Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 22:27:39 GMT -5
Full Name: Alaster Arthur Berg
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Dorm: Pyxis
Power(s):
Ambient Animism
Alaster’s ability stems from the fact that he, like the rest of his family for ages past, is a magic user. And just like most magic users, Alaster has narrowed his focus to a specific branch or realm of magic due to the fact that there is just too much out there for one person to learn in their lifetime. His focus is in the realm of Animism, or magic tied to interaction with spirits. He weaves spells in order to manipulate spirits which are essentially the souls hidden, sleeping quietly inside of everything both. Calling on a spirit, Alaster can affect the world around him directly or indirectly, reshaping, moving, altering, influencing, and the like. A few words to unlock a door. A whisper to move a rock. A shout to call the rain. A speech and he could raise an army. It all comes down to saying the right thing in the right way and providing the energy to accomplish the task.
Spirits can be classified into two broad categories, Material spirits and Conceptual spirits.
Material spirits are spirits of tangible things such as an object, an element, or even a person. They are invariably tied to what is referred to as an anchor, the thing the spirit is a soul of. The more metaphysical weight or importance the anchor has, the more potent the spirit inside it is. Conceptual spirits are spirits of intangible ideas such as emotions or well, concepts. They are not bound to an anchor most of the time, able to bind and unbind themselves at will to a material object in order to go to another location where they can siphon power from the concept that gave them life. This is because a spirit is, by its nature perpetually ‘hungry’ wanting to gather energy they can later expend for feasibly whatever. Material spirits gain energy from being used, worshiped, thought of, or venerated. Conceptual spirits gain energy from being near or bound to a source of their concept. A love spirit would be easy to find in a house with a passionate young couple still trying to prove their affections for each other while a fear spirit would take root in an often talked about haunted house.
All spirits hold sway, influence and power over whatever it is they are a spirit of. They are all invisible to the mundane senses unless manifest into a physical body referred to as “Manifestation”. While unmanifested, their influence tends to be definitively subtle or weak, but with the help of someone like Alaster, they can borrow energy and walk in the material world and expend more energy in order to accomplish more potent and grandiose effects. It is this ability to channel energy into a spirit that gives an Animist like Alaster sway and power to use these spirits for their purposes, but as is common with magic, this magecraft is not always safe (see Weaknesses below for an in depth explanation)
Alaster’s magic is the art of coercing beings into doing things for him or working with him to achieve results. At its worst, it is decrying and berating something into unbeing or downright enslavement. His approach to the art is a manipulation of his own mystical energy which he employs to interact or influence a spirit. For the most part, the direct act of using his magic is based upon how and where he channels his energy. He can put it into his eyes in order to see a spirit within its anchor (since many material spirits sleep inside their anchors in order to conserve energy) or wandering nearby on the immaterial planes. He can put it into his limbs in order to touch them while they are immaterial or reshaping their forms. But most often he channels the energy into his voice in order to speak to those spirits and influence or command them directly, imparting his energy into them so that they will do what he wants using that energy. Thusly his voice is his primary tool with his magic. It is a sharpened blade, eloquent pen, and devastating sledgehammer all at once if he needs it to be. What he says, how he says and when are all factors so he endeavors to watch what he says more than most.
Example spells:
1 Awaken - His most basic spell. he’s done it so many times he can cast it almost effortlessly with no more than a touch of a hand or the rap of a knuckle or the whisper of a few words. Under stress he’s even cast it in his sleep. Essentially, it wakes up the sleeping spirit inside of something allowing him to communicate with a material spirit. With a little more ‘oomph’ and focus behind it, he can awaken a lot of spirits at once or larger spirits like buildings. The larger or more powerful the spirit is the more effort and energy he has to put behind the spell.
2 Glimpsing the Otherworld - His rendition of a mage’s simple feat of opening their senses to the Spirit and Astral realms allowing him to see and communicate with the untethered spirits who reside there and manipulate them with other spells.
3 Kami Body - Most mages call this astral projection. basically Alaster uses this spell in order to sever his spirit from his body and travel directly into the Spirit or astral plane to do business or act in the other coexistent planes. Unfortunately this leaves his actual body vacant and any wayward spiritual entity could hijack his body so he doesn’t do it without first setting up copious wards. A lesser version of this spelll coats his body in energy allowing him to touch spirits and spirits to touch him in turn without leaving his body behind.
