Ansed Hoharas Manivel Teziord Malthuas, is the Crown Prince of Caeruland, Heir to the Choice of Fate.
Morbid in his youth, he took an interest in tragedies and death customs, often spending a great deal of time reading on his book. However, his parents gently attempted to put their son on a path to becoming a good monarch, schooling him in useful subjects that he nevertheless cared all that much for. He eventually took to wearing somber clothing and became known for cheerfully discussing morbid facts about tragedies and death to the nobles - which was interpreted on more than one occasion as a threat that his parents were forced to defuse. They ultimately attributed his morbidness to a phase and agreed to let him continue read about the lost wars and the deaths and the gruesome details of the ancient sacrifices and cultures, provided he kept it to himself. He reluctantly agreed to this, recognizing that as a royal he must be prepared to don a mask.
His relationship with his parents was an odd one - though they loved one another, he nevertheless kept his distance from them, preferring solitude and the company of his horse, Swiftmane. His parents, in turn, ultimately took a hands off approach with their only child, fearing that they didn’t know him anymore. On his seventeenth birthday, he received a book from the newly appointed court philosopher, Vel Segeras, from Auferag, regarding a powerful and once widely coveted relic, called the Scepter of Dominion, an item left from the lost time, when the angels roamed the earth. Though the book was largely a theoretical book and contained no knowledge of how to find the scepter, his imagination was sparked.
In Vel Segeras, he found the closest thing he had to a friend, confiding his interest in finding the scepter. And Vel Segeras helped the boy find what he sought, sparking his imagination on what the scepter could do, its long, storied and twisted history in the hands of man. He encouraged him to act upon his interests, shape the histories - for Vel Segeras led him to believe that he was invincible and in the manner of youth, Ansed believed him.
And on one night, Ansed departed for the Lost Tomb, said to be the resting place of one of the mighty Archangels. He descended into it, and survived the traps, for the first time finding the combat training required thanks to his royal blood useful and pried the scepter from the bones of the angel. And as he did so, a terrible curse fell upon him and he soon discovered that he could no longer tell any sort of lie and what was more, he must always tell the complete truth if asked. And, both terrible and useful, he could tell if someone lied in his presence, either to him or to another.
Hiding the scepter was impossible. For his parents discovered his absence in the night and demanded to know what he had done. And he confessed all unwillingly. They were horrified, demanding that Vel Segeras come forward to answer to this blasphemy. And Vel Segeras answered, allowing himself to be chained and held in the dungeon to await trial. Ansed despaired at this. His life shattered around him, as he realized just how much everyone around him lied to his face, to each other. He could no longer hide behind a royal mask and pretend to be someone else, now all would see him as he truly was and he in turn saw the petty cruelties and misery that made up the palace life. As for the Scepter itself, it remained inert for he had no great skill at magic. All of its fabled powers for naught, and yet he was the only person who could pick it up. All others who tried were scarred with burns that would not heal.
But the damage had been done, for word soon spread that Ansed had been cursed. And many nobles approached the Crown Prince, asking for answers. Word spread swiftly among the nations that the Scepter had been found again, and the clouds of war loomed for both West and East claimed that the angels had left the Scepter for them, thus forming the Alliance and the Coalition. And even among the nobility and the nations of the Alliance, united behind Caeruland lusted for the scepter and the untold powers that the legends claimed.
Thus an assassin arrived in the castle, intending to slay Ansed and take the scepter. He slew the guards and entered Ansed’s chambers, but the King, by stroke of luck, was passing on his way to bed and stopped the assassin, fighting him in a swift, but terrible struggle. The assassin was slain but not before the King received a fatal wound from a poisoned dagger. and Ansed cradled his dying father in his arms, who told him to be strong and that he loved him - his last words the only true thing that Ansed had heard since receiving the curse. He stayed a long while in the chambers grieving, until Vel Segeras approached, finally having left the dungeons and revealing himself as a powerful Wizard.
He proposed to Ansed to find the three pieces of the Scroll of Fate and Death, the mightiest of artifacts left by the angels, a relic that when read would cause the Apocalypse, allowing for a fresh start. The scepter would allow them to find the missing pieces. Grieving over the loss of his father, Ansed agreed and allowed himself to be led away, to a hidden location where Vel Segeras’s drake waited.
It was a short time later - a matter of days - for action to be taken on the death of the King. The Alliance blamed the Coalition, declaring war and preparing to invade. The Coalition denied involvement, and immediately embarked on an aggressive course of action before the Alliance could marshal its forces, declaring to avenge the insult and to reclaim what was rightfully theirs - the Scepter. They invaded Caeruland, marching on the capital city, even as the Alliance marshaled their troops and rushed to defend it. The battle lasted for the days, the city was destroyed and most of its inhabitants fled or slain. War had begun.
Seeing what his actions had wrought, Ansed’s spirit finally broke. Gone was the cheerfully morbid boy. Instead was a gloomy young man who took comfort in nothing, who no longer knew joy, only pain and misery. He aided Vel Segeras because he felt there was nothing left for him, nothing at all. His actions had caused untold destruction and countless deaths, and his hands were bloodied. As for Vel Segeras, he discovered that he had befriended a madman, but strangely a madman who did care about him, for not even the most powerful of Wizards could lie to him.
He learned a little magic, enough to use the scepter to track the scroll fragments and became deadly with a sword, serving as Vel Segeras’s bodyguard, on top of his pupil. But even with the scepter, they were not easy to find or get to. It took a full three years to find the first piece, all the while the war raged on in the background. Ansed came to share his mentor’s beliefs that the only true way out was a fresh start - and that meant ending everything else…
