August

> *"I'd sleep a lot better at night with you by my side..."*
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## Storyline

The Listener meets a flirtatious student on their first day. He approaches them after the principal finishes his somber welcome speech and strikes up a friendly conversation to make fun of the dramatic mood and ask for their name. When they hold back he teases them, choosing the nickname "stunning one". They quickly give in and he introduces himself as August Blackreach.

He's happy to hear that they're in the same academic group and gets excited when he learns they're from the Empire. He calls them a fresh of breath air for someone who's never left Rapture. He goes on to explain the difference between Marked and Aberrant families in Rapture and shares that he is "an Aberrant extraordinaire", enrolled to the Academy after getting caught stealing donations from the church one too many times (slyly hinting it was done on purpose). He informs them that he could tell the Listener wasn't from Rapture because they weren't suppressing their magical aura and were pleasant with him even when he called himself an Aberrant.

The conversation turns serious when August offers the Listener to form an alliance with them. The Arcane Academy is a dangerous school even for Marked students and he prepared by learning about all the other students, among other things. When asked to prove it he points out a tall, blonde boy with a "better-than-you" air about him and difficult haircut, identifying him as Fendal Zinderphal, the nephew of the governor of Rapture. His esteemed family name probably got him into the school rather than innate or extraordinary magical talent. He shares the rumor that Fendal broke into a potion store and drank as many as he could for unknown reasons. When he was caught by the guards, his uncle intervened and a peasant boy was blamed as a scapegoat instead. He promises that his smarts and know-how more than make up for his lack of status and that he'll watch out for the Listener's back if they do the same for him. The audio ends with an open-handed pitch for them to become his partner in crime.

Though he's not named in other audios, it's clear that they took him up on it since other students(mainly Fendal) and teachers have observed that they are often together.

After the Listener has Divination class with Fendal, August invites them to sit with him in the library as he studies. He asks them for help to get his notes to make sense and they point out that he made a mistake with a diagram, turning a summoning circle for a *homini sanguine* thrall into a circle for a sleep demon. He thanks them and acknowledges that their friendship might have been presumptuous on his part, something he says Aberrants shouldn't be.

He asks for help with something else: stealing an official journal from Principal Agoston's office. August knows he's asking for something dangerous but he can't do it himself because people from Marked families are always suspicious that Aberrants will steal from them. He makes the Listener swear that they will keep his secret of why he actually wanted to attend the Academy before sharing it. He had an Aberrant little brother who was taken to the Arcane Academy by the overseers; he would write letters back to his family every week, but the letters started sounding scared, then stopped altogether. When his mother tried to ask the school what happened they only replied it was Academy business. After she died last year he resolved to attend the school and find out what happened to his brother, convinced that a Marked family was behind it, and swears to get his revenge when he finds the truth.

The audio ends with a reminder of their alliance, that if the Listener scratches his back, he'll scratch theirs.

The Listener meets up with August after visiting Agoston's office. They admit that they weren't able to steal the notebook he wanted but he teases them, asking them to check their bag again. They are surprised to pull the book from their bag and August shows them how he managed it by summoning Umbra, his shadow familiar. He'd ordered the familiar to hide in the Listener's shadow when they entered the office and it stole the book by disguising itself as a small breeze.

When August asks them to give him the book they hesitate. He asks them to trust him, saying that he's never steered them wrong before. They insist on reading the book themselves before handing it over but they discover that it's written in High Draconic, a language they can't read but August can. They give in and hand over the book.

Before they can find out what is inside they are interrupted by Fendal, who's come looking for the Listener to warn them that Principal Agoston is accusing them of stealing an arcane relic. Before they can explain, August orders Umbra to kill everyone in the room if Fendal moves, and the Listener realizes that August has been lying to them all along to get his hands on the book, The Tome of Ill Omen. He calls them "Outsider" and mocks them for falling for his bumbling, flirtatious persona and the sob story he'd sold them about his little brother.

The Listener asks why he's doing this and August goes into a full villain monologue. Ever since he was a boy he was pressed by knowledge and memories that weren't his and the pressure was made all the more difficult by life as an Aberrant. Nevertheless, he had a destiny to fulfill and he knew the answers lay in the Arcane Academy. He let himself get caught so he could attend and learn/steal what he could. He claims that he was instantly drawn to the name Ortas, the Necromancer King, and resolved to steal his last great work, the book Agoston had kept in his office. In the book are instructions to tear down the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead, allowing everyone to coexist in the same plane of existence, living or dead. Fendal interrupts, begging the Listener not to listen to August. The world he's promising would be limbo for eternity, a fate he says is worse than outright damnation. August shuts him up and continues, telling the Listener that the ritual for this requires the death of hundreds of thousands to happen simultaneously. The entire population of Rapture, a society that treats the lower class like tools to be used then thrown away once they're broken, would make a perfect sacrifice in his eyes.

