Liaka Maru

Liaka Maru was a Necromancer and Mage who lived during the early part of the Third Age. His intervention is credited with helping to end the Necromanic Wars on Nos Vorm. Despite his great contribution, his life was less than happy.

Early Life

Liaka was born in a fortified hamlet on the outskirts of Kent, one of the three nations of Nos Vorm that shared a boarder at Phal. As a Green Temple Necromancer, he was quickly inducted into the rites of his people, and showed great promise. He was involved in the war by age 7, and likely saw combat that year.

By the age of 10, Liaka was already a seasoned veteran. While he did not carry a weapon himself, he was was definitely on the battlefield and commanding squadrons of undead. Children like Liaka usually controlled around 20-30 small groups of lightly armed zombies who acted as braces against the larger, more coordinated forces.

It was around this time that Liaka started showing signs of even greater potential. Though rare, it had been seen before that necromancers could be adept at the more common magics. Liaka had serious promise, being at least a 7-star or higher. He was withdrawn from frontline duties and placed into an "accelerated program" to promote these abilities and make him a much more powerful asset.

Magical Studies

The process of training mages in war time was cruel to the point on inhuman. Magic is called forth out of need, therefore the most expedient means of creating a magic is to create that need. Liaka was beaten, starved, and yelled at, all the while being given impossible tasks. However, as he was adept at wielding power, he did learn fast.

Second Combat

At 14, Liaka returned to the war effort as a Battling Sorcerer, but particularly powerful for his dual abilities to cast spells and command the undead. He was nicknamed "The Scalpel" for his ability to quickly cleave through opposing forces and kill enemy necromancers. In just 7 months, he'd made a name for himself at 16 major battles.

And then he fled.

Seclusion

When asked about it later, Liaka recounted that it should have been obvious. He hated war, hated killing, hated being constantly scared, cold, and hungry. So he abandoned his people and fled. There was no escaping the war in any of the civilized regions, so he went into hiding in a steep mountain range.

The conditions were not much better. Food was scarce, fuel even scarcer, and the constant threat of discovery meant Liaka spent most of his time shivering in a cave. Each day, as winter drew nearer, he wondered how he would survive and feed himself.

Day to day, he relied on magic. magic to keep himself warm, magic to quell his hunger. In his own way, this self-imposed isolation recreated the torturous training he'd had a few years earlier. Liaka survived one winter this way, before he was able to "flee" again.

Travels Off-World

Through sheer force of will, Liaka managed to transport himself from Nos Vorm to somewhere on The Inner Rim. Exactly where, he did not know for certain. Like most Necromancers, he was well aware of the existence of other worlds and that travel between them was possible using magic. While the Grey Temple necromancers had retained this ability, it was only with the aid of Litchs. Liaka is believed to be the first living person to rediscover this power since the Mage Wars.

His first travel took him from the icy mountains to a scorching desert where he very nearly died of third, before managing to transport himself again. Over the next few years, Liaka traveled from place to place, seldom finding people, and all the while honing his skills.

Time in Arindell

Throughout his long isolation, Liaka had long pursued some answer to the horrors that he had left back home. While he had little contact during this period