Full Name: Edward Jaerden
Age: 57
Class(es): Wizard
Race: Human
Subrace: None
Alignment: Neutral Good
Deity: Lucinda
Bio:
Edward comes from a long line of farmers, working and living off the land
being a long standing Jaerden tradition. His only sibling is his brother,
Jaerb, who operates the family farm on the outskirts of Wyck in
southeastern Rilara. This task would have fallen to Edward first, he
being the eldest of the two, but Edward knew early on that the farmer's
life was not for him.
When Edward was a young boy, he often travelled with his father to Karthy
to arrange shipment of foodstuffs produced by the farm to Mistone. He
made the lengthy and often difficult trip not because he had any interest
in selling wheat or barley, but because life on the farm bored him half
out of his wits and he desperately needed a break from time to time. He
always enjoyed these trips, and his father was glad to spend some extra
time with his son.
By sheerest coincindence, on a hot, balmy summer when Edward was just
entering his teens, he and his father arrived in Karthy on the same day
that the Night of Flesh and Magic festival was being held. On this day
the followers of Xeen and Lucinda in the region gathered in and around
the temple in Karthy to celebrate the birth of Xeen, goddess of
pleasure and the daughter of Lucinda, goddess of magic. The more bawdy
revelries enjoyed by the Xeenites were kept safely indoors, but as
Edward walked with his father to the docks, he spied a man in ornate
robes standing amidst a crowd of rapt spectators. The man waved his hands
in intricate patterns and spoke strange words of power. His voice reached
a crescendo, and Edward watched in awe as a flurry of fiery bolts leapt
from the man's fingertips and darted to and fro in the air over his head.
The crowd - and Edward - gasped as the bolts abruptly shot heavenward,
forming a rapidly spinning circle of fire that framed a constellation of
eight brightly burning stars. The flames puffed out after a few seconds,
and the man in robes was rewarded with resounding applause.
Edward pelted his father with questions about the festival, the man in
robes, the dancing lights, and the strange constellation. The farmer did
not know much, but he was able to tell Edward that the man was a wizard
and a follower of Lucinda, whose constellation the wizard had framed in
magical fire.
For weeks following the festival Edward badgered his parents to take him
back to Karthy so he could learn more about wizardry. They finally
comprimised by sending a runner to the Xeenite temple to borrow some
books on the subject to placate him. They found his appetite for the
arcane arts to be too great for a few informational texts and religious
pamphlets to satiate, however.
After several years of borrowing books, speaking to wizards and
followers of Lucinda, and struggling to learn a few simple cantrips,
Edward was finally able to apprentice himself to a wizard residing in
Wyck. The wizard, himself a follower of Lucinda, was known only as
Tusset, and was regarded with mild suspicion by the farmers of the
region. His parents were none too happy about his leaving and not taking
up the family business, but they did notargue too much on the subject.
Jaerb had already demonstrated both the skill and interest to take up
running the farm when the time came, and they all knew that Edward's
place was somewhere else.
Edward moved to Wyck and apprenticed under Tusset for several years. In
addition to instructing Edward in the ways of manipulating the Weave, he
also preached the doctrine of Lucinda to Edward, who took to her dogma
like a fish to water. He excelled in his studies and rapidly approached
the day when he could shrug off the heavy cloak of apprenticeship and
claim the mantle of wizard for himself.
During this time, his generous host provided Edward with plenty of time
away from study to visit his family on the farm. His brother was married,
and soon the family gained a new member, a baby girl who was given the
name of Jessica. Edward was smitten with the child, and spent as much
time as he could spare in her company, delighting her with his playful
nature and some flashy cantrips provided by Tusset.
Years passed again, leaves blown before the wind of change, and Edward
left the tutelage of Tusset and pursued the study of magic on his own, as
a true wizard. With Tusset's direction, he performed the arcane ritual to
summon a familiar to serve him. Out of the swirling magic flapped a tiny
dragon-like creature. The creature, which Tusset identified as a pseudo-
dragon, landed lightly on Edward's shoulder and promptly licked the mage
across the cheek. Edward laughed, delighted, and dubbed his new companion
Horace. Later he introduced his new friend to Jessica. Her and Horace
were soon friends, once Jessica overcame her fear of being crisped by
dragonfire or eaten in her sleep.
Edward stayed close to his family, particularly Jessica, who had
developed a great fondness for her eccentric Uncle Ed. When she was
old enough, the two of them often travelled the surrounding countryside,
exploring the world about them and enjoying each other's company. Edward
tried his hand at teaching Jessica some of his knowledge of magic, but
she lacked the talent for it that Edward possessed. He had no worries
about her being able to protect herself, however; she had been playing
with wooden swords, slaying imaginary foes and exploring wondrous lands,
since she was old enough to hear her uncle's stories. She now wore a real
longsword by her side, and was becoming quite skilled in its use.
Edward's knowledge of the Weave grew as the years pushed on. He became a
powerful wizard indeed, although he did not go around advertising the
fact. He soon earned the reputation of a hermit, for he kept to himself
and his family, and travelled little except with his niece. Unlike many
in his position, he never took up adventuring, except for quiet journies
to gather ingredients for spells and to seek the knowledge of great
libraries.
The strain of his work and the passage of time aged him, wrinkling his
skin and turning his once ebony beard to purest white. He watched Jessica
grow into a woman, and watched the world around himn slowly change. He
became keenly aware of the passage of time. He feared the day that time
would bring about his death, taking him from his beloved niece and from
his study of the Weave.
