Name: Marcus Ambrosias
Age: 36
Class: Priest (Technically a Monk but there's not much difference)
Weapons: Blackwood Staff, Mend Crystal, Warp Crystal, Sleep Crystal, Aurora Tome (essentially a Divine Tome except lighter and has a page from a Nosferatu Tome placed in the center as a reminder), Keeps Sleep Crystal on a chain around his neck. As long as another stone isn't in his staff he can use it like this. In most cases he uses his Sleep Crystal to put those suffering into a deep sleep to save them suffering, whether they be dying or healing.
Fighting Style: Marcus is a pacifist. He follows his orders teachings very closely and only resorts to violence in dire circumstances. He believes violence to be necessary but his view of when it is called for is far narrower than most other peoples. When forced to fight Marcus is more than capable. Trained by his master in staff fighting and martial arts Marcus’s fighting style dictates that his opponent be taken down in the cleanest and most efficient means possible. Causing the least permanent damage and pain while still removing the target as a threat. Marcus uses his Blackwood staff as a weapon and while it may not be effective on armored foes is more than capable of taking out most other units. Of course this is always a last resort when the alternatives would cost lives.
Personality: Despite his history Marcus is neither sullen nor withdrawn. He is actually a fairly social person who enjoys the company of others. It is not uncommon for him to be seen throwing back a tankard of ale with a couple of friends. He is under most circumstances calm and patient and tries to do his best to give anyone who might need him his time. He avoids talking about his past at all costs. Not violently or obviously but he has a rather slick way of deflecting questions regarding who he was before the monastery. Despite not being capable of channeling dark magic anymore Marcus still possesses a vast store of knowledge regarding its rituals and practices. He tries to make everyone else a priority over himself especially in battle. He has a tendency to go in deeper than is wise for someone who compared to the others lacks battle skills if someone is in danger and needs healing. He always has a Warp Crystal on hand in case someone needs to be pulls out of a situation. One of the only things that causes Marcus to lose his cool is seeing dark magic applied in an amoral fashion and magic related to dragons.
History: Marcus grew up in the dry lands of Panoply. He was an only child and he never knew his father. His mother Gwendolyn came from old money and was head of a very successful mining operation. As one of Panoply’s only vastly available resources those that could capitalize effectively on it became very rich. As well as shipping gravel and stone to various cities for construction Gwendolyn’s operation also uncovered vast stores of gens which could be refined and used for magical purposes or sold, sometimes both. Because of his mother’s occupation Marcus is very familiar with navigating underground structures.
Gwendolyn was not an easy woman to live with. She one of a very small sect that worshiped the Black Dragon Medeus. Her studies and worship taught Gwendolyn how to master a number of different types of dark magic which she insisted that Marcus also learn whether he wanted to or not.
When Marcus was sixteen years old he ran away from home. He was tired of the lifestyle his mother was forcing on him, tired of being groomed to take over the family business and tired having magic forced down his throat (metaphorically speaking).
Marcus didn’t take much with him, some cloths, a bit of gold and one of his mother’s copies of Nosferatu, life stealing magic. Marcus then traveled, wandering the lands. He never wanted for a place to sleep. Sometimes he took mercenary jobs to raise quick cash but mostly he held the threat of Nosferatu over people’s heads. Threatening to steal years from their lives if he wasn’t given what he wanted. This didn’t of course always work and Marcus often found himself sleeping in the wilderness.
Power has a way of attracting the power hungry. It wasn’t long before Marcus had a small band of other dark mages or people wanting to learn dark magic. They were all teenagers, including Marcus there were six in all.
Three years they were together. They became something of a legend. They took what they wanted from people and didn’t care about the consequences. People started referring to them as the Black Dragon Guard because whenever they raided someone Marcus always wore a cloak he’d stolen from his mother which was emblazoned with the symbol of Medeus.
There was a certain piece of magic that the group was particularly fond of. They would sedate one of their number then use a very specialized version of Goetia magic to summon a spirit of the dead to possess that person. While they were unconscious and strengthened by the spirit the rest of the group would take turns feeding on them with Nosferatu. The harm at least short term from doing this was minimal and it provided everyone with an indescribable high.
As anyone could guess however it went wrong. The group performed the rituals just as they always had. Preparing the host, summoning the spirit but this time something was different. When the group started to use Nosferatu they didn’t gain energy and that high from the spirit but instead the spirit started to feed on the magic turning it back on them. It took the strength of the entire group to dispel the spirit and send it back to the underworld but in the process the one the spirit had possessed was killed.
It was like each member of the Black Dragon Guard had woken up. As though the last three years were some sort of dream and now they were faced with the harsh cruel reality of what they had done. The group continued for another month but soon enough it fell apart. Marcus parted from the others shortly thereafter.
While he’d traveled Marcus had felt invincible, he had power and the willingness to use it and it seemed he could do anything he pleased, no guilt, no consequences. This feeling shattered completely once he realized that it was his fault, he had killed one of his closest friends.
Marcus wandered for the next three months. Going from place to place like a zombie. He slept, he ate, he walked but he seemed to feel nothing, as though the entire world was dead around him.
After three months he stumbled upon a monastery. Hungry, he knocked on their doors to beg for food. The one who opened the door was an old man, the high priest. He was a skilled healer both of the mind and the body. He offered Marcus a place to stay for the night and in the end they talked for hours about morality and consequence and atonement.
When the next morning came Marcus begged the high priest to let him join there order. To teach him how to repair lives the way he’d torn them to pieces before. Tentatively the High Priest agreed.
Over the next 17 years or so the High Priest taught Marcus meditation and reflection. He showed him different ways to look at the world and he taught him the art of healing. Slowly over the years Marcus learned how to repair people instead of destroy them and as he learned to heal slowly he lost the ability to channel the dark magicks his mother had trained him in. (This can effectively be considered a class change).
At the monastery Marcus was also taught martial arts and staff combat with emphasis on the fact that being able to fight was meant to reduce the necessity of it. Present day Marcus is trying to become skilled in the use of Light Magic hoping that once and for all it can purge the darkness from his soul. Though he carries the magic tome Aurora everywhere he can only use it to make small flashes of light that last seconds and have little effect on anything. (This foreshadows a class promotion to something that uses staves and tomes). His tome is special in that it has a page from his mother’s Nosferatu bound into the center of it. He can’t actually use the magic on the page but the black magic scrawled in angry spiked runes reminds him why he trains and must continue to do so.
Rationale: To make sure the Reclaimers where prepared for whatever might happen the Basileus requested that monasteries send in a healer to provide support in battle, tend to the wounded afterwards, perform burial rights should it be necessary and give the soldier's morale and spiritual support which sometimes becomes lost in war. Marcus agreed to go with the Reclaimers out of a real eagerness to help and also in the hope that the mages among the Reclaimers might be able to teach him how to properly channel light magic.
Appearance: 
Marcus shaves his head as is customary for his order. He has a prominent nose and chin and dark blue eyes that in the right light almost look black. Traditionally he wears his monk’s robes which while easy to move in conceal his figure almost completely. Underneath the robes Marcus is well muscled and he wears orange loose fitting cloths that traditionally were worn during sparring practice. His skin is pale as he spends a lot of time within the monastery.
Member
Apollosarcher,
shylarah
