Iuri Gavrilenko
Keywords: mage, reserved, reclusive, passive, lethargic, narcoleptic
Class: human (synapic mage)
Age: 37
Height: 5' 11" / 180 cm
Build: average, slightly unfit
Occupation: senior member, Mage Council
Connections: Misoki (wife), Ylaine (friend/ex-girlfriend), Cael (associate), Tasha (former love, deceased)
Class: human (synapic mage)
Age: 37
Height: 5' 11" / 180 cm
Build: average, slightly unfit
Occupation: senior member, Mage Council
Connections: Misoki (wife), Ylaine (friend/ex-girlfriend), Cael (associate), Tasha (former love, deceased)
Appearance
Iuri has green eyes and wavy medium brown hair swept to the side.
Clothing
He wears layered mage robes, usually in white, blue, or other sea tones, with cloth slippers. He carries a wooden staff with an angular lyre-shaped head bearing a pearl orb suspended on wire between the prongs.
Iuri has full-body mage wrappings. Mage wrappings are made of a single, thin piece of magical cloth that wraps around a mage's body. The more wrappings a mage has, the more powerful the mage is -- Iuri's full-body wrapping indicate he is an extremely powerful mage. Iuri usually leaves his head and fingertips uncovered, but his wrapping can cover him entirely when desired.
Mages can control their wrappings and will sometimes use the ends of the wrapping to grab objects or carry things. Mage wrappings also protect against magical attacks. When a mage's power reserves run empty, the cloth loses power.
The angular lyre with central orb is Iuri's official mage symbol and is often incorporated into his clothing.
Clothing
He wears layered mage robes, usually in white, blue, or other sea tones, with cloth slippers. He carries a wooden staff with an angular lyre-shaped head bearing a pearl orb suspended on wire between the prongs.
Iuri has full-body mage wrappings. Mage wrappings are made of a single, thin piece of magical cloth that wraps around a mage's body. The more wrappings a mage has, the more powerful the mage is -- Iuri's full-body wrapping indicate he is an extremely powerful mage. Iuri usually leaves his head and fingertips uncovered, but his wrapping can cover him entirely when desired.
Mages can control their wrappings and will sometimes use the ends of the wrapping to grab objects or carry things. Mage wrappings also protect against magical attacks. When a mage's power reserves run empty, the cloth loses power.
The angular lyre with central orb is Iuri's official mage symbol and is often incorporated into his clothing.
Primary References
Physiology
Magic-users on Iuri's world are distinguished from the normal human populace by virtue of an extra bodily organ, a synap, which converts some of what they eat or drink into magical energy (after it passes through the stomach and a shortened "partial" intestine). A mage's power capability depends upon the efficiency of their synap. Most magic-users have fairly inefficient synaps and low magicla output.
Iuri's synap operates at basically 100% efficiency, converting virtually all waste products after they've been processed through his stomach and partial intestine. As a result, he almost never uses the restroom. As convenient as that may sound, it brings several medical issues with it and he's had to have a few surgeries over the years as a result. He has several scars around his lower stomach.
It so happens that alcohol provides mages with the most magical energy per units consumed, and alcohol charges mages up quickly because of how alcoholic elements travel through the bloodstream -- alcoholic beverages reach the synap much quicker than regular food and drink.
Magic-users on Iuri's world are distinguished from the normal human populace by virtue of an extra bodily organ, a synap, which converts some of what they eat or drink into magical energy (after it passes through the stomach and a shortened "partial" intestine). A mage's power capability depends upon the efficiency of their synap. Most magic-users have fairly inefficient synaps and low magicla output.
Iuri's synap operates at basically 100% efficiency, converting virtually all waste products after they've been processed through his stomach and partial intestine. As a result, he almost never uses the restroom. As convenient as that may sound, it brings several medical issues with it and he's had to have a few surgeries over the years as a result. He has several scars around his lower stomach.
It so happens that alcohol provides mages with the most magical energy per units consumed, and alcohol charges mages up quickly because of how alcoholic elements travel through the bloodstream -- alcoholic beverages reach the synap much quicker than regular food and drink.
Personality
Quiet and unassuming, Iuri hates attention. He prefers thinking to acting. He only rarely loses his temper and has a great reserve of patience, never rushing things. Before he met Misoki, he usually sat at home reading or journaling and avoiding the world. Since meeting her, he has taken to accompanying her on her travels.
