Lord Lyriel (a.k.a. Wind of Lynxia)

Lord Malin Lyriel is many things to many people. To some, he is the protector of all, poor, rich, innocent or sinners. To others he is the fear of unrightous and greedy - the bane of unholy. Or a shield against unholy magics and a sword against corruption. A wind that blows away all wrongdoers, and anyone who dares touch his charges....

But his legend began long time ago.

Lyriel used to rule over the land that is now north-west Lynxia, the province of Tanjin. Although Malin's father was no saint, he raised his son to be good and fair ruler. He instilled into him the ideals and philosophies that lead him to become the legend he is now. And thus, the young noble learned to appreciate and respect his subordinates - his soldiers, servants and farmers alike.

Few nobles of his time were as popular. Many historians tend to call him Arthur of Lynxia - to draw the comparison between the Good King Arundel of Bryten. That being said, many argue that the Tanjin's relative distance from rest of the Lynxia's hardships made it a bit easier for him. Still, the word spread and so the stories were born.

I'd lay waste to two more, if but one more soldier is saved!
— Lord Lyriel

Arguably the (chronologically) first essential story of Lyriel is the Lost Gold mine. Lynxia is blessed with abundance of various mines, some of them of dwarven origin. However, in addition to usual hazards of working in a mine, Lynxian mines have a habit of being filled with monsters of many kinds. Such was the case of one particular mine in Southern parts of Tanjin. Since Lord Lyriel was an ample warrior and could stand his ground he lead the charge to save the workers from the monsters that overrun the mine.

The unwavering spirit of Lyriel despite his exhaustion and lack of strength and fortune only inspired his mates further. Together they pushed all the way through an easily hold-able choke-point. And started to escort civilians.

However, few of the mine workers were badly injured. They called in for a healer, but it would have taken them 8 hours to even reach them. And with the constant need to push back the horrors, there was little hope for these poor souls.

But solution was there - Lord Lyriel ordered explosives to be placed at key points around the mine - caving it in, except for a single path to the last pocket of workers destroying the mine in the process. Many criticized Lyriel for sacrificing the mine for only a handful of souls, but just as many has praised it as a victory - for not a single person died that day.

Begone fiend!
— Lord Lyriel

As stories of Lyriel spread, many of the more shadowy elements feared and they sought a safe place to continue their schemes. Many argue whether this has been a good thing - with the Lynxian attitude towards magic in those days, it very well may be that these were just ordinary wizards. Still, some of them were genuinely dangerous. They decided that Lyriel is a threat - and needed to be eliminated. Not helping the stigma against Necromancy is the fact that the leader of this circle was Necromancer Fenzu, an ex-noble who has fallen from grace under tragic circumstances. Although many were sympathetic to him in his early days, it is difficult to justify his later actions... including this one.

The plan was simple - lure Lyriel out of the city walls, far from places that could provide shelter or support. This was remarkably easy - it was enough to seed a couple of rumours and kill some villagers. Eventually, Lyriel and his trusted friends, Corzin and Mrs. Jinzier arrived at the scene. Between the precision of Corzin, Jinzier's healing and Lyriel's will, there was little that could take them head on. But dozen of mages and an experienced necromancer would probably do the trick, if taken off guard.

The next step was to ambush them and overwhelm them with numbers. They managed to kill Corzin and knock Jinzier out. But Lyriel was relentless - he pressed on. After a couple of hours of unforgiving barrage of fire-bolts, mind assaults and magic missiles he was still standing, maybe only by sheer force of will, but standing nonetheless.

Fenzu the Necromancer was forced to make a choice - Lyriel was at his worst. If they retreat now, it will only give Lyriel time to heal and they would have to deal with Jinzier again. However, his colleagues were injured and exhausted. They could not carry on this assault for much longer, though Fenzu himself was relatively fresh. He made a dark call there and then - he decided not to back down. He used his dark and evil powers on his unsuspecting colleagues. Exhausted and taken by surprise, their minds stood little chance against his magics. Fenzu absorbed all the power of his men and used their empty shells to carry on - for they now do not care about injuries or fatigue.

