Sean McAllister
Son of Marquis Alasdair McAllister of Dunvegan
Grandson of Prince Brannart McGregor of Klantyre
Water Elementalist of the Third Circle
AC 1014
"Oh please! You call that magic? I've been casting that cantrip since I was baby!"
Appearance
By his mere looks, Sean McAllister can be instantly identified as a Glantrian wizard. He is brash and arrogant and flashy, and only wears the latest in Glantrian fashions. His boyish features make him look younger than his twenty-odd years, but with his strong Kaelic features, one cannot mistake him from being anything but a McGregor. Still, Sean is never seen in the traditional costumes of Klantyre.
Personality & Quirks
Sean has not outgrown his adolescence, and is often times even juvenile and childish. Because magic has always been easy with him, Sean has become proud and lazy. He has very little respect for adults, partially because he is superior to most of them when it comes to magic, partially because he grew up undisciplined in his childhood at Crownguard—where he was under the haphazard parenting of his mad relatives, particularly the schizophrenic Sir Quentin McGregor.
But despite his rebelliousness, Sean is constantly searching for a father figure, and will constantly try to befriend and impress a paternal figure he meets—until Sean deems him magically inferior and therefore unworthy.
Sean is deathly afraid of little young boys, and is known to wet himself when this terrible phobia besets him.
Background
Sean McAllister was practically abandoned by his father, Lord Alasdair McAllister, Count of Glenargyll, after his birth in AC 994. Sean's poor mundaner mother, Barbara McGregor (who only married the Count to escape from the McGregors at Crownguard) tried her best to be the mother that Sean needed. But at the age of 2, when Sean showed signs of magical talent, it was decided by his grandfather Prince Brannart McGregor and his absentee father, that Sean would receive magical instruction at the earliest possible time at Crownguard. Lady Barbara vehemently opposed, but had no choice in the matter. When Sean turned three, Lady Barbara surrendered Sean to the McGregors—who cared more of the torment this would do to Barbara than for the good it would do for Sean.
When Sean arrived at the Tower of Crownguard, he was promptly abandoned to the care of the few servants of the haunted tower. Sean actually learned his earliest cantrips on his own, a prodigious feat which caught the attentions of his schizophrenic uncle, Sir Quentin McGregor, and his young cousin, Sir Angus McGregor.
In his lucid moments, Sir Quentin actually taught Sean a few magical lessons, and even introduced him to the Secret Craft of Water Elementalism. Unfortunately, most other times, Sir Quentin's idea of a magical lesson was to test his madcap spells on his nephew—which was of no benefit for Sean, physically, mentally, and otherwise. Sean's cousin, Angus, was also a child prodigy in magic, and they would often study, play, and conduct experiments together. But being young boys, Angus would also bully the younger Sean and engage him in mock duels—which often became all too violent and real! Several times, Sean tried to escape from the Tower of Crownguard (much like his mother once did), but the minions of the McGregors would always catch him and return him to face more torture and agony.
One strange day in AC 999, Sean woke up alone, with neither Quentin nor Angus to torment him. (Quentin had been assigned to Fort Sablestone and had to leave. Of course, no one told poor Sean.) Sean made good his final escape and, with impressive use of illusions, charms, and spells of travel, he made his way to Glantri City—to the Great School of Magic, where he had always dreamed of studying.
By the winter, Sean arrived in the City of Canals, and ended up in one of the balls held on the frozen ice. Several times, Sean was referred to as a McGregor. Indeed, what business would a richly-dressed, solitary, Kaelic boy have at a Glantrian social event, if he were not one of the powerful McGregor prodigies attending the Great School of Magic? Sean had learned that there were about five or six young McGregor cousins, all of them wizards living at the capital (although rumors also had it that they had a recent string of strange deaths in laboratory accidents or severe bouts with winter pneumonia…). By AC 1000, Sean had bluffed his way into enrollment at the Great School, as "Sean McGregor," the third son of the second cousin of this McGregor wizard or that.