While he possesses great magical skills, Iuri has little interest in magic and rarely uses his magic for any reason. He does not perform magic demonstrations or put on shows to impress people -- Iuri doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, even people he cares about.
Iuri is narcoleptic and likes to use this as an excuse to be lazy. While he does genuinely fall asleep as a result of his narcolepsy, he'll also fake sleeping when he doesn't want to deal with things. He's also been known to brood silently rather than participate in conversation. He doesn't ever offer up information about himself, but will answer questions from his close friends.
Though Iuri is a terribly lazy person in general, he does does tai chi one to two hours every morning and again for an hour in the evening.
While he possesses great magical skills, Iuri has little interest in magic and rarely uses his magic for any reason. He does not perform magic demonstrations or put on shows to impress people -- Iuri doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, even people he cares about.
Iuri is narcoleptic and likes to use this as an excuse to be lazy. While he does genuinely fall asleep as a result of his narcolepsy, he'll also fake sleeping when he doesn't want to deal with things. He's also been known to brood silently rather than participate in conversation. He doesn't ever offer up information about himself, but will answer questions from his close friends.
Though Iuri is a terribly lazy person in general, he does does tai chi one to two hours every morning and again for an hour in the evening.
History
Childhood
Iuri was born on the Plana Siberia as his mother fled her homeland of Khazaria for the neighboring Triumnal Confederacy. She had fallen in love with an untalented (or nonmagical) man, which was in direct conflict with the Khazarian reproduction mandate for mages. Iuri was born with the extra organ required to process consumed matter into magic, but with a nonmagical father, he was not expected to amount to much and was granted asylum in the Confederacy. In exchange for Iuri's freedom, his mother returned to Khazaria and was most likely punished severely, as she was never heard from again.
Iuri grew up with a foster family, but never bonded with them. Though he was aware of his burgeoning magical prowess, he did his best to conceal all the signs. When his appetite declined as puberty began (signaling the development of his synap), he disguised this fact by pretending to take meals in his room and secretly feeding a significant portion of his food to the dog. At age 13, Iuri opted to obtain independence, making it even easier for him to avoid suspicion.
Government Mandates
Despite his father's humble lineage, when tested at age 15, Iuri's magic levels were found to be off the charts. He ended up with full-body mage wrappings (almost unheard of) and was classed as a mage of the Ninth Circle, the highest level of mage in the land. Iuri wasn't pleased about this, as it made him subject to several government mandates, including classing him as an official Weapon on the State. The Ninth Circle did come with one benefit: an alcohol pass, granting him license to drink for free at any establishment in the Confederacy, a license which he made full and immediate use of.
Uninterested in government service, Iuri slacked off at mage college for many years, failing abysmally at every task he was given. His narcolepsy and alcohol license helped. He attempted to maintain a near-constant combination of drowsiness and drunken stupor. He was eventually graduated against his will at age 25 despite never having actually passed any classes. He took up residence in an apartment above a bar (and was so lazy he sometimes slept on the stairs rather than go all the way up to his apartment.) He was befriended by Wendy, a waitress at the bar, and Bert, a cop in love with Wendy.
As a Ninth Circle mage, Iuri was subject to the Confederacy's matchmaking program. While not a strictly mandated breeding program like the Khazarian breeding program, Iuri was legally compelled to meet with female mages and witches until such time as he married or became infertile. He was first introduced to unattached females of the Ninth Circle, as they were the most magically powerful. After he successfully alienated the handful of Ninth Circle candidates, he was shuffled down to meetings with females of the Eighth level, then the Seventh, then the Sixth, and even onto the Fifth, sabotaging hundreds of arranged dates over the course of three years by falling asleep, being drunk, refusing to pay any part of meals, insisting on being picked up (despite possessing the ability to fly without effort), and not engaging in basic conversation. A number of the women pursued him despite his behavior, eager to match themselves up with the most powerful mage in the world, but Iuri was able to dump the more persistent ones after the three-date minimum requirement for one side to drop out of the match.
The Centennial Conference
When he was 28, Iuri was sent to the 36th Centennial Conference of Magic. There, he met a foreign mage named Tasha. Over the course of the two-week conference, they fell in love, but on the last day of the conference she vanished. Iuri returned home and tried to find information on Tasha without success.
