Aerys Zepheryn

"'Say wouldn't you like to see whats going on in my mind?'"Aerys Diadanys Zepheryn is a 4582 year old doppelgänger-vampire hybrid. He is a founding member of the Calypso.

He is the last and only surviving citizen of the now mystical, desert oasis of Alessgaard. He was born a LM heron.

Aerys is one of the eight protagonists in Nexus.

About
Aerys Zepheryn was one of the first vampires to turn in the original purge, and this factor alone makes Aerys an already extraordinary vampire. Alongside being an original, he's also the oldest living kruv vampire to date.

Before he was turned he was king to Alessgaard and married to his doppelgänger half, Hermia whom was carrying their son, Eros Zepheryn.

Early Life

Aerys was born in 2566 BC in Tove, Alessgaard to royal heron parents, Minx and Katya Zepheryn as an only child. His position in Alessgaardian society meant that he was gifted with many advantages over his subjects and peers to extend his skills and dabble in their cultures protected and sacred wiccan faith. He excelled in multiple languages, learnt a great deal in both human and heron histories and was beloved by his city for his charisma and selflessness. His parents were both nearing the end of their lives both being over a 150 years old so he was raised by younger, more lively lieges living in his families palace. He was only born because they wanted a successor to carry on the Zepheryn legacy. As Aerys came into adolescence he was already a well loved prospective leader to Alessgaard that his parents retired early and gave the reign over the entire city to him on his 18th birthday, however Aerys was not appreciative to his parents for this gesture. This came at a time where he had not longed learnt that he was a descent of the infamous doppelgänger line of Gaia and Aneaus; after a witch from a travelling commune mentioned to him at the annual Alessgaard night market. After this news he became obsessed with researching his predecessors histories and in turn where is doppelgänger half is.

He prayed to his Goddess, and asked her many times where she was however Lamia would not tell him. Eventually years passed and Aerys began to believe that the witch who told him about his doppelgänger lineage was lying; though despite being faithless of the prophecy he still remained unwed despite his parents protests to sire heirs.

On his 30th birthday Aerys was wondering though the Alessgaard's botanical gardens when he happened upon a young maiden whose name was Hermia. Immediately he realized that the witch was telling the truth and they both fell in love at the first glance.

Death
Aerys and his wife, Hermia were bathing in an oasis near the outskirts of Alessgaard when out of nowhere he suddenly stopped being able to breathe and his arms and legs became stiff, causing him to sink down into the salt lakes depths. Since Hermia was heavily pregnant she wasn't able to swim into the water far enough to bring him back to shore so she had to watch helplessly as Aerys eventually drowned in the water.

The city, his parents and his now widowed wife mourned the loss of their beloved king on the same evening that Aerys died; all gathering at the oasis' edge singing hymns and prayers. Hours after the ceremony ended, many still stayed behind as men from the temple guard swam into the water to look for his body, upon finding it they brought it back on to the shore and lay him on the waters edge, giving the family a final chance to say goodbye before taking him away to be prepared for burial.

But moments before they were preparing him to finally be taken away, he woke up gasping for air and coughing up water. His parents believed that the Goddess Lamia had answered their prayers and had given him back to them which was technically true but he was not the same. In a fit of joy, Hermia embraced her husband and because of her close proximity Aerys was overcome with an intense burn within his throat and a sudden and insatiable thirst for her blood. He was so overwhelmed with new senses and abilities that he became a by-stander to the new animal that lived within him. He was blind to the ecstasy and desire for blood that his parents ended up being caught in his blood crazed frenzy, as did the other citizens who were not fast enough to escape. Four hours later reveals a massacre of 1572 Alessgaardian citizens at the hands (and mouth) of Aerys the beloved king. Those who survived were mainly witches and warlocks who relied on their magic to help them escape the city. After waking from a blood induced slumber Aerys was now clear with thought and had only then realized what he had done. After burying his parents and his wife with their unborn child, he was so distraught with grief and guilt that Aerys killed himself only to wake up a few hours later; he tried over and over again to end it all but he just couldn't stop himself from waking up. He remained inside the empty city walls afraid of what the blood lust might do to him again, and isolated himself from any outside contact. Until his Goddess came to him and offered her aid, she explained to him what she had done to him and all his other heron siblings alike under her and he forsake the Moroccan Goddess from his life and blames her - still to this day for being the reason that all of this happened.

Almost a entire month passed and those surviving Alessgaardians returned to the city and casted a very powerful spell that expelled Aerys from the city walls, through the pain and anger he harbored from his loss and his feelings for his Goddess he fought valiantly against the witches however his weakened state from starvation of blood made him no match for the experienced wiccans. After the eviction Aerys became a nomad wandering around the Earth, teaching himself control and restraint while also discovering all his newfound abilities. To this day Aerys doesn't step foot near the city - or where it used to stand due to the residue of magic still strong making him violently sick if he gets too close.

In 72 BC Aerys found out through a friendly witch that his next generation 'Hermia' had been born in the land called Croatia. Immediately he sought her out - even though she would still be a baby and made plans to watch over her until she came of age. He waited and waited for years until she had inadvertently forced him to reveal himself after she was bitten by a poisonous snake when she was only 11 years old. After giving some of his blood to her as a thank you she told him her name, however Aerys knew that she couldn't remember him so he compelled the memory of him from her mind and continued to watch from the shadows once again. In 56 BC Aerys was captured by the supernatural descendants of Alesgaard and was locked in a spell bound crypt beneath his own palace, he spent years in the dark room before finally his Goddess found him and released him but over ten years had passed and his doppelgänger half had already moved on, she had even had two children with another man. The flashbacks of Hermia had suddenly resurfaced and he was hurt and wounded yet again, that a bout of jealousy had risen in the forefront of his mind and out of pain and hurt he sought out to kill them so that his new half would fall in love with him as nature had intended them both.

Second Death
It wasn't until both Landyn and Aerys had built the foundations of what the Calypso, and ultimately the supernatural society that Aerys met an untimely fate by the woman he trusted most. Hurt by the truth of a secret that Aerys had kept from her involving her parents, husband and children had driven Landyn to tear Aerys's heart from his chest. She was blind with rage about the truth, that amidst her grief and pain being dragged back up she found it in herself to devise a plan that drew Aerys out into the open, allowing her to avenge her family on the unsuspecting vampire, who up until that point was an invulnerable foe.

Resurrection
After Landyn had left Aerys's heartless dead body in the Namib Desert and when Aerys's soul had slipped into the underworld, Lamia didn't let Aerys cross into the afterlife because she decided that he was not done with his journey within the Earth plain. Her true intentions for reviving Aerys remain unknown still to this day.

When Aerys awoke in the place he was left to die, Lamia parted with the vampire speaking only five words in the Holy Tongue, that at the time meant nothing to him yet over the years he learnt of their meaning. He quickly had found out that when Lamia resurrected him, she also gifted him with a powerful yet dangerous ability. He was almost triple as powerful as he was before - in all aspects and suddenly no longer equal but superior to all and every other vampire out there.

All his newfound abilities came at a cost, with the Hell Fire came insanity, the increased power came at the loss of part of his soul.