The Black Blooded Master of Aetheric MagicLericho Califerrum

Book One: Remembering the Past

Chapter 1: Betrayal and Rebirth

Lericho, whose birth name is Kharangan, is part of a secret tribe of the Steppe known as the Sontago tribe, they were a very special tribe as all of their offspring were twins, no matter the circumstances all of the mothers would conceive twins.
They were very powerful magic users and somewhere along the line they decided to go into forbidden magic to win the Naadam, this being that whenever a set of twins comes to age they fight to the death, the winner then consumes the soul of the loser and becomes exponentially more powerful.
Well when Lericho's turn came, he won, but his brother's soul never manifested, this was the first time this had ever happened since the ritual was implemented.
He was outcast, called a monster, and banished.
He met Kakuji who is in fact part of a Yakuza style organization called the Azure Lightning Flames and after falling in with that crowd he finally opened up about his troubles about being banned from the village.
The man betrayed Lericho and turned the entire tribe's village into a ritual circle (think FMA) and consumed every soul in the village.He then proceeded to thank Lericho, use his newfound powers to take every single memory Lericho had had up to that point, and dumped him in a ditch near Gridania.... Lericho woke up days later, he had no memory, none whatsoever, it was as if he has been born a fully grown man. But he still had survival instincts. He managed to find his way into Gridania and pick up work as a bartender at the Carline Canopy.
From there he started to learn a lot about the world he had been thrown into, he also learned it was in fact not normal to be at least 20 years old with no memories of anything beforehand.
He wanted to discover what happened to those years, and who was capable of doing such things. He checked with every Chirurgeon in Gridania, A-Ruhn-Senna was the only one that was able to give him any information, He had had a memory lock placed upon him, one so powerful only the one that casted it originally would be able to remove it, or the caster had to die. Lericho determined from that moment forward he wanted to know who would do such a thing, what he did to deserve losing so many years of his life and So he began travelling for answers. Picking up skill after skill along the way. He learned elements of Black Magic, White Magic, The art of the Monk, the art of the Ninja, how to Gather, how to Craft, Doing odd jobs and Leves wherever he could find them to keep himself fed and housed.
He even wandered into Garlemald a few times, one of which trips he found a tome on the forbidden art of Reapers.
He was curious about this, he traveled to the lands of Dravania to find answers within the deep libraries that were held there. He lived in that area for almost 5 years, learning about voidsent and the 13th, learning all he could about all of the arts he had practiced thus far as well.
Until finally he did it, he performed the forbidden ritual to summon a Voidsent and make a contract with them
However he was never one for weapons, he hated that he had to have a staff and cane for the magic he already wielded, he had no interest in a scythe
So he made a different kind of deal, one the Reapers were too cowardly to try.He made a deal that he would allow the voidsent to join with his body, live in his bloodstream, and eat all the ambient aether from the source that he pleased, but in return, the voidsent would become his Foci for all of his magic, transforming part of the aether it naturally consumed into physical matter for his spells
The Voidsent agreed without speaking a word, knowing it would be able to eat much more than any spell would use, it could live the rest of it's days satisfied
The contract was signed and the voidsent entered Lericho and fused the two together
Of course because of this he could rarely show his chest or arms anymore, the black veins would cause unrest
So he opted to start wearing heavier clothing, covering as much as he could.As they practiced together Lericho became a force to be reckoned with. Growing stronger every day, now wielding Void Magic as well, the number of spells he had access to was many.Through this he also was able to learn the art of Aether manipulation which he has so far been able to use it to create Teas that can manipulate hormones and emotions, but perhaps there is more there to be discovered.

Chapter 2: Azura

As he looked deeper into who the one that stole his memories might be, he met a woman in Ul’dah, an Ishgardian by the name of Azura. She was also searching for something, and she had a potential idea of a lead on Lericho’s mystery, so they began searching for their goals together.After some time she had became something Lericho had never really known before in his many travels…a true friend….soon enough they managed to track a lead to Garlemald, when they arrived at the location they were ambushed by a powerful magic user! Lericho managed to take him down but he killed himself before they could get any answers out of him. Lericho knew the rest of the group had to be close…but he refused to put Azura in danger. Forcing her to go back to Camp Broken Glass he pressed onwards to find his foe. Only to be ambushed by more lackeys….Lericho was able to hold his own for a while but was overwhelmed…When Azura jumped into the fight and was quickly grabbed. The head lackey told both of them “You’re getting too close to answers you can’t have” and opened a portal to the void, intent on throwing them both in. However Azura saw her true purpose finally, even though Lericho screamed with every fiber of his being for her to not to…she cast herself into the void, closing the portal with her. Lericho in his rage killed every living being in a yalm radius, from lackey to animal, nothing was left but blood. When he came to he found one of the lackey’s corpses, and on his uniform was a symbol, a crest even. A family crest of a Blue Chimera. He ripped it off of the uniform and kept it with him.He traveled to Yanxia, climbing one of the highest rock pillar and made a camp, he stayed up there for six months with no other contact, hunting birds that flew past, and carving rocks with a chisel he had crafted.When he finally returned from his hiatus he began looking for the person behind everything...behind her death....behind everything terrible in his life...taking the crest and asking around about it. After some time he discovered it was the crest of an underground syndicate family, but their location was unknown.