Notably, without its soul a body will function just fine and live as long as it gets sustenance however a soul needs a body to house it in order to recharge its energies so there is a finite amount of time a soul can be absent from its mortal coil which is based on however long it takes for the spirit body to run out of energy on the other side.
4 Coaxing the Anchor - A subtle spell requiring more finesse than it does raw power. Alaster speaks to the slumbering spirit inside of an object and urges it to be better and whispers sweet nothings and flattery into its ears empowering the object to make it better in some way. He can talk a sword into becoming sharp enough to cut through rocks, whisper a door into being more sturdy to withstand a battering ram, or talk a computer into processing faster. If performed too forcefully or too much power is put into the flow of words, the spirit could be fully awakened and might become unruly thinking itself nigh unstoppable and even challenge the mage who awakened it.
5 Gremlinize - the opposite of the above spell. Alaster spits spiteful, agitating words at a resting spirit making it restless and fitful in its slumber, cursing an object making it less efficient or downright dangerous. He could talk a car’s brakes into not working, talk a pencil into breaking every time it touches a sheet of paper, insult a gun into backfiring, or even convince a tree that its bark and branches are so brittle they crumble under the slightest amount of weight. Just like its sister spell, too much power or too upsetting the words and the spirit inside will wake up angry and wrathful and likely lash out at the caster, too enraged and powerful to be lulled back into slumber easily.
6 Manifestation - a spell which draws a spirit out of its anchor or across the barriers between worlds and forges for it a body made of aether to directly act in the world. By weaving the spell more expertly, he can shape the aetherial body into a tool for himself to use (making for a more tame spirit under his control) or make a more utility based form that is different from the spirit’s natural one. This spell is inherently dangerous, however, because nothing about it gives Alaster control over the spirit who is now able to roam free in the world until the magic fades and the aether form falls apart, sending the spirit back to whence it came.
7 Animate - As it would suggest, this spell awakens the spirit within a material spirit and gives it the ability to move its anchor around and if enough extra power is put into the spell, the spirit can reshape its anchor’s form temporarily for a better, more ambulatory body. Just as Manifestation, this spell doesn’t give any particular control over the spirit outright but still a very useful and understandably high level spell.
8 Sever / Anchor / Bind - sometimes Alaster befriends a spirit in one place but can’t bring its anchor with him but needs the spirit’s help all the same. This spell allows him to sever a spirit from its anchor and give it a new one, usually something more portable. He could also simply sever a spirit from its anchor and leave the spell half performed. Without its anchor a material spirit cannot recharge its energy levels and once what it has is used up, it will fade away forming a devoid, ‘dead’ anchor object or location. This can sometimes happen naturally and even normal humans can feel the cold soulless eerie feeling of a sad empty place or object.
9 Wards - Dealing with all sorts of energies and entities, Alaster is well versed in all manners of wards to trap, contain or protect from or defend against all sorts of beings and phenomena. He can form them in quick order and through numerous methodologies but most require at least a few moments preparation.
10 Fetish - By specially preparing a vessel through ritual sacrament, Alaster can in essence form an artifact, usually temporarily however. The item to be imbued has any spirit within it removed and is then cleansed of any energies forming a neutral empty vessel and then another spirit is placed inside and bound there by contract of sorts. The object then provides a singular ability or power related to the type of spirit placed within. Artifacts made this way are called fetishes and are distinctly pretty potent because the mage using it and the spirit within combine their energies to bring about the mystical effect. Example fetishes include a ring with a fire spirit inside might grant the power to conjure flames, to control existing fire or might grant the wearer immunity to fire itself. A microphone with a fire spirit within might grant the user the ability to light metaphorical fires inside those who hear words spoken through it, creating a passion within them.
This contract is tied to both the fetish maker and the spirit, as the caster of the spell agrees to abstain from some practice or to perform some task for the spirit inside in turn and the spirit agrees to grant its power. Usually an amount of time is placed on the ritual at which point the spirit is freed but a crafty and foolish caster might not put such a restriction on the fetish and attempt to entrap the spirit. A spirit so trapped will usually stop at nothing to break free absorbing any energy placed into the fetish and using the power instead to break its bonds at which point it will attempt to get revenge on whoever used the item last. The vessel must be suitably strong enough to hold the spirit in question, good craftsmanship is usually a must.
