Full Name: Artax
Species: Human, Uncursed (Wizard) (Sathmoran Highlander)
Allegiance: Klepnos
Religion: unknown
Social Status: unknown
Age: 188 as of 10/30/1999 - most often appears as a man in his late 60s, can change his appearance
Eyes: changes, often piercing blue, with bushy white eyebrows
Hair: changes, often long white with matching beard
Height: around 170 cm
Supernatural Abilities: High master wizard, specializing in Transformation magic but also possessing strong talents in Divination and Evocation
Mage Guild: Unknown affiliation
Primary Element: Water
Focus Implement: Basin
Personality and Appearance
Also known as the Old Man, Artax is a wizard of unknown-but-darned-considerable power who runs the magic shop in Kate's part of town, a store rather whimsically called Spells-4-U. His true age is uncertain, but he appears to be in at least his late sixties or early seventies. He's relatively short, and has long, white hair and a beard, piercing blue eyes with bushy eyebrows above them, and a slightly crooked mouth that smirks and smiles frequently when he's feeling positive (and glowers impressively when he's not). Since many of his customers are non-mages looking for small charms, curios and other oddities, he plays the "wizard" look to the hilt, dressing in a blue robe covered with gold moons and stars and a huge pointed hat that is ludicrously tacky by a modern mage's standards.
The most unnerving thing about Artax, for most people, is the fact that he always knows a lot more about you than he ought to. Most wizards who use divination have to depend on tricky rituals and expensive reagents, but Artax just seems to know whatever he needs to know in order to help his customers (or, in some cases, give them enough rope to hang themselves with). Nobody’s quite figured out how he manages that — not even the other wizards…1
Spells 4 U
Artax's mottoes are emblazoned on a large sign above the cash register: "Always follow the directions. Let the buyer beware." The Old Man is only too willing to provide reckless customers plenty of rope to hang themselves with, though he won't knowingly let such idiotic clientele walk off with something that's going to get them (or someone else) killed. He does have a wickedly mischievous (and lascivious) sense of humor, though, and he has given more than a few patrons the means to turn themselves into oversexed bimbos. As long as they follow the (usually straightforward) directions, though, his spells and magic items will work as advertised, and any amusing side-effects they may have will only be temporary.
Note: Artax would NEVER deliberately sell something lethal to a newbie. He WOULD sell them any number of things that would make their lives inconvenient or give them a vivid demonstration of how scary and powerful magic can be, so as to put them on their guard in the future. The things that he sells people will often go haywire in dramatic ways if the directions are not followed, but he tries not to put anything out there that would get a newbie killed. (Transformed, yes, but not killed.) Also, Artax does not DELIBERATELY try to screw people over. The directions that he gives out for potions and magic items are generally clear, straightforward, and easy to follow. If someone has something bad happen to them when they use his stuff, it's usually because they were being careless.
There's a sign that states "BECAUSE I'M A WIZARD, THAT'S HOW" that Artax will point to when someone (customer or friend in need) asks him a certain range of questions (usually ones starting with the words "how" or "why").
Artax is more open in his dealings with real mages. Anyone who presents their magic license can purchase most of the reagents, potions and magic items in the store with no questions asked. If you're a registered mage with a license to practice, he'll generally assume that you know what you're doing unless your behavior in his shop gives him reason to suspect otherwise. Some particularly rare or dangerous items will require a release form and other government-mandated paperwork, and there are some items that the wizard will only sell to people he knows personally.
Public Background
Artax has apparently had some ugly brushes with serious danger in the past. He has occasionally made mention of being involved in wars — when asked which ones, he says he isn't sure because they all run together after a while. He was apparently a combat wizard for many, many years, and reached a very high rank before he quit. He's never said exactly why he left the military, or even which nation he fought for — but he has said many times that there are things he wishes he could forget, and actions he took that he wishes he could undo. He lost something of great value to him in one of those wars, a loss that haunts him to this day — but what that may be, he will say to no one. However, Artax does keep a set of black battlemage fatigues in his closet, and will pull them on (on a regular basis) to go out into battle in defense of Metamor City.
