Selari Ignos
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Warning. This section contains spoilers. You may wish to postpone reading further until you've played the related content. |
Description
Selari Ignos is an ex-mage council member who studies the aspects that the Wools carry. He created every Tesseract and is responsible for the Primeval Creations quests. He is heavily involved in Words Upon Hushed Lips, Primeval Creations I, Primeval creations II, Primeval creations III, Primeval creations III.9, Primeval creations IV, Primeval creations V, Primeval creations VI and Primeval Creations: Zero One Three Wools Minus Two.
Relations
Vargos (Former friend)
Calder (Sworn enemy)
Minerva (Friend)
Blacksmith Ghalla (Friend)
Dimitri (Apprentice)
Lore
Selari Ignos was born into the Ignos family many years ago, who were well known alchemists in Alnera. At a young age, he showed a natural inclination toward the use of mana, and would quickly become talented at magic. His parents supported him, but were worried because magic could be used with alchemy to produce dangerous results. They warned Selari not to use his magical capabilities alongside his alchemical skills.
Selari did not listen. At the age of 16, he had found a way to hex potions, which caused them to produce new, and perhaps addicting, effects. Eventually, Selari found people who were willing to pay for such things. One day, Selari sold one of his potions to a corrupt guard, but he gave him the wrong one. The guard responded by branding Selari with the mark of a Moltan prisoner, and planned to bring him to the mines where he would never escape. Selari was forced to kill the guard to save himself, but doing so was scarring for someone his age.
Selari could not risk his family's reputation by staying around, so he fled Ishnir and left everyone he knew behind. Selari found a new home at the Celsian Congress, who allowed him to join them thanks to his magical talents.
In the year 85 AV, Selari was picked to join a caravan of fellow Congress researchers to travel to the King's Valley and investigate the recent attack on Farr. The ship arrived through the Seagate in what would later become Lowtide, and Selari stepped onto the soil of the jungle for the first time. Almost immediately, he met a young Maxwell Calder as well as his friend Minerva Lace, whom he noted to be of Ishnirian origin like himself. Selari also had a talent for sensing powerful magic, and he felt that Minerva was carrying something powerful.
After reaching Sierhaven, Selari decided to investigate, so he had Bhairavi bring him to Max, who now spent most of his time in the late Professor Callum Herring's office. At this time, Bhairavi had a bad habit of using her ability to sniff out magic whenever possible, and she became curious of Minerva, which made Selari more suspicious. After Bhairavi left, Selari took interest in Max's prowess with runes, however that was not what he was here for. He tricked Max into apporting somewhere far-off, before interrogating Minerva about what she was hiding. Minerva revealed that she had a dark gray gemstone in her pocket, and that she didn't know what it was. Selari offered to research it for her, which she was hesitant about until Selari revealed a secret of his own; the mark that was branded onto his arm by that corrupt guard all those years ago. Minerva entrusted him with the strange gemstone.
Soon, Minerva returned to Selari with yet another gemstone, this time coloured pink. She had recovered it from an assassin named Yancy Bulova after a confrontation alongside Max. Selari theorized that these gems acted as conduits for magical powers, so Minerva went to interrogate C'Telsket about the gray gem that he had held, and learned that he had received it from a Narsen whom he had reluctantly worked alongside.
Selari did some research, and eventually came up with a theory that the mysterious gemstones were actually Opals. He decided to investigate this theory, so he had Minerva accompany him to what would later become the Haunted Mine. This was the only place in the Valley where Opals could be found, and it was owned by Cirillo Dauton of the Noble's Council, so they had to be careful, After dispelling an illusionary wall in the mine, the pair found an elevator which led them into a deeper part of the cave. They found a chamber filled with corpses, and their blood was being channeled into an opal on a pedestal. They hid in a corner and watched as a strange woman stepped into the room. She started speaking in a strange tongue, and Selari figured out based on this that she was a member of the Coven who had come here from the Architect's Ring. Once her spell was complete, she had created an Opal representing the aspect of the Soul. She did not want this opal, however it conveniently revealed Minerva and Selari to her. She brought the pair to herself, and a battle ensued. Minerva was able to wound the witch, but she used a blue Opal representing the power of Life to heal herself. She revealed that her name was Diantha, Weaver of Dreams, and they continued to fight. Diantha also revealed that there were currently 7 Opals in existence. During the fight, Selari revealed that he was a Deviant, and used his special abilities to combine the powers of the Soul and Life Opals, causing a large explosion after which Diantha was presumed dead. The Opals were also destroyed in the process, which caused the cave to suddenly fill with spirits, likely a result of the two aspects merging. Selari left the cave with Minerva, who spotted a strange man in the corner who vanished after being briefly visible.