But the fight was far from over. Lyriel was well-trained in magic warfare and knew how to deflect and deal with mages. And only having 1 to deal with - albeit fresh and with aid of dozen of thralls, he was able to stand his ground a little longer. Fenzu realised that a change of tactics is in order. And he saw the potential in Lyriel. And so, he tempted Lyriel.

I can give you wealth beyond measure!
I can give you beauty and pleasure!
I can give you magic and power!
I can revive your fallen brother!

Gems and coins matter not when they are paid for in our blood!
Beauty bears not any meaning when there is no heart!
Only for the strength of spirit is for what I care!
Fallen heroes should stay with Marb, so don't you ever dare!

— Bard song - Lyriel and the Necromancer (Legends of Lyriel)

But Lyriel is a man of great will and did not succumb to the temptations.

And so the fight carried on - when Lyriel realised a fatal flaw in Fenzu's spell. As he was controlling the thralls he was also drawing the remaining power from them - slowly, but surely. If he somehow could sync up and have all the thralls release the energies at the same time, it would surely fry his brain. But that required some planning. Firstly, Fenzu needed to stop controlling the thralls, but retain the connection. That was the easier part, since Fenzu was drawing on the power from even the thralls no longer fit for fight, and decided not too waste his energies on controlling them. Eventually Lyriel knocked out enough thralls for his plan. The Fenzu's greed fro power would ultimately kill him.

But it was not that simple, for there is still one thing. Though the flows of power were unrestricted, someone would need to draw from them in order for the energies to flow rapidly. If Fenzu would make an all out attack or somehow Lyriel could force him to use a lot of power, that would trigger all the flows to rush in to replenish what has been used - but in greater numbers... effectively making the spell more potent but also deadly for Fenzu. Lyriel waited for one of the Fenzus Mind strikes, and pulled on the energies, fully exposing himself. This way the power flows were unrestricted - from the thralls, through Fenzu... there was no way he would live through this.

But the power flow is unstoppable once free - and through Fenzu it continued to Lyriel. He knew what would happen, and he sacrificed anyway. If it meant Fenzu and his followers were stopped, he was willing to put his life on the line. His brain began to be overloaded with pure energies. Burning his memories, his skills. Soon, there will be no Lyriel left.

His memories flashed before his eyes. All the time he spent with Corzin and Jinzier, their deaths... at least Jinzier had a chance of getting out of this. She was still breathing last time he checked. Oh, how he wished for her to get out of this alive. Please, let it not be for nothing. Then - a simple mind touch. Though lacking in strength, it was decisive. A friendly and familiar one - that could only be Jinzier! A humble mind touch does not do much, but it connects minds. It is not a very useful spell on its own. But magical energies care not for usefulness, only for the connection. And so, the load spread from Lyriel to injured Jinzier. But she was a healer and thus well versed in magical arts. She was way better equipped to deal with the overload than Lyriel alone. Besides the flow was dampened by Fenzu and Lyriel by the time it reached her.

Such is the tale of the Lyriel and the Necromancer. Although friends were lost, injuries were suffered, Lyriel once again came out victorious. Alone against dozens of wizards, and a necromancer that threatened the whole region. There was little that could stop Lyriel, especially with Jinzier by his side.

I protect all the helpless, not just those of Tanjin!
— Lord Lyriel

Quintessential Lyriel story, The Defender of Hardon is yet another title Lyriel earned through his adventures throughout Lynxia.

The story begins as Lyriel, on his usual errands, was patrolling the borders of his lands. Eventually he ran into a sizable crowd of people, seemingly waiting for him. Their leader explained the situation: the crowd was apparently escaping the Hardon lands and was asking the legendary Lyriel for help. The local mage was terrorizing the lands and the nobility was not doing much about it.

