Ozzy

For the "LivingDeadman" Account

Character Name: Ozymandias Augustus Aldren, nicknamed "Ozzy"

Race: Half-Elf

Age: 34

Gender: Male

Character Description: Ozzy stands at 6’6 with a lithe build, pale skin and green eyes. He has long brown hair, pushed backwards away from his face with a few odd dreads formed into the side. He has a slight chinstrap beard, becoming a goatee at his chin but no mustache. If it weren’t for his pointed ears, he could easily be mistaken for a tall, thin human. He normally wears standard, baggy brown robes. He has a few tattoos along his body, mainly some intricate designs along his right arm. He has large, round piercings in each ear.

Character Occupation: Traveler, Medic for Hire

Character Personality/Traits:

Ozzy is very easy going and lighthearted. He tries to see the good in things, even if it’s not there. He’s very forgetful, often calling people or things by the wrong name. While he’s not too smart, he often offers surprising wisdom now and then. He has a good bit of knowledge, but his forgetfulness makes it appear otherwise. He tends to remember things in actions rather than words and titles, so even when he is knowledgeable on something he can find it hard to convey that knowledge.

He has a viewpoint that would normally be quite nihilistic for most. He has come to the conclusion that everything is meaningless. One day, he will die, as will everyone he knows. And then one day, everyone who has any memory of them will die. No matter how much he accomplishes, even if he were to become a King, one day he would pass and so would every trace of him, and the same goes for everyone. Rather than struggling against this existence, he finds comfort in it. He is optimistic even. Rather than thinking ‘nothing I accomplish will matter’ he instead thinks ‘none of my mistakes will be remembered’ and finds that calming. He can live his life as he wants without fearing death, because no matter what it will come regardless. Despite this, he places a high value on life in general. While eventually everything must die, it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t care. He tries to help people wherever he can, even if most would think they don’t deserve it.

He is a worshiper of Aderoth and partially Demosto as well. He sees life as a mere passing ground for souls, as even those who live for thousands of years will be dead far longer than they will be alive. Whether they end up in Heaven, Hell or with their soul itself erased, it's all the same in the end. He has taken a vow, not to any person or god, but to himself, to never purposely harm another.

Character Biography:

Ozzy was born to a human mother with an unknown father. His mother claimed that his father was a Noble High-Elf Lord, that he even loved her and was to bring them both into his family, but tragically died fighting in the Pact War. None believed her story as she was just a human, a common nurse, magicless even. She was even believed to be crazy by some. She kept telling the story to Ozzy though, and told him how his father’s family would eventually accept them and pull them out of poverty into a life of prosperity. Ozzy was always happy to hear her stories and wished he had gotten to meet his father. While he dreamed of that magical day his mother always told him would come, he was not bothered about being poor nearly as much as she was. From a young age, she taught him the basic medical skills of a nurse. She didn’t seem too knowledgeable on other things, so it was all she had to pass down to him. As years went by, his mother became more and more unhinged and obsessed with her idea that his father’s family would ‘save’ them. She became increasingly delusional, and Ozzy began to even fear for her at times. One day, she simply wouldn’t get out of bed. She wouldn’t even move.

The doctors said it was some kind of brain trauma, suffered long ago. It was the cause of her erratic behavior and eventually her death. Ozzy came to realize that everyone was right. His father likely wasn’t any of the things she claimed, and he’d never know who he was. With nowhere to go, Ozzy was moved into an Orphanage at 14. He was often made fun of for his crazy mother, and for his seeming lack of wit. He felt like he was understanding the lessons, but his teachers always seemed to get upset over his strange, minor mistakes. He would write down ‘Pack War’ instead of Pact War and similar things, they told him he wasn’t taking it seriously. He was told he had to find a job by the Headmaster, so that he could make money to repay the Orphanage for its kindness. It made sense to young Ozzy, but it was obviously a lie. The Headmaster convinced many of the dumber kids that this was normal, secretly profiting off of his strange scam. He was eventually caught, and it was revealed he was even paying off Matrons and other workers to keep quiet about it. The situation caused a huge upset and the closure of the orphanage, with only the youngest kids being moved elsewhere. As for Ozzy, he was 16 and homeless now.

He started to become bitter. He cursed the Headmaster who had slowly stolen from him all the money he’d worked for. He cursed his crazy mother for pulling him into her lies. He cursed his unknown father for abandoning him. He was eventually fired from his job, and he began stealing to get by. After getting caught and beaten, he found himself in the hospital. It was a familiar place, he remembered joining his mother at work now and then as a child. An elderly dwarf saw to his injuries. The dwarf was Gorin, a man who had worked as a healer since before the Pact War. He told Ozzy that he was a good friend of his mother’s, her mentor even, and that she would not be happy about this path he was going down. Ozzy sneered, letting him know he cared little what his insane mother thought. Gorin told him to mind his tongue, and that he had no idea the truth of the matter. After enough prodding, Ozzy convinced him to explain.

