Chao Xiaolin

## The Disgraced Alchemist

Chao is a master alchemist who turned away from The Light and his home in Wagashi to pursue knowledge they would withhold from him. Although he is truly competent, not many people are willing to work with him due to his infamous personality.

Chao recently joined of The Band, not knowing that this is a fake mercenary group which is actuality in the service of Wicklow.

## Appearance

He is of average height but lean build. His black hair is tried back in a long braid, his face cleanly shaven, except for a perfectly kept goatee. When not currently working in a laboratory, Chao prefers to wear wide-sleeved robes in the fashion of Wagashi nobility. He always maintains a proper poise even some nobles would be jealous of.

## Abilities and Skills

As a master alchemist, he knows all of the basic and many of the rare formulas for brews and potions of all kinds. He has a special interest in Magical Beasts and the use of their body parts as alchemical ingredients. But what exactly he plans to do with them is his secret.

He also has some experience surviving in the dangerous environment that is the Underworld Cities, where a bad deal can easily end with a knife in your back.

## Personality

On the surface, Chao always acts with the formal etiquette his homeland is famous for. But the thin layer barely disguises the sharp insults and arrogant remarks he offers everyone he deems of inferior intellect, which includes virtually everybody.

His sharp and highly analytical mind operates on principles of dispassionate practicality. While this makes him highly efficient, his lack of empathy borders on the psychopatic, and he is more than willing to sacrifice the freedom or even the lives of others for his personal gain. On the other hand, he despises waste and as such would never throw a life away without payoff.

## Early Life

He was born and raised in Wagashi as one of four children to a successful merchant. On his seventh birthday he began his apprenticeship with an alchemist's his family had ties to. About a decade later, when he was about to be recognized as a master himself, his sister was abducted during a Dungeon Keeper's raid. While his motives and the exact circumstances remain unclear, he was found performing forbidden research a short while later. He escaped his sentence and began a new life as a refugee in the Underworld.

The people there had far less problems with his methods and he quickly found high demand for his services. He would have been content doing contract work to finance his private research, but to his chagrin the Underworld is full of people who would make him offers one can't simply refuse.

At one point he found himself pressed into the service of Keeper Moslyeas who demanded he mentor her daughters. Reluctantly he did and found that one, Vusulia, actually rivaled his aptitude. But due to their incompatible personalities and contradictory worldviews and goals, they got along as well as oil and water. For example, in one instance Vusulia tested one of her experimental potions on another of Chao's pupils, which ended that young woman's career. In Chao's eyes this was a huge waste of potential as Vusulia could as easily have used a captive soldier or slave. Vusulia on the other hand viewed this as a huge success since she had gotten rid of a potential rival in addition to the test results.

After the Keeper's demise, Chao was happy to simply slip away into obscurity and focus on his research again.