Wei Shi Lindon
| Wei Shi Lindon Arelius | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Path | Path of Twin Stars
|
| Rank | Sage
|
| Icons | Void |
| Faction | Twin Star Sect
|
| First Appearance | Unsouled |
| Family | |
| Mother | Wei Shi Seisha |
| Father | Wei Shi Jaran |
| Siblings | Wei Shi Kelsa |
| Home | Sacred Valley |
Wei Shi Lindon Arelius is the primary protagonist of Cradle. He was born to the Shi family of the Wei Clan in Sacred Valley. As a child and youth, he was considered Unsouled due to his madra deficiency. He is currently a Sage on the Path of Twin Stars and Path of Black Flame and is affiliated with the Blackflame Empire, the Akura Family, and an adopted member of the Blackflame branch of House Arelius. Recently, he has assumed leadership of the Twin Star Sect founded in his name by Eithan and Jai Chen. Finally, he has gained the approval of the mysterious Labyrinth, so he can control it (Reaper, ch 24).
Contents
Appearance
As a youth, Lindon was said to be very tall and had a very large physique along with a rough face that made perpetually look as if he was looking for a fight. As he advanced into the Lord Realm he lost rough facial features and gained a regal look that, according to Yerin, made him look like a sect leader.
After losing his right arm in a duel against Jai Long he gained a skeletal white prosthetic arm, made by Fisher Gesha, that gradually became more humanlike as he advanced yet continued to remain white. Although he has no apparent Goldsign, his eyes turn black with red irises when he cycles Blackflame madra from his Path of Blackflame and they turn solid blue when he uitilizes the Hollow Domain technique of his Path of Twin Stars.
According to both his enemies and allies, he is an intimidating figure in battle.
"Kiro looked into the man's black-and-red eyes and snarling face, and he thought he understood why the Sage of the Silver Heart had taken hostile notice of him. He had the bearing of a violent demon, a savage fixed on violence." - Seishen Kiro"
"In that moment, she saw him as their enemies always had. He towered over her, built like a guard tower, his eyes burning circles of red on darkness." - Yerin Arelius
Personality
Lindon is very polite and deferential due to growing up as an Unsouled, by far the least valuable member of the clan. Because of his madra deficiency, he was treated with mild scorn within his clan. Without power, he was considered to be inconsequential at best and a little better than a punching bag at worst. In response to this treatment, he cultivated a very humble attitude demonstrated by his habit of always referring to himself as “this one” which seems to imply that he is so low as to not deserve recognition. This demeanor, though, has also made it easy for him to hide his dangerously clever mind without even intending to do so.
Lindon has a keen interest in Soulsmithing, his mother's profession. He is very focused on advancement due to his time as weak and his vision from Suriel about the future calamity in Sacred Valley. He is relentless in his goal to save Sacred Valley, no matter the cost.
During his time in the Wei Clan he was also forbidden from learning any manner of sacred arts as well as utilizing any clan resources for advancement. Lindon searched desperately for ways to improve himself on his own, doing whatever it takes to move forward. He relies on plans, tricks, and loopholes to get ahead.
Lindon is kind and caring, sometimes to the point of naivety due to unfamiliarity with the world outside of Sacred Valley.
Biography
Daily Timeline
Unsouled
Lindon is the youngest child of Jaran and Seisha, Irons of the Wei Clan. In his youth, Lindon failed the Spritual Origin madra affinity test and was labeled an Unsouled, cursed of the heavens. As such he was forbidden to learn the Sacred Arts of the clan and was denied a path. His clan refused to invest resources to help him advance due to this deficiency. As a result he remained at the Foundation rank long past the age when children advance to Copper.
Prior to the Festival, Seisha sent Lindon to find the white orus, a spirit fruit. A normal orus fruit was like a pure white peach, and grew only in Sacred Valley. Fruit from an ancestral orus tree looked no different, but a bite would deliver him years' worth of purified vital aura that he could process into madra. As Lindon began to harvest the spirit fruit, Teris soon emerged from the woods, hair mussed and covered in scratches. He was hunting a snowfox, which was illegal. Angered that Lindon had interrupted his hunt, Teris punched the bark and leaving the imprint of his fist in the wood. The tree bent in the middle, splintered and fell apart. As a result, a remnant rose from the tree’s corpse. Immediately, Teris ran deeper in the woods without a glance back. Lindon used scripts and a crystal flask to distract the remnant and retrieve the spirit fruit from the remnant. Seisha was able to restore the remnant of the spirit fruit and split it between Kelsa and Lindon.
