Niers Astoragon

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Niers Astoragon

By Sirduckless

Aliases	The Titan of Baleros Titan of Swamps and Jungle The Marsh-parter Professor The World’s Smallest Strategist Tallman of Baleros
Species	Fraerling
Age	50+
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Affiliation	Forgotten Wing Company Titan’s School Fellowship of the Inn
Occupation	Strategist
Residence	Elvallian
First Appearance	Chapter 2.18

Niers Astoragon, also known as The Titan of Baleros, or just The Titan, is the second-in-command of the Forgotten Wing Company and the highest-leveled [Strategist] on Baleros, if not the entire world.

Appearance

Niers is described as having a height of either six inches or one foot. He looks like any middle-aged man, with dark black, slightly grey hair, a powerful (if minuscule) build, a sharp beard, and violet eyes.

Personality

Niers possesses a colorful, flamboyant personality. Befitting his status as one of the greatest [Strategists] in the world, he possesses a sharp mind, able to navigate through both battle and politics. However, he also retains the insane, unpredictable mindset possessed by most adventurers. Though not overly reckless, Niers is willing to go through great expense in order to seek challenges and excitement, especially when he is bored. He also displays a great love for pranks. Despite that, he can be respectful and diplomatic in formal settings. He can be especially ruthless, though avoids unnecessary bloodshed.

Conscious of his status as a hero among Fraerlings, he is especially protective of his people, taking strides to ensure their safety. However, his vigilance and meticulous planning still ensured there were failsafes in Elvallian for the possibility of enemy Fraerlings,

As a teacher, he can be a hard taskmaster towards his students and delights in pointing out their mistakes. Despite that, he is much beloved by them and, in turn, he is very proud of them and delights in their achievements, though it doesn't stop him from "tormenting" them with little pranks and homework assignments.

Background

Niers was raised in a Fraerling village. Despite the many dangers to Fraerlings found in the outside world, he sought to leave the village, dreaming of adventure and glory. As a young boy, he would fantasize of rescuing a [King] or [Queen] from an [Assassin] with his cleverness and becoming the royal adviser of their kingdom.

Niers became a [Strategist], as it was a class that was functional regardless of body size. In his first campaigns, he was able to clear a hornet's nest and push back a herd of boar. By the age of twenty, he was a higher-level [Strategist] than anyone else his age, at which point he left his village to join the Adventurer's Guild. Initially, he had a difficult time finding a team that would listen to him, and spent three years going from team to team. Eventually, he met Foliana and they joined a unnamed team that was starting out. They became known as World's Founding due to being a multi-species team. They were the largest adventuring team at the time, becoming Bronze-ranked within the month, and hitting Gold-rank the year afterwards. A decade later, they became Named Adventurers.

Niers' home village was destroyed at some point, which he unintentionally caused.

Two decades prior, World's Founding and a disorganized army of soldiers were chased by Jungle Tails' army into the Labyrinth of Souls, a Named-rank dungeon. They were forced to go forward and explore the dungeon due to Jungle Tails' forces slaughtering them from behind, eventually reaching the final point of the dungeon, where they encountered Old Ones. After months of being presumed deceased, the remnants of the group emerged, now the Forgotten Wing Company, consisting of six adventurers, including Niers and Foliana, as well as four hundred [Veterans]. The company quickly rose to prominence becoming one of the Four Great Companies by taking the mantle from Jungle Tails. His defeat of Jungle Tails was what let him reach Level 50. At some point, while looking for a cure for the Bloodpop Fever, he encountered Velan and the Goblin's Lament company. Impressed by the Goblin's calm and intelligent nature, he became friends with him, while the Goblin's Lament became allies of the Forgotten Wing.

A decade ago, when Flos launched his invasion from Chandrar, he sent Queravia with an army to Baleros. Foreseeing the possibility that some of Baleros's companies could join her, Niers gathered every force within a thousand miles and marched on her. He was, however, outmatched by Queravia, thanks to her [Gambler] class, which gave her slightly better odds on the battlefield. She was able to gradually overcome Niers' army, forcing him to change tactics and launch an all-or-nothing attack on her forces to reach her command and kill her. However, before her death, Queravia cursed Niers with a [Gambler]'s curse. After defeating Queravia, Niers became known as the Titan.

Like most of Baleros, Niers was caught off-guard when Velan and his forces began rampaging across Baleros before setting sail to Izril. During the Second Antinium War, Niers [Teleported] to Izril, taking control of the Human armies and forcing the Goblin Lords back. However, he refused to directly confront the Goblin King himself, knowing that he would tear apart any formations.

At least a year ago, Niers rediscovered chess and introduced it to the world, claiming to have invented it.

Chronology

Volume 1

Niers anonymously sends out a chess puzzle across the world, in the hopes of determining the good chess players. The challenge is also received by Olesm, who shows it to Erin Solstice, who solves it almost instantly, and also sends back a challenge of her own.

