Aerbax was once a simple Puppet patrolling the wastes of the Obsidian Plains until one day he, like many Virindi stationed on Dereth, achieved sentience. Soon he began to believe that while the Quiddity, the group consciousness that governed his kind, wished to grow and eventually become perfect, it was incapable of doing so.

To help his brethren further accomplish this growth, Aerbax began to experiment upon the creatures found across Dereth. He started out simply, creating Dolls and converting undead into Marionettes. Soon he turned his attentions to more complex creatures, and soon Monougas, Reedsharks, Drudges, and Hea Tumeroks had all been altered or "improved" in some way (usually involving their ability to summon and manipulate mana).

Aerbax's first human experiment came when his compatriots captured the legendary hunter Lilitha on the island of Marae Lassel. These experiments, including vivisecting and otherwise mutilating the poor woman while she was still conscious and very aware of her situation, were used a blueprints in the alteration of yet another Isparian, Candeth Martine. Given awesome powers and bonded to his own Virindi, Martine was meant to be Aerbax's weapon against the loyalist Virindi seeking to destroy him and his "New Directive" allies.

Before Martine could be properly utilized, however, the New Directive fell, and Aerbax and the surviving rebels were recalled to the Virindi Singularity to face judgement for their transgressions against the will of the Quiddity. Many of the rebels were "cleansed" of their will and individuality, and returned to Dereth. Still more were deemed too corrupted and were destroyed. Aerbax, exploiting the Quiddity's lack of understanding regarding deception, was able to convince the Virindi that he was still "pure" and so was allowed to return to Dereth to continue his experiments.

It was around this time that Aerbax inadvertently made contact with some unknown energy source within a flux of portalspace. This energy source, he discovered, was sentient, and needed knowledge of events on Dereth. What's more, Aerbax discovered that creatures exposed to this energy were transformed and often made much stronger; using the source he enhanced the creatures already in his service and transformed formerly lowly Puppets into the awesome Profatrix. He also began to expose many creatures to Quiddity energy, and in doing so brought many Shadow creatures under his thrall.

With his newfound power and army, Aerbax set out to find a way to combine his energy source with the Quiddity, making the Virindi a truly awesome force.