A reference for Alexei.

Primary Ability: Casting — Alexei is a member of the Druid Order and acts as the Keeper for the Northern Germany region, and as such also possesses an Ancestral Tome to which he has devoted himself to study. Alexei is widely respected for his unrivaled mastery of offensive elemental magic, and he is capable of doling them out in an unrelenting tempo.

Secondary Ability: Runology — Alexei does not focus much of his attention on the use of runes, but even he cannot deny their usefulness. Through his studies Alexei, and his own invention, has acquired a terrifying library of runes that devastate whatever is unlucky enough to be their target.

Common Runes (Various effects can be achieved based on the combination of runes used):

• Thermite - Thermite is a fast burning rune that produces a lance of intense flames that can burn a hole through solid steel within moments.
• Napalm - Contrary to Thermite, Napalm is a slow burning rune that ejects a globule of burning gel that will cling to whatever it touches, it also does not get extinguished until its energy dissipates and is so persistent that it will continue to burn the victim even when submerged in water.
• Acid - Similar to Napalm, Acid ejects a caustic gel that will cling to its target and eat away at whatever surface is unlucky enough to act as its host.
• Explosion - Creates a sudden and violent explosion that completely shatters the rune in order to create shrapnel.
• Fire - Creates a jet of flame.
• Razor Wind - Creates a gust of strong wind that when focused can easily rend soft tissue that is in its path, and gouge a deep gash in hard surfaces.
• Shock - Creates an arc of powerful electricity.
• Leech - Forces a bond between Alexei and the target which drains the energy from their body. With more power focused into the rune Alexei can even steal life force, although use to this extent was prohibited by the Council.
• Dispel - Negates magic in the area the rune is activated.
• Deny Magic - Increases resistance to magical energies (most common on armors, robes, and clothing).
• Deny Elements - Increases resistance to natural energies and elements (most common on armors, robes, and clothing).
  

• Skill level: 90
• Power level: 60
• Control: +30

• Known Limits: Alexei has dedicated his life to being a Keeper. Every waking moment for him is filled with either studying the Tome, or putting his body through torturous training. The result is a man with a mind like tempered steel, and a scarred body that is as solid and unmoving as bedrock. Through a rigid life style and a tasteless, strict diet Alexei has a mana pool that is unmatched by anyone else in the Druid Order. Everything in the man's life has been designed to make him a man with no fear, no equal, and no weakness. Then with his hunter's instincts coupled with his Keeper's Eye, he ruthlessly tracks down his targets with deadly efficiency. One's best hope is to land a hit though the use of either good timing or attacks from multiple fronts.

Alexei, like all Keepers, inherited the position from his predecessor. The key difference with Alexei is that he is not descended from his predecessor. Alexei's mentor was a particularly harsh man who was with the Order who happened across Alexei when the boy was barely four years old and living at an orphanage. With no children of his own to carry on his station of Keeper, “Mentor” sensed Alexei's potential and took him on as his protégé, and for a few brief days Alexei thought he had found a home. Much to the boy's despair he had left behind an uncaring orphanage and ended up in a nightmare. From the moment Alexei was at Mentor's mercy he was forced into his training to harness his magic abilities through means that broke both the boy's mind and body. Then, from the shattered pieces Alexei was built into a terrifying force.

Before Alexei was even ten he was practicing spells that could devastate an opponent, and was frequently abandoned in the middle of harsh wilderness with nothing but his hands and some rags for clothing. One such exercise dictated that Alexei be left in the middle of a vast Russian forest in the middle of winter, and he was to find his way to where Mentor had set up camp within four days; the one condition for his success was that he must bring have a fresh wolf pelt with him upon arrival. Alexei had succeeded in acquiring a wolf pelt through feigning weakness to make him a target, but he had arrived at the camp seven hours late. The punishment he received was not the first instance, but each punishment increased in severity and the details are too harsh to be put into words.

