Illuvenar

Stephen is tall and spare, with the wiry tension of someone who’s learned to live ready to flee. His short, dark brown hair is cleanly kept, but his face always looks a few hours short on sleep. Burn scars lace his forearms and shoulders—old, but never quite healed. His eyes are a deep brown, steady but always measuring. He wears charcoal-toned coats, layered and worn, with fingerless gloves and boots softened from years of walking. His entire look is curated to disappear in a crowd. When he channels magic, the temperature around him drops slightly, then spikes—a storm held just barely in check.

Stephen is deliberately forgettable. He avoids attention, deflects questions, and only speaks when it matters. Every word is measured, every step placed with purpose. He doesn’t posture or explain himself. Beneath the surface, though, there’s a calculating mind that never stops mapping the exits. He’s not cruel, but he is cautious—survival is his first language. He has no interest in being a hero or a villain; he just wants to live free of the chains that once bound him.

Stephen grew up in a very average family in a safe part of the city. His life was very mundane until he was 15 and he accepted a job with a strange man, Henry, who claimed to be a researcher. This researcher turned out to be a Tempest Carver who was looking for an apprentice to assist him in his work. Having been tricked in to signing a magically binding contract, Stephen had no choice but to remain with his new mentor and take part in his magic research and summoning rituals. That is, until the old Warlock made a terrible mistake, loosing a powerful Storm Elemental in his laboratory. Henry was killed, and the entire lab destroyed, but Stephen managed to escape into the city with a bundle of Henry's research papers that he could use to continue learning the craft.