Anipheon IX (DM)

"Proper history calls him Anipheon the Elder, to distinguish him from his younger son, but the common folk known him better as Anipheon the Mad, and more rarely as the Unfortunate."

— The Al-Antidian Handbook

Anipheon IX (34919 - 36685 AE), also known as Anipheon the Elder and as Anipheon the Mad, was Divine Sovereign of Al-Antidia and the last member of the Eighth Dynasty to rule over the Al-Antidian Empire. He succeeded his father Oiraps VIII, and at the end of the Third War of Righteousness, he was killed and had his throne usurped by Cloteias III, a distant relative of his who then founded the first Clotean dynasty. His other parent was Phanes, the apical ancestor of all Perennial spirits and the first-born of Aion. As such, Anipheon was born as a human-perennial.

Much like his father and all other Divine Sovereigns that preceded and succeeded him, Anipheon was also a wizard, referred to in Al-Antidia as a "blessed one". As of his ascension to the Alluvial Throne, Anipheon was the youngest individual to hold the title of Divine Sovereign, and due to being 1766 years old at the time of his death, he was also the youngest Divine Sovereign to die whilst holding the position. He married one of his vassals, a woman called Ahkatheria, who was queen of a region known as the "Seven Cities". The two came to have two sons, the eldest called Nergal while the youngest was called Anipheon, after his father.

Despite his death at the hands of Cloteias, and the deaths of both his wife and eldest son during the war, his youngest son survived whilst in hiding within the Temporal Mainframe, and would return several years later to wage war against the Clotean usurpers, succeeding in both reclaiming the throne and extinguishing the Clotean line, avenging the death of his parents and older brother.

His death also led to his apotheosis into a complete perennial, and was later willingly reincarnated into Harry Potter, becoming once more a human-perennial.

Biography

Childhood

Anipheon was born in 34919 as the first child of Divine Sovereign Oiraps VIII, having been born nearly two thousand years after the ascension of his father to the Alluvial Throne. His mother had been the hermaphrodite deity Phanes, who had assumed a female form during its relationship with Oiraps. Due to the nature of his birth and the Al-Antidian view regarding human-perennials, Anipheon’s legitimacy was not put into question, and his father immediately named him as his heir. Shortly after his birth, Phanes vanished, much like other perennials which consorted with humans and sired children.

During the early years of his childhood, Anipheon was educated under the Exalted, having many lessons under Nederel (who had been the Diviner of the Ideal Works since the reign of Anipheon's grandfather, Protion IX) and the Paramount, gaining a fascination with the Temporal Mainframe from his time under them. Due to court and vassal pressure, Oiraps married a noblewoman called Ellivia, who near instantly developed a mutual enmity with Anipheon. Despite many attempts at having Anipheon declared as an illegitimate bastard, Oiraps remained true to his choice and Al-Antidian tradition.

In the years before reaching his official adolescence, Anipheon began to experience visions of both future and past events, leading to the Exalted assuming Anipheon had perhaps developed a mental connection to the Temporal Mainframe, that it was one of his abilities as a human-perennial, or possibly both. Many of the visions were minor and revealed little, but it was enough for Anipheon to begin his research into the Al-Antidian equivalent of the school of divination.

Teenage years

After reaching adolescence, Anipheon's education became far more complex, being trained by the Paramount in how to access and manipulate the Temporal Mainframe, preparing him for his possible and future ascension as Divine Sovereign. This caused a far greater rift between Anipheon and his half-siblings, who saw him as taking for granted his ascension to the Alluvial Throne. The decision of Oiraps VIII regarding his successor would not change, and on 32984 AE, with the unexpected death of the Divine Sovereign, the Exalted confirmed the succession, and Anipheon became the new Divine Sovereign of Al-Antidia as Anipheon IX.

With the departure of his step-mother and his half-siblings to the northern region of the world, Anipheon became free of any influence they could exert, allowing his coronation ceremony to proceed with no problems. His grandmother continued to hold the position of Mother of Sovereignty, and would be the one who presided over the ceremony. It would be during this event that Anipheon met Ahkatheria, a young woman around his age who had managed to take control of the city of Varandill Aanor and the surrounding six city-kingdoms. Finding himself smitten with Ahkatheria, Anipheon began to court the young queen, the two quickly developing a romantic relationship. Eventually, the two became married, with Ahkatheria becoming the new Divine Consort of Al-Antidia, and the two having their first son, Nergal, a few years after the marriage.

Later years and death

Some time after the birth of Nergal, Anipheon began to have visions regarding a catastrophe which would destroy the entirety of Al-Antidia, and sought to prevent this by any means necessary. To further this, he drafted and created artefact which he called the "Tower of Dawn", seeking to use it in order to completely destroy fate, and by extension the future itself. In doing so, Anipheon believed he would be erasing any sort of predestination and granting the people of the world absolute free-will.

However, this obsession made Anipheon isolate himself from everyone around him, including his family, allowing Ahkatheria to raise Nergal on her own, and giving her power over the administration of the Al-Antidian Empire. Despite this, the two still had another son during this period, being given the name of his father. Eventually, the domination of Ahkatheria reached a stage where it no longer could be supported by the subjects of the Divine Sovereign, leading to a rebellion against Anipheon under the command of his former friend Cloteias.

At the final stage of the war, when the forces of Cloteias attacked the city of Iridal, Anipheon and Cloteias engaged in battle, their sheer power enough to cause the colossal Temple of the Ancestors to collapse into the city below, causing countless of casualties. In the chaos, Anipheon died, and his corpse would only be found days later and finally entombed inside the Necropolis of his ruined capital.

