This is just one of the possible character ideas I'm pounding out. I've got quite a few others floating about, and I'll post them as I go along.
Character name: Elric Athenis
Character Age: 17-22 (depending on starting level)
Character Race: Human
Character Alignment: Lawful Good, leaning towards Lawful Neutral
Character class: Conjurer
Character Role: Arcane spellcaster
Character description: Elric appears as one might expect many a wizard to appear; tall and slender, swathed in robes. His hair is black, and kept short, and his skin is pale. Despite the typical ostentation of most conjurers, due to pride in their power over others, Elric prefers simple colors: blacks and whites and greys. He endeavors to be neat and tidy, however, his obsessive nature sometimes leads him to being in disarray if his current project takes priority over appearances. Perhaps the most striking feature about him, however, is his face. While one upon a time, that might have been because of the startling blue eyes he has and the intensity of their gaze in spite of the glasses they hide behind, that no longer so; instead, most people first notice the three scars running diagonal from the upper righthand corner of his face to the lower lefthand corner, as if left by claws. He might once have been handsome, if not for these scars, but both the scars and his stern, aloof demeanor make it difficult for anyone to think of his appearance as anything but "severe".
Character Personality: Elric's appearance gives many clues to his personality. Those who judge him to be severe due to his appearance are, in fact, not far from wrong. He has little tolerance for fools, less humor, and no interest at all in trivial matters. Perhaps the paramount aspect of Elric is that of control. Having seen his life spiral completely out of control in his childhood, he is desperate to regain that sense of safety and security that springs from being in control. This same desire for control is what ultimately led to him choosing to become a conjurer, seeking to control those forces that ruined his youth, and it has lent him an undeniable intensity. He can be obsessive once focused on a subject, and even paranoid, looking for signs of tampering by fiends everywhere, though he rarely voices such concerns unless he is completely certain. His particular point of interest are the planes, particularly the Outer Planes, and he seeks as much knowledge about them and their inhabitants as he can obtain.
He does not have friends; only allies, which is a title he only extends to those he trusts. those he works with but does not yet trust, he regards as "peers". He very rarely shows emotion, and when he does, it is most typically anger or contempt. He struggles not to let his fear of fiends get the better of him, and has even on occasion considered using summoned fiends in combat against the forces of evil, reasoning that either way, the forces of evil are harmed; however, he knows of far too many who have become corrupted by those they thought they had mastered, and so, for now, he avoids such summonings. The rare time he expresses a soft spot is in regards to children and orphans, feeling a certain kinship with them given his past, and sometimes he'll dote on them, even performing minor magics and illusions for their entertainment.
While he is a conjurer, he does not like relying exclusively on summoned beings for his offense and his defense; as such, he always has a few spells ready in case he needs to fight on his own.
Character Background: Elric was, for many years, a normal child. He was, though he did not realize it at the time, very happy, and very fortunate, for he had loving parents and a bright mind, though he was melancholy and moody by nature. He and his family had for as long as anyone could remember, going at least six generations back, exceptionally skilled at arcane magic and wizardry. As such, it was almost a forgone conclusion that a boy as clever and intelligent as Elric would learn magic from his father.
However, when Elric was six, disaster struck. Some fool had performed magic beyond his comprehension and control, and, as a result, a tear formed in the planar fabric, opening up a gate to the Abyss for the next 24 hours. The city quickly became living hell as demons descended upon it, defiling and destroying everything they could get their claws and fangs on. Even the mightiest of defenders in the city could not stand against the countless hordes of tanari... including Elric's parents. Before the boy's eyes, his parents were eviscerated and devoured, and his childhood best friend, a girl who was as close to him as a twin sister, raped and taken away, sobbing and heaving and screaming. Yet through it all, he remained surprisingly untouched, in all the city, even when he charged the demons, fists helplessly pounding away at the supernaturally tough flesh of the tanari.
When finally the gate closed, and the demons had returned-- or been banished-- back to their native plane, the city, and Elric's life, was left in desolation. Survivor's guilt heavy on his heart, he swore to himself never to let this tragedy happen again, to control the forces that had so ruined his life, and to honor his parents by becoming a powerful mage.
Working from his father's spellbooks and notes and what he had seen him perform, Elric took to the Art with a ferocious intensity and singularity of purpose. His intelligence and his dedication took him farther than many do, even with instructors, but in time he realized he could not learn enough alone. Gathering up anything and everything of value to a mage, he set out, using what magics he had mastered to find a mentor in the magical arts, offering spells from his father's spellbook and secrets gleaned from his father's work in exchange for his arcane education.
Now a conjurer in his own right, Elric wanders as a freelance mage, exterminating extraplanar threats where they can be found, and troubleshooting more mundane threats where they are not, also working as a planar scholar and obsessively researching any information or knowledge pertaining to the planes where he can find it.
Little does he know that on that night long ago, he was spared because his forefathers long ago struck a deal with Graz'zt, a powerful Demon Prince, for skill at arcane magic, and that he was only spared that night because until he learned arcane magic, his soul would not be Graz'zt's to claim...
Character goals:
- To fight against the influence of the Demon Princes, the Lords of the Nine, and the Yugoloths in the Material Plane, hopefully through other means, but if no other way is possible, by ultimately binding them with his magics, when he is powerful enough.
- To prevent what happened to him ever happening to anyone else again (he knows this goal is impossible and irrational, but he feels compelled to try regardless), and to gain the power necessary for this.
- To learn everything he can about the Outer Planes, particularly the Depths Below.
- To discover what happened to his childhood best friend, and save her/resurrect her.