The Secret History of A Master Wizard
Liam ard'Taxis was born on the night of October 30th, 1811 CR — Daedra'kema, the night when the powers of the dark gods are at their strongest. It was not an auspicious date for a birth under the best of circumstances, made worse by the fact that it was a triple conjunction of Amara, Mephisto, and Malekis (the second, fourth and fifth planets, respectively). Of his father, nothing is known, but his mother was a disciple of Klepnos. As if the date of his birth wasn't enough, he was born on an altar dedicated to the fallen trickster god. She kept this last fact a secret for all her life, only telling Liam on his seventeenth birthday. By that time he had long been demonstrating an unusual aptitude for magic, and scrying and transformation magic in particular. He had enough raw power to be a sorcerer, but he took the path of wizardry instead, and because of that he learned to use his power far more efficiently and with greater versatility than any sorcerer, and have far more power available to him than most wizards.
Early Years
Liam did not grow up as a child of privilege. His mother followed the call of Klepnos above her own self-interest, or even that of her son. They were poor much of the time, and moved often. The longest stretch of his formative years was spent in the Highlands Province of Sathmore, an agrarian region where many people discerned that there was something "off" or unnatural about the boy. Liam was often abused for both his weirdness and his small stature, and many unkind rumors sprang up about his parentage and the cursed nature of his birth. (While records were not kept as thoroughly back then as they are now, word got out about the date of Liam's birth, though not the full range of the astronomical and religious circumstances thereof.) He grew into a sullen and angry man, but one who was exceedingly gifted in the arcane arts. As a rule, he did not start fights — but he finished them with devastating finality. It was a pattern that would follow him throughout his life.
Adolescence
Liam's intelligence and amazing magical talents won him a place in the Triskelion Order, one of the most prestigious mages' guilds in the Empire. While most guilds specialized in one type of magic, the Triskelions were generalists, as their true passion was not the exercise of magic but its underlying theory. The Order's members studied the connections between diverse branches of magic in the hope of further explicating the underlying laws that governed magic. Most of the time, the Triskelions were allowed to pursue their own interests in diverse corners of magic — but when there was a difficult magical problem that needed solving, all of those varying points of view made it much more likely that they would find a solution.
First World War
Liam was a senior journeyman in the Order when the First World War broke out. A hot-tempered and patriotic young man, Liam quickly enlisted in the fight against Espaku. He was assigned to the Imperial Aeronautic Corps (Now known as the Imperial Air Force) as an interceptor mage, charged with defending Allied airships against counterattacks while the evocator mages rained down arcane destruction on enemy ground targets. He took part in a daring daylight raid on Espaku's capital during the early days of the war, a desperate strike with insufficient forces that was intended to prove to the Spakeans that the Alliance could hurt them. The Spakeans summoned a particularly nasty flying beast to attack the Allied airships — exactly what it was is unknown, but some have theorized that it was a Fae equivalent to the Eastern Dragon. Whatever it was, it tore through half of the flotilla like a tiger through a paper screen, but Liam figured out its weakness and broke the binding that the summoners had placed on the beast. Once freed from its captors' control, the creature was more interested in wreaking bloody vengeance on those who had dared to bind it to their service.
Between the beast and the surviving airships, a large swath of the Spakean capital was set aflame. The long-term logistical damage from the raid was minor, but it shook Espaku's confidence and made them grow more cautious in pressing their advantage — a decision that probably saved countless Allied lives. Liam was given a medal and a promotion for his achievement, but the experience scared him witless and he has avoided flying ever since.
The Interbellum Years
The period between the world wars was marked by heavy espionage efforts on all sides. Only a few optimistic fools believed that the fragile peace agreement would last forever, and all the established and emerging powers jockeyed for advantage when the next fight finally took place. Liam parleyed his promotion into a transfer to the Brightleaf Division, an elite covert operations unit that was the spiritual successor to the Long Scouts of old. With his unparalleled skill in transformation magic, Liam was the ideal choice for undercover work. He went on dozens of missions in unfriendly and questionably-friendly territory, doing all manner of dirty work for Majestrix and country.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, one frequent partner in these misadventures was Miriam Bakhtavar. A young agent only recently out of the academy, she had distinguished herself with her keen intellect, uncanny senses and extreme athletic ability. The existence of psionics as something separate from magic was just beginning to be understood in those days, and egoists were completely unheard of. Miriam eventually confessed to Liam about her mentalist abilities, who promised to keep them a secret in order to keep the government from forcing her to use them in ways she hated. They became very close, but their relationship never turned romantic: Miriam knew that mentalists who slept with non-mentalists often had trouble removing them from their minds afterwards. The fact that they were never able to take their relationship further was a source of some dismay for both of them, but they comforted themselves in the knowledge that it was probably better to keep things professional anyway. The fact that Liam was forty years older than she was, interestingly, never a factor in the relationship.