Legacy

Remembered mostly with indifference by his subjects, most of the blame regarding failures during Anipheon's reign was attributed to his wife Ahkatheria, who had been left in charge of the administration for several centuries. Despite this, Anipheon still maintained the old tradition of being a "philosopher king", much like many of his predecessors. However, during the second era, Anipheon's image was linked to that of the Eternal Queen by the Aenean Church, portraying him as a mad and easily manipulated figure who fell to the whims of his wife.

Despite his death at the hands of Cloteias, as well as that of his wife and eldest son, his lineage would avenge itself in the person of his second and youngest son, who would rise against Cloteias IV (one of the three grandsons of Cloteias III) in rebellion and reclaimed the Alluvial Throne, restoring the bloodline of his father to Al-Antidia, albeit under a new dynasty.

Physical appearance

Anipheon IX aged — Anipheon IX during his later years while holding the staff.

From his childhood to his eventual death, Anipheon was a slightly gaunt figure with normal height and light skin. He had grey eyes, a common trait amongst Al-Antidians, and usually sported short black hair. At the later years of his adolescence, Anipheon gradually developed a goatee-styled beard which he decided to keep. He usually wore a simple set of white robes with a black mantle, excluding the times when he would be dressed in full imperial attire.

In his later years, the pressure, stress and depression which had taken hold of Anipheon became reflected on his appearance. Not even near old age, Anipheon resembled an old man, his own hair and beard having lost their black colour, both becoming grey and long. At this moment in life, when not in his regalia, Anipheon simply wore white clothes, discarding his black mantle.

Personality and traits

Anipheon was a very self-assured person, especially during his youth. He was also slightly arrogant, a trait which usually came out whenever he confronted any of his adversaries, especially his step-mother and half-siblings. Another major trait of Anipheon was his stubbornness, spending centuries seeking a way to prevent the Great Cataclysm by tapping into the metaphysical structure of reality itself. Through this, Anipheon also revealed himself as a highly intelligent individual.

Possessions

Staff of Anipheon: Created by the combined efforts of Anipheon and lesser spirits, the Staff of Anipheon was the physical counterpart to the Tower of Dawn, and was required in order to bind the metaphysical structure to the mortal world.
Regalia of the Divine Sovereign: As the supreme ruler of the Al-Antidian Empire, Anipheon had access and was the only one who could use the imperial regalia.
Data Cubes: Anipheon had a collection of Data Cubes, small cubical devices which allowed their user to glimpse into the Temporal Mainframe. He began to collect these during his childhood, due to his fascination with the Mainframe.

Magical abilities and skills

"The prospect of facing Anipheon or any other Atlantean wizard would not be something I would look up to. Their mastery over magic was far more advanced than our own."

— Albus Dumbledore to the Order

Despite having been born as a "blessed one", Anipheon's power was far beyond the normal abilities of a common wizard. As the son of a perennial and distantly descending from another, his power eclipsed that of other humans.

Magical mastery: Spending years in training and study under the Exalted, together with his own abilities as a human-perennial, Anipheon was regarded by many as perhaps one of the most powerful individuals in all of the Al-Antidian Empire, capable of altering reality itself by directly harnessing the raw power of magic, a feat demonstrated during his battle against Cloteias.
Metaphysical manipulation: Due to many years of study and his own hybrid nature, Anipheon achieved a greater understanding of the working of the Universe and creation itself. As such, he was able to draft and later create a method of tapping into the metaphysical structure of reality and altering it, this work and research culminating in the creation of both the Spear and the Tower of Dawn.
Divination: Anipheon had the ability to see into both the future and the past, and it was unknown if he had been born with it, or it was a side effect of Anipheon's contact with the Temporal Mainframe. While he had no control over the visions which he received, it would be through this ability that Anipheon learned of the eventual fate of the Al-Antidian Empire.
Duelling: While Anipheon was not one for duelling, his own skill in the field revealed itself during the rebellion, in which Anipheon confronted Cloteias in a duel of massive proportions, eventually leading to the collapse of the colossal Temple of the Ancestors of Iridal, causing the death of millions of people in the city below.
Wandless and non-verbal magic: Anipheon was able to cast magic without the use of a wand (or at least the Al-Antidian equivalent), and was also skilled in the use of non-verbal magic. These two skills were shown in unison when Anipheon used the Killing Curse on a mad prisoner, and later when he altered the memories of two individuals.
Legilimency: Anipheon's was highly skilled in the use of legilimency, being capable of delving into the broken mind of a man who had been afflicted with a Curse of Madness, fully observing and correctly interpreting the shattered memories which remained.
Dark Arts: Despite not being a full fledged dark wizard, Anipheon was talented in the use of dark arts, being capable of effortlessly using a Killing Curse without any magical apparatus and non-verbally as well.

Etymology

"Anipheon" is the English version of the Idloatean (a sub-language of Al-Antidian) name Anaephaion, composed of the elements anaeph, meaning “towards”, and Aion, a name and word which specifically refers to the supreme and creational deity of both the Al-Antidian and Aenean religions. While the chronological origins of the name are not known, the name gained popularity after the ascension of the Divine Sovereign Anipheon I, whose choice of regnal name made it forbidden for anyone else outside the Al-Antidian ruling house, as per post-Amilanian Al-Antidian tradition.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Anipheon IX

Anipheon VIII

Bronzas VI

Protion VII

Anipheon IX

Appearances

Dominus Mundi (First appearance)

Regnal titles
Anipheon IX Eighth Dynasty Cadet branch of the House of Iridal-Nedeus Born: 34919 AE Died: 36685 AE
Preceded by Oiraps VIII	Divine Sovereign of Al-Antidia 35175 - 36685	Succeeded by Cloteias III