Name:Fenwick 'Beatrix' Hux
Current Occupation:Recently Deceased
Age at death:25
Background:
On the day of 1 July, Arabella Hux sat, gasping, exhausted, but really, really glad that the process was over. A beautiful boy had been born. And while the midwife cut the umbilical cord and cleared the mucus, Arabella's husband, Letholdus Hux, gazed through the window and marvelled over his child.
And as he watched over his own flesh and blood, he gave it name. The first as his own individual name, the middle both a tribute to wife and in the future a reminder of his mother, the last the proud clan name.
Thus, Fenwick Beatrix Hux was born.
The early years were hard on Arabella, who breast-fed him when she could and soaked bread in milk for him when she fell ill. At the age of 3, Fenwick learned to walk. A late age, but a milestone still crossed; a milestone after which he would accompany his father out to the fields for a time before returning to the safe nest of his mother's breast. He learned to speak 6 months later, gasping out 'food' as he watched the table one day.
His childhood years would be the same as most children. He would sometimes join his friends in the field to run during the breaks he had from schooling. receive a beating for breaking the school rules, and at times help his father in the fields before breakfast. Although he enjoyed these activities, it was soon clear that he was less physically fit than his classmates. He would tire easier than they would, could not stand up for long in the hot sun as long as he should. Although his parents were a bit disappointed, they understood that his talents lay somewhere else; although he had no chance to be a knight, he could perhaps live as a merchant or a scholar...
...perhaps if he was good enough... they could have a mage among their ranks...
The rumours had spread around in their village. Even in school, Fenwick had heard of men and women alike who could cast mystical acts that no one else could. None of them had ever actually met one though, leading to some skepticism among the adults. Fenwick however, was intrigued. If what they said was true, he could amass a lot of power. Power that the knights would not have; power that the guilds would envy. Although at that time it was simply competition among his peers, the idea would appeal to him later on in his life.
Yet what he lacked in physical strength, he made up for it with skill and coordination. His writing was the neatest among the class, while he picked up reading notibally faster than the others. This fact itself contradicted the time it took for him to walk and talk, but no one really cared about these things save for their own musings.
This eventually took the interest of the guild of merchants. Offered a contract, Fenwick's parents allowed him to leave the village and expand his horizons in exchange for payment to the guild. And so, with many tears, Fenwick left the village of his sheltered life.
His apprenticeship was as others, but he excelled particularly fast in the taking of stocks and thus was given the task of recording the many goods that flowed between his master and customers. Over time, Fenwick saw many herbs, tons of farming items, and books. Although the former two gave him knowledge of the practical sort, it was the books that he was interested in. Whereas it took time to study and acquaint himself with the herbs and the proper way to hold a plough, it could be significantly reduced through the archived texts that he so often held in his hands. How the good wife taught her daughter, The art of glove making...
Being a mage
Alas! the book! A book of the mages within his grasp!... But how to take this out without letting his master know? He had a keen eye for these things and only needed a scribe for formal declerations...
Then it hit him. It was the simplest idea that anyone could have. He would buy it. Earn it if he must. After a short talk with his master, the deal was agreed upon and he was allowed the book. In exchange, he had 2 months more of bondage time with him after the contract ended. A small price to pay for such knowledge, he thought. During his free time, he would read it, make notes on it, re-read to understand something he didn't comprehend previously, practice the rituals within. As the sun rose and sunk, so too did his knowledge and ignorance. The contract with his master ended, and he made his merry way to find fellow mages to practice his spells. But first, his village warrented a visit. It had been years since he had seen his beloved parents.
Unforunately, his return would prove disastrous. His house was empty, his parents nowhere to be found. An inquiry to their whereabouts led him to discovering that his parents had been murdered one day. The reason? Their wealth. Although being far from able to post, they eventually led a better life than the rest of their village. But arguments rose over their property as accusations flew past one another, the neighbours questioning their way of life and the missing 'bastard of a whore and thief'. Tension escelated, leading to their recent deaths, about a month ago.
Fenwick 'Beatrix' Hux was stunned. Not only had it been his former neighbours and friends that had done the accusations, but their deaths had been recent! A month ago! He had been studying the tome and working for that wretched merchant! Looking at his tome, this time with the eyes of one who blames himself, he pondered the possibilites. If the tome hadn't fallen to his hands, he could've returned and diffused the situation. He could've protected his parents from the murder...