But the Great School of Magic turned out to be a disappointment for Sean. The curriculum was too rigid and too structured for the undisciplined Sean, and the basic classes for many of the students were too boring for Sean, who was already an accomplished wizard by that time. Because of this, Sean began to disrupt the classes by sabotaging experiments of other students, or by laying magical traps to humiliate his instructors. Sean gained the reputation of being a rebellious know-it-all and a magical bully, and earned the ire of such instructors as Mistress Rhogene Zelipieti and Grand Master Étienne d'Ambreville. Sean got involved in a number of wizardly fisticuffs with other students—most of which left Sean's opponents badly injured. Sean almost did not graduate because of disciplinary reasons.
But when Sean did graduate, he decided to stay on at the Great School (He is still the age of many beginning students.), partially to avoid returning to Crownguard or to the McAllister dominion, partially to continue carousing in Glantri City, but mainly to wreck havoc at the Great School and rile up the stodgy masters!
Web of Intrigue
Sean McAllister is a mere pawn in the mad family games of House Crownguard, and has been influenced more by the McGregors than the McAllister in his short lifetime. His mother, Lady Barbara McAllister, is the only person who truly cares for him and she sends Sean a regular allowance from the McAllister coffers so that he may continue living at the capital. Of course, Sean does not really need the money and is could care less what would happen to his weak mundaner mother. Lord Alasdair McAllister, is apathetic to his son's very existence, and Sean has grown to repay the apathy in kind.
Sean regards all the McGregors with fear. This is in part because he was too young to distinctly distinguish most of them from one another, and in part because he has blocked out frightful memories of his nightmarish years in the Tower of Crownguard. Sean never met Prince Brannart McGregor in person, but his grandfather was always a looming presence that pervaded his frightful existence in Klantyre. Of course, Sean knows his uncle Quentin McGregor, but he is a bit confused whether to remember him as the generous, funny, and inventive mentor or the cruel, disturbing, mad wizard. The one McGregor that Sean has a clear and definite picture of is his cousin, Angus McGregor, the fiendish tormentor in the guise of an innocent ten year-old boy and the very root of many of Sean's fears.
At the Great School, Sean once had a great admiration for the powerful Glantrian wizards, such as Prince Étienne d'Ambreville and later, Prince Harald Haaskinz. But Prince Étienne hated all the McGregor prodigies, and one too many magical high jinks incurred Grand Master Harald's strict disciplinarian eye—something Sean cannot tolerate!
Sean has been attending the social events of Glantri City since he was six, but only recently are people starting to take notice of this prodigious young man. He cares little for women. Some call him a misogynist, some say he is merely going through a phase, while some say he is attracted to men, as he keeps company only with young men of his age.
Style of Magic & Combat
Statistics: 5th-level magic-user, Water Elementalist of the 1st Circle (AC 1000), 10th-level mage, Water Elementalist of the 3rd Circle (AC 1014); Str 9, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 9, Cha 10; AL C (D&D), CN (AD&D).
Languages: Kaelic, Thyatian (Glantrian dialect).
Skills: knowledge (House Crownguard), local history (Klantyre), reading/writing, spellcraft.
Weapon Proficiencies: knife.
Despite being unruly and lazy, Sean is a formidable wizard. What he lacks in diligence and studiousness, he makes up for in natural talent and ingenious creativity. Sean has a knack of resourceful, inventive, off-the-wall, and totally unexpected spellcasting and combinations of spells. (Who else would have thought of planting an invisible, shrunken, charmed, summoned water weird into the Master of Planar Magic's girdle of many pouches to trigger a dimensional rift into the Elemental Plane of Water that flooded Master Bernabie Thrum's robes, as well as the better part of the Great School's bottom levels for three full days?) And of course, Sean actually has the magical power to back up his bizarre schemes.
Sean has exactly two spells to his name, both related to Water Elementalism, although some whisper that Sean merely plagiarized them from an Ierendi sea mage visiting Glantri City. But since the sea mage's bloated corpse was found floating in the canals near the Great School, there have been no witnesses to contest Sean's authorship.
"Everything is just a game to him, one big game of magic—a game, he doesn't realize, that can hurt him and other people!"
(Dominick Haaskinz)
References:
History of House Crownguard
Spells of the Secret Craft of Water Elementalism
Night Out in Glantri, a story about the dangers of Glantri City at night
Author: Kit Navarro