1 [[!template id=character name="Alexios Constantine Commenes Kaloethes" house="Jerbiton" job="Lecturer" rank="Magus" appage=32 born=1165/03/21 updated=1248/10/13 covenant="Schola Pythagoranis" parens="Georgios Ex Miscellanea Orbus Verditius" origin="Constantinople" ethnicity="Graeco-Roman" religion="Orthodox" age=51 image=""" [[!img Alexios.png size="200x" alt="Alexios.png"]] """]]
2 ## Alexios Constantine Commenes Kaloethes
5 [[Main|AlexiosKaloethes]] / [[Magic|AlexiosKaloethes/Magic]] / [[Skills|AlexiosKaloethes/Skills]] / [[Stats|AlexiosKaloethes/Stats]]/ [[Additional Detail|AlexiosKaloethes/AdditionalDetail]]
9 ### Friends, Servants and Relatives
11 * [[Familiar: Daoud|Schola/Companions/Daoud/]]
12 * [[Secretary: Raffaelo|Schola/Covenfolk/RaffaeloInnocenti]]
13 * [[Forge Companion 1: Rose|Schola/Covenfolk/Rose/]]
14 * [[Lab Servant: Peter|Schola/Covenfolk/PeterEricsson]]
15 * [[Parens: Georgios of Bologna|AlexiosKaloethes/GeorgiosOfBologna]]
16 * [[Daughter: Athena|Schola/Covenfolk/AthenaKaloethes]]
17 * [[Granddaughter & 1st Apprentice: Agnes|Characters/Schola/Covenfolk/AgnésKaloethes/]]
18 * [[2nd Apprentice: Laurence|Characters/Schola/Magi/LaurenceFiliusAlexios/]]
19 * [[Tutor/Artist: Guiscard the Norman|Schola/Covenfolk/HiringRoom]]
20 * [[Agnés Governess: Xanthippe|Schola/Covenfolk/XanthippeTheGoverness]]
22 ### Personal Possessions
23 * [[Main Laboratory|Setting/Locations/Stonehenge/ScholaPythagoranis/Labs/Alexios/]]
24 * [[Created Items|AlexiosKaloethes/AlexiosCreatedItems]]
25 * [[Created Spells|AlexiosKaloethes/AlexiosCreatedSpells]]
26 * [[Personal Library|AlexiosKaloethes/AlexiosLibrary]]
27 * [[Personal Finances|AlexiosKaloethes/AlexiosFinances]]
28 * [[Arcane Connections|AlexiosKaloethes/AlexiosArcaneConnections]]
31 * Order of the Spheres (Connecting Regios) Breakthrough Points: 9
33 ### Moderate-term goals
35 * Maintain his academic career
36 * Increase his mental capacity
37 * Learn more about enchanting items
38 * Learn how to enchant his talisman to come when he calls
42 * Found an arcane school that trains apprentices more efficiently
43 * Complete Edward's archmage challenge
46 Small, slight and handsome with a carefully curled, perfumed and oiled beard, melting brown eyes and sparkling white teeth, Alexios always dresses in gold embroidered byzantine robes, generally in lapis blue and gold. In the covenant he is generally followed by a huge floating book bound with precious metals and gems. Even near non magical people, he is loth to relinquish it and tends to demonstrate the philosophical principles behind its levitation to his own satisfaction if not always to his listener's.
50 * Preferred Formal - Doctor Kaloethes
51 * Preferred Informal - Alexios
52 * Hermetic Formal - Doctor Alexios Ex Jerbiton
53 * Hermetic Very Formal - Doctor Alexios ex Jerbiton filius Georgios Ex Miscellanea
57 Alexios was a privileged scholar of the oldest university on the world, the Pandidakterion of Constantinople. The son of one of the Greek Chairs, he was a manipulator of academic politics, an addict of books who had manage to charm the librarians into allowing him into the library and an exceptionally bright and effective scholar.
59 As a boy and a student, Alexios was fascinated by the creation of books, spending much of his time in the scriptorium talking with those who made such wonderful objects. Even after his glittering academic career as a Rhetor had taken off and he took one of the Greek Chairs, he continued to craft books and paint illuminations and icons, finding the process soothing (although the icons had to be kept hidden given the controversy over them).
61 This love of creation married to his academic brilliance brought him to the attention of one of his fellows among the Chairs of the university. The wizard Georgios had once been a Verditius Mage of a controversial and scholarly lineage which had traditionally fashioned their casting tools through the written word. However, he had been cast out of his order and narrowly escaped death by joining a different fellowship, he seldom spoke of this even when he and his apprentice were at their closest but Alexios always got the impression that this had been a traumatic event based in the jealousy of others and that his master was still bitter about it. More, while he was grateful to his new House for having taken him in, he did not respect them as much as he did his former one. He felt they had little to teach him in the mysteries that were his heritage and hated this fact.
