Name/Title: Autumn Jan 张秋 (alternately Qiu Zhang, but he doesn't like it)
Plundering Grand Warlock 略奪壮絶魔道士
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Personality: Manipulative sociopaths, whoo! He's got a genetic bout of bipolar depression that's mostly under control but makes it hard to anticipate how he'll react to extreme situations. He thinks way too much, by and large about what he can do to keep people happy and doing what he wants them to. Autumn's not a monster, but only trusts himself, so sees maintaining control of everything at all times as the best way to keep everything going good for everyone. The generic "Everyman McNiceguy" act he puts on is convincing, but far from his real character. Traditional Neutral Evil alignment in that his worldview is egocentric and no matter how close a second looking out for others comes, number one always gets taken care of first.
Autum hates women! Goddamn does he hate them. Weak pitiful emotional children who are even more manipulative than him. That's his view of womankind at large. He's capable of working with them and he likes sexing them, but as far as he's concerned a woman that's not in the kitchen or the bedroom is lost and needs to be directed back to one of those two places. Since he's not a one-dimensional villain, he knows that every rule has exceptions, including this one. Females can totally earn his respect. They just have a much harder time of it than men do. The misogyny may or may not be a result of latent homoerotic tendencies.
Appearance: Bearing grey-green eyes that seem gentle and a fake smile almost as convincing as a real one, Autumn is attractive is an ordinary, sort of scruffy sense. He is of above average height but tends to slouch, both diminishing his apparent stature and giving the impression that he is informal and easy to talk to. His chin and jawline have a few whiskers sticking out of them, because try as he might, they're the extent of his ability to grow facial hair. The black hair on his head often goes unbrushed, or at least appears to - in contrast, his clothes are always unwrinkled and clean, so it's safe to say he places some value in his appearance. With skin bearing a light tan and a frame that's moderately toned, it's not difficult to believe he spent the last decade and a half earning his keep on the high seas.
~Reference images:
danbooru.donmai.us/posts/821102danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1855129danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1981299danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1567656danbooru.donmai.us/posts/945422danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1083270Biography: Second-best second place is Autum's lot in life. If he ever gets famous or powerful enough to be summoned as a Servant, his Luck stat will be a solid D. He was born into an illustrious family of Oriental magi but as the bastard child of the family head. His father might have been able to win him the rights of Zhang family successor, except there was already a legitimate heir in his half-sibling. He was a better and brighter student than his brother, but too emotionally unstable to be trusted with family secrets. So close, yet so far, time and time again. And that would have been the end of the story, an unremarkable life dictated by factors outside of his control, if he'd stuck around and filled the role of supporting the true Zhang heir that the family elders wanted him to.
Of course that's not what went down. How could he be a contestant on Battle Royale(r) With Magecraft(tm) if he was stuck as some caretaker for a guy he was better than? Nah, Autumn discarded his birth name of Qiu Zhang and went out and lived his life. Got a job using his magecraft to protect this superstitious old sailor's oil barge. One thing led to another, and before too long he was training under a pirate captain who moonlighted as a maniac for all things occult. The years go by, Autumn develops as both the commander of a crew and a mage - learning from his adoptive father's library what he couldn't from his own flesh and blood - and eventually he steps up to take the place of the late captain. The crew he inherited wasn't thrilled with this outsider taking over, but feared his supernatural skills, and so the previously dreaded Bloodsticker Pirates quietly disbanded. This left Autumn with a need for a crew and an entire world out there ripe for the plundering.
Family History: The official story Zhang gives is that they can trace their lineage all the way back to Zhang Daoling, founder of the Five Pecks of Rice Taoist sect. Will they let anyone see their family records and other such guarded documents to confirm it? Of course not! There are a few discrepancies with outside historical records, but by and large it appears that there is at least some legitimacy to that claim (or they have a history of rubbing out any who could disprove their heritage. Either or, take your pick). What is certain is that they've been around long enough to have top-rated magic circuit quantity and that they're the world's foremost authorities on the Zheng Yi (Zhenyi) school of teachings.
Inter-family policies, at least those that have become public knowledge, are traditional and conservative. Compared to other Zhenyi practitioners, Zhang magi are more focused on achieving "communion with the spirits" (something not understandable in Western magecraft terms because it falls under the Supreme Ultimate) than the formalized processes required to do so - they care about what is actually done rather than how it's done - which should in theory make them more liberal than most since they're willing to try new methods as long as the results are better, but anything can become status quo if it goes unchallenged for a great enough time. Departures from custom are even more frowned upon than is normal for a mage family, which led to the current family head, Autumn's father, seeking a less oppressive direction. Handing his role off to a child born out of wedlock and of adulterous affair was far too much change to try for at once, though.
Origin: 退散 (Separating one thing from others/breaking away)
Elemental Affinity: Water/Earth
Number of Magic Circuits: A
Quality of Magic Circuits: B
Od: C
Magecraft:
-General ed magecraft
-Water magecraft, in which he is particularly skilled
-Water/earth hybrid magecraft based on liquifying that which is solid
-No magic crest, but he knows how to make a few of the Zhang family's basic talismans;
~resisting evil: physical and spiritual damage delivered with ill intent to the holder are reduced
~warding off hunger: improves the efficiency of nutrition intake, making food and drink last longer
~bringing harmony: emits a constant field of low-level mental interference that suppresses violent instincts
~spiritual perception: the holder becomes capable of seeing spiritual bodies not visible to the unaided eye
Equipment:
-Provided backpack and what's inside it
-Talisman-making materials (ink, brush, specially-prepared paper strips)
-Water bottles, and lots of them. Like... Four whole water bottles. So much.
Skills:
-Multilingual
-Traditional and modern means of navigation
-Sailing
-Hand-to-hand combat basics
-Amateur swordplay
-Swimming
-Basic first aid
-Diplomacy
