Magnus le Rouge
Quoi?
Je viens de rendre un clin d'œil à la fille dans le capot - un peu jolie, je suppose, mais évidemment pas mon genre, bien que quelqu'un peut jovialement s'amuser à plus tard - et comme il n'y a que peu de temps, je n'ai même pas eu la chance de recevoir cette tasse de bière avant... euh... "quelqu'un" dit quelque chose sur mon salaire pour elle et la fille dans le capot - "Aurora", comme l'indique l'autre femme. Je suis presque sûr de ne jamais l'avoir rencontrée dans mon... accrochez-vous, je le dirai à voix haute pour leur bénéfice.
'Ah'm pretteh sûr qu'Ah'm'r ne vous a pas rencontré dans ma vie, mass. Soit vous. Comment sur Reath d'ye connaissez-vous le nom de mah, et qu'est-ce qui veut dire qu'il serait prêt à payer l'alcool fer yeh?'
Name:
Magnus the Red
Age:
26
Race:
Rust Dwarf
Appearance:
Magnus naturally appears similar to other rust dwarves, at only around 120cm tall and a quite bulky build, with red scruffy hair on both his head and face, as well as dark brown skin and eyes that, whilst once a similar shade of brown, now tend more toward maroon, or even a dark crimson shade in the right lighting; his face, at least what can be seen of it under his beard, is seemingly quite angular. Most of his bodily features are, however, hidden under his choice of clothing, a plain bright red robe over darker red clothing of the same material, up to and including gloves, itself concealing both armour and another layer of clothing beneath that, plus a large solid helmet completely covering his head. Most of his carried items tend to be hidden somewhere within his robes, including his stave, and the whole setup tends to make him look at least a head taller than he really is.
Personality:
Magnus tends to react to the world around him in a non-plussed manner - he has, so to speak, "seen it all", or at least a large enough proportion of whatever "it" entails to not be particularly fazed by the events that occur in his life, despite his fairly young age. Thus, his interactions with others are frequently quite deadpan in terms of response content, though his tone is typically jovial, if occasionally mocking to a fault if he thinks he can get a rise out of somebody.
Morality/Religion:
Having experienced the worst excesses of religious fervor firsthand, and given that a full two thirds of the Dwaorkint Pantheon has turned against the mortals of the world, Magnus rarely if ever pays heed to any deity, and has a tendency to make jokes at the expense of any priests in the area if he knows they are present. Despite this, he is not malicious at heart - he will apologise when he recognises that he's gone too far with a joke, and tends to assist those who are technically good over those who are technically just when his hand is forced; he also secretly admires the goddess Juunda for remaining steadfastly on the side of dwarfkind and mortal life in general when the other two dwarven deities fell for, in the grand scheme of things, two of the most materialistic and quite frankly downright petty reasons out of all the Anti-Gods.
Biography:
Born with the last name of Vulkan a few years before the Great Descent began, Magnus remembers little of his early childhood, aside from moving out of the underground caves where most other dwarves lived a while back due to some dispute involving his parents, the content of which he has never been made aware. Regardless, he and his family were not located within these caves when the Creeping Death trapped most of their number inside, and after the fact, his parents for some reason began believing that part of a prophecy had been fulfilled, with the remainder stating that every last mortal would die... never mind that they themselves came up with the prophecy, at least a year after the Descent proper had ended, and this issue soon escalated into full-blown worship of the Anti-Gods, with the radical and extreme nature of such worship increasing with the passage of time. Needless to say, it didn't take a genius to realise that there was something inherently wrong about this sort of behaviour, though it took the young Magnus a few years to figure out exactly why worshipping the entities apparently trying to destroy everything was a bad idea, not helped by several well-placed lies from his parents. He finally reached a tipping point when, not a mile from where he lived, he discovered the remnants of an elemental storm's passing, and at the age of thirteen, packed his belongings and ran away from home.