The next day, he left the village full of anger directed towards his neighbour and himself, announcing the fact that they could take their spoils and take their house. And so, he relinquished everything his parents had worked for. Why he did this is known to him, but is still not fully acknowledged: He had wanted the villains to continue their crimes and kill everyone in the village if they had or wanted to. But in the end, he would return and gain his revenge, this time amplified and justified a thousandfold.
Thus, the book turned into a permanent scar of his soul, but one that cannot part. In his eyes, his parents had died for this tome. It would be wasteful and unfilial to dispose of it now. So the first step he took was to enchant the book. It would not break from any environmental means, would not soak, would not burn unless conditioned to an imposed human force. The remainder of his days were spent creating new spells living a humble life in a small cottage he purchased with his earnings.
The death:
One day,while taking a stroll beside a river, he tripped over a stone and instinctively stretched out his hands to protect himself. While he had succeeded, his book had fallen into the river. Although he had had it water-proofed, it would lay at the bottom until retrieved. Desperately, he tried casting a telekinesis spell, but the pressure exerted by the water was too much for him. He tried manipulating the water, but the volume proved too much.
The tome would be lost.
But along with it would be everything Fenwick truly possessed.
Without any more time to think, he dove inside and searched frantically. There! It was there! Sinking... but if could swim faster, he could catch up with it!....
And as he focused on that binding of words and magic, the water claimed him. Feeling no pain, the fluid rushed into his lungs... his vision blurred, the tome lost...
...And in a flash, the world BURNED before him! There was pain! Excrutiating pain! The book! He had to find the book! Grasping his neck, propelling with his legs, he reached the riverbed, reached his hand for the book, touched the book, saw his father and mother in there...
...Silence.
As the body floated up, the arms clutching an item in its chest, its eyes heavy with death, the impossible happened. Subtly, its chest rose and fell as if breathing, his legs twitched as if willing the system to move. Fenwick struggled within himself, wondering if this was what it was like to be dead. If it was, he was sorely disappointed. Gasping a lungful of air as he surfaced, he crawled to the riverbank and lay there on his stomach, his purpose hugged beneath him... .... ...
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The Death Wound
Because he drowned, there is no physical manifestation of the wound itself. However, when in water waste deep, Fenwick will grasp his neck and gasp for air with one hand while desperately swinging the other, his legs possibly buckling under him. At this point, he is paralysed and stuck in his own torture, allowing any Ageless to strangle him to death. This essentially means that in a one-on-one situation, he is dead. As such, he will tottally rely on his allies to pull him out of this sticky situation.
ABILITIES/SKILLS
WISDOM--SPIRITUAL MAGIC
With exceptional learning skills, Fenwick has created many spells for himself. Several of these were protective and passive in nature, while a few were to augment his merchant life. Although filled with hatred, Fenwick has focused on indirect damage via the augmentation of physical bodies to overcome another instead of direct damage.
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SPELL 1: PROTECTION FROM ELEMENTS
Fenwick has created a spell that allows him to enchant an item such that it is protected from all environmental damage (including falling rocks/explosions caused by mankind). However, it does not protect from any direct physical force of any sort.
SPELL 2: STRENGTH
In our day, we would recognise this as a surge of adrenaline and an odd physical sensation where your muscles gain a sudden mass. In Fenwick's time, it's simply a spell that buffs your body for a short period of time. Fenwick himself needed this spell during his merchanting days to carry items about.
SPELL 3: PROTECTIVE BARRIER
As a travelling merchant, Fenwick has seen many types of people, including those less lawful. As a precaution, he created this spell to protect himself--and his master and his wares--from harm. It has not however, seen action. Thus, Fenwick is unsure exactly how much this barrier can protect, although from practise he knows that it lasts approximately 5 seconds in our modern day convention of time. This spell can wrap around the targeted items/person. However, if the target is huge, it can only block a particular area from harm.