Second World War
By the time the second world war began, Liam had retired from active duty. He returned to doing theoretical work with the Triskelions, and it was in this capacity that he was dragged back into involvement with the military.
The maritime nation of Whales, one of Metamor's oldest allies, knew that its logistics could not grant it victory in a prolonged war. With the advantage of Greek Fire having been negated by the invention of all-metal warships and skyships, Whalish scientists and alchemists began working on new concepts for "force multipliers" — game-changing weapons that would allow them to crush the enemy as quickly as possible. Because Whales was a low-mana environment, though, they were limited in the amount of magical research they could do on their own, so they turned to Metamor for help.
The Triskelions were brought in to assist with an Allied research project headed up by the Whalish Strategic Weapons Research Division (SWORD). The goal: develop a super-spell capable of destroying an entire city. SWORD hoped that a decapitation strike against the Republic of Telvar would end the war in the east and spare the Allies from making a costly ground assault that they weren't sure they could win. To ensure plausible deniability for Metamor's government, neither the Majestrix nor Defense Minister Rickkter were told exactly what SWORD and the Triskelions were working on. The Empire's leaders had serious problems with killing innocent civilians, but the Whalish (and the Triskelions) believed that the sacrifice of a few million Telvari would save far more lives in the long run — if the weapon could be completed before the war dragged on too long.
Tyria Kemmler was the project leader, and Liam was responsible for the theoretical breakthrough that allowed the super-spell to be completed. He had no qualms about using it at the time, but because of his exceptional scrying talents he was chosen to serve as the "targeter" for the spell. He was forced to watch in horrific detail as the Balefire incantation wiped the Telvari capital off the map, taking their largest industrial region and six million lives along with it.
Reconstruction of a Broken Man
The experience of watching the Balefire spell and its devastation broke Liam; he went into catatonia and was placed in an Imperial sanitarium. It was there that Klepnos found him. Liam had never been a particularly religious man — he had developed a deep-seated irritation at his mother's discipleship to Klepnos, and the myriad ways in which it made their lives more difficult — but at this point he had nothing left to lose. Klepnos brought him out of his shattered mental state and offered him a job as his disciple. More than that, though, Klepnos offered Liam a chance for redemption: the opportunity to do some good in the world with the time remaining to him. "Good" as defined by Klepnos, anyway.
After being discharged, Liam left the Triskelions and disappeared, using many of the same tactics he had previously used as a covert operative in order to disappear and craft new false identities. Klepnos transformed him semi-permanently into a woman, "Leah Freebairn," and he spent almost two decades living as a "wise woman" in the Sathmoran Highlands where he had grown up. During that time he even bore a daughter, Esmeralda Rose, and raised her to be a wizard, as well.2 Esme had a bit of an identity crisis after her eighteenth birthday, when Liam revealed his true identity to her. On the rare occasions when she shows up in Artax's life, she still calls the wizard "Mam" — mostly to tweak him.
After his time as Leah, Klepnos sent Liam to Metamor City for an extended assignment as a shopkeeper in a strategically-important part of the city. By this time Liam hadn't been called "Liam" for decades, and the magical community had largely forgotten about him. He took the name "Artax", a contraction of his original last name, and he does not tell people whether it is his first name, his last name, or a "use name" like those that are common among spellcasters. (At this point he has legally changed his name to just "Artax", with no second name at all.) He stays out of the politics of the local mages' guilds in order to keep anyone from drawing a connection between him and his old life with the Triskelions. The true identities of Balefire's creators were never disclosed to the public — only their use names were given — but the mages' guilds have ways of finding out such things. Within the magical community he would either be praised as a visionary and a hero, or cursed for perverting the ways of magic. Either one would be unbearable for him, as he has wrestled with his secret sin for decades.
The Rift Spirits
In 1989 CR Artax was contacted by Gordon Levinson, the leader of the ill-fated Lightpath Expedition that had gone to explore the Rift created by the Balefire spell. The contact was apparently accidental at first: Levinson had learned how to project his consciousness through Nocturna's Lilies (asphodelaceae) that were taken away from the Rift Zone, and Artax happened to have some in stock when Levinson channeled himself into them. Klepnos has been coy about whether he caused the meeting, noting only that there are no coincidences in a universe where every future that can happen, does happen. When Artax realized what and who Levinson was, he broke down in tears — which sparked Levinson's curiosity, so the rift spirit hung around to try to find out what the hell he'd done that had upset the man. Thus began a very strange friendship.
