I will edit this tomorrow to include my actual character sheet, until then I thought you may like to read my first stab at appearance/background.
Appearance: Jericho is attractive. Lacking chiselled features or a body builder's figure, he's handsome in that "he's got something about him" way. He stands a few inches short of six feet tall and has what can only be described as an average build. His head is crowned with the characteristic thick, raven-black hair of his Saul family ancestry, falling to somewhere below his jaw line and his skin shows the marks of the sun across his cheeks and his nose. His eyes are an ocean blue with a ring of yellow around the pupils, another family trait. He tends to dress himself in clothing of deep colour, easily recognised around town in his maroon-stained rough leather. He favours a pair of dusky black boots as footwear; these are embroidered with silver eagles in a stitching pattern and were won from a travelling moon elf in a game of chance. He wears them proudly.
Family Background: People say that the seventh son of a seventh son is meant for special things, the Saul family of Redspar have lived in this hope for years. Marcus Saul, the patriarchal head of the family, being a seventh son himself, spent years researching the various legends, myths and prophecies regarding the phenomenon. Marcus made his name when Redspar was originally founded fifty years earlier. He was amongst the original settlers of the town, and served as counsellor and arcane advisor to the leader of the expedition. Since that time his family have prospered, he set up the Wizard’s Guild in the town, a now respected and semi-powerful organisation staffed mainly by his family. This came at a cost however. Another one of the settlers, a small-minded and callous man named Otzem, became terribly jealous of Marcus’ success and since then has used every opportunity that arose to try and muddy the Saul name. Since Otzem and his family founded the local church, almost forty eight years ago, the feud has become a murky political affair hanging like a shadow over the otherwise vibrant port. Although the town is strictly run by a council of local representatives, it is split by the unspoken divide. They either sympathise Saul or Otzem, Science or Church, Magic or Faith. This great divide within the town has given way to heated words during town meetings, anonymous attacks on people of each family, the alleged attempted assassination of Marcus Saul and in exceptional circumstances, skirmishes in the street from supporters of each side.
Being a wise man and correctly reading Otzem’s signs many years earlier, three of Marcus’ sons were magically altered and cloaked (at great expense and effort) from the public and passed of as far-removed cousins of the family. This deceit obviously paints the picture that Jericho is not the seventh son, but in fact the fourth. Marcus knew for months that he had been spied upon researching the seventh-son-legend. He decided it necessary to hide Jericho’s true nature to shield him from attacks of Otzem’s people, or anybody wanting to stop more power to the Saul family. Whilst neither family could be described as evil, this blood feud has lasted for years and now hampers the development of this small port.
Jericho Saul: Jericho grew up knowing that something was special about his life, although he wasn’t sure what. His three brothers treated him as brothers would; teasing, fighting and arguing, the three cousins from his mothers side of the family that had lived with him all their life also treated him so, yet none of them were paid nearly as much attention from his father Marcus, as he was. Educated from the age of five in subjects befitting the son of a respected family, mathematics, sciences, geography, music, histories and heraldry were all familiar to him by his tenth summer. Growing up around magic was a normal occurrence for a Saul boy, and Jericho was no exception. Once his arcane tuition began at fifteen, he quickly learned how to read magical writings, discern the presence of magic in the air, and most amusingly to himself, carry himself drinks of water from the fountain in the corner of the room without leaving the table. His tutor was delighted with the speed of his early progress and whispers were soon heard within the family walls that something was afoot; the seventh son of the seventh son was indeed the prodigy they had hoped for. Weeks turned to months and Jericho added several more tricks to his repertoire, sometimes picking up simpler incantations in a mere matter of days. Marcus Saul, Jericho’s father came to personally oversee his son’s advancement to the next stage of magic, the step up from cantrips to spells used by real mages within the real world. To his surprise, Jericho was not in his study, there was simply a note:
“Dear father, please do not think me ungrateful, I truly am not, but my heart lies elsewhere. Magic is a mighty tradition for our family; I wish you good luck with it, but I must find my own way in life. The studies I have engaged in since my childhood have given me far more than just knowledge, they have given me hunger and passion. How could a man harbour knowledge, yet not exercise it? I shall return when I know everything, secrets are created to be betrayed. – sincerely, your seventh son.”
Feel free to edit what needs editing, tell me if anything needs toning down, elaborating on, all of that. I hope you don't mind, but being as our setting may be ambiguous, I just created a starting town for myself. Again, I didn't go into much detail about the town itself, or any physical detail at all other than the fact it's a port, so mould it as you will.
-Ben
