Proteus Hightower

Proteus Hightower is a High Elf divination wizard and the most senior member of The Circle of Eight as well as the court wizard for King Tyrus Bloodfire.

**History**

Born to the powerful House Hightower in the forests of Calvexia, Proteus grew up amongst powerful and highly educated magic users. Quickly advancing to the top of his studies as a boy, the Elven sages realized he possessed a Future Sight ability, being able to predict events long before they happened in various outcomes. Even at his father's prestigious Sanctorum Hightower Institute of Thaumaturgy, he went against his family's Elf-centric views and enrolled in The Arcane Citadel in the human capital of Scarlet Gate. He was accepted and excelled in all subjects, using his divination abilities to see countless outcomes of his possible actions, allowing him to ace all of his classes. He rapidly surpassed many of The Citadel’s sages and was on track for a perfect grade in nearly every class when Vance Draxxus, one of the members of the Circle of Eight at the time, became corrupted by the Power Gems he was studying, transforming into a powerful lich and killing the other seven members in the process. The Citadel was overrun with undead and many students and faculty perished before Draxxus fled the school and began attacking the surrounding city of Scarlet Gate.

After Draxxus fell to the newly ascended Seven, The Citadel began rebuilding and, for the first time since the school’s opening, found itself without a Circle of Eight to make decisions. The staff and students alike held an open ballot in which the eight members with the most votes would sit as the new council members. Seven veteran sages were selected along with Proteus, the only “current” student at the time, to sit as the new Circle of Eight. The first order of business after rebuilding the Citadel and surrounding city was to find out what to do with the Power Gems. After much discussion and Proteus’ Future Sight ability, the Circle of Eight decided the safest thing to do would be to separate the Stones across the Realms.

Due to his High Elf lineage, Proteus outlived his fellow council members and watched many wizards join and then die of old age only a few decades later. He also realized many of the circle members weren’t as interested in protecting the realm and furthering their arcane knowledge as they were in their social status.  He began losing faith in the circle’s actual power and became more focused on his own growth.

It was a long-lived tradition that the current King would select their Court Wizard from one of the Circle of Eight members, but after some bad political differences between the previous King and his now-deceased ex-circle member, the current King decided to choose Skorros as his court wizard, a sage at The Citadel whom he thought would be politically impartial. This was an ego blow to Proteus who thought this ignorance on the King’s part would lead to the realm getting subpar arcane counseling.

As King Tyrus grew old and senile, many of his decisions fell to his royal advisor, his own son, Prince Tyberius Bloodfire, whom Proteus had formed a close bond with over the years. Tyberius began “firing” various royal court members and implementing those he thought would better suit the realm, eventually exiling Skorros and replacing him with Proteus.

Now as the official Court Wizard for King Tyrus, along with his “de facto” status as the most senior member of the Circle of Eight, Proteus is quite possibly the most powerful wizard in the known realms.