Once Alexei was around the age of 14, Mentor put him to one last test. Alexei would fight Mentor, and in this instance the only condition for victory was to land a hit on Mentor that was enough to leave a lasting scar on the man's body. So Alexei fought ferociously like the savage animals he was forced to hunt along his journey, but Mentor was an eternity ahead of the boy. In the fight Alexei experienced more agony than he had from any of Mentor's punishments, and Alexei had no doubt in his mind that Mentor had every intention of killing Alexei if the boy did not win. There would be no second chances. The fight progressed without any surprise as Alexei was fighting just to stay alive the entire time, and after what seemed like an eternity of being plagued by sheer terror Alexei was on the brink of death. In the final, waning moments of his young and painful life Alexei learned the final lesson Mentor was teaching him. He had felt Death's embrace, he now knew the feeling of the cold fingers of fate, and now he no longer felt fear in any degree. In the final moments as Mentor cast the spell that would end Alexei's life, the young boy cast what magic he had left and landed a hit on Mentor's upper left thigh. The lance of magical fire gouged out a ravine in the older man's flesh, and ended the fight with Alexei the winner. Without pause or break, Mentor gave Alexei the last task he would have for the boy. Exhausted and broken from the fight, Alexei was to begin walking out into the wilderness, once more to track a wild animal. Upon inquiring about the type of animal, Mentor merely responded with, “You will know.”

So the battered Alexei began his slow limp out into the forests of Germany in the middle of winter, still bleeding and burnt from his fight, for the purpose of tracking a mysterious animal. Alexei had no magic left over to warm himself with, and he had lost a lot of blood during the fight with Mentor which allowed the bitter wind to freeze the boy to his core. He limped for hours as he made his way north through the forest. As he was on the verge of collapse out in the middle of nowhere, he heard a faint whisper in the back of his mind. “Fight boy,” the voice whispered in a harsh tone, “The death of you means the death of me. Fight boy.”

Alexei panned around for the source, but could not find the speaker. In fact, the only living thing aside from himself was a young raven perched upon a lofty branch on the other side of a snowy clearing. The raven had its eyes locked on him in a burning gaze. Alexei fought back the pain that racked his body and stood up straight and stretched out his arm in front of him. “You are the one I seek,” Alexei declared to the raven. Then with a shrill cry in response the raven spread his wings and glided across the dead clearing to its new perch on the boy's arm.

“That I am, boy,” the black bird said back, “Our bond must be complete. What is your name, and what is mine?”

This gave the boy pause for the first time in his life. In the years he had been with Mentor he had always been “boy”, and he had no recollection of his name from the orphanage. “I do not know your name, just as I have been given no name myself.”

“Then I shall give you the name Alexei. The warrior. Bred to kill and someday be killed yourself,” the raven said as it bestowed upon Alexei the first identity that was ever truly his own.

“In that case I shall give you the name Hadyn,” Alexei bestowed upon the raven in return.

“The heathen?” Hadyn asked. “A fitting name for a raven.”

With the pair having given each other an identity, Alexei at once felt warmth return to his body as Hadyn shared his own energy with the freezing boy. Then without another word Alexei and Hadyn left the forest, and Alexei left as a full Druid; and Mentor's replacement as Keeper of Northern Germany.

• Appearance: Alexei tops out at 6' even. His hair is a tangled mess of black that falls unevenly around his head and face. Set beneath a scarred brow are piercing eyes that feel like cold knives that can cut away any mental defense, and set up his right eye is the Keeper's Seal that gives him the ability to detect and read magical signatures. His face is tanned and wind-burnt from his constant exposure to harsh elements, his jaw is strong and wide, his nose looks to have been broken at some point in the past, and he has a vivid scar running vertically across his left cheek, marring his ceremonial Order mark.

• Magical Item: Alexei has spent years hunting and tracking down various magical artifacts to help himself grow even more powerful. Among these items numerous tomes, as well as a few magical gems.

• Magical Outfit: Alexei wears the same style of cloak as the rest of the Keepers do, only that his is a lot more tattered. He keeps the cloak fastened around his neck while the remained is pushed back across his shoulders.

• Familiar: Hadyn the Raven

Tomes:

• Keeper's Tome of Germany
• The End
• Druid Histories volumes 28 through 31

Gems:

• Babylon Gem - Amethyst

• Alexei has mastered numerous spells that are all destruction based.