Magni Oavánson

Magni Oavánson (a.k.a. Monk)

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Hale and healthy and intent on keeping it that way, Magni maintains his strength and agility with a daily exercise regime. He is painfully aware that being ironbound means that medical magic won't work on him and tries to avoid needing it as much as possible.

Identifying Characteristics

As part of the initiation ritual for the Ironwrights, Magni was branded by having a hot a chain wrapped around his left forearm, with each level of initiation adding another brand. As a second degree member, Magni has had three brandings, each leaving silvery-pink scars clearly visible against his dark skin.
With multiple scars across his whole body, its clear that Magni has pressed his innate toughness - and Hope's medical skill -to its fullest extent. Like all Wolfhounds, he has a silver tooth in place of his left lower premolar, implanted as a precaution against therianthropy.

Specialized Equipment

To make up for his arcane shortcomings, Magni usually carries a set of devices that fulfil the same role as simple spells. In addition to his watch and handkerchief, he is usually has the following close to hand:

• a torch or handful of glow sticks
• silk rope
• fish hooks
• set of lockpicks
• screwdriver
• folding knife
• firestarter
• compass
• needle and thread
• whistle
• notebook and pencil
• a roll of silver coins (typically Kjeforan raarg)

Mental characteristics

Personal history

A julimen from Western Ewura, Magni is the oldest son of Oaván Mielatson and Vuohkku Keartedottír. He grew up in the caravan of a carnival and was raised by his parents and his mother's partner, Berent Manseson. Magni idolised his father, an acrobat and trapeze artist, and intended to follow in his footsteps. His mother was a mechanic and Berent was a magician who styled himself as 'the Great Rudolphino' and was known to Vuohkku's children as 'great uncle Rudy'.
When Magni was 12, he and his father we involved in a road accident; although Magni survived, his father didn't. After months of struggling to come to terms with the death, Magni ran away from home, taking a cargo train East to the Daïdänt and ending up on the streets of Beisjor, over a thousand miles from home. Surviving the depths of winter by taking sheltering in the forge and eating food from offering bowls at the temple of the Smith, Magni was discovered and taken in by the priestess, who let him live in the temple dormitories in exchange for working around the temple. When no one came for him and unable to trace his family, she steered him towards the Ironwrights, and he was initiated as a full brother at 16, assisting in the orders' outreach programmes.
By the time Magni turned 21, he had been elevated to a member of the second degree and charged with a duty to fulfil the Acts of the Faith: 'any and all acts that further cleave Reality from the Dream in preparation for the beginning of the Age of Reason'.
Five years later, he was chosen to as one of only three second-degree members to accompany the Adúttær Naarúdfalm, the Supreme Hammer of the Ironwrights, on a mission of cessation as part of an effort by the Ironwrights to expand their influence. The honour of this was not lost on Magni and he hoped to impress the Supreme enough to be trusted with travelling beyond the heartlands and doing what he felt were the most important duties of the Ironwrights: protecting the vulnerable against maleficarum, driving out spirits, breaking curses, and laying down the restless dead. He was feeling confident with this ambition when, on the return journey, their ship was waylaid by an ocean spirit after the death of the ship's swellsinger. Realising that fighting the angry spirit was futile, Magni tried to reason with it, ultimately realising that the spirit was grieving the death of the swellsinger. Magni told it about his father's death and sang a Julim funeral song before it departed, appeased. Elated by this new approach to violent spirits, Magni was horrified when his colleages turned on him, accusing him of breaking his vows. He should, said the Supreme, have preferred death - his, hers, and that of everyone on the vessel - over consorting with a spirit. She refused to let him take ownership of his actions, blaming herself for using "an ill-made tool", and told him to sumbit himself to the Anvil for reforging so that he could make the 'correct' decision next time. She led him in prayer for forgiveness for his transgression but Magni, appalled by the order's weighting principle over more than a hundred lives, spent the time desparately seeking guidance from the Smith and, when He refused to answer, to his mother's god, the Charioteer. By the time the ferry made landfall, Magni had resolved to quit the Ironwrights. He could not willingly submit to a morality that would prioritise rules over lives. He fled the Supreme's custody, once again taking a train into the unknown.
Magni was arrested for vagrancy in Kylkeanina, tried for theft of comestibles and being a member of a proscribed religion, and imprisoned. During his stint in prison, the impact of the Mage War caused a surge in the number of monsters and the practice of maleficarum in the region, and Kijarle began assembling penal companies, in which prisoners would take part in dangerous missions to earn their freedom. Magni volunteered, joining The Wolfhounds and was released at the end of the war, whereupon he and the surviving Wolfhounds came together under a common banner to continue their war-work of saving lives and protecting the vulnerable.

