World info // etc. details // miserable sorcerers and you!
Because I absolutely adore building on the little details of Lazarus' world (and because the tangled mass of ideas it is so far would almost certainly be confusing), here's a crash course in Eidolon. Expect more to be added on as I come up with it.
What is Lazarus' world like?
As a whole, parts thrown in during the World-Forge and all, the entire shebang is simply known according to native dialects and chosen titles, making travel to areas outside of one's home nation and/or continent rather difficult and more than slightly dangerous. (Nobody can settle on one name.) For example, Docelle is more or less ruled by sorcery (while it can seem that those in political and monetary power have actual decision-making reign, the sorcerer brotherhood possess the real power and form the backbone of the magical-based society. Piss off the sorcerers, you fuck yourself royally.) and therefore the magical brotherhood make most of the very important decisions, considering they offer real protection from the otherworldly threats faced by the nation from without and from within.
Docelle, the original world from which all others were grafted onto during the World-Forge, refers to the world as Eidolon. It considers itself the most powerful and influential nation, possessing the oldest history out of any other and the most magical power in the way of its sorcerers. Most other nations will recognize the name Eidolon, though their people will use their own term over it if the nations aren't on particularly good terms. Its government form is based heavily on the sorcerers, so much so that the government is more of a puppet system to deal with mundane things like non-magical laws and governing the peasants while the real decisions of power are made by magic councils consisting of elder sorcerers. Above that, there is the highest council in the land formed to deal with the matters threatening Eidolonic security. This jury is rarely put into use and consists of four Magi headed by a fifth and extremely ancient Magus by the name of Drel.
York hails from another form of planet relatively close to Eidolon's original form, but depressingly lacking in magical elements and instead possessing astronomical technological feats compared to Docelle's modest machines. York's original land was said to be called Earth - York itself is a relatively small nation but its amount of technology is impressive and trade with neighboring nations has put it in a position of power. It was originally known as New York, a "state" - but after the World-Forge, someone asked why they called it New York if this world had no original York to compare it to. It seems to have stuck, and the "New" in New York was gradually phased out until York is all that remains. Official documents continue to list it as "New York" despite this. York continues to practice its homeworld's form of democracy by representation, and is often at odds with Docelle's "puppetmasters pulling the strings from the shadows" form of government.
Alright, that's great. But what's Docelle like?
Docelle is a land deeply rich in magic and, as someone from York would probably say, elements fit to come from a fantasy novel. The continent is rather large, probably around the size of Asia, and separated into many many smaller countries and territories. Vast wilds and plains still cover the land, which are also covered in creatures both mundane and fantastic. Some resemble Earth's creatures (example: they have rabbits and deer), and some... don't. (example: the Ziu is a psychic being that tends to eat and eventually replace an unsuspecting human's shadow; after the shadow is eaten, well... a man might turn around on a sunny day to look down at his shadow and see that it's become an unnameable horror of spindly and sword-sharp broken limbs, human jaw open far beyond its hinges and filled with jagged, crooked teeth, and waiting for the sun's setting to bring it closer to its human host (or into night, which is nothing but shadows...)
As mentioned, the government relies heavily upon the sorcerous brotherhood. Not necessarily because it wants to (in fact, many citizens without magical inclination are rather bitter towards their class situation in comparison to the sorcerers') but because it is forced to. Not many regular humans are capable of fighting the magical beasts that sorcerers are regularly called in to deal with, and very very few are able to do it as quickly or as well. Territories that do not want to be under the sorcerer's rule are welcome to say so - but in doing so, they sacrifice the sorcerer's protection as well. As it stands, only a handful of territories have chosen this option, and fewer have had it last for more than a decade. Meldros remains the only country to have rejected sorcerer rule for little over... oh, around a century. The Knights of Meldros are therefore in very high demand - and the few that leave their home country to act as human mercenaries to those who will pay their exorbitant prices are often rich men and women, provided they survive long enough to enjoy those riches.
