[OOC] Mist City Story: An Urban Fantasy Mage RP

[VitaVitaAR]

The Tower. One of the twenty-one Major Arcana, the largest mage circles and those that have influence on mage society, located all across the world. The Tower is the biggest Mage Circle in England, located in London. The name is perhaps somewhat misleading at first glance, as the Tower itself is seemingly just a small building of no real significance. However, this is magic at work. The secrecy of the supernatural must be upheld, and as such the Tower is hidden. The tower's location is avoided by those without any magical knowledge, for it is enchanted with spells to make it impossible to consider as significant by them. But those who have entered the Tower are able to see it, a tall, black building seemingly without windows that stretches above and below the earth. It was constructed almost two-hundred years ago, and for all of this time its existence has remained unknown to all but the supernatural community. Within, it is a vast facility for the education of magi and the research of magic. The Tower possesses a vast library of magical tomes, one of the largest even among the twenty-one. However, it would be a mistake to believe this is the Tower's only purpose.

Fundamentally, the Tower's existence is like all mage circles: The continuation and preservation of mage society. Each linked together by a larger organization Mage Circles act as the arms of the organization not only to educate future magi, but to track down and eliminate threats to mage society. Whether they be from without, or from within. Magic must be preserved in secrecy, after all.

Among magi there are numerous aristocratic families, as one might expect from a society that holds family bloodlines to such a high level of importance. The Tower's magi are certainly no exception. Indeed, as one of the oldest circles, predating even the structure itself, there are numerous families considered to be nobility among them.

One such family is the Ar-Rynesarte. A very old family, holding a high position in the Tower, and indeed in mage society as a whole, their words are respected and their craft as magi revered. Due to their place in society, they were able to broker many contracts with other mage families, and enjoyed a position of prestige.

Until recently.

The very sudden deaths of Jakobius Taliervenne Ar-Rynesarte and Giselle Vardin Ar-Rynesarte eight years ago left only their young daughter in line for succession. However, as she was only six years old, it was instead left to branch families and household Servants to attempt to conduct their business.

Slowly, the Ar-Rynesarte family's influence waned. Some of their resources were even snapped up by other, ambitious families. Some of the branch families even claimed long-held family treasures for themselves.

But the Ar-Rynesarte name was not forgotten.

And so, when Arinne Velvet Ar-Rynesarte celebrated her fourteenth birthday, finally able to take a position as the head of her family, her announcement to the magi of the Tower caught attention immediately.

"I will find my parents' murderer."

With that, she activated the remaining contracts held by the Ar-Rynesartes, forcing several mage families to send a representative to work in her service until released, in order to find the one responsible for her parents' deaths.

Arinne will stop at nothing to find their murderer.

But what will be discovered in the process?

---

An urban fantasy RP! This will center on the Tower, and the magi who have been forced into Arinne's service via magical contract in order to discover her parents' killer. These contracts are strongly binding, enforcing a geas upon those involved when activated. Even though Arinne only has access to some of them, she's used them to build what she believes is a party capable of tracking down the one responsible for her family's killer.

Of course, it won't be so simple. Along the way, all sorts of strange circumstances and villainous magi will be encountered.

Players will play as the representatives from the families contracted to the Ar-Rynesartes, and I may discuss special circumstances with other players as well. But first, a few things to discuss about the setting:

This RP takes place in my urban fantasy setting. Give that a look over, but since it hasn't been updated in a while be free to ask questions, I'm happy to answer!

As for what will be playable in this RP:

• Magi: Capable of magic, invoked by spells and symbols, sometimes in conjunction with one another. Magical prowess is passed through bloodlines, some families having more or less mana(and higher or lower quality mana) then others. Magi will have an affinity, which can range from things like fire to gravity to numbers. Affinities(which are also passed through bloodlines) are not limited to the affinity itself, but also includes things that are conceptually linked to it. For example, a mage with an affinity for fire would also excel at spells involving "consumption", "ignition", and "destruction". Magi can preform spells outside their affinity, though it is more difficult to learn. Affinities cannot be for anything entirely man-made. Playable!
  
