---

---

Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Vanilla Human
Sexuality: Straight.

Appearance: Sporting a fairly distinct hairstyle and blue eyes, Cole stands at 5’10 and weighs 180 lbs. Black tattoos of vines crawl over his arms, chest, and back, and he doesn’t care if they’re hidden or exposed; he just grabs whatever’s at the front of the closet after all. Numerous faint scars can be found over his body, but thankfully his face has gone untouched.

Magic
Immuto: Aureola - The manifestation of one’s soul through mana, grown too strong to be contained by Cole’s mortal frame. The light of his being, it brings him past his limits, shields him from harm, and allows him to strike down his foes.
Prima: Five Changing Blows - Somewhat based on the Chinese elements, Cole uses this to add that extra oomph to his close-quarter capabilities.
Sanctus: Soul Tap - The ability to establish a connection with another "soul" or energy source.

Strengths: Aureola is a potent self-buff that grants a myriad of effects to Cole while he has the mana to maintain it. Primarily it infuses his body with mana and allows him to perform on a level several removed from a regular human. Additionally, anything that would manage to injure him despite his heightened toughness is brushed aside with a surge of mana that counters the attack. In the case that he is still harmed, a rather potent regeneration effect is also present. Beyond that, the mana that infuses his body also interferes with any attempt to cast magic on him directly. It prevents a Prima mage from manipulating the water within his body, or a Mentis mage from influencing his thoughts, etc.

Five Changing Blows allows for Cole to infuse his body with the elements of air, fire, earth, metal, or water. This allows him a wide variety of responses to any situation, and as a whole makes him deadlier and more adaptable. It is an extremely efficient form of magic, and allows for powerful effects despite most of Cole’s mana being directed to maintaining Aureola.

Soul Tap, primarily, gives Cole a method to recharge his mana supply even in the middle of a battle, or otherwise hasten his recovery after one. By forming a connection with another being, he can drain them of their life force in order to bolster his own. It even weakens them with a debilitating sense of cold and loss to make the process all the easier. At a distance it can act as a tether that allows for Cole to track and feel their presence. With a bit of focus, peace, and quiet, he’s able to sap the life from a steadily expanding range instead, and can recover to full capabilities extremely quickly. Granted this does leave the surroundings unable to support life for a long time afterwards.

Weaknesses: Aureola allows Cole to shrug off injuries that would otherwise incapacitate him, but it costs him mana to do so. This means every hit he takes weakens his ability to perform magic as a whole, whereas someone else might be able to sacrifice an arm to cast a finisher in return. He also has a fairly distinct glow when the magic is in use that makes stealth pretty much an impossibility.

While his Prima magic is versatile, it is also limited by the very foundation he based it from. He cannot shift directly from Water to Earth or Metal, Fire cannot turn to Air or Water, and so forth. Instead he has to change to a compatible element and then change again. This means there is some delay in how fast he can swap between the elements. Another thing is that while Fire, Air, and Water grant him some short-range capabilities, the majority of his use for the magic is limited to close-quarter fighting and enhancing his melee capabilities. Lastly, he hasn’t quite mastered the ability to utilize more than one element at a time although he is working on it.

Soul Tap requires Cole to, first off, touch his target for a few moments to establish the connection. Then he needs to remain within several meters otherwise the connection is too weak to pull any energy through. The drain also starts off rather slow and requires a few seconds to ramp up until it’s noticeable. While at that point it’s generally already worth the effort Cole went through to slap someone with the spell, it won’t incapacitate any decent mage for at least another 30 seconds.

Catalyst: The tattoos that cover much of Cole’s upper body aren’t merely for show, but instead act as his catalyst and allow him to use magic. Over the years they’ve linked with the pathways that carry mana through his body and become more than just ink on skin.

Other Skills
While he doesn’t practice any specific martial art now, Cole is a competent brawler even without his magic. While not very skillful, a mix of instinct, experience, and good reflexes makes him plenty dangerous.