63 Georgios was surprised to learn that the young scholar who lived in the house next door with his new wife was gifted. His magical abilities had been hard to discover due to his gentle gift. Although his crafting skills were still rudimentary, his academic credentials surpassed those of many of Georgios' fellow wizards. Georgios therefore offered Alexios a bargain, he would arrange for proper training in those areas he felt the young man should know and once he knew enough to act as a proper assistant, he would labour for a year to pay for a ritual to enhance his longevity. Given his academic eminence, Georgios knew that his putative apprentice would have to be treated slightly differently to a young boy. On the other hand, he also had to be able to demonstrate that he was willing to serve. If by the end of this period, the two both believed that the apprenticeship was possible, Alexios would formally enter his service. Awed at the power that Georgios displayed and fascinated to Integrate the theory of magic that the elder magus referred to into his own understanding of the world, Alexios agreed.
65 It took years to satisfy the perfectionism of his master and earn his fee but eventually, Alexios became a full hermetic apprentice. He was old for this and remained largely isolated from his peers but that did matter to him considering the fascination of his work. With the agreement of his master, he continued his teaching at the university although his schedules suffered given how little time he had.
67 However, although he was happy as an apprentice, his life soon became problematic in one area. In 1204, the sacking of Constantinople took place and the academic pair, neither particularly interested or able in combat were forced to flee. Their houses and treasures destroyed, Alexios finally found the unrecognisably burned body of a woman he believed to be his wife dead and violated in a gutter. Their young daughter he never did find. In rage and fear, Georgios and he fled Constantinople. It took them a year of desperate travel to find safety and when they did, Alexios was never persuaded it was the right place.
69 During their flight, Alexios met a magical butterfly with gold and Lapis Lazuli wings, who claimed to be the descendent of the butterfly that Solomon had shaken the earth for. Alexios was fairly sure that this was an utter lie but he found the butterfly's outrageous claims charming and its powers real. More, the butterfly, was able to make him laugh which was a rare event for him since the death of his family and destruction of his life. The two became fast friends, with the butterfly stating its intention of binding Alexios to him as his ancestor had bound Soloman. Who he claimed was only wise because of the advice his butterfly friend had given.
71 When they finally settled it was in the Latin lands, in the University of Bologna. Taking the exams was relatively easy for them but actually finding students was not. Still they eventually managed to create a life for the pair of them and get back to a settle lifestyle, although it was small and mean compared to that they had once had.
73 Alexios disliked the Latins for what they had done to his home city. Worse, the university they had taken refuge in was being continually enriched with the stolen texts of his beloved libraries from Constantinople. Although they remained close, he and Georgios continually argued about this, with the younger wizard viewing the Italian university as a vulture picking over a once great and mighty corpse.
75 Over the next ten years, Alexios and his parens argued hotly about many things but this was the only one that had bitterness within it. The younger man's insights and understanding of magic were incredible for one so long and the two began to investigate areas of magic such as alchemy and numerology that both brought real insight to. It was during this that they managed a true piece of brilliance in natural philosophy, an alchemical process that produced a small amount of distilled magical essence within the paints that they were creating for detailed illumination work. Unfortunately, while the experiment was replicable, it made no sense to either in hermetic terms and as such could not be taught or passed on to anyone else. The regular supply of vis was useful though, especially once they found that both could keep the process bubbling along while working on other matters.
77 Even once he had finished his apprenticeship he continued living with his mentor; both being wizards and doctors in artibus. But Alexios still disliked being in Bologna. While he went through the complex rituals to bind his familiar or the even more complex ones to create his talisman, he felt stifled. His mentor lived quietly and away from other wizards. Still ashamed and angry about his banishment from House Verditius, Georgios largely refused to take part in his Order beyond the minimum required. Alexios wanted to learn more than his mentor could teach him, most of all, he wanted to learn those mysteries of his mentors former house that his mentor could not initiate him into. He wanted to know more. He had great plans for what he intended to do now that he was no longer an apprentice but he did not want Bologna to benefit.
79 Georgios argued against his desires, he pointed out that many wizards were stupid and intellectually lazy, relying on their powers rather than truly understanding the world around them. Alexios understood that and did not want to join such a community. However, he did want to leave Bologna and become a greater part of the Order so when he heard from a travelling Mercere of the desire of Edward of Jerbiton to recruit new wizards for a covenant in Cambridge, he decided to make the long journey there and left with the reluctant blessings of Georgios.
~jdamery / ArtibusWiki.git / blob