This, however, was very problematic situation - since the mage was provably ravaging Hardon lands and clearly stayed away from Tanjin, Tanjin authorities should not interfere. This affair was supposed to be handled by Hardon and only Hardon. Lyriel knew that handling the matters without a tangible proof would provoke a conflict, but leaving the matter unattended leaves the villagers' lives hanging.

Lyriel agreed to help, but knew that proper planning would be necessary. He sent for Jinzier and started to escort the villagers to their respective towns - such action would be defensible, if Hardon nobility had called for the High Court. On their way they were attacked by wild life. Relentlessly - but nothing that Lyriel could not handle. A red flag, but nothing that could be used as a proof - just a sign of things to come.

Lyriel ordered a sneaky traps to be laid, watches to be doubled. He himself joined the efforts, under the average worker's disguise. The plan was to stall until Jinzier arrives. That way, as Jinzier was a priest, Lyriel could frame the whole adventure as escorting her to any one of the Haida's temples in Lynxia. In addition, she was good at dealing with people - much more than Lyriel. In short, Jinzier gave Lyriel some cards to play. However, the night was not a peaceful one. Dozens and dozens of demons descended upon the village, and while villagers fought bravely, it was obvious Lyriel was the one who had to do all the fighting. As per plan - all villagers fled into the chapel, and Lyriel stood guard in front of it. And then... the Demon master appeared.

Why? Why do you risk your life for these useless souls? They are not your people! Go away now, Lyriel... or I shall turn the world against you.
— Daili Khan, the Demon master

After a while, after the Demon master saw that Lyriel was much harder bottle to uncork, he left... along with all the demons.

Jinzier arrived in the morning.. and just in time - it appears that the local nobleman's tax collectors arrived, asking questions (and collecting taxes). Fortunately, the cover story of escorting Jinzier bought them a couple of days, while they find this Demon slayer. Lyriel found it suspicious that the tax collectors would arrive in such a moment... and his hunch proved to be correct - as they followed the tax collectors into the nobleman's estate, they found out the local noble was possessed. The stories diverge in the exact nature of the nobleman's possession, but they all agree on the fact that Lyriel was the one who ultimately broke the spell. And now, with an ally in Hardon nobility - there was no danger of High Court action and Lyriel and Jinzier could start their search in full.

With the details given by the nobleman and clues left behind the demon attack, the duo found the Demon Master relatively quickly - especially since they were not hindered by diplomacy. The battle that followed was a devastating one, but in the end the a demon master stood little chance against a holy priestess and a legend...

The ground quaked one last time
— Bard song - Legends of Lyriel

Relatively short story of how the old duo fought a mage deep beneath the city of Heshan, near the Great Crevice. This involved a strange balancing act - Jinzier fending off monsters attacking the city while doing some detective work to root out the mage's allies within the city, and Lyriel pushing through layers and layers of the Crevice's tunnels and caves.

The mage was behind the earthquakes and monster attacks on the Heshan, where everyone thought this was a natural phenomenon. Makes you think how much of the Lynxian disasters are arranged. Regardless, this mage was building a giant Golem, and was planning to destroy the city with a massive earthquake... Good thing he was stopped before that.

Tis not many that faced the northern beast. None that vanquished it. Until then, that is... — Cpt. Fanglin

The story of Lyriel's encounter with The Northern beast is the last known story featuring Lyriel. Last historically accurate one, that is. As such, it is surrounded by myths and rumours and very few - if anyone - knows what truly happened. Most of the story is collated by retellings of Captain Fanglin, Mrs. Jinzier or the infamous Little Cloak.

