[Red Mage Black]

Name: Cecil Rhodes
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Profession: Magic Theorist and Accidental Shop Owner

Description: 5'8", with short purple hair, matching eyes hidden behind two circular spectacles and pale skin associated with librarians. Normally attired in a cashmere robe, silk undershirt, pants and sandals. The robe has runes sewn into it with gold thread.

Personality: Apathetic at first, secretly opining his current fate as a shop owner. The bookish and studious type, he's often the first to point out certain facts about a type of magic, with the air of a know it all when he wants to be. He's often silent when it comes to mundane conversation, but turns into a college professor when the subject is more in his field.

Background: In another place not this world, there was a prestigious magic college. You see, magic was practiced by those that had talent, but you had to be especially gifted to get inside. In their great library, scholars studied day and night on theories pertaining to the arcane arts. Which included finding mundane uses to benefit the rest of mankind, attempting to imitate divine miracles or exploring its origin and emergence millennia ago.

One such scholar was Cecil, whom had been sent on an errand to a book and sundry store in the city to retrieve an artifact rumored to be there. Such rumors indicated it would help the college make great strides in all their studies and he had been the 'lucky' chosen sent to retrieve it.

When he arrived, there was something strange about it. It wasn't the name, "Into The Beyond Books & Sundries," that got him, but he couldn't for the life of him remember this being here before... or wait, its always been here. He must have been reading into the night again, that's what it was.

The musty smell of old tomes filled his lungs as he stepped inside. It smelled of the old archives, filled with with outdated magic practices and old theories. It was an open two story building, the first level filled with various objects of a curious nature. Magical, but nothing special. Along with some rather mundane ones used regularly in magic practices, so he picked up a new box of chalk for runecrafting while he was here.

The second level was a small library, with shelves filled to the brim. It was pretty untidy up there. Only one person seemed to occupy the shop though. A short balding man with closed eyes and a reassuring smile. As he searched the shelves for the mysterious artifact he was sent to retrieve, he had asked the old man if he had seen it. The man simply nodded and walked into what Cecil assumed was a back room.

It was only moments before the whole store started to shake and the light had started to dim. Objects shook and books fell off their shelves. Then suddenly there was a flash and the whole store had ceased rumbling. As he reoriented himself, Cecil had noticed something odd. Everything was back in its rightful place, as if the whole thing never happened. Problem was, all the "sundries" had suddenly changed. There was a strange light coming from the outside as well. When he took a peek, he could definitely tell he wasn't in the city he knew anymore. Where was he?

A little research yielded some information. For one, the old man had left through the back door. Second, this place wasn't from his world... or any other. The store had a habit of shifting planes of existence at its own whim, to which Cecil later theorized that when business was too slow, the shop packed bags and left for greener pastures. Next was how it worked, changing its stock to match the world of which it inhabited and the fact that there were so many worlds, you could spend your lifetime here and never see the one you came from again.

He never thought he'd see so many places in his life and while business was slow, he was glad for the stock of books the shop had. Some of which he never thought he'd find.

Then one day he ended up in the modern now. Something felt weird about this place. It wasn't natural or anything he recognized. Yet he spent a whole month with hardly any customers and the shop didn't budge. Something was keeping it here? Either way, he figured it might help further his magical studies and practice runecrafting formulae in the meantime if he tried to figure out what it was.

Abilities:
Building Blocks - "Ehem, I'll explain this. You see, runecrafting is a valuable tool used in the research of magic. While you may be able to say, wave your hand and throw fire, runecrafting makes it possible to imitate the effect while understanding the fundamental building blocks used to create it. With that in mind, there is the very distinct chance that you may also be able to disassemble the spell mid-flight if you understand the formula involved. There is also*a possibility, that with this knowledge, you can mimic creation itself. An example, if you will. We'll take raw clay and the runes for water, fire and air, since earth is already represented by clay...." (I think you get the gist. I made it too complex to explain in one paragraph... but explaining things away like this is in character for him)

Pure Magician - Sometimes its simply easier to wave your hand and throw fire, lightning or ice at people without a long winded lecture involved. Including the ability to ward yourself from other magic or even physical attacks. Expecting a man who researches magic for a living not to be able to cast even the most basic of spells is ridiculous.

Tome Attack - There are simply too many books in the store to put up with. Big, small, abridged, etc. Cecil uses them as projectiles from time to time since they take up a lot of space. Talk of breaking the spines and he might throw one at you.