The Death and Resurrection of Talisen Phoenix

[Talisen Phoenix]

Death was not what Talisen expected.

But then this couldn’t be death surely?

He was still aware, conscious, time moved differently true, And he had no body to speak of, but he was still mindful, lingering in the shadows. Nothing but a breath on the back of the neck, a whisper you can hear, calling to you in the darkness.

Talisen wasn’t sure where he was exactly, he had moved on, travelled through space, he felt himself leave Lucien’s Dungeon, felt himself crawl over the dead bodies of his townsfolk. He felt his Queen and friend cry out in pain as Lucien’s forces attacked. He could feel his school tremble on that hallowed earth. The Children inside whimper for their mothers and their fallen headmaster, Lucien felt a sudden surge of guilt and regret creep up his nonexistent spine. If only he hadn’t been so stupid. Lucien knew exactly where to strike, through his students, and now he was out of the way.

Talisen thought about the last battle against Lucien, the battle where good was victorious, Talisen didn’t know how the battle was faring this time around, but he had a bad feeling, it was not going to plan, he could feel Morthika scream in pain, being torn apart by the demonic energies.


Talisen was a different person then, full hardly, powerful and stubborn. He was a general in Moridanu’s army and he led the last of the Battlemages against Lucien’s forces. Along the way however, he was separated from the rest of Moridanu’s forces and as a result his platoon was forced to build an outpost at the old Avalon Ruins, which would one day be his Academy for Magic.

As good fortune would have it, The Battlemages spied a secret platoon of Lucien’s generals planning to sneak past Avalon and attack Moridanu’s main force from behind. Powerful Ogres and Demons that would kill thousands. So the battle raged. Though the Battlemages were trained in all forms of combat, magic was their main forms of attack and defence, and magic was exactly what the demons and Ogres were resistant too. Everything the Mages through at them simply disintegrated, it was the reason they had been assembled to attack from behind, Moridanu who was Lucien’s greatest fear would have little effect on the Demons, not at first anyway, until their resistance was whittled down. Talisen watched in horror as his Mages were cut down, until he was all that was left. Bloodied and broken Talisen made the decision that changed his life forever. He used the last of his energies to contact the Goddess Morrighan, the dread goddess of War and Magic, she was the patron saint of Battlemages and Talisen’s last hope. But contacting a goddess and asking the permission to invoke her was no easy task, it was a tactic few knew, and not without its consequences.

Talisen managed to invoke the goddess, twisting his body into a terrifying creature of tooth and claw; he killed the Demons in minuets, and lay panting in a pool of blood and bone. His energies depleted, he was a mage once more. But the Goddess had taken his eyes in payment for the invocation.

And now he was nothingness. All his great deeds and past mistakes nothing but wind. He needed to reclaim his body or build a new one. There had to be a way. He needed help.

((I would LOVE someone to jump in and help Talisen FINALLY come back to life, but if nobodies interested, I’ll carry on alone, if you want to help out, just jump in, keep in mind this happening around the same time as the war, it may have just ‘ended’ for all we know, so maybe your characters stepped aside for a second, don’t worry too much about the timeline of it all. it’s not uber important.))

[Talisen Phoenix]

Talisen left Avalon, the memories were too strong, his ties to the place were exhausting his spirit, it was hard to explain how he felt, but the longer he existed the more exhausted he was becoming, he had no body to gage his exhaustion, but his soul was draining, it felt as if he had to force more and more energy to just stay conscious. Talisen knew if he just let go. Stopped thinking for a single second, he’d vanish; disappear into oblivion like Lucien had planned, but he continued to cling onto his feeble existence, wandering Morthika.

