Cornelius just after his Gauntlet
Age: 28
Size: 0
Gender: Male
Confidence: 1 (3)
Characteristics: Int +4, Per +2, Str +1, Sta +2, Pre 0, Com +1, Dex -1, Qik -3
Personality Traits: Brave 0, Generous +3, Honest +2, Private +1, Temperate +3
Virtues: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Gentle Gift, Greater Immunity (fire), Great Characteristic (Intelligence), Hermetic Prestige, Inventive Genius, Minor Magical Focus (aging), Skilled Parens
Flaws: Enemies (surprise flaw), Weak Magic Resistance (when wet), Deleterious Circumstances (when wet), Generous, Temperate, Visions
Description: Cornelius exudes an impression of solidity. Sharp brown eyes look out from a rather square face, with light brown hair that is usually kept short. He moves slowly, with a bit of stiffness to his stride. His occasional smile is expressive and friendly, while his voice is pleasant enough, though he retains a noticeable slavic accent. He often wears sturdy travel clothes made for durability more than comfort, only switching to more ostentatious robes for formal occasions (and looking unseasy when he does so).
Abilities:
Artes Liberales (logic) 1
Awareness (searching) 3
Bargain (barter) 1
Brawl (fist) 2
Civil & Canon Law (Provence) 1
Code of Hermes (mundane relations) 3
Concentration (spells) 1
Folk Ken (peasants) 3
Language (native): West Slavonic (Polish) 5
Language: Latin (Hermetic usage) 4
Language: Low German (Saxon) 3
Language: Occitan (expansive vocabulary) 2
Magic Theory (inventing spells) 3
Parma Magica (Aquam) 1
Philosophiae (moral philosophy) 2
Profession: Farmer (grain crops) 1
Profession: Miner (salt) 2
Swim (river) 1
Magical Arts: Cr 0, In 10, Mu 0, Pe 0, Re 0, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 4, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 4, Te 0, Vi 10
Wizard's Sigil: A brief flash of cleansing warmth or flames.
Spells:
Comfort of the Drenched Traveler (PeAq 5) +2
Cloak of the Duck's Feathers (ReAq 5) +2
The Inexorable Search (InCo 20) +16
Whispers Through the Black Gate (InCo 15, Me) +16
Spasms of the Uncontrolled Hand (ReCo 5) +6
Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood (InIm 20) +13 -- Mastery 1 (Acute Sense)
Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie (InMe 20) +16
Palm of Flame (CrIg 5) +2
Winter's Icy Touch (PeIg 10) +2
Bitter Taste of Betrayal (InVi 15) +22 -- HoH:TL p.75
Sense of the Lingering Magic (InVi 30) +23 -- Mastery 1 (Acute Sense)
Ulan wakes up with a gasp of panic as he finally breaks free from the nightmare. He sits on his pallet, drenched with sweat, waiting for his heart to calm down as the last remnants of the images faded from his mind. They were old companions, those images, but unfaded by the passage time. Some of the details had blurred with the years, but unfortunately those were the ones he would have liked to keep, such the face of his parents.
What remained was the fear and despair of seing them cut down in the fields; being chained by the raiders; being forced to walk for weeks, before being sold as a slave; then work in the salt mines. He'd been told by his master, much later, that slavery of Christians was technically illegal in the Holy Roman Empire. It hadn't helped, when the slavers claimed that their captives from the still-pagan lands of Lithuania. Ulan didn't know much about Lithuania, aside from the fact that it was much farther east than the small Polish village he'd grown in.
Rising from his bed now, he speaks a few words of power, causing a flame spring from his open hand. With its light, it is easy to locate the candle on the small table by the bed and light it. It is still a wonder to him, being able to summon fire like this. It is a moment before he lets go of the spell, reminded again of the tale his mother had told him all those years ago. The tale of the fiery bird, whose blood had fallen upon their ancestor imbuing him -- and his descendants -- with its magical nature.
Shaking his head in wonder, he cannot help but be grateful for that long-lost ancestor. Whatever the true reason for his abilities, they were the reason he was no longer laboring as a slave. The turbulence from his awakening Gift had caused the other slaves to believe that faeries were at work in the mines. Those rumours had brought a magus to investigate. He'd eventually discovered the boy instead. Ulan had left Saxony behind without regrets, though the journey had taken him even farther away from his homeland.
Still, being an apprentice had its downsides, particularly when one was being called to testify against a full magus. But a crime was a crime and reporting it was any apprentice's duty, particularly when one's master was from House Guernicus.