A little bit of history repeating

[LordLeopold]

At the time of the site crash, I had just achieved Level 7 and had 620 pieces of gold. I know this is rather long, especially the history, but I figured I'd set it down. All of these things were approved when we most recently re-registered, except for some of the history which has happened since then.

Name: Sir Leopold Lord Stevens, Esq., Duke of Marlborough, Generalissimo of the Entente of the Light, King-in-Exile of Salvar

Age: 55

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 210 lbs

Appearance: With almost blonde hair, green eyes, pale skin and a monocle always clenched in his eye, Stevens is the very model of a British aristocrat. He currently dresses in a riding jacket, scarf and hat, with khaki pants, heavy boots and a jauntily tipped cap. With a cane by his side and a twinkle in his eye, Stevens amiable yet oddly distant.

Weaponry: Stevens carries two swordcanes. One is by all appearances normal, about two feet long, but spouts a jet of flame and electricity from its tip when bidden by its master (even if it is only able to once a day), and returns to Stevens when he says the word "Come", even from across the room. The second has the bizarre ability to speak, and sparks involuntarily leap from its black steel blade. Although it may have magical capabilities beyond these, Stevens has not yet uncovered them.

Items: Stevens has one small kettle which can equip its bearer with short bursts of flight.

Familiars: Stevens is bonded to the Rhode Island Red hen Petunia and the hawk-sized dragon Icarus. Neither have any strikingly special abilities, expect for Icarus' skill at imitating human speech. Petunia and Stevens have been through many rough times together, and have a special bond that surmounts Stevens's connection to his dragon.

Comrades-in-arms: Stevens is accompanied by his younger brother, Sir Anthony Stevens, an unabashed jingoist who is ten years his junior. Anthony appeared in Althanas in a strange biplane crash during the final round of the Gisela Tournament more than two years ago, and eventually was reunited with Leopold after being held captive by the army of Ozternburg. Anthony carries an umbrella, and is followed by a band of penguin warriors who were assigned to his care by the Lord of the Penguins after a rather bizarre battle in an aquarium with Ter'Thok; when not cursing them under his breath, he is trying to evade them in large crowds. Stevens’s second comrade is Silas Witherspoon, a somewhat reformed con-man commended to his care by the City Guard of Radasanthia after an adventure involving a rusty locomotive. Silas carries a large leather suitcase that is haunted by a poltergeist. Silas's intentions are cloudy, but he can play any musical instrument except the trombone, and equips himself with a pennywhistle that, when blown, creates excruciating pain in the listener. Silas usually carries one or the other of Stevens’s swordcanes with him, latched atop his haunted suitcase.

Abilities: Stevens has no magical abilities and little physical strength, but he does have some knowledge of boxing, polo and riflery, having spent time in uppercrust British boarding schools and the Empire's Army. Outside of a sense of humor and somewhat developed wordplay, Stevens is not formidable in any sense of the word. He can write and draw to a respectable extent, and once had quite a penchant for solving mysteries that came across his path. In fact, his memoirs about a series of mysteries solved while traveling the world with the British Army became bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. Although Stevens has been a diplomat, lawyer and politician, he dislikes prolonged time in the spotlight, rather preferring brief bursts of popularity followed by a quiet few weeks or months in the privacy of his own thoughts and fancies.

Pre-Althanas History: Leopold Stevens was born on the family manor outside of Oxfordshire to Sir Neville Lord Stevens, the Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Charlotte, in 1877. The oldest of what became a family of four children, Stevens was given the best education that a thousand years of family fortune could buy. Although he was certainly a good student and knowledgable, Stevens never liked the classroom and enlisted in the army instead of enrolling in college. His travels abroad brought him what eventually became the rank of lieutenant as he battled the "Mad Mullah" Abdul in the wilds of Pakistan, braved tribal revolts in the Sudan and Islamist intrigues in Egypt, solved a murder mystery in British Honduras (The Case of the Crooked Chair), surmounted native uprisings in Guiana, survived a five-month long sail through the Pacific to Australia, and at last attempted to help quell the Boxer Rebellion in China. In the meantime, after foiling an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee (The Case of the Austrian Sniper), a feat which involved a hot-air balloon chase and a duel atop Big Ben, Stevens was hailed as a national hero and knighted with the Order of the Garter.

