The Many-Colored Spectrum

[Informatix]

.. which consists of all my characters, placing every single one of them on a definite wavelength. I don't think I'll need this post for indexing, but it will look tidier when I put each character in a seperate post.

.. by the way: Does anybody know what the speed of fantasy gaming is? I want to know if characters need to be described in relativistic terms.

[Informatix]

Name: Selinde al'djinn
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Physical Description: Oval face with pointy chin, shoulder-length, wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes with visible rings, and lightly tanned skin. Simple dark robes, unassuming if there ever were any, serve as her everyday clothing, as she prefers practicality over pomp and glamorous dress, and relies on her staff as a mark of her arcane craft. For those who are interested, the epiphet "al'djinn" can be read to mean either "the crafty" or "the powerful".

Her clothes and hair are usually only superficially cared for, and often a little dismayed from lack of interest in such trite details, but magically kept in prime condition. Interestingly, she still bears the mark of a particularly gifted Razmah transmuter, though slightly altered, magically imprinted in her right eyeball: The open set of dividers, now situated not above a book, but instead above a coiled serpent, symbolize magic, transformative skill, and the transition from life to death.

Mental Description: Selinde is not perfectly polite, but an energetic and captivating conversationalist, shamelessly entertained by her own occasional bouts of slapstick humor and rarely, if ever, devoid of enthusiasm about anything she does. While she can be quite greedy, she is quick to excuse it as pure neccessity for a "mage in my particular situation" and certainly not likely to be ashamed about any subtle misbehavoirs that a polished diplomat might point out. Indeed, she is very rarely afraid, and getting her hands dirty almost never makes it on that list if there is sufficient reason.

If given the opportunity to talk about her own interests, she can go on and on about technical details of alteration magic and construction and architecture, and is obviously sincere about it - she will usually wait some time before revealing that her current interest lies in another area of alteration, usually when she has reason to believe that she is dealing with someone who could be helpful. If this sounds remarkably sincere and open for a powerful mage, then, well, she is - she appreciates the use of deception, but is quite frugal in applying it herself. She reasons that her skill in Divination is sufficient to ensure survival against assassinations and similar extremes of intrigue.

Politics in general tend to annoy her - she considers the triumvirate the biggest waste of magical ability in all time, locking the most gifted mages of the country in the pointless to-and-fro of everyday intrigues. And most noble houses don't fare any better in her judgment, the reasons for which are easy to guess. At the same time, she recognizes she needs to do some amount of politicking if her goals are ever to be fulfilled, and tackles the problem enthusiastically - perhaps a little too enthusiastically - with her unusual approach of slipping in the occasional deception between largely honest behavoir. Given the political climate of the realm, that could actually work.

History: Entering the arcane libraries, laboratories and workshops of House Razmah as a magical homo novus can be tough, but for the daughter of humble carpet traders, Selinde did remarkably well within remarkably short time, achieving the rank of court maga by the age of twenty-three and sucessfully defending it against more privileged aspirants, while simultaneously furthering research in the nature of life, hoping to isolate the curious spark upon which bioturgy acted directly, but regular alteration did not. Sadly, though, she was a little too absorbed with and to open about her project - rivals began spreading word to her superiors that she was siphoning away valuable Razmah resources for what seemed to be a mere flight of fantasy, not serious, prestigeous research. After a heated argument with the enclave master, she left the house in disappointment, taking with her her research.

At the moment, she has found the position of freelance mage rather unconducive to prolonged, expensive research, and is - with some reluctance - trying to establish connections with another noble house to support her research.

