#we were almost going to just have thunder be a part of noels backstory but...

[plinchy]

Gay I mean, friends in every universe

[indecisive-v]

some writing since my drawing brain cells don't wanna cooperate

making the move from world of magic to arcane odyssey in the perspective of my second save file character

His entire world, swallowed by a light more blinding than what he could ever try to conjure. All of it, gone in a literal flash, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

He was devastated enough when he was just a trainee watching his home city get nearly laid to waste by magical explosions. He could only imagine how anyone else with their eyes open was feeling.

Noel Marshall, knight of Summer Hold, couldn't do anything to protect it then, and couldn't do anything to protect it now. The boy didn't even have a chance to get back at those explosion mages before it all ended.

...

Well, that's that, he supposes. Not much he can do about it now. How pathetic of him.

The world's over. Noel's life is over.

So why...

Why is he still even conscious?

Noel shifts. His movements are met with the coarse feeling of sand. The sounds of thunder and shoreline waves reach his ears. He's on a beach. A beach that he's fairly sure should have just been vaporized.

He lifts himself up from the sand and rubs his eyes to get a better look around. It seems he's on some island in the middle of nowhere, and the rain surrounding it has drenched him. Is the afterlife supposed to be a wet, rainy island? If so, he's not sure what part of the afterlife this is. Purgatory, maybe. It's too merciful for hell, and too lacking for heaven. Still, he was expecting the middle place to just be an empty, emotionless void of boredom or something. Perhaps it's personalized.

He turns to the sea behind him, just to be completely sure there isn't by any chance a boat there to pick him up. There is indeed no boat in sight, save for some little rowboats on the shore.

No way is he going to try rowing out in this weather.

Noel almost turns back to the island, wanting to still do something, but his barely-visible reflection in the water manages to catch his eye.

At least, he's pretty sure that's supposed to be his reflection.

It doesn't look quite like him. His hair is as stringy-looking as always, tied in its usual ponytail, but its copper brown color has been replaced with black. At first, he assumes it's just the lighting, but then he sees the rest of himself. His eyes have gone from moonlit blue to sunny gold- ironic, given his gift of Sunlight Magic- and there's a large scar now stretching across his face. His clothes are in tatters, but that part isn't nearly as much of a surprise compared to everything else. Then again, he was supposed to be wearing armor, so...

What in the...?

"Rael, you're awake.... I thought you'd be out for a few more days."

Who-

Noel whirls around. Facing him is a pale, dark-haired man in similar ragged clothes. The knight looks around- there isn't anyone else the man could be referring to when he says "Rael". It's just the two of them on this island. Perhaps the man simply misheard for forgot part of Noel's name. It's only two letters off, after all.

"It's Noel," he corrects him. The man raises an eyebrow. Must be awfully confident in what he thought Noel's name was.

"Did the experiments mess with your brain, or are you just joking around?" the man asks.

Experiments?

"What experiments? Am I supposed to know you?"

"Huh, are you serious?" the man's confusion evolves into genuine shock. "The two of us barely got out of there alive, and now you have memory loss... I can't believe it."

Memory loss? Noel's sure his memories are perfectly in tact. You don't just forget your tragic backstory or the sight of the world ending overnight. You don't forget those things ever, for that matter. He racks his brain for this man's name. M... Mor... Morden. That's it. Where would they have met before, though? Morden's name is all Noel can recall about him.

"We were being held captive in a remote location," Morden explains, "and they performed magic experiments on us. We saw people die every day... but I guess you don't remember that."

Ah. So much for not forgetting one's tragic backstory. Still, the events in his head weren't connecting. The world was engulfed in pure white, and then... he got captured and experimented on? How? And by who...?

Noel simply lowers his head. He failed so hard at protecting others that he even forgot they existed, huh. "I'm... sorry," he says. As if his pride isn't damaged enough.

Morden shakes his head. "It's not your fault..." But it feels like it is- "...we did the best we could." But it wasn't enough- "It's a shame that Tucker couldn't make it," He even forgot the names of the deceased- "but at least he's had a proper burial."

Noel shakes under the guilt, but remains silent. He doesn't remember what happened, so what right does he have to talk about it as if he did?

