Drusus Rolfe

Drusus Rolfe was a male Iskirran sorcerer. A child of the Iskirran new nobility, he attended the College of Magical Arts and Sciences and was apprenticed under Selca Ducani. Considered one of the most promising sorcerers of his generation, he eventually became an Inquisitor and successfully infiltrated the Cult of Vormund.

Due to a deal he made with the Magician, he gained the ability to shapeshift, allowing him to alter his appearance into a variety of different guises. Further dealings with spirits granted him other magical gifts, including eternal youth and the ability to create illusions and hallucinations.

## Appearance/Personality

Drusus was described as a handsome young man with pale skin and raven hair. He was born with complete heterochromia; his left eye was icy blue, while his right eye was black. He spent a great deal of time on his appearance, always looking impeccably groomed and wearing bespoke clothing. He was rarely seen without his familiar, a ferret named Nyx whom he would introduce to people as his "pet".

Drusus was considered sociable and charming, but he could also be incredibly cold and calculating. He was willing to betray absolutely anyone if there was something to be gained by it, and displayed a disregard for anyone outside his immediate circle of family and friends. The few people who managed to earn his respect and admiration did so because they shared in his selfish, narcissistic, arrogant behavior.

Despite holding great power through his magic, Drusus was a coward and likely to run away from any combat situation against an opponent who couldn't be swiftly dispatched. This was due to his overwhelming fear of death; he sought to prolong his own demise for as long as possible. He saw power as a means to an end, a tool to be used, and did not believe in the sentiment "absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Despite his ruthlessness and selfishness, he harbored a genuine desire to make the world a better place, albeit in his own way. He envisioned a utopia in which mindless minions spawned from magic did the dying and the unpleasant work, while sentient uber-refined socialites studied the mysteries of the universe in decadent luxury. This was the perfection he longed to make reality, and while he knew it was unattainable, the pursuit brought him pleasure. It was... *fun*.

Since he had spent so many years laboring to create an idyllic paradise, one of Drusus' biggest personal vulnerabilities was his legacy; he wanted to be known and remembered as a saint. To that end, he hired the best PR team money could buy and put them to work spinning tales of his supposed benevolence and purported good deeds. All propaganda, of course, but you'd be surprised how much of it the people bought into without question.

As a young man, Drusus was certainly flawed, but he was more emotionally vulnerable and certainly capable of kindness. He even loved someone once, with a love as true as love can be. But he learned quickly that the world was a cruel place and any sign of weakness or tenderness would be punished. The harsh lessons of his youth hardened his heart and taught him that goodness, honor, forgiveness and mercy meant nothing. He would have to put himself first if he was to survive it.

Though he has worked for clergymen and other proponents of organized religion, Drusus himself has a fairly low opinion of faith and religious adherents. Initially an atheist who believed only in magic, which he saw as a tool, his later experiences with the divine and the supernatural meant that he could no longer be skeptical. He lamented this, as he considered atheism or even agnosticism a much more relaxing and positive view than the nerve-wracking certainty of the existence of a possibly wrathful deity.

* Paranoia and fear of death
* Sluttiness caused by Drusus’ shallowness
* Drusus is a man driven by his desires
* He wants perfection but he’ll never have it
* That’s ok though, most of the fun is in the pursuit
* Desires to make the world a better place, in his own way
* Doesn’t believe in a god, puts little to no stock in prophecies
* Spends a lot of time networking but doesn’t embark on big plans/projects with others
* Not that hard to convince, Inanna just went about it the wrong way; he’s slept with plenty of women, he won’t be impressed by one more.
* Emotional vulnerability: his legacy
* Bit of a yes-man himself
* Didn’t have the spine to criticize the Empire’s warmongering until he was in a position of power on the Council
* Doesn’t speak out due to fear (of death?)
* To cope with this cowardice, he convinces himself that it is all “necessary”, somehow
* Hated what happened to Kynaston during the war, particularly the loss of the Great Library: loss of vast stores of knowledge
* Not fully convinced of the Empire’s cause, but sunk-cost fallacy (he’s in too deep)
* Everyone else would oppose his research
* In his mind, Knowledge = Good
* Hates Empire's propaganda, particularly when it comes to indoctrinating children
* Values giving his creations free will, regrets having used POWs to create the first of his monsters
* Spoils his apprentice and his lover, doesn’t want to have to deal with the anger and frustration of others?
* “Drusus has a hard time understanding that desires can be careful, since his are so materialistic and constantly indulged.”
* He envisioned a utopia where mindless minions do the dying and unpleasant work, while sentient uber-refined socialites study the mysteries of the galaxy in decadent luxury.
* Not really much of a backstabber and had few enemies among the other Iskirrans.

## Biography

### Origins

Drusus Rolfe was born into Iskirran new nobility, an economically elite class which arose due to the increasing prosperity of the Iskirran Empire. His paternal grandfather was a shipbuilder and his mother a fantastically wealthy merchant's daughter. Drusus soon proved to be an intelligent boy with a bright future ahead of him; he was taught from an early age that he was destined for great things and learned to consider himself above the common rabble.

Starting in childhood, he was fascinated by magic. He began avidly collecting books on the subject, and the more he immersed himself in it, the more he wanted to try sorcery himself. He successfully summoned his first demon at the age of fourteen, but before he could make a bargain with them, he was discovered by his grandfather. Following this incident, his family decided that he should attend the prestigious Academy in order to learn the proper use of magic.

Despite the cutthroat competition at the Academy, Drusus excelled. He was a teacher's pet and was able to use his charms to avoid being bullied or "offed" by other students. At one point, upon learning he had a rival at the Academy, he paid them off with a gift of a luxury yacht. He was primarily interested in the subject of alchemy, and participated in numerous unethical experiments conducted on criminals and prisoners of war. While he felt nothing with regards to the criminals, he felt some guilt over the treatment of the POWs, particularly those whose only crime it was to be a member of a certain group or tribe which had been conquered.

It wasn't long before Drusus became the apprentice of the master sorcerer Selca Ducani. Drusus and Selca developed a close friendship; Selca was a proponent of the belief that magic and science were so closely connected as to be virtually interchangeable, and he enlisted his enthusiastic young apprentice in creating new magic-based technologies. But before Drusus could complete his training, Selca disappeared without a trace while conducting experiments in chronomancy - the manipulation of time using magic. While Drusus was permitted to undergo the final ceremony and graduate, many of his fellow mages believed his training was incomplete, much to his annoyance.

To be continued...