The sorcerers Docelle relies on as its lifeblood can be either loved heroes or hated psychopaths - the brotherhood will call on them either way if they are of sufficient skill and do not pose a direct threat to the organization. They're amazingly powerful men and women ("Sorcerer" is the generic term, though witch, wizard, sorceress, and other titles denoting magical inheritance are all accepted) capable of feats only thought possible in dreams, often possessing a surefire ticket to a higher class of life than regular non-magical civilians. In fact, they're almost guaranteed a job (as sorcerers in the workforce are in constant high demand, and otherwise a skilled alchemist can sell their potions and other wares for a pretty penny) and a comfortable life.
However, your quality of life - magical or not - fully depends on your luck.
The lucky ones are born human - completely human - and live out a quiet life in normalcy. Or they're born as sorcerers who are never "awoken" to their magic for some reason or another (inhibition by emotional stressors, carefully smothered by magic eating substances, etc.) and live out their life carefully human.
The very lucky ones will be born sorcerer to good families; once their schooling is done, they will have plenty of money to rely on and won't have to worry about the social issues a "normal" human of equal or lower class would have.
The unlucky are either poor humans or, worse, poor sorcerers. Lazarus did not fall into this category when he was born; in fact, he was living in a comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle at the time of his Manifestation. Then he was sent away, coincidentally at the same time as another young boy he'd been friendly with who had been in a somewhat poorer monetary situation than himself.
So what's a sorcerer's life like?
Sorcerers are more or less screwed from birth.
Magic wears on the sanity of the users; the more powerful a sorcerer, the quicker they lose their minds. Lazarus is a mediocre magician, neither particularly skilled nor particularly horrible - and even he's starting to feel the wear on his psyche, at just near thirty. Siva, in comparison, was much more attuned with his magic and while odd, only seemed to legitimately go insane near the end. Lazarus attributes it to the stress of returning home and deciding his future, though he really doesn't have any idea what actually went wrong with his closest (only) friend.
In school, all magic users are taught that they are unto God. They're superior to the peasants that can't harness magic. In fact, official documents in Docelle refer to sorcerers by the name "demigod". Docelle is very, very proud of its magic users and it instills in them a sense of superiority; they are better than the low breed. Lazarus too grew up with this frame of mind, brushing off commoners in the city and marching through as if his being magical made him a king. It took losing everything he had and having to rely on the people he shunned to snap him out of it and make him instead grow a bit bitter towards the smug superiority that the magically-inclined carry around.
In secret, the Brotherhood spins a prophecy for every magic user that walks through the doors of the academy. They are never to see their own prophecies; this is only for the administrators of the government to plan with. Lazarus has one, Siva has one, they all have one.
Sorcerers go on their pilgrimages once they graduate from the academy; that is, they travel across the land, both within Docelle's borders and without, and visit various temples established on the olden times by great magicians that almost always eventually became Magi. Rich sorcerers are usually able to live without going on the pilgrimage, while others make their own way in the world. Unfinished pilgrimages are usually rather frowned upon by the upper hierarchy, but little contact is usually made with them anyway so nobody really minds. Lazarus and Siva had no homes to return to once Nai burnt, and once Siva disappeared on the path of the pilgrimage, Lazarus was obliged to follow.
The pilgrimage is also incredibly fucking dangerous.
It's the only path to becoming a Magus; the only way. And while becoming a Magus ensures a high place in society and a life of comfort, the path there is designed by nature to test the traveler to their boundaries. If Lazarus had had a choice in the matter, he probably wouldn't have actually gone on it at all and spent his life quietly in Nai. Siva changed all that, and so Lazarus was obliged to go on this journey - albeit grudgingly. Siva follows the path of the pilgrimage, for reasons Lazarus doesn't know quite yet, and stopping at the temples brings him slowly closer and closer to his quarry.
