Here's the background I've come up with. I'll edit in the stat sheet later today.
Odair Gilchrist
Odair Gilchrist was introduced to the practice of magic more by an accident of birth than anything else; his parents had both studied the Art, with varying degrees of success, and Odair had been tutored in the basics practically by the time he was able to read. Odair’s father, Milton, was an illusionist of minor ability, his progress somewhat stunted by the ever-present distraction of supervising his investments in the nearby plantations. Frustrated by this inevitable consequence of the choices he had made, Milton became resentful of the success of others, and would vent his discontent through petty, arbitrary emotional abuse toward those around him. This eventually drove his wife to leave him, which only caused him to redouble the misery doled out to his three sons.
Odair was the middle child, for which he was grateful, as his elder brother often took the brunt of Milton’s abuse. Odair began to make a habit of slipping out to wander the streets during the worst of their fights. Gradually, he spent less and less time at home, and more simply winding through the streets of Sasserine, seeming to always find his way to Standing Stone Park; he enjoyed the paradoxical sense of simultaneous freedom and isolation to be found in nature, away from the press of humanity. Most of all, he loved the storms. Though he would never admit it, he felt most at peace in the most violent kind of weather, the fury of the storm feeding into his own unvoiced rage and sadness until he reached a kind of ecstatic catharsis. Whenever the winds blew in black thunderclouds and sheets of rain from off the sea, Odair could be found standing in the midst of it, soaking wet, hair whipping about his head, and a look of complete serenity on his face.
Recently, upon returning home late at night from one of these meteorological fugues, Odair discovered his family’s home in flames. His brothers and a number of townsfolk were gathered outside, but Odair’s father was nowhere to be seen. Odair asked his brothers what had happened, and they told him there had been a terrible crash that shook the entire house, and before anyone knew what had happened, the building was burning. Their father was still inside – he had refused to leave without his accounting ledgers, receipts, and paltry spellbook. Odair’s brothers had tried to rescue their father, but the heat had become so intense that no one could even approach the building. Odair turned toward the smoke and flames pouring from the doorway, and, barely pausing to think, cloaked himself in what little protective magic he could muster, and rushed inside. His father’s study was in the rear of the building, and Odair had to jump over fallen ceiling beams and pass through flaming doorjambs that seared the sides of his face, but he finally found his father, lying across his desk, overcome by the smoke, still clutching an armload of parchments and ledgers. Odair hauled him up under one arm, and managed to half-carry, half-drag him outside, where, thanks to the ministrations of one of the Pelorite priests, he chokingly returned to consciousness.
In the intervening weeks, as he oversees the rebuilding of their house, and attempts to put his finances in order, Milton has been much less bellicose than usual, especially toward Odair, whom he seems reluctant to speak to, often watching him sadly, only to quickly look away if his attention is noticed.