Soon, Lindon and Teris were called before the First Elder to recount the confrontation. Since Teris had abandoned a child of the Foundation Stage, he was to receive three lashes. Lindon, however, was to speak with Elder Whisper. Elder Whisper told Lindon that the Path of the White Fox was not for him and Lindon would have to forge his own path. During the public whipping of Wei Mon Teris, Wei Mon Eri challenged Wei Shi Lindon to a duel of honor before the entire clan. Lindon was forced to accept the duel to surrender.
Lindon spent his time scouring the Clan archives searching for a suitable path. There he found a book called, "Heart of Twin Stars". The book taught two techniques, Empty Palm and Heart of Twin Stars. Since Lindon would be shamed in the duel regardless of the outcome due to his age and deficiency, he and Kelsa devised a plan. Lindon would challenge Wei Mon Keth, Teris and Eri's father. Lindon requested a duel in which each party would have one strike each. The first to lose his footing is defeated. Lindon quickly executed the empty palm and punched Keth in the gut. Immediately, Lindon surrendered the duel.
During the seven years festival held by the Wei Clan, Lindon was a victim of a temporal divergence. Due to the nature of this event, he ended up meeting Suriel, the Phoenix, Sixth Judge of the Abidan Court. Suriel had taken an interest in Lindon after seeing him give his life in what he knew to be a futile effort to stop a being who had transcended Cradle, Li Markuth. She admired his actions and, as something of a reward, showed him his most likely fated future. During this vision, Lindon discovers that Sacred Valley would be destroyed by a Dreadgod (the Titan) a being so powerful that it crushes the entire valley underfoot. Desperate to save his home, despite his treatment, Lindon begs the “Celestial Messenger” to show him a way to prevent this tragedy from occurring. In response, he is taken by Suriel to see several individuals (The Eight Man Empire, The Monarch Northstrider, and Luminous Queen Sha Miara) stating that they each had the power to save his homeland. At first, this is believed to be the answer to his question but he is proven wrong as Suriel asks him what they have in common. Unable to come up with the correct answer he is told that it boils down to one simple thing: Drive. “...any Sage will tell you that all paths can be reduced to one: Improve yourself.” Thus begins Wei Shi Lindon’s journey. After time was reversed by Suriel, he easily won the tournament, via his Empty Palm, and went to the Heaven's Glory school, only to leave almost immediately after with Yerin after killing several irons and a jade.
Soulsmith
After escaping from the Sacred Valley, Yerin and Lindon enter territory of the Sandvipers. Again, they soon leave, and enter Fisher territory. Yerin does jobs for the Fishers, such as helping them kill off remnants, while Lindon is recruited by Fisher Gesha to forge scales for her due to his pure madra. Lindon is captured to work in the mines but is immediately rescued by Gesha, who says it won't happen it again. Lindon attempts to free the slaves working in the mine, but gets captured for real this time, as does Yerin. Eithan is also 'captured' though he actually came willingly. Lindon undergoes a lot of training, and after being stung five times by the venomous sandviper, ascends to iron with a Bloodforged body. Soon, Eithan gets them out, but Lindon is severely injured by Kral, but because of his iron body, survives, and kills Kral after Eithan reveals that Lindon was still alive to him. Jai Long demands retribution but after Eithan revealed that he was the Arelius Underlord, backs down, but Eithan promises Jai Long a duel in a year. With this, Lindon and Yerin are healed by the Fishers, and taken to the Arelius family.
This ends up pushing Lindon to stretch himself past his limits which leads to him killing a Highgold as an Iron later on. In doing so he accidentally enters into a feud with Jai Long who, having made a difficult and irreversible choice to save his sister, was shamed by his clan and had looked at his fellow Highgold as something of a brother.
