Orym
Orym (also known by his ancient names Aten and Akhenaten, and briefly by his human disguise Marcus) is the ultimate antagonist of The Metalwood Saga. Introduced as the enigmatic Scientist General of the Cothellon, Orym is a brilliant, calculating mastermind who secretly manipulates factions across multiple planets.
It is eventually revealed that Orym is over one hundred thousand years old, originally known as Aten. He is the legendary "Imprisoner" who trapped The Twins, the architect of the Department of Magical Research, the discoverer of darkprime magic, and the designer of the sky cities. His relentless, millennia-spanning pursuit of science, creation, and absolute power drives the central conflicts of the entire saga.
Appearance and Personality
For most of the series, Orym appears as a tall, refined human man somewhere in his thirties or forties, though his true age is ageless. He has slicked-back blond hair and piercing blue eyes that often peer down his nose with a hint of disdain. He favors impeccable, formal clothing—such as a sharp gray suit with no tie, or a crisp blue jumpsuit—always looking composed and precise. During his ancient reign as Akhenaten, he presented a far more physically imposing, regal figure, often going shirtless to display a thick, muscular, hairy chest.
In his final days, as the corrupting power of Xyclami takes hold, his appearance drastically shifts: his face becomes gaunt, dark shadows form around his eyes, his hair grows wild, and his mouth twists into a pinched, maniacal grin.
Personality-wise, Orym is described as a "calm storm." He is elite, fiercely intelligent, and usually the smartest person in any room—a fact he is well aware of. He rarely boasts or raises his voice, operating instead with a quiet, unnerving intensity. As the ancient Junior Professor Aten, he was arrogant, impatient, and desperate to prove himself. Over millennia, he learned patience, viewing the world and its people as variables in a grand scientific experiment. He craves the ability to truly create rather than just cast illusions, a desire that ultimately drives him to seize the power of a god.
Biography
Aten and the Great Awakening
One hundred thousand years ago, Orym was known as Aten, a brilliant but disrespected Junior Professor at Ilyrion University on the planet Valaralda. When a strange celestial object appeared in the sky and magic awakened across the world, Aten was the first to recognize it as a scientific phenomenon rather than a divine one. He founded the Department of Magical Research to study the new power.
Aten eventually met The Twins (Nelenor and Velion), discovering they were not gods, but alien refugees from the Starmist system wielding a highly advanced technological device called Xyclami (Guruthos). Craving their power for himself, Aten designed the Pyramid Offensive System—a network of pyramids across three planets designed to capture soul energy to sever the Twins from their machine. He successfully imprisoned the Twins in Ambarhal, but realized he could not defeat their fail-safes without more power. To prevent his enemies from using the system, he committed suicide in the desert city of Nekhrumet (where he ruled as the god-king Akhenaten), leaving behind a ghostly Soul Tree to block the pyramids' magic.
Earth Wanderings and Rebirth
When Tarathiel initiated the Sending twenty thousand years ago, Akhenaten secretly accompanied the expedition through the gates to check on his Earth-based pyramids. However, the journey instantly wiped his memories. He spent millennia wandering Earth as an amnesiac, driven by a subconscious pull toward his ancient creations. During this era, he befriended Tarathiel during the fall of Babylon under the name Abarat, a mistweaver who possessed a "strange fascination with pyramids."
Sometime after the fall of Babylon, he died. His soul was cast into Ambarhal, where he lived a bewildered existence as a Prime Tree. When that Tree was destroyed in a raging forest fire centuries later, his soul was released back to the physical world. He resurrected naked and confused in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1715. Adopting the name Orym, he retained his scientific curiosity but remembered absolutely nothing of his ancient past or his previous millennia on Earth.
The Conjunction and Betrayal
Decades before the sky cities were scheduled to activate the Conjunction, Orym's simulations revealed a fatal flaw: tapping into Earth's core to gate the planet away would destabilize the core, destroying Earth and everyone on it. When Quynn and Lorelei refused to abort the mission, Orym secretly defected. He turned himself in to the Eldrim World Council leader, Silanar, who ordered him to stay undercover and sabotage the Cothellon from within.
For years, Orym played a dangerous double game. He aided his son Dill's underkid rebellion, supplied Rylan with primewood, and gave Trey the Book of Amplification. Though the sky cities successfully activated, the combined efforts of the heroes and the Eldrim prevented the core breach, saving the planet and gating Earth to the Persephone system near Valaralda.
The Atlantis Expedition
Following the Conjunction that moved Earth (Mar) to the Persephone system, Orym works with the ISA to investigate a massive darkprime signal emanating from beneath the Mediterranean Sea. He leads a submersible expedition accompanied by the archaeologist Mistale, the pilot Shara, the head diver Elasha, and his old friend Luthar (Smoke). They discover Atlantis, a perfectly preserved ancient city bathed in eerie blue light and guarded by stone Anubis statues.
The team is decimated by a series of lethal magical traps: Luthar is killed when he steps on a glowing blue rune, and Mistale is stabbed by a golden trap. When the floor of a subsequent puzzle room drops away, Orym instinctively uses fallfoiling magic to save himself and Elasha from falling to their deaths. Surviving this brutal gauntlet of ancient traps shatters a mental block in Orym's mind, finally unlocking his latent abilities as a fully realized Prime Mage.