Gender Identity

Male (he/him)

Sexuality

Demisexual, no strong gender preference

Education

Homeschooled until 13, then raised in a cult and given limited access to outside influences until adulthood, Magni's understanding of the wider world is limited where it is not distorted. The last five years have been a long and painful process of sorting fact from fiction from brainwashing, and he is always willing to accept his own ignorance.
Although the Ironwrights were invested in spreading a distorted narrative of the outside world and actively demonising the arcane sciences, they encouraged each member to learn as much as possible within the bounds of the "physical sciences" (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering) in preparation for the imminent Age of Reason. Magni's lack of magical ability and ignorance of subjects outside this remit often leads people to underestimate his intelligence, but none of the other Wolfhounds come close to his understanding of physics and engineering.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Through his involvement in the Wolfhounds, Magni has saved dozens of people and improved the lives of hundreds. He has faced down therianthropes, broken curses, and reunited families. Despite all this, perhaps because of his underlying guilt about how he obtained his skills, Magni doesn't feel this is praiseworthy.
He considers his greatest achievement to be the creation of a stable, long-lasting chemical glowstick he can use in place of a simple palm-light spell. Odourless, smokeless, useable even underwater, and requiring neither fuel nor spellcraft, it took Magni and Tall Bill two years of research and experimentation to develop into something that can be batch-produced and stored for long periods with no loss of potency.

Failures & Embarrassments

Magni is deeply ashamed of his past involvement in the Ironwrights.
When asked to explain how he became ironbound, he tends to deflect the question or change the subject; if pressed, he lies, relating a tale about being apprenticed to a blacksmith who failed to follow correct iron-handling procedures. He cannot explain his brands away so easily, and hides them whenever he can. He hopes that, by using the tools and training given to him by the Ironwrights to save lives and protect communities, he's making up for the damage he unwittingly did while in the order.

Mental Trauma

At the encouragement of his order, who held that emotions are an offshoot of the Dream and have no place in a Reasonable mind, Magni has repressed his own feelings at the death of his father and now finds identifying and managing his emotions difficult. He tends to bottle up his feelings under the mistaken belief that this constitutes self-control, rarely succumbing to anger but becoming lonely, quiet and withdrawn. These feelings eventually come out in intense outbursts, and Magni being snappish and surly or obsessively working out is a sure sign he's struggling to cope with something. At Hope's insistence, he started keeping a journal, and this seems to be heping slowly.
Learning to make his own decisions, recognise and challenge his indoctrination, and to manage his anxiety of living in a world saturated with 'dangerous practices' (magic) and his despair over the coming Age of Reason has been a long process. Although Magni is no longer prone to panic attacks, stressful circumstances can cause these issues to overwhelm him and manifest as headaches, self harm (scratching at his branding scars), and hyperarousal. Magni uses various coping mechanisms (mainly breath control, exercise, and prayer) to manage his stress and relies on the Wolfhounds for support and encouragement.

Morality & Philosophy

Magni is firm in his belief that the love of mankind is foundational to morality, and that a person ought to do whatever is within their power to help others and address injustice wherever it may be found. He believes that honesty and integrity are cardinal virtues, that breaking a promise is no different to telling a lie, and that radical kindness, tolerance, and good judgement are essential to a good life.
These values were used and twisted by the Ironwrights and, while he now knows he was lied to about magic users being inherently evil and is no longer completely certain that magic is actively detrimental to the world, Magni still retains some vague belief that magic is somehow immoral. He feels he ought not accept arcane help and that doing things manually is somehow 'purer', but knows deep down that there is no logic behind these opinions.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

• Nothing is more important than doing the right thing
• Nothing is more important than family
• Nothing is more important than helping others
• Nothing is more important than earning redemption

Magni is driven by strong convictions, his faith in the gods of his childhood, and by a desire to atone for the damage he did while a member of the Ironwrights. He wants to make his new family, especially Jolly, proud of him and to feel that their efforts and sacrifices in rehabilitating him have been worthwhile.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Raised in an environment where magic wasn't a particular focus and coming to maturity in one where magic was not merely prohibited by physically impossible, Magni knows very little about the arcane. This, combined with being ironbound, has a significant impact on his ability to use standard tools and techniques, most of which rely on some sort of baseline magical sensitivity.
Athough Magni has been able to use his knowledge of physics and chemistry to create workarounds and substitutes, most of the time he simply has to settle for less.

