Sylvester “Syl” Auria


    Birth Date: March 17, 45 AFI.


    Alternate Aliases: Project Unum Magus. The Silent Archmage. [Removed].


    Death Date: March 14, 61 AFI.


    Early Life


    45 AFI


    March 17: Born to [removed] and [removed], a strategic-class and a D-class magician hereafter referred to as UM-1 and UM-2, respectively. UM-1 suffered severe complications from childbirth despite her strategic-class designation.


    March 19: Sylvester’s flux pool manifests, severely injuring UM-2 during routine childcare.


    July 2: UM-2 is killed by a wild magic manifestation, a phenomenon often seen in premature flux attunements. Sylvester’s care is moved to the recovering UM-1.


    July 19: UM-1 is called to the front in the territory currently known as Lingdao. She leaves Sylvester in an enhanced care facility in Las Vegas (currently Polarian territory).


    49 AFI


    May 24: UM-1 is killed by the 32nd</sup> emergence of Zero [See Chongqing Conflagaration]. Sylvester becomes a ward of the state.


    May 27: Sylvester’s abnormally expansive flux pool is detected by caretakers at the enhanced care facility. Automated systems report this to Aurian high command.


    December 1: Sylvester is moved from an expansive care facility to an Aurian black site [See McKean Facility 008].


    Project Unum Magus


    Beginning in 49 AFI, Sylvester’s abnormally large flux pool and increasing signs of showing an affinity set him up as the primary candidate for Project Unum Magus, a secret program run without the knowledge of the Aurian kingdom.


    This project aimed to use a new technology developed by a team of strategic-class engineers utilizing unreplicable resources from the highest explored level of a Tower at the time (31) to record memories from strategic and paragon-class mages both dead and alive and transplant them into a vessel. Project Unum Magus, hereafter referred to as Project UM, had been active for 9 years at the time. Previous attempts involved using cloned biomatter as well as infant orphans with few other memories. Imprinting succeeded to various degrees, but cloned beings were found to be incapable of awakening flux pools while orphans often lacked sufficient flux, expiring upon an overload of information and magic in their mind.


    Until Sylvester, the longest survival time of a subject of Project UM was 153 days.


    Preparation began immediately upon his arrival. Physical supplements, stasis pods, and mental magic were used to shape his development.


    In 52 AFI, Sylvester was one of 12 candidates to receive Project UM’s treatment. All 12 were rendered comatose for a 7-day period, during which their memories were augmented and their flux pools temporarily suppressed. 9 died during the treatment. An additional 2 lost control of their flux pools and died within the following 90 days.


    At 13:07 on September 26, Sylvester’s flux pool remanifested alongside full motor control and an intuitive understanding of magic that surpassed a baseline strategic-class’.


    76 hours later, he displayed five separate high-concept affinities: absorption, annihilation, perception, termination, and sabotage. This coincided with unstable wild flux fluctations and uncontrolled manifestations of magic that destroyed over half of the black site. There were 82 casualties, including 26 master-class magicians and 7 strategic-class magicians. A more detailed record of events may be accessed at [Archmage Awakening Incident 7].


    Strategic-class spell jamming proved to be insufficient to prevent the continued manifestations. They ceased after 104 unbroken hours of magical manifestation, coinciding with Sylvester’s body and flux pool failing. Several suites of surgical and magical operations were able to save his life at the cost of his vocal cords [See Vocal Cord Replacement FCD Project] and the loss of his affinities. It is still unknown how his affinities were removed.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Sylvester was moved to a separate black site for training.


    Special Unit 317


    This special forces unit, also known as [removed], was founded for the explicit purpose of using unorthodox magicians that operated outside the boundaries of known Aurian magic theory as well as standard magical conventions in order to carry out secret operations, sometimes without the direct authorization or acknowledgment of Auria’s royal family.


    Other notable magicians in this unit included [removed] (joined 49 AFI), [removed] (joined 51 AFI), [removed] (joined 51 AFI), and then-Crown Princess Bianca (joined 58 AFI).


    Sylvester joined SU-317 in 52 AFI and was trained in practical magic and basic use of firearms [See Flux-Augmented Firearms for Child Soldiers] by military magicians. He was first deployed in 53 AFI at the age of 6 in Taiwan [See Anti-AI Retrieval Mission 19] against multiple strategic-class targets. SU-317 suffered one non-lethal casualty. Sylvester was credited for 7 strategic-class kills.


