Sophrus — Roleplayer Guild

Nicolai

Nicolai nods to the fledgling necromancer, and collects his modest fee. After saying their farewells he leaves and begins to wander the streets of London with a vague idea that he is supposed to be somewhere, but just cant think of where it was. He paused to get his barrings, as he looked around he noticed a pair of glowing eyes in the shadows of an alley. Nicolai sighed as the creature moved into the light, it was a drooling and grotesque ghoul. 

"Ahriman, will you knock it off..."

"Come on Nic, this will be fun. can you reach the party before the Ghoul catches you?"

Nicolai watches the Ghoul as it begins to slowly approach him. It is an illusion, it couldn't do him any actual harm but it would seem to hurt him until Ahriman was satisfied. Nicolai could force the illusion away but Ahriman would push back, he wouldn't give up on this cruel game. Nicolai begins to walk quickly down the street hoping that it was in the right direction. While he walked a Figure appeared walking next to him clad in red. Ahriman wasn't actually there either, simply an illusion cast from within Nicolai's mind. Out of frustration Nicolai begins reciting an elaborate conjuration ritual, he put nothing behind it so that he wouldn't summon a lesser deity into the streets of London. He was certainly not going to make that mistake again.

"Nicolai, Nicolai, Nicolai... you realize you are going the wrong way don't you?... No, well then. Ill give you a hand, Its not any fun if my Ghoul catches you without a fighting chance... alright, three blocks south and four east from here."

Nicolai listened, and glanced behind him. The Ghoul was closer, matching his pace and then some so that his there was a time limit on the game. He didn't have long but he should make it to this shindig before the game was up. Once he was about a block away he realized where he was actually supposed to be, some apartment for a gathering of mages. As rounded a corner and noticed the door to the apartment close, he hurried up towards the apartment hearing the ghoul only a few steps behind him. The moment he reached the door the sound of the ghoul vanished abruptly. 

"Well done, you should probably knock it would be impolite to just wait outside."

Nicolai hesitated but knocked anyway, as his knuckles hit the door Ahriman vanished and Nicolai stood on the doorstep alone.

Name: 
Nicolai Astrovia

Age: 
32

Gender: 
Male

Appearance: 

Personality:
Nicolai upon first impression will appear as little more than someone who is lost in thought or distracted. However given some time with him one will notice nervous tics and he will mumble incoherently to himself or answer voices that nobody else had heard. In addition he is also paranoid, not cripplingly so but it would be unwise to enter his residence unannounced. he retains enough of his faculties to practice magic and maintain conversation. He will often practice extremely complex and time consuming rituals as relaxation, when most wizards would only use such rituals if there where no other option.

Country of Origin:
Russia

History:
The young years of Nicolai's life where actually very boring by most people's standards. He grew up on the outskirts of Moscow to a loving and happy middle class family, his father worked in the government and his mother stayed home with him and his siblings, two sisters and a brother. he went to school, had friends, enjoyed skiing trips and vacations in Germany or England. Even when he hit puberty and his powers began to manifest, it shocked his family and they where wary of such ability but embraced their child none the less. 

shortly after his ability began to grow he was contacted by a local man, who was actually another magic user. He came to the Astrovia house introducing himself only as Vladimir and asked to take young Nicolai under his wing and teach him about magic and its use. The family was initaly skeptical of the man's claim until he asked a woman who was with him to show the family something. She knelt down and picked up the family cat and changed it into a dog, the change only lasted a few minutes. The family was stunned and finally agreed to send Nicolai off.

As an apprentice Nicolai showed great promise as a Mind mage, he could project thoughts or pictures to other people and even began to learn how to impress feeling onto others such as joy or fear. This practice went on until he turned 16, then what his master called real magic could begin. He was began his instruction on how to summon demons, initially he only summoned petty imps and lesser creatures, but he also showed real talent and was progressing quickly. He began devouring text after text on magical theory and summoning rituals. Even truly complex rituals on how to summon greater demonic lords and lesser gods, it had gotten to the point that he and his master no longer had a student teacher relationship but talked to each other as peers, discussing magical theory as scientists would discuss physics. 

