ROR:PC/Calum/Fluff
Description
Race: Human, Ulfen
Sex: Male
Age: 49 (looks older)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 175
Body Type: Wiry
Hair: Wispy white, often held back in a single braid - neatly trimmed beard, white with a few strands of red left
Skin: Fair, freckled, some wrinkles, tends towards sunburn
Eyes: Hazel
Habitual Expression: Stern
Clothing: Shirt, breeches, sturdy boots, blue linen waistcoat, blue linsey-woolsey over-tunic, many pockets; amber pendant carved into the shape of an eagle's head, his clan symbol; small, tasteful gold ear-rings
Background
Calum is Ulfen, a Viking-like race from the far northern Lands of the Linnorm Kings. His family lived near the coast, collecting and working amber and catching cold-water fish through the winter, smoking and salting them, and then trading them on south during the summer months. As a young child, he contracted a lung disease which left him weakened and often bed-ridden. He taught himself to read and would devour every book he could get his hands on. It was at this time that his imagination was first caught up by the long-lost Thassilonian Empire. Soon, his aptitude for magic showed itself, and at the age of 12, he was sent south to the college of magic in Magnimar.
The climate helped his lungs and he soon grew out of his childhood illness. He was only six months away from graduating when he was recalled home by a desperate plea from his mother and older sister; his father and older brother had both been killed in a feud with another clan, and they feared they would lose their homestead and their freedom to the victorious clan. Calum arrived home too late to prevent this from happening, but he did his duty: he took up the leadership of his family, found a suitable bride, produced offspring, built a new homestead, worked hard to rebuild the family's fortunes, and kept an eye on his mother and siblings until their thraldom to the winning clan was ended.
By that time, Calum was 25 with two young sons and a baby daughter. 20 years later, a plague descended upon their homeland that robbed Calum of his wife, his second son, and his oldest granddaughter. But two years after that, in his 47th year, Calum saw health, prosperity and honor restored to his family, and his thoughts returned to his long-postponed magical training. He returned to the college of magic in Magnimar, expecting to pick up where he had left off; but he was told that it had been too long since he had left school, and he would have to start all over again. Because of his previous experience and determination, it only took Calum 1 1/2 years to finish the 3-year beginner's course in wizardry; he was the second oldest human graduate ever from the college.
Declining to return to the Linnorm-Lands, he remained in Magnimar, studying the artifacts of the long-lost Thassilonian empire, publishing a Thassilonian dictionary and beginning work on an encyclopedia of Thassilonian artifacts. He financed his expeditions to nearby Thassilonian sites such as Crystilan, the Calphiak mountains, and the ancient lighthouse at Sandpoint by taking on apprentices and students of magic, and attempting to instil them with his values of diligence, determination and discipline. Naturally, some of these students have proved more instructable and promising than others.
Calum believes strongly in the ability of each individual to make efforts to improve themselves, and even to achieve greatness. He worships Torag as a god of his people; Nethys as a god of his magical calling; and Irori as a god of his deep conviction that the seed of perfection lies within each individual. He also believes that through studying the amazing magical attainments and feats of the Thassilonians, he can vault his own command of magic into fast-forward, and make the most of the lifetime remaining to him.