  • Note: The most powerful mage(in terms of raw power) in this setting has an affinity for mana. They will not be appearing in this RP, and mana as an affinity is strictly off-limits. Other affinities that are off limits include Death, a totally unique affinity also claimed in this setting and absolutely broken for the purposes of this RP.
  • Magic Traits: Some magi and onmyouji families possess a special "magic trait", an inherent magical ability connected to their affinity. These are quite uncommon, but they still exist. They require no spellcasting, and usually give some edge in ability. The magic trait "Illusion Break", for example, passively destroys illusions as the mage or onmyouji draws close to them. It also enables them to see through illusions.

As well as a couple things likely to appear:

• Familiar: Familiars are beings created by magi from mana. They are existences brought into being by a sustained donation of mana and a reinforcement of existence. Their abilities and appearance are entirely up to the magi who created them, but they must be sustained with mana in order to continue existing. They also require belief in their existence by their creator. Few familiars survive loss of this belief. Magi can support multiple familiars depending on the amount and quality of their mana and the complexity of their familiars.
• Homunculi: Artificial humans created via a union of raw materials and a soul, homunculi are able to be created to a variety of specifications, from creating an ideal assassin to creating someone with the power to boost abilities. They have personalities and thoughts of their own, and a theoretically infinite lifespan. Most homunculi will hit a predetermined point and cease to age beyond that. Homunculi are NOT common, due to difficulties involved in creating them and the inability to simply create souls meaning some kind of sacrifice must be involved.

I may accept homunculi and familiars as player characters, but please discuss with me before attempting to make one!

---

• Name:
• Age:
• Gender:
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• Abilities: Magical abilities. Note that mana quality and quantity determine the strength of a mage's spells as well as how much they can cast them.
• Skills: Mundane things your character can do.
• Assets: Anything from magical tools to equipment.
• Brief Backstory:

@Rin@Anza@Aleranicus@Timemaster@Rabidporcupine

[Bartimaeus]

Interested. Will work on a character and see if I can come up with a concept I’m satisfied with.

[VitaVitaAR]

• Name: Arinne Velvet Ar-Rynesarte
• Age: 14
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Arinne has blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. She is very petite, quite short even for her age at below 152.4 cm/5 feet in height.
• Personality: Arinne has what many would call a bad personality. She is arrogant, self-assured, and manipulative, fond of seeing others struggle and quite eager to make the lives of the people around her harder for her own amusement. Referred to as 'the Blonde Devil' by some senior magi, her attitude is well-known throughout the Tower. To put it simply, Arinne has a sadistic streak. She also enjoys mocking or teasing others, and has nothing but complete confidence in her own capabilities as a mage. Indeed, she is quite proud of her own bloodline, and of her own capabilities. Arinne also has a vengeful, spiteful side. She deeply resents the branch families that sold off portions of the Ar-Rynesarte's assets, even some of the contracts they held, and would take satisfaction in finding some way to undermine or dismantle them the moment she gained the opportunity. However, it is also clear that she has some level of concern for the magi now in her employ, even if she does take pleasure in making life difficult for them and teasing them whenever she has the opportunity. While she will stop at nothing to find her parents' killer, at the very least she does not seem to have any desire to sacrifice those who are under her contract in order to do it. She is very plain about her intentions if the killer is found, however. Arinne plans to kill them. Even if she was not present for the death of her mother and father, even if she does not have many memories of them, she absolutely cannot accept a world in which the one who murdered them walks free and unpunished.
• Abilities: Arinne's arrogance is not unfounded. A prodigy mage carrying the blood of the Ar-Rynesarte family, she has a large mana supply that is of a very high quality. Her Affinity is Water, and she has a specialization in Ice beyond that. Her magic is therefore best suited to spells relating to flows and cycles, but also to Stillness and Stagnation. Of course, more directly, she can utilize water as a projectile via various spells, and use spells to freeze the moisture in the air into icicle bullets. However, she can also utilize spells to slow or freeze something in place. One particularly unusual spell allows her to convert a solid material into a liquid or vice-versa, though it only functions on inanimate objects and only within a magic circle she has put into place with chalk, making it irrelevant in a direct conflict. Additionally, she has use of the German spell Schattenpfiel, a low-power projectile spell that can be swiftly cast and used without relying on moisture in the air.
• Skills: Arinne possesses few life skills, but she does seem to know just the right way to tease people.
• Assets: While some of the Ar-Rynesarte family's assets have been sold off, Arinne still possesses their mansion and a considerable amount of wealth. This includes a large number of maids in her service. With her mansion comes the unique defensive barrier Crystal Killing Array, a defensive system embedded into the foundation of the Ar-Rynesarte mansion. When activated, it begins to manifest as a sheet of liquid that coats the walls and automatically seeks out body heat, attacking it by crystallizing and striking out at the target. If it is activated, any maids in the mansion are quickly called to one room to avoid their being harmed. The system ignores those possessing Ar-Rynesarte blood, but due to its method of tracking it can easily be fooled and it is best suited to penetrating soft targets as opposed to magical defenses or armor.
• Brief Backstory: Arinne was born into the Ar-Rynesarte family and swiftly prepared to be yet another powerful mage bearing the family name. Her parents rarely spent any time with her, outside of what was necessary to facilitate her growth as a mage, but they were not without care for her. When she was six years old, spending time at the home of a family associate, her parents were suddenly killed. There were no witnesses, but it was undeniably not a natural death, the interiors of their bodies heavily lacerated by some sort of magic. Left alone, without siblings or parents, Arinne was unable to take her position as the family head for many years. During this time, various branch families leeched off of the main family's wealth, even selling assets possessed by the Ar-Rynesarte. But during this time, Arinne also grew as a magus, receiving schooling and expanding her capabilities. As she grew older, her reputation as something of a devil grew as well. She quite recently activated the contracts she still possesses, with the goal of locating the one who murdered her parents through any means necessary.

