Character History
Ignited by an unfortunate
misunderstanding, provided by the forces of evil, the Great Mer War
ensued between the Mermen and Mermaids of the sea and the Elves of
Valinor. The Mer, before ignorant of the possibilities of war, quickly
mustered themselves after an initial attack by Elven magi that leveled
their precious city of Mermiome.
Lured with the promise by
Neptrion, King of the Sea, to marry his only daughter, Princess Nauticaa,
an Elvish ambassador named Psei Orcanis who had been transformed into a
Merman, swore allegiance to the Mer and to the Sea. Wedding his beloved
Nauticaa at last, his joy was quickly dismissed as the Sea King forced
Orcanis to lead his forces in an attack on the Elvish fleets. With
Orcanis’s knowledge of the location of all the Elvish fleets, the Mer
quickly succeeded in driving the Elves back to Valinor. With all their
ships destroyed, the Elves sued for peace. Alas, the fury of the Mer,
especially their king, could not be satiated so easily.
Neptrion vowed to take the
war to the coasts and very lands and settlements of the Elves in hopes
of destroying their homeland, to exact revenge for the Mer’s ruined
city. Knowing full well of his people’s inability to traverse on land,
Neptrion decided upon the unthinkable, the creation of a new species
that would be able to live in water as well as on land. Neptrion
compelled Orcanis to aid him and combining their powers engineered such
a race. Effective only upon Mer infants, the spell discovered could
transfigure the children of the Mer into Amphimerms.
Humanoid, the Amphimerms
were a magical cross between Elf and Mer, able to breathe with lungs and
walk upright upon land with two legs. Behind their ears, gills grew
too, and their humanoid hands became webbed as did their feet, allowing
them to easily reenter the sea as easily as they could leave it.
In this horrific holocaust,
newly born Mer were forcefully taken from their parents and cursed
forever with the form of Amphimerms. The majority of the Mer thirsted
for the revenge to come and did not defy Neptrion’s atrocious plan and
willingly forfeited their offspring.
Thus, the Amphimermian Army
was conscripted and constructed and Psei Orcanis was forced to lead them
against Valinor. His marriage had indeed become costly.
It was in the midst of the
Great Mer War that a son was born of Princess Nauticaa and Psei Orcanis.
They named the child Cloral, the Mer word for Bringer of Peace,
as they hoped his birth would extinguish the fires of hatred within
Neptrion and the Mer people.
Alas, nothing save an
intervention of Ulmo, the godlike creator of the Mer himself, could cool
the fury within the Sea King and the war raged on for three more years
at during which time Amphimerms died by the thousands in battle and as a
result of an unforeseen flaw with the sinful spell of transfiguration.
This flaw was first seen
after the fifteenth year following the creation of the Amphimerms. The
first of the Amphimerms to be transfigured were dying unexpectedly. He
summoned Orcanis to his court and demanded a reason for this.
Orcanis pleaded that he had
no knowledge that the spell would have resulted so. Consumed by his
hatred and not able to see sense, Neptrion went to the chamber where
Orcanis’s only son lay in his crib. Nauticaa flung herself between her
father and her child, but was quickly thrown back with the power of
Neptrion’s trident, Triombar. Neptrion transformed the child,
his only grandson, into an Amphimerm. Only after his rage began to
subside did Neptrion began to comprehend what he had done, and wept
bitterly, knowing full well that the boy would die after his fifteenth
year.
But Orcanis and Nauticaa
were desperate to save their newly born son and traveled to Valinor
putting their life in great peril in doing so, seeking the council of
the gods, the Valar. When they finally reached Valinor, they told the
tale of the conflict between sea and land, and of the misunderstandings
that had started the war.
Orcanis and Nauticaa pleaded
with Námo, also known as Mandos, the Vala and Judge of the Dead, to
spare their son’s life. Saddened, he explained that such magic was
impossible, but Nienna, Vala of Mercy, offered an alternative, a
sacrifice. If the two lovers were to forfeit their lives, their love
would be enough to save their child. The lovers agreed and Aulë, the
Smith, took their souls and forged them into the pendent, Delphen.
Of pure Elvish silver it was wrought, upon which was crafted the image
of four interlocking dolphins, Delphar, Delinar, Dorohmbar, and
Diedrogar, who along with Ulmo, Lord of the Sea, fathered the race of
Mer. Within the silvery-white pendent the souls of Cloral’s parents
would reside ever after. While wearing Delphen, a manifestation
of his parents love for their son, Cloral could live out the normal life
span of the Mer.
Ulmo placed the pendent
around Cloral Orcanis himself, kissing the child and blessing him. He
charged Neptrion to take care of the child as his own, to raise him
until his fifteenth year. At which time he was to be sent to Valinor to
be instructed by the Elves that the two races could begin to re-forge
the shards of their friendship.
After fifty years with the
Elves, Cloral returned to Mermiome to prepare for and receive his
commission as the second emissary of Mermiome. During these years
Mermiome was built anew and to even more splendid heights. When Cloral
Orcanis became one-hundred eight years old, a ceremony was held before
all of the newly rebuilt Mermiome signifying this momentous event in
their history.
Cloral Orcanis was
officially commissioned by Ulmo and Neptrion to go forth to the surface
as the last of the Amphimerms and tell the sad story of the Mer, to help
where he could, and to be a peacemaker as often as possible. Ulmo
promised to Cloral, that once his task was finished, then and only then
would be able to return to the sea as a Merman once more. |
