Pre-Birth
The story of Douglas Haley doesn't begin with his father and mother conceiving and birthing the culmination of their love, but the tragic story of a love that was never truly met. Haley's mother was a woman by the name of Augustine, sharing many of the same traits as Douglas himself; from the very nature of their affinity for magic, to the enticing looks and beautiful pale eyes. The mother was born outside Elbion twenty odd years before Douglas, cirqa 327.
Augustine was the waif of a small hamlet, the most sought after bride in the relatively quiet farming village that exported its entire wealth to the grand city of Elbion, in turn using the gold to buy all that they could not produce normally. This made the village relatively well off, despite lacking any overt displays of wealth, and was generally well regarded as a close-knit, familiar community that brought in the majority with open arms and wide smiles.
Douglas's mother was no different, though unlike the vast majority of her mundane farming family, she strove for something more. Unlike her parents, her various other contemporaries, she held dreams of grandeur that the life of a simple farming wife would never allow; and it stuck with her through the years, falling deeper in love with the idea of marrying nobility, of the rich and elite, to live as a woman bathed in lavish beauty at all hours of the day, tended to hand and foot.
However, these dreams would not come true, at least not in a timely manner. As Augustine developed her magical prowess, she became what could generally be referred to as a 'Farming' mage, that of the elements and growth. She could cure unhealthy crop, bring healthy rains to the fields, and enrich the soil as her father before her, a tradition amongst her family. As such, she was sold to the Hamlet's chief and his eldest son, Roe Haley, who took Augustine's hand in marriage only a short time following the deal.
While everyone was satisfied, even excited for the future of the hamlet from the relatively influential marriage, Augustine could not be more afraid of her future. The very dreams she held in her heart fractured in the face of a life of farming, uninterested in the average quality of the husband she had caught. It sickened the wife, brought her into a slow depression, that would only begin to stall in the face of a visitor.
With the rarity of the Kovash, word had spread to the College of Elbion that one existed and worked actively within the realm of the hamlet. As such, a mage of the Second Order was sent to investigate the claims, that of Agron Salim, a Kovash himself. With robes of crimson and gold lining him, he strode into the hamlet looking for signs of the fellow subspecies, but was instead found first by the exact thing he hunted. Her awe inspired eyes brought herself to the feet of the mage, a star struck expression all that was had before the middle aged mage gave her a quiet smile.
It was all for naught however, as Agron held less than moral choices in his mind. Under the interrogation, the study of Augustine, her innocence was stolen from her with little choice; the explicit decision of Agron alone, to attain a child capable of surpassing known limitations of Magic, to create a form he could one day inhabit should time allow, and transcend into immortality. The
laws of magic dictated death, that much was true, but he could put it off as long as possible with what he intended.
The birth of a pure Kavosh was rare, much of the blood muddied by generations of race mixing and excessive influence from external sources, and with no home for the Kavosh to return there would never likely to be another of their race born of such pure genes. The rarity of a birth conceived by two Kavosh was enough to force the mage into a realm of plotting, scheming to retain control of the child, but one that would take months to get right, and so he left Augustine to wallow in her doubt and pity, a child forced upon her.
Augustine moved to convince her family and husband that the pregnancy she carried was his own, a gift to them from the gods for their good crop and harvest, always hiding the truth of the matter behind lies. However, the lies she told were ones she began to believe herself, fear driving her once eccentric dreams from her mind and replacing them with the mundane life of a farming wife and mage for the hamlet, and the peace of the matter kept her calm. She began to fall in love with the man she once despised for holding her so firm to the mundane life that once terrified her, and the lies slowly became truth; that her love was true, and joy filled her heart.
Though one lie remained, that of Douglas Haley.
Early Years
Born on a stormy night, Augustine gave birth to the bastard son with a smile on her face, and a lie on her lips as she told all around that it was Roe's child, though shared almost no similarity with the burly man. Still, the sentiment held, and the family rejoiced, moving to raise the child as the son of a family who knew very little of his true origin.
The mage of the Second Circle, Agron, had spent months planning a convincing maneuver to attain the his son. Working on his own, not willing to soil his name with the affair, Agron sought murder in his toxic mentality, anger of Augustine's abandonment filling him with resentment that stuck to him for years, festering and infecting him with a deathly intent. When Douglas was just three years old, he watched as his father left their home for the final time, giving the boy nothing but a convincing smile and a soft, bearded kiss on his forehead, the first memory Douglas would ever have.
