The Mathemagician
02-09-09, 09:49 AM
Hello there. I hope this is all right. Although he has quite a few skills, I tried to make them all fairly weak (or nearly useless) in hopes of balancing them out with one another.
Name: Alphred Dorchster Tillman
Age: 28
Race: Human
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 140 lb
Occupation: Mathematician
Personality: Alphred is kind and good natured, and dislikes violence or confrontation. Most people, when they get to know him, find him to be pleasant enough to be around. Still, in many areas Alphred's social skills are lacking. Small talk is a foreign language to him. In fact, all conversation seems to be difficult for him to follow logically. He doesn't seem to grasp that it is necessary to actually follow the trains of thought of the other person. Thus, he will continue to think within his own mind, occasionally saying pieces of information that are relevant to him, but seem entirely random to outsiders. He has a tendency towards solitude, and prefers his own company to that of others. Still, at the same time he has a strong conflicting urge to be useful or helpful within society somehow.
Appearance: There is nothing particularly exceptional about Alphred's appearance. In fact, the only exceptional thing about it is his complete lack of memorability. Strangers can talk to him for hours and walk away remembering little about him. Easily he can fade into a crowd and not be noticed at all. He is of average height and weight, perhaps slightly small. While not muscular, he is not scrawny either and instead stands somewhere directly in between the two ends. His hair is shaped like a bowl and hangs down to just above his eyebrows. It is not a particularly interesting shade of black either, only with extreme hyperbole could one describe it as "dark as midnight," rather it is simple and dull with a few early traces of gray at the edges. He wears a traveling tunic of dull brown, with cloth pants to match. On his hands he wears what appears to be flimsy black gloves with metallic tips on the ends of the fingers, as if he were constantly wearing small thimbles on each finger tip. These are pointed slightly, giving them the appearance of small claws.
History: Alphred was born the son of an accountant in the City of Scara Brae. His father was a treasurer and money-manager for the Duke Ferrian Zalinhar and he oversaw much of the trading that went on through the town. His mother stayed at their wealthy home in the city and fancied herself to be quite the minor aristocrat thanks to her husband's connection with the Duke. All expected that Alphred would follow in the footsteps of his father. Indeed, he did show large amounts of promise in the exciting fields of accounting and mathematics. He possessed a very logical and organized mind, even as a child. While he never made art, or showed interest in literature or music, the boy could truly make the numbers dance. Proud of his son, the father considered Alphred to be a mathematical prodigy, and he had every intention of leaving the family business to the boy when the time came.
Mathematics, however, was not the only area that Alphred showed skill in. Much to his family's shame and dismay, he seemed to have quite a talent for magic (of all things!) He could make small gusts of wind to blow leaves on the ground, he could make twigs float with his mind, and various feats of minor prestidigitation came easily to him. The boy began to lose interest in accounting. Mathematics he still enjoyed, yes, but he longed for the influence, power, and pure joy that magic brought him. His parents attempted to stifle this instinct, but it was to no avail. In the first and perhaps only rebellious act of his life, Alphred sought out a minor wizard on the other side of the city. The wizard began to give the boy secret lessons, teaching him ancient spells and clever incantations. Alphred, however, was disgusted by this man's methods. The magical arts were just that: arts. They held no patterns, no logic, no real organization. There was flair, and style, but little or no practicality in many of the things the wizard tried to teach him. The art seemed to consist of a memorization of separate spells and ingredient lists, with no real connection between them. Surely there must be a way to organize magic, to make it logical and neat?
And so Alphred discontinued his lessons with the wizard and decided to teach himself. Of course, at this point he still was being trained for a career similar to his father's. It was then that Alphred realized what the foundation of his own personal system of magic would be. Mathematics! Of course, it was so simple. Excited, he began to lay the foundations of his magic in the attic of his house. There he took pieces of white chalk, with which he covered every available surface of the small wooden room with white scribblings and numerals and equations. His parents assumed that Alphred was practicing the career they wished him to have, and they were overjoyed. Of course, Alphred was not at all interested in being an accountant. Equations he wrote were far, far more powerful than that. He was slaving away at building a new system of runes and symbols which he could use to produce magical outcomes. The process took years of hard work and sleepless nights, but eventually Alphred created his first spell with the system of magic. Excitedly, he brought a single apple up to the attic room. There, every wall was covered with numbers and runes. He sat the apple on a small desk set up specifically for the purpose. His hands shaking, Alphred drew the final rune to complete the 'spell.' The numbers and runes began to glow a strange blue and purple color and...the apple disappeared! Brilliant! It had worked exactly as he had planned.