This, evidently, was not a good idea. His violent hatred of anything resembling religion at the time made him quite a few enemies amongst those mortals worshipping the deities who had not turned against them, and he was poorly equipped at best to fighting even the weakest of Living Shadows, thus forcing him to live a life of poverty on the streets of his home city for a good two years. It was at this point that things finally turned up for Magnus, in the form of the School of Devastation passing through the city. Desperate for a change, he demanded to be accepted into the School as an acolyte Artist, a notion which was scoffed at until he floored one of the more senior members with a lucky jaw punch, subsequently passed off as a certain degree of "street smarts". Convinced by at least his physical ability, the heads of the School begrudgingly allowed him to begin training as an Artist, reasoning that perhaps he would prove more magically capable than he looked.
Long story short, he didn't. Short story long, it took him until he was twenty two to finally realise his Pyric Aura, and even then that acted as a practical extension of his physical combat abilities; the reason he wasn't kicked out of the School before then was precisely because of these physical combat abilities, which he shockingly excelled in relative to his actual time spent at the School, proving to be one of the most capable acolytes the present members had ever seen, a feat proven all the more true when, as a test, he was given a dwarf-sized, unenchanted Devastator's Aegis at the age of twenty, and was hardly slowed down even whilst wearing it. Still, it took another two years of practicing his combat ability and his one spell before he was finally considered ready to graduate to become a fully-qualified Artist; passing the corresponding test by a significant margin, he was elevated to the level of Artist proper, donning the title of Magnus the Red, and continued to train with the School for another year and a half to further improve his Pyric Aura and try to learn additional spells, though he failed to do so. This, he and the leaders of the School ultimately reasoned, was due to the way the School dealt with Shadows and demons - whilst staying in one spot would have allowed hordes of ever more powerful creatures to overwhelm them, moving around meant that the mass of skilled mages within the School could fairly easily deal with the vast majority of whatever they happened to come across as a giant group, which meant that Magnus rarely if ever faced a challenge.
With that in mind, he asked for, and received, permission to head out on his own, to train himself fighting against the monstrosities of the world on his own terms, and ultimately to better himself for the experience before he returned to the School, hopefully a wiser and more powerful Artist for the experience. The School has dropped him off in Urenda before passing on with their journey, and he wholly expects a good match for his abilities to be found somewhere within the city proper, or else in the wider world beyond.
Other Notes:
Magnus' eyes have begun to turn red as a result of the particular association the Art of Devastation makes between the elements and their users, in his case involving the use of fire. As he progresses magically, he will likely experience other changes to certain physical features, depending on what spells he ultimately learns to perform.
Class:
Battlemage
Combat Style:
The Art of Devastation: This mixed style, presently taught by a now-travelling institution creatively called the School of Devastation and its practicioners referred to as "Artists" or less frequently "Devastators", caters specifically to battlemages, and is extremely combat-oriented and relatively pragmatic in nature; its physical combat tends to revolve around wide and powerful blows with long weapons, blunt or otherwise, whilst the Arcane magic supporting it is oriented toward the Primal school, specifically the Elemental subschool, this acting as one of the most significant and immediately obvious enhancers of destructive capacity at both short and long range of the various magic types, as well as a modifier to the wielder's features depending on what elements they are actually capable with. That said, Natural magic is also used somewhat frequently in a number of destructive capacities, such as the generation of highly-potent toxins, and it is not unheard of for advanced Artists to also utilise Illusion and Charm magic to trick opponents into more exploitable situations, improving their tactical abilities when simply improving their power is no longer the most efficient option. Ironically enough, the seemingly more subtle school of Destruction is rarely utilised by lower level Artists, though it will often be incorporated by very powerful Artists who have nothing more to gain from the Primal school; in light of what happens to the souls of those who die post-Descent, some Artists have even attempted to utilise Necromancy to preserve themselves and remain on this side of the mortal coil indefinitely, though without a set base to work from, there has not been any indication of success in this regard yet, at least to those outside these experiments.