The War
Khazaria then declared war on the Confederacy. As wars on Iuri's world are fought and resolved by mage combat, he was called to fight on the battlefield. Uninterested in participating in compbat, Iuri claimed to be a pacifist, declared himself a conscientious objector because of his Khazarian heritage, pretended to be suffering from unknown medical maladies, and tried to flee to an island principality called the Great Meriannes. Iuri was caught on the border and dragged to the battlefield where he was presented with a choice: fight the enemy, or be killed. The mages produced by Khazaria's breeding program were completely overpowering the Confederate forces, and Iuri watched a fellow Ninth Circle mage he'd gone on two dates with sliced nearly to pieces. Rather than face the same fate, he lashed out and instinctively channeled a tiny fraction of the power of a star onto the battlefield. The Khazarians were burned alive.
Unfortunately, Iuri (who had never done more than the most basic physics calculation in his life) accidentally disrupted the planetary crust (in addition to igniting raging forest fires in a twenty-mile radius) and in doing so had endangered the lives of everyone on the planet. The star spell had drained a lot of his power and it took everything he had left to correct the damage and set the planet right again.
Iuri was left standing on a battlefield of ashes, exhausted and leaning on his staff, mage wrappings loosening across his body, robes and shoes burnt off. A flare flashed in the distance and Iuri stumbled towards it, trailing his depleted mage wrappings after him. Across the charred earth he discovered the most powerful of the Khazarian mages still clinging to life. She had channeled all her energy into her mage wrappings to protect herself from the worst of the assault, but the wrappings were not full-body and everything left exposed had been burnt clean away. She had taken special care to protect her lower torso. Iuri realized it was Tasha, and he knew immediately that she had been trying to protect their unborn child. Additionally, Iuri learned Tasha had been sent to the Conference to spy on him and attempt to recruit him to Khazaria. She had avoided him rather than ask him to leave with her, afraid he would accept the offer.
Iuri tried vainly to summon enough magic to heal her wounds, but had nothing left. Tasha died in his arms, the life she carried flickering out with her.
Exile
Iuri tore away the remaining scraps of his wrappings and picked up Tasha's corpse. He began walking and did not stop until he reached a path of miraculously unburned forest. There he buried her. He proceeded to live in that patch of forest undiscovered and forgotten, presumed dead by the governments that had longed so dearly to control him.
Though his own world had forgotten him, knowledge of his life reached the Many Worlds. Trion went to the forest and retrieved Iuri.
The Many Worlds
Iuri was a member of the original household at the Inn and was present during the Deity War, but was not asked to participate. He did contribute his skills on several occasions out of loyalty and gratitude to his new friends and family, but mostly stayed out of things.
After the war concluded, Iuri took up residence in the neighborhood in a castle perched atop a high, rocky seaside cliff. He took a position on the Mage Council -- generally sleeping through meetings, but his presence was appreciated nonetheless. A fellow councilmember, Reginald, had an interest in the unusual mental capabilities of a girl named Ylaine and brought Iuri along to assess her. Iuri realized Ylaine was being treated unfairly because she was perceived as "special," a position which Iuri could empathize with. He assisted Ylaine in seeking emancipation. They became friends, confidants, and dated for about half a year. The romantic relationship ended, but they remained close friends. They subsequently hooked up for one night before Ylaine began dating Harry Lindsay, making Iuri the last man Ylaine slept with before her husband.
Misoki
After Ylaine, Iuri withdrew for a time. He was eventually goaded into traveling on business for the Mage Council and was assigned a guide for his trip: Wandren Misoki. Misoki was keenly interested in Iuri and continued to engage with him after the trip concluded. This continued for several months. Iuri came to trust Misoki and, as he began to understand the depth of her affections, to feel affection for her in return. The only issue was that Misoki also felt an attraction towards Tuthau, and while she was female in her juvenile form, her species had the ability to choose gender upon reaching adulthood. As Tuthau's gender preference was for males, it presented Misoki with a choice: fix her gender as female and mate with Iuri, or become male and mate with Tuthau. Her species mated for life and once the choice was made, there would be no going back.
Unable to delay the transition to adulthood for much longer, Misoki left to meditate upon the issue and discover her true feelings on her own. In her absence, Iuri realized he loved her and desperately wanted her to return as female. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do except wait for her return and hope she felt the same for him.
When Misoki returned, she had fixed her adult form as female. Iuri and Misoki were married shortly after, Misoki moving into Iuri's castle.