Talisen wasn’t sure if he was still in Morthika or not, he’d been travelling through a forest, thick and impenetrable, but it wasn’t the Black Moss Forest, or even the Dark Forest it was a part of Morthika he’d never travelled too; he thought he’d seen every inch of his beautiful country, but perhaps not. The Forest eventually thinned out until he could make out thousands of brilliant trees, thin and incredibly tall, the canopy blacked out the sun and sky. Talisen hadn’t seen trees quite like them, they’re bark was a brilliant pale white, like crystal, and each one was spread apart evenly as if nature itself had constructed the forest making a perfect grid of trees, but Talisen eventually realised the further he travelled through the forest that it clearly couldn’t be natural, the forest was manmade, it must have taken hundreds if not thousands of years, he thought in wonder. The fact that Morthika could still surprise him, gave him a slight boost of spirit, his soul felt suddenly stronger.

Eventually Talisen found a slight dull in the surrounding trees. He could tell the brilliant green and red grass was wet and dewy. He came upon a wide lake; it was almost a perfect oval. The water was crystal clear. Talisen could see a woman bathing in the water. It was the first person he had seen since his death. Talisen had surmised that the spirit world existed as an alternate world over there own, the realm a soul needed to slip into before it travelled to its ultimate destination. It was limbo in a sense, mirroring the actual world perfectly. Perhaps this woman was dead too, but then why did she bathe. Talisen tried not to watch, but the woman was perfect. Her skin was clear and pale. Her long hair platinum blonde hair was perfectly straight, but wavy towards the tips. Her delicate ears were long and pointed, she was an Elve. The woman dove under the clear water, her svelte body glided through the water effortlessly. In one swift motion, the woman lifted her perfect naked body out of the water. A large longbow was in her hand, made from perfect white timber, much like the trees that surrounded the small grove. She pulled back against the string and a perfect straight arrow made entirely of ice appeared.

‘Who dares break the fourth law of Yellederia; you dishonour the House of Whiterose!’

She snarled through perfect red lips. But her aggressive stance faltered slightly as she searched for the person she was sure had approached. Talisen froze on the spot, the Elve was clearly part of the Spirit world, but it seemed she was unable to see his unhinged spirit. For the first time Talisen attempted to speak.

‘Forgive me lady; I know not where I travel’.

The Elve responded, she lowered her longbow and the arrow she had summoned vanished into a small puff of water.

‘Tell me then traveller, who are you and what has befallen you?’

She asked, paddling the last few meters of the edge of the pool, she placed her longbow on the bank.

‘I am Talisen Phoenix, headmaster of the Avalon Academy and last Battlemage of Morthika. I was murdered by a demon’.

Talisen tried to ‘look’ away, but he felt his attention forced back to the woman. She put on a long strapless dress made from fine white silk.

‘Ah but it seems death did not suite you Headmaster Phoenix, Your soul still clings to the realm of the living. I am Lady Idabelle Whiterose of the Nation of Yellederia’.

Lady Whiterose was still standing in the water; she pulled herself from the lake and held tight to her longbow.

‘I wish very much to reclaim my body, but I don’t see how such a feat is possible, like a fool I am afraid to allow myself to disperse, lady.’

Lady Whiterose placed her longbow over her shoulder and smiled at Talisen, who she now seemed, was able to pinpoint.

‘No Headmaster, you would be a fool to not fear true death’.

Talisen moved closer to the woman, she followed him as he travelled but kept a firm hand on her bow, just in case.

‘How is it possible you are able to see and hear me? When I am little more than a thought?’

The woman smiled and nodded.

‘Because Sir. Phoenix, We White Elves of Morthika straddle the spirit world; we are ever connected to the great beyond. That is why I can see your soul’.

Talisen shook his ‘head’.

‘Forgive my ignorance, I never knew Morthika had White Elves, in fact I didn’t think Morthika had many Elves to begin with, not anymore. There are only small villages and encampments, most perished after the Great War.’

The Woman nodded and motioned from Talisen to follow her, she moved gracefully and nimbly across the flat forest surface. She seemed to know where she was going in the maze of evenly placed trees.

‘The White Elves of Morthika live only in this forest, we call it the Nation of Yellederia, and the nation has been kept secret from the rest of Morthika for thousands of years. In fact you are the only outsider we’ve had in quite some time; we don’t interfere in human affairs and politics’.

Talisen followed her deeper into the Forest, until they came upon one of the most amazing things Talisen had ever seen.