11 Izanami’s Voice - A methodology to using his own personal energies, Alaster laces his voice with raw power and commands spirits using force of will and magical power to subvert a spirit’s self control. The consequences of such a use of power are obvious if he keeps at this for too long, any spirit who hears this voice is not likely to forget what they are made to do and if they don’t like how they were used they can easily turn on their dictator.
12 Collar - When he wants to use a spirit for a long term task Alaster forms what’s called a spell matrix which takes the shape of a loop of arcane symbols which is attached to a spirit and then that matrix is ‘leashed’ to himself or another being he’s performing the spell for. The collar allows the one who holds the leash to communicate with the spirit over any distance and to send that spirit their energy to aid it in accomplishing the task set out for it. It also allows the holder of the leash to trade senses with the spirit is bound to allowing both to see with the other’s eyes and hear with their ears. If the leash holder wishes, they can also pull said leash taut, squeezing the spirit in a way with the intent to get it to comply with any orders given. This spell is obviously one sided unlike the fetish ritual so the leash holder had best be careful with how they deal with the spirit because once the task is completed, the collar’s pent up mystical energies sink into the spirit allowing it a chance to roam free in the material world for a somewhat brief time to explore. An angry spirit is quite likely to use that time trying to get revenge on a rough master.
13 Familiar Binding - A ritual in which Alaster literally stitches a spirit onto a human being’s soul creating what is commonly known as a familiar. The human becomes the spirit’s new anchor in the material world and the spirit gains the ability to experience and interact with the mundane world at the behest of their anchor as well as an often frequent infusion of energy from them as well. The pair from the end of the ritual on or until the stitching is undone, gain the ability to share thoughts, emotions, and senses as well as power. As long as the two can reach some level of harmony the spell will not fray however if the there is much discord between master and familiar, the binding will come undone separating the two once more.
Alaster has three such familiars, an air spirit by the name of Hanley; Kojiku, a serpentine spirit of perception; and Epifanio (Epi for short) a cat shaped spirit of the stars. He has been bonded to each of them for several years and they have a very close relationship. Each possesses interesting and unique abilities as well as personalities and talents, sharing the quality of being invisible to mundane sight, the ability to manifest physically into the world (becoming visible and solid when they do), and possess or instantly grant the fetish status to items with Alaster’s guidance. Additionally through their bond, they can share power, enhancing each other’s abilities and are learning how to fuse with each other to form even more potent and fantastical abilities by working in tandem. Currently he’s been dabbling in fusions with himself and his familiars and his familiars with each other to create exceptional effects.
Hanley - being an air spirit, Hanley has aerokinetic abilities able to generate wind and pressure. Often he is used to aid Alaster by carrying his voice further or louder on the wind, extending his reach. He also has a special knack for finding things, able to guide the way to them. He takes the form of a magpie usually, though is actually rather morphic in nature. When infused with more and more power he grows larger and more hawk like in appearance, growing additional pairs of wings. His mood is often shifting and he is quite infected with the idea of wanderlust, liking to explore the area around them, poking his beak into practically everything. His wind manipulations are usually what is granted in fetish form.
Epifanio - takes the shape of a lion cub made of starlight and golden flames, like a reshaped star. His abilities include the ability to create tangible photokinetic constructs, light, and heat. Often he acts as Alaster’s toolbox, creating physical objects and tools as needed. They tend to refer to these as ‘constellations’. The light he sheds or creates is purifying in nature, dissolving corruptions and imperfections when shone on something. This quality is transferred to the flames his heat makes, burning out curses and impurities. His personality is playful and aloof much like the kitten like shape he takes would suggest. He likes to play and learn but realizes he should act more… ‘proper’. When given more power, he ages and grows into a fully realized male lion (sometimes quite large) with a fierce mane of intense yellow white flames and eyes like stars in the night sky wearing crystal like armor on his forepaws and breast. His purifying qualities or construct creating ability is often what is drawn out in fetishes.
