Trace Legacy

Trace Legacy is a human, and an extremely talented magic user, who spent most of his life learning magic from the Templar, a human guild of mages, in one of their colleges. Now, having lost all of his memories a few months ago, he knows very little about world history or politics, but he still has a strong instinctive control of basic magic, which he has strengthened by studying his own journal. However, using too much magic power can awaken the evil remnants of his former self in his mind, causing him to become callous and destructive, something Trace wants to avoid at all costs. He is now on the run from the Templar, and tries to keep his identity secret, because most people react with fear or trepidation when he is recognised. Trace has a fairly short, unassuming figure, without much physical strength. His most striking feature is his mop of bright blue hair, with matching eyes. However, he was so reclusive in his past life that most people do not recognise him as the Grand Templar even with this unique feature. His cheek bears a triangular blue tattoo typical of some Templar mages. He wears fairly simple clothing, including a black cloak when going incognito, and he wears gloves at all times in order to hide the fact that his left hand has become jet-black and viciously clawed through use of black magic. Trace grew up under the protection and guidance of the ancient and powerful dragoness Lady Nora, who acted as his close and very affectionate friend. He gained the title of Duke of Edinmire while studying under the Templar, and he courted and won the heart of Saria au Gruhen, a wealthy blacksmith's daughter, and took her to his estate to marry her. When Saria was killed by keidran bandits at Trace's forest retreat, Trace attempted to revive her with dark magic, destroying his own sanity in the process. He spent over a year locked away in his estate, until one day he took over the Templar guild in a coup and became the Templar Grand Master. He transformed the guild into a magical military power, and passed a suite of anti-keidran laws, pushing the continent to the brink of war while exacting bloody revenge against the keidran and laying twisted plans to resurrect Saria. Only the sudden loss of his memories four years on cleansed the insanity the dark magic had caused, changing him into the kindhearted man he is now. Since losing his memory, Trace has become the lover and fiancé of Flora, a tiger keidran who grew up in Edinmire. He cares for Flora's happiness above all else, and threatening Flora is more likely to bring out Trace's dark side than any other action. Trace also travels with a basitin warrior named Keith, and a wolf keidran assassin named Natani, and he still has the friendship of Lady Nora despite remembering very little about her. Before losing his memories, Trace studied transformation magic extensively, learning how to force a human into the form of a keidran, or give them partial animal traits. He does not remember these spells, but he still has subconscious access to these and other transformation magics, and might cast them on himself or other people by accident if he is under stress. If Trace is turned into a keidran, he becomes a white tiger keidran, still retaining his blue hair and eyes. In his former life, Trace produced several magical items enchanted with transformation spells, especially collars, and some of these items still exist and may be found.

Trace lives in a magical world inhabited by four major species of people. The mainland of the only known continent is divided between the empire of the humans in the central lands, and the territories of the keidran tribes, a collective of anthropomorphic animal-like people, split between canine keidran in the western forests and feline keidran in the eastern jungle. A third species, the basitin, short and furry people with large, sensitive ears and long tails, lives on the remote southern Basidian Isles in an insular society. Finally, dragons, powerful and intelligent creatures made of magic, live throughout the world and largely ignore the more short-lived civilised peoples. Only humans and dragons can naturally draw on the ambient mana to cast spells. Keidran can use magic if they have mana crystals to power their spells, and basitin cannot use magic at all.