[hider=Layne Towerfall] [center][img]http://i67.tinypic.com/23kyg5d.jpg[/img] [b]Full Name:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Layne Aurelius Towerfall [/color] [b]Nicknames/Aliases:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Just Layne. That not good enough for you? [/color] [b]Age:[/b] [color=1a7b30]17[/color] [b]Gender:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Male[/color] [b]Primary:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Terramancy[/color] [b]Secondaries of Interest/Secondaries[/b] [color=1a7b30]-Magical Weapon Infusement -Familiar Summoning[/color] [b] Description:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Height: 6’5” Weight: 174 lbs Build: Muscular, but not athletic. Layne doesn’t care much for appearance, and his wardrobe reflects that: His typical outfits don’t stray far from t-shirts, sweatshirts, and jeans. It’s rare to see him wear anything that looks new. He tends to wear an article of clothing until it physically falls apart. His knuckles are scarred from many brawls, and his nose his obviously been broken at least once.[/color] [b]Personality:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Layne isn’t a people person: A rough and tumble childhood shaped him into the kind of guy who lets his fists do the talking. He can frequently come across as mean-spirited, always quick with a disparaging remark for anyone he doesn’t view as respectable. He isn’t one to think too hard about his next course of action either. He runs through the world like a wild horse, full of vim and nearly impossible to contain. He puts on a false front of not caring what others think, but under his gruff and headstrong exterior he genuinely wants to be liked. Unfortunately, his upbringing has left him without the slightest idea how to handle relationships appropriately. Still, if one can make it past all his glaring faults, they’d find a stalwart and protective companion. Ultimately, Layne behaves in this way because he feels he has something to [i]prove[/i]. To the aristocrats who look down on his family, to his dead-beat dad, and to himself.[/color] [b]Crush:[/b] [color=1a7b30]TBD[/color] [b]Skills:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Layne has a decent grasp of his Terramancy, but everything he knows is either self-taught or imparted to him by his less that reliable father. His skills are rudimentary but surprisingly potent for one his age. [i]”Stone, like Water”[/i] At his touch, stone and earth become soft and yielding, responding to his thoughts to shape into nearly anything he can imagine. Unfortunately he is not a very imaginative person, so this ability only works with very small amounts of material and only as long as it is in contact with his skin. It’s useful as armor or weaponry, but more subtle work is beyond him. While his power works best with things like limestone and granite, it also functions with pure crystalline structures like diamond and obsidian. [i]"Improving the Natural"[/i] Layne has some natural skill for MWI, but has so far only been able to apply enchantments to weapons made by his own hand from stone or crystal. These charms tend to be strong, but rudimentary: Increases in sharpness or durability, for example. [/color] [b]Weaknesses:[/b] [color=1a7b30]His most glaring weakness has to do with his primary ability: While coating his body in stone makes him a formidable bruiser, it also slows him down nearly to the point of immobility. More than this, Layne is not very clever. Like Alexander cutting the knot, he’s the type to smash straight through the walls of a maze because he simply isn’t capable of solving it. He can be very easy to mislead, deceive, and outwit. [/color] [b]Brief History:[/b] [color=1a7b30]There was a time, many generations back, when it would have been a mark of social status to employ a Towerfall mage. Known for their ruthlessness and shear brute strength, they were frequently sought out as guards and mercenaries by more patrician magical houses. Need a rival’s tower torn down? Does a peasant revolt need to be stopped? Towerfall would have been the first name to come to mind. A merchant caravan flying the family crest would have been safe from even the most cut-throat of highwaymen. Their house may not have been considered noble, but they were [i]respected[/i]. Of course, war can change many things. Their family name had been on the decline for years before the war even began, looked down upon as a relic of a more violent past. After a particularly crushing defeat during a key battle, their fate was sealed: All but one member of their house was dead, and the rest of magical community had their confirmation that the Towerfalls were the untrustworthy and inelegant brutes they always thought they were. So Layne was raised by his father, Marton, a broken and disgraced war veteran with nothing left but his now tarnished name. Layne’s mother is a mystery to him, as she apparently fled into night not long after his birth, no doubt driven off by Marton’s love of the bottle. Now, Marton was not necessarily a bad man, but he had no idea how to raise a son on his own. Layne’s relationship with his father is tense at best, characterized by many a shouting match and beating. Layne view his acceptance to Marchand as a chance for redemption: He hopes to at least soften what he knows are his very rough edges, and hopefully restore a touch of honor to his family name.