Kurt Transem

Kurt Transem is a character created by clockwork, a member of The Sonic Factory.

Kurt is the foremost authority on magical research and its application, and while he can be a bit rough around the edges, he is very sensible and powerful magician.

Face
Kurt's nose is rather long, but it is best not to dwell on this. He has a mole on the ridge of his right eye socket, usually not noticeable because of his glasses. His forehead is high, and his lower jaw is slightly more narrow than average. He occasionally has stubble on his chin for unwillingness to shave. His skin is rough and pockmarked. His neck is slender and slightly longer than average. His hair hangs below his shoulders, with a stray lock constantly falling over his left eye.

Body
Kurt Transem's body is thin with ill-defined muscles, and clearly visible ribs. His shoulders are slender, and the left is scarred. His arms are slender, his wrists bony, and his knuckles slightly larger than normal from years of popping them. His waist is 32 inches, and his rump is relatively flat. His legs are long, and have the most well-developed muscles on his body, though that isn't saying much. On his right foot is a tattoo of a dagger, and on the right arm is an ancient rune of protection carved into the flesh.

Attire
Kurt Transem wears a pair of baggy blue pants, with wide legs that give his legs a great deal of room. Numerous silver widgets are sewn into the sides of the legs. His belt is studded with sapphires, and fastened with two buckles at his left hip. Kurt's boots are black leather affairs that reach halfway up to his knee, with one-inch thick soles, and silver buckles that fasten at the sides. He wears a loose, plain black shirt without sleeves, tucked in at the waist. His left arm is bound in bandages from the shoulder to the elbow, and in leather straps from the elbow to the wrist. Over top of his shirt Kurt wears a blue coat with a wide, prominent collar that rises to his chin. The shoulders of the coat are rigid, sticking up and out about an inch from his actual shoulders, and creasing at the arms, which fold straight down. The arms are slightly wider than his actual arms, providing a small amount of slack between skin and fabric. At the wrist are cufflinks, struck from pure silver and emblazoned with the seal of the Council of Arcane Affairs. At the chest, the coat fastens with a single silver clasp, hanging open the rest of its length. The coat hangs down below his knees, almost to the ground, and blows freely in the wind. Kurt also has a pair of blue fingerless gloves that do not restrict the movement of his fingers. Kurt always has a large blue bandanna wrapped around his head, knotted in the back, the tail of the knot only an inch and a half long. Upon his nose is a pair of round spectacles, with thin silver frames and lenses heavily tinted red. Each ear is pierced, with three silver rings hanging from the cartilage. One ring adorns his right hand, on the middle finger, engraved in a forgotten language to read "Irrevocable." Over this, in many situations, Kurt will wear a long blue cloak, with a high collar rather than a hood. It is fastened at the neck with a silver clasp shaped similar to the eye of Horus. On his head he wears an old straw hat, drawn to a point that hangs behind his head, with a tiny bell tied to the end, which long ago was coated with the blood of an infant. Kurt's casual outfit is made up of a deep blue silk oxford shirt, buttoned down the front with mother-of-pearl buttons, and fastened at the wrists with cufflinks bearing the official crest of the Council of Arcane Affairs, crafted from purest silver and inlaid with a small sapphire. He wears slacks of a dark (navy) blue which are just a few inches too long, and must be rolled up at the hem. From his waist hangs a silver chain which fastens onto a pocketwatch, the face of which shows seconds, minutes, hours, months, years, and the predominant levels of magical energy within a given radius. The watch does not ever need to be wounds, and is, in fact, quite devoid of mundane machinery. His shoes are polished black leather slip-ons, engraved with intricate patterns and stitched with a silver trim.

Casual Personality
Kurt is as painfully blunt as people come. He will tell the truth even when nobody wants to hear it, for precisely that reason. He takes pride in being the douche bag who is always right. He would like nothing more than to have a sign that simply reads "because I'm an asshole" that he could point to when asked why. He is not social by any means, and often goes out of his way to avoid contact with people. When he opens up, a completely different person is revealed, but this so rarely happens it may as well not happen at all.

