Overview
Jorhan-Theris later rules Xalmyrra as Xol’Zahir. He is an ancient atraxi survivor from Atraxis Prime Alpha, the ruler of Atraxis Prime, and the spiral shard wielder behind Xalmyrra's storms, darkness, and repeating cycles. He calls himself the Keeper of Balance and is widely feared as the god of darkness. Jorhan is an atraxi shard wielder whose power comes from spiral shards and stored essence.
Appearance and Demeanor
Jorhan is tall and pale, with long black hair that catches blue and brown in the light and pale, almost hollow white eyes.
As ruler of Atraxis Prime, Jorhan commands the surviving atraxi with a calm, formal manner. He uses the title Keeper of Balance, expects obedience from his disciples, and seeks salvation for his people through Eira's shard power. His rule keeps the atraxi alive through the essence reservoir beneath Atraxis Prime and the cycles that feed it. After Thalena defeats him, he apologizes for what he caused and spends his final years clearing darkness.
Abilities, Skills and Magic
Jorhan is a powerful atraxi mage who uses air, water, ice, cosmic, divine, and darkness magic. He uses air magic for flight, speed, carrying people, drying clothes, shockwaves, and movement fast enough to escape visual tracking.
His strongest power comes from the spiral shards. With two shards, Jorhan separates Xalmyrra from the rest of Valrindor, controls the storms and veil around it, and remakes the region when the land is consumed again. One shard maintains the storms and veil; a second powers the resetting cycle. He also sustains Atraxis Prime through a vast essence reservoir built in the void. Jareth and Amos built the reservoir around a gate, and Jorhan controls its flow through his shards.
In battle, Jorhan shapes darkness over vast distances, draws darkness into himself, raises water and ice from the Aethrendar Sea, fires cosmic and prismatic beams, creates golden, divine, and cosmic-layered barriers, uses divine enchantments, disintegrates corrupted beasts, and fights on a scale that devastates cities and landscapes. Heavy shard use blackens and breaks his body, and his final spell to clear corruption from Durakarn consumes him.
Background and History
Jorhan comes from the atraxi civilization of Atraxis Prime Alpha. When a void-like destruction consumes the atraxi homeworld and system, he escapes through a gate into Xalmyrra with survivors including Eshmir, Amos, Jareth, and Belanor. Fewer than two hundred atraxi survive the arrival above the Aethrendar Sea.
In early Xalmyrra, Aldred gives the displaced atraxi sanctuary in exchange for their skills. Jorhan and his people build gates and essence towers, and the atraxi language spreads until it becomes Xalmyrran. As the pure-blooded atraxi absorb too much essence and corruption worsens around Xalmyrra, Aldred orders them away from the mainland.
The atraxi try to settle the western island later known as Xolterra. There, Jorhan takes a hidden spiral shard, unleashes a wave of lethal essence across the island, and kills atraxi settlers across Xolterra. Jorhan returns with overwhelming power, declares that Xalmyrra will remain the atraxi's land, and fights Aldred above the collapsing region. Aldred dies buying time for survivors to escape, and Jorhan gains Aldred's shard as well.
With two shards, Jorhan turns Xalmyrra into an isolated cycle-world. He encloses the region behind storms and darkness, recreates people and places from essence, and builds Atraxis Prime in a green valley beyond the darkness. Atraxis Prime's essence reservoir keeps the surviving atraxi alive but traps Xalmyrra in repeated lives and deaths that feed the reservoir sustaining his people.
During the campaign to break Xalmyrra's cycles, Eira takes a spiral shard from him and weakens him. Jorhan reaches her through the shard, has his followers bring her to Atraxis Prime, and takes her to the realm's essence reservoir. His disciples hunt threats such as Arcanis and work through the gate network.
Thalena, acting under the legendary name Arcanis, defeats Jorhan with the star shard and the sword of Arcanis. Eshmir carries his broken body away from the battlefield, and Jorhan returns to ruined Atraxis Prime with little life left. He travels with Eshmir and Belanor into the Land of Darkness, later joined by Aurion and Lirien, and uses the shard's remaining power to clear old Durakarn and nearby corrupted lands.
Before his final act, Jorhan had spent centuries trying to protect Valrindor from the force that destroyed the Atraxis system and from something inside the void. He then overloads himself to clear a wide region of darkness. Jorhan dies in the blast of light, and Eshmir dies with him. Aurion takes the spiral shard Jorhan leaves behind.
Relationships
- Eshmir is Jorhan's closest companion and most devoted follower. She guards him, heals him, and stays with him through Atraxis Prime, his defeat, and his final journey through Durakarn.
- Belanor is Jorhan's oldest atraxi friend and later works against his control. After Jorhan's defeat, Belanor follows him through the final darkness-clearing journey.
- Amos and Jareth are senior atraxi scientists in Jorhan's circle. Their gates, essence towers, and void-built reservoir keep Atraxis Prime functioning.
- Kheran, Thirun, Aziran, and Dhalith serve among Jorhan's disciples and followers in Atraxis Prime.
- Eira is the shard wielder Jorhan brings to Atraxis Prime after she takes a spiral shard from him. Her captivity exposes Atraxis Prime's reservoir, gates, and dependence on Jorhan's shards.
- Aldred dies fighting Jorhan in ancient Xalmyrra. Thalena / Arcanis later defeats Jorhan and breaks the cycles.
- Xoh’Metztli makes an agreement with Jorhan to keep Xolterra under control and feed essence toward the darkness.