The Phoenix (Phoenix Universalis)

"My name is Phoenix Arcanum. I'm a friend. And I'm here to help"

- Phoenix Arcanum "The Phoenix", also known by his regnal name Phoenix Arcanum, is a young Renegade Time Lord who serves as both King of Terra (with de facto dominion over the Solar System) and Lord-Emperor (Head-of-State and Commander-in-Chief) of the Victoran Empire. He was chosen as the King of Terra after uniting the Xenos of Morhaven and the native Humans, shortly thereafter he was elected by the Imperial Parliament after prophecies of the Astro Imperialis marked him as  ("the King of Kings").

Temporal Historians and Archivists on Gallifrey claim that the activation of the Astro Imperialis, an ancient Time Lord superweapon, caused a major divergence in time, creating not only another timeline but a whole new Spiral Politic as well. Phoenix Arcanum has played such a prominent role in this new Universe that it has been nicknamed  'Phoenix Universalis'. Phoenix Universalis differs in a number of ways from the "Main Universe", even the Time Lords, their culture, and their history is slightly different than their "mainstream counterparts".

Childhood on Gallifrey
"Phoenix Arcanum" (real name unknown) was "born" on the planet Gallifrey into the House of Thaelixar. As was custom for Time Lords of the Great Houses, he wasn't born in the typical fashion of the "commoners" and was rather "grown" in a Loom. At some point during his looming, his bio-data developed numerous anomalies and mutations (the full extent of the mutation was not apparent until his eventual death and subsequent revival at Dormstagg) that earned him the disdain of many of his peers.

It would later become known (after his father's "return") that Arcanum was actually a genetic experiment. The Time Lord known as Bael Thaelixar (who was at the time a Scientist specializing in Genetics) interfered directly with Arcanum's looming (essentially becoming Arcanum's "Father") to create an "all-powerful weapon" in order to fight off 'the Time Lord's enemy' (later revealed to be Davros) during the Last Great Time War in Heaven. After which Bael would use Arcanum to conquer the Universe and restore the Time Lords to their former glory. When Arcanum failed to live up to expectations Bael attempted to "harden" him into a warrior through punishment and abuse (evident by the scar on Arcanum's left cheek).

This punishment formed a notable point of his life on Gallifrey along with the combat training his father he partook in. With the help of a nearby Outsider Tribe, Belial would take his brother out into the arid wastelands of their homeworld for hours on to train him in the art of combat and battlefield tactics. Belial hoped that with the training Phoenix would become an actual Gallifreyan warrior and not the perverted monster their father wished to create.

Belial also introduced his brother to an old hermit who lived within the wilderness beyond their family's property. This hermit turned out to be the spirit of the Apostate, a Time Lord of Ancient Galaxy who was once the Patriarch of the House of Thaelixar. The Apostate also served as the "genetic template" from which all family members of the House of Thaelixar were created. From a young age, Arcanum was taught the psionic arts by the Apostate's ghost who supposedly continues to teach and "haunt" him to this day.

As a child of one of the Great Houses Phoenix was eventually forced to enroll in the Time Lord Academy, where he was placed into the Prydonian Chapter (a Chapter that typically produced Gallifrey's politicians). Phoenix spent 2 years at the Academy until one night, on his tenth birthday, he was inexplicably moved to run away. With the help of his siblings Belial and Katyra, the three managed to break into a TARDIS junkyard where they found a Type 45 Mark 7 TT Capsule that was somehow left unlocked. The moment Phoenix entered through the main doors the sentient timeship activated itself, taking him far away from his homeworld. After he left Gallifrey, he forsook his birth name in favor of "the Phoenix".

Elysian War
Eventually, the Phoenix came into contact with and was enslaved by the militaristic Aetrian Empire. His new name would not last long as the Phoenix was given the serial code  'XIII-N-VII' (13-0-7) and had it branded on his back left shoulder. For the duration of his servitude, Phoenix was no longer referred to by his "name" and rather by his assigned number.

Following introductory training and numerous attempts at organic augmentation, "XIII-N-VII" was placed in the "Trench Corp" of the Second Penal Legion (slave armies that made up the backbone of the Aetrian military). Ten Penal Legions (including the Second Legion) were sent to Elysia, a planet at the very edge of the Andromeda Galaxy. While serving in the Corps, XIII-N-VII would become good friends with XXII-IV-XIX (22-4-19, aka Alex Graham), a "child mechanic" and the two would become combat partners for the remainder of the conflict.

After only a few months, XIII-IV-XIX, who had been forced to fight in the trenches under brutal conditions all while suffering constant abuse from his superiors, assaulted his commanding officer while she was celebrating the 213th anniversary of the formation Aetrian Empire (December 11th). This caused unrest within his Legion and ultimately lead to the Legion being imprisoned at the Fort Dormstagg Supermax Labor Camp the very same day. For an entire year the "Legionnaires" were forced to do brutal labor; such as excavating the expansive caverns and "bottom-less" mining shafts below the prison or constructing massive war machines. Besides the menial labor, XIII-N-VII suffered torture at the hands of his jailer, Erika Jager (a mere child who was previously the "junior officer" of the Second Legion), and was tormented to near death.