[Bartimaeus]

@VitaVitaAR Are all magi capable of reading mana flow passively/without effort?

[VitaVitaAR]

@Bartimaeus: It's possible to detect mana to some extent, at least.

[Bartimaeus]

Here we are! Let me know what ya think - and if I missed any errors. :p

Kissinger

• Name: Samuel "Myriad-Affinity" Kissinger

• Age: 29

• Gender: Male

• Personality: Samuel is a very watchful individual. He is content to observe others rather than be the center of a crowd's attention - but this is not to say that he is shy. Socially, he is a very gentle and polite person - and has an air of knowing calm about him. He's one of those listener types who makes you feel like he is the host in your own home. Despite his very mellow demeanor, he is a very fun-loving individual who is not adverse to going on seemingly useless adventures, when he has the time. He is also known to shoot off some well-intentioned sarcasm every once in a while.
However, there is another side to Samuel.

Samuel is vexed with a condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID). Luckily for the young man, it is a relatively mild case. This condition has formed an alternate personality in Samuel's mind, who he calls Luc. Being a mild case, there is minimal memory loss - but it is still there during times of stress. Luc is much more abrasive than Samuel, and generally does not care for the feelings of others much. This is due to the fact that Luc stems from the trauma and anger that Samuel held in the past for his 'father'. Fortunately, Luc is content to remain dormant when Samuel is interacting with others, and rarely takes face when in company. However, certain actions, memories, or feelings will stir Luc and may cause him to 'trigger', and he will surface for a time.

• Abilities:

Abilities

Affinity - Predation [Sub-branches: Consumption, Evolution]
Samuel started properly honing his Magi blood later than one would comfortably want to - and as a result, the quality of his magic is average. However, he makes up for this with a massive capacity for mana. This mana-well craves to filled, and as such, his Affinity reflects this.

One of his affinities is that of consuming the magical attacks and effects of other beings. The most common usage of this affinity is to form a manaphage vortex of sorts, to absorb magical attacks. One must be careful, however, as creating one too large could seriously damage the user - so the expanse of the defense is limited to a few feet. Notably, mana consumption upon physical contact is very easy for Samuel.

