Ariden

Information

Player: Arrillion

Character Full Name: Ariden Cotta

Character In-Game Name: Ariden

Nickname(s): Arri, though he isn't keen on nicknames.

Association(s): The Kirin Tor, Dalaran, Azeroth.

Race: Human

Class: Mage

Age: 54

Sex: Male

Hair: Gray, usually kept long, but Ariden tends to change his haircut magically.

Eyes: Bright Blue

Weight: 140 lbs.

Height: 5'9'"

Appearance

Often wears elaborate and well decorated robes, but he might wear something more subtle and practical when the need arises.

Alignment: Lawful Good.

Personality

Although you would expect him to be arrogant for being a mage, which is actually true, he doesn't show it to the commoners except for some witty remark every now and then. Ariden is a generally friendly person who seems to have great interest in just about everything magical. He can easily hang around with commoners in a bar every now and then, but he prefers to spend his time in the company of other spell casters or Draenei, who seem to interest him a lot.

Ariden is a walking almanac of knowledge about anything magical. He has spent nearly every hour of his life studying every little aspect, although there's still plenty he doesn't know. Although he can recall an amazing arsenal of facts, he often forgets mundane things, such as having met people before. He also seems absent on many occasions, often during conversations, when he's pondering about some theory. These things make Ariden a bit of a misty person who often dwells in higher spheres.

Ariden is a great magi in his own way. While he's not as prevalent as most magi in the common arts of destruction and abjuration, he has great skill in the more subtle arts like divination and transmutation. He also created a small arsenal of magical trinkets, most of which seem useless to the common person. When in battle, although Ariden prefers to evade such bothersome occasions, you won't see him throwing large amounts of fire around, instead you will see him using the arcane to take out or disable single targets, as he doesn't seem to like killing things when it's not absolutely necessary.

Ariden is someone who tries to make sense out of it all. If there's one thing he cannot stand, it's not being able to explain something, therefore he tries to uncover Azeroth's mysteries, great or small.

History

Ariden was born in Dalaran. The Cotta's were a family of mostly mediocre magi who often specialized in history and research rather than the actual practice of magic. He had a great fascination for all things magical from birth, luckily for him, a lot of things were magical or were done magically in the house. He never really enjoyed playing in the streets, he would much rather read books instead. So when he headed to the Arcane Academy of Dalaran, just like his fathers and their grandfathers, he had already accumulated a large pile of information in his brains.

He wasn't a very talented mage at first, he simply lacked the ability to conjure large amounts of the Arcane required to do advanced thing. But he studied diligently and his teachers kept hope. Instead of focusing on the arts of destruction, conjuration and abjuration, he focused on the more subtle arts of divination and alteration. It quickly became evident Ariden had a knack for subtleties rather than brute force, which wasn't very surprising, seeing the rest of his family. One of his remarkable talents was his ability to absorb information, and the will to do so. Instead of practicing Ariden would read books about spells. He always made sure he knew exactly how the process worked before he attempted to cast something. The result was that he was often successful in the first few attempts and had far less accidents, although some definitely did occur, than the student who would learn by practicing.

Eventually he graduated and became an official magi. He was offered to teach students, which he did. Yet, he thought he himself had yet much more to learn, and stopped teaching in order to learn more himself. The next ten years Ariden could be found inside the library, eagerly devouring anything it had to offer. He had taken a great liking for Ley Lines, and developed numerous theories about them. Yet he had little success amongst his peers, who had the opinion that Ariden's ‘ramblings' made sense, but lacked empirical proof. So Ariden ventured out into the world, charted many of the Ley Lines himself, even though some maps already existed, and made many discoveries.

Ariden had always wished to enter the ranks of the Kirin Tor, and although he had adequate knowledge to do so, the ranks were shut because the Kirin Tor would not take more than 120 members at a time, unless someone was very talented. Years went by and Ariden studied.

Then came the Second War, Ariden wasn't sent to aid the Alliance in the war, but instead the war came to Dalaran, and Orc's sacked the city. With so many magi sent out to aid the Alliance. Dalaran didn't have much left to defend itself. Ariden focused on preserving the libraries, yet much knowledge was lost. The Violet citadel was razed and Dalaran ruined, but the Kirin Tor would restore the city quicker than anyone could imagine, using the Eye of Dalaran, a magical artifact that allowed the magi to focus their energy to reconstruct Dalaran. Dalaran was rebuilt, but the eye was stolen by Teron Gorefiend shortly after. However, the sacking made for an opportunity. Many of the Kirin Tor had perished, and Ariden was offered a place amongst the ranks. The Orcs had taken many artifacts, books and other things from Dalaran during the sacking and Ariden was sent to recover them. As the Orcs were defeated Ariden and others were able to recover many of these artifacts but many were lost, either taken to Outland by retreating Orcs, or sunk to the bottom of the sea when the Orcish fleet was defeated. Ariden had absorbed a lot of knowledge about magical trinkets and went about creating many himself.

It was not over however, and the greatest blow had yet to be dealt. The Third war started when the plague erupted throughout Lordaeron. Strict quarantine made sure the Plague never touched the citizens of Dalaran. The Kirin Tor tried to discover the identity of the plague, which was marginally successful, but never managed to find a cure. The war raged on and many magi defected to the ranks of the Cult of the Damned. Sadly he had not finished his device by the time Arthas and his undead bashed through the gates of Dalaran. The Kirin Tor was called to action and tried to stop Arthas, but were unable to do so and Arthas stole the book of Medivh and summoned the legion. Ariden along with several other magi were battling a group of abominations accompanied by several necromancers when they felt a great disturbance. Not soon after Ariden felt another disturbance and the very air around him began to tremble, the entire city was collapsing around him. Ariden was able to shield himself from the falling stones, beams, buildings and towers. Dalaran was ruined, and this time the ranks of the magi were devastated with many of the surviving magi following Jaina to Kalimdor. Dalaran became the target of bandits and again much knowledge was lost.

In the aftermath of the Third War Lord Garithos choose Dalaran as his base of operations and many battles were fought in and around the ruined city. The remaining Magi were concerned with recovering all that was lost and storing it in temporary vaults, which annoyed Garithos greatly. When Garithos had perished the Kirin Tor returned and went about restoring the city again.

Nearly six years after Dalaran was rebuilt and teleported to Northrend to battle the Lich King, only to discover a much graver threat. The Blue Dragonflight went rogue and tries to redirect the Ley Lines, a process that could very well destroy Azeroth. Ariden fought in those wars, and survived them, unlike many of his friends. Now, he wanders the world again looking for new mysteries to uncover.