Richer sorcerers are often able to travel their pilgrimage in relative comfort; warm tavern hotel rooms, good food, some merriment now and again. Lazarus is of the "dirt poor" variety, and so he more or less lives where he can, finds what he can, eats what won't kill him, and kills what won't kill him first. It's a rough existence, but he's getting rather good at it.
Well that sucks.
Sure does.
Let's hear about magic.
Magic is divided into many, many subsections, and every sorcerer has a specialty. Lazarus' is necromancy. Siva's is healing. The great Magus Kaldoon's was fire magic (and he routinely relaxed in boiling hot geysers to prove it and his tolerance of heat), while Lechel's was lightning (she created a lovely and rather hideous version of daisy that shocks anyone who brushes it with a heart-stopping amount of electricity).
There are the basics: fire, earth, air, and water. Creating fire from nothing requires drawing on one's own body heat and the heat of the surrounding air, while water relies on humidity and the body's own water content. Earth is just moving the earth, and air is just... well, moving the air. There are advanced subsections of these four, including lightning and ice, but those are even more difficult to get a hold of than the first four.
Then you've got life and death: this includes revival and necromancy, as well as killing and healing. They directly offset one another: someone very skilled in killing people is more often than not mediocre in bringing them back to life. Lazarus is good at bringing dead things back to semi-life and to make things dead or aligned with killing the shit out of people obey him, but he's a failure at swaying alive things to his will or reviving them to a fully biologically sound state. Siva, on the other hand, is excellent at bringing dead things back to full life and can sway living things under his will - but fails at controlling the dead.
Considering necromancers and healers often loathe one another and one another's work, there are certain complicated spells and wards against their kinds. If someone got a hold of a ward against necromancers, for example, and drew it on the door of a building, Lazarus couldn't even touch any part of said building. Wards can be broken, but it takes sorcerous skill higher than that of the person (or people; more complicated wards for larger areas often need multiple people) that cast the ward in the first place.
Wait, what's this about names?
When sorcerers graduate from the academy as journeyman magic users, certain things happen:
1. Their hands are branded and inked. The tattoos are, in fact, the symbol used for the creation of the Philosopher's Stone - something that has never been created successfully. It's mostly just a sigil symbolizing striving for perfection and enlightenment, along with the undeniable threads of fate that they all follow.
2. They are granted a journeyman sorcerer's cloak and, if they so choose, jewelry that shows their rank in society.
3. They are to give up their birth names and take another, one of their choice. (During academy years, they only go by their middle names so as not to prematurely give their full names away.) A sorcerer can never go back to using their real name after this point - to know a sorcerer's true name is to control their magic and influence their will.
To wit, if someone were to discover Lazarus' name and to command him by it, he would feel the urge to follow said command; the sensation would be comparable with an OCD sufferer's compulsions. There would be a feeling of doom and something will go terribly wrong if he weren't to do what he was told, though a mage can resist this if they have enough willpower. If they decided he would not use his magic, that it was beyond his reach... well, Lazarus would be unable to use magic until the commander gave him control again. The connection between a sorcerer and their controller is a bit like a knight and a lord; in ideal circumstances, it's exactly like a knight and their lord (since the addition of different worlds, the old names for the ranks have fallen out of mainstream use and a sorcerer and the sorcerer's master are "Knights" and "Lords"). Only death can do the sorcerer and their master part or break the bond between them.
In the best of circumstances, a sorcerer willingly gives someone their name. This is, again, like a knight swearing lifelong allegiance to their lord. The traditional way of doing this is for the sorcerer to take a knee, put a hand over their heart and say the line "I grant you my life," and for the other to respond with "then grant me your name," but the words don't really matter as long as the general message is intact. Knights can take on this burden and exchange their freedom for a variety of reasons; the Brotherhood strongly discourages divulging names to spouses or children, for instance, but very close friends have been known to become one another's Knights, and a sorcerer giving their name is the ultimate show of allegiance in the magical world. In worse circumstances, someone may take a sorcerer's name through guile and then render them useless for the rest of their life, or force them into servitude to have their magic at all.
