Background
Early Childhood
Early Childhood
Eadric was born to a Norse Ostman family in the port city of Wexford. His father, Snori, was a skilled shipwright and man of some means. Eadric seemed primed for a life of similar prosperity until his birth. He was touched by his Gift from the very moment he was born. This so alienated him from his father that it drove the man to drink. Some time later the man died in an accident on the docks, perhaps related to the drink yet who could say for certain? Rumors abounded that it all related back to the cursed child. This changed the fortunes of his life dramatically. His mother had difficulty remarrying with the presence of a child that so discomforted anyone and everyone in their presence, including herself. He grew up barely tolerated and fighting other children in the streets of Wexford. The touch of Otherness and Magic was increasingly noticed in all of these affairs. The other children who ganged up on him in the streets were often wounded, whether from strange burns or from savage blows that did not seem possible from a child so young. Eadric meanwhile seemed to only rarely even take a serious blow. The other children grew afraid of him and this drew attention from older people. Eadric grew wise all too soon to the ways of people, including adults, and the threats they could represent. Quickly he became a rough and increasingly violent child. The more others disliked or picked on him the more confrontational he grew in turn.
Later Life - Age 6-10
Later Life (Age 6-10)
Eadric had ever increasing fights and confrontations with both other children his age and with adults in Wexford. These were formative experiences for him wherein despite frequently coming into trouble he formed ever increasing determination and will to prevail. His mother did little to intervene on her strange child's behalf seemingly just as put off regarding him as anyone else. Yet there is no doubt that Eadric had already attracted a different sort of attention.
Dalton approached Eadric openly in the street after one of his many street skirmishes with the other children. He didn't seem put off by Eadric at all and for Eadric this was a strange experience. The older man spoke with him more in the one afternoon than he could remember speaking to his mother at all. When he offered an apprenticeship Eadric accepted without even asking what he was apprenticing for. And indeed his mother seemed grateful when Dalton appeared on their doorstep to finalize the deal. She didn't ask either, though she seemed intimidated by Dalton at every moment. Perhaps she knew.
Unfortunately the journey back to Lombard was not uneventful. Dalton's party encountered a mounted raiding party of Wild Hunt Faerie Riders attacking a small village. Dalton was never certain if they were raiding it for slaves, food, or simply slaughter. Yet the Magus and the Lombard men gave them battle instantly and without hesitation. Some of the Faerie raiders were defeated yet several escaped the engagement. In the altercation Eadric was stabbed with a strange Faerie blade. The otherworldly weapon, beyond the harm to his body, appeared to damage his Gift. His very magic. By the time Eadric was at Lombard and being treated for his injuries Dalton appeared concerned whether he would now be untrainable. To the Magus this was unthinkable. A disaster. The Gift was too precious to allow to be squandered and destroyed.
Dalton gave Eadric a place apprenticed to the Master of Mews at Lombard, a worthy position that would keep him out of danger while Dalton worked on the problem regarding his apparently wounded Gift. Eadric was touched by how Dalton actually seemed to care about Eadric's plight and continue to be invested in him. He chose to embrace the role he was offered, being among people who for a change accepted him and seemed glad to have him, and hope that one day his circumstances would improve. He remained close to Dalton and his attentiveness seemed to inspire Dalton to turn his attention time and again to attempting to find a new way to mend his would-be apprentice.
Later Life - Age 11-15
Later Life (Age 11-15)
Eadric spent long seeming years coming near to adulthood apprenticed first to the Master of Mews and then in turn to the Stablemaster and the Master of the Hunt of Lombard. He embraced each in turn, striving to learn and expand his grasp of the ways of his new home. Yet always he remained touched by magic and unable to have normal relations with others outside the Covenant, while never the less appearing incapable of manifesting the powers that had seemed so obviously bubbling beneath the surface when he was an angry child on the streets of Wexford. This was a frustrating time in his life. He grew up isolated in the wilderness Covenant and infrequently was taken along on any trips away from its valley. The Magi of Lombard were concerned that without knowing the exact nature of the magic that ailed him that he could draw the attention of the Wild Fae once again.
