(L'atio and) Zinnia

(Note: Zinnia is the player character and L'atio is the narrative NPC)

Gender: 
Male (L'atio)
Female (Zinnia)

Age: 
Doesn't remember, but definitely precedes the Age of Progress (L'atio)
12 (Zinnia)

Race:
Astralblood (both)

Nationality: 
King's Valley

Appearance:

L'atio is a hard-covered book with metal frames on its corners, somehow still pristine and new despite its true age. What vague glimpses into his original form would show him as an adult male with fair skin, red hair and cyan eyes, wearing simple robes with gold rims.

Zinnia is a tan-skinned girl with glowing orange hair, regularly caked in dyes causing them to appear ochre and matted. Her eyes are naturally cyan, but dyed mostly brown thanks to magic. Her clothes are simple, fitting the rural village she lives in. She also possesses a magical tattoo behind her neck that she is unaware of, and is blissfully ignorant of its purpose.

Personality:

L'atio is highly arrogant and easily irritable, with little to no interest in mortal affairs, though him being stuck in a book and incapable of acting by himself leaves him dependent on Zinnia to do his bidding, forcing him to maintain a facade of civility and politeness towards his pawn. He keeps it well under wraps, but his murderous insanity can sometimes surface and get the better of him.

Zinnia is best described as a country bumpkin, naive to the workings of the world outside of her village, and starting to hit the rebellious streak common at her age. Easily dazzled by any magic that looks cool, and wishes to be an archmage despite her past.

History:

L'atio was born in a line of royals claiming to be attuned to the divine as the youngest prince to some kingdom whose name has long since been lost to time. He was never supposed to be king, you see, and even he himself agreed he would be ill-suited and readily abdicated his right to the throne, content to lose himself in the pursuit of magic instead. Unfortunately for him and for the kingdom, that was not to be as a mysterious plague would wipe out his entire family except him, which made him king by default. That was only the beginning of his woes, however, as unlike his predecessors or his family, the divinity in him was exceptionally potent compared to others. And it would manifest itself as voices who spoke of everything under the sun, from his rage as the conservative court physicians who refused to delve into the forbidden to save his family, his paranoia for everyone else as he was very much the black sheep among the royals, to his desire for more power that began as a wish to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again, which all eventually devolved into murderous contempt for everyone and everything as insanity gripped him. This all culminated in him attempting to destroy his own kingdom when in his madness, he believed his citizens were attempting to overthrow him. He was only stopped through countless sacrifices, and even then he was so powerful they could not kill him, only managing to seal his soul in a book and digging the deepest crypt possible to make sure he would never surface once more.

Of course, the denizens at the time failed to account for changes in geography and he eventually found himself on a river which whisked him to new shores, where he would be found by his pawn, er, I mean, new apprentice, and promptly latched himself onto her soul, resulting in the two sharing a mental bond, though it is largely one-sided - L'atio can prevent his thoughts from spilling into her mind, but not the opposite.

Zinnia was a young Astralblood who was abandoned by her parents at birth when a travelling fortuneteller told them she would invite disaster to their lives, leaving her under the care of her uncle until one day at the age of 8, the prophecy would manifest by way of her accidentally setting her uncle's house on fire with her uncle still in it and inadvertently claiming his life, and it threatened to take hers as well, which was only prevented by the intervention of a passing mage. This passing mage, a Sylvan Elf named Arlebus Semele, would take Zinnia in and train her to control her magic, though his laidback demeanour regularly left her wanting. It was during one of her errands that she would stumble upon the spellbook that hosted L'atio.

Unbeknownst to her, though, Arlebus had implanted an anti-magic seal on the back of her neck for reasons unknown.

Zinnia has no surname, subconsciously not wanting to use her uncle's after causing his death by accident, even if her memories of the whole ordeal are deeply repressed.

General NPCs

Arlebus Semele

Male, Sylvan Elf, age unknown

A Sylvan Elf mage who rescued Zinnia from the fire she accidentally caused and took her in. A laid-back man, to put it charitably, he is lazy and would leave Zinnia to handle most chores at their home and rarely taught her anything truly substantial, often distracting her with harmless magics, which Zinnia found largely boring and would refuse to properly remember how to cast them. This proclivity also meant that Zinnia would find L'atio a preferable teacher for the most part. Appears to be a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none.