Xander Tyvian

*"Knowledge is terrible. Guard it well."*

## History

As a young man with a startling amount of intelligence, Xander was once greatly interested in research of the arcane. He spent many days locked in his room, uncovering matters of magic on his own, even coming up with a unique alchemical formula that he could imbibe to further enhance his intelligence. He was also a most fervent Pharasmite, and sought to combine both his intelligence and piousness into a way to gain Pharasma-obedient immortality. So much knowledge, in his opinion, was lost to time that should have been recorded and kept for future generations! If he could find a way to produce an alchemical method of such immortality, it would help arcane scholars across the world who could never hope to be as powerful as the adventurers!

Alas, though, he made little progress despite his great efforts. It did not seem to matter how many formulas he pored over or how much praying he did, not insight was granted to him and no achievement was made. That is, until, his hand mirror began talking to him. Resisting the urge to throw the object into the trash bin and seek psychological help, Xander patiently listened to the honeyed words of the mirror. It claimed to be a vessel, a mere conduit for a far greater being of time itself trying reach him. It had heard of his desperate attempts to unravel the mysteries of the domain the patron claimed dominion over, and now it had arrived to give Xander what he needed... in exchange for something else. Xander hesitated, but still asked to know what the being's condition was. Fortunately for all involved, it was relatively benign seeming: It wanted to be carried wherever Xander went. Its reach to the material plane was extremely limited, though it could see through the mirror. Since the mirror was currently restricted to Xander's bathroom, it wanted Xander to take the small mirror with him so it might glean further insight into this strange world. Unsure whether the patron had nefarious intentions or not, Xander decided the risk was worth it, and agreed to the terms.

So, the terrible being granted Xander what he wanted to know. It educated him on insights deeper than he had ever gleaned before. His knowledge increased expansively, and after many years of toiling, Xander at last had what he needed. A single, perfect serum, capable of rendering him immortal... or at least, that's what his research said it would do. He would also have to undergo a strenuous regimen of rituals and exercises for 30 days after taking the formula, something that would ensure he at least wouldn't die from the 'after effects.' Xander's boldness outgrew his reservation, and he proceeded ahead with the plan in spite of his patron's words of caution. On the final, 30th day, of the test, he fell into a comatose state from dawn to dusk.

Awakening as the day's light faded, Xander could already tell something was horribly wrong. Though his body felt as if the years from it were lifting, something *else* felt quite off. As he went on to discover, his body had gained a horrible aversion to positive energy, healing only from *negative* energy. This revolted him immediately as a Pharasmite, though he was quite relieved to learn that he was not actually undead. It seemed the unique process his body had endured had resulted in its healing from that what would normally damage it, reversing the ravages of time... at a cost of being unable to benefit from, and in fact be quite harmed by, positive energy. Adding onto this, additional side effects included a substantial increase in Xander's arcane powers, even beyond what his patron had granted to him already!

Still, he was mortified. His reckless pursuit of knowledge had very nearly turned him into the very monster he had sought to avoid being! His attitude changed greatly, now no longer as interested in the preservation of knowledge as much as the *protection* of it from those that could not wield it safely. He destroyed his notes on the formula, burning them from both the world and his memory so that none could reproduce it. In fact, he was quite sure it would only work for him anyway, but he wanted to be safe. His patron, however, now demanded he fulfill his end of the bargain. Xander was to become an adventurer at last, to sate the being's curiosity while also gathering what knowledge he felt was too dangerous to share and secreting it away. He was nervous and unprepared, but thanks to his intense study of life preservation, his body was already more than prepared for the trials it would go on to endure.

## Appearance

Xander refuses to go anywhere without being totally covered in his robes. His eyes, a shining blue, are his most remarkable feature, while the rest of his body is heavily shrouded as to conceal his 'condition.' Otherwise, he is somewhat thin, with a slightly angular face and curly, black hair. It is rare that he lets anyone see anything further out of the shame he feels for what he has done to himself.

