Aldrich Benedict, Former Runic Professor

Aldrich Benedict,

This is gospel for the fallen ones

Have you ever had that elderly neighbor that absolutely hates everyone, and is always yelling at kids to get off of his lawn? That's Aldrich in a nutshell. There is of course more to him than that, but that's the best starting point of examination. He is a surly old man who has lived the past ten years of his life in solitude and isolation. Therefore his social skills have diminished over time as well. He is usually brash and aggressive, in a non-threatening way, to nearly everyone upon first meeting.



His background with the university gives him a bit of a superiority complex especially to those younger than he is. He was once a brilliant professor of Runic Magic, and has since become the world's foremost authority on spirits. However that same background also makes him incredibly suspicious and usually even hostile toward any known members or associates of the university.



What he really wants more than anything is to be left alone to focus on his research. He spends almost all of his time watching and examining wild and feral spirits in various parts of The Outlands. His desire to study the spirits is twofold. First is a legitimate intellectual curiosity for a species that has been ignored by science for hundreds of years. Again with the superiority complex. Besides that he has a true appreciation for the creatures that he feels saved his life. (more on that in the bio)

Aldrich is a tall, lean, and muscular old man. His bright white hair and matching sweet mustache stand at a stark contrast to his dark-bronze tanned skin. He clocks in at 6' 1" and weighs 180 lbs. His physique was crafted by a strict diet of anything he could eat to survive while in the field researching spirits, so needless to say while he eats anything he can get his hands on he never gets very much of it. His muscles are finely toned and he is in incredible shape for his age.



Aldrich almost always bears a stern scowl on his face especially when in the presence of uninvited guests. His dark, nearly black eyes haven't dulled with age, and despite the amount of time spent in the dark with his nose in a book his eyesight is still incredibly keen. His most distinguishing mark is the large scar on the left side of his chest. It's always kept concealed, and can't be seen while wearing a shirt of nearly any variety. However, if it is seen; it looks like a large burn nearly the size of an outstretched open hand just below his collar bone with three deep diagonal slashes from the shoulder o the center of his chest.


Aldrich's fashion sense is essentially moot. He has no one to impress, and therefore no need to dress nicely. His typical garb includes most of what you'd imagine someone who spends mos of their time in the forest would wear. Long pants with heavy boots at all times, long or short sleeves depending on the temperature, and a hat or hood to keep stuff out of his hair.

Parents

Mother: Dead and irrelevant
Father: Dead and irrelevant


Siblings: Only Child


Extended Family: None of note


Aldrich grew up in the capitol city Felici. His childhood was entirely standard and is irrelevant to his current self nearly five decades later, so I'm going to skip it. The first real significant event that happened in his life was when he was enrolled into the runic university. That was where he showed an aptitude for learning and writing the olden language. His grades were stellar throughout his entire tenure, though his social skills were (and still are) lacking. At the end of it all he graduated at the top of his class and was promptly offered a position as a researcher and professor as a member of the University staff.



His time as a runic professor was fairly standard. That is to say that it was god damned awful. He, while getting off lucky, was not used as a weapon for the headmaster. Instead he was a tool. His knack for picking up subtle details in the runic texts and impressive grades made him the perfect research slave. Through the day he would teach intermediate to advanced runic classes. At night, and sometimes for days on end, he was ordered to remain in the depths of the University's library conducting research into discovering new words of the Olden Language that held runic power. Averaging two to three hours of sleep a night, and being worked all others his appearance during this time period was ragged to say the least. Most people who knew him then would have a hard time recognizing him now that he is actually healthy and well rested.



All of this time grinding in the University library was leading up to the next point of significance in his life. He discovered that the word spirit, albeit in an extremely uncommon dialect of the language, held runic power. From that point all of his research was pushed in the direction of discovering what other words worked in conjunction with spirit. Countless hours were poured into developing the new runes. Finally he created a new variant on the Magical Barrier the Spirit Barrier (expect a post in the suggestion box) would not allow any spirit to pass through it.



All that was left to do was test the effectiveness of the rune. In what may have been the most reckless action that anyone could possibly consider; Aldrich had a feral spirit captured and delivered to him at the university. Inside one of the deepest laboratories he set up his experiment. The spirit was placed in the center of the room and the symbols were drawn on the floor around it. In a twist of fate the symbol directly in front of Aldrich was off by the slightest margin. When the cage was opened the enraged spirit broke right through the ineffective barrier, and this thing pounced straight onto Aldrich burning a large portion of his left chest, and destroying his obedience tattoo in the process.



The spirit being a member of a wise and ancient race chose discretion as the better part of valor, and rather that staying to kill Aldrich chose to flee the university with all post haste. Being wounded, but free for the first time in nearly three decades Aldrich had a genuine opportunity. Choosing to fight through the pain of the burn he looted the library for any research materials on the spirits as he could find and as much of the runic ink as he could carry. With one last stop on his way out of the university he broke into the headmaster's office and stole his antique gilded stylus. The one the headmaster had used for his own runic work for as long as anyone could remember. It was a pretty but otherwise worthless trinket, but Aldrich just wanted to take something from the old bastard simply out of spite.


Since his escape from the university he has spent the last decade living as a hermit in the Arecia woods. He passes his time by a rigorous study of the creatures that nearly ended, and simultaneously saved his life. Over the last ten years he has become the self proclaimed greatest authority on spirits in the world. Besides that he will occasionally create runes or confer some runic knowledge in return for newer and in most cases older research materials to help aid him in his goal of further understanding The wild spirits and runic magic.

- Runic Magic: Novice
- Runic Magic: Amateur






- Runic Magic: Apprentice
- Runic Magic: Expert
- Runic Magic: Master

- Unarmed Combat I (Wortanfügen: A hand to hand martial art developed by and for runic students in the university. It deals mostly with using pre-written runes, and teaches its students skills to attach their runes to unwilling/hostile targets. It can be taught at ass in the university, but is mostly used as a recreational extracurricular. (Think like the wizard dueling club in the second Harry Potter book.))



- Throwing I

[b]One Punch Man, Bang[/b] as [i]Aldrich Benedict[/i]