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INFO.
remi d'arbes
of kilnan
• FIRST IMPRESSIONS •
NAME
Remi d'Arbes
AGE
35
HEIGHT
171cm / 5'7"
APPEARANCE
hair: greyish-blond
eyes: light green
build: slender and wiry OCCUPATION the court sorcerer (retired)
pedlar MARITAL STATUS single FAMILY Sister: Ingria d'Arbes-Connelly
Niece: Aurelie Connelly
eyes: light green
build: slender and wiry OCCUPATION the court sorcerer (retired)
pedlar MARITAL STATUS single FAMILY Sister: Ingria d'Arbes-Connelly
Niece: Aurelie Connelly
The former court sorcerer of Kilnan and a venerated war hero turned traitor and a pedlar. A talented sorcerer, Remi refuses for years to be involved in the ongoing war between Kilnan and her neighbouring country of Alskastel, until his little sister, Her Benevolence the High Queen Ingria, threatens to send her ten-year-old daughter to learn the War Magicks. Cornered, Remi agrees to become the court sorcerer, and in his haste to end the war, he ends up accidentally discovering how to cut through spacetime, with something he calls Time Doors.
The knowledge gained means the end of the war and numerous accolades for Remi — who, hating his actions during the war and the fact he has to terminate his entire team of sorcerers to keep the knowledge of Time Doors from spreading, promptly quits his post in court and withdraws to the countryside. However, Ingria persists in her wish to have her daughter become the next court sorcerer, and in desperation, Remi and Aurelie take off one nice day and run away from the capital.
On the run, Remi and his niece travel around Kilnan, Remi earning them money by selling the artefacts he brings back from other worlds. Their plan is to wait until Aurelie is old enough to travel through Remi's doors, and to leave their world behind entirely... if Ingria's soldiers don't find them first.
The knowledge gained means the end of the war and numerous accolades for Remi — who, hating his actions during the war and the fact he has to terminate his entire team of sorcerers to keep the knowledge of Time Doors from spreading, promptly quits his post in court and withdraws to the countryside. However, Ingria persists in her wish to have her daughter become the next court sorcerer, and in desperation, Remi and Aurelie take off one nice day and run away from the capital.
On the run, Remi and his niece travel around Kilnan, Remi earning them money by selling the artefacts he brings back from other worlds. Their plan is to wait until Aurelie is old enough to travel through Remi's doors, and to leave their world behind entirely... if Ingria's soldiers don't find them first.
PERSONALITY
+ tenacious, kind, driven
- brusque, blunt, stubborn
- brusque, blunt, stubborn
ETC.
please lord let this man sleep
• ABILITIES & SKILLS •
SORCERY
In Kilnan, everyone has the capacity to learn magic, but one is usually drawn to a specific type of sorcery, and not everyone is suited to learn everything. Remi's specialisation used to be Cursebreaking, before his parents pushed him into the War Magicks Division upon learning he had an affinity for that.
More specifically, a sorcerer is someone who can touch the wellspring of magic in the world and draw from it to bend it to his will. Due to Remi's training as a war mage and his reluctance to use a weapon to channel the magic, he utilises the magic stored inside of him instead of drawing on the magic out in the world; this leaves him constantly exhausted after using sorcery. On an advanced level, sorcery is non-verbal, so there are no spells that he speaks out or even movements he needs to perform.
His type of sorcery doesn't manipulate the elements, but rather acts on its own: so instead of being able to coax a tree to bend its bough, he'd reach out with his magic and use that magic to bend it externally; or instead of creating fire, his magic on its own would zap out like a spark, hot enough to light a candle. Some other examples: his magic can levitate items and people, cool or warm the air, and make items perform tasks such as a hammer hammering a nail on its own, a needle performing sewing on its own, a pan moving on the stove, etc.
More specifically, a sorcerer is someone who can touch the wellspring of magic in the world and draw from it to bend it to his will. Due to Remi's training as a war mage and his reluctance to use a weapon to channel the magic, he utilises the magic stored inside of him instead of drawing on the magic out in the world; this leaves him constantly exhausted after using sorcery. On an advanced level, sorcery is non-verbal, so there are no spells that he speaks out or even movements he needs to perform.
His type of sorcery doesn't manipulate the elements, but rather acts on its own: so instead of being able to coax a tree to bend its bough, he'd reach out with his magic and use that magic to bend it externally; or instead of creating fire, his magic on its own would zap out like a spark, hot enough to light a candle. Some other examples: his magic can levitate items and people, cool or warm the air, and make items perform tasks such as a hammer hammering a nail on its own, a needle performing sewing on its own, a pan moving on the stove, etc.
