Jasper Blackwood

Appearance
A slender man of average height, Jasper Blackwood is probably someone who does not stand out in a large crowd. He has thick, black hair kept in a pony tail and a well-kept full beard. The wizard's skin is fair and has the posture and demeanor of someone who has spent most of his life indoors. Jasper usually has a calm and collected look on his face and his amber eyes seem to scrutinize anything and anyone they glance over.

When not on a mission Jasper will usually be seen wearing fine grey robes, an old wide-brimmed pointy leather hat and the red and gold cloak of The Crimson Covenant. This, as well as a messenger bag filled to the brim with spell components, parchment and books makes him look like the perfect example of a traditional wizard. However, when out on a mission Jasper switches out the grey robes for a breastplate made for him by Gorgonoth, one of the ancient Golem people called the Gonoth. The armor is matte black with the exception of the thin, glowing, orange veins that cover the plates in swirling patterns centered on a small golden orb located in the middle of the chest piece. Jasper has recently learned to create and modify Gonoth forged items himself and has since made an armor piece in the same style covering his left arm that he uses to channel his arcane powers through and cast spells.

Background
Jasper Blackwood was born as the second son in a wealthy merchant's family from Nashford, Fanosia. The first few years in his life was great, he spent most of the time studying the history of his home land, barely leaving the small family library. At the age of 8 Jasper stumbled upon an old, black book containing instructions on how to cast some simple spells. The young boy was a quick-learner and would soon show of his skills to his family and few friends. When Jasper's father, a big burly silk trader and tailor called Edward, saw this he used his contacts in the area to get in touch with a Apostles representative as he had heard that they have some of the best magic teachers in the world.

A few months later Jasper was sent to the Royal Capital of the Kingdom of Benhorric. The journey was long and hard for a boy that wasn't used to spending time outside of a library, but when he first saw the great halls of the Apostles he immediately felt that it was worth it. Here Jasper met his new teacher, an old silver dragonborn called Viathan, who taught the young wizard divination magic, history and religion. Though Viathan was a firm believer of the dragonborn god Gardunaxx, an ancient shadow dragon, he did not force his faith on Jasper.

After nine years of magic training and studying Elvish, Dwarvish and Orcish cultures Jasper felt confident that he was a good enough wizard to be sent out on his first mission for the Apostles. Along with 3 other members of the guild, he was sent back to Nashford in order to investigate the disappearance of the local Lord's daughter. The investigation did not lead anywhere at first but after several other important people disappeared as well, including Jasper's own mother, the group discovered that worshippers of a Great Old One are gathering people to perform a sacrifice to their god. Jasper and his fellow Apostles managed to infiltrate the cult and kill of most of the members, but not before all the lost people except for the Lord's daughter had been sacrificed. The mission was labelled a success by the Apostles and the entire group was made full-fledged members of the guild. Jasper's family never looked at the young wizard the same way, silently blaming him for the death of his mother.

Jasper had several successful missions in the years to come, each one claiming the life of someone he considered a friend until he was sent on his own to fix a mess created by a guild group in the Middlelands.

In the Middlelands
Jasper was sent to the Middlelands to make sure that a newly formed guild group called the Crimson Covenant would not fail it's mission after every member of the group except one, Eadric de Klerk, died at the hands of a local lord. The mission was to find two artifacts called the Apple of Arok and the Spire of Attor within two years as well as set up a more permanent holding in the area. When Jasper reached the town of Faerund he quickly realised that the state of the guild group was a mess, it was all more or less run by the very competent steward Allen. The decision making however had been in the hands of the guild members, none of which had any idea of how to actually finish their mission unless it involved hitting things. Within a few weeks Jasper had salvaged and rebuilt the organisation from the ground up, making it a recognisable force in the area but not without having to fight his leader Eadric on a few issues.

After stopping a civil war, exterminating a civilization of hobgoblins, helping a race of space-faring golems to repair their ship and making powerful allies in the whole region the group managed to find the artifacts they were looking for and finish their mission. Not long after, Jasper and his leader were sent on a new mission in the Nellenial Kingdom.

In the Nellenial Kingdom
Jasper and Eadric were sent to escort a dwarven explorer named Kadol Degulluk to the Dwarven Kingdom of Narthûr in the mountains north of the Nellenial Kingdom. Since the guilds did not have a strong hold on this part of the Kingdom the two of them was also tasked with creating a base of operations in the area. As preparation for this they had bought the area around Castle-by-the-Plains and started building a proper town there.

They started trying to make allies with the surrounding lords and ladies but did not have enough time before the need to continue their new mission. Jasper, Eadric and several other new recruits to the Covenant, including Rivel Adel Mercton who later turned out to be one of their greatest allies on this western continent.

After spending weeks traveling through cold weather, experiencing the death of several new friends and getting beaten down time after time again Jasper had gotten enough of the Crimson Covenant. He decided to pursue the restoration of the arcane leylines, which power had been in the decline ever since the departure of the Ark, leaving the Apostles and all of the guild responsibilities behind. Along with Eadric, the wizard has been working to bring back magic to the world ever since.

