The Xalthelon Coterie

Description
The Xalthelon Coterie (Zal-thel-awn), sometimes simply referred to as Xael (Zayl), is a secret society of forbidden Quel'dorei magi operating primarily within Quel'Thalas. Formed within Dawnstar Village on Apelos 7th of 1,609 L.D, the Xalthelon Coterie actively acts as a secret society for powerful forbidden magi either abandoned from Thalassian society or undercover and seeking like-minded individuals.

Sol'doral
Level 29 Sanguimancer, Level 7 Vitaramancer Since he was a child, Sol'doral had a fervent interest in becoming a priest in order to heal the wounded. During the Tevelion Uprisings on the Isle of Quel'Danas, Sol'doral had witnessed hundreds of innocent civilians die, among them many close family and friends including his mother.

During these uprisings, Sol'doral was a mere child and so was helpless and could do nothing more than watch the death surrounding himself. Once he had become a young adult and member of the Danassian Order of Priests, Sol'doral had met a young girl named Auriline Brightpath, a priestess who quickly became one of the most important people in his life. Around this time, Sol'doral had also met a sanguimancer, though his name is unknown.

The sanguimancer, being a vagabond and not a native of Dawnstar Village, would have shown Sol'doral his magic by demonstrating it on a wounded deer in the woods. By restructuring some of his own blood to be compatible for the deer, the sanguimancer would then funnel it into the wound before clotting the wound to prevent any further bleeding. Soon after, the deer would then have appeared healthy, slowly returning into the thicket away from their eyes.

Such a demonstration was supposedly to convince Sol'doral that supposed "Forbidden Magic" wasn't intrinsically evil, and in general in life there is no good or evil but such ideas are relative to the culture of the nation. Shortly after the demonstration, the sanguimancer would leave Dawnstar Village, however his teachings would remain deeply within Sol'doral. It wasn't long for war to once again find its way to Quel'Danas, a civilian uprising known historically as the Celoethen Uprising occurring and demanding equal treatment from the nobility. Though Sol'doral was upper-middle class and not nobility, he nonetheless received the ire of the rioters. While he was returning from the market, he came home to see his house on fire, his father inside burning along with his pet cat. Though before he could run in to save them, the roof had come to a sudden collapse, crushing them both beneath the rubble. Additionally, a crowd of rioters was seen outside his house, Auriline restricted by a few men before her head was sawed off with a broken bottle.

Sol'doral horrified and once again feeling powerless would simply flee from the horrifying scene into the woods. As he fled however, he bumped right into the hooded sanguimancer once again, the man offering to teach Sol'doral. At this point, Sol'doral felt an entire shift in his psyche, no longer feeling content with his life but rather overcome by a fervent impulse to seek out vengeance on those who ruined his life. Seeing that vitaramancy wasn't offering him any assistance in his life, he would agree to be taught by the mysterious man in the art of blood magic.

After around one hundred years of receiving training, one ordinary morning when Sol'doral was expected to train once again, the sanguimancer had suddenly disappeared without a trace, though his immense power now in the hands of Sol'doral. Seeing that one hundred years was more than enough to gain enough power, Sol'doral would return to Dawnstar Village, unleashing his magic on the lower-sectors of the city which housed the plebeian class of civilians that caused both the Tevelion Uprising and the Celoethen Uprising. During this attack, he managed to kill at least fifty people, not bothering to spare men, women, or even children. The attack served to satisfy his vendetta against the people of Dawnstar adequately enough, Sol'doral now wishing to leave the confines of Quel'Danas to live on the mainland—a safe distance from the enemies he had now made.

Shrouding his face with a mask, he would thus board a ship and head for the mainland. Shortly after the attack, it is estimated that while Sol'doral was in Sylvania he met both Teract and Zantheas Bloodfall who likewise were powerful forbidden magi banished from home. On Apelos 7th of 1,609 L.D, while undercover, the three would travel to Dawnstar Village and then form the Xalthelon Coterie with part of the Magister's Terrace as their headquarters, offering a home for powerful forbidden magi with similar interests. While in Magister's Terrace, Sol'doral would simply pose as one of the nobility, while secretly using part of the terrace to host meetings for his coterie. Xael's motives as a secret society is ambiguous and seemingly ever-changing, though often they seek to satisfy their revenge against those who have wronged them in the past, and for a long-term goal they wish for forbidden magic to be integrated into society, even if they have to create their own nation endorsing forbidden magic.

Teract
Level 29 Izarimancer, Level 16 Mordelimancer, Level 14 Arcanomancer, Level 13 Tasramancer, Level 9 Arthamancer, Level 6 Antalrymancer

Born into a lower class family of the small Danassian village of Morrowsun, Teract, born Teract Evermourn, grew up as a rebellious yet nonetheless brilliant child, marked by his self-centered personality and impertinence toward his peers and mentors. Though known to be loquacious, he had few friends but nonetheless expressed that friendship was useless to him, preferring to retreat to his study after every day's routine of responsibilities. At a young age, Teract had experienced the death of his entire family consisting of his father, mother, and sister in the midst of a military junta that had overthrown Morrowsun.