Kojiku- this spirit takes the form of a snake like serpent about the length of Alaster's arm most of the time. A spirit of perception, its ability is to alter the perspective and perceptions of others, able to create illusions that can affect any of the five senses, such as turning something invisible or creating false sounds or sensations. Alaster also frequently has him alter or enhance his own senses in some way, seeing further, smelling better, tasting less. As a conceptual spirit, his form is also more morphic than the other familiars, and Koji sometimes 'sheds' its skin and takes on an entirely different shape temporarily. He enjoys surprises and pranks and scaring people, sometimes wishing to take his terror a bit too far. When in his smaller form, his illusions tend to be simple and limited to only affecting one or two senses at once. When provided with more power from Alaster, Koji just like the others grows in size and his powers become more potent able to create complicated illusions that can cover much wider areas. Often he encircles the area he is affecting. His more potent illusions can be so powerful that they can physically affect those who are ensnared by them through psychosematics. In fetish form, his illusions or perception alteration or serpent qualities are often what are called on like hallucinatory venom.
Equipment:
Ironwood Staff - a staff created from the acorn of a black oak. The staff contains the full potential of the tree the acorn would have become and technically speaking the staff is still alive. As Alaster guided the ‘growth of the tree, he added the principle of weaving to the growth, twisting and spinning the shaft during growth creating an incredibly durable rod. It can easily hold up to the likes of metal weapons and intense energies. It’s primary purpose is to be used as a tool for his spellcraft and can be used as the focus for a temporary fetish. As the spirit inside the staff/tree is still inside, it must be kept suppressed and sleeping during use as a fetish so that the spirit infusing the staff ‘has room’ inside.
Alaster crafted this staff himself due to the fact he shattered his last staff by putting too much power into it during use as a fetish.
As the baby tree spirit is still inside, by granting it power and guiding its actions, oak tree parts can be grown out of the staff such as branches, acorns, leaves, roots and the like though these growths are invariably temporary and will either be broken off or retracted later. New growth is usually less durable than the staff itself since it was grown for pure strength and new growths probably won’t have the time to gain this quality.
Jade Bracelets:
Alaster wears a pair of Jade bead bracelets on his wrists most of the time. They are empty vessels able to be used as fetishes or to anchor and transport spirits far from their usual anchors. On occasion they can be used as material for the generation of wards, since they are ritualistically clean of mystical residue.
Appearance:
At his full height, Alaster stands at 5’11” with jet black hair and invitingly warm chestnut colored eyes. A slim build belies his less than exuberant approach to exercise. He’s not fat or anything, it’s just clear he could probably bulk up a bit if he had a reason to hit the gym. His pallid skin tends to also make it clear he could do with a little more sunlight in his life.
It’s clear that he takes care in his appearance if not actual pride with it. He puts forth the effort to do his hair and pick out outfits and colors that go well together and suit the situation he’s wearing them for but they lack some… quality that could get him labeled a real fashionista. Some of them fit too loosely on him, some too tight or too small like he should trade them in for the next size up really. That said, it is utterly apparent that he takes impeccable care of the things he owns, often fussing at the seams or wrinkles or running a soothingly kind hand over some item as if it can appreciate his touch. His only constant accessories are his union jack satchel, a pair of beaded bracelets one white jade and the other hematite, and a necklace with a simple metal charm and the japanese kanji for restraint on it.
Not one to be caught smiling often, he usually seems to be frowning curiously or passively watching someone or something. He frequently seems to ignore the people around him and stare off into space, or never quite look at a person, but the space around them. Then again, just as often when someone does snag his attention for the first time, some find his gaze disconcerting because it is a look that truly pierces a person, looking at something buried further inside them, past the blinking eyes, boring almost uncomfortably into them. Then there are the times, his eyes flicker every which way, pulling apart a puzzle and clocking every minute detail. Sometimes he’s subtle about it, looking over someone slowly and other times when he’s in a hurry, following his pupils can cause dizziness.
For those not in the know, he can seem weird from time to time when he shifts his posture and redirects his focus to an object or thin air and even more unsettling, starts talking to it as if it might respond. But he’s so casual in the way he does it that it is somewhat difficult to classify him as demented or plain old crazy.
His magical aura for those who can see such things or when he exudes mystical energy during more powerful displays of magic is midnight blue in color with a rich golden light shining from within it, limning the edges or filling the spaces between.
Personality:
The primary facet of Alaster’s personality that most could pick out is that he is careful. Everything he does tends to be tempered with caution like a misstep is not something he is willing to have to deal with, which is for the most part true.
