Aetheric III

Aetheric III was the emperor of Doegan in the Utter East in the late 14 century.

Description
Because of the curse of the Doegan bloodforge, Aetheric III looked like a twisted monstrosity. He resembled a giant aquatic creature with scaled tentacles, huge jet black eyes but in a beautiful face, and rash-covered skin over damaged, rotting flesh.

Personality
Aetheric III was ruthless and amoral but had always in mind the interests of his country. He always spoke with the honorary we.

Relationships
Ikavi Garkim was the aide and personal agent of Aetheric III, and the only being that the emperor trusted. His main enemies were the cultists of the Fallen Temple.

History
The young Aetheric III was a normal Ffolk human until an invasion from an army of fiends forced him to use the bloodforge to create basal golems to repel it, like his father before, and he become an aberrant being, forced to live inside a giant water tank filled with the black poisonous liquid secreted by his skin. He later raised a magic wall that protected the capital Eldrinpar from the fiends. He did not show his face in public since.

At one point, Aetheric III allied with and sponsored the pirate fleet known as the Doegan Dogs in order to hunt down ships from the opposing countries of the Five Kingdoms: Ulgarth, the Free Cities of Parsanic, and Konigheim.

After he sensed the use of great psionic power at work, he managed to recruit the young Mar psionicist Ikavi Garkim. He grew to be his personal agent, even gaining a place among the lords of the Chamber of Councilors as the Councilor of Internal Investigations.

In the, he devised a devious plot: using the gate in the Stone Arch, Aetheric III sent an army of basal golems to the far country of Waterdeep in northwest Faerûn in order to abduct Eidola of Neverwinter, the soon-to-be wife of Piergeiron Paladinson, in order to lure great armies from Faerûn to the Utter East to help them against the fiends and the cultists of the Fallen Temple.

That year, just after Ikavi Garkim had eliminated a cell of the Fallen Temple, some people arrived from Waterdeep: a group of paladins led by Miltiades of Phlan. Quickly, Aetheric III sent Garkim to greet them. During a welcoming meal, Aetheric III invited the paladins to an audience with him. They were shocked by his appearance and the emperor shared with them that the cost of using the bloodforges was not just draining the land and its people of life, but also altering their bodies. Aetheric III was altered the most because of his heavy bloodforge use. The emperor also told them that the bloodforges were created by the Mar's ancestors to seal otherworldly forces and influences on the region away and use of the artifacts weakened the barriers. Aetheric III revealed that Eidola had been hired by the Fallen Temple, which used to follow Tyr, now also known as the Temple of the Broken Hammer. The Emperor asked Miltiades for help against the common enemy and after a communion with his deity he agreed to destroy the enemies of Doegan.

After the paladins departed, the emperor explained to Garkim that among the enemies of Tyr were the Fallen Temple, the bloodforges but also the emperor himself. Garkim was tasked to be ready to assassinate the newcomers if they move against the emperor.

After the paladins fought against a team of mercenaries led by Artemis Entreri in front of Eldrinpar's Fountain of the Kraken, Ikavi Garkim and his guards, the few not suffering from the Gray Malaise arrived to covered the mess and recover informations about the event but Aetheric III informed him via mind comunication that he all saw all.

Soon after the Emperor summoned Garkim to explain that he was the adbucer of Eidola and all about his plot to attract more armies in Utter East to help them, and worked: arrived the group of the paladins and the group of the mercenaries but Aetheric III need more greater armies for his plan of eradication of the fiends.

Later Enteri and his mercenaries managed to sunk into the palace and found Aetheric the Third and his poison-filled impregnable water tank. However Entreri using a are magical item to create a small silver portal in the tank's wall injured the emperor flooding the castle with the tank water and his grotesque tentacled carcass.

As that happened, the magical barriers around Eldrinpar failed, flooding the city with fiendish monsters, hordelings, and tanar'ri.

After the bloodforge was steal from cultists from the Fallen Temple Ikavi Garkim decided he need to follow mercenaries Entreri, Sharessa Stagwood and Ingrar Welven together with paladins Trandon, Kern Desanea. However Ingrar sensed the mar chancellor of Doegan following them with his guards and they stop to speak with him.

Offering an temporary alliance in order to save his city from the fiends Garkim joined the assembled group of mercenaries and paladins. Using a secret way built from the Mar knowing to Garkim they managed to exit the palace without fight and told to the others that the cultists had installed the bloodforge inside the Temple of Umberlee. So they entered into the Fallen Temple's hideout to stop the devious plot of the cultists to summoned their deity Ysdar and Entreri and Sharessa attempted to claim the bloodforge as their own but were stopped by now-monstrous Aetheric III. In the process, the deity Tyr revealed himself through his new Chosen – Ingrar Welven. The deity manifested himself through ominous red skies and collapsed part of the temple's dome. Disgusted by the cult that claimed to be his worshipers, Tyr incinerated many, and forcing the survivors to flee. After the injured Aetheric III surged from the foaming water, totally crazy speaking only gibberish. He tried to revocer his bloodforge from inside the temple, no caring if killing people around. The Emperor fought against Enteri and defeat him but after creating a new basalt golem Aetheric III was inadvertently killed by his own creation.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Errand of Mercy
 * Conspiracy
 * Uneasy Alliances