He apologizes to the Listener for lying to them and asks them to join him by his side for he needs a powerful mage to succeed. They can fix the world together. August summons a portal. Fendal speaks up to admit that he's not perfect and he's benefited from Rapture's classist culture but that doesn't mean he'll be the same as his family. If they work with him instead they can start to fix things from the inside. August's plan would damn the whole world into limbo and Fendal begs the Listener to stay so they can work together to stop him.

August gets the last word in and gives the Listener a final warning. He will leave them with Fendal if that's what they wish but he won't consider them an ally in the future. He tells them to make their choice and make it count.

August has yet to appear in another video, though "Cruel Naga Takes Care of YOU" makes it clear that he escaped the Academy through the portal. Fendal theorises in "Escaping With An Arrogant Mage" that he is now in Honeywood to complete the ritual.

## Personality

August comes off as friendly, cheerful, and likes to make jokes about anyone that takes themselves too seriously. He is sharper than his jovial attitude might suggest. He's very perceptive and has ways to discover the secrets of others, such as their favorite color or where they keep their valuables. His strategy to survive the Academy is to forge alliances with others by trading what he knows for favors though it's unknown if he's done so with anyone other that the Listener.

His optimism is a front. The way he's been treated as an Aberrant has left him with a resentment of Marked people and families. On the surface he's rather flippant about the airs and privileges they wield over everyone else but he's deeply motivated to prove his worth and power as an Aberrant Rapturian mage. This motivation, in addition to the powers that have been brewing in him since he was a boy, has driven him to seek his revenge on Rapture in his ultimate plan. In the latest audio he pins Fendal Zinderphal down, treating him with all the disdain he's suffered from as an Aberrant. He is far more magically adept than the typical first year student.

He finds the Listener physically attractive and teases them with the nickname "stunning one" though it's not often. He trusts them to keep his secrets though he admits he doesn't know much about them other than they were powerful and open to his offer of friendship. He likes to flirt with them but takes back the innuendos he makes in regular conversation, either embarrassed or meaning what he said innocuously. It's revealed that most of this was a front to get the Listener to trust him. What he's most interested in is their raw magical power, something he needs for his plan to work. The choice August gives them could be seen as an act of cruelty, forcing them to pick between staying with him to effectively destroy the world or remain in Rapture, alive, to suffer the consequences.

## Trivia

### August

* Has never been outside of Rapture and references the fall of the Mad Emperor as having already taken place. He's attending the Academy for the chance to travel the world and see new places.
* In the Ortas academic group, same as the Listener.
	+ Hollow confirms that August was always evil and bears the undead soul of Ortas, though it's up to debate whether Ortas or "the entrenched classism of Rapture" pushed him over the edge.
* His family may not be well-off due to their Aberrant status, which is why he was caught stealing donations from a church.
* Had trouble with the reading assignment for "Practical Applications of the Arcane". He also has trouble practicing oneiromancy as he tends to fall into regular sleep instead of accessing "a place of power."
* He can see/detect the magical auras of other mages. It's currently unknown if all Rapturians can do this or just Rapturian mages.
* In the latest audio he reveals he's more gifted than he appears. He's bound a shadow familiar to his service and can create transportation portals. He can also read High Draconic.
* Favorite color - Pale blue

* He never had a brother. His mother died under strange circumstances. Some say that after she had the child "it was like all the life was sapped from her....."
* August is truly afraid of death, each time he dies, he loses a little piece of what made him Ortas, Too many deaths and nothing will be left to come back. August isn't Ortas' first reincarnation, the rest never made it as far as he did though.
* August never actually cared about the mage

### Fan Theories

* ~~August's little brother is the boy who took the fall for Fendal Zinderphal's potion massacre before he joined the school.~~
	+ Though the latest video confirms this was a lie, one must wonder what/who is on the other side that August wants to be reunited with.
* August could be a blood mage as his description of his powers in the latest audio sound similar to that of Thalvich's condition. ~~He might even have memories of Ortas, thus absorbed the same obsession with removing the boundaries between the living and the dead.~~ (Confirmed above)
* The Tome of Ill Omen is one of the relics a certain paladin speaks of, capable of shattering the world as they know it.

## Main Audios (in order of upload date)

All audios can be found in ***The Arcane Academy*** playlist here.

1. ↑ Flirtatious Mage Welcomes You To The Arcane Academy
2. ↑ Flirtatious Mage Studies With You
3. ↑ Arrogant and Flirtatious Mages Fight For You!
4. ↑ Cruel Naga Takes Care of YOU
5. ↑ Escaping With an Arrogant Mage