The odd one of the bunch

Ververg is known to be a country where everything is decided by fighting. And, people were expected to be strong enough to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case for some people, especially Atlas Maelstrom. Despite the anemia he was stuck with for the entirety of his life, he still wanted to be part of the fighting, especially after seeing Ares, a childhood friend, always helping him out in his harder times.

Atlas wanted to give back to the one who stood up for him. He wanted to help him out by protecting him when he needed it the most. Unfortunately, Atlas wasn’t fit for fighting. People told him that. But, if it wasn’t the people who convinced him of that, it was his own body. Every time he’d try picking up a sword and swinging it around, Atlas would exhaust himself a lot more quickly than the average person.

And so, he was a major target for bullying, always being called a deer for being so delicate in a country where everything was tough and powerful. And he…was weak.

Brain over brawn, that’s what works for him

Despite physically being unable to fight, Atlas has another strength that hasn’t been weakened: his intuition and his intelligence. He always had an intuition that was better than the average person’s, but unfortunately, Atlas seemed to trust people a bit too much, which made him not follow his instinct.

But, Atlas knew he would need to rely on his intelligence if he ever wanted to help Ares. And so, he learned a few magic tricks in one of the few schools in Ververg that was made for people who can’t physically fight like him and became fairly decent at handling magic. Unfortunately for him, his anemia caused him to still be easily exhausted when using magic.

By that point, he wasn’t sure what he could do. No matter what he did, he’d still get exhausted. This would mean Atlas couldn’t really participate in the battlefield whether he liked it or not. And so, he tried one last thing in an attempt to gather the strength to help the one person who cared about him.

The fortune teller of a small village

Atlas decided to instead try to help others around him by predicting the future for them. This wouldn’t take as much of his energy, because he would be using magic more briefly. During that time, he continued to stay fit by doing a small amount of exercise, just enough not to overexert himself.

He was known to predict many different events, whether they were fortunate or not. Atlas had predicted many deaths, including Ares’s death. He had tried so hard to ignore his intuition when it came to that, and tried contacting him while he was at war with little to no success.

When the news dropped, Atlas was not surprised, but was still devastated. He didn’t want it to be correct at all. Despite that, he remembered something he kept remembering from his childhood friend: to never give up on your goals, even if the reason you want to achieve them are gone. Although, what Atlas didn’t know was that Ares didn’t mean the death of a person, and still followed that saying anyway.

It didn’t take too long before the village he lived in burned down by some desperate fighters who were looking for food. Atlas couldn’t have survived at all, as no one came to save him as he struggled to gather the energy to flee the village.

The nerf has been lifted

Atlas was reborn in the very cold area of Frostbiose, which was very ironic considering he died because of a fire. Something felt a lot different though, he was not as tired as he normally was: his anemia did not come with him. Yippee! Not only that, though, he noticed some antlers on his head, a deer tail & some wings. Hm, it seems he became a peryton.

While getting a bit too excited about his new life, Atlas accidentally burned some of the snow around him. Huh, that came from…him? He quickly calmed down and the melted snow became ice in an instant. Seems he was able to manipulate both fire & ice, which was something he wasn’t fully able to do before.

Perhaps he has a chance of reaching his goal after all.

A solitary second life

Despite the strength he had gained from reviving, Atlas still did not want people to ask him about his past. He wasn’t one to lie too much and he absolutely did not want to spill about the “pathetic” life he had before the one he had now. And so, he mostly lived in a pretty isolated & fairly dangerous corner of Frostbiose, not expecting that many people to visit it.

Despite this, many people who are either brave or reckless enough visited his area and always ended up in some sort of trouble. Fortunately, they were quickly saved by Atlas, who used his instinct to find out whether someone was in danger or not.

Though, one day, someone came to his area, got himself in danger but didn’t need to be rescued. Atlas took a peek and…

The Moon in the middle of a cold area

It turned out the person who saved himself was a lycan. In the middle of nowhere? That’s weird. He presented himself as Wolfgang, and Atlas didn’t really like his vibe at first, but still welcomed him into his home.

There, they discussed why Wolfgang was in the middle of Frostbiose. The lycan explained that he got a little lost on his way to Obsyma and that he wanted to go there to kill his nemesis. Atlas listened very seriously until the name “Ares” was mentioned. “Ares? Wait, what’s his last name?” Atlas asked.

“Oh, uh, his last name is Laureus. Why?”

And, for the first time since he was reborn, Atlas exploded in excitement. He didn’t expect his childhood friend & idol to also be in the same world as he was. Atlas was unable to contain himself, but he had to say nothing about his past and explained that he used to know him and that he’d like to meet him again.

And so, Atlas joined Wolfgang in his trips, in hopes of meeting Ares again and becoming a better swordsman so that he can defend him better. Although, what Atlas didn’t know was that he was doing miles better in terms of magic, and that he could already defend his idol really well with it.

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• Atlas previously had anemia during his past life, which hindered a lot of his goals. He wasn't reborn with it, which is something he is very happy about.
• He's questioning his sexuality, but something tells him he might be homosexual.
• Atlas means "Bearer of the Heavens" in Greek and Maelstrom means "whirlpool" in early modern Dutch.
• It is not completely certain as to how Atlas managed to get control of both fire & ice magic. It seems it might have to do with the cause of his death.
• Deers & owls are his favorite animals...totally not because he's also part of their species or anything. Nope!

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