Blackflame
Lindon goes to Serpent’s Grave in the Blackflame Empire and embarks one of his pure cores on the Path of Black Flame. Eithan shows him various powerful paths, before he settles on the Path of Black Flame. Eithan has Lindon bond with a Truegold Sacred Beast, named Orthos. This allows Lindon to instantly have a core producing Blackflame madra and advance to Jade. He then begins training with Yerin, supervised by Cassias Arelius. After several months, the Arelius family within the city Serpents Grave is attacked. While under attack, Lindon and Orthos are forced to fight the chief of the Sandviper Sect, and Kral's father, Sandviper Gokren. Lindon's newly mastered Dragon's Breath takes his arm off. Just before this, he advances to Lowgold, though he doesn't realize it. While this fight is going on, Yerin is fighting Jai Long. Jai Long is Truegold while Yerin is Lowgold, though she advances to Highgold during the fight, and due to the circumstances within the city, Jai Long is forced to retreat. After fighting and killing the Sandvipers with Orthos, Lindon sees a bloody and bruised Eithan. Eithan jokes that his ranking amongst the Underlords would soon go up, as a Skysworn was watching the fight. Eithan also shares that he had a marble from the Abidan, which is similar except for having a darker, black color. He sends Lindon to find Jai Long’s little sister Jai Chen, a young teenager who has been kidnapped by Jai Daishou, to force Long’s compliance. Lindon finds Chen and heals her broken madra channels, helped by Little Blue. Chen promises to tell her brother Jai Long that Lindon has no quarrel with him.
Skysworn
Lindon fights with Jai Long, a Truegold. While he makes a good showing, Jai Long is too far advanced for Lowgold Lindon to win. He loses his arm in the fight, before it is interrupted by Jai Daishou. After the fight, Lindon is fitted for a prosthetic Remnant arm with a hunger binding. After inital reluctance and with the prompting of Yerin, Lindon joins the Skysworn to fight the emissaries of the newly awoken Bleeding Phoenix. Meanwhile, the emperor Naru Huan censures the Jai clan for opening the Labyrinth and stealing the Archstone, so Jai Long takes his sister Chen back west again, to hide in the forgotten cursed lands (Sacred Valley). Lindon gives them directions to avoid the blood spawn and provisions, in gratitude for not killing him.
Ghostwater
Skysworn Captain Naru Gwei sends Lindon, Yerin, Orthos, Little Blue, Mercy, Renfei, and Bai Rou on a mission to a pocket dimension known as 'Ghostwater'. Ghostwater was created by the Monarch level sacred artist 'Northstrider'. Northstrider is said to have vanished many years beforehand and is believed dead. The skysworn send Lindon and the others to investigate the status of Ghostwater and potentially retrieve any useful artifacts left behind by Northstrider.
Upon arriving at the portal to Ghostwater, Lindon, Orthos, and Renfei enter alone and are taken by surprise to find a large number of unknown Truegold sacred artists waiting by the entrance portal. Renfei is then killed by one of the Truegolds revealed to be Akura Harmony. Lindon and Orthos flee the battle and are pursued by Ekeri, a Truegold golden dragon. Lindon takes refuge inside an underground vault wherein he discovers a pool known as 'The Dreamwell'. Water from The Dreamwell restores ones mental clarity as if they had just had a full nights rest. Inside The Dreamwell Lindon discovers a sentient construct named 'Dross' which guides him through the rest of Northstrider's facility.
Lindon takes advantage of the time with the dreamwell to train far faster than he is typically able, since he does not have to sleep when using the dreamwell as a supplement. He also discovers that the sacred beasts that live in Ghostwater provide extreme benefits to his physical body when eaten, due to their extremely high Madra concentrations. After being strengthened by Dreamwell training, and Sacred fish, Lindon is able to defeat Ekeri in a battle and escape The Dreamwell chamber.
Led by Dross, Lindon and Orthos proceed to another section of Ghostwater where Dross leads them to 'The spiritwell'. This well provides Madra on level with a top grade elixer and allows Lindon to quickly expand both of his cores. Within days, Lindon reaches High Gold in both cores. They are then met by 'Ziel' a Truegold disciple of the Beast King. Ziel proves to be relatively friendly to the group, and passively watches Lindon cycle and train using the Spirit Well, occasionally driving off a Sacred Beast threat. Ziel then tells Lindon that Ghostwater is collapsing more and more rapidly and encourages him to move on to the next section so that he may escape in time. He then gives Lindon several bottles of Spiritwell water that will be enough to advance him to Truegold.
