We get to pick up superpowers, magical items and hordes of followers too?

I suppose I might as well stick my character sheet here while we're still on the coveted first page.

[hider=Character Sheet]
[b]Name:[/b] Benedict

[b]House Name:[/b] Formerly of House Strass

[b]Age:[/b] 26

[b]Appearance:[/b] 
Ben is a tall, hawk-nosed man with pale brown hair and dark green eyes. He moves with the confidence of someone born into power and used to obedience, a permanent frown on his face and open aggression in his posture. Once the son of an influential nobleman, he holds on to many of the mannerisms he learned as a child - from the light footsteps gained from months of fencing practise, to his neat, careful handwriting, to his mastery of the sublime art of disdainful sneering, Ben practically radiates nobility. Accordingly, he keeps himself impeccably clean, his hair neatly cut, and wears only the finest fabrics available - brazenly flaunting his status as a mage through billowing robes in dazzling colours, even when on the road. He carries no weapons at all, preferring overwhelming displays of magical might to intimidate, subdue or - in the worst case - kill his opponents.

[b]Homeland:[/b] Valeal

[b]Race:[/b] Tower Mage Veteran

[b]Spells:[/b]
Geomancy
Pyromancy
Blessings

[b]Bio:[/b]
Born into a family of wealthy nobles, young Benedict grew up surrounded by money and servants, immediately granted whatever he pointed at so long as he behaved himself. For most of his youth, he was quite content with this arrangement, feeling no particular desire to rebel against his upbringing, travel abroad or engage himself in anyone's cause but his own. Tutored by renowned masters of various skills - all of them appropriately noble, of course - Ben found himself possessed of a profound curiosity of physics, history and nature, excelling in lorekeeping and the sciences. While his house at first accepted this as a blessing, where most of the sons of House Strass had a predilection for physical pursuits, their pride turned to disappointment when it turned out that young Benedict was absolutely awful at statesmanship. Brazen, direct and oftentimes unpleasant, he had no talent for diplomacy - even for a child, he was considered alarmingly lacking in social graces. It came as a great relief to the house when he expressed an interest in magic, and he was shipped off to the tower soon afterward. He never looked back.

Ben found himself enraptured by his magical studies almost as soon as he began them. Like most other forms of higher learning, he had a knack for magic, and the immediate rewards of such knowledge made it far more satisfying field of study than anything he'd ever known. Hard-working and talented, he distinguished himself as a student of magecraft and dutifully adhered to the tower's moral philosophy - at least to the faces of his peers and elders. For Ben, there was never any doubt as to what his focus would be - fire and stone were the perfect outlet for his temper and drive to force his will on the world. It is said that men admire the man who can organize his wishes and thoughts in steel and brass, and Benedict took that saying literally. Blessings he added to his repertoire later on, out of a simple desire for breadth of skill. Ben had always fancied himself among the greatest magical minds of his generation, and confining his spellcasting to a single branch was simply out of the question.

While he eventually learned (or was forced) to get along with his fellow man to some degree, Benedict never outgrew his aggressive nature. In desperate need of an outlet both for his magical talent and his general, all-purpose wrath, he was more than happy to swear his fealty to the tower and dedicate the rest of his life to hunting down feral mages. In the years since, he has gleefully brought his powers to bear against any he has come across, reasoning that for every feral mage put to a spectacular end, ten more will be frightened into toeing the line. He does feel some sympathy for the mages he kills, however, as he is more than able to understand the temptation to simply take what one wants, or lash out with spells for the joy of it. If it weren't for feral mages keeping him occupied, he might well have become one himself.

Having had no particular difficulties making it through his five years of training, Benedict started his career as a full mage essentially by packing his bags and riding off into the sunset, to hunt rogue wizards and make a name for himself. As a student of the natural sciences, geography and [i]magic[/i], it had not occurred to him that a lifetime of secluded studies might not be the best preparation for a life on the road. Months of fleas, ticks, cold nights, saddle sores, highwaymen and wildlife did much to humble the young mage, who was forced to learn a series of very hard lessons very quickly. Though any problem can be solved with a large enough explosion, Benedict slowly worked his way toward a point where those only occasionally were the solution, coming to understand the difference between markings on a map and real terrain. One might hesitate to call him a rugged outdoorsman, but Ben has certainly known the price of hubris in the face of the great outdoors.[/hider]

[b]@Free Faller:[/b] I'd rather have my own guardian, truth be told. I think my character's most likely to get involved with the struggle against the order of the Rose, if that's of any interest. If they're going after legitimate mages, it seems about time to show the bastards who's boss. Seems like a problem that would need sorting before that necromancer guy can be dealt with. 

I could see some in-character conflict arising from our characters' views clashing, however - the social status of women is apparently very different in Valeal and Ferros, and Ben is a nobleman on top that. I don't think I have to tell you that he's not a very diplomatic man. That may not be the kind of game you want to play, so I thought I'd point it out ahead of time. Now, I don't plan to have him deliberately provoke her, and I think it could be fun as long as long as I don't go all "make me a sandwich, bitch" all the time, and you don't go all Captain Janeway (or Jirel of Joiry, or Polgara the Enchantress, etc) all the time. But, we're all adults here - I'm sure we can depict a relationship with a bit of friction to it without it devolving into a fist fight.