A Knight killing their Lord, no matter the circumstance, is a high crime in Docelle and automatically punished with excommunication from the sorcerer community. Excommunication entails the hands being burnt to blacken and destroy the sigil of the Stone, the sorcerer being stripped of their magic, and them being exiled from Docelle entirely.
Why does Lazarus talk about this Rozalin chick whenever he's about to go Batman?
Short answer: sorcerers take a totem god or spirit of worship at some point in time; it's tradition, and to stay without one is considered very bad luck, because nothing is watching over you for when you need guidance or protection. In olden times it was just limited to the spirits and gods of Eidolon; after the World-Forge, however, there are hundreds upon hundreds of new gods and spirits for sorcerers to choose, depending on what they've been exposed to and their own personal preferences. Totem gods or spirits can range from Death, the traditional gods of Docelle, the Greek or Roman pantheon, Christ, Buddha, the planet itself, the breeze, Shub Niggurath, or nothingness, not to mention fairies or vampires or Ziu or basically whatever spirits the sorcerer chooses. (It is frowned heavily upon for a sorcerer to choose a person - not a religious figure, but an average person - as their totem spirit, but not illegal. Lazarus is looked down upon in the magical community for his totem spirit.)
The long answer: Lazarus once, while still attending the academy, met a young woman dozing naked in the rose gardens around the premises. He spooked her, she socked him with a nasty right hook to the eye and fled. A year later he met her again (clothed but still frolicking in the roses), and got her name. She would not tell him her name; only said to call her Rozalin. Lazarus and Rozalin met briefly and irregularly throughout the next five years, throughout Lazarus' ninth year in the academy; they eventually established a friendship, then a camaraderie, then a romance - eventually Rozalin revealed to him that she wished she were a sorcerer as well. Lazarus suggested that they split his magic, so that she could have magic and the speed at which he lost his mind would slow down considerably, and then they would go and live out their lives together somewhere far off and beautiful.
Eventually Siva became concerned with Lazarus' growing obsession with Rozalin (and Rozalin's family towards her obsession with Lazarus). He tried to talk sense into his friend, and was casually rebuked. He attempted to speak reason to Rozalin, and was slapped for his efforts. Then he found out Lazarus' and Rozalin's plans to run away together after doing something stupid and reckless like magic transfer, and discreetly informed the Academy and Rozalin's folks, both of which instantly set after the two. Desperate, they ran away together to the rose gardens and set to their ritual; Lazarus, rushed, made several terrible mistakes in this ritual. When they cast the spell, it backfired terribly: it tore Rozalin down. Mercifully, due to the magic absorbed by the roses (contributed near entirely by Lazarus, who had made them so by using his magic to do tricks for and amuse Rozalin), she wasn't physically ripped to pieces - she instead became rose petals, and blew away in the wind. Siva arrived in time to save Lazarus from the same fate, but (and Lazarus would only realize this later), made no attempt to save Rozalin.
The academy quietly smothered the outrage of Rozalin's family, and then took care to cover up what Lazarus and Rozalin had done. Lazarus was forbidden to leave the academy building proper without it being for a class or with Siva as a chaperon, or face excommunication from the magical community entirely. For the last four months of that year and nine months of the next, Lazarus would barely speak to Siva (and never warmly), and spent his time alone when not in class. Eventually Siva took Lazarus out to the rose gardens, forced him out there, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of him. At least until Lazarus fought back, managing throughout the night to get all of his hatred and guilt and feelings of worthlessness out into the open. Siva made him overcome it, let him alone to speak to Rozalin's rose patch, and then took him back to their dorm. The last three months were catharsis. Then they graduated, once again best friends, and soon after they went home to Nai. Siva went insane soon after and burned the town to the ground.