SPELL 4: HEIGHTENED INSTINCTS
Over the course of his journeys, Fenwick has had to bargain with many people. This not only seemed bothersome to him, but the chances of success were never total. To counter this, HEIGHTENED INSTINCTS was created so as to "sense the subtle flow beneath their skin", i.e. know if they're lying or not. A side effect of this is that you become hyper-sensitive to many things around you and can instantly notice minor tell-tale signs in their body language. Therefore, this spell also doubles as a defensive mechanism against very agile enemies. WARNING: You will not actually think about all these things you notice under this spell. It simply hits straight into your survival instincts. If you conciously try not to avoid that huge axe coming towards you for whatever reason, you won't. If you wonder if you can absorb that spell from the enemy mage, it'll override HEIGHTENED INSTINCTS. In all circumstances however, HEIGHTENED INSTINCTS will last for about 20 seconds, the time needed to truly bargain with someone.
The following spells were created after the events in the village
SPELL 5: ILLUSIONARY DAZE
The idea was to be able to create illusions of his foe and turn them against him/her so that they would not only be dazed, but suffer wounds as if the illusions were alive. As always though, Fenwick has not mixed and mastered this spell properly. Now, it only manages to create an illusion of a targeted object/person that Fenwick can mentally control. It cannot deal damage, although it can be synchronised with the original object so as to seem like a double team.
SPELL 6: LIFESAVER
The objective of this spell was to instantly heal every single wound and remove any impurities like poison from the body. Currently though, it is simply a healing spell capable of simply curing up to deep cuts... over time. Fenwick sincerely hopes that this regenerative spell can become instant as he masters it.
SPELL 7: DEATH WARD
This spell was supposed to be such that a ward would be summoned and any and all enemies in that area would slowly die. Again, it has not been mastered and the spell is now a simple ward that creates discomfort within enemies. Fenwick has however been able to give this ward a large range. He has not actually measured the exact range though, and only gives approximations. His favourite one is that it can reach up to '3 stone throws away'. The downside is that the effect is reduced as the range increases and affects intelligent people less than those who would be more instinctive. At its full power (if it's ever reached), it'll be able to drain the life from all forms of life, albeit at a much smaller range.
SPELL 8: NERVOUS WRECK
Designed to cause maximum fear in that murderer of his parents, NERVOUS WRECK targets the... nervous system. In our scientific terms, it blocks the synapses within that area, so signals cannot go through to the brain. In Fenwick's day, it would cause intense numbing from that area downwards. For example, if targetted at the shoulder of the right arm, the entire right arm would be numb. If targetted at the elbow however, the forearm--biceps and triceps--would still be able to feel. This spell is quite simple, so it is currently in full effect. The effects are such that this spell also makes a great anesthetic for whatever reason. Note that the person can still move the afflicted area with extreme will, countering the effects of this spell.
The following spells were created or found on his journey
SPELL 9: SOOTHSAYER
During his meeting with the Soothsayer Cleo in the desert, Fenwick had his future told. He also had his past read by her, which resulted in a white rune being pulled out. The rune turned out to be a magic spell. This one, gained indirectly from his parents' love and touched by the electrifying Soothsayer, allows Fenwick to dispel and break every single affliction caused by magic while calming the mind the calming pictures in an area, inflicting a status of its own. However, Fenwick's mind is still fogged and as such, the rune's full power has not been tapped. Right now, it simply calms the mind down, while it slowly dispels less harmful and thus more common magic afflictions on an individual. Note that all positive and negative magical statuses will be dispelled by this spell.
SPELL 10: PACIFIST'S LULL
When in Avalon, Fenwick discovered that his book actually contained the spirit of Cardack, who had died 200 years ago in the hands of the Forsaken. Therefore, to ensure further protection for him, Fenwick and Dethys went to the Great Library and a spell was learned there. By combining several reagents found within the book and through instructions from others, PACIFIST'S LULL was made. This spell prevents all projectiles from affecting the book, along with spell immunities. Finally, there is the pleasant side-effect of making the book invisible to everyone save for those that Fenwick desires the book be shown to.
SPELL 11: COUNTERFEIT
Desiring some material to work with along the way without risking original copies of books, Dethys taught Fenwick this spell. Nicknamed COUNTERFEIT by Fenwick, it allows the user to copy as many pages as they want for a set period of time. A drawback is that the more pages that are copied, the lower the quality. Not to mention the fact that the pages are like real paper, and so if a whole book is copied, the weight of a whole book must be supported. Only one copy can be held at a time and the number of pages and size of text will be determined by the will of Fenwick.
