Kensington

* **Name:**Kenneth Roger Tollefson
* **Position:**Professional freelance consulting mage , working almost exclusively for the Underberg Family. Chief Magical Officer for the Sons of Moria Lodge No. 25 and *de facto* leader of the local Sons of Ivaldi.
* **Metatype:**Dwarf  (*Homo sapiens pumilionis*)
* **Magical Tradition:**Norse Runic Magic (Hermetic)
* **DOB:**12/21/2022 Alexandria, MN, USA (now UCAS)
* **Education:**Masters in Astral Archeology, St.Cloud State University (Minnesota State Magical Certification)
* **Family:**Nathaniel Tollefson (father, deceased), Katherine [nee Castberg] Tollefson (mother, deceased), Roger Castberg (grandfather, deceased), Ilsa [nee Olson] Castberg (grandmother, deceased)

Not a lot is known about the early life of the Dwarven mage called 'Kensington'. According to his legal records, he's an Alexandria native, his parents died early (records of their deaths were lost in one of the Matrix  Crashes) and his grandmother, the late Ilsa Castberg, a retired school teacher and museum volunteer, is listed as his guardian for most of what can be found.

He really only emerges on the official records in any detail when he starts attending St.Cloud State University in the fall of 2040, where he specializes in Magic and Archeology, fixated especially on the runic tradition, often going back to Alexandria to study the so-called 'Kensington Runestone', an artifact purporting to be from a Viking incursion as far inland in Minnesota from the 1300's, long since dismissed as a hoax by experts. Kenneth's thesis paper (*Authenticity and Belief: The Kensington Runestone and the Power of Hoaxes*) about how its status as a false story made it interesting enough to generate enough of an astral imprint to give it actual power, which was at odds with mainstream Hermetic thinking at the time (ironically, it now fits nicely in the current version of the UMT). Tollefson's abrasive manner and active confrontations with his teachers and peers were enough that by the time he got his degree in 2047, he was already all but blackballed by the working/academic magical community in Minnesota.

Enter Fargo used car salesman and Dwarven gangster Buddy Underberg. In the late 2040's Buddy was just emerging from a vicious gang war against the Tiospaye  (the so-called "Whiskey-Callahan  War") and while he'd managed to do pretty well from it, it had hammered home how magically underpowered his own organization was. And the brilliant but disgraced young Dwarf mage was exactly what he was looking for. He swept in and offered Kenneth enough off-the-books work to fund his further research. This suited the driven and somewhat amoral Tollefson just fine and a twenty-plus year partnership was begun. The rune tattooes he used as a focus as well as his fixation on certain artifacts started the joke among the other Underberg associates that he WAS the Kensington Runstone and the nickname 'Kensington' stuck.

Ever since then Kensington has stuck with the Underbergs, keeping himself mostly to himself and his private researches except when called upon (still on a pay-per-call consultancy basis) by the Underbergs to do whatever it is they need his magic to do. He may not think of himself as a mob mage but at this point, he's pretty much the only one.

Return to: Underberg Family