began a massive buildup of energy, seeming to be siphoninc mystical energy away from those hostile in the surrounding camp.

After a few moments, the last, and largest portion of the force approached Ariston, who in turn dropped to the ground lightly in a kneeling position, before he quickly stood, his eyes still glowed in their purple haze, he sent an open palm forward through the group, what seemed to be chains made of pure shadow sprouted from each finger, he sent his hand into the air, making the chains fly up, and then sent his hand back down, crashing it back down onto the multiple soldiers. The soldiers were quickly crushed by the force of such a mighty blow, and he simply smiled, moving on to the next group, his first priority was to find Flavia.

Flavia was just finishing off the troops that had attacked her, along with Saif, the enemies had been easily subdued and then killed, with the help of Saif Ahmad. The rest had finished their fights, moving throughout the camp until they ran into one another as well. Finally, Ariston began to look for Commander Tristan. Tristan himself had led the few men he had taken with him outside to begin to break the lines of the Knights, who held fast until his arrival.

Ariston and the other members of the Agema rushed outside, spells at the ready, upon the nearby hill, from the North, approached a force of the Hypaspists of the Dawn's Tide. But, the Agema began their assault, aiming to find Tristan. Tristan and his forces turned about, aiming to face Ariston and the Agema. The rest of the Agema spread while Ariston aimed to meet Tristan's gaze. Tristan began to charge forth, Ariston felt he didn't need to use magic this time.

Commander Tristan swung his mace to the side, feeling he needed to end it quickly, an after a few swings of his mace and a few dodges from Ariston, the lighter and unarmoured Ariston finally found his way to Tristan's throat. He swung his leg around the Tristan's before bringing him solemnly to the ground in a mass of armour. Ariston's eyes glowed a bright amethyst as he brought his hand to Tristan's head, placing his fingers near the mans ear, sending strong vibrations through the air and into the man's ear, entering it and then making his head explode, hence the first use of Sound Magic. From this point on, he revealed a bit of Carnalmancy and Osteomancy were used as well, but only for one on one fights.

The Agema Members are as follows:
 * Flavia Ithell, the Paragon- Flavia is Ariston's favored Half-Elf apprentice, they had a secret relationship, and eventually were secretly wed, but she was also known as the top Battlemage of the group, aside from Ariston. Apart from this she is an excellent Nature Mage, and perhaps it is where the Everric line gets their affinity for it.
 * Gallus Orsi, the Owl- A Seer as well as a telekinetic and telepathic mage and formerly Guthixian Convert. He was also considered the wisest of the group, and was known for his abilities with telepathy, and the ability to levitate himself and others.
 * Cleto Gaspar, the Enchanter- A Karamjan Enchanter and Water Mage.
 * Marius Burke, the Warlock- A staff-fighter, and a Warlock by birth, born to a Witch Coven. He is the group's conjurer and summoner.
 * Saif Ahmad, the Vizier- A Menaphite magician and the squad's top restoration and healing mage.
 * Blaine Clayton, the Shadow- A Magician who favors in assassination by use of magic.

After a while, the group found themselves doing missions directly for the Legion's Master, Azrael. Either they went on conversions, infiltration or assassination missions.

With this, each an every member had their own specialty with magic, they found their specialty, and soon enough, their renown through the Legion Increased. Soon enough, others began to ask, hearing of their deeds. Their missions became increasingly more perilous.

After a few missions, and battles, they were offered a place in a rebelling army if they just converted, just like all of Zaros' servants whose loyalty remained in question. The approaching group consisted of a few Rippers, Avernic Hellhounds, Lessers, Greaters and a few Avernic Black Demons and led by Taleborn Leotiln, a member of the Everric's soon to be rival family. After a short conversation, the group even came to a consensus that their loyalties lay with Zaros, and stated clearly it was where they had placed their cards. Upon hearing this, the group was soon placed under attack.

After a short battle, Cleto was wounded in the surprise of the initial attack by one of the Avernics, though not badly, the others made it out fine, and killed off the demons, though, Flavia had to sit it out, due to her pregancy. Taleborn, however escaped.

The War and the first Birth
In the few weeks before the betrayal of Zaros, the first son Razmael was born. A few years later, Flavia bore triplets, Orion, Arion and Ariane.

Personality and Appearance
Ariston as a child was happy, in his younger years he had always been a rebellious one. He was outgoing and happy, though he had always been an avid reader, wanting to become a Mage. After his parents were taken and presumably killed, he had become reclusive to a point of withdrawal from all those, besides Augustus. Soon enough, he began to blossom into a nice young man after a few years. Soon enough, he rediscovered his inner confidence, and began to stand out from others within the Priesthood, including his ideas of free thought, which his master, Augustus, had shared.

Appearance
Ariston bears a tall figure, being 6'2", slender, and well-muscled. He has a narrower facial structure, but nothing is very defined on his face except for his lime-green eyes, and his unkempt jet-black hair. When charging magic, his irises change to a bright amethyst, glowing in various intensities depending on the form of magic that he's using. He also bears a scar on his right brow, that runs across it, which is his main distinguishing trait from Gabriel and Arkaevum.

Notable Relations

 * Flavia Everric- The beautiful Half-Elf apprentice, lover and then wife of Ariston. The product of a Crystal Singing Female of the Ithell Clan, and a Zarosian Male native to Senntisten. She is a powerful Battlemage and used some of the most innovative skills, her most notable being her control of nature.
 * Raezmael Everric- Eldest son of Ariston and Flavia, his supposed death sets of their anger.
 * Orion Everric- Eldest of the triplets, he is the one who is the tank.
 * Arion Everric- Middle of the triplets, he is the attacker.
 * Ariane Everric- Youngest of the triplets, she is the balanced one.
 * Cadenza Everric- Wife of Raezmael, a powerful Shadow Magician.
 * Augustus- Ariston's former mentor, who still looks after the Everric today.
 * Gabriel Everric- Ariston's distant descendant. The two have not actually met, yet.
 * Arkaevum Everric- Ariston's distant descendant and twin brother to Gabriel. The two have yet to meet.

Trivia

 * Ariston's name, Ariston, is derived from the Greek Word "Aristos" literally meaning "best."
 * His wife's name, Flavia, is also the Latin word for "Golden", and Golden is also a slang term for good.
 * Ariston's favorite colors are Purple and Green.
 * He bears a vertical scar on the left side of his forehead over his eyebrow, from a scratch he recieved during his battle with the Avernic Pack when he was only seventeen.
 * Ariston along with Flavia are the direct Ancestors of the of the modern day Everric Family, as Ariston is the founder of the family. The exception to this would be Lynette, Caedmon, Wade and any who have been adopted or married in.
 * The name of Ariston's strikeforce, "The Agema" is derived from Greek as well, Agema being an elite special attachment or unit used for a special cause, such as guarding. In this case the Agema are used for assassination and other things.