He turned to studying the nature of time and how it and the Weave
interacted. He sought information on spells that could alter and
manipulate the flow of time, but there were few, and none of them were
able to impose a lasting impact on the flow of time, even in an isolated
situation. He engaged in experimentation of his own. He sought to halt
time's entropic influence on the body, to capture the ageless nature of
elvenkind in a spell, but failed. He tried to reverse the flow of time in
a small space in order to wind the years of wear on his form backward
like the hour hand of a clock, but to no avail. He briefly played with
glamours that deceived that eye, making him appear young again, but he
still felt old and tired.
Feeling that the cold hand of the soul mother must be drawing close, he
tried desperately to peel the weight of years upon him away with magic.
He launched into a new, bolder experiment in reverse aging, this time
without the meticulous research and placing of safeguards that preceeded
his previous attempts.
In his haste he was not precise in defining the parameters of the spell
as he had been before. The spell succeeded this time, but instead of
unwinding the shroud of years about his body, the magic sliced away at
his mind. Memories, whole years of his life, faded and vanished from his
mind as if they had never been. He clutched his head in horror as decades
worth of magical study were torn from him, stealing away all of his known
spells and research in seconds.
Jessica came by for a visit the next day, and found Edward in a chair by
the north window of his small house, smoking his pipe. At first he did
not recognize her, but her fearful explanations soon convinced him of who
she was, and he remembered her. Memories of times spent with his niece
were most precious to him, and their power had spared them from the
magical onslaught.
Edward explained to Jessica what little he could recall of the incident,
and the loss of his magic. He also spoke to her of the dream that came
to him while he lay unconscious on the floor. He spoke of a great dragon
standing over him, a dragon that summoned him to Mistone to face a great
threat. He knew not what the dream meant, nor why a dragon would have any
use for an old, befuddled ex-wizard, but he felt compelled to answer the
summons. Jessica was shocked to hear this, for she had had the same dream
the night before, at about the time Edward was casting the spell. The
dream was what prompted her to visit that morning.
They said little after his explanation was finished, for there was little
that needed to be said between them. Jessica quickly packed provisions
and her most important belongings, then helped Edward pack as well, since
he had forgotten where his things were and, for that matter, what they
were. He balked when she brought out his old apprentice's spellbook, but
she insisted that he take it. He knew she was right, of course; starting
over would be hard, but he would not be happy without the study of magic
in his life.
They travelled to the family farm, where the two explained the incident to
Jaerb and his wife. Jaerb, who had become quiet the curmudgeon in his old
age, simply shook his head and muttered something about how he'd said all
along that Ed was off his rocker. He loved his brother and daughter
dearly, though, and gave them what he could to help them along their
journey. Jessica's mother gave the girl an amulet bearing the symbol of
Deliar, which Edward smirked amiably at. He had little concern for a god
of trade and luck, but if it made his sister-in-law feel better, then so
be it. He grinned to himself at the thought of a swordswoman-to-be
being watched over by the god of trade and wealth.
Edward and Jessica left the next day, heading west along the road that
would take them to Point Harbor, and from there, the continent of Mistone.
Physical description:
Edward's most noticable feature is his luxurious mane of white hair and
his long beard. A pair of silvery gray eyes are barely visible beneath
his huge, bushy eyebrows. His body is thin but wiry, and he moves with a
sure step and can even tumble a bit when the occasion calls for it. He
dresses in flowing robes and a large, very battered looking pointed hat.
A thin band circles the base of the hat's spire; the sigil of Lucinda is
held by the band in the front.
Behavior and mannerisms:
Prior to his magical catastrophe, Edward was charming, gracious, kind,
and a bit mischievous. He is still all of those things, but his failed
spell has left him a bit muddled and absent-minded. He is prone to
forgetting things, often remembers names incorrectly, and sometimes makes
comments that sound perfectly reasonable to himself, but leave listeners
confounded.
He seems to have no prejudices whatsoever; in fact, he rarely makes any
distinction between race at all, except when necessary. He is just as
likely to stop and speak to an orc strolling through town as to a human,
and his part in the conversation would likely be the same in both cases.
Languages (Int score of 16 +3):
Edward has studied elvish extensively due to the race's close contact
with the Weave. He also finds it useful to speak to elven wizards serving
Lucinda in their native tongue, so that he might learn more from their
centuries of experience in the world.
He has also studied the drow in general. Their race, in spite of their
general tendency toward evil, is even more closely tied to the Weave than
their surface cousins. In the course of studying their magical properties
and the few works of drow wizards that he was able to find, he has become
quite proficient in reading and speaking low drow.
Before leaving his parents' farm, Edward often spoke with halflings
serving Prunilla and Deliar, either by working on the farm or trading
with Edward's father. He picked up enough of their language over the
years to communicate with them in their native tongue, but his accent and
wording with it are strange due to his lack of formal study of the
language.
There is one caveat regarding his knowledge of languages. Since his mis-
cast spell, memories and magic are not the only knowledge he has lost. He
is still able to speak these languages, but often forgets words or
nuances of sentence structure. Those he speaks to often correct these
mistakes when they occur, allowing Edward to improve his use of each
language.
*NOTES*
This is part of a joint submission of two characters, the other,
Jessica Jaerden, being played by Nienna. Her submission can be
found
here.
Also, I would like to request a holdable book to serve as Edward's
spellbook in game.
Thanks!
Edward Jaerden 
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