[/color] [b]Other:[/b] [color=1a7b30]His most secret desire is to make magical jewelry. He makes small pieces at times, but he isn't suited for such delicate work and generally makes a mess of it.[/color] [/center][/hider] [hider=Dr. Edgar Coyle] [center][h2][b][color=a11212]Professor of Runes and Healing[/color][/b][/h2] [b]Full Name:[/b] [color=a11212]Edgar Morgan Coyle [/color] [b]Nicknames/Aliases:[/b] [color=a11212]“Doctor Coyle” [/color] [b]Age:[/b] [color=a11212]38[/color] [b]Gender:[/b] [color=a11212]Male[/color] [b]Primary:[/b] [color=a11212]Runic Casting[/color] [b]Secondaries of Interest/Secondaries[/b] [color=a11212]Healing, Blood Magic[/color] [b] Description:[/b] [color=a11212]Height: 5’10” Weight: 133 lbs. Build: Slender, just on the verge of looking unhealthy. Hair: Chestnut brown, streaked with white. Thick and untidy. Keeps a (mostly) close cropped beard. Eyes: Dark green, muddled with brown. Wears a pair of thick lensed glasses. Coyle has a tendency to always look like he’s just leapt out of bed. He is every bit the image of the ‘absentminded researcher’, his hair often tousled and unkept, his clothes stained with… well, things that probably aren’t worth asking about. His skin is ghostly pale and he has dark bags under his eyes, indicative of a man who does not often see the sun.[/color] [b]Personality:[/b] [color=a11212]If you met him at a party, you might say Coyle is odd, but polite. Generally wearing a placid smile, he’s quick with a joke or a word of kindness. However, there is a sharp, predatory gleam ever present in his eyes. Like an owl eyeing a field mouse. In truth, his primary focus is always the pursuit of knowledge above all else. Colleagues, students, or random innocents on the street: To him, they are only possible test subjects. It would not even necessarily be fair to call him cruel. Coyle is not a malicious or sadistic man, he is merely indifferent to suffering he deems necessary.[/color] [b]Relationship:[/b] [color=a11212]His first and only love is his work[/color] [b]Skills:[/b] [color=a11212] [i]A Well-Structured Theorem[/i]: With his sharp mind and lifelong devotion to the understanding of magical theory, given enough time Coyle is capable of monstrously complex feats of runic construction. During the war, he utilized these abilities to lay traps and defend perimeters. He can be credited with spells are gruesome as making an entire enemy unit vomit blood, as well as subtle lines that made a man who crossed them lose all sense of direction. [i]Medical Biology and You[/i]: As is common among his bloodline, Coyle has a powerful knack for healing magic. His specialization lies in complex works of surgery, and he is infamous for his ghoulish skill in keeping a body alive long after nature would have dictated it to end. [/color] [b]Weaknesses:[/b] [color=a11212]Due to the nature of his abilities if he does not have sufficient prep time and information he is utterly useless in physical confrontation. His Healing abilities are similarly hampered: Healing small injuries on the fly is enormously difficult, as he requires the sterile and ritualistic nature of an operating table to work. On a personal note, Coyle has few friends due to his personality and the dark reputation of his family. [/color] [b]Brief History:[/b] [color=a11212] If one were to peruse the sections of Magical Theory and Medicine in the average library, a clear pattern would present itself. Namely, the common repetition of a single name: “Coyle” Indeed, “The Coyle Institute of Theory and Physiological Understanding” has been an infamous name in the world arcane academia. Mainly only accepting their own blood relatives, fewer than one in six thousand outside aplicants are allowed to conduct their work inside it’s dark and haunted halls. Those that are allowed access to the institution are vowed to secrecy. Despite it's tightly cloistered nature, the outflow of knowledge is relatively vast. To quote one prominent scholar, “Without the work of the Coyle Institute, our understanding of the function of the human body and the method of it’s repair would be set back one hundred years.” Rumors always abound. Nightmarish experiments, gruesome tortures, mass graves and disappearances, no story of the Coyle institute told in dark taprooms has a happy ending. Despite any of these legends, the institute still thrives. Multiple investigations have been conducted by Council officials, but the result has been the same each time: There was no substantial evidence present of unethical treatment of subjects, nor was there any indication anyone was being held their against their will. It came as quite the surprise when Edgar Coyle, the family’s eldest heir, volunteered to fight the cults on the front lines instead of spending his life in the laboratory. One might have expected an anemic and nebbish boy like Edgar to be nervous at the prospect of war, but he practically danced with glee. He proved his usefulness swiftly, nearly unmatched in his skill with complex runic formulae. He earned multiple commendations after several battles turned neatly on their ears by his well laid pitfalls and multiple night raids on Council camps