Now that the foundations of his system were laid out, Alphred could work with much greater speed and efficiency. To make his work easier, the next spell he crafted was a rudimentary version of the screen-spell he uses today. With infinite space to write his numbers now, Alphred no longer had to worry about running out of physical space for his spells. Now he could cast them anywhere he liked as well. And so, one after one, spell after spell, Alphred produced the basic form of Mathemagic. Much of his time was still consumed by the mundane aspects of ordinary life though. He had now taken a job for the Duke, similarly to his father.
It was not long, however, before his parents discovered exactly what he was doing. Enraged at the audacity of his son, practicing such a disrespectable thing as magic, Alphred's father kicked him out of the house. Depressed, Alphred made his way to the small school of magic that lay within the city borders. Alas! The wizards there despised Alphred's "new" magic. And so Alphred was forced to set out on his own to work on perfecting his skills. Not a mathematician, and not a wizard, Alphred was something entirely in between...The Mathemagician.
Skills: Mathemagic - Mathemagic is Alphred's own personal brand of magic. It is defined as the use of calculations, mathematics, and logical thought processes to produce magical outcomes, be they divine or arcane. It is a school of magic of Alphred's own devising, some of it compiled on its own and some of it advancements of pre-existing varieties of magic. Mathemagic is unique because it requires multiple disciplines to be used properly. Arcane magic is the foundation of all spells. A logical mind and a firm understanding of highly advanced mathematics is naturally an integral part. Instead of spells, runes, or potions, Alphred uses equations and number tables. Once he has written a formula or done a calculation, he can call it up at any time to produce the desired effect. To create a new spell, however, takes Alphred many weeks of hard work.
Spells:
Storage Screen - This is the most fundamental of all Alphred's magic, and it is necessary for him to cast any other spells at all. The Silver screen is called up differently from Alphred's other spells. He must make a specific handsign for it to appear. The screen itself is a light blue, shimmering plane at Alphred's eye level. It is approximately one foot across and one foot tall. Alphred can choose to make the screen move anywhere within arm's length of himself, and so if he is sitting down it can be placed on a desk (and so on and so forth.) If the screen is disrupted by any solid object other than Alphred's specialty gloves, it will disappear. This includes objects being thrown through it, people walking through it, or Alphred himself wiping it away with his arm. The screen can also move with Alphred as he walks. This spell is important because all of Alphred's other spells are casted from it. Using his special gloves, Alphred can write in glowing white letters on the screen (seemingly giving him the ability to write directly on the air.) By writing the correct words on it with his fingertips, he can call up other spells and information. What's more, all of his spells are created via the screen. He writes the necessary equations upon it and then 'stores' them. The storage of the screen seems to be unlimited. The screen glows in the dark and therefore can be used at night, but its glow is not sufficient to light anything but itself.
Basic Arithmancy - Alphred has attempted to unite the magical field of Divination with his own Mathemagic. Using tables, Alphred attempts to predict the future or 'scry' to other areas. These two spells are conjured up by the screen.
--Future Prediction: Currently, his future prediction abilities are highly limited. He can see societal trends at large, but he cannot do that with any accuracy greater than that of the average sociologist or historian. He cannot predict the behavior of a single human any more than a physicist can predict the movement of a single electron. The greatest accuracy he could get is "There seems to be a lot of social unrest in XYZ Kingdom, based on observations of this variable, that variable, and this other variable."
--Scrying: Alphred's scrying abilities are similarly limited. Using his screen, he can make any location that he has been to appear. The range of this power is approximately one mile. He can only make a view of a one foot by one foot square appear on the screen. However, he cannot see any living creatures (including humans, animals, or plants) using this scrying ability. Nor can he hear any sounds at all. He basically can just use this ability to see if anything has changed in a place he has been.
Basic Elemental Magic - The common fields of elemental magic are another area Alphred has attempted to reconcile with his own skills. He can manipulate select elements to a minor extent.
--Fire manipulation: Alphred cannot create fire as of yet, but he can put any fire out. Any fire that is contained within a two foot by two foot radius, that is. A burning house would be impossible for him to control.
