Overview
Michael is the guardian of Maraveth, a ruling guardian of the ancient Malverand Empire, and the acting ruler who tries to hold Malverand together after Barachiel vanishes at the Aethrendar Gate. In Varnhallow, he rules as Eltaru or Eltaru-Ninsath, the god-king who keeps the nation inside a vast temporal anomaly with Sigvariel and Horol’Khai.
Barachiel gives Michael a mission: if the Malverand guardians ruin the world, Michael must help Isandriel end them. Michael creates Varnhallow and gathers an army there for that mission.
Appearance
In early Maraveth, Michael is a young adult ice and lightning mage. As Eltaru in Varnhallow, he is an aging man with white or silver-white hair, blue eyes, deep wrinkles, a bluish temporal glow, and movements strained by the magic holding Varnhallow together. As Eltaru, he wears a golden mask, rich cosmic-blue robes with gold trim, and the blue crystal necklace that holds Horol’Khai.
Blue Crystal Necklace
The blue crystal necklace is the deep-blue pendant Michael wears as Eltaru in Varnhallow.
Michael can lift or touch the crystal to draw Horol’Khai into a hollow blue temporal form. Only people with temporal magic can see and hear her in that state. At the Grand Court, the crystal is gone and shattered from Eltaru's neck.
Personality
Michael is calm, observant, practical, and heavily burdened by long consequences. In early Maraveth, he thinks in civic terms: how magic can stop food from spoiling, serve Maraveth's people, and spare the world from destructive essence draining. Under Barachiel, he becomes a steady guardian trusted with secrets that outlive the empire.
His choices in Varnhallow are far harsher. He sacrifices temporal mages to prepare the hourglass shard, withholds the full truth from Isandriel, and drains citizens during Varnhallow's final spell. He wants Valrindor to survive, but he is willing to spend lives, including his own, to carry out Barachiel's mission.
Abilities and Magic
Michael begins as an especially strong ice mage in Maraveth and a skilled lightning mage. He can see essence, understands practical magic deeply, and backs the early civic projects that lead to essence lights, essence cores, skyships, the Malverand heart, god cores, and Malverand's expansion beyond Maraveth.
After receiving a Malverand heart and a first-generation god core, Michael becomes a guardian-level mage. His capabilities include divine magic, potent ice and lightning, blinking, rapid lightning-assisted movement, temporal bubbles, essence detection, projections, and advanced knowledge of god cores, shards, Malverand hearts, and the God Realm. In Varnhallow, his original guardian shard remains visible as a swirling ice shard in his palm, while the blue crystal necklace holds the temporal god. The god-core entity bound to Michael's original shard has little independent will and does not act as a distinct person beyond the shard.
Temporal magic becomes the magic Michael relies on most. It restores clarity to memories that had begun to erode, lets him understand time bubbles and timerifts, and gives him the means to build the Varnhallow anomaly. He can also manifest Horol’Khai partially through the blue crystal necklace, though Sigvariel and Horol’Khai are both essential to maintaining Varnhallow.
History
Michael is twenty years old when Maraveth is becoming the largest city in the known world. He serves on the elected council, works as a practical ice mage, and counts Raphael as his closest friend. Raphael introduces him to Barachiel and Arcanis, and Michael backs the experiments that lead to essence lights, essence cores, skyships, the Malverand heart, god cores, and Malverand's expansion beyond Maraveth.
When Arcanis creates the first Malverand heart, Michael is the first guardian to test it. The device stops his aging and repairs injuries, but early use drains his essence until he limits the cost. As Barachiel expands the empire, Michael becomes guardian of Maraveth and governs the imperial heartland.
Barachiel gives Michael the order to stop the guardians if they threaten the world. Michael must use Isandriel and Tal'Massar to carry it out. Michael and Raphael raise Isandriel after Barachiel creates him, while Michael keeps Isandriel's unmaking mission secret for centuries.
The Vireen gate test breaks the empire. Michael crosses to Vireen safely and returns, Eremion follows, and Barachiel vanishes when he tries to cross afterward. With Barachiel gone, Arcanis missing, and the spiral shard split, Michael becomes acting emperor from Maraveth without fully claiming Barachiel's title.
Malverand continues to fracture. Sariel fails to claim the shards and leaves for Xalmyrra, Raphael tries to keep control of the empire, and the remaining guardians rebel, secede, or fight for their own territories. Michael studies the Malverand vault, searches for useful cores and artifacts, and starts preparing Barachiel's order.
After the atraxi arrive and temporal magic spreads through Valrindor, Michael develops a powerful aptitude for it. He feeds an hourglass-shaped shard with his own essence and the essence of temporal mages, many of whom die in the process, then tampers with the shard so another temporal mage can claim it. Sigvariel takes the shard, and Horol’Khai emerges.
Michael eventually brings Isandriel into Barachiel's command and prepares the Varnhallow plan with Sigvariel and Horol’Khai. They gather their strongest followers, seal themselves away in a temporal anomaly, and build the army meant to reach Isandriel when Barachiel's order against the failed guardians can no longer be delayed.
Inside Varnhallow, Michael rules as Eltaru. He governs through the divine patriarchs, tournaments, hidden orders, and the long preparation for the anomaly's release. He meets Eira, Kaelion, Jin, and Kazehiro, places their gods within Malverand's hidden history, and accepts Eira's recruitment into the Order. He later prepares Benedict to aid Thalion when Thalion reaches Varnhallow.
The main timerift displacements into Varnhallow are part of the Order's void loop. Thalena, Deylin, Sigurd, Silas, Lunorax, and the temporal god work from the void to send selected people into Varnhallow and the past, while Michael's control applies to people once they enter the anomaly.
Michael dies breaking Varnhallow's final spell. The release drains essence cores, the world, Horol’Khai's imprisoned power, and many citizens in the Grand Court. His body cracks under the strain as he pours everything into ending the temporal bubble, freeing the army, and sending Varnhallow's survivors into the Skarnheim independence phase of Malverand's fall.
Relationships
- Barachiel: Emperor, friend, and the one who gives Michael his final mission against the guardians.
- Raphael: Michael's closest friend in early Maraveth and later a fallen guardian his plan is meant to stop.
- Arcanis: The engineer whose work Michael backs from Maraveth's early council through the creation of hearts, cores, gates, and the vault.
- Sigvariel / Sigurd: Michael's temporal ally, the wielder of Horol’Khai, and his partner in creating the Varnhallow anomaly.
- Horol’Khai: The temporal god created through Michael's hourglass-shard work and kept in the blue crystal necklace while Varnhallow is maintained.
- Isandriel: Raised by Michael and Raphael, then given Barachiel's mission to end the failed guardians.
- Eira, Kaelion, Jin, and Thalion: Michael meets them in Varnhallow after their time displacements, teaches Malverand's hidden history, accepts Eira into the Order, and prepares Benedict to aid Thalion.