Cornelius is an antagonist in Lessons from Lainecrest and Lessons from Lainecrest: Testament.
Cornelius is a leader of the Shadowcraft class and will be released as an obtainable leader skin in a future update.
Personality[]
Cornelius is an arrogant and machiavellian man, incapable of caring about anything besides himself and his fixation with magic. He has a complete lack of appreciation for life, being willing to sacrifice even his own wife to gain power.
Cornelius's philosophy is that everyone, including himself, is but a pawn meant to unlock the secrets of magic and that conflict is need to awaken the hidden talents of others through survival. He created Lainecrest with the sole goal of turning it into a battlefield to unlock the potential of the students, no matter how many have to die.
Story[]
History[]
Cornelius was a powerful and feared necromancer and army general, nicknamed the "Corpse King" for his skill in manipulating reanimated soldiers. He is the founder and director of the Lainescrest Academy, where he is dedicated to helping promising young people reach their potential with magic. This however is a cover for a dark plot to achieve the secrets of magic by pitting the students against death. He also plotted to kill students who would become his undead soldiers.
He married a woman seeing as an excellent candidate for his necromancy because of her weak health and having the capability to produce a powerful heir. Despite ignoring his son Lyelth during his childhood, Cornelius paid more attention to him when he was dedicated to his studies and taught him his methods, including how to conceal one's emotions to avoid showing weakness.
However, one day Lyelth reckless tried to show his mother an incantation that would increase mana efficiency, but it was far beyond his abilities, and something went wrong. After being exposed to Lyelth's magic, his mother's condition grew worse and the incantation somehow stripped Lyelth of his ability to use magic.
When Cornelius came home that night and discovered the death of Lyelth's mother, he was excited by her passing and used his magic to resurrect her as an undead soldier. Cornelius reveals this was the reason Lyelth's mother married into his household and Lyelth, overwhelmed with grief and horror, fled his father's home with only her mother's puppets.
Lessons from Lainecrest[]
Verdilia goes to see the headmaster Cornelius to question him on why he created the graduation requirement for the independent track when he allowed their autonomy. Cornelious claims his methods are to make the students grow and mature and her task of recruiting Amaryllis and Lyelth was a test to prove her worth as a teacher after an undisclosed incident last year. Verdilia reveals her wager with Lyelth and that she knows he is Cornelius' son base on their identical personalities that strive for success and power. She reveals all of Lyelth's planning is to take down Cornelius and asks why he holds a grudge against him. Cornelius cryptically answers that parenthood has its challenges and Lyelth is closer to his mother than him. Knowing Cornelius won't divulge anything else, Verdilia leaves. Weiss asks Cornelious if he gave to few hints to Verdilia, but Cornelius knows how clever Verdilia is and believes she has more then enough information to work with. Cornelius waits to see how his students will prove to be his worthy foes.
Lessons from Lainecrest: Testament[]
Cornelius discovers Lilium has taken action and deduces Weiss is responsible for giving her the push to start her attack. He summons undead soldiers to fight Lilium's dragons and revels in the chance to battle.
On the way to confront his father, Lyelth witnesses some students aided by Lillium's dragons and professors aided by Cornelius's undead blaming each other for the attack and realizes that the same thing is likely happening all over the school. Lyelth fights his way through the undead soldiers and finds Cornelius in the courtyard. When Lyelth reaches his father, Cornelius still considers him a failure and not worthy of his time. Cornelius then summons the corpse of Lyelth's mother to use against him, but Lyelth is still determined to fight and show Cornelius what Verdilia has taught him about the true meaning of victory.
Lyelth is furious that Cornelius has weaponized his mother's corpse and Cornelius explains his necromancy's power depends on the strength of the individual he revives, and he set about personally acquiring powerful individuals. He married Lyelth's mother seeing her as an excellent candidate for his magic because of her weak health and having the capability to produce a powerful heir, though the latter plan failed when Lyelth lost his magic. Cornelius asks Lyelth why his is fighting him and Lyelth answers it is to achieve victory over Cornelius and make him pay for his inhuman selfishness. Lyelth realizes the people who have gone missing were killed to be Cornelius's soldiers and to thin down those Cornelius deemed unfit or unworthy for his plan. Disgusted at how Cornelius views everyone, even himself, as dispensable and vows to stop his father's mad ambitions. Cornelius mocks the idea that Lyelth can defeat his mother's corpse, and the countless others he has saved up, but Lyelth doesn't waver and battles his mother's corpse.
Lyelth manages to destroy his mother's corpse, but at the cost of sacrificing his puppets. Cornelius is unfazed and points out he has countless replacement corpses ready while Lyelth's weapons are gone. He summons more soldiers to fight, but Lyelth remembers his lessons with Verdilia and figures out he can use his puppet's strings, which were enchanted by his mother, to take control of the corpses. Lyelth admits that while he did not inherit his father's magic, he inherited his precision dexterity. He points out that Cornelius directly controls his corpses with mana strings to control them like Lyelth does with his puppets, but Lyelth can do the same without magic and turn Cornelius's corpses against him. Any corpse Cornelius summons is taken over by Lyelth's strings and joyously Cornelius admits he has lost and that any attempt to take back control will ultimately fail because his magic will run out while Lyelth doesn't have to use any magic at all. He awaits Lyelth to kill him, but Lyelth points out that all Cornelius values is talent without ever considering the people who are involved so long as results are achieved, even himself. Lyelth declares that he won't play along with Cornelius's beliefs and that all he wanted was for Cornelius to acknowledge him, which he had finally achieved and obtained the victory he sought. Lyelth knocks out Cornelius, but an even bigger explosion then before goes off in the distance.
Lyelth take over as the academy's temporary headmaster after Cornelius disappeared after being defeated. Since his body was never found and only his clothes were left behind, Verdilia appreciates that perhaps it was never his real body. Knowing that Cornelius's mad drive to understand magic's secrets makes him an active threat, Lyelth continues to train and prepares for the day he'll return.
Card Appearances[]
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