--Water manipulation: Alphred can change the state of small pool of water he can touch. This does not include water within the bodies of living creatures. He can change one phase at a time only (i.e. from liquid to gas, or liquid to ice, or vice versa.) This pool of water must contain a square volume of less than two feet by two feet.
--Earth manipulation: This is Alphred's primary self-defense spell. He can use Earth as a sort of a shield. This shield is comprised of small rocks, pebbles, and dirt that he can make rise from under the ground. It can be up to one foot in diameter. Its hardness depends on the available materials, but in average quality soil it is approximately the hardness of bronze. In paved areas, such as cities, Alphred cannot use this spell. Only where there is loose dirt on the ground.
--Air manipulation: As of yet, Alphred can do nothing to manipulate the element of Air.
Basic Summoning: Alphred's summoning spells are not "true" summoning spells. That is because he does not literally summon a creature from another place or plane. Instead, he actually creates a replicate or golem-type creature using his magic. They are not real creatures, although they have every appearance, ability, and personality trait of a real creature. Once again, these spells are casted using the magic screen.
--Summoning of Vermin: As of now, the only creatures that Alphred can summon are small creatures that would be classified as 'vermin.' This includes spiders, mice, and bats only. He can summon only one creature at a time. He can 'see' through the eyes of this creature using his screen, but he cannot control its actions at all. The creature exists for five minutes. All of these creatures can only be small varieties of their species (no tarantulas, for instance.)
Basic Illusion: Using his magic, Alphred can create false images to deceive or confuse his enemies. As with all his other spells, illusions are casted via his magic screen. His illusions have no physical reality, and are entirely insubstantial.
--Ghostly Lights: This is currently Alphred's only illusion spell. Truly though, Alphred does not use this spell as an illusion. He simply uses it to produce light. Ghostly Lights calls up three orbs, each two inches in diameter. These orbs each glow with their own inherent light, a pale blue color. They circle around Alphred's head and each produce light about as bright as a dim candle.
Equipment: Alphred carries no weaponry or armor. The only notable equipment he uses are his magical gloves.
--Metal Capped Gloves: These gloves look like black cloth gloves. The fingers are tipped with tiny metal 'claws.' These claws are not sharp, and could not cut anything. Their use is to allow Alphred to interact with his magical screen. When Alphred touches the screen with the tips of the gloves, it leaves glowing white marks.
Name: Alphred Dorchster Tillman
Age: 28
Race: Human
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 140 lb
Occupation: Mathematician
Personality: Alphred is kind and good natured, and dislikes violence or confrontation. Most people, when they get to know him, find him to be pleasant enough to be around. Still, in many areas Alphred's social skills are lacking. Small talk is a foreign language to him. In fact, all conversation seems to be difficult for him to follow logically. He doesn't seem to grasp that it is necessary to actually follow the trains of thought of the other person. Thus, he will continue to think within his own mind, occasionally saying pieces of information that are relevant to him, but seem entirely random to outsiders. He has a tendency towards solitude, and prefers his own company to that of others. Still, at the same time he has a strong conflicting urge to be useful or helpful within society somehow.
Appearance: There is nothing particularly exceptional about Alphred's appearance. In fact, the only exceptional thing about it is his complete lack of memorability. Strangers can talk to him for hours and walk away remembering little about him. Easily he can fade into a crowd and not be noticed at all. He is of average height and weight, perhaps slightly small. While not muscular, he is not scrawny either and instead stands somewhere directly in between the two ends. His hair is shaped like a bowl and hangs down to just above his eyebrows. It is not a particularly interesting shade of black either, only with extreme hyperbole could one describe it as "dark as midnight," rather it is simple and dull with a few early traces of gray at the edges. He wears a traveling tunic of dull brown, with cloth pants to match. On his hands he wears what appears to be flimsy black gloves with metallic tips on the ends of the fingers, as if he were constantly wearing small thimbles on each finger tip. These are pointed slightly, giving them the appearance of small claws.
History: Alphred was born the son of an accountant in the City of Scara Brae. His father was a treasurer and money-manager for the Duke Ferrian Zalinhar and he oversaw much of the trading that went on through the town. His mother stayed at their wealthy home in the city and fancied herself to be quite the minor aristocrat thanks to her husband's connection with the Duke. All expected that Alphred would follow in the footsteps of his father. Indeed, he did show large amounts of promise in the exciting fields of accounting and mathematics. He possessed a very logical and organized mind, even as a child. While he never made art, or showed interest in literature or music, the boy could truly make the numbers dance. Proud of his son, the father considered Alphred to be a mathematical prodigy, and he had every intention of leaving the family business to the boy when the time came.