The story begins in Tanjin palace. At this point, Lyriel was a go-to person in regards to any dangers to Lynxian lands. Sometimes even beyond Lynxia. Such was the case of the Northern Beast. Jintel, the ruler of North eastern regions, came seeking help into the Tanjin palace. There were reports of plundered villages - burned to the ground, missing caravans, entire farmlands on fire. Rumours of terrible roars and enormous beast. But there was nobody left alive to tell - only the ashes of the towns, and devastated lands hinted on the existence of the beast. And its territory was growing. Naturally, Jintel's allies were preoccupied with their own issues and none wanted to deal with the beast - fearing that provoking the beast may spread the misfortune to their lands. Therefore, Jintel asked Lyriel for help, his last port of call. Jintel had not even finished speaking, when Lyriel sent for Jinzier and asked his servants to ready his gear.

In just a couple of days Lyriel was leading the platoon to march toward the beast, along with Captain Fanglin. Fanglin was a veteran and earned respect of his men on the battlefield. The few that chose to face the beast were sturdy folk, willing to follow Fanglin, or Lyriel, trough the gates of hell. The plan was to investigate the village to give them a sense of what they are going to fight. You see nobody quite knew what the beast was. We still don't as a matter of fact. Some claim it was a giant treant. Some claim it was a dragon. Some say it was Obe himself.

Regardless, there was little to go on when they entered the village. Or rather, the place where village once stood. There was nothing but ash. And bones. Fanglin and Lyriel decided to set-up camp, while Lyriel examines the ruins and Jinzier performs the rites for those they managed to find. Suddenly, however, a high-pitched screech resonated across the village. Then head-aches. Soldiers started to bleed. As if that was not enough, dozens of fire elementals started to emerge seemingly from everywhere. It was Fanglins quick thinking that ultimately saved them. His troops were well-trained and despite the screeching managed to mobilize and form a defensive formation around Jinzier. Lyriel stood his ground, but got isolated unable to help the rest. Jinzier managed to conjure up the spell that helped with the horrible sound, but it was too late - two soldiers were already knocked unconscious and the rest of under a constant pummeling from the elementals. But Fanglin came through - he fended off those who would attacked the injured, and ordered the rest to push towards Lyriel. Once Lyriel was in range of the Jinzier's healing magics, he could resume the fight unhindered. Although it costed the squad most of their energies and potions, they managed to fell the spirits. However, the soldiers were severely injured. Some of them needed a surgeon and they could definitely not withstand another ambush like this. Fanglin wished to push towards the beast, claiming now that that they are half-way, they cannot turn back and his men are ready to do what is necessary. But Lyriel has already sensed another wave coming and talked him out of it.

These folks knew what they signed themselves in for! They know we are going to die. Heck, I will die myself just to get you to that bloody beast!

You and your men will hardly serve me or this land dead. We are here to stop the bloodshed. We SAVE people, we don't send them to die!

— Cpt. Fanglin & Lord Lyriel

Cooler heads prevailed and Fanglin called for a retreat.

Inspecting the remains together with what Jinzier told him about the screech Lyriel managed to figure out what was happening. The creature became aware of their presence and sent its minions and that horrible spell after them. It seems that their cover was blown because of the sheer number of people coming its way. Jinzier could shield a couple but certainly not a whole platoon. Hence, they decided to head off alone. But just before they had left the camp Fanglin stopped them. He insisted on joining. It did not take too much persuading - after-all Fanglin was capable and more people meant more strength... within reason. And thus, they ventured back into the wilderness.

Deep within the beast's territory Jinzier realized the drain the counter-magics put on her and even though Lyriel tried to lend her his strength it was not enough. That combined with denser and denser patrols of elementals meant that their progress was increasingly difficult. Eventually Jinzier spell was bound to fail and indeed it did. Lyriel and Fanglin stood guard and braced themselves for the incoming screech and flood of minions. But then a strange figure started to shift through the bushes just outside of their field of vision. They shot a couple of crossbow shots at it, but it moved too quickly. Too quickly for Fanglin to reload. Then something knocked the crossbow out of his hands. But when the figure dashed towards Jinzier, Lyriel acted quickly and knocked the person down, but it rolled away before he could strike them down. A half-ling crouched just out of Lyriel's reach, tattered but sturdy set of armour, with a cloak torn short, barely covering his shoulder blades. A mild smirk appeared on half-ling's lips.

