Spelunking 39

Well. Damn I'm tired. Anyway. Midnight is a talker, I guess. Two pages left! More or less.

Anyway.

In order of appearance; Character backstory time! First up: Chaos Sunrise. His backstory isn't so much tragic as embarrassing.

Age: 31
Physical: Red eyes, purple hair, olive skin, medium height and build. A bit baby faced.
Former teacher’s aide, lost job when silenced. Rocky relationship with mother,
close to sister, never contacted father

Family:

Mother: Belladonna Sunrise, age 68
Born in Cordem, her mother an immigrant from island of Plaid, her father
Cordic. Physical Black hair, red eyes, olive skin, medium height/build ect.
Strict with her kids, a single parent after her relationships with their
father fell apart (twice). Both kids are accidents.
Dean of the College of Magic at the University of Cordem

Father: Carmichael Eventide, age 65
Lives on the Island of Paisley, met Belladonna on a trading trip to Cordem
Unlucky fallen nobility, has a second wife and other children.
Has never met Chaos. Physical same as Chaos but blue hair

Sister: Katana Sunrise, age 47
Professor of Practical Magic at UoC
Dotes on Chaos, cordial relations with mother and friendly but distant
Relationship with father. Physical same as father

Silence curse details: As a teachers aid, Chaos was demonstrating simple runic formulation for sealing rune molds when he accidentally dropped a strand of hair into the batch. When the mold was cast it created a small explosion because runic casting is finicky: the casting was meant to be general but the hair made it specific, generating an adverse reaction in the magic. No one was hurt, but Chaos lost his voice and, interestingly, any ability to create sound by clapping, footsteps, or anything else involving his body. He also lost his job, partly because it was a pretty stupid mistake, but also because, as head of the college, with both children holding positions in that college, his mother was afraid of accusations of nepotism or favoritism. So to avoid accusations of favoritism in regards to promotions for her daughter (which seemed very likely since a senior professor in the College Board was about to retire, and Katana was a favored replacement candidate), she axed her son. Since so much of modern magic depends on vocalization, it was also concluded that Chaos had lost his usefulness as a magic castor along with his voice despite his unusually great skill at runics, runics being considered virtually useless due to high volatility since the gate incident and inconvenience compared to vocal casting.

The tattoos: In the seven years since becoming cursed, Chaos spent a great deal of time studying runic configurations for direct channeling of magic into the body through runes rather than vocalization. His tattoos are a result of his conclusions and thus far haven’t caused him to explode through too much magical energy, a typical side effect of poorly applied runic tattoos and the central reason why they are banned throughout the Kaslenian region. Chaos’s tattoos have also greatly increased his sensitivity to magic fields, a skill of dubious usefulness given the relative rarity of magic-radiating objects, but which he puts to great use in finding ancient magic sites. He has two primary rune configurations, one on his chest and stomach, the other on his back. The front is a four point energy flow with five runes: wisdom/knowledge, health/regeneration, protection/containment, and strength/vitality on the four outer points which surround the central rune of the actor, meaning these four attributes are continually being cast on him. The configuration on his back consists of only two runes: gathering and releasing. This configuration acts as a safety valve for magic energy, gathering it in when it is needed and releasing it when there is too much. This is the central way he keeps his energy in check. Other runes tattooed on his body allow him to direct the magic where he needs it for casting, which he has slowly been learning to do nonverbally. He keeps most of his tattoos covered because they are illegal, though normal tattoos are perfectly legal. Thus he can show the one on his arm, which directs magic flow but is not obviously a magic sigil.

Learned Cordic signing as part of the typical Cordic education due to the island nation’s alliance with the local sea dragons, as a necessary tool for underwater communication.

Serious, somewhat unsociable even before the accident, but much more antisocial after when communication became more difficult. Left Cordem entirely in search of something to break the curse.


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