Valerius Kandistos

Name: Valerius Kandistos
Age: 29
Race: Human
Hair: brown
Eyes: Gray
Came to Erinn Via the soul Stream, died in battle.

When the emperors died, everything went to hell. The empire they built in the name of Chaos and Order was a fragile collections of nations held together almost solely by the awe in which everyone held the Emperors Alexandros and Julius, as walking avatars of the gods. when the two of them were slain, the Empire tore itself apart in a bloody civil war. Nations rose up and declared themselves independent once again, the famed legions took sides with one man or another. The bastard children of the emperors, and there were many of them, Gathered their own forces and tried to become the next great ruler. In the northern continent, this was to continue unabated for decades, but in the south, things went differently.

There, Tarhenius, bastard son of Alexandros and a dragon rider, gathered a few veteran legions to his side. He gained the loyalties of the northern tribes and the walled nation of Kandistar. For seven long, bloody years, he fought to reunite the south, and Valerius Kandistos fought with him.

Valerius had been but a child when the Alexandros and Julius had first arrived. He had seen their outnumbered forces smash the Kandistari on the plains outside Arenia. He had watched the last king submit to these conquerors from the north. He had wanted to serve them, to fight beside the men who the gods had chosen as their avatars. And so, one he came of age, he enlisted, Just as things fell apart and the Emperors died. And his legion saw Tarhenius as thier successor.

He fought with Tarhenius all through the bloody years, as one independent kingdom after another was brought back into the empire. He watched beaten legions march forward to submit themselves and beg for mercy. He remembered standing on the Eastern coast and rejoicing as the southern continent was once again brought under a single ruler. Then the Ramani came.

An invading horde, hundreds of thousands strong, fresh for battle against a nation weary from decades of war. The east was lost almost immediately, Tarhenius fell back towards the mountain passes that bordered the Dahea plains. There, the emperor and his legions made thier stand. Valerius well remembered that battle. The outnumbered legions, standing firm in the face of the relentless horde. Tarhenius, his armor gleaming like a star, leading his men head on in a charge right through them. The cry of joy, of victory, as the horde was shattered and broken. And then the sudden, agonizing pain as the lance pierced his side, and he died alongside so many others.

"But," Valerius mused to himself as his soul drifted, "It wasn't a bad way to die. the empire will continue on, so my death has meaning"

Then he found himself in the soul stream, and he was in shock. this was not Order's sweeping plains nor Chaos's wild sea. He listened to the words of the woman who greeted him with half an ear, while the other wondered why he was here. Where was his paradise, where he could dwell with the gods and all those who had fallen? Once he found himself outside, in a small village, he kneeled down, and began to pray. He asked his gods to show him something, as proof that he was not totally alone, and for one brief moment, he felt them. The rock-solid stability of Order, and the tempestuous changes of Chaos. But it was only for a moment, for he saw that they were far away and distant from him.

But his gods were still there, and that was a comfort to him. His fingers on his shield hand were still maimed, and his magic still functioned. He hoisted his bag over his shoulders, and belted his sword at his side, and set off, to see what surprises this world held.

"Erinn" he rolled the word around on his tongue, and liked the sound of it "let us see what wonders you hold for a man such as myself."