His ability to throw knives is described as inhuman. Feats include shaving another student’s stubble, pinning a leaf with every knife on his person as they fell, or tossing dozens accurately in seconds.

Not quite as accurate with, but fairly well-trained with firearms as well. Handguns are his preference since his main use for them is the aspect of surprise, and more often than not people don't suspect it from a mage.

Takes care of himself and his own place since he doesn’t live in the dorms, but rents a place in town. He’s a decent cook, but doesn’t use the kitchen and prefers to eat out instead.

Fluent in Mandarin, and conversational in Arabic. The former is unsurprising given he was raised in China, and the latter he picked up a few years back when he realized it helped to find work. English generally works, but it’s doesn’t hurt to help the client relax with a familiar tongue.

Alcoholism ho! Not really though. He likes to drink, handles it well, and has a fair idea of his limits.

Inventory: Cell phone, wallet, probably a pack of gum, a necklace made of prayer beads, and almost as many knives as a certain time-stopping maid.

Familiar: N/A

Personality: It’s not flattering, but Cole is most often described as a rather smug layabout. Indeed, when he is on the island he can often be found at a park or cafe with a book or tablet in hand. It seems that he’s rather listless unless there’s a task or mission for him to focus on. He might seem a bit driven to find a job when he needs a bit of extra cash, but otherwise even his hunt for “work” seems to lack energy for the most part. He’s a bit more lively and energetic when honing his magic, but the mood to do so seems to strike only occasionally.

On that note, despite his general indolence towards many things, it can’t be said that Cole is irresponsible, and he’ll gladly pull up his bank account to prove it. His home is well kept, and when people do bother to strike up conversation he comes across as rather polite, if perhaps a bit too casual at times. He’s seen and done his fair share of things, so there’s not much in the day to day life that bothers him a lot. Granted it is Montagne, so who can say what might happen on any given day.

Backstory: Born in Shanghai to a European mother and Chinese father, it’s pretty clear which parent he got his looks from. They were unfortunately without magic and thus at a loss when his potential manifested early. They were also decent folk who looked around for local help rather than ship off their kid to some whacky academy right off the bat and that was how Cole found himself in the company of Shaolin monks from a very young age.

The temple in question had no mages, but were sympathetic to his parent’s dilemma and agreed to help how they could. As a result, Cole often spent afternoons and occasionally days at the temple to try and learn control. They couldn’t instruct him on magic, but meditation and physical training helped to focus his mana and develop a body that could handle it.

One day there came a marked man whom the monks respected greatly, and thus Cole did as well by extension. This seemed to amuse the man even as he took the, now, young boy aside and asked if he wished to pursue his potential further. He had come because he heard there was a temple that had helped to raise a young mage, and he himself was one whose life had become entwined with the organization. If Cole so wished, he could grant the young boy a gift and steer him in the right direction for his next steps.

Quite obviously, Cole accepted and the rune ceremony took place the following day. A subdued event with no fanfare, but its importance undiminished for it. His parents allowed him to apprentice under the man afterwards, and thus began the next chapter of Cole’s life. As he quickly found out, the man worked as an exorcist for the temples. China was rather prolific with many tales of the supernatural. More than a few were real, and more importantly dangerous.

He traveled around the country and occasionally out of it for a few years under his teacher, before Cole was told to attend Montagne. The man hadn’t taught him everything yet, but with only him as Cole’s teacher he was only slowing the boy’s growth. Again, obviously, he accepted the decision and finally got shipped off to some academy on the other side of the world. More than a decade after his parents had first considered it.

He “graduated”, for what little meaning it has, after two short years at the Academy given his experience prior to arrival. Rather than move back home though, Cole has lingered about in the surrounding town as it proves to be a rather easy place to find work. There’s always some business that needs to be taken care of so long as one looks in the proper areas or knows the right channels. Occasionally he can be seen actually on school grounds, most frequently the library.

---