Lindon proceeds to the next section of Ghostwater where he encounters 'The Lifewell'. He drinks from the Lifewell and strengthens his Lifeline to be 'as thick as a treetrunk' which will ensure Lindon will live an extremely long natural life and increased vitality.
Lindon then proceeds to the lowest level of Ghostwater where he confronts Akura Harmony. After a heated battle, Lindon and Orthos are able to defeat Akura Harmony after Dross uses Ghostwater to connect himself to The Wey, and essentially become 'a Presence'.
Lindon begs Akura Harmony to come with him as Ghostwater collapses. Harmony, too proud to accept Lindon's mercy vows revenge and refuses to come with him. Lindon then flees Ghostwater, leaving Harmony to die.
Underlord
Lindon heads to the Blackflame Empire to regroup with Eithan. Akura Charity, Sage of the Silver Heart and Mercy's distant aunt announces to the Blackflame empire and its neighbouring kingdom, the Seishen Kingdom about the Uncrowned Tournament. Since both the Blackflame empire and the Seishen kingdom are vassal states of the Akura family territory, they are allowed to participate in the uncrowned tournament, but only 3 members will be selected. To participate in the Uncrowned Tournament, the participant must be an Underlord and the age limit is 35 years. Since there are only a few underlords in both the Blackflame Empire and the Seishen kingdom, Charity opens a portal into the Nightwheel Valley, the training grounds of the Akura family, where the aura is much stonger, making it easier to advance for sacred artists. Eithan, Yerin, Lindon, Mercy and Orthos are one of the first to arrive at Nightwheel Valley, but they soon discover they have to fight for their place there.
Uncrowned
Lindon has been selected for the Uncrowned Tournament, but instead of going as a part of the team from the Blackflame empire, he is selected by Akura Charity to represent the main branch of the Akura family. She sees this as payment from Lindon for killing her promising candidate, Akura Harmony. Eithan, Yerin and Naru Saeya, Emperor Naru Huan's sister, make up the team representing the vassal states of the Akura family and the Blackflame empire.
Lindon is taken to the Akura homeland for training, where he faces extreme hostility from the other Akura underlords fighting for the last position on the Akura team. Mercy's younger brother, Akura Pride hates Lindon more than the others and treats him with contempt and disrespect. Initially, in the first months of training, Lindon is constantly challenged to duals by the other contestants and keeps losing most of the time, thus giving the idea to the others that he is weak. When the final day comes to select the third member of the Akura main team, all the underlords prepare to dual each other. Even though, Lindon is already a part of the team, he insists on fighting all of the underlords head on, at the same time. Lindon has gathered information about each of their techniques and with the help of Dross, he easily defeats all of them and only Akura Pride is left, filling the last spot on the team.
In the tournament itself, Lindon faces off against the most powerful Underlords on Cradle in a series of trials. The first round of the tournament is an individual event where all the participants are required to go through a series of challenges, testing their strength and skill. LIndon finishes 10th and Yerin finishes 11th, ahead of many other participants. Each of the qualified members in the top 64 move on to the next trial. As a reward, they receive a floating palace specially designed for each individual from the Ninecloud Court.
In the second round of the tournament, the contestants are placed on an open island. Golden crowns appear with fixed intervals and the objective is to keep the crown on your head without getting killed. Lindon, Yerin, Mercy and Eithan of the main protagonists succeed while Pride and Naru Saeya sacrifice their spots in the tournament for their team's sake. In the third round of the Tournament, Lindon faces off against Naian Blackflame. Instead of trying to win the fight, Lindon chooses to spend his fight curing Naian of his Blackflame induced madness.
Wintersteel
While trying to discover his Overlord revelation during his battle with Sopharanatoth, Lindon instead establishes his connection to the Void Icon, and advances to Sage. He is given a Wintersteel badge by Eithan, with the same symbol for "Empty" depicted on it much like his first Unsouled badge.
Bloodline
After the events of the Uncrowned King Tournament Lindon learns that the Wandering Titan is headed toward Sacred Valley. He begs Akura Charity to let him go evacuate his people, saying that he will go with or without her blessing. Charity agrees to let him go and provides several cloud ships and hundreds of Akura golds to help in the evacuation effort. Eithan, Yerin, Mercy and Ziel all accompany him to the Valley.
