Alexander Khlikov

Professor Alexander Khlikov

Professor Khlikov is an academic and wizard, featuring in the first season of the Enfants de Terredei series.

## Early Life & Education

Born to an old family of Zmey Gorynych nobles in Russia, Alexander could not help but disappoint his family. He was born unblooded, and hard as he may have tried, could no longer summon forth the arcane powers of the line. Father Khlilkov subsequently ordered the boy to attend wizarding college to learn to compensate, as he couldn't handle the thought of a child unable to wield magic. Alexander was given a stern and unfree education under constant pressure, always reminded of the fact that he wasn't good enough to begin with.

Once his harsh Russian preparatory school was finished he could head to St. Petersburg university, where more freedom awaited the young man. Provided he attained good grades and remained within the university's good graces, his family largely left him alone. After all, they had enough to deal with, with revolution and unrest brewing across the winter state.

It is at University that he met Vassily Rovinav, a young doctoral assistent of whom he learned a great deal. Alexander would later take up the promotorship of this same Dr. Vassily Rovinav, and would even join him in an academic expedition, one that would turn out to be quite a life-altering event.

## Globetrotter

He followed Vassily Rovinav across the Balkans and even the Middle East, together with his older brother, Dandric Rovinav, whom he also befriended along the way. The expedition would end in tragedy however, as Vassily lost his life in a deadly trap at the bottom of a dark ancient dungeon. This event would weigh heavily on both Alexander and Dandric and they would rarely ever speak of it again, to this day.

Unable to continue Vassily's quest, they wandered the middle East, looking for other things to explore and investigate, with little succes until they met another party of Western adventurers. Joining forces, the fellowship continued their journey together, and after entering into a position as court wizard to Louis Philippe de St. Cyr, Alexander found himself on his way to Venice, surrounded by all the power and luxury of a noble court, which -at home- he was only ever allowed to look at, never engage into himself. As such, the lure of court and salon often won out against the call of academics. This may not have been the professor's most academically productive period of his life, as he even found very little time to attend to his apprentice, young Billy. This would soon change, however, as the Professor was about to kick up a storm in the academic world.

## The Khlikov Papers

At this point the professor very much enjoyed his position of wealth and privilege and made sure to attend every party and salon he could manage to get into. In order to facilitate the professor in his other -academic- endeavours, the Enfants soon invested in a large academic (mahogany) library and engaged several scribes and notulists, all at his disposal. Here it started to dawn on Alexander that he would have to start publishing soon as to maintain his status as an academic. Nobles may gain prestige by courts and salons alone, but wizards cannot. The problem was, Alexander never really engaged into research of his own. That is to say, he did a lot of research in the past, but it was always Vassily who gave guidance to it, who imagined the framework and explicitated the theories. Alexander functioned as his assistent and did so succesfully, but now -bereft of academic guidance- found it difficult to posit an academic vision of his own.

All this was about to change when fortune struck. Professor Khlikov, whose name was starting to be known in society as an expert on Middle Eastern artefacts and natural sciences , did find his social network expanding and the fame of the Enfants preceeding him. He had to find his own theory, his own claim to fame if this was to last, but this theory would soon arrive in the form of a humble request. Professor Khlikov received a letter from a young academic supplicant, a girl wanting to enter into higher education and needed a promotor for this purpose. While engaging women into academia is not unheard of, it remains rather uncommon. The letter was consequently accompanied by two extra documents : a letter of recommendation by a serious Angelite scholar and educator, and a scientific paper written by the girl, as to give sample of her work and abilities.

This paper, "*The Arcanology of Seasons*", was strangely written and even seemingly chaotic by academic standards, but its pages contained several out-of-the-box magical formulae that cast an entirely different view on *Magick Naturel* and could very well be what was needed to tie several of Alexander's field observations and loose threads together in a grand overarching theory. He replied to the young prospect, Justine de Leronge, and agreed to sponsor her academic endeavours and act as her university promotor, with the understanding of course that the work of his future assistent (Justine) would be used in the works of the professor (himself), as is often customary in academia. As such, in return for a promise of future academic sponsorship, Alexander had his grand theory and swiftly went to work. He reformulated the formulae in a more proper, structured academic discourse and used his social influence to publish what would soon become known as 'The Khlikov Thesis'.

The thesis soon hit like a storm, as it clearly challenged several long-standing academic theories and Alexander soon saw his fame rise. Professor Khilkov was invited to a lot of extra salons and courts and while this was highly pleasant, he knew very well that there would be academic opposition too, and he'd have to provide some proof to back up his bold claims. As time went by, counter-papers started to circulate and Alexander knew a confrontation of paradigms would be inevitable. Here's the problem though : Alexander didn't fully understand the formulae either, he just knew they seemed to work. Consequently he also knew he wouldn't be able to argue them out of pure mathematics and theory alone, but would have to substitute this by providing hard empirical evidence.

Pushed to action by a sense of urgency, professor Khlikov decided not to wait for whatever it was that Louis Philippe, Dandric, and the others were up to, because any time now a serious professor could barge into a salon and give him a unpleasantly hard time. He set up a hasted expedition to Africa himself , being convinced that this region of 'pure Wyld' would offer ample opportunity to test this theory and provide the evidence. Disaster soon struck, however, as this 'region of pure Wyld' didn't seem very welcoming to outsiders and the professor fell victim to the anger of the local Wyld powers, before he could gather his necessary evidence. He realized that heading over to Africa without protection had been a fatal mistake and sent out a call of aid to the Enfants who, flabbergasted by the sudden disappearance of the professor, had to drop their own activities and mount a hasted and highly perilous rescue mission into the heart of Africa. Through hardships, and dire peril the Enfants did finally manage to save the professor from the jaws of death, barely escaping with their lives themselves. Two things were decided upon their long awaited return to Europe : a ) the Professor would not, ever, go onto a crazy adventure by himself again without first attaining Enfants permission and b ) the Professor would at least now use his African experiments to finish his books and quell academic challenges left and right.

## Showdown

While this all sounds very reasonable and well, there was one crucial problem : the brutal forces of the African Wyld had not allowed the professor to finish his experiments in peace. They were incomplete and though the professor was still convinced of the validity of his theory , as none of the observed empirical data seemed to contradict it, he knew very well it could be picked apart by serious academic discourse. To make things worse, the timeline seemed to be closing in on him. In his absence, his works were publicly and openly contradicted and challenged by one of Francia's leading academics, an old adversary of the Enfants, who even held a personal grudge against them. He demanded either a debate on arcano-mathematics or an exhibition of empirical evidence. To make things worse, Louis Philippe had already confidently accepted this showdown, sure that Alexander would take down this old professor in the field of academia, and arrangements for a public debate were already made.

Alexander found himself completely stuck at this point. In order to argue from theory, he'd have to turn to the strange girl whose formulae this actually were, and it would be utterly inconceivable for him to yield the debating stage to a random schoolgirl without a university degree. He had already realized this long ago, hence his plan to argue from empirical evidence. But he didn't have any, so this left him without options.

On the morning of the anticipated debate, a lot of academics would have to return home disappointed, as there was to be no debate. Professor Khlikov did not show up, the Enfants lost face and were forced to return home in shame. Seething with rage (as this sort of thing really pushes his Behemoth buttons) , Louis Philippe barged into the Chateau and into the library, only to find Alexander's bags missing. He had fled somewhere east, with his location unknown to this day. This left the Enfants without court wizard (something that would grievously harm them in the near future in Rouen) and the theory-girl without a promotor after all.