Volume 2

Intrigued by Erin's puzzle challenge, which took him days to solve, Niers commissions a pair of magical chessboards enabling two people to play over long distances, and sends it to Erin anonymously. While disappointed by the first game which he wins easily (as unbeknownst to Niers, Olesm was playing), he is pleasantly surprised by Erin, who is able to beat him four times in a row. Later, when the entrance to Liscor's Dungeon opens up, he receives several [Messages] about [Dangersenses] being triggered across a wide distance around Liscor.

Volume 3

After having played three chess game with a new unknown player, he sat in front of his small chessboard with a dark expression on his face and mused to himself that his mystery player is gone and that someone who knows chess but has barely played it at all has found the board. He stared at the chessboard and at Magnolia's letter and considered leaving for Izril, but dismissed the idea and stared at the chessboard darkly, and hoped that this new opponent would eventually give the board back or find its true owner. He kept staring at the chess pieces, the letter, and then at the window, and told himself that he couldn’t leave, as he has a job and a duty as he is the second-in-command of his Company. So he kept staring back to the chessboard, waiting for his mystery player.

Volume 4

At some point after playing around six games against the new unknown player, he stopped playing with them and reset the board to how it was left by the true owner. Every time he realized that he was not playing with the true owner, he kept resetting the board. While he was in a bad mood because his mystery player had not come back for over a month, he began to read the general report of the newest companies and recent events. He sighed as he studied the outcome of the battle between the Razorshard Armor company and the Roving Arrow company, and called all of them fools, as there was no return for either company because they ruined their reputations for destroying themselves fighting over a valley that was now practically unusable. His eye then caught the name of a new company that had declared itself, the United Nations. Remarking that 'United' was a word that he had dreamed of, and had spoken to the other Great Companies of Baleros about, as it was a hope for Baleros, and for a world, that Magnolia had tempted him with, but ultimately it was nothing but an empty dream. As the new company had the same dream as him, he glanced at the name and memorized it, just in case. Then he flipped the page and kept reading, while every now and then, he would glance at the chessboard’s pieces that had not moved and look away. While still in a bad mood, after reading and filing the report away, he had a curious sensation. He felt a subtle feeling, but he had trained himself not to ignore his instincts, and as it cried out to him as he opened the report and stared down at the name in ink, he could feel it. He knew it wasn’t a coincidence or a chance, but only the start. And that everything he had witnessed, all the little pieces, they were falling into place. That something was happening, and that the world would begin to move again. As he was thinking about this, behind him, on the chessboard, a piece slowly slid forwards and stopped.

While he does not show up in person but only as a chess opponent, he was enraged that someone was constantly scattering the chess pieces. He picked them up again and again, and slammed them back on the chessboard, each time with more force, as he kept getting increasingly angry as this repeated. Then after around two minutes passed when someone else made one of the only legal moves that they could make, he made a safe move, but grudging as he didn’t think it was the true owner. He kept playing against this opponent, then he realized that he fell for a trap, as he was too upset over the one who was scattering the chess pieces to notice it. He made his next move within a minute, but the opponent showed him no mercy and ended the game in six minutes. He did not move the pieces since the opponent had checkmated him, until the opponent reset his side and left the other side as it was, as a form of challenge. He tested this opponent with two different playing style and knew that this opponent was the true owner. He played with them all day until it was close to midnight.

Volume 5

As the new strategy game Go swept across Baleros, he spent an outrageous sum of money commissioning an enchanted Go board, while playing his 37th game of Go in preparation for it reaching his unknown adversary in Liscor.

Niers with Foliana, Peclir and several of the Forgotten Wing company’s officers and [Strategists], were one of the observers that were ‘listening in’ on the situation of Liscor's Face-Eater Moths attack, and the discussion of the Walled Cities and Wistram. When Wistram was going to send a magical projection to all individuals with appropriate receptive capacity, Niers ordered Peclir to get a scrying orb, so that they could watch the event as well. When Foliana asked him if there would be a lot of people listening, he told her that he wouldn’t be surprised if the conversation was appearing across the world and that the King of Destruction himself is watching too. During the course of the event, when the Painted Antinium Soldiers showed up, Noass and Relz, the two Drakes commentators, pointed out that those Antinium Soldiers have paint on their carapaces, and speculated if they are some kind of new Antinium variant, Niers asked Umina if she can see what those Drakes are talking about. Upon her confirmation that they indeed had something on their bodies, he said that they appear to be the standard Soldier types, and wondered if this was a trick or if it had some further meaning. As he leaned back in his seat, thinking hard about them, Foliana asked him if Liscor could win. As every head turned to him, he smiled, knowing that his reputation could rest on a correct answer. He told her that while the adventurers were putting up a good fight around that Inn, he wouldn’t place all his coin on them just yet, as they were tiring. As he was going to keep explaining, he stopped and sat up when the Human girl appeared in the doorway again and asked the Pallassian soldiers if they were coming through yet. When they did not, she glared at them, and Niers laughed as he saw her raise one expressive finger and insulted them and their city. She then slammed the door shut, and Niers blinked as the Drakes cried out and the portal vanished for five minutes, before the image reappeared.

