Ldura

A wise scholar who went on a quest to increase his personal knowledge and power.

Major favour: All cities larger than 50k have an expanded university and expanded academy
Minor favour: Every city has a university and an academy before anything else except walls
Negative favour: Participated in more than 1 war
Favour bonus: 10% production of both magical and mundane points, this does not affect academies for a specific magical lore

Grand objective: Learn the most, study more than any other
Divine intervention: 400 magical or mundane points (split as wished) are created per follower, material cost must still be paid by yourself


Backstory: In the earliest days of Arl's ninth world, he created the First Ones, having seen the Chosen Ones as a failure. Of these, the most famous is Trchkithin, known for her wars, her power, and her vicious followers, but another who's name survived the tests of time is that of Ldura, a wise, kind man.
     Ldura was one to neglect his people, leaving their rule to lesser mortals, while he engrossed himself in books, gathering tomes and manuscripts from all corners of Arl's world, as well as several others. This disregard for his country's fate was not on behalf of any evil within him though, he was merely a man for whom people and their relationships held little to no appeal, finding himself escaping into worlds within pages, absorbing knowledge and the wisdom of others, for his power was one of learning, becoming adept at things within a matter of hours, and an expert after days.
     Trchkithin coveted his power, attempting to take it for herself, but he thwarted her at every turn in the days before the Trchig wars, learning of her weaknesses and patterns, and of ways to deal with her from ancient tacticians.
     While he remained mortal, Ldura was one of Arl's most favoured First Ones, a true son of the Elder God, and so was blessed. But this was not an unrequited love, for Ldura raised monuments to his father, and strove to be ever like him. In one ancient tome, written by some associate of Arl's in the days before he himself ascended, Ldura stumbled across some cryptic notes towards the gathering of power, alluding to some comrade who had undergone the preliminary stages in their ascension.
     The first step before him, Ldura spent years hunting for further works by the author, until eventually he received word of a book, in the hands of a younger First One. The First One, aware of his wish to possess the book, she demanded outrageous compensation, a price he was unwilling to pay. Returning to his old palace, he mustered his armies, and waged war on the young woman, smashing through her city's defences and quickly besieged her palace. After months of starvation, the First One offered him the book in return for the lives of those of her people who still lived. Ldura accepted, leaving the fledgling nation in ruin.
     Now with two of the books in his hands, Ldura started weaving rituals, power flowing into his body until he stood as a mighty man, the elements themselves bending to his will, but, still, this was not enough.
     Following clues that he found while travelling with the young Jaegis, in the years before the Trchig wars, the First One trekked across the world, his bodyguards falling to the wayside as he closed with a small rocky landmass known to the fledgling Cayim Amiy as Arcatmara. Within, he found a single tablet of some stone even he did not recognise. Upon reading the half dozen syllables that he found upon it, the stone crumbled to sand in his hands, and light rushed into his body.
     As he ascended, the volcano erupted, coating those that had journeyed with him in burning ash. None who witnessed his rise to godhood would survive to tell the tale to his people...which raises the question, where does this story come from?

Written by Strife