Since that time Artax has collected more of Nocturna's Lilies and made an effort to popularize them within the city. This gives Levinson and his comrades new vistas to explore, and it also serves as an effective information-gathering network when Artax needs one.
Current Activities
Artax is quite a busy man. He has a shop to run and maintain. He teaches young mages as part of a BMR/MCPD outreach program, and he has an apprentice to work with (a former student of the outreach program). He runs little side tasks for Klepnos. He maintains the stasis of his friend Miriam Bakhtavar, while waiting for the day that her vampiric sire gets too wild and gets taken out by the Lothanasi or the MCPD. AND he runs out the door to save the city from time to time… and that has had to happen more and more often in the past few years.
Organizational Membership
Artax is not on any of the Wizard Guild registers; however it appears to anyone who may question this that the Bureau of Magic Regulation does not have a problem with Artax… in fact he helps them and the MCPD by providing basic training classes to young mages who have removed their restraining bands and got caught (and otherwise have clean records). In addition, it's quite obvious that Artax is extraordinarily skilled, knowledgeable, and in control of his magical abilities.
Known Allies
- Callie Linder
- Danni/Daniel Sharabi
- Eva/Evan Selindi
- Gordon Levinson
- Jon Tunstall *apprenticed to Artax by 1999
- Kathryn Kitaen
- The MCPD detective is a frequent visitor to Artax's shop, and sometimes stays to chat with him for a while over tea and scones. She usually is on the scene when Artax runs out the door to save the City.
- Kate once went on a date with him on Daedra'kema, mostly because Morgan dared her into it; while he looked very dashing as a tall, muscular man in his mid-twenties, and behaved like a true gentleman during the whole outing, Kate eventually decided it was just too weird an idea for her to let the relationship go any further. It was fun, but she hasn't forgotten that this old man has a penchant for turning men into nubile, willing women — and while the men in question undoubtedly deserve it, Kate has decided that's not something she wants to get too close to.
- Klepnos
- Seralina (Leena) Grayhaven
- Miriam Bakhtavar
Known Enemies
- Jared Tamlin: Not an enemy per se, but the man won't be happy to find that Artax was an influence in Danni becoming separated from him.
- Michael Parker: In Make Believe this former reform student of Artax's looses connection to his sanity and tries to destroy part of Metamor City (Saint Theresa's, the Lothanasi HQ, and Westfall Academy). Artax stops him (it is unclear from the story how Artax did it, but due to the forces that Parker had tapped into, the man is probably dead).
- Tyria Kemmler, while once his lover, at the moment she is probably really upset with him because he helped capture her and rescue the dragon's egg from her experiments. She is also one of the few people that knows Artax's original name, his involvement in the Balefire spell, and the creation of the Rift that resulted from its use.
Story Appearances
Making the Cut, The Muse, Make Believe, Audio Drama: The Case of the Golden Egg, Things Unseen, A Wizard Family Solstice, Fire in the Sky
Sources
Original MK2K Bible entry- Artax, Raven/Etherius's additions, Making the Cut, The Muse, Make Believe, Ask The Author thread at thecursed.org, Audio Drama: The Case of the Golden Egg (Live performance at Balticon 44 2010), MetamorCity.com Character Guide- Wild Cards, A Wizard Family Solstice
Author's Note
Artax is, of course, an homage to the Old Man of Bill Hart's "Spells R Us" story universe. I like to picture him as being close to Bill's original vision for the character, before subsequent authors turned the Old Man into a cruel and sadistic monster hell-bent on wrecking as many lives as possible. Artax isn't cruel, or sadistic, or evil; he's just a man with a profound respect for the power of magic who wants to make sure that people don't treat it lightly. If that means giving the careless and irreverent the opportunity to learn their lesson the hard way, he's more than willing to do it, but he never goes out of his way to trick people or ruin their lives. The problem with Artax's magic isn't that the instructions are too hard to follow; it's that the people who treat magic as a toy will never bother to pay attention to the instructions anyway.
Voice Actor
Artax is primarily voiced by Bryan Watson.
At Balticon 44, for the live performance of the audio drama Case of the Golden Egg, J. Daniel Sawyer was a substitute Artax. For the live performance of Agent of Empire, Artax was played by Doc Coleman.