Carter, Phillip

Character's past

Phillip was born the middle child of a loving couple in the Maine town of Bringham. With a gifted older sister and energetic younger brother, it would have been easy for Phillip to just melt into the background of his own family and to never discover anything special about himself. Then there was the car crash when he was seven that killed his parents, sending all three kids to the orphanage to be separated.   Philip was surprisingly quick to be adopted by a soft-looking woman, who took him home to Warren Vermont to live with her two sisters. Life was much tougher there than the appearances would have indicated, with the three sisters treating as some sort of cruel indentured servant. During this time he noticed lots of small oddities like how bad luck always seemed to strike those who vexed the sisters, and good luck likewise came their way like magic.   Of course, three sisters, very cruel, and oddly lucky... you are all thinking what even young Phillip thought at the time. Unfortunately, you’re all right that these three sisters were witches, and that they had plans for poor Philip beyond just being cruel to him.   Thankfully a mysterious woman approached Philip one day and explained to him that he was the reincarnation of an ancient druid and that the three witches planned to sacrifice him for power once he turned sixteen. Thankfully, being an ancient druid in a past life means he wasn’t as powerless as he thought, and that he could defeat the witches.   Of course, defeating the witches was left to Philip himself, as the mysterious woman vamoused after that. He eventually trapped one in the roots of an old old, another at the bottom of a frozen lake, and the final one he turned into a budgie... which was promptly eaten by her cat.   This was not the end of Philip’s ordeals, as his childhood was filled with half a dozen other incidents where an evil magical figure took an interest in Philip, a mysterious woman (at least always looking different) would warn him, and then Philip would be left to deal with them himself. This all continued until he turned sixteen.   On his sixteenth birthday, Philip’s current foster family was lured to a cabin in the woods, where Philip himself was drawn to a lake where the mysterious woman showed themselves to him again, but this time in her true form. They were the spirit of his former lover, and now that he was sixteen he could bring her back to life... by having sex with her.   ...that, seriously wasn’t going to happen. First thing, was she seriously helping him all this time just to help herself? Second, just how many of the people he’s been fighting all this time are really as evil as she claims they were, or were they just potential barriers between this moment? And third... reincarnation means he’s a different person than his past self, and in this life he’s gay... so like go screw yourself, lady.   Needless to say, she didn’t take kindly to this.   The next day, the cabin was destroyed, Philip’s current foster family was shaken but alive, and where the lake once stood there was now a grove of trees. Philip was soon shuffled to another foster family within the next month.   Having passed the magic age, Philip attracted much less attention from potential predators after his “sweet sixteen” and could have lived a normal life in secret. But the fact that some of the people he defeated over the years might have not been as evil as the ex-girlfriend spirit led him to believe always plagued him, so during the summer of his seventeenth year he talked his then-current foster family to let him go on a road trip across the northeastern states to investigate them all again and free those who weren’t so evil after all.   At least one of those people he let must have been impressed... or possibly frightened... because in his final year of high school as he wondered where his life was going to lead him once he graduated and was out of the foster system, he was presented with an offer from the Harker Academy from his guidance counselors.   Given his life history to this point, Philip was very skeptical... but what he’s most skeptical about is other magic users, not heroes. And this is for the most part a school for heroes even if they have a magic instructor. And it also says something that Philip had to go through everything he did on his own; both defeating the actual evils and being manipulated into “defending” himself against good people. Someone should have been there to step in before it got that far.   ...and maybe for someone else, that person will be Philip. It certainly beats flipping burgers or being a park ranger miles away from the nearest hobby store.  

Character's personality

Philip had a rough time growing up. He was hunted by magic users with only a self-interested spirit for support who sometimes had him “defend” himself against good people who would have gotten in the way of her use for Philip. He’s corrected his mistakes by now, but this has left him slow to trust others.   Mind you, he doesn’t project this like a big keep-away sign a mile wide. He’s instead just polite but introverted, more prone to observation than interaction, and quicker to trust your dog than he is you. And yes, he likes animals, but he doesn’t own pets himself since he likes having at least five minutes of quiet.   The one hole in this introverted armor is the game table. Philip had to teach himself what a reincarnated druid might be able to do, and this exposed him to tabletop roleplaying games. While Philip’s magic isn’t one-for-one like it is in the games, the games himself he found intriguing; he tends to play rogues, bards, or rangers depending on the campaign as he’s more closely attracted to problem solvers.  

powers(if any)

Philip is a magic user, but he technically isn’t a druid. Yes, he’s a reincarnated druid, but he was just told he was that and then let loose. So he’s best described as a hedge mage who has been fed a bunch of information from the internet and D&D books. ( By the way, he doesn’t play a druid, or even a magic-user in those games. He plays a rogue. )   The spells in Philip’s arsenal include changing the shape and hardness of wood, accelerated plant growth, magically sealing people into natural terrain, talking to natural creatures, and transforming both himself and others into natural creatures.   This seems an unimpressively slim arsenal, but some of it’s very versatile, and the sealing magic, in particular, is powerful as he’s used it to defeat several more powerful magic users than himself.  

Specialized Equipment(if any)

Philip mostly carries around a bundle of sticks. Or to be exact a bundle of various tree branches from as many different trees as he could reasonably find. Oak, willow, pine, ash, mangrove, cherry, applewood... the list goes on. He doesn’t need these to work his magic, but he finds doing certain spells easier with the right kinda wood in hand.   Of course, a bundle of sticks is very inconspicuous, so he keeps those in a woven shoulder bag of hiding. It doesn’t make the items inside lighter, but it can’t be seen by people other than Philip and doesn’t make any noise.   But even a bag one has to lug around all the time can be hard to be one hundred percent sure you have on hand at any given time, so Philip's final tool he has on hand at all times is a snakewood flip knife he made from parts of a normal flip knife and a piece of snakewood he got his hands on. There are harder woods out there than snakewood, but you try getting your hands on them as a teenager in the northeast United States.  

If attending the super-curriculum, what drew you to the attention of the Harker Academy

Philip is a self-taught spellcaster who had to learn a lot on his own while defeating other more trained spell casters. Somewhere after him with ill intent in mind, others he was manipulated into thinking that was the case.   Once the truth was revealed he went back and released those he judged to actually be of good character. Apparently one of them wasn’t so embarrassed to have been imprisoned by a kid for a few years that they talked... or maybe outraged enough they raised a racket.   Either way, Harker Academy got wind of him and decided they wanted him since while most of what he does is minor stuff, sealing more experienced casters for years is kinda a big deal.