Introduction

Reinald Vulperian is a twenty-nine-year-old foxfolk, standing at 1.60 meters, with dark reddish-brown fur that fades to a lighter, burnt-orange underside and a white-tipped brush. His amber-brown eyes miss very little. He dresses with quiet dignity, favoring a padded overcoat of deep blue fabric traced with faux-golden markings that reflect his field of study: Niðavellirian Magicks. His rapier—a gift from his aunt Victoria that gives him a sense of strength—rests at his left side, while an apron waits in his pack for messier work. He also carries a book gifted by his uncle Marco, precious enough that losing it would sting, even though he knows he could re-summon it if necessary.

Younger Years

Born on Tuesday, the 12th of Fadings in the year 219 ATC, Reinald grew up in Spellwhisk, a safe and comfortable city where he always felt secure. His childhood was warm and well-funded: his mother, Florence Vulperian-Novellington, was kind and encouraging; his father, Richard Vulperian, loving but strict about study, remained active in Spellwhisk’s government alongside Reinald’s grandfather.

Without siblings but with a close extended family—including Aunt Victoria, Uncle Marco, his grandparents, and distant ties to Orso Novelington-Sionnach—Reinald spent summers at his maternal grandparents’ seaside cottage near Salmon's Run, swimming in the ocean.

His mother and grandmother ran The Pippin Cidery, a famed tavern celebrated for its apple pie and Ignisar-renowned ciders. Reinald learned early that hard work and talent could take him far, a belief that carried him to Eureka’s Gem, where his natural aptitude for magic flourished. He was already casting powerful spells before he could even write.

At age nine, a foolish attempt to impress his classmates with a fire elemental turned catastrophic. Reinald and his only friend, Lukas, reached beyond their control. The greater fire elemental they summoned tore free, setting nearby forests ablaze. The fire burned so deeply that the land still rejects healing; replanting fails, roots wither, and whole stretches remain scarred and barren.

Professor Magnus Evensen saved Reinald from the blaze but was too late to save Lukas. Ultimately, Magnus took responsibility for the catastrophe and was dismissed from his teaching position, avoiding imprisonment. Lukas perished in the flames, and the weight of that loss has never truly loosened its grip on Reinald. Reinald himself barely survived. To save his life, his left arm had to be amputated, severing the last tangible link to his childhood. He withdrew completely, becoming a shut-in for years. His parents, at a loss, tried to help him adjust with prosthetics and careful accommodations, but nothing felt right—the arm never felt natural, and neither did the world outside his door. Matters worsened as rumors spread through Spellwhisk, casting Reinald as the one responsible for the blaze. Whether spoken aloud or implied, the blame reached him all the same.

It was Victoria and Marco who eventually broke through his isolation. Marco traveled repeatedly from Concordia to Spellwhisk, and for a long time, his visits were the only reason Reinald left the house at all. Victoria took a different approach, enrolling him in private fencing lessons, insisting on routine and progress. Her connections with the Spellwhisk Consortium and the Council of Sevenfold enabled Reinald to receive a more advanced prosthetic: “The Niðavellir Arm”—based on arcane interpretations of ancient dwarven designs.

The arm ran on gemstone dust, which was costly and needed frequent replacement, but when Reinald realized he could fully use his arm again, it ignited something inside him. It took roughly a decade, but through Marco and Victoria's combined persistence, Reinald began re-engaging with society. He was not the same boy he had been, but he could live again, building a new life for himself once more.

Adulthood

Years later, Reinald developed a deep interest in the Niðavellir magicks that powered his prosthetic and re-enrolled at Eureka’s Gem. Adjusting to life with his prosthetic was one thing; casting spells effectively was another. Progress was slow, but each tweak to his Niðavellirian Arm brought him closer to mastering magic once more. To celebrate Reinald's “Second Spark”—his coming of age—Marco gifted him a diary: a thick tome with metal-plated edges. Vague in his explanation, Marco hinted it was enchanted with an infinite page-archiving spell. At first, Reinald used it simply to take notes, but soon he noticed words appearing in the book that he hadn’t written, each time causing the beautiful light-green gemstone on its cover to glow.

Reinald wondered if the gemstone could be a permanent power source for his Niðavellir Arm. If it could supply infinite pages, why not more? The Spellwhisk Consortium refused to experiment, citing instability and potential danger. Defeated but curious, Reinald recorded his thoughts in the diary. Soon, he began hearing a voice in his dreams, nudging him toward small, seemingly trivial tasks—adjusting a vase, following odd instructions. Odd, yes, but harmless—and eventually these small requests led him to discover an incantation and gesture usable with only one hand. To his shock, he could cast Shocking Grasp properly!

Reinald suspected the gemstone and the tome were involved. On a whim, he used Shocking Grasp, which disconnected the gemstone from the metal-plated tome... It worked, leaving the book unharmed and disconnecting the metal plating. Against Consortium regulations, he installed the gemstone into his Niðavellir prosthetic. The moment he succeeded, a spirit appeared: Röká, a spectral foxfolk-like entity with an unusual horned headpiece. The voice he had heard in dreams revealed itself and offered a deal: occasional requests in return for new powers appearing in the tome. Reinald accepted, now living with Röká’s guidance and commentary and the lure of more.

Reinald’s upbringing left him good-natured and inclined to see the best in people, forgiving mistakes and treating colleagues as equals despite holding a position of authority—partly achieved through nepotism. He dislikes rigid hierarchies and judges people by skill and merit rather than status. His pride in his magical skill is real and growing; he aspires to be the foremost mage in Spellwhisk, perhaps beyond. With Röká, he has an uncanny intuition for how magitech artifacts function, as if he can feel which buttons to press.

Today, Reinald’s life is comfortable and, to his quiet frustration, almost too calm. He runs Magical Cleanup Taskforce No. 344 alongside Arjhanite of Dragonstone and Fixit Howspell, and occasionally teaches Magitech Studies at Eureka’s Gem. Wealth matters little beyond maintenance, but power—whether magical or technological matters greatly.