Gorin told him that his mother knew exactly who his father was. Her stories were not born of her declining mental state, at least not originally, but to protect Ozzy. During the Pact War Mercenaries were much more common, the better of them even treated like heroes in the desperate times. A well known band returned after a battle to have their wounded treated. They refused to stay in the hospital, paying nurses and healers to instead come to them, often harassing them while they were there. Gorin and his mother made several trips out there together, and while he disliked them it was his duty to get them back to good health. They called upon Ozzy’s Mother for one last check-up before they would be leaving again, but she did not return for a full day. When she did, she returned to Gorin beaten, her clothes torn. It was obvious to him what had happened, but she stopped him from getting the Guards.

“Let them die in battle, at the hands of a Demon rather than by a noose. That will be their punishment, throwing their lives away working to win us freedom.” She said. It pained him, but Gorin kept their awful secret. Whether she believed her own words or she was simply too afraid to let anyone else know what happened, he was unsure. But it was not his decision to make. She soon began showing signs of pregnancy, and intended to keep the child despite everything. Once Ozzy was born, Gorin immediately knew who his father was. Among the Mercenaries they were treating, only one was a High-Elf. He was known simply as Varus. Ozzy’s mother told him stories of a great, honorable father to hide the ugly truth from him. But the physical and mental trauma she received that night slowly ate away at her. As she lost her mind she also lost the line between fiction and reality, falling into her own story. Ozzy felt enraged by the Gorin’s revelation, filled with hatred for himself for hating his mother, for what he was. Gorin told him to let go of his hate, that Varus was likely long dead anyways.

Gorin became Ozzy’s mentor, as he had for his mother. He guided him down the path of a healer, teaching him of Holy Magic and medicine. Ozzy became a nurse and a holy mage, trying to make his mother proud. Gorin also taught him Dwarven, as well as many other things. He lived a long life, nearing 170 years old, and had much knowledge to pass on. But something happened that shook their new peaceful life. One day, a High-Elven man was admitted to the hospital, gravely injured during work with the Knight’s Order. Gorin recognized the long, dark hair of the bastard. Varus. After the treatment was done, Ozzy finally learned the name of the patient and began to put the pieces together as he recognized their shared features. He was outraged. Gorin had just saved the life of the man who raped his mother and caused her death, and he made him help. Gorin had to hold him back from charging back into Varus’s room.

“We are healers, not executioners, and certainly not killers! I hate him just as much as you, but what happened is far too long ago to bring forward any proof! He is a proper soldier now... perhaps he has even changed. Or perhaps not. But his death would not bring you any peace, nor your mother. Like she said, let him die in battle. Make him shed his blood fighting for us!” Ozzy shoved Gorin away, storming off. He couldn’t just let him get away with what he’d done, give him the chance to go out and do it again. He knew his mother surely must have wanted his death, she just never expected he would survive the Pact War. He wouldn't let him get away with it. That night he snuck back into the hospital, fashioning a poison from the various medicines and injecting it into his ‘father.’ He had come here on death’s door, everyone would assume he just didn’t make it.

At least Ozzy thought so. But after inspecting his body the Guard found the truth. His wounds had been mended just fine, but he had been poisoned. Only two people had the key to his room, Ozzy and Gorin. When they were confronted, Gorin gave a heavy sigh and said he had done it. He was an old man, far older than most Dwarves could ever hope to become, and Ozzy was just a boy. He gave a bullshit excuse about hating High-Elves like a typical Dwarf, and while it didn’t entirely make sense it made more sense than the young Half-Elf assistant killing Varus for no discernable reason. The reason didn’t matter much anyways. Gorin had confessed to murder, and he was hanged. Ozzy watched helplessly as the stubborn Dwarf’s body flailed from the rope for his mistakes.

The fate his father should have had.

Ozzy didn’t know what to do with himself after that. He resigned from the hospital, it reminded him too much of all the bad things surrounding it. He became a wandering Field Medic, joining various travelling groups who needed healers. He wanted to redeem his sins, or at least die in battle trying. He picked up some basic combat skills along the way, but his skills as a healer seemed like they were slipping away from him. Without Gorin, he felt useless, like he was never good enough. He watched people get hurt because he wasn't a good enough fighter, and watched people die because he wasn’t a good enough medic, adding to the overwhelming weight of his sins. He rapidly began to break down, and had a full panic attack during one of his missions. He ran from his camp to the ruins of a fort that was nearby, flailing and screaming on the ground as he felt himself drowning in his unforgivable mistakes.

“What is troubling you?” A voice asked calmly, almost disinterested. Nearby, perched on a destroyed wall was a member of the mercenary group, an ex-Monk Ca’Liar. He was a loner, and Ozzy just happened to run off to his look-out spot. The presence of another only just barely lifted Ozzy’s mind from the pit of despair, and he gave in. He confessed his sins to the stranger, unable to hold it in any longer. He didn't care if he was arrested or hanged, or if he was killed right here in these ruins. But the Ca’Liar gave a simple nod, like he didn’t even care. Ozzy questioned how he could be so relaxed about it, had he done even worse? If so, how was he able to live with himself?

