Xaris

Xaris, a mage of Sarnian origin, was trained at Aragard Reach. Though he was one of the most gifted students of his day, his progress was slowed by the fact that he spent much of his time drinking and goofing off rather than devoting himself to study. Adventuring appealed to Xaris’ need for excitement, and as he was unusually cynical from a young age, he easily accepted the ethical compromises that were sometimes required. He had a fine command of offensive combat spells and was on many occasions critical to the survival of Artemis Boone’s trusty band. Many heard him boast of his singlehanded dispatch of a powerful vampire long before he had passed the test to become a full Magus (though he never bothered to explain that the vampire had tripped on a flight of stairs and fallen face-first onto Xaris’ Wand of Fireballs, catastrophically triggering all remaining charges in the device). However, Xaris was also just as happy to avoid a fight; he was particularly proud of having helped Artemis to convince his half-brother Gareth of his good intentions, which reconciled them and avoided a bloody battle that would inevitably have ended with the death of one of the brothers.

Xaris was naturally gifted in shadow magic, a rare form of magic that few have ever done really well. As a Magus, he worked to understand the limits and abilities of shadow magic and developed several new spells. While adventuring in the Frozen Kingdoms of the south, he met the master smith Sarah Hammerfall, who was to forge the three prophesied Hammerfall blades from meteoritic iron. Sarah fell in love with the smooth-talking magus, and eventually married him and followed him to Aragard Reach, where he became a teacher after he retired from the adventuring life. Though outwardly gruff and a tough disciplinarian, Xaris was devoted to his students. Indeed, he eventually made the ultimate sacrifice for them when, already all but dead, he used the last of his life force to save the lives of students who had been taken prisoner after a brutal attack on Aragard Reach in which most of the faculty were slaughtered. (It was this catastrophe that led to Maureen Solara, one of his first apprentices, assuming the mantle of leadership.) Many incidents from Xaris’ eventful life could well have been immortalized in song; unfortunately, the one that somehow became the best known was a traumatic experience that got him nicknamed “Xaris Ashfoot.” An ill-timed failure of a teleportation spell caused him to materialize waist-deep in a pool of lava, and though he managed to teleport out immediately, he suffered critical injuries that he barely survived with the aid of magical healing. He was particularly irritated in later life to know that a persistent rumor circulated among the mage students that the reason he never fathered children was that his manhood had been burned off.

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