Aepherion Bel-Annar

"Undeath without death, perfect preservation, immortality."

- The Ultimate Goal of the Spider

Aepherion Bel-Annar was once a proud mage-scholar of Dalaran. Born to a relatively minor family in what is now the Ghostlands, Aepherion married young to his childhood friend and mentor, Silvermoon Magistrix Illyria Saphrye, who helped him find a place in Dalaran to hone his natural arcane talents. He eventually fell under the tutelage of the archmage Kel'Thuzad in pursuing the forbidden art of necromancy, and when the time came, he along with his wife betrayed his homeland and aided the Scourge in ravaging and occupying Quel'thalas. After Lor'themar Theron's reclamation of Silvermoon, Aepherion went into hiding. A joint task force of Deathstalkers and Silvermoon intelligence forces located and captured Aepherion in the year 626 K.C., and he was put to death soon after. He was burnt at the stake to prevent any remnant of his body from surviving to be reanimated, and his ashes purged by a priest of the Cult of Belore.

History
Aepherion Bel-Annar was born in early summer in a small town just southwest of Tranquillien, just short of 500 years before the present day. His parents were tradesmen, his father a broommaker and his mother a seamstress, and he was expected by many to amount to nothing more than a tradesman himself, succeeding either one of his parents. Indeed, perhaps this would have been his fate if not for a local Tranquillien junior magistrix from the prestigious Saphrye family, who took an interest in the elf, now teenaged, and volunteered to tutor him in reading, writing, and arithmetic. These lessons soon turned into a study of the arcane, as Aepherion showed not only interest but aptitude for the magical arts. Illyria took it upon herself to continue training him, and slowly as he mastered the arts, the two found their relationship deepening into something more. He proposed to her on his fortieth birthday, when she was two hundred ninety-four; as something of a wedding gift, or perhaps an attempt to get the commoner away from their scion, her family helped him arrange for an apprenticeship with a family friend in Dalaran.

Aepherion studied furiously at Dalaran, struggling early on to learn Common in addition to his magical studies. He made slower progress than many of his peers, who were often many years his junior, but he eventually clawed his way into becoming a fully-fledged mage specializing in enchantment and illusion. He quickly established himself as a notable researcher, both poring over antique tomes and going on field expeditions to further his knowledge. These field expeditions also served a beneficial political purpose for the Kingdom of Dalaran, as they were often joint expeditions with the Silvermoon Magistracy, as a certain Magistrix among their ranks seemed very keen to accompany the enterprising Bel-Annar on his adventures. When not on the road, Aepherion and Illyria split their time between Quel'thalas and Dalaran, with each spending three months or so out of the year at their spouse's place of residence, with half the year spent apart.

Centuries passed without particular incident. When the Dark Portal opened and the Horde rushed forth into Azeroth, Aepherion was intrigued by the powers they wielded and wished to intervene on Stormwind's behalf in the war, if only for the purposes of capturing one of the Orcish warlocks or necrolytes. His wish would not be granted until the Second War, during which his services were volunteered to the Lordaeronian Army, a service that would save him from an unfortunate fate in the Horde's sacking of Dalaran. He saw action on many fronts, culminating outside in the battle outside Blackrock Spire. After the battle's end, he 'borrowed' some Orcish tomes from the ruins of their stronghold in the Spire, which would become his new obsession after the war - translating and reverse-engineering the dark magic contained within the tomes. His wife Illyria and her friend Amara Enarwyn aided him in this endeavor, but after Amara was stripped of her position as Magistrix for delving too far into the dark arts, the couple ceased their public research and instead continued in secret.

It was around this time that Aepherion likely met Kel'Thuzad, a human mage with similar interests to his own; the elf would become something of an assistant to the human archmage for a time. Illyria, meanwhile, was soon forced to take leave from the Magistracy, as she had become afflicted with a wasting illness that sapped much of her energy, and she relocated permanently to Dalaran with Aepherion to seek treatment. The pair would become some of the first members of Kel'Thuzad's burgeoning Cult of the Damned, offering their extensive knowledge and connections within the Kingdom of Quel'thalas.