SPELL 12: CRUCIBLE:
An illusion spell by Sig when they first met and sparred caused Fenwick to enter his own mind as he literally danced to Sig's tune. The end result was an unexpected and unceremonious tossing-over-the-shoulder to a campfire by someone who appeared to be his father. It turned out that Bran had been the one who tossed him over, right before he bashed Fenwick's skull to knock him unconcious. It is unsure when this spell propogated, but it is theorised that the symbolic campfire and Bran's utter force of bashing had something to do with it.
This spell is single-target, causing the enemy to writhe as if in flames. It can be charged. The pain will disable the opponent for an X number of turns, with X dependant on how mentally strong the opponent is and whether Fenwick has charged the spell or not. When the spell effects subsides, the opponent may feel mentally drained, but otherwise will not be harmed physically in any way.
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INTELLIGENCE--KNOWLEDGE
As Fenwick travelled miles, so too did his mind. He has read many books, seen many things, and so can recall various items and its effects quite effectively. His quick learning ability helps this skill such that he can process and store information away very fast. Although he knows of some spells of the elements, he does not generally use them as he has not found any use for it in his travels. Being a mage, Fenwick knows particular runes by heart.
DEXTERITY--ACCURACY
When you spend much of your medieval life inspecting items and keeping track of them, you tend to notice the little things in life. That speck of dust, the soft, irritable whizzing of someone, that beautiful leaf pattern. Noticing things also allows you to note points on an enemy from further away. Although a mage, Fenwick remembers some tricks from his childhood while pretending to be knights with staffs and sticks. If given a melee weapon, Fenwick would rarely miss a target, although his physical strength is such that it wouldn't do much damage. Perhaps if buffed by a spell or two...
His dexterity arises from, and allows, some skills and martial arts.
SLING PROFICIENCY
His father had taken him out for hunting trips before, but Fenwick could not hold a bow and arrow long enough before tiring out. He did, however, manage to improvise and went to throwing items, flinging stones and other small, sharp objects, from improvised slings. Although he used two-pronged slings when he was younger, he did try his hand at using a staff sling and making one. Although making a staff sling didn't work out very well, using it did produce enough practical results, albeit not very good ones.
LOHUSCUR
Pronounced Lo-Hahs-cur, it is a dance that the people of Fenwick's village do during a campfire or a celebration or during an enemy invasion. It is a dance that flows and moves, focusing more on the legs. Where the hands are needed, the legs slow down to steady the body, but the actions are still such that it is very monkey like. It dawned on him during his travelling period and studies that it was actually a martial arts style that focused on bringing the enemy to the ground. He knows some of the basic sweeps and jumps, but he wasn't really into it as a child.
The name comes from the way it steadily sweeps across the air, 'Lo', the sound as the enemy makes when the air is pushed right out of him/her, 'Hus', and the 'Cur' just sounded like a good finisher.
SLEIGHT
Named for its tendency to bluff, baffle and basically blunder its way through, it's akin to the style of brawling you see in pubs, mostly during when the person has drunk more than 10 pints of beer. This is also the panic button. The idea is to simply sway about and react whenever necessary, while pulling out certain backhands and straights. Although the dodging is methodically not organised at all, the attacking part of it is heavy and brutal. The best part was, you didn't need to be drunk to use this style.
He still isn't sure how it'd work though. He hasn't actually practically tried it. The whole style was created in theory after visiting (and deciding that he didn't like) pubs.
Notable items:
Being a mage
This particular text is extremely useful. With various illustrations, this book manages to heighten enthusiasm and demonstrate how movements are to be done. Although simple spells are provided, the text encourages self-made spells to diversify the spell pool. This is achieved via explanations of the components of spells and on how to mix and match these components. One would think that this would make the book extremely heavy. On the contrary, it is relatively thin and lighter than expected. Perhaps it was already enchanted with magic? Regardless, the known charm on it is the PROTECTION FROM ELEMENTS spell cast on this. This book is always carried by Fenwick wherever he goes and he refuses to leave it. He has suspected that this book is extremely rare though, for he has found no need to purchase other books on magecraft. This could however, be attributed to his high intelligence and learning ability.
Clothing:
Simple cloth is all that Fenwick wears. Hard leather makes Fenwick extremely uncomfortable, while soft leather is as good as cloth to Fenwick. Plate armor is out of the question in his current physical state.
