__________________QUICK STATS
Name: Luc Linden
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Ethnicity: Connlaothian
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 180 lbs
Occupation: dissident mage
Residence: A tiny village called Knightsbridge, in southern Connloath along the border with Serendipity
__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF
Physical Description
He has a face that once might have been considered passable if not handsome, but for the effects of time. Nowadays the wrinkles of a furrowed brow sit atop piercing, calculating green eyes. His semi-curling dark brown hair, slightly streaked with grey at the temples, is mostly neatly kept, save the few disheveled strands that refuse to cooperate like the others. He has a strong jawline, a defined nose, and a day's growth of beard on his chin. If one looks close enough, one might identify a slight discoloration and disfiguration of the skin beneath and behind his left ear, though it's mostly covered by his hair.
Physically he a well-built man of a slim but tall frame. He carries himself well, standing straight enough to be distinguishable from within a crowd, but also with enough of a relaxed stature that he could just as easily lose himself in the same crowd. The clothing draped over his torso are the type one might find in any village or township: a simple linen shirt underneath a warm wool coat, perhaps a cap if the weather is particularly cold.
Personality
If there is a word that describes Linden, it most certainly has to be manipulative. He plays the part of a congenial man and mentor well enough, his natural charm and demeanor helpful in building (or coercing) the relationships he needs with the people around him. But he can just as easily be quick to anger and to show a more volatile, sociopathic and misanthropic side. He can be equal parts heart and heartless.
His entire life, he has struggled with his own need for superiority and selfishness, and the contrasting effect that it has on those with whom he surrounds himself. The man is not above lying for his own sake and, to a lesser extent, those he needs for his own uses. He is certainly not above sending his own people in to accomplish the goals he has set for himself, relying solely on the fact that he's built enough of a facade so that the ones he does sacrifice do so out of a misguided sense of loyalty and friendship. While he does occasionally show flashes of a genuinely softer side, it is often his purpose-driven nature that overrides any want of family and camaraderie.
Ultimately, the man is a mystery, a conundrum. Nobody can ever be sure whether or not he has aligned himself to a faction or to a cause. Nobody can even be sure if he truly fights for magi equality, or if he has his own secretive ambitions hidden beneath his purported causes. Those who are loyal to him, are loyal because of the honey he has poured in their ears.
Magic/Abilities
Linden is very adept in illusionary magic, very appropriate to his chameleon-like personality. He is able to manipulate the senses of those around him to suit his needs, and can trick others into believing things that either are not true, or are not real. His power of persuasion is helped by his ability to fool the senses, but is mostly a product of his conniving nature.
He has also become something of an expert in the art of inscribing runes, granting magical properties to otherwise mundane objects. While exiled to Serendipity, he spent a number of years learning the art while feigning apprenticeship as a runesmith. Lately he has begun experimenting with inscribing runes onto living flesh, both experimentally and in an attempt to find a way to bypass the magic-dampening effects of the Mordecai.
Physically he is a strong man who knows how to use a sword, though not at any real level of martial skill. He is known to keep a dagger at his belt, half for protection and half to carve his dinner meat.
Relationships
He had a daughter, who is since deceased. He does not know whether the mother of his child still lives or not, nor has he much drive to uncover such mysteries.
History
Luc Linden was born into a family of merchants in the eastern fringes of Connlaoth. His father, while not noble by any sense of the word, had amassed enough money for his family to live quite comfortably in a quaint little village some beaten paths off the main roads crossing the kingdom. It was at a young age that he discovered his ability to channel the magical energies forbidden by the laws of the land. Intelligent even at a young age, he knew to keep such things to himself, lest the local church snatch him away from his family and indoctrinate him in the ways of Angsar. His mother passed away from a winter chill when he was fourteen, and his father left for business one day and never returned, presumably lost to the bandit-filled roads leading inland. With nothing left in his town for him, he too left to find his own way in the world.
Travelling west along the roads and earning his keep however he could, Luc quickly became quite adept as both a confidence trickster and as an imposter, lying whenever he needed some extra coin or an extra loaf of bread. When he was twenty-two, he impersonated a wealthy merchant (like his father had once been) and became involved in a tryst with the daughter of a local wheat baron, impregnating her. The fiery romance could never last, he knew, and when the girl gave birth to a daughter, he used all of his tricks and magics to sneak into the estate and steal away his child. Keeping his magic hidden could not last forever: he became a wanted man, as a mage and as a kidnapper, with a hefty price on his head. Fleeing south, he was able to smuggle himself and his daughter out of Connlaoth and into Serendipity. There, he once again posed himself as whatever personality he needed to be in order to survive. Through his own resourcefulness, he was able to settle down as an apprentice to a runesmith.
The circumstances behind his daughter's birth could not have been kept secret forever, however. Too often he lied to her about her heritage and her origins. Too often he lied to her about himself. When she grew older, and found that she herself had the powers of magic, she undertook it upon herself to discover her roots. The fallout between father and daughter was less than cordial, and the girl, now seventeen, packed her bags and headed north back into Connlaoth to find herself. Linden, back turned, let her go without a word.
Several years passed, and the rift between father and daughter seemed to have at least narrowed slightly, if not completely mended. He occasionally received letters from her, detailing her search for her truth, and her astonishment at the way mages were treated by the general populace. The last of her letters detailed her commitment as an activist, to combat the deplorable treatment that mages received from those in power. After that, no more letters arrived.
A year after the last letter, Luc finally decided to trek back to the land of his birth, in an effort to find his now-missing daughter. It took the better part of a year to sneak his way back into Connlaoth through treacherous mountain passes and tunnels that had not been maintained for years. The patrols of Mordecai had increased tenfold since he'd last set foot upon the land, and the anti-mage sentiments had festered into something cancerous. Through this now hostile landscape he trekked, investigating the whereabouts of his daughter. Most of the people he asked did not know her, but some did. The trail of clues finally led him to a church of Angsar very near where he'd once stolen a baby from a baron's daughter. It was here that he learned from the priest that the girl he sought had been dead for some years, betrayed by another mage and given over to the hands of a high-ranking Mordecai. Whatever they'd done to her had been too much for the human body to handle. They'd hung her corpse in the town square for other dissidents to see. When enough time had passed, they'd buried her in a shallow grave outside of town.
That night, he stood in the darkness before his daughter's unmarked grave as a light rain pattered down upon his head. The rest of the night was a blur in his mind, but eventually he found that he had dug down to the wooden crate in which they'd placed his daughter. There was nothing left of her save the few possessions with which she had been buried: some worthless trinkets, a copper bauble. He took these up and left the town, never to return.
Since then, he has found his way to a small village called Knightsbridge, on the southern perimeter of Connlaoth. The village comprises of twenty or so families, plus individual residents. It's been whispered that the residents of the town are all mage sympathizers, helping to smuggle fleeing and persecuted people into Serendipity, away from the bloodshed that has since gripped the kingdom. It's also been whispered that the small town council, on which Luc Linden now sits, leads its residents in an underground resistance against those who would see mages exiled or killed. For his part, it is unclear whether Luc truly believes in the cause, or whether he is simply biding his time and gathering his resources to be able to exact his revenge on those who murdered his flesh and blood, whether they be mages or not.
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