Somewhere in the fields of the Hamlet, an unknown fate found Roe, who's body was never recovered. Blood was never found, only the forlorn rusted hoe left in the field as the single sign of his departure. Rumors began to fly around the hamlet, with the only observation coming from a barely sane elder, who declared Roe the victim of spirit wolves, rushing from the woods nearby to drag the father from the field to death; forever lost to their searches.
While the Hamlet and the next of kin began to form a search party, cutting deep into the woods for hours on end, night fell with Augustine forever greiving at the loss of her husband. It was short, but the love she held for him had grown substantially as she matured during the short span of her pregnancy. However, the lesson's she had learned would do her little good as Agron appeared at her door, where none in the village were able to defend or notice as he entered the home of his once beloved with cruel intent.
An argument ensued as Agron moved to tear the child from the mother's grasp, and Augustine was unwilling to give up the child she held her entire life upon. It was all she had left, concentrated into the wrapped bundle that cried even now, but it would not be enough. For whatever reason, Agron resorted to magic to achieve his ends, stopping the woman's heart and leaving her to watch in dying gasps of air as he took the child to a new home. A home where he could be raised with all his potential greatness, and the hope that he would someday become Agron's chosen son.
Childhood
The cruelty of his birth, the sins performed to achieve the life that was Douglas Haley would not be known to either him, nor the various college mages of Elbion. Agron saw to that, as he spread the word of his charity, how he had saved the boy from a life of negligible achievement and mundane expression, thrusting him into a world of magic and potential glory; the story of adoption, though some mages still understood Agron did so not out of the kindness of his own heart, but for the potential the boy held. This much was obvious when they realized his genetic standing, even if they didn’t understand how the boy came to be.
With the destruction of the boy’s mother and perceived family buried behind his youth, Agron moved to begin the accelerated process of raising the child as one of the greatest mages to sit upon the continent of Liadain; with the first steps to alter his genetics to subside the effects of his genetic curse. While a half-breed Kavoshian was a substantial danger to themselves, a pure-breed was something far more dangerous; to not only themselves, but all around them, the magical potential was nigh inconceivable for a child to possess, and it was the first thing that would need to be nipped. While some looked at it as a gift, Agron understood that if the boy pushed himself too hard at any given point, he would consume his entire form, ending the life of his child before it would ever begin.
And so, the decision was made with not only Agron, but the notable and somewhat enigmatic mage, Eimur Emisol to imbue the child with genetic templates that would help resist the expression of his magic until puberty; while simultaneously giving him additional reserves of magical energy that only a few blacklisted experiments in Elbion had yet to be done to them. Douglas would not the be the first to have these successfully integrated, but he would certainly be the most important at the time; leaving no other potential equal as the already aggrandized presence of the growing mage was amplified through the synthetic paths of men playing god.
A necessity, they claimed, but one that would change the life of the child for eternity.
Following these, when Douglas came to the age of six, his true education had begun. Although he was already taught how to read at a relatively respective level for his age, and the basic skills of arithmetic were rehearsed daily; he had never seen the history nor experimentation of magic in a controlled manner. The surgeries, the inclusion of additional mana, had helped stave off the accidental surge of magical pressure, but now Agron understood that putting the training of the boy off any longer would do more harm than good, and so the decision was made to give him a somewhat altered, slower education into the forms taught to men a decade his senior; the education of a College Mage.
At the mere age of eight, Douglas had managed to understand Magical Theory in a way many his senior had yet to possess, but it cost Douglas his childhood. A small price to pay for outside sources such as Agron, but it had driven into Douglas a very hard nosed rational approach to the world, though one that would come with unforeseeable emotional damage none involved could predict. Math, reading, and natural sciences had all begun to form in the child in ways that few could understand, working at a level many times his senior though with the wonderment yet still present in his youth. It would be the very foundation of his future renown in the local college as one of the greatest students to grace it; and it wrought the attention of many a mage, even some negative.
Despite this, Agron defended the boy and his experiments with his full ability, eventually owing the man known as Eimur more favors than he could possible return; all for the sake of protecting this child.
Teen Years
WIP
Young Adulthood
WIP
What is your character's background? It can be as rich or as mysterious as you want it to be. We recommend you consult the
Board Story for reference and to more find a place for your character into this setting.
The Lore Section of this Template is perhaps the most important. Here you should detail what is known of your character in the wide world of Chronicles RP.
This section can be either short or long; it can be written in the style of a journal, a history book, or just in a standard way. It is important to fully convey just how your
species is viewed by others and how much is known of your character by folk at large.
You can also utilize this section to establish unique and interesting story aspects of your character.