House Razmah is a group of architects, scholars, and merchants of knowledge, their status and reputation earned by magical construction, investigation and research at the behalf of others. Specialising in the schools of divination and alteration, Razmah magi tend to be shrewd merchants and crafty transmuters and reducers of the natural world, always looking for profitable ways to turn one thing into another - and, ultimately, into growing status and power for the house. They are credited with major alteration breakthroughs throughout the realm, called upon when lesser magi fail to work the transmutations desired, and have shaped many a landscape with their arcane genius. Still, they will not limit themselves to the task of construction - new ways of synthesizing arcane ingredients and resources of all sorts are constantly sought, and divinatory magic works to give the Razmah an edge in business and foraging for those few things they did not (yet!) manage to create out of something else. It is also commonly considered the highest form of magic in the house, as it deals with increasing knowledge - and thus, the Razmah reason, power! - directly rather than through intermediate steps. Due to this emphasis on divination, Razmah seers are also sought after to unearth different information, on whatever it is their employer might desire. Of course, the house profits even more from such a deal: learning both the information in question, and that someone is willing to pay handily for it.
The house is of a deeply mercantile disposition, and organized similarly to a guild - which would draw the ire of many old aristocratic houses, if the Razmah wouldn't rank among the oldest houses of magi themselves, building on a rich tradition of magical teaching prominent in the whole southern region of the continent. Their grand master is elected for life by the thirteen masters of the different enclaves, who themselves are put in power for a default of ten years by the grand master.
A traditional crest of the Razmah is an open pair of dividers, seated above an open book seen from the front, and most mages of the house bear it either on their clothing or tattooed directly onto their body. Elder magi will only create standard markings on the forehead, an article of clothing, or in the palm of one hand - more extraordinary crests have to be created by the aspiring mage himself.


Style: Invokation

School: Alteration (Mastery), Divination(Expert)

Razmah transmuters have been (and are) primarily interested in altering the properties of dead matter to further construction and landscaping, and Selinde knows spells to reshape and move it, as well as individual transmutations, such as from sand to rock or even glass. Of more interest to her, however, is magic that blurs the line between living and unliving matter - spells to imbue a human with skin of durable, yet supple metal, include mechanomagical contraptions in the body, turn hair to chains or feet to clay that subsequently fuses with the ground. A particular enthusiasm of hers are the ancient spells that transform whole living beings into dead matter, and she hopes that by collecting them and studying their effects, she can deduce something about what defines the living state - and makes bioturgy as a seperate school of magic at all possible, something she is quite confused by.

Divination is not quite as emphazised by house Razmah as alteration is, for the reason that knowledge all by itself is neither powerful nor protective.

"A popular saying among the Razmah is this: Knowledge in a book will rot and vanish. Knowledge in a mind will grow and prosper. Knowledge in a mage will be put to use and may change the world."

While Selinde has her own take on alteration, she shares the stance of the house as far as divination is concerned, viewing it as a school that is theoretically the most powerful, but must be backed up by already existing power to be useful. Her divinations are largely practical, and she is best when finding out about nonliving matter - in a way, she channels her powers of seeing though her knowledge of transmutations. Therefore, she has no trouble at all picking out a needle from a haystack, but locating a person becomes a little trickier. Of course, she is quick to point out that most people do not walk around naked - there is usually one or two things they will have on their person all the time, and can thus be found out with relative ease. Likewise, a spell to sniff out poison is not only helpful when analyzing one's dinner, but can also tell an assassin from a harmless party guest.
Like most Razmah mages, she has some skill in divining the general whereabouts of magical items and tomes, but such queries become more precise the more information one has, and, therefore, are most effective when performed multiple times in succession.

Magus Rank: B 8

[Informatix]

Player Name: Informatix
Character Name: Eliza Cutter, MD
Nickname: "Doc"
Age: 61
Gender: Female
Appearance: The doctor is an unassuming woman of ordinary height, with long limbs and a narrow face dominated by an aquiline nose and high cheekbones, along with discerning grey eyes and a slightly frowning brow. Her hair is black, albeit greying, and slightly wavy, extending to just below the ears, and carefully combed. She favors rectangular glasses along with businesslike, impeccable clothing and usually wears raincoats when outside buildings, no matter the weather.

Adjusting her glasses even if not neccessary is a peculiar quirk of hers, and her degree of irritation can be measured by the frequency of that gesture.


Personality: Dr. Cutter is reliable, accurate, and the most sober person you will ever meet - her language is straight to the point and as precise as she manages to, and she radiates the almost unquestionable, intimidating authority of an old-school physician when speaking her opinion .. on pretty much any subject, not just medicine, and appreciates being asked to give it.