When the event ended, Niers ordered the excited soldiers and students, to bring him the reports of the Horns of Hammerad, the Halfseekers, the Silver Swords, and Griffon Hunt. Particularly on the [Mage], who had cast the weather spell. He then retired with Foliana to his quarters, and was barely able to sit still, as he was excited of the entire event and about Liscor's Dungeon. Foliana appeared next to him and asked him if he was glad that Liscor’s standing. and wondered if his mysterious chess friend was okay, and if they had something to do with the battle. He told her that he had no idea, but that he did notice Olesm Swifttail, the Drake that commanded Liscor’s defenses. Niers said that he had made an excellent job for a [Tactician] of his level, and wouldn’t be surprised if he jumps two-to-three levels. They came to the conclusion that Liscor was a place to watch after. And as he remembered the past when they had cleared a dungeon like Liscor’s, he asked her if they could clear a dungeon like that again.

A day after the battle at Liscor, he had one of his students and Wistram set up a broadcasts of himself in a mock battle, to be projected across the world.

Powers and Abilities

Niers has only one class and with it he can lead his army without any other skills. He can lead his armies to victory after victory, using his mind as a weapon. He can out-maneuver any foe, defeat any force, even those three times as large as his. With his Skills he can turn his soldiers into horrific monsters yet, if he needed to retreat, his army would become ghosts on the battlefield.

Class/Levels:

• [Grandmaster Strategist] Lv. 66

Skills:

• [Archers: Triplicate Volley]
• [Arrowguard]
• [Assault Formation]
• [Battlefield Awareness]
• [Battlefield – Foe Sensor]
• [Battlefield: Deploy Traps]
• [Battlefield: Even Ground – No Magic, No Luck, No Skills, Only Strategy]
• [Battlefield: Hawk’s Surveillance] / [Hawk’s Surveillance]
• [Battlefield: Skies of Chaos, Winds of War]
• [Boost Spell]
• [Braveheart’s Charge]
• [Brigade: Castling the Pieces] / [Castling the Pieces]
• [Cascade Shield]
• [Charge of the Strategist]
• [Commanding Voice]
• [Countercharge]
• [Covering Fire]
• [Covering Fire: Archers]
• [Expeditious Retreat]
• [False Orders]
• [Fear Me, Your Mortality]
• [Foe Sensor]
• [Formation: Dodge]
• [Giants on the March]
• [Hear Me]
• [Highlight Target]
• [I Left the Carrion None of Their Due]
• [Mark Target]
• [Mind of the Strategist]
• [On The March: Vigilance and Speed] / [On The March]
• [Order: Throw Them Back]
• [Promote the Pawn: Class Ascension]
• [Raise the Banner: Hold, with Sword and Spell] / [Raise the Banner]
• [Rapid Advance]
• [Redirect Spell]
• [Replenish Morale]
• [Reputation: My Famous Name]
• [Speed Raid]
• [Stealthguard]
• [Superior Counter Fire] / [Superior Counterfire]
• [Swift Levelling]
• [They Fought Like Imm— (Skill name incomplete. Most likely; [They Fought Like Immortals])
• [They Marched as Friends, Until the Hammer Fell]
• [Thorn Formation]
• [Threat Analysis]
• [Unit: Incendiary Provocation]
• [Unit: Selphid’s Rampage]
• [Unit: Speed Raid]
• [Vanguard of Terror]
• [Volley Fire]
• [Veteran’s Stealthguard]
• ??? - A Detection Skill that lets the User know about impending military assaults that are coming towards their general area. It does not work if the assaults are of the most secretive ones, nor does it detect infiltrators and spies.

Spells:

• Tier 0:
  • [Light]
  • [Spark]

Abilities:

• Aura Abilities:
  • Aura Manipulation: Weak as he is not a [General] or royalty.
  • Aura Reading: Able to read the element of someone's magical aura.
  • Aura Resisting

Trivia

• He had been fighting for over fifty years in Baleros’s endless plains and deep jungles, which gives a rough estimation to his age.
• Lady Magnolia calls him the world’s smallest strategist.
• He is surprisingly considered tall among his race.
• He is infamous for having only one class.
• His armor is more expensive than any [Lord]’s, given that [Blacksmiths] have a terrible time forging anything so small.
• It is claimed that Niers is the most famous Fraerling in the world. He is considered a Hero to the children of his kind.
• To all of the world, he is the one who invented chess, but in truth, he found the game and brought it back into the world.
• He liked to send messages to himself or send coded missives with nothing in them of value to friends quite often, just to annoy people who spied on him.
• His best students could win one game out of ten against him, at best. Other [Generals] and [Strategists] could win two games in ten, or three in ten, but that was all.
• Before playing against Erin, he leveled up only one time in the last decade.
• Despite being likely one of the most powerful people in the world, Niers thinks that a "[Teleportation] spell might cost him dearly", at least one that would allow him to reach Liscor.
• It is rare even for Niers to have royal members as students, and has so far only taught seven members of royalty.
• His favorite food is roasted pork, from a breed of pig that was fed a magical diet all its life, carefully raised by a [Livestock Breeder] or [Rancher], and then prepared by the finest [Chefs].
• Niers does not have [Dangersense], as he believes that it is too easy to trick.
• He has been nearly force-fed to baby hatchlings seven times.