Lazarus, throughout his schooling, was unswayed to any particular totem god or spirit. Now his spirit is Rozalin, and his sigil is the rose.
What is Lazarus' world like?
As a whole, parts thrown in during the World-Forge and all, the entire shebang is simply known according to native dialects and chosen titles, making travel to areas outside of one's home nation and/or continent rather difficult and more than slightly dangerous. (Nobody can settle on one name.) For example, Docelle is more or less ruled by sorcery (while it can seem that those in political and monetary power have actual decision-making reign, the sorcerer brotherhood possess the real power and form the backbone of the magical-based society. Piss off the sorcerers, you fuck yourself royally.) and therefore the magical brotherhood make most of the very important decisions, considering they offer real protection from the otherworldly threats faced by the nation from without and from within.
Docelle, the original world from which all others were grafted onto during the World-Forge, refers to the world as Eidolon. It considers itself the most powerful and influential nation, possessing the oldest history out of any other and the most magical power in the way of its sorcerers. Most other nations will recognize the name Eidolon, though their people will use their own term over it if the nations aren't on particularly good terms. Its government form is based heavily on the sorcerers, so much so that the government is more of a puppet system to deal with mundane things like non-magical laws and governing the peasants while the real decisions of power are made by magic councils consisting of elder sorcerers. Above that, there is the highest council in the land formed to deal with the matters threatening Eidolonic security. This jury is rarely put into use and consists of four Magi headed by a fifth and extremely ancient Magus by the name of Drel.
York hails from another form of planet relatively close to Eidolon's original form, but depressingly lacking in magical elements and instead possessing astronomical technological feats compared to Docelle's modest machines. York's original land was said to be called Earth - York itself is a relatively small nation but its amount of technology is impressive and trade with neighboring nations has put it in a position of power. It was originally known as New York, a "state" - but after the World-Forge, someone asked why they called it New York if this world had no original York to compare it to. It seems to have stuck, and the "New" in New York was gradually phased out until York is all that remains. Official documents continue to list it as "New York" despite this. York continues to practice its homeworld's form of democracy by representation, and is often at odds with Docelle's "puppetmasters pulling the strings from the shadows" form of government.
Alright, that's great. But what's Docelle like?
Docelle is a land deeply rich in magic and, as someone from York would probably say, elements fit to come from a fantasy novel. The continent is rather large, probably around the size of Asia, and separated into many many smaller countries and territories. Vast wilds and plains still cover the land, which are also covered in creatures both mundane and fantastic. Some resemble Earth's creatures (example: they have rabbits and deer), and some... don't. (example: the Ziu is a psychic being that tends to eat and eventually replace an unsuspecting human's shadow; after the shadow is eaten, well... a man might turn around on a sunny day to look down at his shadow and see that it's become an unnameable horror of spindly and sword-sharp broken limbs, human jaw open far beyond its hinges and filled with jagged, crooked teeth, and waiting for the sun's setting to bring it closer to its human host (or into night, which is nothing but shadows...)
As mentioned, the government relies heavily upon the sorcerous brotherhood. Not necessarily because it wants to (in fact, many citizens without magical inclination are rather bitter towards their class situation in comparison to the sorcerers') but because it is forced to. Not many regular humans are capable of fighting the magical beasts that sorcerers are regularly called in to deal with, and very very few are able to do it as quickly or as well. Territories that do not want to be under the sorcerer's rule are welcome to say so - but in doing so, they sacrifice the sorcerer's protection as well. As it stands, only a handful of territories have chosen this option, and fewer have had it last for more than a decade. Meldros remains the only country to have rejected sorcerer rule for little over... oh, around a century. The Knights of Meldros are therefore in very high demand - and the few that leave their home country to act as human mercenaries to those who will pay their exorbitant prices are often rich men and women, provided they survive long enough to enjoy those riches.