In the Ralfir Kingdom
When Eadric left for the Misty Isles to pursue Nasha Jasper decided to stay on Karathea and continue his search for the leyline focus points. During the course of two years he rebuilt the Covenant in the region after the destruction of Castle-by-the-Plains, hunted a rival guild group that was out to stop the Covenant and pursued a vampire that had previously set an undead plague loose on the Bridge. The last mentioned was killed two years after Eadric left as she tried to use her leyline manipulating powers to cause another huge undead apocalypse in the Ralfir Kingdom. Jasper, along with the Crimson Covenant and a local group of adventurers they stopped the ritual and killed the vampire.

In Ash'Kur
After the events in Ralfir Jasper spent two years finishing a project he had worked on for several years, the founding of a new town on the eastern continent of Ash'Kur named New Roford. The purpose of the town was to create a center for learning in the different arts of magic and arcane engineering and it quickly grew to great proportions. With the help of several of his arcane gifted friends, including Endrin the Elf and Fargoth he started a new project that was to change magic forever, a project Jasper called The Implant.

After the two years of downtime the members of the Crimson Covenant met up in New Roford in order to stabilize the region and find any arcane leyline focuses in order to add it to the new Nexus. During this time they uncovered several conspiracies in the land, including a group trying to actively sabotage the Covenant, a vampire looking for another way of getting eternal life and an ancient wizard who caused the cataclysmic event that destroyed the region now known as the Wasteland. The group managed to deal with these threats in one way or another and their adventure ended with killing the Dragon God Nasha, who Eadric had been hunting for several years.

The Aftermath
The Crimson Covenant went their separate ways after the battle against Nasha. Jasper started out helping Eadric to build a fort between the Shadowfell and the Material Plane in order to take her place as a deity in the world. Afterwards Jasper spent some time finishing the restoration of the Arcane Nexus, including the effects of The Implant. He then prepared for the moment where the restrictions made in the new Nexus to be found by establishing Crimson Covenant embassies in most of the world's governments and getting ready to provide them with the Implants needed to access magic as soon as they needed them.

During this time the wizard was assassinated by the saboteurs that the Crimson Covenant had met in Ash'Kur, though Jasper came back as his soul entered one of his many clones. The years that followed were bloody as he and the Grey Men of the Covenant hunted and killed as many of the saboteurs that they could find until no one in that organisation were left.

As no more enemies of Jasper were left he decided to retire from adventuring in order to focus on teaching and researching arcana. He put the mantle of leading the arcane branch of the Covenant on the shoulders of one of his most promising student, his niece Abigail Blackwood. Nowadays it is said that the old mage rarely leaves the comfort of his study in Blackwood Manor, however people still whisper stories of a man with a wide-brimmed, pointy hat and a glowing chest visiting places of magical power in the dead of night and somehow changing them before he leaves.

Traits
Personality:
 * There's nothing more I like than a good mystery.
 * I treat everyone I meet with respect, as long as they are willing to listen to what I have to say.

Ideals:
 * Knowledge is the path to power.
 * Learning by the mistakes of others will let me make the right decisions in the future.

Flaws
 * Unlocking an ancient mystery is worth the price of a civilization.
 * I can't trust people to make important decisions by themselves.

Bonds
 * My teacher Viathan taught me magic, after the events in Ash'Kur I surpassed him in skill and knowledge.
 * Without the Crimson Covenant the world would be in ruin and magic would have been what ruined it.
 * I would trust Eadric with my life and I suspect he would do the same.

Notable Achievements

 * Rid Nashford of cultists worshipping a Great Old One.
 * Advisor to the leader of The Crimson Covenant.
 * Fought on the side of Gyles Graphe at the Battle of Roford. Was one of the people that killed the Gonoth in the events that lead up to the battle. Held in the war meeting where the leaders of all factions protecting Roford decided on what to do.
 * Completed the main mission given the Crimson Covenant by finding the Apple of Arok in the Spire of Attor.
 * Signed the document that created a city state out of Farund and it's surrounding towns.
 * Killed Runt, an ancient halfling and avatar of Hiero.
 * Prevented The Cataclysm of Lake Dron.
 * Founded New Roford.
 * Prevented the second coming of the creatures that caused The Great Waste by killing the Arch-Wizard Ersedor and destroying the body of the Gonoth Erenoth the Weapon Master.
 * Assisted in the killing of Nasha, The Lightning Queen, the Collector of Souls, the Conqueror and the Chosen of the Sea.
 * Headmaster of The Blackwood Academy, a school dedicated to teaching the arts of magic and arcane engineering (previously known as Gonoth smithing).

Other Facts

 * Have an older brother named Carl and a father named Edward, currently residing in Nashford. Both of them are in the silk trading business.
 * Befriended Gorgonoth, an ancient being believed to have taught the dwarves about the art of blacksmithing.
 * Author of "The History and Culture of the Gonoths" and the sequel "The Arts of the Gonoths".
 * Member of the Apostles guild.