The Ending of the Great War

Magnus the Red, born in Prospero, a desert city-state in the land of Kemet, was a prodigy. He lead his people to greatness and became a well-known scholar and mage. He made miracles. That is, until the day his brother betrayed him. One hundred years ago, at the end of a war that ravaged the planet, his brother Leman Russ invaded without warning or explanation. Leman raised his city, killed his people, and literally broke Magnus over his knee, shattering Magnus’s soul into 100 shards. Prospero was gone. Magnus was on death’s door. And the only other Prosperine mage to survive is one that has been in exile for years...

After the Fall

Magnus had his gear repaired by his nation’s dwarves, and set out to find all of the shards of himself, seeking Leman Russ and his lost student, the other survivor and banished magician. He ventured for a hundred years, finding ten shards so far. Every shard is located somewhere hard to reach, as the magical energy they radiate naturally attracts powerful monsters and beasts.

The Cyclops, the Wolf, and the Scholar

Magnus’s abadoned son, Ahzek Ahriman, was the first captain of the Prosperine military. Ahriman cast a spell, the Rubric of Ahriman, that was meant to empower his fellow mages, but instead turned 60% of them into dust sealed inside animated armor, with their souls forever trapped inside armor that would repair if broken. Ahriman was cast out to find a way to fix this mistake by the Crimson King. Leman Russ was always an old friend of Magnus’s. One was a warrior-king and the other a well-learned mayor of two hundred years. Neither seem to have aged in over 250 hundred years, and both had extreme power. Leman’s cries could reverse the flow of magical energy, literally throwing spells back at targets and detonating the mana inside one’s body, while Magnus could manipulate the reality around him and use the highest level spells and telekinesis. Both were giants, and, in a way, pariahs for their massive and strange appearance and abilities. But both were called upon to serve their nations during the Great War one hundred years ago. Magnus, who defended his homeland and lead relief missions to allied nations, and Russ, who viciously sought glory and combat, and pillaged his enemies’ lands. At the war’s end, both Russ and the Cyclops went missing. Nobody knows that it was Russ himself who marched 500 of his best men through the walls of Prospero and burned the city to the ground, before disappearing into the night...

Origins

Magnus of Prospero goes by many names. His legal name is Magnus Giga Rubra. But in history books you may see the monickers of “Crimson King”, “Cyclops”, and “Magnus the Enlightened”. He was born 252 years before the start of this chat, at the opening of the Great War. At the time, the Great War was thought to be a small war between two western nations, and for a hundred years Magnus would grow into the massive, half-goliath half-tiefling the world knows now. Magnus would rise to the status of mayor of Prospero, and when a northern nation, Fenris, sent their king and his Wolfguard to seek Prospero’s help in this now much larger war, Magnus became quick friends with the King of the Russ. At this time, Ahriman cast his rubric and was cast into exile. For a hundred years Magnus and Russ made war at one another’s backs. Until the war was won, and the fatal burning of Prospero took place..