Growing up as the youngest member of his family, Aly always had to work extra hard to stand out because his siblings had already done everything. They were great, amazing, cool and all around better than he was as far as he could determine. But he was never going to be satisfied with simply living up to their standard, by filling their shoes. He had to find a way to excel in a family of the excellent. So he chose to be the wise one. Not simply intelligent, but intuitive and careful to not make avoidable mistakes.
This tends to make him a bit more… serious than some of his peers, approaching his life as if everything is important. In truth, this approach has left him a little high strung and anxious but it tends to be ok for him. He has a tight grip on his emotions, controlling his expressions and his reactions so as to not project the wrong impression. At last that’s how he acts in public, so in control and calm. When he’s alone, he often relaxes this grip and lets his truest feelings shine through.
Alaster is notably picky about his personal possessions, since he can get to know them on a more intimate level than pretty much everybody, he often makes friends with them and doesn’t like to see them mistreated. He is certainly not the sort to loan out his things if he doesn’t trust someone and gaining that trust can prove difficult given that he can look into someone’s soul and discern their true nature if given enough time.
To him words hold true power. Labels and definitions and descriptions. They are how knowledge is expressed and as everyone knows, knowledge is where true power lies. An idea and the words given to that idea are leagues more dangerous than any sword. And with him it is even more so given the nature of his ability. This concept is why he is so cautious because he realizes the power held on the tip of his tongue. His word is binding and thus, he endeavors not to lie if he he can help it and detests those who would pervert the spoken word with outright subterfuge. To lie is to be a coward and a thief of trust. He operates in a branch of magic where trust and contract are potent tools so if he cannot trust someone, they may as well be dead in his eyes. It is this mindset that also has left him with a passion for linguistics and etymologies and why he works to expand his vocabulary at most any opportunity.
His personal philosophies extend to disclude infantile concepts like good and evil. The world is not composed of simple opposites. Everything is on a sliding scale, and unfortunately that scale cannot be represented by something so simplistic as a two sided spectrum. He prefers to approach everything with an open mind (not an open heart) and make his judgements based on observations and evidence. He’ll be the first to remind someone that Lucifer was an angel and that god flooded the world.
His appointment to Pyxis was a simple no brainer for the powers that be given his devotion to discovery and trying new things. He enjoys experimenting and often collaborates with others, choosing to speak with the spirits residing inside the subjects of their studies. His knack for details, caution and open mindedness make him a very good research partner aside from his use of his ability.
As an additional aside, Alaster is quite gay but given his tendency to not interact with people very often, he hasn’t actually explored any aspect of that in a practical sense.
Picture:
Dylan O'brien is his playby.
Weaknesses:
No Sound, No Go: For the most part with his powers, Alaster relies on the use of his voice in order to use his magic. If he cannot speak or can’t be heard by the spirits he’s trying to effect, his powers don’t tend to work. Sound manipulating powers or situations are the bane of his abilities for the most part. This also means that his powers only tend to work within the range of his voice. This only applies to spells in which he speaks to his target.
Finite Reserves: His magic is fueled by his magical stamina, a reservoir of energy that stems from the strength of his Mind, body, and soul. So he has to keep in good shape mentally, physically and spiritually in order to use his abilities. This means taking care of himself in order to restore his reserves. Using his powers for extended periods is going to tire him out eventually. Larger or more ‘important spirits’ require more energy in order to be appeased and coerced into doing things so doing larger scale things is going to draw on his reserves of energy a lot faster than smaller, simpler things.
Everything Gives a Damn About a Bad Reputation: For Alaster, his craft is a social one, interacting with other beings who have opinions and thoughts all their own and sometimes word of someone precedes them. Yhus he has to keep a good rapport going with the spirits otherwise he could get shut out. His craft requires contracting, making deals and cultivating a good impression which means there’s a lot of legwork involved sometimes and he has to keep up on that in order to keep using his powers well. Further, he has to watch how he treats the spirits in his employ lest they turn on him or those around him.
The Right Guy for the Job: Alaster is feasibly only as powerful as the spirits he has access to, meaning what he sees is often what he gets unless he’s planned ahead and done a lot of extra behind the scenes work. He has to find the correct type of spirit for what it is he wants them to do and just because he wants to do something doesn’t mean he can just do it if he’s not in the right place. As an example, if someone’s bleeding out, he can’t just ask the wall next to him to heal them up, he’d need to reach out to an appropriate spirit, like perhaps one tied to a first aid kit in the other room.
