Name: Aster No-kin
Age: 20
Creature: Altered Human
Appearance:
Strengths:
Alchemist - Aster has trained and studied the science of creation, and knows how to research and combine ingredients to produce the effects he desires.
Animal Traits - Aster has several animalistic traits, including keen senses, enhanced reflexes, and superior night vision. He cannot see certain colors, however.
Well Liked - Aster's easy going personality and quick wit make him easily likable among strangers. He is used to charming his way out of sticky situations before things go too badly.
Weaknesses:
Obvious - Aster has difficulty hiding his true nature for long. A hood can only hide so much, and when people begin looking too closely, his horns are only the most immediately recognizable of his disfigurements. He often has to pack up his life and move when things become too hostile around him.
Weary - Among the many changes to his body, Aster burns far more energy than normal. When he is not busy doing something else, he can usually be caught dozing off in a comfortable spot.
Out of Touch - Aster spends most of his time alone, his only real contact with the outside world being stories that others bring him when they come to him for remedies. He has no idea what's going on in civilized society.
Dependent - Aster must regularly take a remedy to stave off the worst side effects of his transformation. If he doesn't he is wracked with debilitating pain, feral tendencies and eventually death.
Personality:
Aster is a cheerful and likable person, but tries to maintain his distance from other people for obvious reasons.
History: Aster was always too clever for his own good, and not quite clever enough to stay out of trouble. His first experience with alchemy was breaking into the local apothecary when he was just eleven years old, convinced that he could brew up his own potions and become a famous scientist. All he managed to do was make himself sick, but the owner of the shop, either out of respect for his attempts or just worried it would happen again without direction, decided to take the young boy under her wing and teach him. At first, he only learned simple remedies and treatments, allowing him to help with the shop, but eventually his thirst for knowledge reached his teacher and she began to teach him how to make more specific droughts. Potions to enhance one's strength, to provide perfect recollection or that would force the imbiber to tell the truth. Aster greedily drank in these lessons and begged for more, soon using his growing knowledge to devise his own concoctions. When he reached the end of his teacher's knowledge and was still left wanting, he left his home to search for more advanced tutors.
He traveled for years, stopping at each major settlement he came across and offering the locals help in exchange for money and any knowledge they had. He became an adept alchemist by the time he was sixteen, a prodigy by all accounts, but still he wanted more. He began to wonder why the potions he brewed must be temporary. Wouldn't it be far more effective to find a way to permanently increase a person's strength, rather than brew a new potion for it every day? His research eventually led him to brewing potions with animal blood, attempting to combine those abilities with a human safely and permanently.
He was only partially successful.
When he finally managed to craft what he was certain was a potion of everlasting abilities, he decided he was the only person he could reasonably risk in his experiment. He drank his concoction with barely a second thought, and then followed it with a sleeping drought, certain the alterations would take hold better in his sleep.
When he woke, he woke in blinding agony, confusion flooding his mind as he tried to find his attackers. Surely this much pain could only be inflicted from another? He wrapped his arms around his head to stave off the foes he couldn't see, only to pull them back with a hiss as something sharp punctured his skin. Reaching blindly in his bag, he grasped bottle after bottle until he found the shape of his numbing medicine, taking the drug so he could think clearly. As the potion went to work, he stared at his reflection in the glass surface of the vial, suddenly revolted and unbelieving at what he saw. His once brown hair was now ghost white, and there were four sharp horns, coated in blood, jutting from his head. Blood flowed down his face from his hairline, covering his features in crimson streaks.
Just as he was contemplating what to do, he heard hurried footsteps outside. He smelled burning lamp oil and the sweat of fear, and knew that he had to leave. If anybody saw him like this, they would surely call for his head. Quickly gathering his supplies, he broke several glass implements in his hurry. Once everything was put together, he ran for the window and shoved his way through it, dashing off into the night and spurred on by the shouts of terrified villagers. From there, he ran as fast as his new body would take him, disappearing into the forest. That forest, and many others besides, would he his home from then likely for the rest of his life.