O. N. Tesla's page

1: Tesla is a tall (just over 6 foot), average-proportioned human man. He has dark brown hair, neatly combed and with a slick mustache. He prefers wearing tough but relatively loose-fitting brown clothing, a stylistic mixture of wizard's robes and explorer's gear (he appreciates the durability, and the freedom it provides when needing to run from something blowing up in his face). However, when the situation calls for it, he dresses up in what people from Earth would recognize as a suitcoat, typically in a thatched gray color. His resting face is that of a neutral disposition, but when anything of not happens, it changes into one of furrowed concentration. When casting, he tenses as though ready to run in the opposite direction, but has an unwavering look of determination simultaneously, and other times, he's constantly looking around, absorbing everything he can.
While he doesn't particularly care all too much about how people perceive him, preferring they instead judge him for his work, he does want to be taken seriously, something of a problem when most of his experiments end up blowing up in his face. However, he gets incredibly annoyed whenever someone dismisses him or his experiments, but keeps himself in check from acting rashly.

2: Tesla seeks nothing less than ULTIMATE ARCANE POWER! Ahem. Not actually. Rather, he sees the entirety of magic as an enormous puzzle, and with society advancing so quickly, hopes to be the one to unravel the secret nature of magic. Or, rather, harness its use to its maximum potential. Above all, he believes that magic can be understood, for the most part. That is, while he doesn't believe in anything underlying magic as its source (simply viewing it as an extension of the multiverse), he does think that it can be controlled and harnessed in such a way as to be incredibly useful, beyond what is currently thought to be its limits. While just as often as not this results in some crazy, unpredictable result, he persists nonetheless.
For leisure, he greatly enjoys playing games of both strategy and chance, but likewise enjoys reading and can memorize most things with a casual easy, meaning he rarely reads the same thing twice. He can be quite obsessive at times, getting so wrapped up in a game, project, or book, that he neglects all else, but it's infrequent. He also has trouble taking jokes, seeing them as being dismissive of him and his work.
(The most suffice description I could give is "mad scientist" in terms of quirks. He talks fast when discussing his discoveries, is impatient with people who don't understand him, and gets overenthusiastic about, in this case, magic)

3: Born in Taldor, son of a local Abaradian cleric, Tesla had always excelled in classes. This was largely thanks to an eidetic memory, and a knack for magic that he began displaying at the tender age of six. By the time he was seven, he had mastered basic spells, and by the time he turned eight, he was forced to flee the country after his father was killed in the first struggles of the Eutropan Civil War. Stowing away on a ship bound for Absalom, he had to find his way in the city for, fortunately only a few days when that Hermean recruiters (having had their eyes on the young boy since he cast his first cantrip a full decade before most managed to do so, and no glaring physical issues like most casting prodigies) swooped in and offered Tesla a chance to be part of the Glorious Endeavor. Having no better option, he accepted. Once there, he was inducted into the society of Hermea, learning and exploring the power of magic. Amazed by one of his teacher's mastery of raw, untamed magic, Tesla sought to replicate it, delving into the depths of Primal Magic to enhance his power.

After years of work, Tesla managed to distill his search into its most essential components, and he focused on the raw power that could be provided by spells, caring little for the subtleties of the mind or learning the deeper truths of the world. It was this exact knack, always looking for ways to increase power, that led him, one day, to going too far. When an unexpected firestorm from an experiment gone awry burned down a full block, causing numerous deaths, Tesla suddenly found himself on the wrong end of the Council of Enlightenment, and found himself once again forced to flee for his life. Narrowly escaping (though always suspecting he was allowed to get away, for whatever reason), he spent a year (age 17) doing menial labor (usually as a scribe) in Varisia and Nirmathas. Eventually, he got fed up with it and sought to do magic full-time once more. Reconstructing his notes from scratch, he attempted to restart his Primal Magic research, but kept finding himself kicked out of town after town, even when nobody died (for whatever reason).
In time, he made his way through Lastwall, what used to be Belkzen, Numeria, and finally Brevoy. Having not yet sullied his reputation in this latest country (and having gotten more self-control for when to do his experiments), Tesla managed to become part of an envoy into the Stolen Lands. There, he hopes, he might be able to perform his experiments in peace. Ideally, he might be able to create an entire convoy, all working to maximize the utility of magic, hopefully easing the life of all (while not a goal he personally holds for his research, he still recognizes its nobility). In time, perhaps, unlimited free magic would revolutionize the world, but for now, he's steeled himself to use his power to blow up some goblins, or whatever might threaten the new colony.

(Non-religious, having lived half his life in Hermea, learned wizardry both from the local hedge magician and then the Glorious Endeavor's best and brightest.)

4: He's an itinerant wanderer, having 'failed' out of Hermean society, but still holding a lot of the attributes from the country.

5: Tesla, after so many years of working with it, is imbued beyond his knowledge with raw, untamed magic. He's functionally a giant battery for mana. All it would take is a spark, and he could be consumed from the inside out with raw energy. Or, perhaps it would leave him permanently enhanced with overflowing magic, just as he hoped? Who's to say?