Battle
Kurt will hold in ground in a fight, and more often then not pushes his opponent back with a relentless barrage of powerful spells. As soon as one is finished, he begins on the next, never purposely giving his opponent an opening. When really pushed in battle, he will call on his elemental guardians, Kellek, Tirin, and Pidge, to aid him. He is never more serious than in battle.

Speech
Kurt speaks in an elegant tone, paced and practiced, with no contractions or colloquialisms, and using large confusing words, largely to show off, partly to alienate people, but mostly because he likes to hear himself talk. He pronounces the sounds of his words, not mashing them together as others so often do. He knows a large number of languages, including French, German, Italian, and an innumerable amount of dead and forgotten languages.

Habits
Kurt has the habit of arguing over his title, taking pride in his comprehensive knowledge of the obscure. He has a habit of speaking his mind when nobody wants to hear it, which often leads to him offending people, intentionally and unintentionally. Kurt walks with long strides as though always in a hurry. He frequently keeps his hands in his pockets. He sometimes talks to himself in a low voice. He will often tap the toe of his right foot against the ground when standing still.

Making Friends
Kurt doesn't care much for people. To him they are all idiots unless they prove to him otherwise. He will not try to impress people, and he doesn't care if they try to impress him. He will never make the first move towards anyone, and must be approached if his friendship is sought. He does not treat men or women, or even children, differently; all are equal in their inferiority.

Mental Instability
Kurt has a mental condition called schizophrenia. That is to say, he hallucinates, hearing voices and seeing images that may or may not be there. To some, this is insanity, but to Kurt, and to many of his colleagues, this is known as second sight: the ability to see beyond the physical realm. However, it can become confusing at times to distinguish between what is real and what is not.

Chldhood
Kurt was raised by a normal family; his parents were doctors, and so he learned a great deal of things very quickly and he excelled in school. History, in particular, ancient cultures, fascinated him. He read about the ancient world even when he was not required to. He went from studying their architecture, to society, to religion, to languages, and soon became son engrossed in it all that he had to learn everything. Thus began his career as an arcanist: one who studies the obscurities of history and seeks out that which others do not know or understand.

Ruins Exploration
Kurt's curiosity led him to a dig site in Egypt. He explored through tunnels, looking for anything that may have been overlooked. He stumbled upon a hidden room that the diggers had missed. He had to knock down a wall to get to it, which was no easy feat, but he eventually managed to worm his way into the room. What he saw fascinated him. Intricate drawings of the gods and their practices. depictions of priests and descriptions of the powers they wielded. This was where he learned his first spell. It was nothing grand. It was a simple Light spell, but it was something. Reading the hieroglyphs, he had discovered the secret of ancient magic. This sparked a new curiosity, and he went looking for more.

Encounter with Salamander
After several months of digging through ancient records, obtaining ancient books, and discovering new spells, Kurt returned to Egypt. There had to be something else in the desert. As he wandered through the endless sea of sand, sustained by his vast supplies stored in folded space, he stumbled upon something that man has not seen in countless years. The fire spirit Salamander appeared before him. He didn't notice Kurt, he was busy digging through the sand. Kurt backed away to a safe distance and watched, documenting everything he saw in a journal. The magical energy was incredible. This was the first of many elemental spirits he would encounter.

Collections
Over the years, Kurt made many discoveries, and many acquisitions. He had found a considerable library of ancient books, the largest he had ever seen, but it wasn't enough. He wanted more. He needed more. Scrounging through ruins hadn't turned up what he was looking for, so he looked to other arcanists. He bartered, swindled and stole, constantly expanding his library. It was not only books that interested him, however. He collected a number of lead miniatures, rumored to be ancient creatures trapped in a solid stasis. He had a gread deal of broken figures, but those were no good to him. A gnome without its legs, a faerie without its wings, a dragon without a head and only three quarters of a tail. Complete figures were rare, but he had a few. He collected whatever he could get his hands on. Cursed and enchanted artifacts, books, and above all, knowledge.