Mathematics, however, was not the only area that Alphred showed skill in. Much to his family's shame and dismay, he seemed to have quite a talent for magic (of all things!) He could make small gusts of wind to blow leaves on the ground, he could make twigs float with his mind, and various feats of minor prestidigitation came easily to him. The boy began to lose interest in accounting. Mathematics he still enjoyed, yes, but he longed for the influence, power, and pure joy that magic brought him. His parents attempted to stifle this instinct, but it was to no avail. In the first and perhaps only rebellious act of his life, Alphred sought out a minor wizard on the other side of the city. The wizard began to give the boy secret lessons, teaching him ancient spells and clever incantations. Alphred, however, was disgusted by this man's methods. The magical arts were just that: arts. They held no patterns, no logic, no real organization. There was flair, and style, but little or no practicality in many of the things the wizard tried to teach him. The art seemed to consist of a memorization of separate spells and ingredient lists, with no real connection between them. Surely there must be a way to organize magic, to make it logical and neat?
And so Alphred discontinued his lessons with the wizard and decided to teach himself. Of course, at this point he still was being trained for a career similar to his father's. It was then that Alphred realized what the foundation of his own personal system of magic would be. Mathematics! Of course, it was so simple. Excited, he began to lay the foundations of his magic in the attic of his house. There he took pieces of white chalk, with which he covered every available surface of the small wooden room with white scribblings and numerals and equations. His parents assumed that Alphred was practicing the career they wished him to have, and they were overjoyed. Of course, Alphred was not at all interested in being an accountant. Equations he wrote were far, far more powerful than that. He was slaving away at building a new system of runes and symbols which he could use to produce magical outcomes. The process took years of hard work and sleepless nights, but eventually Alphred created his first spell with the system of magic. Excitedly, he brought a single apple up to the attic room. There, every wall was covered with numbers and runes. He sat the apple on a small desk set up specifically for the purpose. His hands shaking, Alphred drew the final rune to complete the 'spell.' The numbers and runes began to glow a strange blue and purple color and...the apple disappeared! Brilliant! It had worked exactly as he had planned.
Now that the foundations of his system were laid out, Alphred could work with much greater speed and efficiency. To make his work easier, the next spell he crafted was a rudimentary version of the screen-spell he uses today. With infinite space to write his numbers now, Alphred no longer had to worry about running out of physical space for his spells. Now he could cast them anywhere he liked as well. And so, one after one, spell after spell, Alphred produced the basic form of Mathemagic. Much of his time was still consumed by the mundane aspects of ordinary life though. He had now taken a job for the Duke, similarly to his father.
It was not long, however, before his parents discovered exactly what he was doing. Enraged at the audacity of his son, practicing such a disrespectable thing as magic, Alphred's father kicked him out of the house. Depressed, Alphred made his way to the small school of magic that lay within the city borders. Alas! The wizards there despised Alphred's "new" magic. And so Alphred was forced to set out on his own to work on perfecting his skills. Not a mathematician, and not a wizard, Alphred was something entirely in between...The Mathemagician.
Skills: Mathemagic - Mathemagic is Alphred's own personal brand of magic. It is defined as the use of calculations, mathematics, and logical thought processes to produce magical outcomes, be they divine or arcane. It is a school of magic of Alphred's own devising, some of it compiled on its own and some of it advancements of pre-existing varieties of magic. Mathemagic is unique because it requires multiple disciplines to be used properly. Arcane magic is the foundation of all spells. A logical mind and a firm understanding of highly advanced mathematics is naturally an integral part. Instead of spells, runes, or potions, Alphred uses equations and number tables. Once he has written a formula or done a calculation, he can call it up at any time to produce the desired effect. To create a new spell, however, takes Alphred many weeks of hard work.