Samuel uses the mana he absorbs to pour more resources into non-affinity magics he utilizes, compensating for the lack of proficiency. Additionally, he has become reliant on supplementary limb gestures to perform these magics - though this does ease the effort he requires by a small, yet respectable degree. These gestures are also used on his affinities, but they are not necessary - they just expedite the incantations.

As noted by his affinity, Samuel will sometimes alter his biology when he has to resort to it.

• Skills:
Household chores - learned from his childhood.
Etiquette & Espionage - it's in his nature to be polite and courteous, so he's hardly faking it. He is, ironically enough, capable of being two-faced if need be.
Psychology - quite useful for every day interaction and the above-mentioned Espionage, Samuel has always been interested in psychology, for obvious reasons, and has studied it quite a bit.
History/Historical Warfare - another subject he quite enjoys studying, he is knowledgeable in the customs, strategies, etc. of quite a few Eastern nations.
Firearms - when he was younger he shot them for sport, but he would rather not use them for anything beyond that. He's a decent shot.
Fencing - another sport he enjoyed in the past. He's a fine swordsman.

• Assets:
Obviously, being part of one of the prominent Magi bloodlines, Samuel is entitled to quite a sum of inheritance/money.

• Brief Backstory:
Samuel Lecrix Kissinger is the son of an affair between the former head of the Kissinger family* and his mistress. Sparing you the details, the Mistress - Samuel's mother, Sasha Kissinger - became pregnant. Without Sir Hyde Kissinger's* knowledge, Samuel was born and nurtured solely by his mother for some years. Eventually, the information came to be known, and his father suddenly cared for his presence - more specifically the rumored magical aptitude the child had potential for. He succeeded in separating the boy from his mother at the age of 15. The ensuing legal issues - the back and forth - were all very stressful. Not to mention all the magical energy Sir Hyde's tutors were trying to force the boy to evoke against his will. After a great deal of hassle for over a year, Sasha Kissinger earned custody of Samuel.
Eventually, Sir Hyde Kissinger, who had been barring the duos inheritance funds, passed away from unknown causes. From then to the present, Samuel has reclaimed his spot near the pentacle of his family's head - alongside a good deal of inheritance money, which is far more than enough to give his caring mother a luxurious lifestyle. For twelve years now, he's lived a life some could only dream of - and has matured well, despite the previous grievances.

• Other:

Other

Samuel is a man who enjoys his secrets.
As such, his mother is the only person who knows about his Dissociative Identity Disorder. Additionally, he does not share the nature of his affinity with anyone - hence the moniker "Myriad-Affinity", as it appears he is proficient in more than a couple types of spells. Those who are sensitive to mana flows will notice the high quantity of mana he puts into his non-affinity techniques.

Luc will sometimes be triggered by the use of 'Evolution' techniques. This can rarely extend to Incendiary and especially violent techniques as well.

I hope you don't mind my slight format alterations? I can easily change it if you like!

[VitaVitaAR]

@Bartimaeus: I don't see any issues, accepted!

[Bartimaeus]

Should I move it over to CSs, or you wanna? @VitaVitaAR

[VitaVitaAR]

@Bartimaeus: Post it in the signups tab, and I'll add it to the list.

[Bartimaeus]

Done! ^.^

[Rabidporcupine]

Ok, so brief character concept to claim my archetype so no one else takes it before I'm finished. Young adult who, along with his younger sister, are now the only two members of their family left after an 'accident' killed their parents, and have been laying low on a small island somewhere out in the pacific as just your regular, lower-middle class family to avoid encountering a similar 'accident', which has led to most assuming the entire family was killed. The guy is now technically the clan head, although he is fairly unconventional in his laid back, even seemingly lazy personality, and the rarity with which he takes things seriously, but he'll still choose to go to London himself rather than put his sister in danger.

So far, I'm thinking that his magic allows him to layer concepts around each other by speaking them out loud, and these forms will eventually take a phantasmal/physical form depending on the words he used, along with a little bit of his intent. For example, 'sharp' 'stab' and 'cut' will become a sword. Add 'float' and 'hunt' to that, and it'll become a sword that flies at the intended target. There is no limit to how many modifying words a single spell can use, except for the fact that each additional word means more mana is used, meaning that excessive use can be quite dangerous. This is also blatantly stolen from a Fate/Stay Night fanfic, but a different one to the transferal of concepts.