Experience is the Friend of Progress: Despite his skill, Alaster is still a student and his experiments don’t always go as planned. His spells rarely fail outright, simply go awry due to some aspect. Most of his spells are really just a matter of properly transferring energy and controlling the tap of that energy is a skill gained through experience and age, something he lacks for now.
Silver Words on Deaf Ears: Not every task is so cut and dry, plain and simple. Spirits might be hungry for the energy he can provide them, but that doesn’t mean he can instantly talk them out of their natures. Asking a rock that hasn’t moved in 300 years to just get up and go, is probably going to take more than a couple compliments. He has to pick his approach and his targets wisely lest he get stuck working at something for a much longer time than he intended. It’s this reason he tends to dislike participating in combat, it forces him to be crude or heavy handed with his spells rather than artful and eloquent as he is usually.
Somethings Just A'int Got That Soul: In relation to the abilities of others, Alaster has found that some things simply do not house spirits and these things tend to be the projections of other being's supernatural abilities. He speculates that this is due to the fleeting nature of most effects, but could also be because things spawned from the abilities of another are actually just projections of that person's soul, not ensouled materials or objects. Further things that have crossed the line between life and death or dance on that line have a perverse simulation of a soul, something tainted and resistant to his spells (generally because those beings are influenced by necromancy, not animism). Lingering effects of someone else's powers might create a small, weak spirit inside the creation but these spirits are often too meager to provide much benefit.
Just a Little Human: Aly is a mage, a human being with magical prowess, but excepting his spellcraft, he has no special qualities or defenses to protect against injury and this is even more true for him since his branch of magic relies almost solely on the employ of others to get by. He can make due a little through the use of his familiars, but even they have their limits if he doesn’t foster the relationship. He could also probably do with a little more exercise of the body and less of the brain. He’s not out of shape, just too much of an inside kid.
Hesitation: Alaster’s tendency towards caution can also be seen as hesitation. He almost never just leaps into something without thinking about it or planning something first and planning takes both time and focus, It could easily be said that Alaster’s wisdom is also what holds him back because he is so afraid of failing that he doesn’t even let himself try until he knows he can succeed.
Inferiority Complex: He will never say it, but sometimes he gets jealous and down when he sees others being awesome. He yearns to be seen as worthy of respect and praise and so often it goes to anyone, and everyone else. This is probably a side effect of the fact that his abilities are not really his own accomplishments but the guided efforts of other beings. His dismay is even more profound when he is compared to or presented with the greatness of his siblings.
Strengths:
Eyes That See Right Through: Alaster is foremost an analytical sort of person, observing things and picking apart puzzles trying to find answers to questions no one’s asking but him. He is keenly astute in his assessments and shrewd in his attention to detail. His memory is very long and his intuition is razor sharp, zeroing in on the important factors of something even if other details might outshine them. His hunches and guesses are not always right of course, but they don’t tend to be far off target.
His Backup Plan Has a Backup Plan: The boy is smart, no ifs ands or buts about it and he’s the sort of smart that always has some sort of goal in mind and several ideas as to how to get to that goal. If something isn’t working, he is ready to fall back to the next miracle bullet in the chamber.
A Will Like Reinforced Steel: Despite how anxious he can feel inside sometimes, Aly boasts a very impressive amount of willpower. His mind has grown used to being in contact with spirits whose minds are somewhat alien and vastly different from a normal human mind. His sanity and self discipline has resoundingly persisted even when possessed by potent spiritual beings, maintaining individuality and eventually wresting control of himself once more. He can endure copious amounts of pain and springs back relatively quickly from his failures.
Calm Cool and Collected: Despite a propensity for anxiety, if Alaster takes a moment to set aside his feelings and takes a deep breath, he really is great in a crisis. He has grown quite excellent at wrangling and taming his own emotions and putting them aside for a more appropriate time and it helps him to keep his wits about him when the heat is on. When it truly matters, he can be expected to maintain his composure.
A Steady Hand and A Steady Heart: Outside of his mystical abilities, Alaster is a talented craftsman with a hand and eye for intricate details. He’s great with building or creating things through various means with specializations in calligraphy, sewing, woodcraft, and bonsai. He tends to devote all of his attention to a situation and project as well so as to avoid mistakes through oversight just because his heart isn’t in it.