WAR MAGICKS
War Magicks is a highly specialised field of magic that is used in combat. It manifests in mostly non-verbal spellwork that is often used in conjunction with traditional weapons. Remi, however, refused to learn the use of any weapon, and instead insisted on drawing on his considerable reserves of magic to reach into it and use the energy alone to fight. This had two consequences: earning him recognition for this unusual method, and, far more concrete, resulting in all of his magic turning inwards and using his own energy instead of the energy around him. This, in turn, makes him exceedingly tired, and he feels not unlike functioning on a severe sleep deficit every day.
TIME DOORS
During the war, Remi searches for a way to use his magic to bring a swift end to all the fighting, and eventually ends up inventing a spell that cuts a door in space-time. He can only cut a door to the adjacent "realm" — to go further, he has to cut multiple doors in succession, each drawing more and more magical energy from him. He utilises two Time Doors in particular: one to an underwater realm called Xrisora, and another to a steampunk city called Braccia.
• APPEARANCE & PERSONALITY •
From his looks alone, one might consider Remi an entirely normal citizen — he is of an average build, slender and wiry, but tends to wear oversized shirts and coats with hoods that make him look bulkier than he is, but also make him look outright sloppy. His hair looks sleep-tousled, and he has a permanent case of dark under-eyes.Upon first impression, Remi often looks like he is bored with his surroundings, not wasting time on small talk or pleasantries when meeting someone new — and as a consequence, many think him unfriendly, even somewhat unapproachable. Part of this is true: he is blunt with his words, has always been, not seeing the point in the endless expanse of courtly manners, preferring instead to put his worst foot forward, to say things as they are, or make himself as annoying as possible, with wordplay and blunt banter and always striving for the last word in any conversation. After all, that is how you see the truth in others: not in how they respond to you at your best, but rather at your worst.
However, underneath the brusque, almost cynical demeanour, there's a wry sense of humour, and a kindness that doesn't discriminate. In his heart, Remi is predisposed towards helping others, something instilled in him since his first days in the Institute: as a cursebreaker, Remi's entire focus in sorcery was always in helping others, alleviating people's suffering or terminating that suffering entirely, if it was in his power. Rather than believing in one person being able to make a change for everyone, he believes in small acts, deeds done to help people's everyday lives... at least he does so until the war effort is forced on him.
The way he throws himself into trying to end the war through a kind of sorcery that no one has even attempted before speaks for his drive and determination, but also for stubbornness and single-mindedness to almost an unhealthy degree, his focus on the goal pushing him to let go of his strict moral code in his haste to find a solution. He hates the war, hates the idea of taking lives when he believes all magic should be used to save lives, not end them — and yet, he doesn't learn the lesson of "the end doesn't justify the means" until it is far too late.
As a result, the kindness and openness Remi showed before the war is buried deeply under mountains and mountains of guilt and resentment, disillusionment with not just the world but most of all himself taking over and pushing him into isolation in the countryside, believing himself unfit to use his sorcery to even try and help people. After all, after inventing a spell that should never have been invented, after being forced to kill his closest friends to protect that spell — well, what's he good for, anymore?
It isn't until his niece, Aurelie, asks for his help that he is drawn out of his self-imposed exile and pushed right into another, the life of a fugitive — but Aurelie's presence in his life starts to chip away at that mountain of negative emotions slowly but surely; through her, he starts to find another purpose in life and realise that there might still be a way for him to atone for everything he's done, by using the Time Doors for good, this time, to help people in the Kilnese countryside.
• SETTING •
Kilnan is a small, prospering inland country, bordered by the larger nation of Alskastel on one side, and the kingdom of Brheann on the other. The capital of Kilnan, Hellecourt, is the most advanced city in the country, with beautifully straight cobbled roads, enchanted carriages, and tall, colourful buildings made of stone and metal and magic, with large, rounded towers and plenty of windows to let in natural light. There are parks and even a lake in the middle of the city, and near the palace stands the Institute, the most prestigious academy for sorcery in the entire continent.The rest of the country is not quite so grand, however — most Kilnese cities and towns are small, with winding roads often built near the many rivers that criss-cross the land, the buildings most often made of wood, two stories high at most, their outside bright in colour and decorated with a distinctive wood paneling.
