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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Heard" data-source="post: 2382135" data-attributes="member: 7280">Assuming there are slots open still...BackgroundAalim Maalik (Ah-LEEM mah-LEEK) is older than legends, some mountains, and even some gods. In the depths of history Aalim Maalik was one of the first mages to journey to the other planes of existence, to master his craft, to anger the gods, incur their punishment, redeem himself, and to find his place among them.Before the youngest of races drew first breath, Aalim Maalik created some of the first laws that the world had ever known by journeying to the outer planes and taking the essence f lawfulness into the wilderness. He forged a city there, creating language and culture marveled at by all and regarded with jealousy by the forces of evil. Being neither a saint nor an appeaser, Aalim Maalik made no treaties with the good gods and discouraged their worship. When the proto-demigod Venalvee attacked his grand city though, Aalim Maalik was infuriated at the forces of good and lawfulness. After banishing the deity to his home plane, he set out upon a mission of vengeance and fury upon Celestia that dwarfed his mission of righteousness in the Lower Planes seeking Vanalvee.. His madness was pure; his purpose was clear, his mightiness unquestionable; but the forces of good vanquished him and placed upon him a powerful Binding. Centuries passed, and the prison that Aalim Maalik resided in was forgotten by all in the time it took to reduce his once great city to dust and ashes. Great kings and heroes came to meet their dooms seeking to plunder his prison, and spellcasters of great wisdom sought him out to seek his counsel.  Stuck in his ageless confinement, Aalim Maalik tempered his fury if not his supreme arrogance. His created servant Melkaa (mel-KAH) brought him news and items from the outside world, albeit slowly and ponderously. Pantheons changed while Aalim Maalik's existence did not. Definitions of good and evil itself became more refined, morphed into concepts that passed ancient beings like Aalim Maalik by. Eventually even the beings seeking counsel with Aalim Maalik became ancient themselves, as only the truly old stood any chance of remembering the forgotten pathways that led to his residence.One day the magical imprisonment lifted without warning, leaving a somewhat puzzled but stoic Aalim Maalik with only a written proposal upon beaten sheets of platinum. With only the comment, " I do this not for you, but for myself and for my People," the magus agreed. AppearanceAalim Maalik looks very much like what he is most definitely not, ordinary.  In fact he doesn’t particularly look much like anyone’s preconceived notions of what a mighty wizard from before time should look like. Except when he’s wearing his full regalia of magic items he tends to look like someone’s dad perhaps, or maybe a baker or accountant. His sandy brown and gray hair, nondescript brown eyes, the softly wrinkled lines of his somewhat-darker-than-is-usual face, and portly pot-belly just don’t scream WIZARD to most people. In fact, some people fail to notice him at all when Melkaa is present. Giant hulking constructs stained with eons worth of bloodstains and repaired damage are just more impressive.PersonalityAalim Maalik is quiet from eons of imprisonment, but when he does choose to talk it is from the certainty of a man convinced of his own godlike ability and self-importance. He has anachronistic habits and attitudes, tends to refer to things that happened thousands of years ago as if they were still happening, and might comfortably be called a dinosaur if it weren’t for his essential brilliance. More than anything else though Aalim Maalik believes in rules, not prissy rules concerned with the welfare of old people but hard, concrete rules that younger, less intelligent beings just can’t understand. He spouts them off occasionally when he thinks he’s doing you a favor. A lot of them though, basically revolve around not touching the mean magi’s things and why Baleful Polymorph is an appropriate response for waking up a millions of years old wizard before 9am. Think of Yul Brenner's personality and mannerisms from The King & I, mixed with the appearance of your most bland male middle-aged neighbor and you've probably got the mix right. Aalim Maalik is a king among men and, at least in his mind, among the gods as well. His only comment about hubris is that it is a regretable modern concept that they didn't have "in his day", which - to be fair - was long enough ago that he could have involved himself in the longterm genetics of dragons as a hobby if he'd cared to.Characterwise he's probably going to be a Wizard, perhaps with some dabbling bits in the mix since I figure I can safely "play" with 14 levels. Maybe human paragon levels or something, but really I think full Wizard progression would be pretty nice - especially since I doubt anyone else would be that "pure".</blockquote>

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