Several days before he turned 18 he was at a magical shop that had a reputation of selling more archaic materials, this time Nicolai found a demonology tome that seemed to be dated back farther than any other he had seen, from the first monotheistic religion. He was so excited that he bought it on the spot, a birthday present to himself. On the day he turned 18 he brought the book to his master and asked if they could do one of the summoning rituals, his master grudgingly agreed and they set to work almost immediately. 

when everything was set the pair began the ritual, it was a difficult ritual and as the spell was reaching its climax his master stumbled over one of the phrases and did not notice. Once the ritual was complete the Demon Ahriman was summoned and Vladimir was not protected within his circle as Nicolai was. Ahriman was furious at his summoning, he filled the room with inky black smoke and slimy tendrils groped around the circle feeling for weakness. The moment he felt the opening Vladimir had mistakenly made the demon jumped at the opportunity and the tendrils wrapped Vladimir in a crushing embrace, so tight that the mage could not breathe much less cast defensive magic. "I have no time for such petty Magus!" shouted the demon, Nicolai heard the breaking of bones from across the room and panicked. He shouted for his master but could not think of what to do, he had never seen a ritual fail so spectacularly. Ahriman shifted and was facing Nicolai, a faint laughter entered his thoughts followed by a sentence spoken into his mind rather than through his ears "Watch mortal and I destroy your master, his death will be swift, yours... your torment will be that of legend." 

Nicolai shouted out the binding ritual in an effort to save his master's life. The moment Nicolai finished the incantation Ahriman dropped Vladimir and turned to face Nicolai again. The demon's demeanor changed, he stood before the young Nicolai respectfully and nodded "name your price." said the demon as though they where haggling over a steak at the market. 

Nicolai looked at his master laying broken on the floor, "I- uh... my mind, my body, just do not kill him" mumbled Nicolai. the demon looked over its shoulder and studied the man, "I will cause him no farther harm" said the demon knowing full well that the man would die soon regardless. Nicolai agreed without studying the demons words, "Deal." The laughter at the edge of hear happened again and Ahriman reached through the summoning circle that no longer protected Nicolai and pressed his fingers against his forehead, steam and the stench of burned flesh filled Nicolai's nose as the demon reached into his mind and began to tear it apart. The demon had ripped all memory from his mind leaving nothing but his name, mastery of several languages, and his magical knowledge. Every memory of his childhood and his master where gone, as an after thought the demon replaced some of the memories with nightmarish abominations and twisted horrors that would haunt his sleep. when Ahriman was done and the boy had slumped to the floor the demon said "deal"

Awakening in a strange house in the same room as a dead body was the first memory he has, he does not even remember binding himself to the demon Ahriman. However with the binding the demon is welcome to follow him around and subject him to petty torments, more to the demon's enjoyment rather than any real malicious intent. Nicolai spent several years homeless, jobless and simply lost. He eventually just became a wandering nomad, never staying in one place very long. In his travels he accumulates magical knowledge and theory then moving on, after many years of this he began to make a small name for himself as a wandering lexicon, he would educate lesser magicians in some basic lore that any real mage would know, but it began to be a useful trade making him some money and giving him access to greater pools of knowledge. while he is no expert in any field of magic, other than mental and illusion, he knows enough to teach a fledgling pyromancer a couple tricks even when he can not preform them himself.

recently he has began to wander about England.

Method of Magic:
Illusion - Nicolai can project horrific scenes and images either into another mind or onto the environment, while it is not real the scenes are Extremely lifelike and would take an effort of will to dismiss them or ignore them. This would extend to senses other than sight as well, One would feel heat from a fire or smell noxious fumes as if they where real although would not be harmful.

(The two are seperate but linked)

Mental Manipulation - Nicolai can also enter another mind forcibly if necessary, and do what he wishes. For the most part the only options available to Nicolai are to rip at their psyche, destroy memories and implant twisted nightmares of unnameable horror. The only useful application of this is to extract information or to drive an enemy insane or to a suicidal despair. The process to cut deep into another mind is very difficult and most mages are more resilient than mere mortals.

Demon Servants:
Ahriman or Angra Mainyu (goes by Ahriman)
Ahriman is a demon of madness, his original name roughly translates to Destructive Mind or Evil Thought. The demon enjoys driving men, women and children to madness. he does this at a crawling place subtly bending their mind until their weary psyche can not cope with the strain, often driving his victims to suicide. In the presence of others he is perfectly respectful and courteous, unless he feels truly disrespected in some way, then he can become quite violent. He abhors any kind of direct confrontation, although he is quite proficient in combat if the need arises but has rarely needed to employ such a skill.


Other: 
I dont know what to put here yet, if there are any questions i will probably answer them here for the final sheet.

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