When they arrive they are attacked at the gates of the Heavens Glory school who mistake them for Wei exiles. They find that the Heavens Glory school has been attacked and is in ruins. The school elder accidentally reveals to Lindon that the Wei Exiles are his family and they are currently under siege by Heavens Glory. Lindon immediately leaves in search of them. He finds Orthos and his sister under attack and goes into a rage fueled frenzy. He get's so violent that he has to be restrained from killing the Heavens Glory attackers. After this, his team splits up to each go to a different clan or school.
Yerin accompanies Lindon to the Wei clan and they are immediately attacked upon entering. Despite this Lindon makes his way to the clan elders and explains that a monster is coming for the valley. They don't believe him even after Dross shows them his memories. In order to get them to obey he unveils his Underlord core (which they mistake for a Gold core) and forces them to evacuate. On the way to the exit of Sacred Valley, Lindon senses Heavens Glory jades on their way to intercept. Assuming they are there to attack he notifies his clan's elders and rushes to the vanguard to meet them. When he confronts them the Wei clan betray him and trap him and Yerin in a boundary field, hoping that they can kill him. Despite his weakened state and the boundary field he manages to get Yerin out and break through the barrier. He then hunts the elders down and attacks them. He permanently cripples the Wei Patriarchs core and injures the First Elder. He then sends them in the direction of the titan so their final thoughts can be about how they should have listened to him.
He makes his way to the Heavens Glory school as the Wandering Titan arrives earlier then expected. They take off with the little people they have saved. Meanwhile Yerin contacts the Monarchs and they bestow her Uncrowned Gift, and officially make her a Herald. She convinces Akura Malice to help her distract the titan so they can rescue more people. After Lindon's departure from the valley he is torn between trying to save more people, and getting away with the people he has already saved. He receives a message from Suriel and she helps him make up his mind. After his message he quickly advances to Overlord and rushes in with his friends to attack the titan. They are greatly outclassed in this fight and it's all they can do to defend from its attacks. Dross comes up with a plan and enacts it. He has each member of the team play a part to get Lindon in close to the titan. Lindon uses the hunger binding in his remnant arm and sucks some of the titans madra. He then feeds this madra to Dross and Dross puts a fox dream on the titan, this illusion makes the titan's attackers, as well as it's goal, disappear. The titan then leaves the valley to roam in search of power. Lindon relaxes as they've beat the titan but at a heavy cost. Lindon can no longer sense Dross in him. He can sense a swirl of power where Dross used to be, but the mind spirit is no longer able to speak to him.
As the residents of Sacred Valley funnel back in and try to salvage what has been destroyed, Lindon visits the Ancestors tomb. He senses a slight tear in the world and wills it open. He finds that it's the personal void space of the Sword Sage. He then senses a familiar presence in the room and confronts it. Elder Whisper emerges and explains that he kept the space from collapsing in the hope that Lindon would return. He shows Lindon the reason that the Sword Sage came to Sacred Valley two years ago and the key to open the Labyrinth.
Powers and Abilities
As an Unsouled, Lindon effectively started two stages behind most Sacred Artists, further limited by the natural restrictions and the "curse" of the Sacred Valley and without a natural predisposition towards any of 4 classes of techniques.
Scripts: Due to his natural and clan-imposed limitations, Lindon's only avenue of practicing the sacred arts within his clan was through scripts. While not particularly talented, he has shown some versatility in using them and moderate skill in drawing them.
Heart of Twin Stars: While at the Foundation stage, before cycling elemental vital aura from the world, Lindon split his core.
- Pure Madra: Composed of pure madra.
- Blackflame Madra: Composed of fire and destruction madra.
Soulsmithing: Pure madra gives Lindon solid overall compatibility with most constructs, although with a weaker effect than specialized madra types.
Little Blue: A Sylvan Riverseed. Originally fed madra and scales by Lindon, her growth is rapidly advanced by Eithan feeding her a drop of soulfire. Her natural purification abilities drain her, but can counteract the corrosive effect of Blackflame madra on the mind, body, and madra channels.
Orthos: Lindon's contract with Orthos allows him to fill one of his cores with Blackflame madra, lessening the his burden. Due to Orthos being a Truegold, this allowed Lindon's Blackflame core to quickly advance from Iron to Jade and later to Lowgold, as if his core was treated with high grade elixirs.
