[hider=Max Cotto]
[b]Name:[/b] Maximilian Cotto
[b]Age:[/b] 43
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Species:[/b] Human

[b]Appearance:[/b] Max is Caucasian. He is very tall, around 6'7”, but also very thin at 150 pounds, giving him a gaunt and stretched-out look. His hair is dark and longish, but very well cared-for, as are his nails and teeth- he practices excellent hygiene. His sedentary habits and indoors lifestyle have resulted in pale skin and red-rimmed eyes (brown in color). Max wears expensive and well-made clothing, but it is not flashy or ostentatious- conservative gray and blue suits are his preference. 

[b]Background:[/b] Maximilian Cotto is the youngest of four siblings, the heirs to the Sephardic Jewish Cotto family of Seattle. Not quite old money but not quite noveau, the Cottos were nonetheless very wealthy due to their real estate business and other investments. Max had no real need to work due to a sizable trust fund, and no real interest in the family business, which his father and older siblings handled. From childhood, Max was a bookish sort, an avid reader who was always interested in learning new things and with a special fascination in secret knowledge.

After graduating with a degree in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, Max left the country for what was something of a Cotto family tradition- traveling Europe and Israel to learn about Jewish history and tradition. While the family was not observant, they had deep respect for their roots. Max, with no real goals beyond scholarship, found the idea edifying and readily agreed. It was in a beer cellar in Prague that his life took a strange and improbable turn.

Fresh from visiting the museums, synagogues, and cemeteries of the ancient city, Max stopped in for a beer after a long day. Looking to practice his Czech, he got to talking to the man seated next to him, a fellow Jew and a Kabbalah student, one of the Jewish scholars who study mysticism and miracles. The two hit it off and ended up spending most of the night pounding back Staropramen beer and juniper brandy. Finally, after too many drinks, the Kabbalist (Max never caught his name) asked with a twinkle in his eye if Max wanted to see something really cool. He led Max outside into a quiet alleyway, used a piece of chalk to draw a triangle on the cobblestones, and to Max' utter disbelief, summoned a demon. The encounter hardly lasted a minute, as the Kabbalist asked a few mocking questions of the shadowy and otherworldly figure before sending it back with a perfunctory few words. The other man laughed it off, led them back inside for more beer. Max, however, was transfixed. For all his knowledge, all his learning, here was something he was wholly unprepared for. His interest and excitement were piqued. Despite his strict itinerary for Prague, Max began reading and learning as much as he could about the art of demonology. More popular and accessible texts pointed him in the direction of more obscure works. His interest only grew on his visits to Odessa and Jerusalem- in these places, he found that the Kabbalist schools often attracted Jews interested in learning true mysticism. There was genuine magic practitioners on the fringes of these esoteric schools, and Max learned much from them.

Upon returning to Seattle after two years abroad, it was with a new purpose that Max renewed his scholarship in earnest. Using the burgeoning Internet, he was able to find more books and information on the subject of demonology. When that failed, he made frequent trips abroad to learn more, finding new scholars to study alongside, new libraries to do occult research, new catacombs and abandoned homes to comb through for yet another secret diary or forgotten text. To his family and the general public, it was assumed he was just another Kabbalist, a Jew spending their life in study of holy books. He was written off as a useless and cuddly member of an otherwise respectable family, a jobless eccentric. Max put in rare appearances in Seattle high society. Max spent twenty years cultivating this image while building a massive library of  more than 1600 occult books (while the number sounds impressive, several are repeats, several are fraudulent, and a good percentage are tame garden-variety occult books you can find at Barnes and Noble) and learning more about the art of demonology. Other magicians in the Seattle area eventually started to use him a resource, coming to him to peruse his library or ask questions of a demon, even asking him to perform the odd exorcism.

Over the years, Max has had numerous offers from various occult organizations to join their ranks, all of which he has turned down in order to lead his preferred life of asceticism and pure research. However, things have changed very recently, with the death of his father Solomon. After the appropriate period of shivah, his oldest brother Aaron (the new head of the Cotto real estate business) dropped some very obvious hints about Max finding a useful job or losing his trust fund. Unwilling to lose his funding for his research, Max dug out a months-old job offer from Wells and Raick and replied in the affirmative- they had been the most persistent in courting him, so he figured if anyone was owed a response it was that particular firm. The reply was almost immediate- while the West Coast positions had been filled, they had work if he was willing to relocate to Maine. With the death of his father on his mind and his position as the black sheep of the family even more apparent now, Max figure he could use a change, and so moved to Belfast.
 

