Aleksandre Rivendeneira (Rambert)
Contents
Sobriquet
Merchant of Dreams
Appearance
While Rambert is tall by medieval standards, just a little over six-feet tall, and weighs a solid two-hundred and fifty pounds. The Merchant of Dreams was once a man of unremarkable physical prowess, but seventy years of sleeping half the day away has had an averse effect and he is starting to run towards fat. Despite a tendency towards corpulence, Rambert can still make love with ferocity and in times of danger, he can move faster and fight harder than most would credit him. Despite being born in Spain, Rambert hails from the far north-western corner of Iberia, a place where the Moors never managed to penetrate and so while he is dark of hair and eye, he is fair complected. He wears his hair long past his shoulders and maintains a well trimmed beard. In vestment, he prefers black robes trimmed in white, all the better to impress his customers with his powers over darkness and dreams. Unlike most sorcerers, he caparisons himself with relatively few baubles and often belts on a sword.
Behavior
Rambert is a smooth-talker, with the ladies at least, and with customers too. Yet, his harsh judgments and sharp tongue, often leave those around him disinclined to associate with him without good reason. Beneath the surface however, Rambert is a calculating man whose primary love is himself, all other be damned.
History
Rambert was born in northern Spain in 982 A.D. He was born the fourth son of Ante Heiko Rivendeneira a nobleman. His mother was named Iria Noella Botello. His older brothers are Heike, Sikke, and Estavo. He has one older sister and one younger, Wobbe and Maria. The word of the local serfs is that his father has bastards littered up and down the countryside, as he was prolific in his bedding of women.
Rambert went to Santiago de Compostela to train in letters, living in the Abbay de Santiago from the time he was eight until he reached his majority at sixteen. At the age of majority he was recruited to the Chama da Casa do Mundo. The Chantry of the World Flame was famous in the Galician kingdom. Powerful mages trained there. Only the gifted, the intelligent. Families supported it financially to assure that sons were taught the true nature of the world around them. From such a Chantry would come the new leaders of the world around them. Aleksandre was taken in as a great potential student. He showed great aptitude. Aleksandre had a firm grasp on the physics as explained by the masters of the Abbey. Aleksandre learned languages, read tomes of thought, learned to do advanced maths for the time. One year passed, then two, then three. The lessons that brought about amazing epiphanies for others never seemed to shake Aleksandre from his grounding.
Eventually he became disgruntled. Students who came in with him were already being deemed Initiates, while he remained a student. Young students with little more than a few months were promoted over him. He began to hear whispers when his back was turned, and the teachers who once smiled at him and encouraged him were now shaking their heads. Something was eluding Aleksandre, and he couldn't see what it was. Oglith was the straw that broke the camels back.
Oglith was a young fellow, his hair red as flame, his cheeks dotted with freckles. Sparkling blue eyes danced with mischief, and at first he made friends with Aleksandre. One day Aleksandre had spent all day preparing a ritual to light candles. It was a great accomplishment for Aleksandre, and he was proud of what he was ready to do. Several elder teachers came to watch him, if they seemed rather grim as they did so. Aleksandre mixed ingredients, chanted, sang, danced,feeling the gathering of energies. In a moment of triumph he finished the ritual and the candles snapped to life, brightening the room. Aleksandre beamed with pride. Oglith seemed confused. He was new here, but he hummed lightly and clapped his hands. A puff of wind blew through the room and all the candles went out. Oglith whistled, and they snapped back to life. Oglith did this twice more. Then he stood, dusted his hands, ruffled Aleksandres hair and walked out.
Aleksandre was stunned. Humiliated. He hid for a week, trying to find out how this buffoon Oglith did it. Oglith seemed to have defied reality in the way Aleksandre couldn't. The following week he stole five scrolls on ritual magic, a horse, a hundred gold pieces, and left the Chantry in the dead of night.
Aleksandre lived well, traveling from inn to inn living as he pleased. Women liked him with gold. He found he was terrible at gambling. Three men rooked him in a game of drafts one night and took all his money. Three days later he found them and took it back, using some rituals he knew. He began to do dream magic for people as a way to pay his way. Aleksandre couldn't whore and drink forever on the gold of the Chantry, so he started to use his magic for other things. He found itinerant work as a healer also. It was in Verona that the men came the first time. There were four of them, and if he hadn't prepared some small trinkets ahead of time, they would have nabbed him. Aleksandre dodged them for the next several months, staying a few steps ahead. It wasn't until Richendorf that he found out they were coming from the Chama da Casa do Mundo. Aleksandre had to kill two men that night, and almost lost his books. Luckily for him he also found the Pageant.
There he became Rambert, the merchant of dreams.
Recent Events: Rambert lost containment on the demon Amun-Ameneith. The demon escaped in the city.
