Bathlazaar Gelt

Gender: Male?

Age: ???

Group: Sorcerers/Sorceress

Game: Dark Age of Aeran

Nationality/Loyalties

Only to himself and his "great plan"

Does not have formal relations with the current factions

Title/Rank

The Crimson One

He Who Has Changed

Race/Appearance

Gelt is always covered in his distinctive red robes and golden face mask. None alive today can say what he looks like underneath, nor if he is human at all. Though he often stands in a slightly stooped position when alone, leading many to believe his body is wracked with pain. Many people speculate further on this in that incredible damage has been done to his body.

Personality/Interests

Gelt is cold individual, logical, and demanding. He considers almost all of the world to be expendable if the situation calls for it. To those that manage to succeed his expectations and tasks, he rewards justly. To those that fail him, they often find (in their last moments) one who has no qualms about ending their existence.

To Gelt, the ends justify the means. If killing a thousand people would save the world, then so be it. If the abduction of the king's only child would set the kingdom up for greatness, so be it. To what ends Gelt works for, none can easily say.

His interests often are directed to magical objects and artefacts of power. When not interested in such things, his interest varies greatly in depth and subject. It is hard for anyone to truly determine his motives and actions, given that none can see his face.

Brief History

Long ago, when the first of the kingdoms began to rise, a magic-user was known to have existed with a quest to answer his one question: how and why is everything connected? This magic-user eventually disappeared from the gathered groups of magic entirely some two hundred Years Before The Raid.

Not many would have paid much mind to the loss of one magic-user. Many had gone missing over the ages and one more in search of power did not make people blink. This one succeeded, at terrible costs as many would believe. What would be known as Balthazar Gelt emerged from those wild lands as something else.

Gelt himself rarely speaks of himself or the events of the past age. Though he states that he remembers the Verden capital as a quaint little hamlet, Gelt had little to do with the founding of the modern day kingdoms. He himself had spent many of the years secretly delving, discovering, and perfecting magic. Year after year, he consolidated his power with none but himself.

The Mage War gave the first appearance of Gelt in the history books under his name. Were it not for the war, Gelt and many of his "appearances" would have gone unnoticed. Even so, Gelt only appeared in tales of battle and never in great detail; as easily as he appeared, so too did he vanish. It was only after the founding of the Circle in Dalen that a collection of his deeds was finally, painstakingly detailed to paint a rather disturbing image.

Where he appeared, only death and destruction followed. Many accounts gathered showed his non-commitment as well as his power, more than enough to worry the magocracy. After the Kelmoran Uprising, Gelt was sought after by Circle mages to either be recruited or be destroyed. To them, he was another Kelmoran, one that needed to be subdued before he proved a liability.

None returned alive or returned having failed in their quest to find the illusive mage. Gelt himself did not actively seek those attempting to follow him, believing them to be beneath him.

During the years leading to the Great War, Gelt was believed to have constructed his own abode somewhere within Nargozond. There, his greatest creation also proved to be his greatest regret. The creation of the art known as mahangory proved to be effective in creating new creatures. With his own knowledge of magic and alchemy, he gifted life to the first Kragan.

The brutal strength and resilience of the creature went to become his personal soldiers and shock troopers, though the process and existence of this new life form did not go unnoticed.

Gelt is known to have created mahangory by the tales of three hags who stole the methods from him in those years. The hags themselves were cursed to their current form of today for their deceit, but the damage was done. Gelt and his creations would appear with increasing frequency up to and during the Great War.

His name as the Crimson One truly circulated in this time, as Timber Crag soldiers and mercenaries often spoke of a wizard clad in red with a golden face, usually leading a band of kragan or singularly encountered, laying waste to numerous divisions of troops. The massacre at Calden and subsequent destruction of the town is credited to Gelt as well, with "terrible magic and unparalleled will and malice" smoting the place off the map.

Gelt has disappeared once more. Sighting of He Who Has Changed have begun to appear over the century. And with him, his Kragan are marching. The Crimson One has long planned to return to the sight of the land. And this time, none will be able to escape the change he has placed.

Talents/Abilities/Advantages

Master Alchemist

Considered an archmage with a near-inhuman amount of knowledge of magic

Skilled fighter

Knows many common and exotic crafting techniques

Trained in ancient Aeran magics long forgotten in the land

Gelt is extremely tactical and is a master strategist, knowing when a cause is lost and when one is won, knowing when the battle is lost or won.

Fears/Weaknesses/Phobias

It is unknown if Gelt has any weaknesses to exploit, as he rarely gives opponents chances to capitalize on. Those that have personally battled him are either some terrifying monster now or are dead.

If one could find a fear or a weakness, it would most likely be the failing of his hundred year plans that he mentions. He will achieve greatness or not at all, and he has come too far to fail now.

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This character is owned by: Thaen93