The sorcerers Docelle relies on as its lifeblood can be either loved heroes or hated psychopaths - the brotherhood will call on them either way if they are of sufficient skill and do not pose a direct threat to the organization. They're amazingly powerful men and women ("Sorcerer" is the generic term, though witch, wizard, sorceress, and other titles denoting magical inheritance are all accepted) capable of feats only thought possible in dreams, often possessing a surefire ticket to a higher class of life than regular non-magical civilians. In fact, they're almost guaranteed a job (as sorcerers in the workforce are in constant high demand, and otherwise a skilled alchemist can sell their potions and other wares for a pretty penny) and a comfortable life.
However, your quality of life - magical or not - fully depends on your luck.
The lucky ones are born human - completely human - and live out a quiet life in normalcy. Or they're born as sorcerers who are never "awoken" to their magic for some reason or another (inhibition by emotional stressors, carefully smothered by magic eating substances, etc.) and live out their life carefully human.
The very lucky ones will be born sorcerer to good families; once their schooling is done, they will have plenty of money to rely on and won't have to worry about the social issues a "normal" human of equal or lower class would have.
The unlucky are either poor humans or, worse, poor sorcerers. Lazarus did not fall into this category when he was born; in fact, he was living in a comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle at the time of his Manifestation. Then he was sent away, coincidentally at the same time as another young boy he'd been friendly with who had been in a somewhat poorer monetary situation than himself.
So what's a sorcerer's life like?
Sorcerers are more or less screwed from birth.
Magic wears on the sanity of the users; the more powerful a sorcerer, the quicker they lose their minds. Lazarus is a mediocre magician, neither particularly skilled nor particularly horrible - and even he's starting to feel the wear on his psyche, at just near thirty. Siva, in comparison, was much more attuned with his magic and while odd, only seemed to legitimately go insane near the end. Lazarus attributes it to the stress of returning home and deciding his future, though he really doesn't have any idea what actually went wrong with his closest (only) friend.
In school, all magic users are taught that they are unto God. They're superior to the peasants that can't harness magic. In fact, official documents in Docelle refer to sorcerers by the name "demigod". Docelle is very, very proud of its magic users and it instills in them a sense of superiority; they are better than the low breed. Lazarus too grew up with this frame of mind, brushing off commoners in the city and marching through as if his being magical made him a king. It took losing everything he had and having to rely on the people he shunned to snap him out of it and make him instead grow a bit bitter towards the smug superiority that the magically-inclined carry around.
In secret, the Brotherhood spins a prophecy for every magic user that walks through the doors of the academy. They are never to see their own prophecies; this is only for the administrators of the government to plan with. Lazarus has one, Siva has one, they all have one.
Sorcerers go on their pilgrimages once they graduate from the academy; that is, they travel across the land, both within Docelle's borders and without, and visit various temples established on the olden times by great magicians that almost always eventually became Magi. Rich sorcerers are usually able to live without going on the pilgrimage, while others make their own way in the world. Unfinished pilgrimages are usually rather frowned upon by the upper hierarchy, but little contact is usually made with them anyway so nobody really minds. Lazarus and Siva had no homes to return to once Nai burnt, and once Siva disappeared on the path of the pilgrimage, Lazarus was obliged to follow.
The pilgrimage is also incredibly fucking dangerous.
It's the only path to becoming a Magus; the only way. And while becoming a Magus ensures a high place in society and a life of comfort, the path there is designed by nature to test the traveler to their boundaries. If Lazarus had had a choice in the matter, he probably wouldn't have actually gone on it at all and spent his life quietly in Nai. Siva changed all that, and so Lazarus was obliged to go on this journey - albeit grudgingly. Siva follows the path of the pilgrimage, for reasons Lazarus doesn't know quite yet, and stopping at the temples brings him slowly closer and closer to his quarry.
