‡ Name: The Great Sage of the Elements, Living Magic Circle, Origin of the Arcane Fist, Efander Amdel. Of course, she looks more like an Effie than an Efander...
‡ Appearance: "Ugh... I didn't look like this before stasis..." Although the eye colour would normally suggest some association with the divine, Efander is more or less a normal human for the most part.
† Age: 313, regardless of looking 9.
† Race: Human
† Abilities: The reason for Efander's many titles are quite simple and come down to a single crippling flaw: they still are, and always have been, laughably and dangerously incompetent at the acts of casting a spell or creating a magical circle, with even the simplest of illusions
literally exploding in their face when it looks like something might be about to succeed. On almost anyone else such a hazardous limitation would have meant a lifetime well away from magic and its intricacies. Except... their internal capacity for magic screams something inhuman, and their talent for drawing in external magic--normally nothing that would pass through a person except as an "ignition" step--is uncanny.
Naturally, they tried to work out how to most practically put all this capacity and the ability to draw in more to use. It took a lot of trial and error, and Efander was an old man before it was truly completed, but it became an entirely new (albeit often impractical) approach to unarmed combat. The basics are simply the controlled release of mana as a "push", either to strike faster or more often to simply make a light tap strike like a thunderous blow. Sufficient practice allows for a reflexive release as a form of negating blows, or adding elemental effects rather than sheer force.
The true peak of this style is Efander's "living magic circle"; through sufficient awareness of one's own mana and its flows, harmonise the internal and external sources, and become a living magical circle... fight as long as needed without running dry; expel more with each blow, harden and heal the body. True unconscious mastery and constant renewal is a source of constant good health and longevity, keeping your body exactly as it was and in its peak.
Of course, constantly absorbing ambient mana may have its downsides, especially when in stasis and in close proximity to some highly
unusual individuals... aside from the obvious, this strange absorption has given Efander a minor level of superhuman strength. That is, all the physical strength of your average, reasonably-strong labourer. It's still supernatural in this state.
Finally, if bad luck can be considered to be an ability, Efander has it in spades. A natural-born mage that can't cast a single spell; the founder of a style and wanderer who can never keep a house for more than a few days; the traveller who
always gets caught in a landslide. Time and time again, if something could go wrong, it has gone wrong.
‡ Skills: Obviously, developing a method of magical unarmed combat would be completely useless if you didn't, in fact, have any unarmed skills--and Efander is nothing if not good at their own style. Naturally, it's focused entirely on precise touches and graceful movements rather than, well... actually doing any damage. If the magical attacks don't do anything, maybe magical bursts into pressure points will. And, of course, as a lifelong traveller, such useful skills as cooking, camping, and making and repairing clothes became quite useful. That last one even more than expected.
‡ Personality: Calm, serene, adept at taking things in stride... because after multiple lifetimes of everything going wrong at every opportunity, you have to take it in stride or go completely insane. With the benefit that as an old sage with a calm demeanour, you can equally dispense wisdom as you see fit or just offer snarky commentary on everything. Not that Efander was your regular old master--sitting waiting for people to come for tutelage, or just staying put in general, isn't in their blood; they've always been an unashamed meddler. Need someone to help with some construction work? Combat master or not, they'll help. A child lost out of the village? Efander will go look. Bandits in the area? Go and give them a talking to,
then break out the violence. If bad luck is half the reason Efander could never earn enough money to settle down, refusing rewards or giving them to people who needed it is the other half.
Their attitude is that fighting is a last resort... as exciting as it is, jumping straight to killing people isn't the best solution to problems. Even if they may have earned it, you might want to know what the
living person knows. Not that getting to show off the rewards of a lifetime of practice isn't fun, but fighting for real is a serious matter.
‡ History: Originally, Efander was definitely male, a young man struggling to find his place in the world--living in the big city, applying himself to trying to learn any magical art whatsoever. Everything indicated that he had the ability, so why could he not learn a simple skill? He was forced to cut his studies short after one attempt at making a light started a conflagration that burned down the house he was staying in. Nobody else was injured--the main injuries were from his making sure other people got out--but it forced him to re-evaluate.
It was whilst recuperating from his burns that he started to learn some martial arts from soldiers, though was again frustrated that because of the injuries, his
strength was simply insufficient to win any bout with the style they were teaching. He couldn't use enhancement spells despite the magic, so what was there to do...? This idea, and some early success with proving the ideas was possible, set Efander to practising for life. By the time he felt that he had really mastered it, he was a frail man in his eighties... though soon the recovery effect at least eliminated the "frail" part.
Wanting to leave something behind, he attempted to save, both from what was left of his travels and time training--working small jobs here and there--and dealing with minor threats to villages on the borders. Efander opened a school, got a few students... and it was crushed whilst empty when part of the cliff it was beside collapsed. Undeterred, he opened a
second school, which was destroyed by an earthquake.
Getting the hint, he turned to being a mysterious teacher in the remote wilds. Sitting still for that long got boring, and he was so remote that nobody came to be a pupil. So Efander went back to what he knew best: being a lone traveller, dealing with problems along the way, and in this manner teaching bits here and there. This intermittent tutelage spread the knowledge of the Arcane Fist, and his continued longevity earned fame. There was war, and monsters, but nothing massive enough to force his involvement or shake this lifestyle.
Until there was, of course. At first, Efander tried to stay out of it, but the harm the Volstanian Empire was causing was too much, and despite being relatively unsuited for working in a military environment, nor with what one would consider the appropriate temperament for it, he joined the alliance's forces. When it came time to seal away future heroes, how could one
not choose the old sage?
Naturally, even sitting patiently in stasis can't go right with this sort of luck. Even discounting the overshoot in time, Efander's absorption of the ambient mana was as natural as breathing, and still active whilst his body was already frozen... and added to the ambience was a heavy sort of radiance from a certain vengeful demigoddess and something stranger from the Grand Magus... needless to say, she's going to be quite exasperated about the change from a refined, regal old man.
‡ Other: 