thwarted. Though it was odd…. Despite his reputation as a skilled healer, he abstained from any conventional field medic duties. If he was outside, he was working on runes, or carefully examining corpses. Otherwise, he spent every waking hour in his tightly sealed and heavily guarded research tents. It is mostly unknown what happened in those canvas pavilions, their exteriors heavily warded to prevent sound from escaping. [/color] [b]Other:[/b][/center][/hider] [hider=Emmett Lowe] [center][b]Full Name:[/b] [color=9E3B7E]Emmett Lowe [/color] [b]Nicknames/Aliases:[/b] [color=9e3b7e]Nothing particularly nice [/color] [b]Age:[/b] [color=9e3b7e]16[/color] [b]Gender:[/b] [color=9e3b7e]Male[/color] [b]Primary:[/b] [color=9e3b7e]Pyromancy[/color] [b]Secondaries of Interest/Secondaries[/b] [color=9e3b7e]Toxin Production, Levitation[/color] [b] Description:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] Height: 5"8' Weight: 122 lbs. Build: Thin and wiry. Slender shoulders. Soft features, slightly rounded chin. Eyes: Light blue. Wears a pair of black rimmed glasses. Hair: Dirty blonde, borders on a light brown. Generally cut short. Emmett favors non-descript clothing: Polos, button ups, usually in pale colors or white.[/color] [b]Personality:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] Emmett is a nervous, reserved, and quiet boy. A lifetime of paranoia and sheltering have left him unable to make even the simplest choices without worrying over them for fifteen minutes. He's friendly enough, and eager to please, but it often becomes clear while talking to him that he isn't used to socialization. His demeanor led to a fair amount of bullying over the years, both from normal children who saw a passive target, and mage children confused by his reticence to use his power. He's the kind of person often heard saying things like "Are you sure?" and compulsively apologizing for anything he might have done..[/color] [b]Skills:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] [i] Half-hearted Flame [/i]: Emmett’s pyromancy is, in a word, stunted. While he is adept at rapidly increasing body heat and creating small flames on his body, anything more complex than that is beyond his ability. This is mainly due to his fear of anything more elaborate. He is simply too afraid to attempt the sorts of things the average pyromancer is capable of: Namely, projecting flames over a distance. That being said, his control of his power is exemplary [i] Chemistry for a Brighter Future [/i]: Much like his pyromancy, Emmett is skilled with his toxin production, but limited due to his own phobias. Producing acids, poisons, and sedatives is something he is capable of, but highly averse to. Mainly he uses his toxin skills in conjunction with his pyromancy to create aesthetic things like multicolored flames or smoke. He’s capable enough with sedatives and mood enhancers as well.. [/color] [b]Weaknesses:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] Emmett’s biggest weakness is himself: Fear and self-doubt cause him to freeze up or panic at even the most minor of stressful situations. He has a crippling fear of hurting others, which causes him to be overly restrained in his casting. [/color] [b]Brief History:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] The Lowe family is not a particularly exciting one. Proud Pyromancers, but in general content with keeping their heads down and out of the public eye: A normal, middle class family of mages who only wanted to stay out of trouble. Mainly speaking, they got their wish, until Emmett was born. He was treated much the same as any other mage child, his budding skills in pyromancy nurtured and gently guided. That was until, at roughly ten years old, he began to display a natural knack for toxin production. It was at this point that his parents began to panic. The Lowe family, like many mage families, was not without it’s share of skeletons in the closet. As it turned out, Emmett was not the first Lowe to be drawn towards toxins: his maternal grandfather had been much the same. This revelation excited young Emmett, until he was given the whole story. Abraham Lowe had been a dangerous man. A violent pyromaniac obsessed with the creation of explosives, he was implicated in a number of bombings of public spaces that resulted in dozens of deaths and even more injuries. Abraham died in a maximum-security prison, and good riddance to him. Emmett’s parents were determined not to see their only son follow the same path. Emmett was not the sort of boy to rebel or attempt to dissuade them. Horrified by the potential of his abilities, he was more than happy to shelter himself as much as his parents did. His enrollment at Marchand had been quite the subject of debate for a few weeks. While his parents were mortified by the idea, he convinced them it was for the best. After all, where would he learn better discipline than a school for mages? With the troubles in the world, wouldn’t it be the safest place for him…? At least, they all hoped that would be the case. [/color] [b]Other:[/b] [color=9e3b7e] -Emmett’s main hobbies are reading and origami. He likes things to do with paper, as it reminds him to keep his fire in check. -Has a tendency to stutter when he’s nervous. Which is most of the time. [/color][/center][/hider]