Out of Character:
This is a topic relevant to current and future posts by both Wilhelm and Visla. It was originally published on Althanas several years ago as Goodbye, Farewell, Amen. I am re-posting it with some minor edits as a reference. The initial post is a preface included in the document I found the story


The principle character, Arius Mephisto, is a Eudaemonian. The Eudaemonians are a society of scientists, engineers, and philosophers which originated in 22nd century Earth and formed their own state in a pocket dimension known as Beta Space. The Earth itself (Alpha Space) was ravaged by war and continued to deteriorate after the exodus of the Eudaemonians. They themselves, however, flourished greatly in their new city of Architelos. Two of their leading scientists, Reiter Mephisto and Hanaka Otani bore a child, Arius, who was selected on the 50th anniversary of the Exodus to return to Alpha space and bring the enlightenment of Eudaemonia to the troubled people.

Arius met harsh trials on Earth that changed him from the idealistic and innocent young man he had arrived as. After nearly a year of nothing but guilt, pain, and loss, he saves a woman named Linnea Valkyrie from the deadly force of Eudaemonian justice. Having defied the will of his leader, Director Bosche (not Nijin Bosche Otani, Bosche is a fairly common Eudaemonian surname), Arius and Linnea flee through the damaged dimensional portal that links Architelos with Earth. They find themselves, along with a few other refugees from Eudaemonia, in a world more primitive than Earth, Althanas. They called it, appropriately, Gamma Space.

During his time in Gamma Space, Arius becomes cynical about the ideals of his people and fosters and strong relationship with Linnea. Eventually, seeing that the two may not have much time together, Arius proposes to Linnea and swears that the two will not be married until they can do so in peace in Architelos’ square. The trials for the two do not end as they are eventually captured and nearly executed by the Eudaemonians. After a long struggle, they find themselves both gravely injured in the small university town of Uiria in Gamma Space. Together, they see their dreams of a peaceful Eudaemonia tumble into oblivion as the city of Architelos falls to ruins and collapses into the sea along with most of its people. Arius refuses to fight any longer and marries Linnea shortly thereafter. However, survivors from Architelos, now embroiled in a bitter civil war, interrupt their wedding and drag the couple into one final battle.

It is thirty years after that battle (two years before the events in current threads) and Arius and Linnea seem to have finally been left to their peaceful lives. They live in a small house on the outskirts of the town of Uiria and have two children, Belial and Elanore.