Chapter 3: The Senju Clan

It just so happened as he was walking through the back allies of Ul'dah, he found a card, one that was very, very interesting. It led him to The Red Dragon, home to the Senju Family. He inquired about joining and quickly made friends with one of the main family members. Yuri Senju.Yuri taught Lericho most of how the underground world worked, what he would be expected to do, what etiquette to have, how to pick up jobs and the like. The two of them grew to be rather close friends and Lericho very much enjoyed the company of Yuri, even helping out at Yuri's Teahouse from time to time.During his time with the Senjus he also participated in their weekly sparing event. Through this he met people that he actually lost in a fight to. Something he wasn't very familiar with for the most part. Elias the Garlean Bioweapon proved to be an equal to Lericho with pure strength alone, overpowering him in their spar. And the other was Akari, another Garlean Bioweapon (Lericho was starting to notice a pattern at this point) however Akari was especially potent in her Light Aether abilities, something that Lericho had never really found a way to counter at this point.One of the other things that he gained at the Senjus was a mentor slash friend of sorts. Muffin Senju was an enigma to Lericho. A necromancer that specialized in Blue Magics. He was very curious about what she had going for her and inquired as much, through a couple very interesting adventures the two made a deal to help each other out whenever needed.However as good for him and as much fun as he had living with the Senju Clan, He had to find where the Blue Chimera was. After some time he met one of the other main members of the household, Hikaru Senju, who was in charge of the Yanxia branch of Senju Operations and Yuri's Partner. Lericho saw Hikaru and recognized his wisdom and laid his troubles out before him. Surprisingly Hikaru was willing to help Lericho out, he had a feeling he recognized the crest from somewhere in Yanxia recently and was willing to put out his network of spies in search of it for him. Lericho thanked him with all of his soul.

Chapter 4: The High Mage and Machiphobia

One day during one of Yuri's Teahouse openings Lericho would meet two people that would change the course of his life forever.The first was Vigolfr or Vigo for short. He was a viera that was very much still getting used to all of the crazy things that periodically happened in the teahouse. Between the loud arguments, fights that sometimes broke out, and just overall intensity of the atmosphere Vigo had a very bad fear of confrontation and as such would break down in a panic attack when such things occurred, Lericho did his best as both someone that understood that feeling and as an employee of the teahouse to comfort the viera and do whatever he could for him. It had been a while since he had someone that he could do so much for and Vigo returned it in kind. It was very nice for Lericho, it almost reminded him of the times he had with Azura....The other was Niah. An up and coming champion bestowed the title of High Mage of the Mage's Guild in Ul'dah, somewhere Lericho had actively tried to avoid for years as they saw him as a threat once his power grew so far above their own. However she didn't flaunt her title like a celebrity and Lericho wondered if she actually wanted to be in her position at all.He sat down next to Niah at the table one of the nights and asked her about it, if she ever had more ambition than just working for the Mage's guild, if she ever wanted to truly seek real power. To his surprise she actually agreed! The next few months were spent with Lericho vigorously training, showing her how to use every single inch of her aether in battle, even to the point of the Mage's guild attempting to stop Lericho at one point, but to no avail.Until one day...