Remnant Arm: By activating the hunger binding on the arm, Lindon can draw out madra from the enemy. In a less concentrated form, he can then vent it back at them as a distraction.
Dross: The remnants of one of Northstrider's attempts in Ghostwater to create mental enhancement tools and mimic the Presences of the Abidan. Originally created as a memory construct, Dross has gained further abilities through soaking in high grade mental elixirs, consuming dream madra, and fusing with an Eye of the Deep. He temporarily connected with the collective of information at the metal tree in Ghostwater, gathering data from other Eyes of the Deep that had been taken through the world.
In combat against an enemy with well-known, recorded, fully defined capabilities, Dross can simulate and create a battle plan that ensures the greatest chance of success. He also acts as general mental enhancement, allowing Lindon to better focus on battle. While Soulsmithing, Dross can simulate the effect of madra interactions, allowing Lindon's soulsmithing success rate for straightforward constructs to exceed that of experts like Fisher Gesha.
Sacred Art Ranks
As a Sacred Artists progresses through the ranks, they naturally gain access to certain abilities
- Foundation: At the Foundation level, Sacred Artists can cycle madra to slightly strengthen their body or activate scripts.
- Copper: Copper Sight
- Iron: At the Iron level, Sacred Artists gain an Iron Body that increases physical abilities. Lindon's Bloodforged Iron body, catalyzed using the venom and blood from nearly have a dozen sandvipers, enables rapid healing and recovery from poisons and physical damage at an extremely high madra cost.
- Jade: Jade senses
- Gold: Lindon advanced from Jade to Lowgold using a further infusion of Blackflame Madra from Orthos, without a remnant. He lacks a true Goldsign beyond red eyes when channeling Blackflame Madra
- Underlord: Reborn in Soulfire, Lindon's body is able to push farther and he is able to activate Underlord-level weapons.
- Overlord: Reborn in Soulfire again, Lindon's Soulfire gains a greater depth and his more potent.
Techniques
Foundation Cycling Technique: A basic cycling technique taught to Foundation-level children of the Wei clan.
Empty Palm: A pure Madra technique that focuses it into a simple palm thrust. When making contact with the core of an enemy, it disrupts his or her madra. This leaves the enemy powerless for a few seconds, unable to muster the energy to control any techniques or even their own limbs. When sufficiently powerful, it can destroy the core of an enemy, preventing them from even leaving a remnant.
Heaven and Earth Purification Wheel: A madra cycling technique focused on expanding madra capacity. Eithan teaches Lindon this technique as it is vital to training his pure madra core, which cannot advance through taking in vital aura from the outside world.
Burning Cloak: The Dragon Advances. The Fierce Outer Burning Robe technique is an Enforcer technique. It is a basic full-body Enforcement using Blackflame Madra, protecting and powering the body by madra while in use. It allows for the release of explosive force of movement.
Dragon Breath: The Dragon Destroys. The Fierce River of Fierce Flowing Breath technique is a Striker Technique. Blackflame madra is gathered in the hands, rotated, and condensed repeatedly until being released as a solid beam that eradicates everything in its path.
Void Dragon's Dance: The Dragon Conquers. In one moment, the flames devour everything on the battlefield, leaving only smoke and dust. Like many Ruler techniques, it is capable of great destruction, but requires appropriate vital aura in the environment, and time to build and concentrate on the vital aura to take control.
Soul Cloak: An Enforcer technique utilizing Lindon's pure madra core. Compared to the Burning Cloak, it allows for more measured power output.
The Dragon Descends: Lindon's ultimate attack from his dragon path. All his techniques from the Blackflame Path Forged on his hand. He forges claws of Blackflame madra on his hand like a glove with a miniature Void Dragon's Dance swirling around it, Dragon's Breath filling it like blood and a Burning Cloak surrounding it all. Takes all his spirit and a significant amount of his soulfire to bring it to life.
Hollow Domain: A pure madra technique developed in Wintersteel. With the help of Little Blue's madra, Lindon can create a sphere of pure madra that weakens or deletes any techniques that enters. This technique makes Lindon's eyes glow a sapphire-blue. It is not specified what kind of technique it is, but it was inspired by Eithen's Armor of the Hollow King technique.