Richer sorcerers are often able to travel their pilgrimage in relative comfort; warm tavern hotel rooms, good food, some merriment now and again. Lazarus is of the "dirt poor" variety, and so he more or less lives where he can, finds what he can, eats what won't kill him, and kills what won't kill him first. It's a rough existence, but he's getting rather good at it.
Well that sucks.
Sure does.
Let's hear about magic.
Magic is divided into many, many subsections, and every sorcerer has a specialty. Lazarus' is necromancy. Siva's is healing. The great Magus Kaldoon's was fire magic (and he routinely relaxed in boiling hot geysers to prove it and his tolerance of heat), while Lechel's was lightning (she created a lovely and rather hideous version of daisy that shocks anyone who brushes it with a heart-stopping amount of electricity).
There are the basics: fire, earth, air, and water. Creating fire from nothing requires drawing on one's own body heat and the heat of the surrounding air, while water relies on humidity and the body's own water content. Earth is just moving the earth, and air is just... well, moving the air. There are advanced subsections of these four, including lightning and ice, but those are even more difficult to get a hold of than the first four.
Then you've got life and death: this includes revival and necromancy, as well as killing and healing. They directly offset one another: someone very skilled in killing people is more often than not mediocre in bringing them back to life. Lazarus is good at bringing dead things back to semi-life and to make things dead or aligned with killing the shit out of people obey him, but he's a failure at swaying alive things to his will or reviving them to a fully biologically sound state. Siva, on the other hand, is excellent at bringing dead things back to full life and can sway living things under his will - but fails at controlling the dead.
Considering necromancers and healers often loathe one another and one another's work, there are certain complicated spells and wards against their kinds. If someone got a hold of a ward against necromancers, for example, and drew it on the door of a building, Lazarus couldn't even touch any part of said building. Wards can be broken, but it takes sorcerous skill higher than that of the person (or people; more complicated wards for larger areas often need multiple people) that cast the ward in the first place.
Wait, what's this about names?
When sorcerers graduate from the academy as journeyman magic users, certain things happen:
1. Their hands are branded and inked. The tattoos are, in fact, the symbol used for the creation of the Philosopher's Stone - something that has never been created successfully. It's mostly just a sigil symbolizing striving for perfection and enlightenment, along with the undeniable threads of fate that they all follow.
2. They are granted a journeyman sorcerer's cloak and, if they so choose, jewelry that shows their rank in society.
3. They are to give up their birth names and take another, one of their choice. (During academy years, they only go by their middle names so as not to prematurely give their full names away.) A sorcerer can never go back to using their real name after this point - to know a sorcerer's true name is to control their magic and influence their will.
To wit, if someone were to discover Lazarus' name and to command him by it, he would feel the urge to follow said command; the sensation would be comparable with an OCD sufferer's compulsions. There would be a feeling of doom and something will go terribly wrong if he weren't to do what he was told, though a mage can resist this if they have enough willpower. If they decided he would not use his magic, that it was beyond his reach... well, Lazarus would be unable to use magic until the commander gave him control again. The connection between a sorcerer and their controller is a bit like a knight and a lord; in ideal circumstances, it's exactly like a knight and their lord (since the addition of different worlds, the old names for the ranks have fallen out of mainstream use and a sorcerer and the sorcerer's master are "Knights" and "Lords"). Only death can do the sorcerer and their master part or break the bond between them.
In the best of circumstances, a sorcerer willingly gives someone their name. This is, again, like a knight swearing lifelong allegiance to their lord. The traditional way of doing this is for the sorcerer to take a knee, put a hand over their heart and say the line "I grant you my life," and for the other to respond with "then grant me your name," but the words don't really matter as long as the general message is intact. Knights can take on this burden and exchange their freedom for a variety of reasons; the Brotherhood strongly discourages divulging names to spouses or children, for instance, but very close friends have been known to become one another's Knights, and a sorcerer giving their name is the ultimate show of allegiance in the magical world. In worse circumstances, someone may take a sorcerer's name through guile and then render them useless for the rest of their life, or force them into servitude to have their magic at all.