Also, as if I wasn't being blatant enough, I'm using fisherman lancer for the image, so no stealing him.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Rabidporcupine: Rather then simply the use of his affinity, that seems more like a Magic Trait, and I do want a little more of an idea of what the limitations are since it has the potential to be on the broken side.

[Chi]

Jun

Name: Murakami Jun
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Appearance:

Personality: Being told about the decline of his family ad nauseam when he was young from has made Jun lose all pretenses of ever caring about his pride as a mage. Lazy, pessimistic and self-centered, he tries to avoid unnecessary trouble, if he can ignore a problem or pass it through someone else he’ll gladly do it. Meaning that recent events have made him wish that the Ar-Rynesarte kid should have just do as he did and move on instead of forcing him to work. Jun hopes that the kid will give up quickly, thought he knows how stubborn noble mages can be.

Affinity: Answers
Abilities:

Mental Acceleration: As the name implies, it makes his mind run at a faster rate, allowing him to think multiple trains of thought in a short time and react faster to dangerous situations.

Probing: Gives him the ability to hear the surface thoughts of a person, he prefers to mental cast this spell for obvious reasons, though that renders the spell ineffective against those with mental protections. A variation on this spell can make a person say whatever they’re thinking out loud, though this one can’t be mentally cast.

Golden Truth: A curse that gradually closes the target’s throat. Answering with a lie to any statement made by the mage who cast the curse will end up increasing the speed in which their throat closes.

Familiar: Kagero: To compensate for his relatively low amounts of mana and his sickly complexion Jun created a familiar to do the heavy lifting for him. Taking the form of a young woman with extremely long hair and black clothes, Kagero is a very simple familiar, with her abilities consisting in being able to hide in Jun’s shadow and having enough strength to bend steel.

Trait: Psychometry: By touching an object with his bare hands Jun can receive memories, emotions or sensations stored in it, he has no control over what he’ll see and it can be specifics moments in its existence or a general overview of it. If a person left enough of an imprint Jun runs the risk of acquiring several of their mannerisms and personality traits for a while. Aside from that this ability is extremely exhausting both mentally and physically, so he prefers not to use it unless it’s necessary.

Skills:
Cold Reading: By seeing a person's mannerisms, way of talking and clothing Jun can make accurate guesses of their personality and their current situation.

Assets:
Magatama Necklace: A family charm, it’s supposed to serve as a form of mental protection, though he has no idea how effective it really is.

Brief Backstory: Once a renowned family in the Moon Circle, infighting amongst themselves and onmyouji i-using mages, their strange affinity and continued diminishing of their constitution, as well as the degradation of the quality and quantity of mana with each generation, meant that they would fade into irrelevance not with a bang, but with a whimper. Seeking to start anew some members decided to leave Japan and leave into other Circles. Pulling a favor with the Ar-Rynesarte family, Jun's grandfather was able to send one of his grandchildren to study in the Tower Circle, with the promise that he would work for the Circle as an interrogator when he was of age, since their affinity would be useful in pulling the truth out of suspected rogues in the mage community.

[Rabidporcupine]

@VitaVitaAR
Yeah, I'm working on trying to power it down a bit, because I think the whole point of it in the original fic is that it is pretty damn OP. I'm thinking of working it so that they take a lot of mana, or otherwise have some different form of negative effect to their use so he can't just spam word blades constantly. Also, just one of a certain word leads to a fairly weak modification in the long run, so more often than not, he is required to repeat words a few times to have the proper effect. Then he'll be forced to rely on pre-enchanted objects, made by attaching the concept words to objects ahead of time with a very similar form of magic.

Along with those, I'm also planning to make it so he has to actually study the words in order to use them in spells and enchantments as they're in some kind of crazy magic language, something which has been very slow going while he has been in hiding, with very little in the way of information sources.