"Anyway, we're free now. You still remember how to use magic, right?" Noel nods at that. Morden continues. "Since we're magic-users, we'll make it far in this world. We just need to meet the right people. You can take one of the rowboats and go wherever you want. I'm going to go back to Tucker's grave for a bit-" he gestures towards a grassy part of the island; must be where the grave is- "I need to think some things over."

Noel looks around, then back at Morden. "Where do I even go?" he asks.

"I don't know..." Morden responds. "You're hungry, aren't you? Maybe you should go to Redwake, it's a port to the east of here. They might have food for you, and being there may help you remember some things from your past as well. Maybe we'll see each other again, Rael." He didn't correct himself. "Until then, farewe-"

"I told you, it's Noel."

Morden pauses. "Could've sworn it was always Rael, but sure. Farewell, Noel, and I wish you good fortune."

Morden turns back towards Tucker's grave, leaving Noel (Rael?) on the shore. He goes back to looking at himself in the water.

A new (but similar) face. A new (but similar) name. Morden even said he was still a magic user, but for all Noel knows he could have a completely different magic type now. Only one way to find out.

He holds his hand out, trying to summon the familiar, magical light he had always used. Sure enough, light steadily pours forth from his hand, forming into a little ball. At least that part's the same. He's relieved that he doesn't have to learn to use an entirely new element. There's just one problem.

The light he's holding isn't golden sunlight.

It's soft, blue moonlight.

What happened? Did the magic experiments or that end-of-the-world light give Noel some kind of color blindness? That wouldn't explain why Morden had called him Rael. It was so close to his name, like how his appearance had the same outline but the colors were all wrong. He had the same magic, but a different variant. It was like he was Noel Marshall, but slightly to the left. Is that what magic experiments do to you? Morden didn't seem to be having the same problems.

Was Marshall even his last name anymore? It was his family's pride- proof of their descension from a powerful warrior of Summer Hold's history.

Noel turns away from the water and runs towards where Morden went. The man is still contemplating, and Noel can see the grave he stands by now. He slows down and gives the grave an apologetic nod before looking at Morden.

"You haven't left yet?" Morden asks him.

"I just want to know one more thing," Noel answers.

"I don't know everything about what happened, but... alright. Ask away."

"My name. If it isn't Noel, what is it? My full name, I mean. First and last."

Morden hesitates. Forgetting your own name is stupid, I know. Just answer already... please.

"Rael Ordius. That's what you introduced yourself as when we first met."

Ordius. He wonders what that name could mean. Maybe it's the obvious answer- "order". Maybe it didn't matter and "Rael Ordius" was just some cover name he came up with only for his stupid, amnesiac self to blow it. What did matter, though, was the fact that he apparently had a whole new name that others in this life knew him by.

This life.

A new life.

With a different name and face.

Had he been reincarnated? Had he forgotten the entirety of his current life while retaining the memories of his previous one?

If so, then this world knew of no Noel Marshall, knight of Summer Hold. It only knew Rael Ordius, a subject and escapee of deadly magic experiments. Noel had died long ago in the blast of some sort of massive magic bomb.

He couldn't protect himself, he couldn't protect his old home, and he couldn't protect his old world. But he was in the middle of trying to gain the power to do so before that world was destroyed. Maybe this was his second chance. Granted, he was already failing, considering Morden told him he had already seen so many die in this life too, but surely now...

...The only thing he can do is light the path ahead of him.

in-universe explanation for what happened: world of magic being shut down and turned into arcane odyssey was perceived as the world getting erased and recreated; noel marshall died in the erasure and was reincarnated as rael ordius. so he's sort of right but if we put the events on a chronological timeline there's some jeremy bearimy shit going on there

real life explanation: i made noel on a whim bc i just wanted to try light magic but then i got attached but i still didn't like the name he got or his half-assed design so i changed them when ao released 👍

i like to think that although his name, legally speaking, is now rael ordius, he still introduces himself as noel for the sake of not getting attention from anyone who might have been involved in the magic experiments (and also because of course he's just more used to it)

noel's "tragic backstory" with the explosion mages was a thing that happened to me while playing world of magic; i was chilling in summer hold when some negative rep explosion mage players came in and blew the place up, killing multiple npcs whose last names were marshall in the process, and since i was still low level i couldn't really do anything unless i wanted to get my ass blown up. so yes noel's family died while he helplessly watched and some random players out there are part of my oc lore

rael also has his own history with his locked-away memories but that's for another time