    For a more comprehensive list of Sylvester’s missions from 53 to 61 AFI, please see [SU-317 Deployments]. He was credited with a total of 224 full-length missions during that time as well as in excess of 200 Gate clears.


    During the course of SU-317’s most active period, they developed an identity separate from those of Auria’s values. While the organization remained loyal to the country, it has been noted in documentation from the time that they were steadily drifting towards a more independent operation. Due to the presence of multiple superweapons in the special unit, it was deemed more efficient to keep them loosely attached to the country than to attempt eliminating them.


    Incarnate


    During the course of regular operations, the engineering team that Sylvester joined after demonstrating a remarkable aptitude for the field expanded to the point of impracticality. Concealing it proved to be a more demanding task than expected. The decision was made to spin off this team into a functioning corporate body titled Incarnate, initially for the purpose of continuing to create and enhance SU-317 FCDs [See Horizon Breaker. See Light of the Abyss. See Swiss Army Warhead. See List of SU-317 FCDs]. However, due to rapid commercial success, the company expanded into other pursuits as well.


    Pairing


    In 58 AFI, shortly after a routine Gate clear near the Oceania, Sylvester demonstrated signs of flux poisoning. Examinations pointed towards his the extreme modifications made to his mind and body as the most likely inciting factors. As a temporary measure, SU-317 attempted to render his flux pool more inert by adding a neutralizing agent through a more stable magician. As most potential candidates either lacked a large enough flux pool due to their young age or had flux that was already too personalized, the pool of compatible partners was few.


    Ultimately, the most optimal partner was the sole remaining member of SU-003, Crown Princess Bianca. Though her flux pool was not as large as Sylvester’s, it was sufficient to absorb his excess flux while injecting her own into his pool through an internally shielded FCD [See Project Symbiosis]. She was added into SU-317 and initially only took a non-combat rule. Due to the increased power from using Sylvester’s flux, however, she was capable of combat roles and proved so against the wishes of the royal family.


    The Bianca-Sylvester pair is credited with a total of 109 full-length missions.


    World War III


    During World War III, several members of SU-317 were credited with unofficial paragon-class designations, including Sylvester. SU-317 was instrumental in preventing Lingdao, Oceania, and Auria from being wholesale eliminated.


    On March 14, 61 AFI, a portion of SU-317 deployed to Middle America to contain several gigaton-yield flux-nuclear devices. Sylvester and his paired partner were included amongst this group.


    During their containment efforts, one device detonated. Before escape, death, or other responses could be undertaken by SU-317, the unknown magician known as Sloth appeared for ~0.5 seconds and activated a paragon-class spell that reduced the passage of time in a 253-kilometer radius to a speed too slow to be properly messaged, containing the device.


    All who were caught in the effect are considered to be lost. A total of roughly 125,000 casualties resulted from the [Middle America Chronostasis Incident], including Sylvester and Bianca.


    He was 15 at the time.


    Postscript


    I would say that this part is unnecessary given who you’ve worked with, but it has been quite some time since SU-317 has deployed together. This is, as far as I am aware, the least redacted version of this file that exists. We are going to preserve that.


    Syl is not dead, and neither is Bianca. The royals are aware of the latter fact, but they never knew Syl as anything other than the Silent Archmage or—you know the other one. As we have seen from recent developments, keeping our cards close to our chest can only be in our favor. We will not disclose this information.


    It has been just over ten years to the day that they were stricken by Sloth’s spell. They manifested multiple paragon-class spells to remove themselves from it. The only reason they’re still alive is that their trackers still function—they were hours from dying from exposure when we found them.


    They were awake and aware while they were in that place. Their perception was accelerated enough to match our time. They have been sitting there doing nothing but evolving and building flux for ten years.


    SU-317 is being reactivated. We have official recognition from the kingdom on the technicality that they forgot to dissolve us when most of us died in the war.


    The winds are blowing flame towards us once more. Syl and Bianca are a decade out of time, but they may be exactly what we need now more than ever.


    We deploy to San Francisco tomorrow April the 17^th, 71 AFI.


    That is all.