• HISTORY •
Remi d'Arbes is born as the eldest child of the d'Arbes royal family, and shows signs of magical aptitude almost immediately. Two years later, his sister Ingria is born, and the two grow up playing and learning together. When they are tested for their innate talent in sorcery, Remi's is off the charts while Ingria's is not, and so their parents make the call: Ingria is declared the official heir to the throne, while Remi will be sent to the Institute, in order to learn sorcery and become the court sorcerer and his sister's personal bodyguard. After all, Kilnan has been at war with Alskastel since Remi was five years old, and the line of succession must be secured.At first, all goes well: Remi thrives in the Institute, as much as his sister thrives in her political lessons. He quickly finds that he has a particular aptitude for recognising and breaking curses — at least until one particular curse rebounds and he counters it with an instinctive offensive spell that shatters the curse entirely. After that, his parents promptly enroll him in the highly specialised War Magics Division, despite the fact that Remi has been outspoken about his pacifist ideas and outright distaste for warfare. But his parents are not simply his parents but also the monarchs of the country, and so he must do as he is told... and so, reluctantly, Remi learns how to wield his magic as a tool in battle, though he staunchly refuses to combine his sorcery with weapons as most other sorcerers do.
When Remi is 20 years old, his mother, herself a member of the War Magicks Division, dies on the battlefield, and his father is assassinated mere months after, leaving Ingria to take the throne at the age of 18. She is determined to avenge their parents, and to gain more funding and supplies for their much smaller country, she marries Duke Willem Connelly, second cousin to the prince of Brheann, and she is soon expecting a child. Only, both her and the Duke are cursed by an Alskastelian sorcerer — Remi manages to break the curse on his sister, saving both her and the baby, but his magic reserves aren't enough to save the Duke. The reason becomes apparent as Aurelie is born: she has absorbed some of his magic, giving her the same magical aptitudes as he has.
Years pass, and Remi keeps refusing to enter the battlefield, or even take the official position of the court sorcerer. Instead, he does research at the Institute, under the title "royal advisor" — until finally, when Aurelie turns 10, Ingria tells him that she intends to send her to the War Magicks Division to learn how to fight, if he refuses to do that fighting for her. Unwilling to see the child made into a soldier, Remi finally relents and takes command of the warfront effort as the court sorcerer.
Determined to end the war as soon as possible, he throws himself, along with his team of the five best sorcerers in the country — all of whom are his close friends — into research for how to find a method suitable for ending the war with minimal casualties. In the end, he finds that by concentrating enough of his magical energy into one single point, something he calls "a seam in reality," he can open a door into another dimension. This is then dubbed as the Time Door Theory, something he utilises successfully for the first time when he creates a door into the neighbouring dimension of Xrisora, an underwater realm with multiple fish-like races living under the ocean that covers the entire planet. While Xrisora proves the theory correct, it is his second attempt that proves its utility for the war effort: Braccia, a steampunk city, possesses weapons unlike any seen on the Continent, and while Remi believes the mere threat of such weaponry should be enough to bring the war to an end, Ingria does not agree — and with the help of Remi's sorcerer team, colloquially referred to as The Five, the war finally ends with airships dropping ten bombs on the capital of Alskastel.
That, more than anything else, makes Remi realise just how dangerous the Time Doors are, and how horrifying the knowledge of them could be in the wrong hands. And so, after weighing all the possibilities and ending up with just one, he does what he has to: kills The Five, so that they can never spread or misuse the Time Doors again. After that, he is the only one left with both the theoretical knowledge and the magical power to open them. Ironically, with the others gone, all of the glory for the win in the war goes to Remi, who is awarded several medals of honour — but he stuffs them all in his drawer, never to be looked at again, quits his post as the court sorcerer, and withdraws to the countryside, refusing to use his magic for anything else than regular household chores and small matters.
Three years later, he receives a letter from his niece, telling him that she is to be sent to the Institute, to learn the War Magicks and prepare to become the court sorcerer officially; the letter insinuates that Ingria, not satisfied with the provinces on the Kilnan-Alskastel border that the crown gained in the peace negotiations, means for open war again. Aurelie pleads for his help so that she can avoid it. He returns to the palace, tries to argue with Ingria, but that gets him nowhere — and so, him and Aurelie pack their bags and leave Hellecourt. Remi is immediately branded both a traitor and charged with kidnapping, becoming a wanted criminal. However, in the remote countryside, he is not so easily recognised, and so him and Aurelie travel from town to town, with Remi using the Time Door to Xrisora to barter for items that he can sell to people. It isn't a comfortable life, but it is a life away from the palace and the Institute, and that's better than nothing. Aurelie is 16, now, and under Remi's careful tutelage, once she turns 18, she will be strong enough to withstand traveling through a Time Door — at least, that is the plan.