After so many years Eadric was well bonded with the men of Lombard. There was little doubt in his mind that this was now his home and where he would spend his days. He came to be thoroughly accepted amongst the Covenfolk much as any failed apprentice in the Hermetic world, even if he always had the strained hope for more. The Magi of Lombard seemed to pity him and yet regard him as one of their own in many ways. Dalton couldn't train him in magic yet he ensured he was educated in the manly skills suitable for a Flambeau. Dalton never gave up entirely. Once or twice a year he would attempt to discover the cause of the problem once again. Every few years a new spell or magical trinket. Or a foul tasting brew. Yet Eadric had ceased to expect any success after so many years.
Dalton did however eventually discover the cause. The Wild Fae blade had inflicted him with a curse powerful enough to suppress his Gift. A subtle curse that Dalton had been unable to detect despite himself searching for a cause for years. Dalton was fascinated with the strange effects of this weapon once they were discovered. As a vim master he seemed to grasp broader implications for if the weapon had found purchase in the flesh of a full Magus, whether their powers would likewise have been completely nullified. It was best never to find out. Once the curse was discovered Dalton was impassioned and energetic about a solution being within their grasp. Within a year he had studied the curse and devised a counter ritual that unwound it. At long last Eadric shifted from his line of mundane masters to his final one, and began his hermetic apprenticeship in earnest.
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship:
The unburdening of his Gift from the weight of the Faerie Curse transformed Eadric's life. He began his apprenticeship far later than many others yet very motivated join Dalton and the others of Lombard as a full Magus. In addition to the nominally hermetic instruction and training provided by Dalton Eadric began to be more involved with the affairs of all of the Magi of the Covenant. In its usually more eclectic ways he found himself accompanying them on various errands and adventures. The hunts and raids he participated in were perhaps the most formative and beneficial experiences in expanding of his skills. He does not speak much of the increasing hostility of Lombard for the English, or his first hand knowledge of such, as much as he shares their feelings. Eadric would not give any overt reason for political alignment against his former home by its enemies. He remains however just as devoted to their cause as ever, if indeed perhaps even more than they ever suspected. The prospect of a good fight, for a good cause, against a good enemy is one Eadric both relishes and seeks to be well prepared for.
Eadric had a brief first fiery romantic entanglement with Cliodna, a maga of Lombard, which seemed to surprise no one and amuse everyone around the dinner tables of Lombard. While the two are no longer overtly romantically involved they retain a mutual bond and affinity. While they are relatively close in age Eadric was delayed in beginning his apprenticeship for so long that she is years ahead of him hermetically speaking. Now that he has finished his apprenticeship Eadric is uncertain what will become of the old infatuation, though Cliodna is still someone he cares for.
After a few years the previous concerns about drawing the attention of the Wild Hunt once again if he left the protected grounds of Lombard seemed well in the past. Dalton waves away such matters and Eadric accompanied him on raids and trips farther afield from Lombard seemingly with every iteration. Eadric meanwhile was constantly pressed to refocus his emphasis into mystical development. The prowess he would need in his future life was now no longer that of a normal man, or at least not only that kind, his Pater assured him. He must learn now to wield his Gift as his new weapon and shield alike, before all else. Each foray into the broader world he was urged to seize upon as an opportunity to refine those skills.
The philosophy of his new House and the dual magical lineage to which he was an heir was drilled into him constantly. House Flambeau and the ancient ways of the Mithraians and the broader Cult of Mercury on the one hand and the ancient Druidic ways of Raghallach on the other. This has given his magic an eclectic bent perhaps in the eyes of some, hermetic and yet also wielding druidic knowledge and power. The long history of Lombard and its direct involvement in the Schism, and enmity with the Diedne before then. As a Flambeau trained in the Raghallach school from the beginning Eadric has thoroughly adopted its ways as a broader magical strategy and emphasis within his studies and training.
The Siege of Praesis was keenly felt by the Magi of Lombard. It became the focus of Dalton and Eadric's attention as the Wizard War not only transpired but shifted into a long siege. The fact that the very purpose of the war was to avenge the enforcement of Hibernian ways on a violent foreigner was hardly lost on the Lombard Magi. Yet they dared not directly interfere with the legal prosecution of the war itself. And Praesis, though lacking in bellicose Magi at the current time, was old and had very strong defenses. Surely the English would grow hungry or bored eventually, if nothing else. No siege can last forever after all? Dalton urged the former Magi of Praesis to stand fast and not allow the foreigners to dictate terms. As much as he could, without direct interference, he crafted means for them to augment their mystical defenses. Perhaps they aided in the siege, though it is hard to say given the chaos and destruction once the defenses were betrayed by a traitor.