She has always been noticeably impatient, too, expecting the world to catch up to her speed in thought and reaction - a trait that seems to have become more pronounced recently, and she wonders if it is a result of her magic appearing, or something that was caused by the same event. It is rare for her to overstep the boundaries of minimal courtesy, but she leaves no doubts on her opinion about anyone who talks to her, and her sarcasm is as sharp as her scalpel, if she deigns to wield it.
She takes both her job and her word very seriously, and can be counted upon to go through with a plan, no matter how difficult it turns out to be.

She would be the right person to entrust with an impossible mission .. but one should make sure that the result doesn't turn out to be not so good after all.

True Form: Elizabeth Cutter is slowly coming to the realization that she is a sorceress, and the more she herself grows to accept the fact, the more the rest of the world seems to acknowledge it, too - mirrors darken noticeably in her presence, as if obscured by an otherwise invisible force, and a slight, but sharp odor accompanies her, which most people pass of as traces of desinfectant.
She will soon realize that most of her magic relates to cold and blood - with that realization, she will be able to freeze things and people, conjure ice, and inflict quite a messy fate on people - as well as treat wounds and perform divinations on blood spills.

Bio: Doctor Cutter was not born in Fort Lucy, but few of the residents seem to recall that anymore - the moment she set up practice in the town, it was as if she had always been there, and always as her current self: Clinical, exacting, and authoritative, chiming in without hesitation whenever she deemed it necessary, the good doctor seems to be a feature of the town's geography more than an ordinary resident, and for quite a few of the townfolk, she was both the first and the last thing they ever saw.
She still maintains her practice - the only one in town - despite advanced age, apparently utterly untouched by the fact that she has grown older. Her assisstants remain largely the same as in the beginning, accounting only for one death and a retirement. Of course, she never refers patients to anyone else, no matter what. She has an uncanny knack to appear at crime sites just in time to proclaim the victim dead, and maintains an extensive library in her house.

[Informatix]

Full Name: Sariel Arvianis ("Son of Arviane" - naming practices differ for different ethnicies of elves, but suffice to say that in this case, the name of the mother is modified and appended until a sufficient degree of distinction from anyone else has been achieved. Names can get LONG when the woods are crowded.)
Nicknames: None so far, except the inevitable 'Stargazer' and 'Skyhead' from other mages. He'll doubtlessly get a few derisive ones more.
Race: Elf
Gender: Male
Age: 41
Hair: Dark Brown
Skin: Pale
Eyes: Night blue
Height: 1,86m
Weight: 63 kg

Relatives: Mandriel (Father) a minor noble and officer in the Elven Alliance, and to the knowledgeable observer, that shows. Sariel's doctrine of 'strike hard, swift and from a distance - if anyone survives, back off and stab them in the back with reinforcements a while later' is the short version of any elven military strategy since the dawn of time. His mother Arviaine is a professional siege wizard, which sounds more exciting than it is these days - being a trigger-happy fireball-flinger isn't very fun when there's no war being fought. She's not too fond of his choice of specialization, but admits that it's probably more practical for the moment.

Enemies: A few collegues at the ironwood observatory.
Allies (see above): A few other collegues at the ironwood observatory, but .. notably fewer. His parents maintain cordial relationships, but it's mostly birthday letters and exchanging gossip. He lectures to human wizards when he gets the chance, but this hasn't resulted in any avid fans so far.

Occupation: Mage and 'extraordinary relay' (that is his actual formal position) of the Ironwood Observatory, who sent him to maintain resarch relationships with the mage's guild in Crania. He isn't too fond of this position, but strongly believes it to be an important duty he has to fulfill.