Likes & Dislikes

Magni delights in strenuous physical activity in all its forms - running, climbing, swimming, wrestling, balancing, and all forms of athletics. He enjoys feeling grounded and present in the world, and claims he thinks better when he's active.
Once actively discouraged to read anything but factual media, Magni still considers fiction vaguely iliicit. Nonetheless, he persists, encouraged by Echo's insistence that it's good for him to broaden his horizons. Although literate, reading for pleasure was not endorsed by the Ironwrights and his aptitude didn't progress far beyond what it was when he was 13 years old, something reflected in his choice of genre. He prefers easy-reading with happy endings, especially books for young adults, comedy, romance, and adventure, and isn't keen on what he considers his 'bread and butter': crime, horror and tragedy. He isn't a great lover of the arts, and poetry, satire and social commentary are generally lost on him.

Virtues & Personality perks

Despite the Ironwrights' conditioning, Magni has never let go of the moral code instilled in him as a child. He will never shy from doing what he believes is the right thing, even at great personal cost, and considers it his duty to act against injustice. Even knowing he can't be magically healed, Magni is always willing to put himself in harm's way, using his greater strength and endurance to protect those in need.

Vices & Personality flaws

Magni's firm and somewhat inflexible definition of what's right doesn't always mesh with what is practical or possible, and his drive to protect people, even at risk of personal injury, can lead to profound guilt when he fails.
His strong morality and exacting personal standards makes him vulnerable to black-and-white thinking, and can make others uncomfortable. Although he doesn't ask people to follow his faith and does his best not to judge others by his standards, his constanacy means those around him can become defensive when he berates himself from acting in a way that they think is acceptable, or when he declines to participate in behaviour he feels is immoral.

Social

Family Ties

Magni is estranged from his birth family and considers the Wolfhounds to be his family now.

Religious Views

A source of profound intenal conflict, Magni desparately wants to believe and to feel seen and protected by the gods as he did when he was younger. Although he goes through the motions of prayer daily, his inability to feel the touch of the gods has convinced him that either the vows he took on joining the Ironwrights or the actions he took while a member has made him unwanted by them, and this hurts more than he can put into words.
He has cobbled together an idiosyncratic practice based on the philosophies of the Charioteer and the Ironwrights' interpretation of Smith, the former primarily influencing his desire to protect others and the latter prioritising 'acts of the body' (actions inspired by faith) over 'acts of the soul' (ritual and sacrifice). This home-brewed belief system misses out on a lot of the nuances ascribed to the two gods, and fails to satisfy him. Consequentially, it's under constant refinement as Magni slowly unlearns the lessons the Ironwrights taught him.

Mannerisms

Having lived his whole life in close environments with multiple species, Magni is very aware of his size and strength advantage over his companions, and speaks and gestures accordingly: slowly and gently.
His gait betrays him as an accomplished gymnast - he's fully present and aware of the position of his limbs, and walks suprisingly quickly and quietly for someone his size.

Hobbies & Pets

A hobby that can be traced back to his father, machinery in all its forms is a near-endless source of fascination for Magni. Although most of his involvement with machines involves keeping Blue's vehicles running, he enjoys designing and building new devices, and miniaturisation is particularly fascinating for him.
When he doesn't have a machine to keep him occupied, Magni loves to work out and his preferred method is obstacle climbing - a combination of climbing, jumping, running, and balancing reminiscent of the physical activities of his childhood with the Julimen. Neither heights nor depths hold any fear for him, and aerial acrobatics hold a particular joy.

Speech

Magni speaks rarely and softly. He has a deep voice with a lilting accent that is a mixture of Söi̯pian and a Western Daïdänt dialect of Skretti.

Relationships

Species

Yutaaq

Conditions

• Ironbound

Ethnicity

Julimen

Date of Birth

1st schyanúni

Year of Birth

891 32 Years old

Spouses

Siblings

Gender

Male

Eyes

Dark brown

Hair

Dark red-brown, tightly curled/kinked

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Dark brown, warm undertone

Height

6'11"

Weight

Heavily muscled

Aligned Organization

Wolfhounds

Known Languages

Fluent

• Skretti
• Noːkãian

Conversational

• Söi̯pian