In all of these affairs Eadric remained a keenly attentive student. The lessons of a direct hermetic siege and the fall of a covenant to invaders have been taken deeply to heart by the young Magus. The hermetic world is a stable one, not a safe one. This has instilled a deep seated conviction to master such hermetic warfare, both offensively and defensively, and bring these skills strongly into his future life as a Magus.
Once Praesis fell, matters abruptly changed. Eadric accompanied Dalton throughout Hibernia to various Covenants as his Pater become one of the strong voices in the Tribunal of a need to decisively respond to the English invasion. Eadric was present during discussions wherein Visioturpis put forward the strategy that reshaped the Hibernian impetus into one more strategically minded ... and that led to the founding of Inchmore. Likewise seeing such deliberations take place, and how a deeper hermetic strategy took form and engaged so many very disparate Magi, was a shaping experience for Eadric.
It was on the return journey from that meeting at Circulus Ruber which cemented the initiative to found Inchmore that Eadric met his old friends the Riders of the Wild Hunt. Not just any Riders, the very same Riders from so many years before. The same Rider indeed who had stabbed him with a cursed blade and stunted his magic. They set upon the Lombard group in the wilderness and once again the temperamental Dalton gave immediate battle and was drawn away into wild combat.
Eadric was left with a handful of the Lombard turb-men facing several of the Riders who did not follow into the melee after Dalton. The one, the Rider the memory of which had so haunted and frustrated Eadric, had singled him out. He and his smaller warband engaged directly with Eadric and his handful. Eadric cast a few quick Pilum spells and the sight of this caused some of the Wild Fae to turn and flee despite their seeming ineffectiveness, yet the warband leader snarled and charged. Another Pilum directly at the bloody Rider had no effect and Eadric was nearly lanced by the long spear of the Rider as he passed by. He survived more due to the skill of his Lombard turb-men in deflecting the charge than his own prowess, yet the relief of now only facing one had rallied the grogs around him.
The Wild Rider turned on his mount at a safe distance, the grimace on his face shifting to a mocking smile. "Perhaps we should start killing you all while you are young. The blade was too subtle. Wizards should fear the Hunt once again. I'll bring your head to Odin and convince him." he said, his words full of contempt.
Eadric regained his feet, having been shoved out of the path of the deadly Rider, and grimly weighed his options. Stepping up next to the turb-sergeant he belted out a final Pilum, this one with his voice straining with the effort and resounding in the hills. His arms swept wide and turned in grand arcane gestures as he poured himself into the effort. Every scrap of energy inside himself went to fuel it and his vision blurred and head turned light for a moment as he fought to keep himself steady and finish. Finally two pawns of Ignem vis flowed from the ring on his finger into the spell, amplifying it.
Instead of one Pilum this time he unleashed a volley of ten and all ten found their mark in the chest of the malevolent Rider. One moment he was nudging his horse forward and smirking down and the next the streaming volley of fire knocked him in a burning wreck off the back of the horse. The beast bucked and neighed in terror, its saddle and mane burning, and then bolted off into the woods full of screaming terror. The Rider was silent, save for the crackling of his burning.
When Dalton returned he declared that as fine a Gauntlet as any.
Macgnimartha
Macgnimartha
After defeating the Wild Hunt Rider and returning to Lombard Eadric was hailed as a victor in a genuine battle and proclaimed a Magus in all but name. The Oath and everything that went with it would come in time, yet the acclaim of his Pater and the other Magi of Lombard was all that mattered in the moment. That night in the hall of the great house of Lombard, fires roaring and beer flowing freely, it was demanded he tell the tale before all. Naturally it was also expected to engage gratuitous bragging aggrandizing his role in things, and that of the men with him.