The Elemental Guardians
One book Kurt had acquired told of a number of elemental spirits. Kurt had already discovered several of these. But this book told him something he did not know. They told of a method of creating an elemental creature of lesser power that could be bound into service. Kurt set out to find what he needed to create them. Using a flame from the back of Salamander, one of Shiva's frozen tears, a bottled lightning bolt from Kain, and a large amount of whispering grass from Cobalt's forest, combined with a massive amount of his own life energy, he created three beings: Kellek, the thunder guardian, Tirin, the fire guardian, and Pidge, the ice guardian.

Moving to Tsi Konen
Kurt's collections were becoming rather extensive, and he was running out of space in his apartment, so he decided it was time to move. He searched for a long time before he found the small village of Tsi-Konen. It was a place where a large number of people who wanted nothing to do with the outside world lived. It was situated on the edge of the lake where Undine lived. Apparently, long ago someone tried to introduce the Shadow elemental Shade to the area, and the two energies combined to create a permanent fog that obscured the village from sight. It was the perfect place. Using a tracking spell, he followed a rather clumsy ninja to the village, and set up his folding house near the water's edge. Using a large amount of folded space, he managed to set up his entire library in a seemingly small home. 347 million books line the walls of his library, not arranged in any particular order. His desk is constantly littered with books, both on and hovering around his space, all open to random pages, depending on what he's searching for. Tirin took up residence in the library and the bedroom, helping Kurt with his work. The living room quickly filled with half-eaten meals, Kurt too busy or too unwilling to clean up after himself. Kellek took over in the living room and the kitchen, cleaning up after Kurt and cooking his meals. All of the artifacts were stored in the basement, and Pidge went with them to keep watch. As a result of so often being out of sight, Pidge is oft forgotten.

Magellan
Kurt had established himself as an accomplished arcanist. All that he was missing was a familiar. He had a large number of options, and narrowed them all down to five choices. A pixie, a dragon, a jolly old man, a mushroom, and a skeleton. All of the figures were between 5 cm and 12 cm in height. After a long deliberation, he came to a decision. Now he needed the materials to bring it to life. He gathered a bottle of Undine's water, and collected more whispering grass from Cobalt's forest. In a small clearing in the forest, where the ground was bare, he drew a magic circle, and placed on it the whispering grass, followed by the figurine. He began to chant an incantation, pouring the water over the assembled materials, the whispering grass muttering the incantation along with him. In a brilliant flash of light, and a piercing scream from the grass, the spell was done. Thus was born Kurt's familiar, the mushroom Magellan.

Accursed
During his travels, Kurt has discovered many strange objects of obscure origin, all of which have been cataloged and locked away in his basement storage. He rarely, if ever, tampers with anything until he has discerned its origin and purpose. The exception to this, however, is books. Kurt is fascinated by ancient literature, and loves to keep up to date with modern publishings in the field of magic, architecture, and the arcane, if only to scoff at how little the so-called "experts" really know. So, it comes as no surprise that when he discovered a small black leather-bound tome in a ruin, he placed it on his library desk for immediate reading and deciphering. Upon reading the first page, he discovered a story so compelling he was unable to stop. The book seemed to be writing the story just for him. In reality, it was: the ink with which the book was written is alive, and preys on whom-so-ever reads it, draining their life away, and physically reaching out of the book to consume their body. Kurt managed, through sheer force of will, to prevent the ink from invading his body, but he cannot, as yet, break the book's hold on him, carrying it on his person at all times, the ink calling to him subtly should his mental barrier break down.

Glesdrsyl
An ancient dagger found in the ruins of a lost civilization. It radiates a strange magical aura that anyone with a sensitivity to magic can detect easily. It is made of obsidian, and was once used as a ritual knife. As such, this weapon cannot kill, but it can inflict wounds that never heal.