**Name:** Aldis Lanford
**Age:** 17
**Appearance:**
Aldis stands at 5 feet 10 inches, has a moderately fit build and often wears a pair of black fingerless gloves. He has an azure earring on his left ear, a gift from his grandmother, and normally wears a pair of well worn leather boots with straps fastening them to his feet.
**Personality:** Casual with others, open, lazy, friendly. Has a bit of a tendency to daydream or wander off randomly.
**History:** Aldis has often been hard pressed by his parents to exceed in his education, coming from a family of wealth and affluence. He was afforded tutors, personal aides for his studies and any chance he could get to attend exclusive seminars with some of the country's brightest minds, all at the expense of furthering his education. It would be fine and all if he had the mind or patience for school work; he's a bit against it, frankly. Never exactly what you would call studious, Aldis has a tendency to break away from his teachers and go wandering off. He has all his life, his parents could recount numerous stories of when their young child wandered off even as a toddler to explore. Getting him to sit down and actually pour over papers and books has always been a challenge, save for the rare instances that he was actually interested in the material. Far and few between the bulk of what caught Aldis' attention were sciences, and therein the applications of them. It wasn't even the specific subjects in of themselves that had him intrigued but the potential uses of them, and how they all tied together into his true passion; Alchemy.
For the longest time Aldis was made to attend standard curriculum, run the same fare as his other peers and try to work towards a successful, homely career. Typical work held his interest about as heavily as books did however and he shirked that as much he could. His numerous outings had a purpose as well; slinking away in the middle of the day was his one real chance to practice some alchemy. More than one occasion he had been caught by a butler or household worker and brought back to his parents, being scolded for not doing as they wished. As the years progressed however it became increasingly obvious the only things Aldis would actually work on were what he wanted, and his parents had to relent. Under the agreement he finish at least his core studies he would be permitted to practice alchemy, even join the newly developed State Alchemist Academy if he was fortunate enough. With an actual reason to work aside from the usual "I told you so" Aldis applied himself readily, getting through the basic work that he needed to in order to attain his desires of becoming an Alchemist.
In no short terms Aldis managed to both appease his parents and get what he wanted; enrolling in the State Alchemist Academy near immediately after finishing his rudimentary lessons. Doing so meant he had to move to a city closer to central, leaving his parents behind for some time. Though their wishes were for him to help work the family business he could not be deterred, and on his seventeenth birthday he took a train and left, off to begin his new career as an Alchemist. His ethic in his studies improved greatly once at the Academy, even if he did find himself taking some of the same basic courses to supplement his Alchemy training. He didn't mind though, he was on the fast track to becoming a State Alchemist; after only a year or two he would be able to do the work he had longed to since childhood.