A Knight killing their Lord, no matter the circumstance, is a high crime in Docelle and automatically punished with excommunication from the sorcerer community. Excommunication entails the hands being burnt to blacken and destroy the sigil of the Stone, the sorcerer being stripped of their magic, and them being exiled from Docelle entirely.
Why does Lazarus talk about this Rozalin chick whenever he's about to go Batman?
Short answer: sorcerers take a totem god or spirit of worship at some point in time; it's tradition, and to stay without one is considered very bad luck, because nothing is watching over you for when you need guidance or protection. In olden times it was just limited to the spirits and gods of Eidolon; after the World-Forge, however, there are hundreds upon hundreds of new gods and spirits for sorcerers to choose, depending on what they've been exposed to and their own personal preferences. Totem gods or spirits can range from Death, the traditional gods of Docelle, the Greek or Roman pantheon, Christ, Buddha, the planet itself, the breeze, Shub Niggurath, or nothingness, not to mention fairies or vampires or Ziu or basically whatever spirits the sorcerer chooses. (It is frowned heavily upon for a sorcerer to choose a person - not a religious figure, but an average person - as their totem spirit, but not illegal. Lazarus is looked down upon in the magical community for his totem spirit.)
The long answer: Lazarus once, while still attending the academy, met a young woman dozing naked in the rose gardens around the premises. He spooked her, she socked him with a nasty right hook to the eye and fled. A year later he met her again (clothed but still frolicking in the roses), and got her name. She would not tell him her name; only said to call her Rozalin. Lazarus and Rozalin met briefly and irregularly throughout the next five years, throughout Lazarus' ninth year in the academy; they eventually established a friendship, then a camaraderie, then a romance - eventually Rozalin revealed to him that she wished she were a sorcerer as well. Lazarus suggested that they split his magic, so that she could have magic and the speed at which he lost his mind would slow down considerably, and then they would go and live out their lives together somewhere far off and beautiful.
Eventually Siva became concerned with Lazarus' growing obsession with Rozalin (and Rozalin's family towards her obsession with Lazarus). He tried to talk sense into his friend, and was casually rebuked. He attempted to speak reason to Rozalin, and was slapped for his efforts. Then he found out Lazarus' and Rozalin's plans to run away together after doing something stupid and reckless like magic transfer, and discreetly informed the Academy and Rozalin's folks, both of which instantly set after the two. Desperate, they ran away together to the rose gardens and set to their ritual; Lazarus, rushed, made several terrible mistakes in this ritual. When they cast the spell, it backfired terribly: it tore Rozalin down. Mercifully, due to the magic absorbed by the roses (contributed near entirely by Lazarus, who had made them so by using his magic to do tricks for and amuse Rozalin), she wasn't physically ripped to pieces - she instead became rose petals, and blew away in the wind. Siva arrived in time to save Lazarus from the same fate, but (and Lazarus would only realize this later), made no attempt to save Rozalin.
The academy quietly smothered the outrage of Rozalin's family, and then took care to cover up what Lazarus and Rozalin had done. Lazarus was forbidden to leave the academy building proper without it being for a class or with Siva as a chaperon, or face excommunication from the magical community entirely. For the last four months of that year and nine months of the next, Lazarus would barely speak to Siva (and never warmly), and spent his time alone when not in class. Eventually Siva took Lazarus out to the rose gardens, forced him out there, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of him. At least until Lazarus fought back, managing throughout the night to get all of his hatred and guilt and feelings of worthlessness out into the open. Siva made him overcome it, let him alone to speak to Rozalin's rose patch, and then took him back to their dorm. The last three months were catharsis. Then they graduated, once again best friends, and soon after they went home to Nai. Siva went insane soon after and burned the town to the ground.
Lazarus, throughout his schooling, was unswayed to any particular totem god or spirit. Now his spirit is Rozalin, and his sigil is the rose.