Name: Reates Saerne.
Alias: The Cheshire; Graph; Anomaly; and of course The Vanishing Butterfly.
Nicknames: Ates, Erne, “You madman,” “That crazy professor,” and other
endearing monikers.
Age: 96.
Apparent Age: 36.
Species: Human.
Relations: Champions of the Enlightened and the following:
Peskay Genno: Reates met this intriguing, but somewhat odd, fellow in a bar a few months back. Since then he and Genno have accompanied one another on several hunting excursions, if you will. He stays in contact with the man for both of their sakes and since they met Reates has acted as a sort of go between for Genno and the Academy, the middle man if you will. The two get along well, though Reates can get along with most, and could be considered friends. However, Reates doesn't know too much about Genno just like no one knows much about Reates or his personal life...for the most part. Lately Reates has noticed that if a certain Kasuto or the Champions of the Enlightened are mentioned, Genno will tend to go absolutely silent, or trail off mid-sentence. Reates has also noted some odd things in regards to Genno's essence when in combat without his glasses on. Granted, he has been unable to understand what it is he is seeing and as such has more or less dismissed Genno as a unique type of chimera.
Kasuto: Reates, while not having met Kasuto in person, has had light dealings with him and his organization. He is intensely interested with the man and his followers. In fact he has a particular interest in the island that Kasuto's organization uses as its base of operations as it is rumored to possess an abnormal amount of aberrations on it. Additionally, Reates has long since realized that Kasuto does not seem to age past his thirties or forties, though he is not sure why, he is determined to figure it out as he believes that the man may have discovered a method to immortality, something he himself is seeking.
Hazumi: Essentially only aware of one another in passing, Reates does not tend to keep Hazumi as company. However, he does find her rather intriguing due to the fact that he can see the many
many different energy signatures, which make her up. He finds her intensely pleasing to look upon, but has, as of yet, not made any obvious attempts to garner her attention in any meaningful way.
Lily Qarin: As the principal of the Academy she is obviously aware of Reates presence and mannerisms. Their relationship is decent at best as while Reates is generally fairly easy to get along with she tends to be more reserved in her tendencies meaning their personalities don't mesh all that well. Nonetheless she allows the majority of his antics as long that they have some express purpose and are primarily aimed at the betterment of the Academy's students, and perhaps even staff.
Abstractis: His...
pet swarm of sentient butterflies, Abstractis, or rather Abstractis Imperialis Veritisi as is its full name, is an anomalous being who can essentially perfectly camouflage itself. Abstractis is essentially always with Reates in some manner, though most are never aware of its presence due to its ability to make itself essentially invisible and beyond the almost entirely beyond the sense. Abstractis enjoys Reates company, though it often remind Reates that some of his activities and intentions are ridiculous in nature.
Additional Appearance Info: Reates stands at 5'11 with a hardy, but not overly muscular, build. He is considerably strong, but not abnormally so. He almost always wears a wry grin on his face accompanied by an mischievous, and amused, glint in his eyes. He walks with an enigmatic air of self confidence.
General Activity – Professor and Hunter: Reates is effectively a teacher and a hunter of renegades, criminals, and aberrations. He studies aberrations, and apprehends or kills renegades or criminals that he comes into contact with. Sometimes he will even take mercenary-esque jobs, or assignments from the Academy itself, to take out specific individuals.
Personality: An eccentric of magnificent proportions, Reates has the tendency to gesticulate quite expressively as well as using terminology and other such figures of speech that will fly over most people's heads like wind around a moving object of any manner, or you know...birds and flying mammals like bats. He is generally cheerful and tends to display an almost disproportionate enjoyment of people's company despite their personality traits with few exceptions. In fact the more abrasive the personality the more fun he tends to have when confusing and generally bothering them with his incredibly, and somewhat intentionally, heavy irish accent and outlandish use of references –often referring to personal experiences and inside jokes that no one would get unless they'd been there.
Reates is, on top of being excessively, and almost obnoxiously eccentric, a decidedly enjoyable manipulator. However, unlike most manipulative individuals, Reates does not generally use his manipulative abilities to harm other people unless it becomes entirely necessary. In fact, most of these traits are used to figure people out. Sort of an indirect psychoanalysis of people's habits and internal mechanisms, allowing him to easily understand people through how they react to his actions, some which may seem entirely random. Aside from this Reates can be described as a good humored individual, both in terms of comical statements, and in terms of his general outlook on life and behavior.
While hardly a facade, Reates, in private, is more often prone to an odd mixture of seriousness and amusement wherein he displays a distinct habit of talking to himself or his pet(s) Abtractis Imperium Veritisi. While Reates is indeed incredibly intelligent he can, at some times, be quite forgetful and oddly it appears that he forgets things almost on purpose. When asked about such he generally confirms that he can force himself to forgets things by more or less losing focus on said thing for a certain duration of time. Others who have tried to replicate said behavior typically fail, suggesting that in some way he is lying about the execution of said process, or is in fact just fucking with people to begin with, which is also quite likely.