[b]Current Life:[/b] Max only accepted employment with Wells and Raick a month ago, and as such his time has been spent settling into Belfast. He's bought a rambling old house (cash up front, no loans, no mortgage) on the outskirts of town and has been supervising a few renovations to accommodate his library and modernize the kitchen (the man likes to cook, and substandard equipment just won't do). Other parts of his free time have been used on exploring Maine, day trips to Portland, Orono, Augusta, Brunswick, and Bangor to find bookshops that might get him a rare text, as well as specialty groceries and importers that will get his favorite beers from Europe. At work he has been diligent but quiet, not really getting to know any of his coworkers just yet. A little shy, he's the type to just keep his head down and get through the day, and since no major challenges have come his way he hasn't really made much of an impact on people yet. On the whole, though, he is content with his new life.

[b]Personality:[/b] Max is typically quiet and introverted, to the point of being a little shy and awkward. That's not to say he's unfriendly or rude, however, and he believes strongly in hospitality- anyone coming to visit him at his home will find a cold beer and a hot meal in front of them in short order. Having grown up in a wealthy family, Max enjoys the finer things in life- good clothes, food, furnishings, and so on, with a special interest in beer. His focus is largely put on his magical studies and research, however. Max views demonology not as a means to an end, like some unscrupulous types, but as knowledge for the sake of knowledge. His desire to learn more may sometimes lead him into conflict with conventional morality, though.

[b]Schools of Study:[/b] Max has devoted himself full-time to demonology for the past twenty years, and he knows that in this time he has hardly scratched the surface. His large library of occult texts has given him general and passing familiarity with other schools, but this knowledge is purely theoretical rather than practical- a good allegory might be someone who can recognize different makes of cars but doesn't know how to drive. Unlike many demonologists, he eschews a familiar but pays the cost in fatigue. Major spells drain him greatly and he often requires a period of rest before doing anything else.

[b]Specialization:[/b] Max has specialized in the summoning and contact of demons, as well as demonic possession and exorcism.

[b]Spells:[/b] 

[i]Wards[/i]- Max is able to construct barriers or lines that can hold demons and other supernatural entities at bay, though powerful ones can batter through them. These are usually marked by chalk lines or piles of salt, though other methods may be used.

[i]Summoning[/i]- With the proper incantations and precautions, Max may summon the demon of his choice to the mortal plane, typically to ask for a favor or information.

[i]Exorcism[/i]- More or less the opposite of Summoning, Max can also force a demon to return to its home. If he did not personally Summon it, though, this is often a lengthy and difficult process. In particularly troublesome cases may require several assistants.

[i]Arrows of Buer[/i]- It's a dangerous world out there, and so Max keeps one purely offensive spell ready to go, though he dislikes using it. With this ability, Max may fire an arrow of pure arcane force at his foes, strong enough to put a hole through a truck's engine block. However, since it greatly drains his stamina, he cannot keep up a barrage of arrows for long.

[b]Abilities:[/b]

[i]Polyglot[/i]- Max has a talent for languages- he can speak and read English, Hebrew, Russian, and Czech fluently. He reads Arabic, German, French, Aramaic, Spanish, Romanian, and Yiddish but does not speak them. 

[i]Research[/i]- Thanks to the resource of his personal library of grimoires and other books, Max is able to readily do research on a variety of occult topics.

[b]Equipment:[/b] 

[i]Notebook[/i]- Max is a man who wants to learns as much as possible, and as such is often taking notes on anything he encounters. Specifically, he has several incantations for summoning specific demons, as well as reference charts of reliable demons and their attributes. 

[i]Smartphone[/i]- It's still the 21st century, after all.

[i]Pocket Ouija[/i]- It's crude and unsafe, but it works well enough for making limited and brief contact with otherworldly entities. 

[i]Hand of Miriam[/i]- Max wears a simple steel Hand of Miriam necklace, like many other Sephardic Jews. He doesn't actually know if it genuinely protects from evil spirits, but hey, why not?

[i]Bag of Salt[/i]- Max carries around a plastic quart bag of purified rock salt, which allows him to quickly construct a Ward or magic triangle in a pinch.

[i]Shofar[/i]- A bugle made from the horn of a ram and the principal tool of a Kabbalist exorcism. The sound of one being blown is anathema to demons.

[i]Smith and Wesson 629[/i]- The snub-nosed revolver isn't for use against demons, that would be stupid and pointless. Rather, it's a last resort, one final and permanent way to prevent himself from being possessed- an ever-present danger in his line of work. 
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Hopefully this works for you. If you need me to make any changes or elaborations, just say the word. Thank you!