As for it being a Magic Trait, maybe... I was hoping for him to actually not have one honestly, so that way I could have him be just that little bit further separated from the image of an ideal mage family head.

Edit:
Oh, there's also the fact that it has to be an actual thing he's creating with the words, or connecting them too. He can't just say 'speed' and then move super fast, or 'strong' and then be super strong, he'd have to create some kind of phantasmal hand that would be super strong, but that would also take a frankly painful number of words to form properly.
It's almost a little bit like coding, except I'm way less terrible at understanding it.

[Aviaire]

Done^^

Effie Dalraan

Euphemia 'Effie' Dalraan

age: 25 • gender: F

Personality:
Effie is the sole child of the Dalraan family, and it shows. She is incredibly sheltered, as well as a little spoilt. She is oblivious to a lot of simple things, but is eager to find out more about the world with an almost childlike innocence. When she speaks, she can be condescending, albeit unintentionally. She is a perfectionist, critical of her own mistakes, which often ends up with her upsetting herself. Effie is also known to get annoyed when she doesn't get what she wants or if things don't work out her way.

However, Effie is a generally sweet and optimistic person. She spends more time with a smile on her face than anything else, and is very supportive of other people. She is sensitive and quick to cry, and is very trusting of others. She tends to overlook other people's flaws, instead trying to find some kind of justification for the way they act.

Abilities: Affinity - Light
Effie's magic is not particularly combat orientated, but she functions perfectly fine that way. She is able to bend light, which has a multitude of different applications. For example, she can create visual illusions, distract or blind the enemy or make herself and other things seem to disappear. Furthermore, she can alter the colour or intensity of light, and even can create it, though this takes a fair amount of mana to sustain. As a secondary effect of this, she can also manipulate shadows, though only in appearance.

She can also adjust temperatures slightly through the manipulation of infrared light, though she has considerably less practice in this. Effie can slightly alter the temperature of an area, or she can focus heat on a specific point. That's about all she can do, though.

Skills:
Cooking & Baking - She's good, for sure. Does she enjoy them? Also yes.

Silent Footsteps - Effie walks almost silently. Even when she doesn't try, it's hard to hear her coming.

Impressions - She can impersonate animals and other people pretty well, even more so with practice. Goes nicely with her illusions.

Cleaning - Therapeutic.

Assets:
Dalraan Shadowcloak - Purely for aesthetics. It is blacker than black, absorbing all light that touches it. Warm, too.

Torch - For emergencies.

Knife - For bigger emergencies. Or cooking!

Brief Backstory:
Effie was born Euphemia Dalraan, daughter of Camille and Darian Dalraan. She does not remember her early childhood, as most do not. There is one event that plays vividly in her mind, during the darkest hours of the night, and it is two beams of light, headlights, and the sharp squeal of tyres. Those are her final memories of Camille Dalraan. It may be her only memory.

Darian refused to remarry. And he didn't.

Effie spent the rest of her childhood under the watchful eye of her father. He was incredibly overprotective, never letting Effie out of his sight for even a minute, too afraid of what could happen to her while his back was turned. She went through her education, mundane and magical, at home. She was allowed to leave the house, but never without him or someone he trusted greatly by her side. This meant she rarely ever did, and when she could, her options of what she could do were vastly limited. She gained more freedoms with age, but she never really got a proper life. She didn't even know what that was supposed to mean. It was just normal for her.

She never resented her father for anything, even as she grew older. In fact, it was the opposite. She loved him more than anything, and Effie couldn't find it in her to hold anything against him. After all, he gave her anything she wanted, and in return, she was perfect. She had to be perfect. That was how the world worked. And it continued to do so, until Arinne Ar-Rynesarte activated her contracts.

[Timemaster]

@VitaVitaAR Made a new one. How's she now?

