"It's a curious thing, the manners of men. One moment, they rage and hate with curious vindication. The next, they grovel and beg when faced with their betters...."
41 | Ansgar Staudinger | 5'11" 154lbs
Personality:
"Do not suffer a fool lightly. Doubly so, should they choose to be one out of ease, vice having no say in their fated birth."
Ansgar is a man that few of his superiors enjoy dealing with, his peers distrust, and his subordinates hate. Mostly due to the fact they only know him during working hours, as they say. On a job or a mission, the man is taciturn and calculating, only speaking what is necessary, with the odd barbed remark that earns him the ire of his peers, otherwise choosing to act vice speak. After all, in his belief, ones words are as transient as the wild winds themselves, powerful and true one moment, calm and empty the next. As such, one could grow wearisome of Ansgar's tendency to not speak for the duration of a situation or discussion, only to rise and act in a manner he sees fit to do, with little to no words exchanged with the others he might be working with. As such, he makes for a rather terrible leader, something he would be quick to warn a person about when assigned to his command.
Outside of work, should someone have the desire to follow Ansgar to whichever tavern or bar he secludes himself to, one would find a subtly different man. Lacking the taciturn nature of his working self, he can be found often debating the future of mankind with whatever poor sod made the mistake of giving him a response to work with. Whether it be the mage situation, and his vehement disagreement with the handling, or local and worldly happenings, he tends to oft have his ear to the ground, as to avoid being caught off guard. Still retaining his well spoken manner, however, does not prevent him from not suffering fools and braggarts lightly. Indeed, he would sooner look past a person's facade, and call them out for what they truly are instead of merely letting them lie to themselves, and the others who they attempt to fool with their tricks and falsehoods. This makes him a poor drinking partner, for reasons that should be rather obvious.
Brief Biography:
"I relish the opportunity to get out from under the thumb of the kingdom. Slave soldier mages is not a tenable position, not forever, rest assured of this."
Born within the walls of a place known simply to outsiders as the "Institute", the place was one of a selection of locations that trained destruction mages, alongside others of their ilk. Ansgar, being born to two potent mages, was unsurprisingly also found to have the gift of manipulating the arcane. As such, he would not be immediately exposed to the distrust that the outside had for destruction magic, though his fate as a state soldier was made known to him fairly quickly. As such, Ansgar chose to side with the more pragmatic of the teachings the Institute offered, a program that produced a manner of sword mage, men and women intended to meet the quota that was expected of the place by the State, to provide them soldiers and keep them from digging too closely into the affairs of the Institute.
Ansgar's upbringing was formal and rigorous, indeed, his parents were as much his teachers and instructors as they were guardians and care takers. He would have to earn his keep, taking on small tasks that both trained him to interact with outsiders who did not understand the magics of the Institute, and his future superiors. As such, he never readily had a childhood that one could call pleasant and, certainly, could not be something to be envious of. However, Ansgar would never speak ill of the Institute or his family, loving them almost more so than one might consider fair in the given situation, crediting them for his success early on and his continued survival, having given him the necessary upbringing for a sword mage in a world that distrusted his art so.
Upon reaching his 18th birthday, as was traditional for the combat orientated mages from the Institute, Ansgar graduated from his course of training and was sent to become a State Sword Mage, as he was told it was called. Indeed, upon reporting to the capital with the letter of recommendation from the Institute, he was put through a rigorous training and verification regiment, to ensure that he was indeed safe to use against their enemies and would not backlash against them. Ansgar passed each test with flying colors, barring those requiring him to lead or work too well with others, things that were noted but certainly nothing that prevented the state from employing him. This would be the beginning of a career of service, growing from an addition to forces being deployed, to well and truly beyond.
Ansgar would operate as a, for lack of better terms, state sponsored adventurer after ten years of supervised, and more strictly controlled, service to the State. His focus on research and lack of interest in cooperating with most people within the State, made it a more obvious choice to have him assigned a more independent role in seeking out objectives, regardless of the how or why, and leave him to his own devices beyond that. As such, he would spend vast stretches of time wandering and making progress on his own, both on taking contracts on the side and doing his own studying and projects. As such, being effectively isolated from any chance at advancing, his only hope if he wanted to make anything of the State sponsored role was to find something big.
Do they know magic: Yes
-Offensive Capabilities-
Arcanists are not as well known for their offensive abilities as they are their defensive and utilities, however, one should not expect to find one incapable of retaliating with force. While lacking the flashy, raw power of other schools of magic, Ansgar wields mana in a few deceptively simple manners. Firstly, forming the basis of offensive magic, are shards of mana, honed to a razor edge and either providing a basic projectile or impromptu melee strike. Beyond this, most combat spells are some alteration or improvement of said shards. Whether its a sphere that discharges a blast of shards, or a impromptu sword, the lack of raw damage has to be made up for in ingenuity and proper application. In theory, some are known to weaken enemy spells by manipulating mana infusing said spells, but for Ansgar, this is only theory, as such acts require intense focus and, usually the defining reason for lack of use, time. While he knows its possible, he has no methods of actually doing it as of this point.