Reates is generally beyond angering and will remain calm in almost any situation due to his excessive practice in doing just that, not to mention his Renegade hunting tendencies. Reates has a tendency to feel sympathy, or even empathy for those who have lost one or more loved ones quite dear to them, especially to illness or other unnatural means. When it comes to the three other races Reates has essentially no particular bias towards any of them. He believes that humans, demons, angels, and chimera are inherently equal in nature, and should learn to get along. In fact while he tends to endorse personal freedom and individuality he does advocate for the improvement and maintenance of the current governmental structure that has been established.
Any further information shall be apparent IC as if I keep going this will become exhaustive for other's to read.
Biography: His mother dying at the time of his birth, Reates was largely taken care of by his uncle as his father, Varen Saerne had been badly, and permanently, disabled in the purifying war led by the nephilim many years before his son's conception. As such his fairly eccentric, and exceptionally rich, uncle brought him up, teaching him the ways of his trade and eventually passing on to him the famous Art of Athriohm. However, this is not to say that his childhood has little bearing on the man he has become for while his interactions with his father were few and far between they left a deep impact on him to this day.
His father, formerly an army conscripted mage and Practitioner of the Art, was afflicted with a rare disease caused by the body's rejection of foreign essence. This disease, known as the Waxing death, kept him bedridden, but ironically prolonged his life considerably, as it does to all its victims. This illness is typically one which inflicts human-angel hybrids, or rather gray angels. It is the result of the body's incompatibility with demonic essence, so instead of the victim become a chimera they are rendered essentially immobile as the essence propagates itself endlessly throughout their body, giving them a lifespan closer in length to that of a demon's while simultaneously rendering them more or less inert from the incredibly painful process and continual rejection by their immune system and the essence of their body.
As such Reates father was often unable to properly communicate with him physically. However, due to his guardian angel heritage he eventually fostered a bond with his son that was strong enough that it allowed the pained man to communicate telepathically. It later became apparent that he had also been able to do this with his mother and uncle as well, explaining why his caretaker often visited the man and simply stood there silently staring at the bed and its occupant.
When he was able, Varen told his son stories, often from his life, that were to teach him lessons. Overall his father was a kind loving man, though certainly a tortured soul by the time he finally expired at the age of one hundred and thirty. Despite being twenty six, Reates was changed by his father's death and while his generally cheerful personality remained, something else took root in him. He was happy that his father's suffering was over, the man's soul deserved to rest in the void, but...part of him was not satisfied by this. He didn't want to accept that fate had simply allowed such a wonderful man as his father to suffer for so long and without great cause or reason. It was unfair.
This eventually led to some rather questionable projects, which Reates took up first in the interest of increasing the abilities of the medical field even further through magic, and escalated to outright experimentation with life. Still throughout Reates remained resolute to solve the issue, find a cure for illnesses such as the Waxing death. No one else should have to suffer such a fate and even fewer should have to watch their loved ones slowly wither away in both body and mind. Still what he was doing was taboo for Practitioner's of the Art were not meant to experiment with life, for it was the realm of the divine to play with such forces.
It was thought by the Masters of the Order of Anriohm that to tamper with life was to play a god, and that eventually it was bound to corrupt. In some ways he was right, but in no way did the young Practitioner believe him and so his experiments continued. As they escalated Reates' uncle became more and more suspicious of his nephew's behavior. He had almost become a recluse, though he did go out here and there to hang out with friends or acquire new materials for his studies.
When the boy was gone he would often check in his study and lab to see if there was any residual essence that told of activities that a Practitioner ought not to partake in. Every search failed...until one night Reates, having driven himself into a somewhat manic state, stormed out of the house and forgot to replace the myriad seals that kept his true work place away from prying eyes. Nathan, his uncle, thus found himself walking through something of a portal, or rather an advanced arrangement of matrices, which connected two locations through some very powerful magic.
While Nathan had surely practiced and mastered some rather outlandish forms of magic in his day, what he found past the gateway nearly drove him to retching, after which it almost caused a mental breakdown. Rattled, but now having prepared himself the man rose back to his feet, having fallen to his knees, and looked upon his nephew's workshop once more.
Arranged and ingrained into the walls of the large chamber were a multitude of cages, some empty, others occupied by various types of creatures –some of which he recognized only from books, which cataloged beasts from the plane of hell. However, most disturbing were the wide variety of widely varied Aberrations. He had seen several on field expeditions, but never more than one at a time. Here however, there were at least fifty or so unique specimens. The specimen on their own were not however the problem, rather it was the lingering essence within.
The essence told a gruesome tale of pain...suffering, and biological transmutation. Deeply disturbed by his findings, Nathan left the chamber and decided to initially say nothing of his finding, instead doing his best to close to gateway so that Reates would not realize he had left it open. He loved Reates, he'd raised the boy as he would have his own son and so while his beliefs contradicted those of his nephews and he knew that in all rights he was supposed to report him to the Masters, he could not. Instead, after mulling it over for some time, he made preparations to confront his nephew.