Alexis Ben'ghazad

Name: Alexandra "Alexis" Ben'ghazad
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Appearance (Ignore the swords)
Personality: Mischievous, Fun-loving, Carefree, Vengeful
Abilities: Affinity - Darkness (as in abscense of light) - Sub-category - Shadows
Alexis's magic affinity is that of darkness. The generation of darkness around here, by eating the ambient light around or invisibily in darkness are one of the small ways of using her powers. To generate darkness in a fully bright room is costly mana-wise but if there are dark spots in the room, she can use that to power her spells.
Projectile creation is possible by creating solid shadows from places where darkness and light meet. One of the higher level spells, Alexis knows is how to use one's shadow as a weapon against itself, rarely used to the ammount of mana needed and the fact she needs to be standing in the shadow cast by the person.
A non-combat used of her magic, even if it's a bit costing mana wise, she can teleport from one dark place to another as long as she can see the place. The range depeneds on how much mana is used. Another use would be the fact that by speding a bit of mana, Alexis can see in darkness as well as in the day.
Skills: Knife throwing - a skill she uses in combination with her powers if needed. She also throws knives when she wants to free up her mind.
Sneak - Alexis knows how to move silently without being heard/seen.
Tracker - A skill she only recently learned, she knows how to track people
Assets: Necklace of the Ben'ghazad - A necklace made out of gold with a diamond in the middle. A family heirloom which signals to those around Alexis that she is indeed from the Ben'ghazad family. A special enchantment is placed on it which prevents other people beside family members to wear it.

Brief Backstory: The Ben'ghazad family history is long and dark. An old family in the Tower with bad reputation would be an understatement when it comes to them. They started as petty thieves at first and slowly worked their way up to the assassinations. Their reputation as assassins was stellar as they would always finish a job, no matter for how long they would need to hunt their target. While they have now stopped their dark ways, most still believe they are active and don't interact with them.
Alexis always tried to befriend the other children of the other families but they wouldn't play or they were not allowed to play with her, so, instead of befriending them, Alexis, used to play pranks on them or on the adults.
When she was old enough to understand why some would hate or fear them, Alexis stopped caring about them and shut them off. She focused solely on her studies and became one of the most accomplished magi in the family. When the Ar-Rynesarte princess used the old contracts to call upon the family, Alexis voluntered in order to show everyone that the Ben'Ghazad's changed from their old ways.

[Rabidporcupine]

Ok, here's Leo! He probably sucks, but let me know if he doesn't suck enough for you to ignore him and let him through!

Name:
Leonardo Vadris

Age:
Nineteen

Gender:
Male

Appearance:

Lotsa big pictures

Personality:
Generally laid back and somewhat snarky, the majority of people meeting Leo for the first time would probably walk away thinking of him as an extremely annoying person. Honestly, they wouldn't really be wrong to think that either, as he is one hundred percent the kind of person who finds the fact that people find him infuriating hilarious, and it often seems like one of the only things he will actually put effort into is finding gaps in peoples armour and teasing them relentlessly with them. And yes, he won't deny that he greatly enjoys his rest and relaxation time, certainly far more than he enjoys hard work.

However, when it comes down to it, Leo always at least tries to be a good person. It isn't rare for him to pick up on whether or not someone is feeling alright, and will sit with them and help them work things out to the best of his abilities, even if that means he has to skip work. Especially when it means he has to skip work. All in all, he's someone who believes in not stressing over the little things, and will help people he sees doing so get over it. Hell, get him in the right mood, and he might even do something constructive!

Abilities:

Too much rambling

Affinity: Words
Mana Quantity: High
Mana Quality: Slightly below average
Leonardo has access to two kinds of magic that have been passed down through the Vadris family for generations. The first has been given the nickname "Word of God", and allows the caster to speak a number of words in an forgotten language that may or may not have been created by the Vadris family itself. Each of these words represent a concept, and most of them are simple modifiers placed around the core word of 'unity'. As the words are spoken, the runic version of the word appears in the air around him, flowing towards the unity runes to take the form of a phantasmal object made of the runes. The form the runes take depends partly on the original intent of the caster, and partly on the modifying words being used.

The second is runic enchantment, and is quite similar to Word of God. However, in addition to speaking the words aloud, the caster must also somehow inscribe the runes for the word being used into an object. This causes the object being enchanted to take on that aspect, allowing for a lot of versatility. However, enchanting usually takes a large amount of time and even more intense focus than Word of God, and must therefore be done only in a safe, secure location.