Chapter 5: The Betrayal and Rebirth

Lericho got a message from Samaru to meet him at The Red Dragon, he needed to speak with him. Upon arrival Samaru wanted to talk to Lericho about moving him up in the family, he had been there for a while now and had proven his loyalty and thought he was deserving. However he had one caveat for this. In order to make sure he didn't have any unnecessary attachments he would be required to hand over someone he cared about in exchange. As Lericho thought about it he knew he only really had one option. The one that he had taken on as his Pupil, Niah....
After the Teahouse had closed next Lericho asked Niah to come with him, he needed to take her somewhere. He couldn't tell her what his actual intentions were he cared too much but knew this had to be done. If he didn't his livelihood with the Senju's would be on the line. If he lost Hikaru's support he would never be able to find the one who stole his previous life. As they approached The Red Dragon Niah became more and more suspicious demanding to know what was going on, before finally getting to the front door where Samaru awaited them, Lericho blocked any and all escape for Niah, leading her down into the basement of the Senju household.After Samaru properly interviewed Niah and told Lericho to properly keep a leash on her they were both let go with no consequence....at least on the Senju side. Niah snapped at Lericho. She thought she could trust him. Lericho took every single word she threw at him to heart, he knew he had betrayed his friend, he knew it was all his fault. As soon as she left Lericho knew he had no business being around anyone anymore.
He ran to Yuri's house, accidentally stepping in on one of their intimate moments with a partner, but told Yuri what had occurred and why he had to leave for a while. Yuri tried to coerce him not to leave but not able to handle his own emotions he ran. Blocking Yuri from following him. He ran back to the rock where he mourned the loss of Azura for six months, and mourned the loss of his pupil for four more, yet again it was all his fault.However one day he would have a visitor, one of the other heads of the Senju family, Hanako. She was the one in charge of all the sparring sessions and Lericho looked up to her as a mentor of sorts. She had come because she was concerned he hadn't picked up a job in a few weeks, Lericho gave her everything every detail, and her response? That he was being a child, he had no reason to be up there. He needed to get off his ass and keep moving forward. His goal would never be obtained if he died up here from starvation. If he explained to Niah she would probably forgive him, but he had to stop and rethink everything. This struck Lericho hard and rethink everything he did.
He descended his rock not more than a week later, Apologized to Yuri and Niah and started working his best to repair their friendship.
When he got a call from Hikaru that he needed him to come to Kugane immediately.

Chapter 6: Meditated Tyrannicide

After a few weeks of spying and scouting through Hikaru's network they were able to ascertain the location of the base of operations of the Blue Chimeras. With Lericho now in Yanxia with Hikaru and his men now they just needed a game plan. Hikaru could send forces to lay siege to the fort but with the looming threat of such a powerful mage he was not willing to do so without some sort of plan to deal with him as well.Lericho pondered for a bit before he thought of something, if they could get someone to lead the charge on the frontside to make it look like a proper assault then Lericho could sneak in from the mountains behind and get to the Mage before he even had a chance to strike the forces. but they would need someone strong enough to seem like a threat to the front, but also someone expendable. Luckily Yuri had a suggestion, another Aura that seemed to be pretty much not cared about by the Senjus, someone by the name of Orius.Lericho began the hunt for Orius, searching around common areas that the Senjus frequented, however he soon found out that he had moved on to another crime family, The Ikigai. Lericho managed to track down their headquarters and met with their leader Celestaux, who was happy to give up Orius to him. Lericho took his newly appointed general and they headed off to Yanxia, it was finally time to finish this....

Chapter 7: The Final Battle

Lericho took Orius to the rest of the men that Hikaru had spared him and briefed him on his mission. He was to lead the men into battle and make all the noise he could while Lericho went in a secret way to find the one he had been searching for all this time. Orius was quick to understand his orders and obey, leading the men as his background living with the Dotharl showed all too well. Lericho's eye twitched a bit thinking about how submissive he was, how casually he let himself be owned and controlled. But there was bigger fish to fry. Lericho split off from the rest of the group and headed toward his target.The sounds of battle erupted from the other side of the mountain, as Lericho continued to get closer he dropped his aether lower and lower, making sure he could not be detected. He finally made it to the back of the compound and just as he had anticipated, all of the main soldiers were focused on the front lines. Before long he was able to sneak around until he heard shouting, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE STILL COMING?! WHAT DO I PAY YOU IDIOTS FOR!" that certainly sounded like his target. "For the love of...fine i'll do it myself. Can't fight if you're thralled to me anyway"
At hearing that Lericho jumped from the shadows in front of him, for the first time face to face with the one he had been searching for, A massive Hyur in mage armor, who was now wide eyed at the Au Ra standing in the middle of the room.
"What....in the seven hells....are you doing here....did you not take the HINT from when I killed your little friend?!"
Lericho didn't say a single word, the glare shining through his crimson glasses said all that needed to be said. He was there to finish this and there was no monologue that would change that.Lericho lunged at the Hyur with the intent to kill, but he knew it would be the biggest challenge of his life, making sure to keep on his guard and not let his emotions control his actions. The battle continued on for hours and hours. Lericho using every tool in his arsenal, black magic, white magic, void magic, more and more power being thrown around, it became almost as loud as the battle outside.
"Why do you CARE?! I'm trying to PROTECT YOU! YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW"
Lericho didn't even grace him with a response, he continued the brutal assault, dodging attacks and throwing more of his own. Until finally he was able to land a fatal blow. Lericho stood over him, a fireball directly pointed at his face, a single word still never uttered.
"You...you think you can come in here, AND JUST KILL ME WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING?!" He suddenly blew an expanse of aether out of nowhere, throwing Lericho back against the wall. "YOU do not get to win against ME. I will KILL YOU just like every other person you've ever cared about"
More and more aether began shooting out of his body, there was no way he could keep this up even with all of his power there was just too much, did he mean to kill them both?! Lericho went to attack him to stop it but was again blown back by the aether. "Hope your memories was worth dying for! Maybe you'll get them back in the split second before you reach the aetheral sea!" he cackled. Lericho knew there was nothing he could do, this was it, they were both going to die....no...no he couldn't fail here. There had to be....wait...he was expanding in aether.....the ambient aether in the atmosphere....the voidsent he could.....a million thoughts flew through his head at once before he just threw out his hands, allowing the voidsent to absorb as much as he could and more, he knew he could sense the danger as much as he could so he let him take the wheel, the black mass in his body expanding and hardening more and more, giving him the thickest and hardest to pierce armor ever created. "Goodbye Lericho, you were the only friend I ever had". As the body of the Hyur exploded Lericho and the voidsent finished their plan, giving Lericho every ounce of blast resistance he could. The entire compound erupted into flames and explosions, killing most anyone that wasn't out in the field fighting. Seeing the fall of their master the rest of the clan fled, giving Orius and Hikaru's men the victory.....but where was Lericho?