Weapons/Tools:
Crystal Stave: About as tall as Magnus himself outside of his clothing and armour, and typically stowed away within his robes, this stave is fairly basic, with a sharp point at the end and three moderately sharp edges, yet composed of fine crystal. It therefore comes as a shock to many that, far from being fragile, it is hard and sturdy enough to block most physical attacks with a scratch at most, and heavy enough to cause serious damage, up to and including bone fractures, if a solid hit is allowed to connect, a feat only helped by its capacity to both stab through chain links and flesh and focus the force of a blow along the edges to crush plate armour more easily.
Devastator's Aegis: One might expect the armour of a school of battlemages to be fairly loose, if still protective in some form, so as to allow for maximum casting mobility. What is rarely expected is how heavily defended many Artists actually are in combat, and the Devastator's Aegis is the epitome of this: worn underneath a second layer of clothing and a robe, highly resilient against harm of many sorts, yet still mobile enough for the Artist wearing it to dodge fairly effectively when needed. The biggest issue with armour of this sort, compared to lighter equivalents within the School, is how much heat it traps even when not worn under multiple extra layers of clothing, and the weight that its wearer must move at any given moment, thereby requiring most users to acclimate themselves to the heatstroke-inducing conditions it imposes over many years, and even then only usually being donned in preparation for battle; the reason Magnus is an exception to this is on account of his native resistance to heat, allowing him to remain suited for long periods of time despite the conditions within, though he evidently has to remove the helmet to eat and drink, and usually sleeps outside of the armour in civilised locations. Notably, a Devastator's Aegis is usually enchanted to resist many types of magic, where Magnus' has not for reasons of relative inexperience, i.e. only having a single specific spell, and that mostly utilised to enhance physical combat; this is in part why he has headed out into the world at large, in an effort to acquire the skill needed to increase his magical ability to a sufficient degree, though as a dwarf, his hereditary magic resistance to some extent nullifies these requirements.
Skills/Natural Abilities:
Magic Resistance: Magnus is naturally quite resistant to all types of magic on account of being a dwarf, though this boon also severely lowers his capacity to perform magic under normal circumstances, and it has taken a fairly significant length of time to achieve what little magic he does currently possess.
Heat Resistance: Magnus can withstand high temperatures due to the extremes of his birthplace, a trait which allows him to wear the Devastator's Aegis for very long periods of time without trouble, and better enables his particular preferred spell setup.
Unyielding: As a result of his training, and through wearing the Devastator's Aegis consistently for long periods of time over the past few years, Magnus has acquired both greater strength and endurance than even the average Iron Dwarf, though not to an overly substantial degree; even so, he can quite handily move around within the Aegis and associated robes as though they are a second skin, with no sign that it enervates him to do so, and can both deal out and take blows that would fell most humans, though many theoretical foes are far beyond average in terms of resistance or damage capabilities.
Spells/Magical Abilities:
Pyric Aura: Magnus' natural association with heat has led to him developing this spell, wherein he apparently lights himself and his weapon on fire. This aura, as might be expected, sets on fire those who move within a couple of feet of Magnus, and can be extended outward into a "beam" or pillar of flame, though doing so requires additional effort and concentration, and the size of the aura's normal area of effect decreases correspondingly until it returns to normal. After a period of training to improve the spell, Magnus' control of this ability is such that he can selectively choose who or what is set on fire, rather than burning everyone and everything that comes near him regardless of alliance. This also increases the natural range of the aura and its beam by about half a foot (from two) and three meters (from twelve) respectively, and in addition, it greatly improve's Magnus' natural strength and slightly improves his natural speed too, though this effect also decreases as the aura beam increases in length.
Miscellaneous:N/A
General Equipment:
Travelling rations, including purified water, several days, gifted to him by the School prior to whatever he gathers from his exploits in the field;
A reasonable supply of coin, gifted to him by the School prior to whatever he earns from his exploits in the field;
Easy-release holster for crystal stave;
Several meter length of rope;
Several small daggers and palm-sized steel orbs, intended for hunting, can be thrown at foes as a last ditch ranged attack.