Misoki and Iuri share much of their lives, but also retain their independence. While Iuri often travels with Misoki, he is something of a homebody and it's not uncommon for Misoki to travel alone, keeping in contact with Iuri via communication orb. As Iuri has little interest in magic, Misoki doesn't often include him in her magical research, though he sometimes volunteers his assistance. They simply have an excellent balance in their lives. They are present for each other while retaining their individual identities, coexisting without being dependent, and sharing a deep trust and closeness. They can often be found sitting together, Iuri engrossed in a spy novel while Misoki peruses a magical history text, holding hands or sitting side by side. They reinforce and support one another perfectly.
Iuri was born on the Plana Siberia as his mother fled her homeland of Khazaria for the neighboring Triumnal Confederacy. She had fallen in love with an untalented (or nonmagical) man, which was in direct conflict with the Khazarian reproduction mandate for mages. Iuri was born with the extra organ required to process consumed matter into magic, but with a nonmagical father, he was not expected to amount to much and was granted asylum in the Confederacy. In exchange for Iuri's freedom, his mother returned to Khazaria and was most likely punished severely, as she was never heard from again.
Iuri grew up with a foster family, but never bonded with them. Though he was aware of his burgeoning magical prowess, he did his best to conceal all the signs. When his appetite declined as puberty began (signaling the development of his synap), he disguised this fact by pretending to take meals in his room and secretly feeding a significant portion of his food to the dog. At age 13, Iuri opted to obtain independence, making it even easier for him to avoid suspicion.
Government Mandates
Despite his father's humble lineage, when tested at age 15, Iuri's magic levels were found to be off the charts. He ended up with full-body mage wrappings (almost unheard of) and was classed as a mage of the Ninth Circle, the highest level of mage in the land. Iuri wasn't pleased about this, as it made him subject to several government mandates, including classing him as an official Weapon on the State. The Ninth Circle did come with one benefit: an alcohol pass, granting him license to drink for free at any establishment in the Confederacy, a license which he made full and immediate use of.
Uninterested in government service, Iuri slacked off at mage college for many years, failing abysmally at every task he was given. His narcolepsy and alcohol license helped. He attempted to maintain a near-constant combination of drowsiness and drunken stupor. He was eventually graduated against his will at age 25 despite never having actually passed any classes. He took up residence in an apartment above a bar (and was so lazy he sometimes slept on the stairs rather than go all the way up to his apartment.) He was befriended by Wendy, a waitress at the bar, and Bert, a cop in love with Wendy.
As a Ninth Circle mage, Iuri was subject to the Confederacy's matchmaking program. While not a strictly mandated breeding program like the Khazarian breeding program, Iuri was legally compelled to meet with female mages and witches until such time as he married or became infertile. He was first introduced to unattached females of the Ninth Circle, as they were the most magically powerful. After he successfully alienated the handful of Ninth Circle candidates, he was shuffled down to meetings with females of the Eighth level, then the Seventh, then the Sixth, and even onto the Fifth, sabotaging hundreds of arranged dates over the course of three years by falling asleep, being drunk, refusing to pay any part of meals, insisting on being picked up (despite possessing the ability to fly without effort), and not engaging in basic conversation. A number of the women pursued him despite his behavior, eager to match themselves up with the most powerful mage in the world, but Iuri was able to dump the more persistent ones after the three-date minimum requirement for one side to drop out of the match.
The Centennial Conference
When he was 28, Iuri was sent to the 36th Centennial Conference of Magic. There, he met a foreign mage named Tasha. Over the course of the two-week conference, they fell in love, but on the last day of the conference she vanished. Iuri returned home and tried to find information on Tasha without success.
The War
Khazaria then declared war on the Confederacy. As wars on Iuri's world are fought and resolved by mage combat, he was called to fight on the battlefield. Uninterested in participating in compbat, Iuri claimed to be a pacifist, declared himself a conscientious objector because of his Khazarian heritage, pretended to be suffering from unknown medical maladies, and tried to flee to an island principality called the Great Meriannes. Iuri was caught on the border and dragged to the battlefield where he was presented with a choice: fight the enemy, or be killed. The mages produced by Khazaria's breeding program were completely overpowering the Confederate forces, and Iuri watched a fellow Ninth Circle mage he'd gone on two dates with sliced nearly to pieces. Rather than face the same fate, he lashed out and instinctively channeled a tiny fraction of the power of a star onto the battlefield. The Khazarians were burned alive.
