Aldor the Infernal

Aldor Alidel was the only son of the wealthy merchant Aurelius Alidel. He was charismatic, brilliant, and allergic to effort from childhood. His mother sent him to the Academy rather than watch him waste his intelligence. In his first year, even his simplest acid spell struck harder than those of the other students.

His verchoix revealed powers of fire. He soon defended Vlad against twenty-nine giants, destroyed a band of Brazzant raiders alone, and earned the respect of its soldiers. Alfred Varanov rewarded him with the scimitar that would later become Aeternum Gehennae. Perennus then led him into the elemental cavern. Aldor emerged with a fire elemental and spent years learning how to attract greater ones. Fire elementals now recognize him as one of their lords. His bond to the realm of fire gave him true words of power, making his spells stronger than their level should allow.

Brazzant ended his apprenticeship. The white dragon Brisé petrified Aldor, then traded his life for Aldor's when the other students defeated him; Aldor later found a dwarven ship large enough to carry the dragon to Vlad. Perennus had also sent the class to gather flowers that could make the giants intelligent. A Psychic warned Aldor that Cerberus's leaders considered the plan reckless, and Aldor agreed. He burned the entire crop. Marcin Sobiesansky denied sending the warning, Perennus disowned Aldor, and then entered him in a tournament dangerous enough to kill him.

Aldor won anyway. He defeated the Alois Witcher, beat Gyllyn wearing Armure, and reached an arrangement with Frolix for the final. Victory put him directly into the Academy's fourth year and gave him the Red Robe of Cerberus. Its bottomless pockets later hid what remained of Gyllyn until Armure could restore him. The tournament also confirmed the lesson Aldor trusted most: plans fail; power settles the matter.

His power kept growing. Soul of Fire made him living flame. Inside Gérard Alois's Time Sphere, the armor taken from Polymarch helped him create Battlefield, his first epic spell. He first cast it against Jerax, turning an Underdark cavern into summer pasture and filling it with enchanted weapons. Gyllyn wielded them, their strength flowed back into Aldor, and Battlefield prevented the Aboleth from escaping his final Fireball. The fight awakened Aeternum Gehennae, though the blade kept silent. When Sobiesansky ordered Aldor's verchoix to devour him, Aldor used the scimitar to cut the worm out of his own body.

Against Cauchemar, raw power was taken from him. The dragon trapped Aldor for six imagined months as a failed mage working in an erectile-potion factory. Cauchemar understood him correctly: Aldor feared mediocrity more than pain.

When Cauchemar invaded, Aldor finally understood what the elementals wanted. They could not be bought with sacrifice; they wanted to stand beside something powerful. Aldor gave them a lake of fire, nine words of power, and ten million gold pieces melted into it. He came out with a legion and Igni as its general. The victory still cost him Ivana, who pushed him away from the Sphere of Destruction and vanished in his place.

Aldor later killed Archon so completely that not one molecule remained. He now calls it his most monumental mistake: Archon's seal had kept the planes closed. As king of Cerberus, husband to the restored Ivana, and father of Aldor II and Anastasia, he repels extraplanar invasions almost alone. Twenty years after the war, he publicly asked for Archon to be resurrected. The attempt failed for lack of a body, leaving Aldor with the world he opened and far more work than he ever wanted.