## Personality

Xander is a solemn addition to any party. He doesn't like to crack a lot of jokes, but neither is he very depressing. Most would simply describe him as serious and pious, offering comfort from the perspective of a typical Pharasmite cleric. He likes to seek knowledge in order to guard it from others, and particularly enjoys keeping secrets. What he absolutely detests are mind readers and psychics, people who can violate the sanctity of his mind in order to steal his knowledge. Such people can rarely be trusted, in his opinion.

## Sunken Island Country

Xander, hearing of a strange new land having appeared that only a certain type of person could explore, was immediately intrigued. He had some knowledge of both survival and geographic information, so he decided to use his talents there as opposed to researching. After all, plenty more powerful people seemed to have already dedicated themselves to researching, which left the actual task of exploring to people such as him. That was fine in his opinion, it meant he could remove dangerous information he found before it was ever discovered, and mark troublesome territory out for the safety of heroes even less experienced than himself.

He packed only what he needed, which included a special flying carpet he had made so that he did not have to walk. Food would be easy to come by, he assumed, but he still put plenty of provisions into his bag of holding all the same. He would rather have spent his time drawing out maps as opposed to foraging for food in hostile territory. He met up, briefly, with some of the other would-be explorers on the edge of the barrier of the territory, and immediately estimated a significant portion of them would die.

Many of them were just like how he used to be, eager, confident, and quite reckless. So many of them seemed to assume it would be nothing but endless treasure and fun adventures, but Xander was weary enough to know that anywhere unexplored had *good reason* it was not yet combed through. He tried to warn as many as he could to be more cautious, but as a relative unknown, he went unheeded. Without any allies or even friends of his own to call upon, Xander reluctantly crossed the barrier on his own, determined to make the most of his magic to get through unscathed.

In the end, Xander's dire warnings proved unfortunately true. In this strange and alien land, he very nearly lost his own life as he skirted around the edges of what he (and others, as he found) quickly dubbed 'death zones.' Vicious beasts attacked him at every opportunity, his life only being spared by his precious organ preservation research making them especially resilient to forceful blows. It was rare that he got a full night's sleep, even with the use of all his magics to ensure a safe night's rest. Every day was filled with geographical measurements and estimations, map sketching, and hazard avoidance. It seemed the land itself was hostile to intruders, even outside of the so-called death zones, to the point where Xander was quite certain there was no conceivable way he could be safe. Perhaps, he considered, he should have spent more time researching survival techniques. He was sure that other adventurers couldn't be having *as* hard a time as he, but for anyone not of legendary prowess, surviving at all was quite a task. Xander's patron, meanwhile, was utterly ecstatic. It had *never* been able to glance at this land before, and it eagerly absorbed every bit of knowledge it could gain from Xander's exploration. It happily did its best to keep its protégé from getting his throat bitten out by the next ravenous creature to find him, ensuring its mass of knowledge could only continue to grow.

Xander's mapping skills were not quite legendary either, perhaps because he was simply having a bad few weeks. Normally he was quite a bit smarter than this, in his opinion. Either way, he successfully mapped out a rough outline of the country when he was not fleeing from flying beasts that wanted to use his head as a lunch snack. Along with this, he even sketched out a path to a set of ruins in the area, what he was most interested in of all. Unfortunately, the most interesting ruins were *also* in the zones of most danger to his frustration.

Returning to the outskirts of the new land as a whole, Xander gathered some of the survivors of the initial expedition and laid out his plan. With his maps to some of the ruins and zones of death, they could carve a path into one set of ruins to get some *real* exploration and research done. He laid out to each person his by-now thorough knowledge and experience with almost getting killed so that they each knew what to expect, along with what provisions to bring so that they would thrive best in the environment. In exchange for all of this, he merely requested the right of 'first look' at anything that seemed particularly dangerous. He didn't inform them that he might well just destroy something if it seemed far too dangerous to be let loose into the world, he considered that more 'need to know.' With his leadership, he figured that *least* this group stood a solid chance of making real progress without losing half their number as casualties of exploration.