Cedric Hawkins

## Appearance

Cedric has yellow toned eyes covered by cheap wire-framed half spectacles, with a dirty blonde brown-ish hue of short hair. He dresses in his only set of traveler's cloths, covered by a dark blue cloak that is consistent with that a wizard would normally wear. He has a disorganized and tattered purple spell-book attached to his left side. His face is soft, and gives off the impression of someone whose inexperienced, but his hands are rough as if he's spent the majority of his life doing manual labor. His leggings are black, but have a grey stitch at the right knee, and his brown boots look weathered from miles of walking.

## Background Story

Cedric Hawkins, born to Amelia, and Owen Hawkins in the farmlands of Northern Jonali. Growing up as an only child, Cedric was very familiar with tilling the fields of barley, hay, and other crops as far as the eye could see. His parents were both descendants of farmers, as were there parents before them.

Amelia, and Owen, while certainly kind, and compassionate to one another, found themselves together more out of necessity rather than desire. Those living in the northern farm lands use to have a bountiful life, but when the expansion of the railroad, traders, and consumers alike had more access to goods than ever before. The people of the northern farmlands became unable to compete with the growing market, and have since began a gradual decline toward poverty. For this reason, humans in the area often resent the railway, and those who help sustain it. They rely on trading with local communities instead for their basic needs.

While content with his upbringing Cedric particularly wanted more out of life. His parents expected him to take up the mantle, carrying on their profession so they could eventually retire to less physically demanding work as they aged. However Cedric had other ideas; he would often spend his nights gazing up at the stars imagining what life was like in other parts of the world, or his free time listening to stories from passing-by adventurers.

Shortly after his 17th year, Cedric decided it was time to seek out a better life. He scavenged up all the money to his name, a meager 3 copper pieces, and left a letter behind to his parents justifying his actions as he fled in the middle of the night. Cedric's mother, Amelia, had always spoken well of him, how he would go on to do great things. She meant with farming and such, but he felt it was time to pursue his dreams, and *really do something great.*

Cedric made his way by foot from the northern farmlands following the river Tethys to the Trappers Guild, where he bribed a local guild member to help sail him down the river into the forest of Elves. He soon found himself standing before the Arcane College, within the City of Martivir pleading with the stand-in Guild Master, Sytharis Virran for entree. It was customary for the College to accept anyone who showed potential in the arts, but Sytharis must have taken piety on Cedric, because he showed no sort of talent. Cedric spent his days from then onward, eagerly attending lectures from the masters of the guild in the mornings, fumbling through practice sessions by the afternoon, and entrenched into the Library to study in the evening. Where his other teachers saw incompetence, Aerith Gildan, the master of conjuration, saw determination. The instructor often set Cedric to do impossible tasks for someone of his caliber, and each time he failed, encouraged him to do better.

One fateful day, during a lecture Aerith took a gathering of students to study the mysterious generators outside the college after being inspired by a series of confused questions from Cedric. After explaining an overly complicated method of conjurations and control of energy, Aerith prompted the group of students for a volunteer to channel their arcane energy at the same frequency or attunement of the magical generators. Not wanting to disappoint his favorite instructor, Cedric steps forward pretending to confidently understand the lecture. However, it became abundantly clear that Cedric had no idea what he was doing, and accidentally began draw on the magical presence of the generators. A chain reaction, infused him with arcane force that ignited the area, causing an explosion of the like, which the world has never seen. Aerith managed to shield himself and most of the students from the blast, but a few were fatally wounded, the generators destroyed, the guild entrance hall has collapsed in on itself, half of the nearby bridge was disintegrated, and Cedric was rendered unconscious.

The guild leader, Sytharis, who had given Cedric many, many warnings previously was on the fence about the entire situation. On one hand, the majority of the masters felt Cedric was a liability, and that the costs of damage, and life were far too great to give him any further chances. Aerith argued in Cedric's defense, stating it was his fault for believing the boy was ready for such a task. It wasn't until an emissary arrived from the coalition, disbarring the Arcane college, and revoking its embassy status as a registered guild, that Sytharis felt his hand was forced. He expelled Cedric from the College, and made him agree he would never return to the guild.

Too embarrassed to return home, Cedric left Martivir for Noach, perhaps with an underlying desire to right the wrongs he had caused.

####