Telling his first tall tale before the people of his home, with all of the cheering and laughter in accompaniment, was one of the happiest moments of his life. He made sure to tell the praises of the turb-men who saved him from the spear of the Rider in great detail. How he pulled himself from the dirt only after their efforts and rallied with them as a band to face their foe together and achieve victory as one. Dalton roared his approval and pounded his ale so hard on the table there was likely none left inside his cup when he was finished.
In the morning Dalton told Eadric it was time for him to plan and set out on his Macgnimartha. When it was complete he should meet his Pater at Inchmore, for efforts would then be underway. It was something Eadric hadn't even considered yet. What would he do for such a journey, to mark his transition from pupil to a Magus in his own right?
Loading his pack and saddlebags with supplies and accompanied by only a few loyal grogs he set out barely three days later. For Wexford. He wasn't sure why until he arrived. Sliding from the back of his horse to walk the cobblestones of his hometown once again he found himself feeling more nostalgia than he ever would have anticipated. He strode the streets drawing some attention from guardsmen. Perhaps his Gift, once again, and perhaps being armed and armored with other men in accompaniment that were likewise. He retraced his steps, passing the sites of long ago childhood battles, until he stood before the house he had lived in with his mother. The home of a skilled shipwright was hardly a hovel, and the house seemed in fair shape. And yet she was gone. The lady of the house informed his turbmen while eyeing Eadric warily. Many of the upperclass Ostsmen were no longer in the city. Those displaced from the various cities of the Ostmen were found in different camps or new settlements.
The guardsmen spoke English and rough broken Gaelic. The rulers of the city were no longer his people. The Ostmen cities had been seized by the English as being essential to their conquering of the entire Isle. The streets were familiar yet the atmosphere was different, and the English did not care for the sight of a strange Ostman wizard speaking his own tongue to his own people. And yet fighting in the streets with mundanes would hardly be setting his foot down the right path as a Magus if he could avoid it. Oath or no Oath.
Leaving Wexford he turned west and rode hard for Connacht. Like many he wished to see those lands while he could. Before his Oath. The occasional skirmish with opportunistic bandits on the road was short lived. A single blast of fire put all but one band to fleeing into the hills immediately. The one that didn't flee impressed Eadric with their nerve. They didn't flee, they paused and discussed, then put away their weapons and offered to barter. They were hard and practical men. He hired them as guards for the rest of his journeys.
In Connacht he was straightforward in seeking out Druids, in particular any of the same or close descent as the lineage of Raghallach. He went to several of the larger settlements in Connacht and while he met several witches and sorcerers he found noteworthy he found none who struck him as one of his own. Perhaps it was his clearly Irish ways yet he found no hostility among the Druids, even among the Gifted that he met. He stayed perhaps longer than most unhesitatingly aiding those who asked for the aid of a Flambeau. The most noteworthy was retrieving the apprentice and daughter of a witch about to be made into stew by a small group of savage Bloodcaps. They burned well and the witch was suitably grateful. Though he was soon warned that not all were friendly to those of the Order and his presence was drawing attention the longer he lingered. He heeded the friendly advice and in the end passed through Athlone on his way to east out of Connacht.
Eadric stayed briefly in the city, enough to take note that Dalton had been right and efforts were already underway on Inchmore. His movements with an armed band drew the attention of the wary locals. This was much too close to his soon to be home to cause trouble. Instead of lingering then he continued onward and made a hasty journey to Leth Cuinn. He wished to see the place and establish friendly relations with the Mercurians there, seeking a firm attachment to the other half of his magical lineage after failing to find the Druids he sought in Connacht.
Eadric spent a few months at Leth Cuinn enjoying the hospitality of their great hall. The more warrior-like and generally bellicose Mercere House there was just to his taste. The more time he spent commiserating with the younger Daire about their respective distaste for the English in Hibernia the more certain Eadric became that he wished to firmly establish his friendship here.
The journey back towards Athlone was much less intense that the trip to Leth Cuinn. Eadric sought "adventure" with his small armed band, and found it more than once. In some ways skill won out, yet soon enough he was forced to conclude that he was trying both his own luck and that of his men. After a few months on the road and in errantry he returned to Athlone, paying out all due spoils to the men who had followed him, and took a boat to Athlone.
Advancement Log
(TBD)