Despite their deaths though, Teract seemed mostly unaffected by it, only finding it inconvenient that he would be having to make his own meals and of course find a job at a young age. Though Teract seemed to be naturally fearless of any threats or consequences of his actions, he did in fact still fear—his greatest fear being his own death. Every night, Teract would find himself sleepless, simply contemplating the sheer inevitability of his death, even if for a Quel'dorei it would mean 3,000 years of time between that day. To remedy this fear, Teract at a young age began to study Izarimancy, a magic that is greatly forbidden in Quel'Thalas but nonetheless he managed to track down an academy of Forbidden Magic on the southeastern coasts of Quel'Danas.

Every morning at 1 o'clock he would make a long journey along the eastern coasts to then reach the academy and study during those sleepless nights. However with his primary academy in Morrowsun being compulsory for him to attend to, he would have to take a long journey back to arrive by 9 A.M, the studies at the primary academy lasting until 5 PM before he could even have a chance to sleep. This lifestyle was strenuous, but nonetheless it paid off. While at the academy, Teract was noted by his fervent desire for knowledge, studying multiple magics at once despite the warnings by his mentors that it would be too much to handle. Teract continued this lifestyle for several decades, his natural intelligence breezing him through the courses and allowing him to become powerful incredibly quickly.

However a few of the people of Morrowsun Village took notice of Teract's strange behavior, and some of the magisters began to sense that he gave off a foreboding aura due to the immense magical power he stored within himself. With such suspicions, on Teract's journey back from the academy of Forbidden Magic, he found the door to his house broken down, a squadron of soldiers digging through the various grimoires and such that seemed to confirm the village's suspicions. The soldiers now with their smoking gun, they intended to imprison Teract for his dabbling in the Forbidden Magics of izarimancy, mordelimancy, tasramancy, arthamancy, and antalrymancy. Teract by no means had the intention of rotting away in a prison though—not after getting this far.

Finally getting to practice his magic in a real battle, Teract didn't hold back in the slightest, taking his time in slaughtering each and every soldier to oppose him as he cast every spell he knew. Though the soldiers were disposed of easily, the massive amount of mana expended put Teract into exhaustion, the magus sauntering from the gruesome scene of dozens of corpses to find respite farther south along the coastline. Making his way to the academy of forbidden magic, one of his mentors then helped him escape the isle safely, Teract receiving a portal to the outskirts of Tranquillien where he was then far enough away to avoid recognition. Being that he was now forever banished from Morrowsun, Teract had revoked his surname "Evermourn" as was often customary in certain parts of Quel'Thalas.

However while he was near Tranquillien, he was worried to even expose himself to any people at all in fear of his forbidden magic getting discovered, and thus Teract spent the next couple of decades in solitude, devoting most of this time in studying technomancy to create a suitable weapon for himself. More specifically, Teract was looking for a weapon that constituted all of what he had learned over the years. Though it wasn't just that; Teract was interested in creating a weapon that he could bound his soul to and thus never die. With this in mind, Teract eventually created a powerful scythe known by many as "Black Ice" however he personally had named it "Evermourn" after his revoked surname.

Evermourn was a scythe forged with black ice, or a special type of ice formed from tasramancy and thus Black Ice received its name. Though black ice can still be broken, it is among the most mighty of metals. Along with that, Teract bounded several runes along the hilt of the weapon which he called "Magic Transmission Runes", runes created from arcane magic that allow for any type of magic to be cast through the blade. Most importantly however was a rune created at the center of the blade known as a "Rune of Culling" created with izarimancy. With the Rune of Culling, the wielder of Evermourn can trap a host soul within the rune, allowing for the rune to continuously leech off of the soul and in turn empower the weapon. While empowered, all of the runes along the blade will remain active, however the wielder will also have to endure the telepathic connection with the host soul.

Another important characteristic of the Rune of Culling, and perhaps where it received its name, is that the rune deceptively bears the Vitaran cross, and with this cross it acts as a lure to the souls of those who have recently died, resulting in the constant absorption of souls to help sustain the host soul of the Rune of Culling. The host soul can also gain the ability to possess enemies by being briefly released from the Rune of Culling, however while being released the host soul isn't completely free as the Rune of Culling maintains a soul tether to the host which prevents it from going too far from the scythe. Though if the host soul is more powerful than the wielder of the scythe, then the tether can be broken, but of course this tether only becomes strained enough to be broken when the host soul is released from the rune.