Unfortunately, Iuri (who had never done more than the most basic physics calculation in his life) accidentally disrupted the planetary crust (in addition to igniting raging forest fires in a twenty-mile radius) and in doing so had endangered the lives of everyone on the planet. The star spell had drained a lot of his power and it took everything he had left to correct the damage and set the planet right again.
Iuri was left standing on a battlefield of ashes, exhausted and leaning on his staff, mage wrappings loosening across his body, robes and shoes burnt off. A flare flashed in the distance and Iuri stumbled towards it, trailing his depleted mage wrappings after him. Across the charred earth he discovered the most powerful of the Khazarian mages still clinging to life. She had channeled all her energy into her mage wrappings to protect herself from the worst of the assault, but the wrappings were not full-body and everything left exposed had been burnt clean away. She had taken special care to protect her lower torso. Iuri realized it was Tasha, and he knew immediately that she had been trying to protect their unborn child. Additionally, Iuri learned Tasha had been sent to the Conference to spy on him and attempt to recruit him to Khazaria. She had avoided him rather than ask him to leave with her, afraid he would accept the offer.
Iuri tried vainly to summon enough magic to heal her wounds, but had nothing left. Tasha died in his arms, the life she carried flickering out with her.
Exile
Iuri tore away the remaining scraps of his wrappings and picked up Tasha's corpse. He began walking and did not stop until he reached a path of miraculously unburned forest. There he buried her. He proceeded to live in that patch of forest undiscovered and forgotten, presumed dead by the governments that had longed so dearly to control him.
Though his own world had forgotten him, knowledge of his life reached the Many Worlds. Trion went to the forest and retrieved Iuri.
The Many Worlds
Iuri was a member of the original household at the Inn and was present during the Deity War, but was not asked to participate. He did contribute his skills on several occasions out of loyalty and gratitude to his new friends and family, but mostly stayed out of things.
After the war concluded, Iuri took up residence in the neighborhood in a castle perched atop a high, rocky seaside cliff. He took a position on the Mage Council -- generally sleeping through meetings, but his presence was appreciated nonetheless. A fellow councilmember, Reginald, had an interest in the unusual mental capabilities of a girl named Ylaine and brought Iuri along to assess her. Iuri realized Ylaine was being treated unfairly because she was perceived as "special," a position which Iuri could empathize with. He assisted Ylaine in seeking emancipation. They became friends, confidants, and dated for about half a year. The romantic relationship ended, but they remained close friends. They subsequently hooked up for one night before Ylaine began dating Harry Lindsay, making Iuri the last man Ylaine slept with before her husband.
Misoki
After Ylaine, Iuri withdrew for a time. He was eventually goaded into traveling on business for the Mage Council and was assigned a guide for his trip: Wandren Misoki. Misoki was keenly interested in Iuri and continued to engage with him after the trip concluded. This continued for several months. Iuri came to trust Misoki and, as he began to understand the depth of her affections, to feel affection for her in return. The only issue was that Misoki also felt an attraction towards Tuthau, and while she was female in her juvenile form, her species had the ability to choose gender upon reaching adulthood. As Tuthau's gender preference was for males, it presented Misoki with a choice: fix her gender as female and mate with Iuri, or become male and mate with Tuthau. Her species mated for life and once the choice was made, there would be no going back.
Unable to delay the transition to adulthood for much longer, Misoki left to meditate upon the issue and discover her true feelings on her own. In her absence, Iuri realized he loved her and desperately wanted her to return as female. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do except wait for her return and hope she felt the same for him.
When Misoki returned, she had fixed her adult form as female. Iuri and Misoki were married shortly after, Misoki moving into Iuri's castle.
Misoki and Iuri share much of their lives, but also retain their independence. While Iuri often travels with Misoki, he is something of a homebody and it's not uncommon for Misoki to travel alone, keeping in contact with Iuri via communication orb. As Iuri has little interest in magic, Misoki doesn't often include him in her magical research, though he sometimes volunteers his assistance. They simply have an excellent balance in their lives. They are present for each other while retaining their individual identities, coexisting without being dependent, and sharing a deep trust and closeness. They can often be found sitting together, Iuri engrossed in a spy novel while Misoki peruses a magical history text, holding hands or sitting side by side. They reinforce and support one another perfectly.
Gallery
Artists, please use the Primary References first!