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Dr. Randall Eugene Wainright - The Backstory of Our Star:

Thomas and Claire Wainwright were a middle-class couple living in the urban section of the town of Silverhall. The couple worked as craftsmen and carpenters, but mainly as carriage-makers. After an especially lucrative military contract, the two decided to raise a child. Thus was born, our hero, Randall Wainwright. From a young age it became apparent that Randall possessed a towering intellect. To his parents’ amazement, Randall was speaking in full sentences before his first birthday. Before he even went to school, he was able to read signs of important places and stores around the city. He loved to play with the components of the carriages while his father worked. Thomas used to joke to his wife that maybe 4 year old Randall knew how to put together a carriage. He was probably right.

Randall was the pride and joy of his family for the early part of his life. When he went to school, however, things started to change. At first, Randall loved school and loved telling his parents what he learned each day. He showed enthusiasm and a great willingness to learn. By the time he was 8, it became clear that school bored Randall. Instead, he would spend a great deal of time in the town’s library. Not long after, he dropped out of school. This upset his parents greatly since they tried incredibly hard to scrap together the cash to pay for schooling, which is not a luxury most middle-class people have.

At this point, Randall became somewhat of a recluse – basically living in the library. He would sneak in after closing time with a bag full of candles and read for hours on end. It is quite possible that he read every book in Silverhall’s library, but the books that intrigued him most were the ones dealing with various schools of magic. That there existed such power in this world just waiting to be tapped simply astonished and captivated Randall. However, Silverhall’s library was not very big, and did not have many books on magic.

Perhaps this is why, at 13, he tried to convince his parents take him to Brevoy’s capital to marvel at its library. When they explained that they simply could not afford to leave their shop, he ran away from home to the capital. Armed only with the clothes on his back, some food he took from his house, and a small kitchen knife, Randall set off for the capital. On the way he was attacked by a wolf and nearly died. He managed to save himself by fashioning a bandage from the food sack he was carrying, but was left with a gruesome scar running from the back of his right ear down to the bottom of his neck. Injured but alive, Randall made it to the capital, which was considerably richer and more urban than Silverhall. He lived there as a beggar for some years, nearly starving many times. But somehow we would use his wits to get by. Anyway, for Randall, he did not care about living comfortably or luxuriously. He needed more knowledge.

By 16, somehow, without being trained by a mage, Randall spent enough time reading and thinking about magic that he was able to cast a few rudimentary spells. He figured the fact that he was able to do this might allow him entrance to the nearby College of Mages. Usually such a place is reserved for noblemen or a select few. However, upon proving that he was in touch with magic, The Archmage actually decided to let him in to the College. Randall agreed to a rather interesting entrance exam, one where he had to kill an apprentice’s conjured frost troll. He used the only real spell he knew, a magic missile, to melt its face and skull into oblivion.

The next few years were the best years of Randall’s life thus far. Although he was not very popular or well-liked by his professors or peers, they could not deny Randall’s natural gift for magic and his remarkable intelligence. Randall did not spend much time socializing – for him, talking bags of flesh were not nearly as interesting as, for example, learning how to make a column of ice appear from thin air. All schools of magic interested Randall – conjuration, divination, enchantment, illusion, and even necromancy. Necromancy was actually forbidden in the college but there was one professor, a quirky fellow, perhaps more even eccentric than Randall that would secretly practice all sorts of forbidden magic in the Academy’s basement at night. This professor, Dexter Kristoff, became a great friend and mentor to Randall. Kristoff was extremely powerful, probably more powerful than the Archmage. He told stories of his younger days as an adventurer/mercenary, where he killed many men. He said teaching magic at the College is his way of repenting for the lives he took – for not all were evil. Some of Professor Kristoff’s cold sense of humor stays with Randall to this day.

Randall was always prone to showmanship and had a remarkable ego. He frequently proclaimed that he was the greatest mage and that no other student could best him in the arts of magic. This led to many an unfortunate magical duel between Randall and other students. Randall made almost no friends, many enemies, and was often disciplined by the academy staff and professors for his bad behavior and unpermitted spell casting. However, it is worth noting that Randall won almost every duel he was involved in, often by superior magical ability, sometimes by deceit.

After spending quite some time at the college and making it well past the Initiate (errand-boy) rank, Randall ran into some trouble. One day, Professor Kristoff and Randall decided that they were ready to test a new necromancy technique that can magically bring a person back from the dead, and make them stronger than they were in life. They had already tested it on a few toads and they were able to succeed once. This time they wanted to try it on a person. One of the Initiates at the Academy volunteered, likely to gain approval from Professor Kristoff. Hoping to cover his tracks in case anything went awry, Professor Kristoff made the student fill out a consent form. The process involved temporarily killing the subject, only to revive it seconds later. However, for some reason still unbeknownst to Randall, he and the Professor were not able to revive their subject this time. They had effectively murdered someone, which was very hard for Randall do deal with. Still, he tells himself it was for the sake of knowledge.

Professor Kristoff took full responsibility for the incident, but still, Randall’s involvement was not concealable. As such, Professor Kristoff was sent to trial at the High Swordlord’s Court while Randall was luckily simply exiled from the College.

Randall would have been miserable with no college to learn from. Luckily, Professor Kristoff offered Randall an opportunity. The Professor had connections with a local swordlord, and was to picked for a charter expedition into the Stolen Lands. However, with the upcoming trial, he would have been forced to decline. Instead, he offered his charter to Randall, and said he would vouch for his eligibility for the task. Randall knew that there are great secrets to be found in this region – magic beings, fey walkers, all kinds of exciting opportunities to learn. He was more than enthusiastic, with a chance to conduct actual field studies in a region replete with magic and barely tainted by civilization.

Before he left for the High Court, the Professor gave Randall a special item – a musket he found in Numeria, back during his adventuring days, owned by a strange mechanical bandit leader that he killed. With his new weapon, his knowledge of magic, and incredibly ambitious dreams, Randall set off for the Stolen Lands to seize his opportunity to learn, grow, and become the most powerful mage the world has ever seen.