Deimos

Deimos is a powerful mage of the Geroni in the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World"), who argues for war against the Empire's settlement in Canarque. The civil head consul Orpi said that he had come from a Geroni city-state in the mountains that his people had thought fallen and lost, and that he had persuaded the cities to make war. He bears a nickname meaning "God's Messenger", and his five separate manifestations were taken by the devout as a sign pointing to the founding five.¹²

The call to war

According to Orpi, Deimos appeared only after the Empire came. He asked the cities to hand him their military power without condition for a year, and claimed to have a hidden weapon that would drive the Empire away. Orpi did not believe in the weapon, though he allowed that Deimos's followers might know more than he did, and he doubted the rumour of five bodies, saying that even three or four would give a man great freedom. Avlor Aten had earlier voted unanimously to send Deimos out of the city.³⁴⁵⁶⁷

At Perses Castle, where leaders driven out of their cities had gathered, an envoy came in Deimos's name with a guard of about eight. The proclamation he read called the refugees criminals, fugitives or traitors in the eyes of the new city governments and asked the castle's commander to stop sheltering them; it promised that the troops would be kept in the cities and claimed that a war council of fifteen cities, among them the nine that had changed hands, had appointed Deimos commander-in-chief. The commander, Leandro, sent the envoy away. Some in the hall, though disheartened by the coups, justified Deimos as an evil man who fought for his homeland.^89101112

At Perses

After the speeches a black-haired man in a mage's robe came forward, a badge marked four beneath his collar. Deimos said that he had five healthy bodies and that those not present were kept safe by guards, and he offered the doctor Bruno a knife to show that he would sacrifice one of them; Bruno refused, saying that he spoke for peace and that the Empire's victory would not be his. Deimos admitted that until then he had taken the band for imperial agents.^13141516

He argued that the Empire's mages could not bring its forces to this continent, and that united, the Geroni could make an enemy who did not know the land pay dearly. The Empire, he said, would never give up the gold of the mountains, the silver of the rivers or stones such as Alaztaşı. Asked whether it was just to drive out children born in Aquila, he said he would give everyone time to leave, and he gave the people of Aquila six months from that day to build ships and go, after which he would answer for no one's life. He claimed that the hidden weapon he was unlocking would set the Empire against the one thing it had never defeated, and said that he had never been where a war of this size was fought. He left the castle alive; for all the fear he stirred, he could not turn the hall from its leaning towards peace.^{17181920212223}

How others see him

Governor Alexander held that Deimos wanted war and was pressing the Empire towards it like hunters closing on a tiger. The stranger Klam Ezor, who said he had heard of Deimos in many places, judged that the Empire could defeat him by force without great difficulty, but that coming near him was the hard part.²⁴²⁵²⁶

Spoiler: What the band learned of his handGösterAçık ettiği: Yeni Dünya #14; Yeni Dünya #26; Yeni Dünya #24; Yeni Dünya #28 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

The notes of a dead mage found in the forest asked whoever found them to tell Deimos that they could succeed. The tabaxi Kuraks said that after the massacre of the first night he and other survivors had tried to kill Deimos: they found three of the five and brought down only one, who stood in the middle of a ritual Kuraks did not understand while shadow creatures appeared.²⁷²⁸²⁹

The wounded mage Manfred claimed that Deimos, disguised as a native, had poisoned the governor himself, had fanned the war through contacts within the Empire and wanted the invasion so as to hold power. Manfred said that he had seen more than one of Deimos's bodies, though never all five together, and praised his mastery of magic, the sword and new engines of war. Memories in a crystal taken from a murdered operative showed five Deimos with covered faces gathering to receive a box. Of his further designs, see Plan to repeat the Desolation.³⁰³¹³²

On the road back to Aquila, a group of large Geroni constructs and a mage appeared by magic before the band; a stronger mage, Deimos, had sent them. Klam Ezor told the band that the abducted scholar Orson was held at Perses Castle, which was now under Deimos's control.³³³⁴