They returned to Sierhaven to inform Archmage Valgus Fjordson and Max about what was happening, only to walk in on a meeting between them, Cirillo Dauton and Vivianna Leone. They were discussing how Selari and Minerva were both failing at their tasks and how they should be sent back to where they came from. After Cirillo and his assistant Peren left, Selari sensed that Vivianna was carrying an Opal, so Minerva exposed her in front of Valgus and Max. Vivianna revealed herself to actually be a young man named Artemis who had disguised himself using an opal representing the aspect of Light, and that the real Vivianna was dead. He fled the room to inform Cirillo Dauton of what was happening. He also used the Opal to blind everyone in the room briefly and bring them to the town square to face Cirillo.
In the town square, Cirillo Dauton revealed himself to be the one responsible for the Opals, and revealed that he was motivated by the fact that the only people who got any recognition after the Blackroot War were the Mages, and not the footsoldiers who fought with traditional weaponry. He sought to bring an end to Mages in the Valley, and to start a war by killing the King. He killed Artemis to punish him for his failure, and then fought against Minerva. Selari, who was weakened after the battle against Diantha, went to Max to seek help with stopping Cirillo Dauton. Many townsfolk joined his cause. His plan was to reactivate the protective runes around the town that Cirillo had disabled, so that he could cause no more harm and would be imprisoned by their magic. The plan was completed just in time, and Cirillo was chained in place by magic at the very moment he was about to deal a fatal blow to Minerva. Former Queen Isadora came out and asked Cirillo why he did this, as she trusted him. After Cirillo delivered a statement filled with hatred, he was sent to the dungeon.
Soon after, Max, Minerva and Selari were each presented with one of three legendary swords that were brought with the Narsens when they arrived in the Valley. Selari received a sword called Agartha, representing a wise outsider whose knowledge saved the day. It's unknown what became of this sword.
Selari was later brought to Valgus' office. Valgus offered him a position on the Mage Council, which Selari was hesitant to accept, until he realised that it allowed him to abandon his tragic old life in the Celsian Isles at last. Selari was already planning to stay in the Valley, but this made his job much easier. He was granted the title "Head of magical artifact research".
After this meeting, Selari headed out to the Grand Maw, He waited at its entrance for 37 hours, until finally, Dauton's assistant Peren passed by, attempting to escape. Selari halted her and took the last of the 7 Opals from her, the Opal of Knowledge. He used its power for himself, and used it to find seek answers as to what the true meaning of magic is. He had a vision in which he saw the Metaphysical Tree of Life, and all 22 of its bonds, with these bonds flowing onto one immensely powerful cube, which Selari named "Tesseract". This was the beginning of the next 20 years of Selari's life.
On the Mage Council, Selari had access to a vast amount of knowledge. In his spare time, he would comb through books trying to find the answers to the deeper meaning of magic. Once the Monument was finally uncovered, Selari realised that this was where all of the local legends of Gods originated.
In 110 AV, Max went rogue and stole an important text that would help him reach the Black Willows. In order to do this, he had to kill most of the Mage Council. This included notable members like Archmage Valgus and Quatra. Very shortly after this attack, Selari finished cleaning up the mess that Calder had caused. He came to Vargos, who had become the Archmage after his brother's death, and announced to him his resignation from the Council. Vargos pleaded him to stay, but Selari had others goals that he wished to fulfill, and it would be easier to do so when not threatened by Calder. As a parting gift, Selari gave Vargos the charred skull of his brother, which instead upset Vargos, and ended the great friendship that the two had.
