John's Ideas

Okay -- here's my character idea: I don't have a name yet because I don't have my books with nifty islamic/arabic/sufi type names, but I will get one whenever I get a chance to look at them.

Mage: I was born somewhere in the Saracen lands, maybe near Saudi Arabia or something like that. I had a natural gift for matters arcane, and when I was very young (like 15) I apprenticed with the village sage. The village sage died of a mysterious illness when I was around 19 or so, and being the only person capable, I took over as the village sage/mystic-type. A few years later, a frantic messenger came into my home and told me that the hunting party was in grave danger of being slain by a Djinn who had been called up by our enemies. Being the only one capable of sort of dealing with this, I hesitantly ventured out with Asatar (Ah'-s@h-tar), the servant of the former sage (more on him later). I was worried about leaving, not only fearing for my life, but also cautious about having to leave my experiments in progress. I stopped all of the dangerous ones, and went out. When I arrived to where the djinn was supposed to have been, I discovered a horrible sight -- the hunting party was slain and horribly mutilated to the last man.

(Hey! these blast points are far too precise for mere sandpeople...)

Feeling a failure, I begrudgingly returned to my village, only to find it completely levelled. With further investigation, it seemed that there had been a tremendous explosion centered on where my experiments and home used to be. Well. This was not a good day.

Unable to kill myself due to Asatar's intervention, I wandered around, gradually moving further and further away from Arabia, until I ended up in Dalmatia. Wanting isolation more than anything, I stumbled upon a young woman in a bar, lamenting her troubles. It seemed that her family owned a large island with a lighthouse, but she could not pay the inheritance tax and it was going to be taken over by the local lord. So, eventually deciding to use my powers one last time, I persuaded the local lord to let me run the lighthouse. So myself, Asatar, and Lidija lived uneventfully in the lighthouse for around 10 years.

I began to have visions, seeing events that I had tried to forget. I had a recurring dream of a shadowy figure running out of my house cackling, followed by a huge explosion. Eventually I hit on the possibility that the destruction of my village could have possibly not been my fault, and perhaps was due to one of my tribe's enemies. Fearing I was going mad, I told Asatar and Lidija about my visions. Lidija told me that a wise man by the name of Elijah was in the village performing miracles. My intuition said that I should go see him, and so I met him in the village and told him about my vision. He sensed some sort of connection, and started living on the island.

Eventually, people came to join the lighthouse.

Companions:

Asatar: Think Alfred, Batman's butler.

Lidija: A young independent woman -- she wants be self-sustaining, but cannot stand to be alone.