Gideon Altaire
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Contents |
Core Statistics
Name: Lord Gideon Altaire
Title: Plant Magus
Relatives: None.
Race: Human,
Age: 32
Eyes: Green
Hair Auburn
Skin-Tone: Light
Height: 6'1
Weight: 167lbs.
Alignment:Nuetral Evil
Personality
Gideon tries his best to appear as the consumate gentleman, a noble of high esteem. However, his ruling personality trait is often in direct violation with nobility, leaving him either condescendingly rude or amazingly meek. In short, he is a slimy manipulator who only shows a spine when he knows that he is the social or magical better of another. To his credit, though, Gideon is intelligent, judicious, and highly creative.
Equipment
Primary Weapon: The closest thing Gideon has to a weapon is a rather ornately carved walking stick that belonged to his grandfather, Ivern Orto.
Clothing: Gideon's choice of clothing is a rather simple black suit with a dark, maroon cloak and a black feathered cap.
Abilities
Botanical Magic While Gideon once deemed himself a Botanical Necromancer, his power over death has waned and shriveled, either by his own volition or by his acts with the Obelisk. Nonetheless, Gideon has maintained his plant-based magics. Despite his reputation as a great mage, Gideon has never been tremendously powerful, simply a clever and fastidious ritualist.
Statecraft: Gideon was raised in the courts of nobility, and so from a young age he was groomed to know the slimey mechanics of political manipulations.
Herbal Study: Gideon, as a mage devoted to the alteration of plants, has spent most of his education speciallizing in their natural form and structure, to better allow him to change it.
Background
Youth
Gideon was born to a noble mother in Selnic, his father a poor apothecarist. In order to spare Gideon and his mother the shame of having an ignoble father and husband, Gideon's maternal grandfather, Ivern, adopted the boy. Under Ivern's careful eye, Gideon was instructed in the formalities of statecraft. As a kindness, Ivern brought Gideon's father to him as a teacher of herbal lore. There was little question of the boy's parentage in the Court, but Ivern's method had effectivly circumvented the law without breaking it, and there was little anyone could do. While Gideon never had a normal childhood, he was not denied knowledge of or time with either of his parents despite the ruse.
Adult
After the Viith-Sos Invasion, Gideon began to apply his study of herbs and plants to the study of magic. The idea that thought and will could become power intrigued him to the point where it almost consumed his life. Gideon considers that a very dark chapter, even in the life of a Dalmarite noble, and speaks of it only to say that he did not allow powerlust to consume himself. In the court of the new Warholm Empire, Gideon was given the title of Chancellor of the Olcas Ruta, and was comissioned to bring together mages and apprentices into the service of the Emperor.
Fallen Empire/Rise of the Olcas
All was not well for Gideon and the Warholm Empire. A joint force of Albereans and Celdinites joined, despite a general distrust, to march on the economic capital of Port Wolfe. Knowing he was outmatched and outnumbered, the Emperor ordered all of his officers to commit suicide by poison and then killed himself as well. For reasons unknown, Gideon was not included in this suicide pact, leaving him the sole remnant of Warholmite power. In the time since then, the Olcas established themselves as a guild equal to the Ignis, aquiring most of West Forest. Gideon himself oversaw the construction of the Catacombs in order to provide sanctuary for the Drow, whom he would have as allies. A small brigade of former Ordinators also serves the Olcas.
Eventually, a strange man dressed in the clothing of an Ordinator began to stir emotions in Ganelon. He piqued the fears of the people against Celdin, and was then arrested in what became a riot. Gideon and the Olcas, who may or may not have had a hand in this, quickly moved to "protect" Ganelon. The Celdinites were finally forced to retreat in the face of war with a neutral and innocent party, while the Mayor of Ganelon, at Gideon's behest, had the fortifications around the city increased and allowed the land to become host to the Olcas' taint. It is currently unknown what the Olcas seek to accomplish by controlling Ganelon.
