Strider Family

**Purpose** | Progression of Magic

Originally called **Cagliostro** (カリオストロ(第一法の手紙の男たち), *Kariosutoro*), later known by their more modern name as the **Strider Family** (ストライダー家族(星の間を歩くもの), *Sutoraidā Kazoku*), changing their family surname after immigrating to Ishgar, is magical lineage of wizards that specialize in Celestial Spirit Magic and other forms of summoning arts, founded 641 years ago by its progenitor and later passed down to its current head.

Initially functioning as a group of astronomers and fortune tellers, the small group banded together to develop their own magic based around astrology, eventually founding their family solely for the purpose of expanding and advancing the application of magic, garnering their status as a noble family with extreme influence over the current kingdom and its government.

## Overview

### History

Before its establishment, the family progenitor Aleister Cagliostro was initially a civilian that worked as a teacher, being the only tutor from his village after most of the adults were enlisted into the war. Hailing from a nameless country, the land was ravaged by war for countless years, instigated by its rulers, inevitably escalating to the point of drawing the vast majority of its populace and the surrounding regions into the fight, with Aleister drafted to take part shortly afterwards. Finding that it was at his best interest to simply escape before his family could take part in the conflict, Aleister enlists all manner of defectors, ranging from artisans, mages, and astronomers to flee with him alongside his family, who had no desire to participate. Being the eldest son of the Cagliostro family, his family was comprised of himself and his parents, alongside his four younger siblings.

Making it as far as the country border, a brigade of soldiers wiped out most of passerby's, Aleister as the sole surviving member of his family, flees across the border, escaping into the desert with a mere handful of survivors. Comprised of mages and scholars, Aleister decides have them all band together, offering to form their own community and pool together their reservoir of skill and talent with the purpose of bettering the lives of those around them, spreading knowledge as well as preserving it for future generations, functioning similarly as librarians. As a result of their combined knowledge, they learned how to use magic in order to establish what would later be referred to as a guild of wizards, teaching others all manner of abilities and serving as the group's master of their order.

After months of travelling, Aleister and his group finally reach the continent of Ishgar. Aleister arrives into the country as an immigrant, and wanting to put his past behind him, decides to rename himself under the surname of "Strider", dropping the "Cagliostro" part of his name, something that only reminded him of what he had lost and, ultimately, what he felt responsible for, and into something that was meant for him to *"stride into a better place that where he started,"* deciding to turn his order of mages into a family of his own. effectively founding what would later be the Strider Family, with its first head falling under the protection of its patriarch Aleister Strider. In the following years, Aleister married and conceived his first child in the year X312 at the age of 28, marrying a woman from another mage family in what would become a reoccurring cycle in the future. Spending the vast majority of his time studying magic and adapting it to his own records, he had effectively archived and catalogued hundreds of spells thanks in part to his family, now numbering in the dozens due to his unique practice of consolidating other mages into his group as the family head. Following the year X316, Aleister began to adopt an unorthodox mage's mentality, straying from what he had initially set out to do, rather than simply record magic, Aleister used his experience and knowledge he had accumulated from all manner of places, including what his wife had already known, to recover and develop brand new magic, adopting it and improving on the original design, rather than simply preserving it.

His son now 4 years old and displaying tremendous magical talent from the combined efforts of his own expertise and his wife's experience on the matter, began to unveil another drastic change Aleister would incorporate down the lane. The Strider Family, originally comprised of mages, researchers such as astronomers, and miscellaneous laborers in the form of fortune tellers and artisans, made up the bulk of his family, eventually breaking off into separate branches as they adopted his surname when they all arrived together, having families of their own and perpetually expanding the family under his name, becoming large enough for Aleister to become what would they refer to as their patriarch. By X321, 37 years old and his son now 9 years old, his family had expanded with the intention of absorbing the knowledge and talents of others through planned marriages, Aleister now placing a focus on the prosperity and longevity of his household in the coming years by reinforcing his family line, making it a point on bringing in mages from other families into their own, placing a greater emphasis on the quality of magic from those marrying into the Strider Family, more so now then when Aleister did when he started his family.

From the the families the Strider Family had integrated into its ties, the pool of talent was raised dramatically, still making the collections and improvement of magic abilities a priority, with the number he and his family having recorded skyrocketing with the rapid increase, it gave them free time to teach members all manner of magic, whilst simultaneously using their newfound familial connections from the other members to place themselves in positions of power, creating a wide web of influence . Thanks in part that the family grew to such a point that they effectively split into two groups, mages, who focused on taking jobs and attaining high ranks or positions, and scholars, those invested in scouring through ruins or facilities of knowledge for more magic to pilfer. By this age, Aleister stumbled across Celestial Spirit Magic, being one of the few abilities that couldn't be altered or improved more than it already was, but inexplicably brought him the most joy to use. As he was nearing his senior age, the year being X351, Aleister was 67 years old, this became his primary method of magic, functioning as an extra pair of hands for him, and to some extension, additions to his family, eventually inheriting his keys to his children, a tradition that has continued to the current modern age in the Strider Family, with the primary family line all specializing in its use, often a requirement and a rite of passage when the children turn 10 years old. It was for this very reason, from all the magic spells, abilities, and arts they had recorded, the family chose to focus on magic arts that revolved around summoning entities or spirits, becoming one of, if not, the foremost masters in its use.

Even at his advanced age of 98, by the year X382, Aleister had fathered more children, having more than 8 sons and 5 daughters, with his youngest son conceived at the age of 88. Several years before the start of the the Dragon King Festival, Aleister disappears and is nowhere to be seen, his family trying in vain to look for him before ultimately giving up with the Dragons on the rise. With debate as to who should be chosen as successor of the Strider Family, many had wanted his oldest son be chosen based on family line, while others suggested that skill and talent be the deciding factor. As a result, in order to become the next head of the family in his stead, they established a system in which representatives fought on their behalf, effectively creating the Royal Successors Tournament. As of the current age of X943, the Strider Family has survived to the modern day, Aleister's beliefs and lessons still practiced today, with each family head still fathering a large enough family in order to choose the next successor from among his children.