Aurex is a walking memento mori. Beneath his tattered grey travel hood lies a literal golden skull, smooth and metallic in texture but organic in shape, fused into his withered flesh. His eyes are not orbs but pinpricks of intense amber light deep within the sockets. He wears silver etched chain mail that looks like it has been through a furnace, often hidden by rags and a heavy tattered cloak. When he speaks, his jaw does not move, his voice echoing from the chest cavity instead.

Aurex is a man of few words and deliberate movements. He carries a heavy weight of failed duty, manifesting as a soft spoken but absolute commitment to those who have lost everything. He is patient to a fault, often standing perfectly still for hours in a doorway to watch for threats. Despite his terrifying look, he treats children and animals with a gentleness that borders on the divine.

Ten years ago, the village of Oakhaven was erased from the map by a pillar of white fire that turned stone to ash and flesh to smoke. From the center of the crater, Aurex crawled forth. He was once something higher, perhaps a solar servant or a chosen champion, but now he is merely a remnant. His skin was burned away to reveal the divine gold of his internal structure, and his memories were scoured by the same light that took the village. He became a local legend in the surrounding woods, the silent skeletal man who fixes fences in the night and kills wolves with a hand that glows with sun-fire. He is the quiet ghost of Oakhaven, a folk hero to those who have seen his mercy, and a demon to those who judge by sight. He wanders the borders of the disaster sites, searching for clues about the white fire and the agency behind it. He knows he is being hunted. The Inquisitors of the Radiant Pillar see him as a blasphemous imitation of the divine, while monster hunters see a prize in his golden bones. He continues his journey, protecting the small and forgotten while piecing together the fragments of his previous life.