-Defensive Capabilities-
The far more potent of the two fields, defensive Arcanists generate barriers, at its most simplistic. In its base form, the barrier is formed by the will of the caster, its strength defined by two properties. The amount of area it covers, and how large it is. A buckler sized barrier will be far more potent, assuming equal energy input, than one shielding a door or even a house. However, rather obviously, the buckler sized barrier protects far less than one shield a door or house. It is a trade off of input energy, strength, and coverage, making it a rather deceptive manner of defense. Most uniquely, much like an offensive manipulation of enemy spells, those magical attacks that impact an Arcanist barrier can be absorbed and used to attune against further attacks from a similar source. Barrages of fire become less effective over time, lightning strikes less devastating, and blizzards less chilling. However, barriers typically can only attune a scant handful of spells, and more esoteric spells that don't align with one element typically strike with full force compared to mono elemental attacks.
-Drawbacks-
No art is perfect, and the manipulation of the Arcane is no exception. Mana is typically channeled into other forms for a reason, and that is, at its most simplistic, due to the complexity of manipulating raw mana. The time and effort it takes to attain profficiency in Arcane arts is a long and arduous road that has potentially dubious payoffs. Compared to other arts, the progression of strength is slower and takes a greater intelligence and gift with manipulating the mana of the world to match the raw strength of hostile wizards and warlocks of other disciplines. The Arcane art is also more taxing than that of other schools of magic, meaning those unversed or novice in the arts, or that utilize spells they have not readily practiced, will find themselves more drained than those doing similar in other arts. As such, its complexity, dubious payoffs, and easier roads to powerful spells mean that Arcane practitioners are few and far between. Which makes, outside the Institute, finding those that can share their experience and insight on the Arcane arts difficult indeed.
Weapons:
-Quicksilver Blade-
Not a unique weapon, despite the name, a Quicksilver Blade is the standard sword for any Institute member that would arm themselves with anything other than their arcane prowess. Named for the material the blade is made of and the style of fighting associated with it, namely its fast, flashing strikes that are designed to open foes to arcane attacks, the blade is not forged from mercury at all. Rather, it's edge is formed from specially prepared silver/iron weave for defense against the supernatural and the fae, while its core is densely packed enchanted titanium. The lightweight metals used make it a, for being slightly longer than an Arming Sword, deceptively light and easily handled. The blade itself is three feet in length, with a slightly enlarged guard and pommel compared to a traditional Arming Sword. While capable of doing so, it was not designed implicitly with channeling spells through the blade, thus making it not a true magical sword by Institute standards, merely being receptive to channeling efforts by gifted wielders.
-Ansgar's Staff-
Utilizing strange, telescopic building process much akin to that of a telescope, Ansgar designed his staff to be portable instead of something to flaunt as a status symbol. Despite the telescopic nature, its durability does not suffer much compared to a proper staff, something that is deceptive if used to parry an attack, though it will suffer mechanism damage should this be done too often. Equal parts magic and technology, his staff is covered in runes and arcane scrawlings, some borderline nonsensical, while the purely metallic staff has twin gems embedded into it, one at each end, one ruby and one sapphire. When fully extended, it stands about the same height as Ansgar, while retracted it is under a foot in length, making it fit into the belt hoop that it resides in when not in use. Made out of no unusual metals, unlike his other equipment, it lacks any sort of sheen or even unique properties outside of its runes and scrawl that runs the length of the focus. As his staff, it acts as a Focus when not utilizing runic conjuration, allowing him to rapid fire more of his basic combat spells and play to the traditional image of a spellcaster, staff in one hand and conjuring magic in the other. Rather, in his case, sword in one hand, staff in the other when not using runes.
Skills/Powers:
"Swords and Sorcery oft pale in comparison to raw, yet well applied, knowledge."
Ansgar, as a graduate of the Institute's sword mage and as a State sponsored mage, is very much a soldier alongside mage. Typically employing his sword, usually in his dominant hand, whilst either staff or conjured rune circles are utilized in his other hand. He prefers to weave either offensive strikes with defensive parries, or block incoming spells and attacks to open up strikes with his sword. While formal dueling, in both magical and mundane forms, are not focuses of Ansgar, blending the combat styles is very much a point of pride for him. However, the drawbacks of the Institute's brand of magic, mainly its severe drain on the reserves of the mage, coupled with the effort that fighting in a hand to hand situation calls for, can tax him quicker than one might suspect, even with conditioning.
Despite his lack of social graces and ability to play nice, Ansgar is rather well learned when it comes to magic in general, alongside legends and stories. He would spend many a night in the Institute libraries, both before and after being employed by the State, studying and researching his latest passion or interest. As such, he often has a good variety of knowledge, whether practical or not, was debatable at times. Even if he doesn't know something, the ability to know where to go and begin researching, and can reasonably be expected to come up with information in a decently timely manner, though how he does it might not always be the more savory of methods. The ends, though, justify the means when pushed.
