Xandr is without home or country, wandering the lands of Aenya as a recluse and nomad, alone but for the ancient sword of the Zo, Emmaxis.
Ilmarin by birth, Xandr is raised by the Keepers in the Mountains of Ukko, where he is taught history, philosophy, and swordplay. At fourteen, his home is ravaged by bogrens from the dark hemisphere. With the death of QuasiI, his mentor, he becomes a recluse, with only his enigmatic sword---Emmaxis---left to guide him. On the outskirts of Ilmarinen, he is met in a dream by the Green Goddess of Nature, Alashiya, who warns him of the ills of civilization and promises to protect him from harm so long as he abstains from clothing. Most of his early life is spent wandering the wilderness until his encounter with the bird-man, Ouranos. Together, they set forth to undo the evils of the world, but in time, Xandr falls into despair. Shunned for his brazen disregard for custom, he makes his home in the Marsh of Melancholy until he is called to the city of Hedonia. There, he finds the one thing he never thought possible, an Ilmarin girl, Thelana, sentenced to die for her crimes against the Hedonian faith. As Xandr seeks desperately to rescue her from the dungeons of a zealous civilization, he must find the strength in himself to fight for a world that has rejected him and his people.
Appearances: Ages of Aenya.
Thelana is born in the Braid River Valley of Ilmarinen. In an event that haunts her all of her life, her eldest brother, Borz, is sold into slavery when she is very young.
On the eve of her womanhood, famine forces her into the Wildwood, where Thelana struggles to survive, hunting prey while hiding from predatory saurians. She eventually stumbles into Makria, a small village nestled along the edges of the jungle. Naked and emaciated, she is taken in by a kindly old woman, Kabira. But Thelana returns to the forest after killing a local boy in self-defense.
Many more cycles pass until she meets Dantes, a military captain from Kratos, and, proving her archery skills, is quickly recruited into his army, becoming a valuable scout. On the Plains of Narth, Dantes's forces are overrun by bogren, and Thelana, torn with longing for the idyllic life she knew, abandons the battlefield. Returning to Ilmarinen, she finds no traces of her family.
Fleeing to Hedonia, Thelana hides in the slums with the city's other outcasts before climbing the pyramid Temple of Sargonus. As she pries the giant pearl eye from the idol of the Hedonian Sea God, she is caught by the zealous High Priest, Urukjinn. With the aid of an Ilmarin stranger, Xandr, she is apprehended and thrown into a pit beneath the city. There, she waits, wondering about the man she has just met. Is he a traitor to their people? Or will he rescue her?
Appearances: The Feral Girl, Ages of Aenya.
(Major Spoilers!!!) Emma is born in Northendell, in the frigid Pewter Mountains, to Dak, a scholar of Zo history, and Ilsa, a singer and musician. At the behest of his wife, Dak gives up his pursuit of immortality, breaking ties with his friend and partner, Mathias. When King Frizzbeard's men-at-arms learn of Dak's golem creation, their home is ransacked. Knowing the punishment for dabbling in the forbidden arts, Dak and Ilsa choose immolation over capture, trusting in their golem protector, Grimosse, to steal their infant daughter, Emma, into the night. Mathias receives the child with reluctance.
During the early years of her upbringing, he takes an academic interest in teaching her to read, but as she ages and begins to question his research, he becomes reclusive, and she is told nothing of her parents. Before the age of nine, Mathias keeps her a prisoner in her own home. When Emma is at last given the freedom to explore the labyrinthine avenues of Northendell, she is treated cruelly by other children. She is later imprisoned for perusing Mathias's study. Freed from her bedroom after a year, Emma finds solace in forgotten places, befriending the ravens that populate the city's narrow streets, with whom she imaginatively converses.
When a neighbor miscarries, the strange girl who talks to ravens is implicated in witchcraft. Emma is brought before the king and is sentenced to death by exile, to be ousted into the cold beyond the city walls. But a sympathetic soldier, Duncan, lessens her sentence to slavery. On the way to the southern kingdoms, her prison cart is overturned, and her captors are brutally killed. And yet her saviors are just as frightening: wild humans, a man and a woman, soaked in blood and not wearing a stitch of clothing. If Emma hopes to survive, to discover the secrets of her stepfather's study, she will need to follow them, but what faith can she put in such savage creatures? Still, there is something strangely familiar and comforting about their third companion, a patchwork life form, a thing of dead flesh given life, a golem named Grimosse.
Appearances: Ages of Aenya
(Major Spoilers!!!) As a young healer living in Northendell, Mathias is troubled by his inability to help wounded men-at-arms. The problem of death plagues him until he meets Dak, a scholar of ancient artifacts. Working in secret, the two men discover how the Ancient Zo could transfer their minds into invincible bodies called golems. When Dak falls in love and marries, however, he abandons their pursuit of immortality, leaving Mathias to study the countless tomes of the Zo on his own. One day, King Frizzbeard discovers Dak's research, and he and his wife are burned as witches. Dak's infant daughter, Emma, escapes the flames in the arms of Dak's golem, Grimosse. Grimm delivers the infant to Mathias, but fearing the discovery of his work, he commands the golem to head south, to the Sea. Along the way, Grimm kills thirty Hedonian soldiers as they attempt to seize him. The High Priest, Urukjinn, also tries to control the golem, but fails. But when the Urukjinn's daughter, Merneptes, is caught in a riot, Grimm tears free of his bonds and pulverizes her attackers with a church bell, which is later fashioned into his hammer. Grimosse would later find new purpose in defending Merneptes, or anyone reminding him of the child he was made to protect.
Appearances: Ages of Aenya.