In both cases, there are limitations to wordcasting. The greatest example of this is the mana cost of each word, which fluctuates depending on the word and it's effects, but can often be quite high simply on their own, let alone combined with several other words. This is compounded by the fact that many modifying words have little effect on their own, and often need to be repeated multiple times in a single construct to actually accomplish the intended results. For example, one instance of hunt in a construct will usually cause it to simply arc gently in the targets direction, which in some cases might be enough, but this is rarely the case. A safer bet would be three or four uses of hunt, which makes the seeking aspect far more accurate, but uses significantly more mana than just one use would.

Skills:

Even more rambling

Hand to hand combat:
Ever since his parents death eight years ago, Leo has trained in various combat skills in order to better defend himself in case he and his sister are also attacked. It isn't his best skill, more just something that he's thrown together, but it works fine against opponents who don't focus on close combat skills.

Firearms training and maintenance:
A fair sight better than his hand to hand skills, Leo has spent a large part of the last eight years training himself in the use and maintenance of various types of firearms. He's no master sniper or anything, or even particularly good with a sniper rifle, but with regular rifles and pistols, he can be quite formidable.

Handwriting:
The guys got neat handwriting.

Fishing:
Leo is good at fishing. Leo likes fishing. Leo has ignored important household tasks in the past to go fishing, because fishing lets him sit around doing nothing while still technically doing something.

Sewing:
Leo likes sewing too. It lets him save money, and is one of his few actually productive skills. He uses it to make small charms with weak, almost undetectable enchantments and sell them as a small side business.

Gardening:
Again, Leo likes gardening because it let him save money when he and his sister are low on funds. If he manages to grow enough at one time, he can even make some money selling them at the market.

Assets:
Most of the little the Vadris family owns is back at their home on the island, but he has managed to bring a few things with him. These are a small Beretta pistol, a sewing kit, his fishing rod and supplies, and a small ink brush to write runes for enchanting.

Brief Backstory:
Leonardo was born to the Vadris family, who despite their great age had managed to remain out of the spotlight for much of their history. While expectations were high for Leo to master the art of wordcasting as soon as possible, his situation was not nearly as bad as is so often the case with other mage bloodlines. He and his parents were quite close, and he was allowed time to pursue his own hobbies where others might find themselves completely tied down. The birth of his sister Elise seven years later only served to bring the family closer, and his ambition to improve largely focused around making them proud.

However, disaster struck when Leo was just eleven years old, when his parents were both killed in a terrible 'accident'. Leo and Elise were never given the details of the accident, other than the fact that it probably wasn't actually an accident, instead being quickly shepherded away from their home in Ireland to a small, unassuming island in the middle of the pacific ocean, where they have spent the last eight years living as the lower-class McGillis family with their homunculus caretaker Luna. Times have been tough, with Leo having to dedicate the majority of his time to helping raise Elise, and eventually assisting in bringing in an income for the three to live off of. So far he has managed that, but along with the self defense training, it has taken a heavy toll on his magic education, having made very little progress in expanding his magic vocabulary other than a few words he can use to subtly make money. Without revealing the existence of magic, put away the pitchforks...

Honestly, despite life just above the poverty line being a little bit difficult, Leonardo felt like he probably could have kept going with it. He had gotten used to it, he knew what he was doing! And then he was called back to London by their families ancient contract with the Ar-Rynesarte family, meaning that not only would he have to reveal the fact that he and his sister actually survived their parents... 'accident'... but he would also have to put his limited understanding on how to act as the head of a mage family to the test.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Chi: Accepted.

@Aviaire: I'll reserve judgement until she's more complete.

@Timemaster: That personality doesn't really give too good of an idea of what she's like, and again I do need to point out this is not fantasy, it's urban fantasy taking place in our modern world. Or at least a version of it with secret magic.

@Rabidporcupine: Hmmm, now that I read it written out, the Word magic seems a lot like tracing from the Nasuverse, only word-based, so I think I feel comfortable accepting it.

[Aviaire]

Finished my CS!

[VitaVitaAR]

@Aviaire: Accepted.