“Have I done worse? Matter of opinion, I suppose. But that is not the reason for my indifference. Look around at these ruins. Once a great castle. Do you know its name? Do you know those who slaved away building it? Those who destroyed it? Do you even know who its ruler was?” He asked. Ozzy shook his head. “It was once great and mighty, now is nothing more than rocks. Even the greatest of villains come and go, even your great Pact War shall one day lose its hatred and be forgotten. So in the scale of it all, how bad can we be? How long can our meager sins possibly be remembered by the world?” Ozzy stared up at the man, thinking over his words. His head fell back, and he laid flat looking at the sky. He thought about... everything. The Frol, as mighty as they were, had come and gone. The Pact War, as terrible as it was, had come and gone. The rulers of the old kingdoms destroyed were now long forgotten, and eventually even Barkamsted would fall one day. Even the demons that lived thousands and thousands of years would eventually find themselves slain and forgotten.

He realized how little he mattered, and he felt... free. He didn’t stop caring about what he’d done, but it was now just a gentle sorrow instead of a gnawing, aching pain that refused to stop. He sat up in those ruins all night just thinking, and eventually came out feeling like an entirely different person. He felt almost blissfully empty, but he still wanted to do good. He made a quick decision, not bothering to think it over at all. He decided he would only help people from then on and not harm a living creature ever again. The weight of such a task would normally be monumental, but he vowed it to himself easily. Whether it worked out or not, whether it was a good or bad idea, whether he failed, even if it got him killed, in the end it didn’t matter. He, along with all his good deeds and mistakes, would eventually fade away to history. So he had nothing to worry about.

Other/Extra:

Languages: Common, Elvish and Dwarvish.

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- Magic -

Magic Biography:

Ozzy was taught Holy Magic by his mentor Gorin, and he used it many times during his work with him at the hospital to heal people. It was his main strength, while he had other medical training Gorin was always far superior thanks to his old age, so most of the time Ozzy’s job was to offer what blessings he could to those with less severe injuries. After Gorin’s death however, his trinket was taken by the kingdom, leaving Ozzy without his main way of healing.

This caused lots of trouble for him as a Battle-Medic, and made him second rate compared to any holy mages in his same line of work. Worse yet, it weighed on him as his patients were lost when they could’ve lived if he just had a trinket to use. For a time, he gave up on Holy Magic, believing himself unworthy to Aderoth. He felt as though he had killed everyone that he couldn’t save, owing it all back to his mistake that cost Gorin his life.

After his ‘rebirth’ however, he looks forward to trying Holy Magic again to help people. Instead of searching for all-encompassing redemption like he had before, he simply accepts his limits and wishes to help where he can. With his new vow he was less ‘Battle-Medic’ and more just ‘Medic.’ He also has an interest in Alteration Magic, as a simple scan could’ve saved his mother’s life if someone had just seen the damage in her head.

Please describe the magic system, including its limitations in your own words:

To cast Magic, you need multiple things

Bothimir's Gift - Without Bothimir's Gift, a character simply cannot perform magic outside of witchcraft or other outlying methods. A character must be born with Bothimir's Gift, they can't obtain it later in life through any known means.

Training - In order to cast magic, a character has to train with it. Mage Characters can cast magic at Weak level to start and must train using the system over time to obtain stronger magic in their desired aspects.

Trinkets - Aside from a few natural-caster races, characters require Trinkets to cast magic of any kind. To cast a type of magic, you need a Trinket of that aspect. Your Trinket also determines how strong you can cast up to, even if you are a Strong Fire Mage with a Medium Trinket you can only cast up to Medium, and try to cast anything higher could cause the trinket to overload and/or explode.

Aspects - While magic up to Medium level in each aspect is possible, characters have only a few specific Aspects they can train beyond Medium. Their number of Aspects depends on their race. Also, a character cannot cast both Holy and Dark Magic of any kind, they can only be blessed with one of the two.

Drain - Casting takes a toll on the body and mind. Mages can only cast so much depending on their level in the caster aspect. They can cast at their strongest level up to 5 times, their 2nd strongest up to 10, 3rd strongest up to 20 and so on. This doesn't mean they can cast Wondrous 5 times, Powerful 10 times and then Stronger 20 times, the drain carries over meaning that casting their strongest level magic would use up double their 2nd strongest and so on. If they continue to cast after they're drained, they begin Overcasting and requiring rolls that could cause injury or death to them. There are some exceptions to Magic Drain such as Holy Shields costing 1/20th the amount of normal casting and using Holy Magic offensively against non-dark creatures costing double aside from a few specific spells.

Please describe how you would use a weak trinket with your characters first/only aspect:

After receiving a Weak Holy Trinket, Ozzy would wonder if Aderoth would even still allow him her blessing to cast her magic. He'd give it a go and if he was still capable, he'd give a quick thanks in prayer. Afterwards he'd simply use it to provide small blessings to patients in need to relieve minor pain or fix small scratches. He's also use it for light from time to time if he ever needed it.