Social Dynamo: As should be fairly obvious given his mystical leanings, Alaster is pretty good in social interactions able to read people and spirits quite well and switch up his approach to direct a situation into the direction he wants. He has a special empathy for other beings, and can often find a way to relate to someone or something on a fundamental level, responding to their cues and needs in kind. He’s pretty good with things like Public Relations and therapeutic conversations and should he ever get over himself, bedroom pursuits.
A Verbose Verbalist: He has a strong knack for linguistics including etymology, vocabulary and foreign languages. He is fluent in English, Japanese, Mandarin, French, Russian, Latin and Ancient Greek.
History & Family:
Throughout recorded history, the Berg family has boasted impressive individuals who excel in their chosen fields and roles in society, from movie stars to politicians to businessmen to adventurers and military generals and revolutionaries . Not a surprising fact given that most of them have been blessed with magic in their veins, a strong bloodline of sorcerers, witches, wizards and spellcasters of all sorts. This strain of mystical power is easy to pinpoint given their family name which stems from the old Norse word for hill or mountain which is less a reference to where the clan was known to live but rather where they came from. To shorten the story they descend from the so called Tuatha de Danaan, who were eventually known as the Sidhe, or the fairies of the mounds, or more originally as the gods of Ireland, magic users from the islands of the west.
But all of that is ancient history and speaks little of the modern Berg family composed of Edward, a potent wizard of spacial magics and summonings who married Veronica, a weather witch of no small power. They have been in love since the day they met each other in an almost classic cliche of passion and what might be seen as destiny.
Their love culminated in children a total of four times: Eric a symbolist and enchanter, Issac who was seduced by psychomancy (the magic of the mind), Sarah a witch versed in transformation magics, and finally Alaster Berg, the youngest and most easily overlooked of his siblings because of it.
When he was a baby, Alaster briefly was considered interesting because he seemed to be fairly advanced for his age, possessing imaginary friends all his own that he would babble incoherently to before he had words to express himself, well before his siblings had developed such active imaginations. It was years before anyone came to actually realize that the boy had actually been born into his magic and was interacting with spirits. in fact it wasn’t until he was 4 that it became obvious to his parents who had just grown used to their youngest and… unfortunately weirdest son who didn’t get along well with his preschool class. It was at the point where his imaginary friends began to move things for him and pieces of them could be seen floating around while he played that it became clear his magic had already taken root.
For his siblings, they had had to choose and dabble in this branch and that before they were 11 and declared their specialties but Alaster had been growing into his specialty all on his own. The Bergs were delighted and impressed once more with the boy and he enjoyed the praise for the length of time it lasted. At that point his siblings had started to catch back up and find themselves and their talents and at that point, the focus shifted quite drastically away from Aly. Nothing he did was considered new or noteworthy enough to drag any praise or attention back on him. The Berg family tradition had always been to forge your own path and discover your power on your own. No one hands down the lessons once the young mage chooses what path they’re going to walk so every leap in skill Aly made was easily outshined by the progress his siblings had already made.
And so he began to live for that praise again. He wanted to shine among the other stars that made up the constellation of his family. The only one who understood was Isaac, his middle brother, the one who could feel the distress inside Alaster’s facade. Isaac became his closest human confidant, though it grew harder when the older boy went off to college when Alaster was 12. The feeling that he was a disappointment was impossible to shake so he petitioned to travel the world for the summer between his 7th and 8th grade years. As was pretty common, his request was allowed with hardly a second thought, an absent one even, as if his presence was easy enough to write off for his parents.
He spent that summer traipsing across the planet looking into various mystical traditions related to his specialty, taking a keen interest in Japan’s Shinto Priests first. They were not quite forthcoming with information, but he still managed to see them in action and learn a bit about their methods. From there the shamanistic practices of Native American, Aboriginal, and African tribes took precedent and culminated in a stay in the northern European countries poking into the facts about the druidic tradition before he came home for his 8th grade year. The summer away was exceptionally enlightening, allowing him to meet spirits of all sorts and seeing magic users practicing their arts in new ways he had never considered before. It was also how he came to know of Foresta Academy.
Spending his next school year deciding if getting out from under his parents was a good idea, Alaster finally concluded it was likely for the best by comparison to going to a school that would stifle his mystical heritage by espousing the human wariness of the supernatural. He hadn’t made many friends over the years and it was clear his place was in the magical community and not parading around in human society, undermining the hard work of those without the advantage of supernatural might on their side. An application and interview later and he was off to the boarding school.
