Alannis de Contarini, from Tales of Alsonia, a roleplay on RPG

Titles: The Duke of Coldharbour, Marquess of Cold Seas, and Earl Duruvey are the titles which have come down to him through his family line. Many also know him as the Burning Duke (thanks to his noble title and affinity for fire magic) or the Ruby Incomparable (again, his affinity for the flames and his liking of rubies).

Guild: Mage

Time In Guild: A longtime stalwart of the Guild, Alannis is a veteran of their operations in Alsonia, and a familiar face to any guildmate – or indeed anyone with any real knowledge of the capital.

Age: 779 – He’s not looking forward to the 780.

Sex: Male

Race: Blood Elf

Height: Five foot three.

Weight: Eight and a half stone.

Appearance: Alannis is a fairly short elf, as such things go, yet as fine-boned and sylph-like as all his race. His hair is a deep, deep crimson shade, usually held back in a tidy queue or in a succession of intricate braids. His eyes are black-on-black, almost impossible to read – and as a consequence of his long years bent over grimoires in poorly-lit libraries, the eyesight his race is famous for has deteriorated to the point that he wears elegant little glasses.

His face is ageless and unlined, like most of his race, fine-boned and refined, his lips slightly downturned – giving him a rather haughty default expression.

His clothes are, naturally, the best – elegant and intricate. He wears snowy-white dress shirts and lacy jabots – pinned with an enormous ruby – covered with a silken waistcoat of a deep wine-red shade, embroidered with rising phoenixes in golden thread that seem to flash and change in the light. Over that he wears a long frock coat of such a deep purple as to appear almost black, again decorated with golden details.

When in cities, he wears a ruched purple greatcoat when the weather turns foul and carries an ornate umbrella. He also wears glossy black heeled boots – giving him some much-needed height and occasionally being the butt of jokes about the aristocratic elf.

Personality

Alannis is an aristocrat through and through; cultured, urbane and taking the view that the world is rather his plaything. Initially cold and rather distant, reserved and mildly contemptuous for the bumbling idiots he is forced to interact with, once he warms up to people he shows a rather different side.

While still vain and somewhat out of touch with a world sans servants, he is generally ready with a helping hand (and a lot of grumbling) and generous with his talents – and purse – for those he likes.

Being nobility, and wealthy nobility at that, he never bothers about the price of anything – he never learned to haggle or barter, and in truth, has no need for it. As part of his upbringing, he is unfailingly polite, although sarcasm may occasionally flash through the veneer.

He has a liking for many of the finer things in life – good brandy, fine food and wine, chocolate and so forth, things he is used to having on hand. He also loves cherries.

Being aristocratic, he has a certain view of the world and how things should be within it. Consequently, he has an ingrained dislike of bad manners and the crude ‘lower orders’ – although being a veteran of the Guild he has learned (slowly and painfully) to put this aside on occasion. He also detests horses.

Equipment

Weapons: As a powerful mage, his weapon of first resort is naturally his magics; the blazing inferno of sun magic, otherworldly summons from beyond dimensional gates, twisting chronotropic power, others. If such things should (unthinkably) fail him, or he should find himself in a situation where he cannot use his power, he has two elaborately-chased eightball derringers concealed about his person – enough firepower to stop most things dead.

Magics: Alannis is particularly skilled in the base magics concerned with stars, fire, dimensions, chrono, ice, and lightning. He also has the mastery of sun and summoning magic, and is dabbling in glass and gate powers.

Skills: An ivory-tower academic, albeit a powerful one, he has virtually no skills which would come in useful in the field. Even the legendary eyesight of his race has been eroded by peering at crabbed, ancient grimoires; he wears delicate little glasses to correct the ruin. He is, however, extremely in-tune with the sun.

Accessories: Alannis has amassed a large collection of interesting, unique and downright odd items over his lifetime, and has created many more. The two he keeps on his person, however, are:

1) The Faceted Endless – appearing nothing more than an elegant, ornate drinking glass of cut-crystal, it produces an endless supply of whatever liquid Alannis directs it to – and in the appropriate container, too. He usually uses it to keep himself in brandy.

2) The Coldharbour Signet - the family ring of the de Contarini family, it is the symbol of his rank and station. Heavy gold, and embossed with the dragon crest, Alannis has enchanted it to be rather more useful, turning it into a portable storage portal device.

History

Alannis de Contarini was born to the ancient de Contarini family centuries ago, in their stronghold of Coldharbour. Raised as nobility, he was provided everything he could ever have wanted, reinforcing the natural arrogance of the Blood Elf race and their aristocracy. His magic showed early, and strong, and he had a natural flair for it, drinking in the tomes of magical lore in the library of Coldharbour Castle.

His parents instilled in him the virtues the de Contarini valued; power and politesse and a talent for Machiavellian manoeuvring, skills he has honed over his long life to a razor-edge.

His parents were both killed in a tragic accident in the capital – although Alannis has come to believe that it was less of an ‘accident’ than an assassination by the Predators’ League, given that both the previous Duke and Duchess were heavily – and influentially – opposed to the League and its ideals.

Being so young at the time of their death, he journeyed to the Mages’ Guild in Xerania to undertake formal tuition and guidance of his skills, leaving his lands and Coldharbour itself under the loyal stewardship of his seneschal.

Since that time of first entering the Guild, the aristocratic elf has risen through the ranks steadily and quickly. He has taught advanced classes in combination magic; he has very little patience for fools, something not conducive to the younglings learning the rudiments of magic and occasionally acts as a mentor for exceptionally bright Guildmembers. It is rumoured that he sits on the ruling Council of the Guild, but has never exhibited anything to prove this one way or the other.

He often requires esoteric ingredients or scrolls and books for his studies and researches and can be found in the wilderness as often as in his library back at the Mages’ Guild; he frequently laments having to wander away from the city and civilisation to find what he needs.