Stevens's brother joined in his military adventures, beginning in Egypt, but both eventually wearied of the service and returned to their native England, albeit briefly. Stevens acquired friends in high places, visiting with the millionaires of Paris and New York on many an occasion, and continued to write about his travels. A return to academia and law school earned Stevens the title of Esquire, and the death of his father brought him the dukedom of Marlborough. A series of mysteries in Oxfordshire brought Stevens into the occupation of amateur detective for a time, and another series of books about these ventures also gained him limited acclaim among the Amateur Detectives League. The outbreak of World War One found Stevens on a failed, last-ditch peace mission to Berlin, trapped in an invaded Belgium. This folly almost cost Stevens his life, and by way of an apology the government gave Stevens a diplomatic post in Transjordan after the war, a short-lived occupation that ended as Stevens returned to a quiet life in Oxfordshire with his butler William Bunter, a fellow whom Stevens had met in his globetrotting days with the army.

Stevens eventually moved to the south of France, where he indulged his love for sailing alongside his butler. During a freak weather accident, however, both men were lost at sea with the tiny schooner Matilda. Stevens awoke after the fierce gale to find himself in Althanas, separated from his butler with only his monocle, top hat and three-piece suit.

Althanas History: Since arriving in Althanas, Stevens has made the acquaintance of some of the most fabled heroes in the land: the elf Findelfin and the human Devon, “The Starslayer,” are two of his most stalwart companions, but over the years Stevens has met many more from every station of life. Time spent in The Purifiers, a powergroup of some renown several years ago, introduced Stevens to the art of war, just as time spent in the Citadel taught him the tricks of man-to-man combat.

Stevens is haunted by a jinni, one of the mystical spirits of the desert that can possess a living person for their own insidious ends. This particular jinni once possessed Stevens for several months, but was purged from his body by Devon, the fabled Starslayer and skilled warrior. After a prolonged hiatus, the spirit began stalking Stevens again.

Stevens is also at odds with a more fearsome opponent: Aesphestos, Lord of Death and Right Hand of the Darkness. Aesphestos wishes to destroy Stevens, for reasons which are apparently quite personal and quite secret, but cannot use magic against the Duke. This both intrigues and infuriates the dark wizard, and fans the flames of his hate. An ancient and extremely powerful sorcerer, Aesphestos had been under a binding spell for millennia placed upon him by the mysterious and benevolent Mya as a punishment for his attempt to gain mastery over all magic and conquer Althanas during the disastrous War of the Tap. He has reformed his cabal of extremely powerful wizards - The Forgotten Five - and is supposedly constructing an awesome army with which he hopes to destroy the nations of Althanas and bring the entire world under his shadow. His camarilla is comprised of himself and: Denebriel, empress of drakes and one of the most powerful sorceresses of all time; Xhum’zhud, a necromancer who has chafed under Aesphestos’s leadership for centuries; Nyvengaal, a mysterious magician apparently driven insane by the sound of bells; and Pode, the weakest of the five but still remembered in fear as the Scarlet Witch by those who have read the histories of the War of the Tap.

It is to stem this threat that several of Althanas's most powerful nations - Ozternburg, Esporantel, Ruska, Otakani, Bretellian, Loirette, the Kahh'jami Confederation and Niederoster - have united to lead a military alliance, The Entente of the Light, with Stevens as their overarching Generalissimo. Early in its existence, the Entente sent an army under Stevens to fight in the first Gisela Tournament to raise awareness and recruits for their army, and undertook a short lived foray into the second Gisela. Stevens’s tournament, the Oxfordshire Open, was another attempt to raise recruits that ultimately failed. Continuing this trend, the Entente has fallen upon hard times. The lack of an appearance by Aesphestos’s army, the costs of maintaining an army in the field, and diplomatic splits between its members, some of whom have yet to send troops, are driving the army apart. No less influential in this demise, however unintentional his part may be, is the military leader of the Entente, Superior Leader Baron Heins von Ribbentrophen. Von Ribbentrophen claims the title of Nar’oth, the messianic figure of the Ozternbergians who it is said will defeat Aesphestos and inaugurate a new Kingdom of Ozternberg. He has used this powerful position to achieve a dictatorial power over the army.

Most lately, the Entente of the Light undertook a mission to conquer the continent of Salvar to establish a base of operations and supply site. Stevens was placed on the throne of Salvar, and von Ribbentrophen took the title of First Minister and Quartermaster of the Armed Forces, making himself de facto dictator and Stevens a figurehead. The invasion of Salvar, however, instead of giving the Entente a pliant base, instead sparked a civil war which eventually required the withdrawal of the Entente. Stevens still claims the title King of Salvar, at the urging of von Ribbentrophen (who stole the Salvarian crown jewels as he fled the capital) and the Pontiff of the Monks of Ai’Bron. Stevens has no plans to pursue this claim, but it does help to get a room in a crowded inn.

[Cyrus the virus]

Man, level 7 never seemed so... Er... Non-epic. No offense.

Very easily approved.

[LordLeopold]

I've just found out that my EXP was: Level 7 [36,362 EXP], just fyi.

[Cyrus the virus]

Alright, as soon as adding EXP is possible, it'll be added