Skills: Sariel is an Astromancer or star mage, focused on the far light of the stars and the mysteries hidden in the deep, dark void between them. Starweaving is a highly abstracted, metaphysical form of magic, and it's manfestations are rarely as immediately palpable or crude as elementalism would be. In fact, it excels at manipulating that which is not readily accessible to physical force. It is most known for having power over the mind - mostly in dissecting or shattering it, but also in granting enlightenment and revealing prophecies (some might argue that these two things are the same to a star mage) - and, though it's connection to the outer space, maintaining a strange and often tenous relationship with gravity and conventional concepts of space: Levitation or even short-range teleportation - often refered to as 'winking' by the mage - is a very common trait in it's practitioners. Astromancy is not directly a combative form of magic, but it does provide the knowledgeable user with the tools he can use to be a dangerous supporting fighter - the light of the far celestial bodies might not be immediately fatal, but the distant starlight conjured by a threatened astromancer has been known to sap the strength, and, on occasion, eyesight, force of will or even life from a foolish attacker.

In previous ages, starweavers have been known to conjure and bind the great and terrible visitors from beyond, take outlandish shapes and forms, teleport between countries, and consort with the departed souls of those who have left the reach of conventional death magic, but such stories are merely hearsay in recent times. When asked, the elf deflects most questions with a wistful 'Ah .. if only I could. We would be living in a very different world.' He remains curiously unspecific about his ability to summon horrific beasts, but that's probably just his idea of a joke.

Weaknesses:
Fragile Anatomy - Magic is in the bones, they say, and for Sariel, this is most certainly true - they had to compromise on mineral content in order to store more of it. Sadly, said bones did not recieve the memo concerning the dangers of blunt weaponry or narrow stairways, which leaves him easily injured.


Appearance:
A very good approximation of his appearance and attitude in a professional argument. Of course, he doesn't have any wings and pointier ears, the rest fits him snugly.

Sariel is lean and lank, as one would expect from a typical elf, and has the dark hair and eye coloration that, along with pale skin, is commonly ascribed to the elves originally hailing from the deep, nearly indestructible woods that form the heartlands of the alliance. He could not be called muscular by any means, and one could probably count his ribs and vertebrae one by one.
Of particular note are the carefully arranged lines, glyphs and sigils of divination and space that are engraved in his otherwise quite unblemished skin in black ink. They seem to cover most areas of his body to varying degrees, and a closer inspection would reveal that this is indeed the case. Why and how someone would get the elf to strip down and tolerate such an inspection is a different and actually rather interesting question. The wouldn't be that much to strip, coming to think of it: His clothing from from his chest to his ankles consists of a thick linen tunic that's fastened to the wearers body not by brooches or knots above the shoulders, but rather by two leather belts just below the arms, and a few strips of white, silken fabric wrapped around that as well. Some of the strips bear arcane inscriptions, others are left blank for now.
His feet (also tattooed) are usually just protected by sandals, but he does carry a pair of breeches for very cold or wet climates with him. He also wears long, blue, fingerless gloves that run all the way up to his upper arms, again ending shortly below the shoulders. It is reasonable to assume that he wears basic undergarments, too, but those will be expatiated upon when there is need to.


Armor of Choice: No conventional armor worth mentioning, safe his notable capacity for not being there when the attack comes. In this way, his minor teleportation magic could be considered armor - quite good armor, in fact. Sariel wears light linen quasi-robes (actually, it's more like a toga that doesn't even reach to the shoulders) held in place by leather belts, as well as blue gloves that don't cover the fingers, but reach up to his upper arms to compensate.

Weapons of Choice: A starbeam or a glimpse of the Beyond. Favors the latter. If he has enough time at his hands - such as an opponent who is preoccupied with another fighter - he could attempt offensive teleportation or more complex mind-shattering.

Other Equipment: Numerous paper strips inscribed with arcane phrases and incantations wrapped around his arms and chest. It remains to be seen if they have a function beyond an unusual way of keeping notes, but it is .. very likely, to say the least.


Positive Personality Traits:
*Discerning, curious and analytical.

*Excellent memory and knowledge of the more obscure subjects of magic and ancient prophecies (which he usually critiques as being executed poorly).

*Patient: Smart enough to back down when he's overpowered.

*Flawless knowledge and application of ettiquette, although in a passive fashion - he won't commit a faux pas, but the practice of spinning a proper courtly intrigue escapes him so far.


Negative Personality Traits:
*Professional Arrogance and unusually sensitive to taunts about the intangible nature of his specialty.

