Scion of a house fallen into nothing, Simon was born to be a leader of men and a king among wizards - till he threw it away to save a slave girl.
Now he seeks to create an Academy to teach wizardry to the poor. To fight for the right of the common laborer. To become Nomarch of Coopertown. And, one day, to overthrow the First Spell Lord Gyr of Gixx.
Business:
The Holistic Academy
A school of wizardry that teaches for free - though requires the student work for ten years before graduating.
Built in the ruins of the Hess mansion in the Petal District, the Academy will grow as the house is repaired.
Classroom, Alchemy Lab, Lodging, Lavatory, Magical Repository, Laborers, a Magical Repository and surrounded by [http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/illusory-wall]Illusory Walls[/url]
Simon was born to the prestigious Hess family in 4646 - a numerologically significant year. His family was one of the major houses, a High Seat of the Grand Council, contending for the Primarchy itself. Simon was uniquely talented at magic, with both a natural gift for magic and the intellect to study wizardry. He was a prodigy, and his skill at magic exemplified that. He was courted from a young age by the various academies, and comparisons with Nex himself were made. Bought up in privilege, naturally gifted and charismatic, Simon firmly believed in his own power.
In 4660 Gyr of Gixx came to Absalom, and to power. His family was humbled and Simon was sent touring the great academies of Golarion. At age 17, after a few years of such touring, Simon hired himself out as a mercenary wizard and adventurer for a few years, returning in triumph at 19. It was 4665 when he returned, expecting glory.
His father warned him that his grandfather had lost much against Gyr. The family position was now to oppose slavery, in the hopes of cutting into the First Spell Lord’s popularity with the common man. Simon disliked slavery anyway, and when a young escaped slave girl sought refuge in the house of Hess, he gave it.
The standoff with the slavers bent on recapturing her is the stuff of legend. The young heroic noble brought down a ball of fire that incinerated her pursuers. It was, perhaps, the worst thing he could have done.
Simon was made an example of, his house having earned the enmity of Gyr. He was sentenced to exile, and branded with a “Mark of Justice” from the Abadarians that would leave him a husk should he cast again. He was fined for the deaths of the slavers, and forced to pay for the girl, Aeshleigh. Then both of them were told to leave.
Simon accepted exile - to Coppertown. There he hid, noblesse oblige leaving him to look after a 7 year old now-freed slave, all while having no spellcasting ability, and no available cash.
Coppertown was a town of poor laborers, so poor they could not even afford to live in Absalom. They lived in tents and shacks, desperately working to earn enough money to keep their children alive long enough to also get simple, low paying, dead end jobs. There was, simply, no-one there who could buy any of Simon’s goods.
Simon took a job collecting sticks. He turned out to be good at it - his adventurer’s gear let him work long hours, move quickly, and carry a lot of wood. He ground his teeth at the fees he had to pay to collect wood in the forest. But still, he labored, succeeded, and plotted. He earned the sobriquet ‘Longreach’ for his height. Then he got sick.
A neighbour barely able to feed her six children cared for him, and he realised how hard things were for these people. As he recovered, in gratitude, he taught her children. It was a wonder - Once he had taught basic letters to her oldest, he was able to get a better paying job as a messenger. His meagre salary made him a lord in Coppertown. He persevered, taught his siblings, and eventually started to make a life for himself. As soon as he did he moved the entire family out of Coppertown.
A year went by. The Familky Hess suffered reversal after reversal. His uncles moved to new houses. His aunts married foreigners. His brothers suffered ‘accidents’. Soon only his grandfather, father and himself were left. Then just he and his father.
Simon’s hope was this: long had there been a rule in Absalom that a Scion may not be in Exile. When his father died, he could return.
Twenty years passed. Simon managed to start a small alchemy shop, because of his advantages. He taught Ashleigh magic - and when he realised her talent sent her off to study in Absalom, a single pawned item paying for five years of study - enough to buy ten houses in Coppertown. He started teaching the neighbourhood children for free, including the basics of magic. Finally he resigned himself to a never ending exile, and settled down. He married. Had children. Grandchildren. He studied and taught the basics of magic, over and over again. A genius of magic condemned to study only the basics.
And he made his breakthroughs. He realised the very concept of specialisation was anathema. ALL WAS ONE.
Finally, at age 93, his father died alone in the half-collapsed Hess mansion. Creditors seized it before he was cold. Stripped and ruined, Simon managed to buy it auction for a song and the promise to beautify it.
Simon called upon all he had studied for fifty years, and cast a single spell - a spell to break the Mark. A spell no wizard could cast. But it worked.
Now he back in Absalom. His school is small, for now. Tiny. But it will grow, for he plans to accept students based solely on ability, not money.
Ashleigh:
Ashliegh is Simon’s star pupil. She’s spent a long time learning from many wizards, reaching great power on her own Human Wizard (Spell Sage) 5.
She does not have Simon’s patience, but she does have his knack for destruction - and it is one she has nurtured.
Simon freed her at age 7, then raised her, then paid for her training - he is the only parent she remembers.
Now Simon has started his school, she has returned to assist.