Romance with Elasha
Trapped in the empty city of Atlantis, Orym and Elasha are forced to survive on ancient food supplies preserved by incredibly advanced stasis Artifact magic. During this isolated time, the two grow close. Elasha reveals her past as a former criminal mage who was imprisoned for five hundred years after using illegal magic to raise the dead. Despite his initial wariness, Orym finds himself deeply drawn to her intellect, and they begin sleeping together in the pristine ancient beds of the city, forming a genuine romantic relationship.
The Return of the Imprisoner
Orym and Elasha eventually discover the source of the darkprime signal: Telperion, the towering, golden Prison Tree holding the soul of the Twin Velion. Seduced by the Tree's power and a voice in his mind, Orym gently touches it, unwittingly releasing Velion's trapped soul and causing the Tree to disintegrate.
Realizing his catastrophic mistake and knowing the freed Twins will wreak havoc, Orym opens a dimensional gate to escape. He briefly apologizes to Elasha before stepping through, callously abandoning his lover in the subterranean city.
He arrives in the devastated Ilyrion forest, where he and Lorelei find the dying Cariel. With her final breath, Cariel casts a massive cascade of gatesending magic over them. The magic restores Orym's lost memories, revealing his true identity: he is Aten (also known as Akhenaten), the ancient Imprisoner who trapped the Twins, and his ultimate weapon—the Pyramid Offensive System—is waiting for him.
Godhood and Death
Determined to seize Xyclami and remake reality, Orym traveled to Nekhrumet. Using raw destroyer magic, he obliterated his own Soul Tree, slaughtering thousands of innocent citizens in the process. With the block removed, he activated the pyramids, capturing a million souls to overwhelm the machine. The attack forced Xyclami to reboot, severing the Twins from their Operator status.
Orym seized the device, becoming its sole Operator. Drunk on godlike power, he viciously murdered Lorelei and Allain when they tried to pacify him with illusions of Starmist Prime. He then easily fought off the United Sky Cities' Escape Module and his own son, Dill.
Retreating to the ruins of Old San Francisco on Earth, the unbalanced power of Xyclami began to drive Orym insane. He warped the city into a horrific nightmare of bleeding crystal and giant spider-monsters. Rylan (now a superuser) and Elanil attempted to fight him using two Books of Amplification, but Orym easily overpowered them, blasting them out of the sky.
However, Orym's victory was short-lived. Cariel had survived her apparent death by breaking her soul into thousands of fragments at the last second, catching an errant gate to a rickhouse in Lusvunub. She distributed her fragmented consciousness into a swarm of millions of regular spiders, using them to orchestrate a massive, coordinated attack on Orym. The spiders physically swarmed his body, crawling into his mouth and lungs, but their true weapon was the combined energy of their millions of souls. This unprecedented soul attack overwhelmed Xyclami's thread integrity, forcing the machine to initiate an emergency core reboot. Stripped of the device's protection and suffocating on the swarm, Orym slumped against a bourbon barrel and died.
Powers and Abilities
- Mistweaver: Orym's original, natural Alignment was the Way of the Builder (lightprime maple/pine), granting him the ability to craft highly intricate illusions. He frequently used this to mask his identity or hide his presence.
- Fallfoiler: After discovering darkprime magic on Earth, Orym learned to use dark maple to manipulate vertical gravity.
- Prime Mage: After surviving the ancient traps in Atlantis, the soulblock suppressing Orym's true potential was lifted. He gained the ability to use all Seven Aspects of magic simultaneously without the need for Investment.
- Sole Operator of Xyclami: In his final hours, Orym gained direct control over the source of all magic. He could manipulate reality on a microscopic level, creating horrific monsters, warping geography, and unleashing devastating energy blasts that easily overpowered regular Prime Mages.
- Genius Inventor: Even without magic, Orym was the most brilliant scientist in planetary history. He invented the sky cities, the Pyramid Offensive System, interplanetary radios, and spearheaded the creation of the Department of Magical Research.
Key Relationships
- Tiala: The great love of Orym's life. Her eventual abandonment of him deeply wounded Orym, fueling his underlying bitterness and anger. When she confronted him with the Escape Module over Lusvunub, the mere sight of her caused him to drop his shields in shock.
- Dill (Dillon): Orym's son. Orym genuinely loved Dill and tried to protect him, keeping him safely in the Under while plotting to overthrow the Cothellon. Dill ultimately turned against his father when Orym's pursuit of godhood cost the lives of Dill's friends.
- Lorelei / Quynn: His Cothellon superiors who later became his enemies. He operated under them for centuries before ultimately surpassing and betraying them both to claim absolute power.
- The Twins: The alien Operators of Xyclami. Orym viewed them not as gods, but as obstacles holding back the true potential of science and magic. He dedicated multiple lifetimes to destroying them.
- Trey (Tarathiel): Orym's ancient academic rival and later ally. Trey's discovery of the Defense Mechanism inspired Orym's own quest for the Pyramid Offensive System.