When the Plague of Undeath was at last ready to be unleashed upon Lordaeron, Aepherion and Illyria returned to Quel'thalas, establishing a small homestead in the southernmost reaches of Quel'thalas, likely intending to act as spies for the Scourge. When the Scourge invasion began, Illyria fought on the front lines, while Aepherion provided support from the rear, raising hundreds of ghouls to fight for their dark master. Illyria ultimately gave her life in a suicidal attack upon an elven garrison, using her position as a magistrix to smuggle a plague bomb behind Quel'dorei lines and make way for the Scourge attack. After the conquest, Aepherion was made master of a ziggurat overseeing Scourge operations in Eversong, responsible for hunting down stragglers from the ruined capital of Silvermoon. He became known as the Spider for both his manipulative tactics and the strange, chittering language he used in his incantations, a bastardized form of speech he called Thuzadin Nerubian.

Eventually, a Sin'dorei expedition led by Lor'themar Theron would reclaim the capital of Silvermoon, and elven forces began making headway against Scourge occupation forces throughout the region. As his ziggurat was poised to fall, Aepherion fled into the Ghostlands, and at last into the Plaguelands. He spent the next several years traveling throughout the fallen kingdom of Lordaeron, living off of supplies provided by allies within the Cult and whatever meager earnings he could make offering medical and mortuary services to the beleaguered survivors of the Scourge occupation. It is believed that his spare time was spent in pursuit of his mad goal of immortality, experimenting on bodies he would unearth as he traveled, searching for a method to forever preserve the body and the soul.

Whatever the case, his experimentation did not bear fruit. In May of the year 626, reports of the strange elven hermit-doctor in the Plaguelands had reached the Deathstalkers, who in turn passed them along to Silvermoon intelligence, whose agents recognized the description as the elusive Spider from the Third War. Marshaling a joint task force, Sin'dorei and Forsaken operatives descended upon the small cabin he kept in the foothills of the northern Plaguelands. The necromancer detonated a plague bomb in a desperate attempt to escape, claiming the lives of most of the Sin'dorei forces sent to apprehend him, but he was ultimately captured and brought to Silvermoon for judgment. The authorities sentenced him to death for his crimes and ordered that he be burnt at the stake, in order that his body would be destroyed to such an extent that he could not feasibly be reanimated. The sentence was carried out on May 28, 626 K.C. His last words were unrecorded, as he was gagged to prevent him from casting spells upon his captors or the onlookers.

Description
Aepherion Bel-Annar was not particularly tall for an elf, standing just short of the average human man. His was a scholarly rather than imposing presence. His violet robes, marking him as a mage of Dalaran, were always kept clean and neat, hanging loosely from his thin frame. Snowy white hair fell down to his shoulders when not pulled back into a tail down his neck. His bright, sky blue eyes seemed to stare straight through whomever he addressed, or otherwise looked well past them, unable to focus on this corporeal being when far greater concepts tugged at his mind. Steel-rimmed half-moon spectacles were kept on a chain around his neck in his later life, as long hours in the archives of Dalaran began to take their toll.

When he was at last captured by the forces of the Horde, there was hardly anything left of the elf he was before. His already thin body had become emaciated, his skin tinged with the violet-blue of the recent dead rather than the warm hues of the living. His pale hair was cropped short and hung limply from his scalp, a few stray strands falling just short of his once bright blue eyes, now ringed with deep, dark circles, cracked by lichfyre. He often wore a hood over a simple loose woolen robe, to hide his deteriorating features while in exile, but before his capture he donned the dark violet robes and skull-mounted cap that he wore during the invasion of Quel'thalas, wielding a staff of bone and a wicked steel scalpel, honed to a razor edge.

Personality
Those who know Aepherion before the fall of Silvermoon would have described him as a scholar first, and a devoted husband a close second. He took great delight in intellectual pursuits and was always eager to explore new topics and schools of thought, and he found great joy in working with those who held similar aims. Those who liked him would have called him studious, clever, and passionate. Those who disliked him would have called him arrogant, distant, and obsessive. Aepherion was willing to work with many, but his inner circle was small, and truly the only one he fully trusted was his wife Illyria.

Joining the Cult of the Damned only served to drive Aepherion further into isolation, though he maintained many of his friendships and working relationships right up until his betrayal. Losing his wife drove him away from even the Cult, however, leaving him bitter, cynical, and single-mindedly obsessed with seeking his own immortality.