In a near-death dream he was met by the Celesti, and in exchange for being "revived" with a major power boost, he would agree to serve as 'Hope's Champion' and fight against 'the Enemy'. However, the stressful nature of his "resurrection" appeared to trigger the full affects of the bio-data mutation and awaken dormant genes (releasing both the "Wargod" and "Heightened Healing" abilities). XXIII-N-VII awoke in a state of feral blood lust and broke out of his containment. During his rampage he managed to free the inmates, slaughter his captors, and destroy the prison along with the surrounding city. At the climax of the "battle" XIII-N-VII came face-to-face with Jager, the young girl responsible for his death. The two began a brief fight before it was put to a halt as the building collapsed on top of them. XIII-N-VII had finally recovered from his blood-lust just in time to shield Erika from falling debris with his own body. They both survived (albeit XIII-N-VII was grievously injured and near death) and was pulled out of the ruins by his fellow escapees. Upon recovering his body the escapees presumed XIII-N-VII dead and sought to kill Erila whom they blamed for his death. Before they had the chance they were stopped by XIII-N-VII, whose wounds had healed themselves with minimal scarring. XIII-N-VII "ordered" (i.e. threatened) them to spare Jager and offered the aforementioned girl a "second chance"

The "Sacking of Dormstagg" gave new meaning to the epithet of "the Phoenix", a name XIII-N-VII would once again be known as. After the Battle of Dormstagg, the Phoenix lead his 'Liberavit' on an exodus to Satalia, capital of the native Elysians.

The Liberavit did eventually find their way to Satalia and pledged fealty to the Elysian Royal family. Juniper, a local Nymph granted a small potion of her domain to the Liberavit for them to construct the "city" of Liberond (which was nothing more than a large collection of wooden shacks and tents). News of the Second Legion's rebellion inspired similar events and eventually just under half of the Aetrian Legions had turned traitor and joined the ranks of the Liberavit under Arcanum's command. Over the next two years the Liberavit and their Elysian allies were able to slowly wear down Aetrian forces and force their withdrawal from the planet. On April 10th, 2016, the same day of the Aetrian retreat, the Liberavit and Elysians abandoned the planet before Aetrian reinforcements could arrive. The Elysian War refugees arrived in Mutter's Spiral (the Milky Way) split off into smaller fleets and colonized planets (including Earth and New Elysia) in the same galactic sector as the Sol System.

Beginning of the Victoran Empire and the Birth of a New Universe
One fleet of Elysian refugees (that included the forces of the Liberavit) arrived on Earth and took refuge around Cnoc Ailinne in Ireland and built the city of Morhaven, a haven for Xenos (non-Terran "aliens") stranded on Earth. The Xenos that made up Morhaven named themselves "Victorans" after the flagship Ark Victora that lead the original Elysian refugee fleet to Earth. Despite not actively taking part in the governance of Morhaven, Arcanum remained an influential figure (especially among the Liberavit) due to his deeds during the Elysian War.

Shortly after the construction of Mórhaven, the Victoran's found an odd curiosity within the Ark Victora's cargo hold, a miniature star perfectly contained within a glass-like orb the size of a basketball. The Victorans immediately set to work constructing a machine (dubbed the Astro Imperialis) that could harness the power of the star. The need for resources is what would lead to the series of conflicts known as the "Victoran Wars". The final battle of the Victoran Wars was the Battle of Terra, during which a group of renegade Victorans (with support of the majority of the Victoran Congress) burned several major Human cities to the ground.

The Phoenix stuck out as an "odd-ball" for not supporting the Terran Unification War. Eventually, the Phoenix used his influence as 'Hope's Champion' to give a speech outside the newly constructed Arx Aurum (later renamed Arx Arcanum), calling for an end to hostilities and cooperation between the Victorans and their neighbours. He claimed that together they could 'be so much more' and '[could] transform into something truly beautiful.' The speech was able to convinced the Victoran Council to draft a treaty to officially end the Victoran War. The Treaty of Terra was signed on November 27, 2017 that ended the Victoran War and subsequently created the "Victoran Empire" on Terra. For his role in uniting the Xenos and Humans as one Arcanum was chosen to be the King of Terra. Upon taking the throne, he chose the regnal name "Phoenix Arcanum" (based on the pseudonym he adopted whilst residing on an alternate Terra.)

After a stable interstellar government encompassing all of Morhaven's colonies and allies had been created and a Constitution written, the Imperial Parliament sought to elect a Lord-Emperor or Lady-Empress to lead the newfound Empire. Around this time the Astro Imperialis was complete and activated for the first time. It's first prophecy marked Phoenix Arcanum as, the King of Kings. And so it was that the Imperial Parliament unanimously "elected" The Phoenix (against his will) as the first Lord Emperor of the Victoran Empire.

The success of Human-Xenos cooperation became the basis of the Great Crusade that began a few months after.

However the most notable event that happened on November 27th was the activation of the Astro Imperialis, which was actually an ancient Time Lord superweapon which fell through time and ended up in the Ark Victora's cargo hold. The Astro Imperialis' activation cause a massive divergence in time that not only created a new time-line, but a whole new Spiral Politic.