I did not know the Redcoats would go to these lengths to get me. Still, I could not resist a damsel in distress. wink
— The Little cloak

Suddenly, the screech started and Lyriel could sense a couple of elementals quickly converging on their location. The half-ling insisted they had no time, gave them some rings and tackled Jinzier into some hole. With little choice Lyriel and Fanglin followed. The rings helped with the screech and the hole lead to some underground lair of sorts.

The half-ling, the infamous Little cloak, the thief extraordinaire was a wanted criminal and it turns out he ran away into the zone to hide from the law. There was a little in-fighting between Fanglin and Little cloak, but Lyriel talked them down. They were in this together. The Little cloak was surprisingly eager to help. It is rumoured that Little cloak was promised freedom for this endeavor. Some say he joined just to irritate Fanglin. Some say he was a bastard with the heart of gold... we don't know what lead him to join the party but he did.

Eventually, they reached the cliff with beast's lair on top. They could hear the beast's terrifying roar. They could feel the ground quake. The rings burned them on their fingers. As they approached the rings started to falter. It was clear that the rings will do very little against the beast and there was no way around the patrols. They pushed forth but quickly the situation was very obviously unmanageable. Fighting all the fire elementals up the mountainside would be harrowing but possible, doing that while being flanked by armies-worth of other elementals that quickly started to trail them as they got close made it impossible. And that screech. That ever worsening screech... But it was too late to retreat back too. It was a though situation. Fortunately, just ahead there was a rope bridge leading away from the mountain. Lyriel order a push towards it. If they could push through and cut down the bridge, they could retreat relatively safely. And so the push began. It took quite some effort and Fanglin lost the finger with the ring, but they managed to help him through the bridge while Jinzier prepared the spells and Lyriel held of the other end of the bridge. When the Little cloak signalled for Lyriel to retreat, he... cut down the bridge. From the other side. Little cloak and the bloodied Fanglin had to drag Jinzier away by force. The 3 of them made it back. And left Lyriel on that mountain.

The next day, Jinzier sneaked out of the camp to find Lyriel, or whatever was left of him. She was stopped by Little cloak, but he decided to join her. But there was no sign of Lyriel. Or the beast - appart from the destruction left in its wake. No screeching, no elementals. Not even on top of the mountain. Fanglin later organized a search party but they too never found anything.

The group split up and found their own ways to cope with what happened on that mountain.

Mrs. Jinzier returned back to Tanjin palace as and returned to her usual services as priestess. She was offered the seat as Lady of Tanjin, but she passed the seat to the next in line. Jinzier was often consulted and occasionally deployed, but the region became a lot more peaceful during (and after) Lyriel days.

Fanglin remained in service for a couple of years, adopting much of the Lyriel's ideology. Although he was offered a better position by Jintel (and other neighbouring rulers), he declined all. After that he retired and remained in the region to this day. He can occasionally be seen roaming the mountain ranges. Some say he is still looking for Lyriel.

Little cloak disappeared pretty much as quickly as he appeared. Technically, he is still a criminal, though there was very little effort (if any) to track him down. The rumour has it he picked up the Lyriel's mantel and deals with the enemies of Lynxia from behind the curtains. Some say he moved to Galicia and joined Dead man's cape

I know not where he is... nor whether he still is.
— Mrs. Jinzier

There are many rumours surrounding Lyriel, when it comes to present day. Some say he never made from his encounter with the Northern Beast. Some speak of a pact with Marb and that he became a spirit, haunting anything or anyone posing a danger to Tanjin. Some claim he simply retired.

Regardless of the truth, the roads are safer now, forests less wilder, beasts are found in lesser numbers. Occasionally a villager who strayed too far from the road comes back with an interesting story. Nothing is certain, but evil elements always think twice now, when crossing Tanjin.

Lynxian Empire -Empire of shot and steel.

Lynxian Pantheon - Story of loss, loyalty, hope and cowardice.