Epilogue of Book One: The Aftermath

The sun was very bright, He could barely hear anything. Where was he. What happened? His head hurt so badly....Lericho suddenly screamed out in pain, images flashing through his head, was the spell broken??? Was this his memories?? Kakuji?? Was that the Hyur's name? Wait was that his parents? He had a brother? THEY'RE ALL DEAD?!?!?!
A million questions shooting through Lericho's mind as he continues to receive everything he ever lost all at once. As it finally all came to a close he finally realized wait...He wasn't in Yanxia anymore, what happened? This was......The Black Shroud?? The explosion must have knocked him into the ocean and he floated that far?! How long had he been unconscious? He had far too many questions and not nearly enough answers. He pulled himself to his feet, bloody and beaten hobbling towards the forest he was dumped in all of those years ago....but this time...he remembered....he knew everything....and he hated himself for it

So where is Lericho right now?

Everything has been revealed, On top of the memories he also has learned from a chance encounter with an Ascian that his 'voidsent' actually was his brother all along! This explains why he isn't corrupted by the void coursing through his veins, the other half of his soul refuses to let it corrupt his twin.However Lericho still is dealing with the pain of learning about the horrific fate of his brother and tribe, coping with the monster he was and might still be.He seeks comfort in friends and has even taken back up Bartending at the Quanta Fight Club and the Tairiku Izakaya. Learning recently that he has strayed from the path he once set out on with Azura he seeks to course correct himself.

Who is Lericho?

Name: Lericho Califerrum
Age: 55
Birthday: 27th Sun of the 4th Umbral Moon
Race: Au Ra - Xaela
Pronouns: He/Him
Grand Company: Wanted by All of them
Hand Preference: Ambidextrous
Skills: Black Magic, White Magic, Void Magic, Aetheric Magic, The Art of the Monk
Favorite Colors: Blue and Purple
Favorite Song: "Give It All"
Patron Deity: Llymlaen

"You’re just psyching yourself up. Telling yourself you have to win isn’t training, it’s pointless. You need to face reality and do the real work. If you can’t tap into your true power all the motivation in the world won’t be enough to protect your loved ones. Sure, having something to defend or fight for can drive you. But when feelings dominate they can just as quickly drag you down. You want your emotions to complement your strengths not shackle them. If you’re too desperate to win, if love makes you afraid you won’t be able to assess the fight logically. You’ll misjudge your opponent’s abilities and lose. There’s no such thing as a fight that can’t be lost. You must accept that fact and come to terms with it. Only then can you prevail. I believe in you now believe in yourself."

Hello! My name is VoicesExtremus, I play a LOT of games, FFXIV being one of the biggest ones. I also play Sea of Thieves, Team Fortress 2, Deep Rock Galactic, and many more! And ALL of them are streamed live on my Twitch channel! Slap the buttons below if you're interested in finding me!

Fanart done of Lericho!!

Everything beyond this point is STRICTLY OUT OF CHARACTER!! Lericho does not know ANY of this information as of yet, please use it only for context and don’t metagame thanks <3Currently there is nothing more to reveal :3

All of my Glamours!

I have all my classes leveled! And as such I made unique glamours for all of them :D check it out below!