Overview
Aelius is a Thalassai imperator who commands the legions and oversees military order in Chronasis. He is a fire, plasma, and resonance mage, Thalena's adopted son, and Zephyra's younger adopted brother. During his years in the ancient past, he uses the name Ignatius. He becomes Thalion's best friend and military second-in-command in the Order of Thalion Zenith. After almost three millennia in temporal stasis, he returns to Thalassai and resumes command. He later becomes its representative on the Valrindor Council.
Appearance and Personality
Aelius is a large, muscular man with fire-red hair, red eyes, and a heat aura. The years he lives in the ancient past leave gray streaks in his hair and lines in his face. His orders are direct. With friends and students, he is confident, teasing, and playful.
Magic and Training
Aelius uses fire for propulsion and produces heat strong enough to melt stone. He shapes plasma around his body and weapons and releases resonance shockwaves that shatter material or disrupt other magic. After returning from stasis, he carries the Glaive of Frost and Fire and channels plasma and resonance through it.
Aelius repeatedly trains other mages. Thalena assigns him to train and protect Cassian in Chronasis. In the ancient past, he spends five years teaching magic around Stormbrook before Eira arrives.
Early Life and Thalassai
Aelius's biological parents are Pyrenis's former archon of fire and his wife. Both die after overloading their magic to save Pyrenis from a volcanic eruption. Thalena takes him in that same day and raises him in Stella Aeterna. Zephyra becomes his older sister, and the two form a wild pair. After one of his teenage fire pranks disrupts a meeting, Thalena places him under Hadrian's hands-on military training. Aelius wins several Celestial Games. He later rises to imperator of Chronasis.
As an imperator, Aelius commands officers and legions with Hadrian and Marcellus, organizes Chronasis's military work, and prepares Thalassai's defenses. After Cassian defeats the king of gods, Aelius publicly backs him as the right person to lead Thalassai.
Ignatius and the Order
When a timerift tears through Stella Aeterna, Aelius uses a fiery blast to save Xarion as the rift is about to cut him apart. The rift carries Aelius, Xarion, and Thea into Varnhallow and the ancient past.
After arriving in the ancient past, Aelius helps Thalion establish the Order in Rimvold. He later adopts the public name Ignatius. He plans operations, assigns roles, commands forces, and takes charge of military matters when Thalion is absent. He swears full loyalty to Thalion and stays at his side through the Order's campaigns. He also helps care for Helena, the young woman who will later become Thalena.
The name Ignatius forms a temporal loop. Aelius chooses it partly because he believes a legendary archon among his ancestors bore the name. Helena later names her biological son Ignatius after Aelius, and that son becomes the legendary archon Aelius thought had preceded him. When Thalena explains the sequence in the present, Aelius realizes that his own alias had no original source.
During the final campaigns against Malverand, Aelius temporarily wields a second-generation god core. At Maraveth, he and Jin exhaust Raphael's regeneration and destroy his body. Eira later places Aelius and the other survivors in temporal stasis.
Return and Current Role
Aelius awakens weak, unable to use his magic properly, and without the core. He trains with Hadrian and Anshar as his magic recovers. He resumes his responsibilities as imperator. With Thalena missing, Aelius, Xarion, and Hadrian lead Thalassai's military planning. Aelius later commands Thalassai forces during the campaigns against Ulzathir.
After the Ulzathir fighting, Aelius chooses to return with Xarion and remain at his side. Cassian names him Thalassai's representative on the Valrindor Council.