Character Name: Malkai Katalmach
Age: 22
Race: Half-Orc
Chosen School of Magic: Transmutation, Magical Enhancement, Warding Magic
Alignment: Neutral Evil - All that matters is the results.
Appearance:
Malkai bares many ritualistic scars and tattoos on his body that is said to protect him from maligned influences as well as channel his magical energies. Despite having orcish blood he’s rather puny for a half-orc, being only 5’10 and fairly lean. While still muscular due to the labors growing up he lacks his kin’s raw strength, though he makes up for it through his magical augmentation. His faint green skin and piercing red eyes are two telltale signs of his lineage, as he lacks an orc’s signature toothy maw. In fact his teeth are fairly human.
Magical Talents:
Transmutation - One of Malkai’s most favored schools of magic, also known as Alteration in some areas. This magic is about manipulating or altering physical realities, such as turning lead into gold, men into beasts, or otherwise changing physical properties to be greater or less than their original quality. Through this magic Malkai is typically able to offset his perceived physical weakness, as well as overcome many other obstacles others would struggle with. He specifically is attuned for Earth based magical manipulation, capable of turning himself or just parts of his body into stone, shaping stones and even metals with magic, and even creating golems out of rocks.
Magical Enchantment - Well one hears spells such as “Bull’s Strength” or “Fox’s Cunning”, the enchantment they’re thinking of comes from this school. It’s actually a subset of Transmutation which had grown large enough to become it’s own school, this magic is essentially the reason why we have flaming swords and wands of healing. Through this school Malkai is able to channel magic energies into objects, clothing, or weapons to achieve magical effects he otherwise can’t perform himself.
Warding Magic - A fairly new school of magic that Malkai has difficulty getting a handle on, but better than the others. This school is also known as Abjuration, and it pertains to creating protective barriers, armors, shields, and other forms of seals against danger or really anything else the spell is designed for. Sort of a school that Malkai had discovered “on accident” in that during his pursuit into Transmutation and Magical Enchantment, he found the need to have properly set up barriers for his experiment.
Weaknesses:
Evocation - Malkai is much better at shaping raw magic rather than calling it forth. Classic spells such as fireball or even magic missile a bit beyond him, at best failing to be used, or at worse backfiring horribly.
Conjuration - Conversely, summoning creatures or energies from beyond the realm is also a crapshoot for Malkai. More often than not it simply doesn’t work, not even as simple as summoning forth a familiar. This also makes it incredibly difficult for him to make use of spells that could help him deal with issues of encumbrance or transportation.
Personality:
Malkai is a pretender, a liar, and a two-faced deceiver. But the trouble is trying to figure out which side of him is a lie, and how much of it is just the honest truth being told through a mask. Malkai’s true personality is that of a selfish man who has little trouble sacrificing others he doesn’t care about for his own gain, and sees no issue gaming the system in order to achieve great power. To him the means justify the end, or maybe are even the ends of themselves; having always grown up as the “Outcast”, he’d like nothing more than to use disapproved or unexpected methods to compete or even triumph against his enemies.
That being said this is not to say Malkai lacks a heart. While he’s remorselessly sacrifice a stranger, to those he’s grown fond of he can be quite compassionate, perhaps extremely so. To him, the well being of his friends and family is just as important as his own, and thus his actions often has their consideration (Or what he believes is their consideration) in mind. Of course this can make him even more dangerous if he perceives that his beloved ones are in danger, or conceited if he deludes himself into thinking that his actions are approved by the ones he cares about.
Character Flaws:
Malkai is a constant liar, doing it so much that even he can’t tell the difference between his true feelings and an act half the time until it’s too late. He’s so used to pretending and faking his true motives that he feels empty even if he should succeed, since he isn’t sure if he really got what he wanted in the end or if he just played his part well.
In addition to the above, Malkai always has doubts about his abilities. He’s all too aware that he doesn’t specialize in any rare or powerful school of magic, and he does so partially due to his own doubts that he is capable of handling such a power. He’s satisfied with being “Useful” more than he wants to be “Powerful”.
And frankly Malkai is just very petty. Anything could be done to make him into your mortal enemy, where someone else who did the same may not even garner Malkai’s attention (Immediately). It doesn’t matter if you’re a king who accidentally took his sweet roll, or a vagrant who stole his prized possession, he will come after you and ruin you, for better or for worse.
Character History:
“Strength above all else.”
That was the family creed, translated into the common tongue. It was this creed that shaped the Katalmach family, and perhaps their entire people as well. Malkai is the twelfth son of the Thraka Empire, a recently booming nation to the south. Orcs have always been a violent and warlike people, united only through hardships that ravage their lands, and never for long. But it was the Katalmach family and their entire clan that managed to unite a majority of the other tribes together underneath their banner, and crushed any opposition strong enough to resist. They used a combination of their pure might with unheard of ingenuity; through their relationships with foreign human kingdoms, the now Emperor of the Thraka Empire was a half-orc half-human who used his wits and knowledge to completely decimate the formerly savage and strength-based orc clans. And while not all of the south is under their banner, The Thraka Empire is always looking to expand their territories far and wide.
Thus it is little wonder that Malkai himself is a half-orc, the first and only son of the Emperor’s fifth mistress. There were much luxuries given to him as the Emperor’s son, but he was not treated softly. Always believing that only through hardship could strenght be found, the Emperor made it clear that being his first born, or even just his son, did not mean that one was destined for the throne: only those who have earned it through blood, sweat, and tears could earn that prestige. So while Malkai was the twelfth son, he had to compete with the entirety of his nation if he wished to truly become the Emperor. And he didn’t.
Much of Malkai’s childhood consisted of being picked on and bullied by his siblings, other noble children, and even a few of his retainers since among the half-orcs, he was considered quite runty. More human than orc they said, even if he was the last son alive no one would choose someone as weak as he was, they also pointed out. These words stung Malkai deeply, but sure enough they strengthen him into something stronger. Just as his father had intended. At an early age Malkai was fascinated with tales of men who achieved greatness and ascended into gods. He also heard tales of men who gave up their humanity to become fearsome beasts and monsters still remembered to this day. Malkai also knew the value of not just personal strength, but industrial strength. He always was fascinated at the process of creating things, from things as simple as bread to as magnificent as an ironclad warship.
Thus it was no surprise that once he was a boy of seven years age, he chose to train under a shaman. Being a shaman’s apprentice was grueling work; not only was his master a cruel taskmaster, but the the work he did truly tested Malkai’s wits and mettle. Many of his fellow apprentices died believing that brute force could save them. A few could save themselves with muscles alone. But Malkai survived by playing smart, always having an escape route and using his strengths instead of what he wanted to be strong at. Of the fifty who joined the Shaman, Malkai was the only one of four who survive into adulthood. As a Shaman’s Apprentice Malkai also learned the basics of magic, namely Transmutation. He first started with simple stone shaping spells, turning rocks into semi-usable shapes, typically an arrow head or blade. Eventually he learned his first true, signature spell, and from there he simply started to practice more and learn as much as he could.
And learn her did. Malkai was not only one of the few students to survive but thrive under his teacher’s tutelage, enabling him to learn quite a few useful spells. However the Shaman soon kicked Malkai out from his home; he had learned enough of the basics that Malkai ought to be able to handle things himself. He would never learn under the controlled environments of the Shaman’s own home. He needed to explore, see the world, and find other masters to learn from. And so Malkai packed his things and sought out a path, a life, and a world outside of his Empire’s walls.
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