The Rocky Elemental Magician – Jamie Oliver Shears
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Ability: Minor Mastery of Non-Earth Elemental Magic, Complete Mastery of Earth Element Magic
Category: Mortal, Magician, Elemental; Threat: Very High; Malevolence: Low
Usual location: Shears Family Library
Written by Deputy Archivist Intimo
Jamie Oliver Shears (from here on “JOS” as he seems to have taken as a nickname) is the son of a wealthy family[1]and a skilled magician. He normally is seen tending to the library that his family funds for public education, in which he is chief librarian[2] as well as often practising his magic there. While JOS was the individual who solved the incident involving Aedus Adstrum and The Heart of Magic (see “Known Notable Incident Resolutions” below), that actually was not the first time our Order has encountered him.
Following resolution of the Temporal Fractures Incident, Feoh decided to investigate the rift and the Riftmaker but instead first encountered JOS doing the same as he mistook the patches of misaligned time as coming from the rift, and this led to a duel[3] in which JOS ended up as loser, he then later joined Feoh partway through their battle versus DarkOverord. Since that battle and his resolution of the incident caused by Aedus, he and Feoh seemed to have developed a rivalry, and subsequently he is occasionally seen in the order’s grounds to track leads we’d normally leave to Feoh[4].
Elemental Mutation
JOS wasn’t always half earth elemental, and used to be a normal fox-bat hybrid, however as he was working on his skills, he performed a summoning ritual wrong and accidentally used himself as a host for an elemental instead of the intended vessel he had prepared. If it wasn’t for his quick thinking it would be very likely he would have been killed in the accident, as it’s suspected his rock mutations half outright replaced his flesh and bones.
This incident has left him with an advantage of effectively mastering earth magic and gaining various skills one would expect from an Earth Elemental. Thankfully however, as far as we can tell JOS seemed to have stopped the spread of the elemental infusion entirely, but cannot reverse it. We will of course have to pay close attention to the magician as there is always a risk he could become a full elemental[5].
As A Magician
JOS’ magic, other than earth magic, appears to focus on being an “all rounder” of magic. He is quite proficient with magic pertaining to metals and fire (as they are adjacent to his forced elemental alignment) but he struggles more with elemental attacks that involve nature (wood), air and water as well as having significant difficulty with celestial magic and void magic.
Due to his mortal nature and his practice with raw elemental magic, other than earth element, he does have to prepare his reserves of magic in advance without being a drain on his own innate reserves. Typically he accomplishes this via an alchemical process that he directly imbues in to literal “spell cards” and typically carries a deck of these cards effectively as batteries. Because he spends most his time in his library, he can just monitor on the imbuing process and stock up on reserves as he needs at his own leisure.
Older more practised magicians who weren’t born as a more magical race (such as a dragon) usually end up building up this reserve over time as they become better practised in drawing energy from their surroundings as well as just their tools just naturally absorbing magic.
His second major magic tool is his grimoire, which is actually just a notebook for himself where he’ll write down or sketch out of magic he’s found interesting. This has meant that some of his are named similarly, or even look similar, to others he has seen or read about before but he does try to modify them in ways that make them at least a little more original than just appending some love to them. Over time the book’s exposure to magic has given it a enchanted quality, though whether he has noticed this is yet to be seen.
Known Notable Incident Resolutions
Heart of Magic Incident – Likely because of JOS’ present state, he was actually one of the first people to notice the fluctuations in magic that led to him following the arcane eddies and ripples back to their source.
Ferris’ Magical Item Rampage – This was mostly covered in Ferris’ article, but a quick summary is that Ferries was abusing magical items and the spell card rules. JOS resolved it by casting a spell he entitled Barrier “Boundary of Victory and Defeat”[6] that prevented Ferris from abandoning the duel early without conceding defeat to JOS’ terms of relinquishing the items entirely or emerging victorious in a ten card duel, to which JOS claims that Ferris conceded and gave up before reaching that tenth spell card
Eyewitnesses
“Are you seriously quizzing me about my son as if he was some kind of demon?” (Father)
Mr. Shears insisted I leave this here and that we treat him as a mortal.
“He is an excellent magician, in our fights he was quite well matched against my runic spells” (Feoh Sigel)
This is unsurprising, while our runes are powerful, it is of course going to be matched by other magical users.
“Why did you fools come here!? Why didn’t you tell me sooner about him!? I could have been there to stop his accident!” (Aedus Adstrum)
It is not our job to monitor magicians Aedus.
“He is an excellent librarian, I have rented many books from his library, but I daren’t risk a late fee… those claws…” (Book enthusiast)
I somehow doubt he would attack you for returning a book late[7].
Countermeasures
As he is still a mortal do not attempt elemental banishing skills. They will harm him but nothing more. However I would question why you are fighting him in the first place, as he seems not to enjoy fighting other mortals.
Be polite, be respectful, and do not constantly pester him with questions about his rocky exterior. He will only shut you out and ignore you. A sure way to anger him would be to damage his books and library, do not do this[8].
Known Spell Cards
Usually seen
- Fire & Metal Sign “Silver Dragon’s Rage”[9].
Rarer spell cards
- Earth Sign “Trilithon Destruction”
- Fire Sign “Summer Fireball”
- Earth Sign “Love Wave”
- Wood & Metal Sign “Autumnal Harvester”
- Earth & Water Sign “Coastal Erosion”
- Water Sign “Winter’s Breath”
- Earth Sign “Maia’s Ancient Slumber”
- Earth Sign “Crystalline Rain”
- Earth Sign “Fracture Point” (time-out only)
- Elemental Sign “Imperfect Philosopher’s Stone”
Co-owned spell cards
- Sky Crash “Stars on Earth” (with Aedus Adstrum)
- Star & Earth Sign “Cooling Celestial Bodies” (with Aedus Adstrum)
- Star, Earth & Metal sign “Asteroid Mining” (with Aedus Adstrum)
- Celestial Elements “Philosopher’s Stone of the Stars” (with Aedus Adstrum)
Last Word spell cards
- “A Geode of Impossible Colours”
- “Ancient Arcana of Crystals”
Not really a spell card but JOS did cast it and we’re not even entirely sure it’s even theirs
- Barrier “Boundary of Victory and Defeat”
[1]: Who kindly donates to our cause.
[2]: This is his job, though the amount of wealth he sits on means he doesn’t have to work.
[3]: I was told by Feoh it was completely sportsman like and that Feoh did not attack first, ask questions later.
[4]: This may help both of them improve their skills, but I personally am worried it will make Feoh more lax knowing he has someone else who would do it for him.
[5]: Earth elementals are not only unpredictable, but devastating when uncontrolled, like an earthquake or volcanic eruption. He will be banished if this happens.
[6]: Notably, like Ferris’ abuse, this spell was a breach of the spell card rules as well in that it didn’t serve as a magical attack, but it’s been collectively agreed to ignore this oversight for finally putting a stop to the fiasco. Secondly we’re not actually sure where or how he learned how to cast a spell like that…
[7]: That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t always be punctual to avoid late fees.
[8]: We would angry if you ruined our archives to be fair.
[9]: Despite his affinity to the Earth element, this is his most commonly used spell card as supposedly it was the first spell he created by himself and not imitating others.