*Rarely involved enough to turn his empathy into personal friendliness instead of mere courtesy. He'll open up to long-time accquaintances, but don't expect him to crack jokes at a party.

*Has a tendency to approach a problem not with frontal or lateral thinking, but dorsally - that is, backwards. He thinks of a solution he'd like to apply and makes the rest of the problem fit.

*Occasionally thinks in terms of the outer realm, not in mundane ones. This one is hard to explain, but even harder to deal with.

*If he is confronted with serious opposition or danger, he'll prefer to back down and come back with reinforcements and better preparation.


Misc. Quirks:
* It appears that he doesn't feel cold the same way other people would - he'll still suffer from hypothermia or frostburn, but cold doesn't seem to cause him any actual discomfort until it comes to that, despite the light clothing. Conversely, he is nearly incapable of tolerating heat.

* He almost never sleeps at night, but rather takes multiple shorter naps over the day, to the annoyance of anyone with a normal sleeping habit. Elves have quite tolerant sleep/wake cycles, but he will suffer bouts of narcolepsia when he forgets to make up for lost sleep within a day or two. Which he occasionally does.

* He has a disturbing tendency to vomit or weep blood when weaving more complex spells or casting prophecies. This does not seem to impair him. When someone else suffers these effects from a maddening revelation, the consequences usually aren't as harmless. Perhaps it has something to do with training, but it could also explain his eating habits.


Likes:
*Tables and mathematics. Quantifying and predicting in general.

*When a plan comes together.

*Astrolabes and telescopes, and the practical research they represent.

*Night and the night sky.

*Attentive listeners. This is probably the one thing he is least likely to get.

Dislikes:
*Rashness and other 'uncouth behaviour'. Being too slick arouses his suspicion, too, though he can't quite pin down why.

*Anti-intellectualism, anyone who seems happy with being clueless.

*Orks, rather strongly.

*'Animals' - that is, beast races. Not actual dislike, but he has rather primitive prejudices about them for an educated person.


Favorite Foods: Unusually for elves, Sariel hates most wild and sweet fruits with a passion and prefers his meat raw - or, even better, raw fish. In a pinch, dried equivalents will do, too, which he carries around as snacks. He is also often seen munching on celery or carottes when available, and one should watch the saltshaker closely whenever he is sitting at the table.

Favorite Drinks: His alcohol tolerance is barely above zero and his dislike for fruits extends to juices, so he usually sticks with water or herbal brews of some sort.


History
Elves know that magic is their greatest gift and they aren't very good at anything else -therefore, anyone with a talent for magic is expected to develop it as much as possible, and given that nearly all of them have it, they are examined for the nature of their specific gifts at very early age. What made young Sariel exceptional among his people are two things: First, his aptitude qualified him to be called a talented mage among fellow elves, and be educated on a stipend in one of the prestigious academies of the Alliance. Suffice to say that any semblance of a normal childhood was lost the moment that this fact was discovered, and Sariel didn't miss it for a second - military strategy was a fine subject, but how could it compare to the Art? Besides, his skill at 'tactical retreat' (the core discipline of elven war education) was rather mediocre compared to the other military brats in the settlement surrounding the wood fortress where he spent his early childhood.

Secondly, Sariel set his mind on specialising very soon - the moment he learned about the different schools of magical thought, he decided that astromancy was for him, and joined the Ironwood Observatory, where mages combined their discipline with astronomy to investigate the night sky from the highest treetops, and utilize that knowledge. Of course, even among these highly trained specialists (or 'useless stargazers', as the elementalists used to call them) not everybody approves of a know-it-all with a bit too much ambition, and a minor squabble over who gets to use the new telescope at midnight (when viewing conditions are just perfect) escalated in an intrigue to send him away to the humans as a special relay of the Observatory - unbeknownst to him, that position didn't even exist previously. Now that he holds it, though, Sariel has taken upon him the task to spread astromancy among human mages, and further his research the best way he can while so far away from the observatory - sadly, that probably involves digging in ancient libraries instead of drawing his own conclusions, but what else can one do in a country so mediocre in terms of magical research?