After several days of weaving wards and creating various protective artifacts, Nathan confronted Reates, revealing his knowledge on the younger man's experiments. Reates reacted with force, attempting to bind his uncle, but not to wound him. After an exchange of magical might and a string of his uncle's best attempts to calm him down, Reates eventually gave his last close relative a chance to speak. He was grateful that he heard him out for it seemed that the older man, now having hit roughly the same age as his older brother, Varen, his life prolonged through magical means, intended to help his nephew rather than hinder him.
Nathan planned to take the fall for Reates, something he would have never asked Nathan to do. The mage was left speechless at Nathan's willingness to sacrifice himself for him and so he initially declined. However, Nathan insisted and so the two concocted a rather elaborate plan.
Reates was to notify the Masters of his own activity, but instead call it Nathan's whereas Nathan was to, for a few weeks prior, participate with Reates in his experiments, tainting his own essence and the chamber itself with his essence so as to misconstrue the Masters as to the perpetrator of the heretical procedures. On the surface it appeared simple, but in truth it was a quite complex scheme as the Masters were sure to realize that they had been tricked, so Reates and Nathan would have to continue to uphold the charade to some extent, with Reates revoking his vows before the Masters out of shame for his uncle and an unwillingness to continue his craft due to the man's dishonorable actions.
It would appear to them that the boy was taking the fall so as to save himself from the possibility of corruption in the future, while in truth he would only be revoking vows that he had long undone through his own ministrations. In this way he would disappear off their radar entirely, making it appear as if he eventually died of natural causes whereas his uncle would be purified of his abilities and laid to rest. His name, or the name of their family, would not however be dishonored as theirs was the lineage which originated from the great Vaihrn Katela, who eventually changed his name to Saerne in an effort to isolate himself from his former family.
Their operation went almost perfectly, in fact the only variable they were unable to deal with was how Reates was to save his research. However, Reates himself managed to do just that by creating a secondary lab with more or less identical creatures. The speed at which he worked to do so was impressive and so it was ready when necessary. As such the Masters never managed to truly destroy his work, though Nathan knew nothing of this and truly thought that Reates had abandoned the order in an attempt to honor his death.
He was wrong. To Reates the necessity that his uncle must die for his alleged crimes against the Order of Anriohm was evidence that the order itself was an outdated relic, a belief he had fostered for quite sometime. Now that belief had been justified.
Driven by the death of his uncle, Reates began to make preparations to one day wrest the Order from its hinges and cast it out of the world entirely. This goal was one he knew he would have to spend much of his life to reach, so in the interest of such the man began to break even more of his forsaken vows as he began the quest for immortality. At first he made little progress, but eventually he found a way to at least prolong his own life, a technique that many a Practitioner had used throughout the ages.
With this he essentially ceased aging around the time of his 36th birthday. From that day on he continued his experiments, making sure not to forget why he had started them, while he added to his repertoire and began attempting to essentially transplant anomalous properties between entities. He has been studying this and methods to treat formerly untreatable illnesses, both biological and magical in nature.
So far he has succeeded in finding a cure for the Waxing Death and several other more minor, less severe illnesses. He has been duly compensated for his contribution to magical medicine, though he doesn't tend to flaunt such achievements. In the last 60 years Reates activities have been notable in two fields. The first of these is his extensive research into aberrations and anomalous artifacts. He has successfully been able to replicate the properties of several minor and rather useless anomalous artifacts and his demonstrated such in several conferences. He has still been entirely unable to synthesize, replicate, or transplant the anomalous properties of Aberrations, much to his chagrin. The other half of his activities have been focused in gaining himself a masters degree in teaching and also the hunting and capturing of Renegades. He has worked closely with the Champions of the Enlightened and Master Melody's Academy for the Fine Arts. In the last five years Reates has served as a professor at the aforementioned academy, teaching three separate classes to the students of the Academy.
His activities and the growing knowledge of his name has begun to alert the Order of Anriohm to the likelihood that he is not only alive, but still very much a magic user. This is something he is painfully aware of and is working on. One can only hope that his plans in regards to the Masters have come a long way since their conception.
In regards to his reputation among the Academy's students he is often called the school's local eccentric. While he is well known for his rather strange mannerisms and behavior, he is also known for his general patience and willingness to help, rather than hinder, any given student's learning process. He has even gone out of his way to assist select students in the interest of achieving their goals. While some would call this favoritism it is more that most students don't directly request his help and so more often than not don't receive it, likely because they're boring or just downright afraid of him anyways.
Miscellaneous: Reates has a distinct interest in japanese culture due to their extensive legends on demons in ancient times. He also finds some of their media to be quite tasteful. He has the tendency to hum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmgvERIJ-DQthis song[/I], for example. He is also quite interested in his own Irish heritage and the Gaelic, and Celtic myths and folktales related to such. He can even play a decent fiddle.
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