Additionally, if the wielder of Teract were to die, then the host soul would be freed, however in turn the Rune of Culling would immediately receive another host soul from whoever may be nearby, most often resulting in the former wielder being trapped within the scythe. This effect is how Teract intended to achieve immortality, however he would later regret such a decision. With Evermourn now forged, Teract felt much more confident in exposing himself to other people, traveling north from the Province of Sylvania to Eversong. On the outskirts of Fairbreeze Village he'd then stumble upon Zantheas Bloodfall; someone who gave off an intense magical aura, Teract not recognizing the magic in the slightest.

Upon interacting with him though, Zantheas openly revealed it to be chronomancy, the magic so potent that his eyes glowed golden instead of blue. Zantheas, like Teract, was also abandoning his home out of fear of being imprisoned, and Zantheas thus advised Teract to follow him south away from the Fairbreeze if he wished to maintain his freedom as a fellow forbidden magus. On this travel south is when Teract and Zantheas would then discover Sol'doral; with the three having crossed paths, they would then form the Xalthelon Coterie. Fast forward a little over one hundred and fifty years, and while in southern Quel'Thalas, Teract had stumbled upon a group of three powerful human magi from Karazhan, their leader simply being referred to as Count Zourel.

With Count Zourel appearing to have tracked Teract down for his weapon Evermourn, he the group of three magi would then ambush Teract, it then being revealed to him that the group were also forbidden magi. Though Teract managed to slay two of them, after a lengthy battle Count Zourel had put an end to Teract, the soul of an unknown elven woman being released and thus the Rune of Culling then absorbing Teract's soul into the blade. As he had been absorbed into the rune, Teract had felt immense pain as if he were being burned alive. Once the pain was finally over, Teract was completely blinded and merely possessed soul vision. He however also felt an immense hunger for souls, a hunger felt like no other.

Though Teract got to consume the two slain magi, Count Zourel hadn't intended to use the blade in combat at all, rather, he simply stored the blade within a cabinet in his weapon and armor shop in Karazhan, setting a price tag so high on the weapon that the scythe would remain in the cabinet for around fifty years before finally a Bannhurstian sollicumancer of the Catho Team visiting the shop showed an interest in the blade and purchased it for around 1,500 gold. Though fifty years of starvation were finally over, this Bannhurstian, by the name of Erim Thoradin Erithal, acted as an arrogant, power-hungry wielder of the blade, treating Teract with little respect and simply using him as a tool. He had also discovered the use of using Teract's immense izarimantic capabilities in briefly releasing his soul from the rune to possess various enemies while on Bannhurstian missions. This inspired hope within Teract, waiting for the right moment to possess someone or something to then escape and gain freedom once more.

Zantheas had also gone to great lengths in an attempt to save Teract, going so far as to join the Catho Team upon hearing that Erim had possessed Evermourn, also waiting for the right moment to retrieve the blade and kill Erim if necessary. During a covert mission to release the Alteraci prisoners from the Porthcawl Internment Camp, Erim and his squadron had killed the overseer but had also gotten carried away and begun killing and raping various civilians nearby. Though not satisfied with his victims, Erim then demanded Teract, while possessing a man's wife, to engage sexually with him. Finding this disgusting and demeaning, Teract thus found it as the right time to finally leave Erim's clutches, possessing a nearby Bannhurstian gensaire to stab him in the chest before then possessing a raven to fly off to Quel'Thalas.

Being that a raven isn't an ideal body to live with, Teract would thereafter have to work toward a stronger body by killing enough creatures and absorbing their souls until he could finally possess an elf body. In order to possess a more powerful creature, Teract would have to consume souls equal to the strength of the target. If he were to kill a few ravens, perhaps he could possess a wild cat, and so on. Though he could more freely possess who he wanted while bound to Evermourn, his soul had the option to safely return to the Rune of Culling, however while unbound if he were to attempt to possess a creature with a soul greater than the amount of souls he consumed, then Teract could risk being rejected from the body, and without the safety net of his scythe, being sent to the afterlife.

Zantheas Bloodfall
Level 25 ChronomancerA level 25 Chronomancer, and one of the three founding members of Xael.

Belonice Runeflame
Level 27 TasramancerA level 27 Tasramancer, and a loyal member who has been with Xael for one hundred years.

Vyrun Palebreath
Level 20 FuroromancerA level 20 Furoromancer, and one of the newer members of Xael.

Faelia Somberhold
Level 23 IzarimancerA level 23 Izarimancer, and a member who has been with Xael for around fifty years.

Velsalia
Level 27 SanguimancerA level 27 Sanguimancer, and a loyal member who has been with Xael for one hundred and fifty years.

Paelion Daygaze
Level 24 Izarimancer, Level 10 SolarmancerA level 24 Izarimancer, Level 10 Solarmancer, and one of the newer members of Xael.