The school itself was an eye opening experience what with its storied history and its incredibly diverse student and faculty body. There was so much to be seen and talked to it was practically overwhelming at first but it didn’t take him long to find his place among his fellows. He’s now had two years to poke around and advance his studies, though he still hasn’t much actually made people friends.
In Character Sample:
Based simply on the hierarchy of species in the Universe, human beings were a rather impressive and interesting specimen. Generated alongside all of the other creatures of their planet and set upon the land with no special attributes to protect them and help them survive. No fur or claw. No fang or wing. Just fragile flesh and bone at their disposal, at least until pity was taken upon them and they were given gifts from gods and beings even beyond them and with those gifts they had flourished. Well sort of.
From his perch high atop a skyscraper, Athalos sat looking down across the vast and bright expanse of New York City. Though night had fallen hours hence, the city still shown with the remnants of that ancient flame that had let them move up the ladder of the hierarchy. Technology had been born of Prometheus’ gift and Man had found a way to use that one attribute to their advantage to dominate every other thing that walked the Earth. Unfortunately, they still seemed to take more after Prometheus’ brother than the titan of Foresight because their rampant use of the Flame had left Gaia’s body scarred and pitted. Zeus whose wisdom it seemed was far greater than he was given credit for most of the time, must have foreseen what these mortals would bring about when given the powers of gods.
Then of course there had been the interference of the Celestials who had perverted the original idea and retroactively introduced a distinct evolution that would later prove to grant some members of the human race powers akin to legends and gods alike. Then Hecate had chosen to grant the knowledge of magic to some. The entire race had basically become an experiment for those on high to enact at their whim and yet the race thrived and squandered their gifts. They polluted themselves and the very environment they needed in order to keep living.
From the outside looking in, it was utterly depressing to watch when you felt drawn to helping them.
Even with his genius, Athalos couldn’t figure out why he wanted to spend so much of his time and efforts on the ungrateful masses who hardly even tried to help themselves. He speculated that it had something to do with his natural connection to the concepts of faith. He also knew that the why was not truly all that important.
Sighing deeply, he turned his attentions back towards the lives going on beneath him, tired of asking himself a question for which there was no meaningful answer. As usual, a new question reared its head as soon as he did: what was he looking for? New York City was quick to answer.
Athalos keen eyes swept across the streets and rooftops, pausing on one particular building. It stood out among all of the others because it had a trait none of the others could boast. It had people on top of it.
Not being a native to the city or even the dimension, it had not occurred to him initially that people didn’t often belong on rooftops. It had not, however, taken long to figure out that those who took to the rooftops under the cover of darkness were often up to no good. Across the city, he could see their lips occasionally move as if they were speaking but the din of city life made it impossible to pick up even a single word from this distance, even with his inhuman perception. Resigned to find out more about this nocturnal activity, the demigod pushed himself over the ledge and with a powerful and calculated leap, sent himself soaring through the night air until he landed on a closer roof, rolling to lessen the impact. The men he had begun to stalk were paying too much attention elsewhere to have noticed him but he wasn’t sure he could maintain the element of surprise and repeat the prodigious leap. Deciding quickly, the youthful hero made for the edge of his rooftop and spoke a few arcane words, bewitching the air itself to carry the sounds of the men to his ears:
”-in position?...Good. Delta, get that security feed under thumb so we can move. We don’t have all night. We need to get in and get out before the next security sweep.”
Mortal technology at work no doubt, the man was communicating with other agents from afar and judging solely from the information available, to the end of thievery. He had once been posed a question by his uncle, Hermes, on the nature and morality of stealing. It had been posed to him in such a way that the only viable answer he could give was that stealing was only wrong if you got caught. Looking at it from his angle, these would be thieves were giving the profession a bad name.
In his head, Pantheon began to compose the words to a spell, specifically one designed to teleport him precisely and without light, displacement of air or added smoke and mirrors as it were. The whole process was technically complex but concocting the chain of words and necessary mental images took him but a second. Within the next two, he had spoken the words. By the end of the third, he stood firmly on the same roof as his chosen prey, arms folded across his chest.
”I believe you have a problem with your plan...”