Spells:
Storage Screen - This is the most fundamental of all Alphred's magic, and it is necessary for him to cast any other spells at all. The Silver screen is called up differently from Alphred's other spells. He must make a specific handsign for it to appear. The screen itself is a light blue, shimmering plane at Alphred's eye level. It is approximately one foot across and one foot tall. Alphred can choose to make the screen move anywhere within arm's length of himself, and so if he is sitting down it can be placed on a desk (and so on and so forth.) If the screen is disrupted by any solid object other than Alphred's specialty gloves, it will disappear. This includes objects being thrown through it, people walking through it, or Alphred himself wiping it away with his arm. The screen can also move with Alphred as he walks. This spell is important because all of Alphred's other spells are casted from it. Using his special gloves, Alphred can write in glowing white letters on the screen (seemingly giving him the ability to write directly on the air.) By writing the correct words on it with his fingertips, he can call up other spells and information. What's more, all of his spells are created via the screen. He writes the necessary equations upon it and then 'stores' them. The storage of the screen seems to be unlimited. The screen glows in the dark and therefore can be used at night, but its glow is not sufficient to light anything but itself.
Basic Arithmancy - Alphred has attempted to unite the magical field of Divination with his own Mathemagic. Using tables, Alphred attempts to predict the future or 'scry' to other areas. These two spells are conjured up by the screen.
--Future Prediction: Currently, his future prediction abilities are highly limited. He can see societal trends at large, but he cannot do that with any accuracy greater than that of the average sociologist or historian. He cannot predict the behavior of a single human any more than a physicist can predict the movement of a single electron. The greatest accuracy he could get is "There seems to be a lot of social unrest in XYZ Kingdom, based on observations of this variable, that variable, and this other variable."
--Scrying: Alphred's scrying abilities are similarly limited. Using his screen, he can make any location that he has been to appear. The range of this power is approximately one mile. He can only make a view of a one foot by one foot square appear on the screen. However, he cannot see any living creatures (including humans, animals, or plants) using this scrying ability. Nor can he hear any sounds at all. He basically can just use this ability to see if anything has changed in a place he has been.
Basic Elemental Magic - The common fields of elemental magic are another area Alphred has attempted to reconcile with his own skills. He can manipulate select elements to a minor extent.
--Fire manipulation: Alphred cannot create fire as of yet, but he can put any fire out. Any fire that is contained within a two foot by two foot radius, that is. A burning house would be impossible for him to control.
--Water manipulation: Alphred can change the state of small pool of water he can touch. This does not include water within the bodies of living creatures. He can change one phase at a time only (i.e. from liquid to gas, or liquid to ice, or vice versa.) This pool of water must contain a square volume of less than two feet by two feet.
--Earth manipulation: This is Alphred's primary self-defense spell. He can use Earth as a sort of a shield. This shield is comprised of small rocks, pebbles, and dirt that he can make rise from under the ground. It can be up to one foot in diameter. Its hardness depends on the available materials, but in average quality soil it is approximately the hardness of bronze. In paved areas, such as cities, Alphred cannot use this spell. Only where there is loose dirt on the ground.
--Air manipulation: As of yet, Alphred can do nothing to manipulate the element of Air.
Basic Summoning: Alphred's summoning spells are not "true" summoning spells. That is because he does not literally summon a creature from another place or plane. Instead, he actually creates a replicate or golem-type creature using his magic. They are not real creatures, although they have every appearance, ability, and personality trait of a real creature. Once again, these spells are casted using the magic screen.
--Summoning of Vermin: As of now, the only creatures that Alphred can summon are small creatures that would be classified as 'vermin.' This includes spiders, mice, and bats only. He can summon only one creature at a time. He can 'see' through the eyes of this creature using his screen, but he cannot control its actions at all. The creature exists for five minutes. All of these creatures can only be small varieties of their species (no tarantulas, for instance.)
Basic Illusion: Using his magic, Alphred can create false images to deceive or confuse his enemies. As with all his other spells, illusions are casted via his magic screen. His illusions have no physical reality, and are entirely insubstantial.
--Ghostly Lights: This is currently Alphred's only illusion spell. Truly though, Alphred does not use this spell as an illusion. He simply uses it to produce light. Ghostly Lights calls up three orbs, each two inches in diameter. These orbs each glow with their own inherent light, a pale blue color. They circle around Alphred's head and each produce light about as bright as a dim candle.
Equipment: Alphred carries no weaponry or armor. The only notable equipment he uses are his magical gloves.
--Metal Capped Gloves: These gloves look like black cloth gloves. The fingers are tipped with tiny metal 'claws.' These claws are not sharp, and could not cut anything. Their use is to allow Alphred to interact with his magical screen. When Alphred touches the screen with the tips of the gloves, it leaves glowing white marks.