After resigning from the Mage Council, Selari moved his work to the Arcane Emporium in Sierhaven, where he became the head of Magical Physics. In 113 AV, three years after the assault on the Mage Council, Selari took a man named Dimitri as an apprentice. A year later, Selari, now known as Ignos to those around him, left Sierhaven to meet with the Axtan monks at the Axtan Monastery as he believed the Light Blue Wool was in their area. However, once he got there, he could not find any Axtans in the monastery at all. On his 25th day there, a Creeper exploded and revealed an old study in which he found a book called Thicker Than Blood, which mentioned the Anthill. After finding nothing at the Monastery, Selari returned from his 6-month long investigation to Sierhaven and Dimitri.
Selari did not feel at ease in Sierhaven when he returned, however. He felt he was being watched by Calder's Masked. The day after he returned, he left to continue his research in private and hopefully away from the Masked. He started with the Anthill outside Farr, as he was intrigued by what he read in Thicker than Blood. He ended up finding himself lost in the Ephemeral Corridors for 24 days, after which he accidentally fell through a floor and discovered the Ephemeral Combination Lock. He made a small camp beneath the platform, but then started having scary visions which caused him to pack up his stuff and leave to continue his research in Nyr. Once he reached Nyr, however, he felt once again that the Masked were watching him. He heard footsteps above his lab and so he used what resources he had to escape. Before he left, though, he created a hint for Dimitri, leading to Alnera.
Selari casted a 1-way teleportation spell back to the Celsian Isles and moved in with his old friend Ghalla, making a secret lab within his blacksmith, accessed by placing a book in a furnace. In this lab, he studied the aspects of the Wool found across the King's Valley and the Celsian Isles. Selari needed a way to contain the primordial Aspects that the Wools represented, so he searched for answers in the Fallen Forum. There, he found documents referencing the conceptual Tree of Life which he had seen in a vision many years ago, and the emptiness of Nihilo that surrounded it. Selari figured out, based on this, that the perfect device to contain every aspect was one that embodied Nihilo. The Blank Tesseract. He used his new findings to contain the aspects found on Wools in the King's Valley for around a month, and started researching the Celsian wools not too long after the player arrived in the Isles. After the player cleared out Salazar's Folly, he snuck into the drained dungeon and avoided Historian Rhodes and his team. There he found a book with information on the Lime Wool, as well as a book with a guide to information on the Pink Wool. He also left a note and the damaged scraps of Thicker than Blood in the library before leaving, which were later discovered by Historian Rhodes. He then found information on the Wools of Death and Light in an archive somewhere, and information on the Wools of Mind, Emotion and Time in the Magmortic Atheneum.
Roughly a week before the player's arrival, Selari was finished with his experiments. He had experimented on the aspects of Soul, Body, Pestilence, Magic, Elements, Memory, Knowledge, Balance, Death, Light, Mind, Emotion and Time, and had succeeded in channeling the power of these aspects into Tesseracts, with the exception of Memory and Time. Suddenly, the player came up behind him after activating the machine he made for the aspect of Time in the future, which led him to state his plans to get revenge on Calder for his actions. After the machine sent the player back to the future, Selari attempted to alter the timeline to prevent the player from meeting him in the past. He lied to Ghalla that his notes had been stolen, and then set out on a journey to hide his journals across the region. He hid them in the Abandoned Library, Smitten Library, Mystical Tower, Shroom Spires, and Magmortic Atheneum. This plan did not end up working as the player still found all of his journals and met him in his lab, but it did not matter. Selari set out on his journey to the Architect's Ring to research the aspects of its 6 wools.
A week later the player arrived in his lab, and collected a copy of each of his Tesseracts. They also found 2 secret rooms, one relating to Memory which showed them a vision of Selari's falling out with Vargos, and one relating to Time which sent them back in time by a week to meet Selari.
Upon arriving in the Architect's Ring, Selari began writing journals about his thought process behind the Tesseracts, and left them in various towns across the Ring.
Trivia
- The winter NPC Selholly Sprignos is a reference to Selari. This is why he also sells the Tesseract of Festivity.
- While Selari's sword is unobtainable, Calder and Minerva's swords can be obtained as Sword of the Exiled and its reliquary skin Athena
- Spoilers