Low Estate/Characters/Willem de Vos

Background

Willem has been reading everything he could get his hands on ever since he was old enough to start stealing fresh pages off the presses at his family's print shop. He grew up as the youngest of four children. Martin and Roeland, the two eldest brothers, are expected to take over the family business some day. Kathelyne chose to pursue her calling with the Church. But Willem's love was always for learning. Knowing that he would be terrible at manual labor and even worse at commerce, his parents saved up to send him to primary school. While there, he was so successful (for a commoner) that he attracted the attention of old Lord Ballegheer, who offered to pay for Willem's further education if Willem agreed to work for his son Gabriel afterward.

Now, Willem is studying magic semi-successfully at the local university. His habit of inadvertently missing lectures because he's too busy reading or doing his own independent research projects has earned him a questionable reputation with some of his instructors, but his they've never been able to fault him at examinations. He's also never quite gotten the hang of reliably producing the actual, tangible magical effects that he intends, but he has a remarkable knack for faking it: even without the proper materials and precise incantations, he's capable of producing quite credible (but wholly illusory) simulations of real magical effects. (However, it's only a matter of time before his instructors begin to catch on.)

When not busy studying, Willem can often be found performing magical and scientific experiments in one of the school's sub-basements, reading while walking through busy streets and marketplaces (and only very rarely bumping into people, fast-moving carriages or walls), or visiting his older sister, Sister Kathelyne, who helps to operate Sister Marianne's Home For Children Of Unknown Or Ill-Fated Parentage.

Appearance

Willem is average height and has a slender build, with sandy blond hair and light brown eyes. His manner of dress is ambiguous: the simple brown high-cuffed trousers of a printer or machinist, a poofy white shirt with pinned-up sleeves typical of a scholar, but also a flowing black cape of a style only worn by mystics and would-be magic-users.

Skills

• Great: Academics, Reflexes
• Good: Science, Athletics
• Fair: Stealth, Community (Academia)
• Average: Nature, Resolve
• Untrained: Brawn, Fingersmithery, Riding, Sailing, Weapons, Community (Other)

Aspects

• Primary:
  • Student Magician — Willem is a familiar figure at the University. He hasn't quite mastered the mystical arts just yet, but he's pretty good at illusions.
  • Walking Library — He's read more books than he can count, and he himself often forgets how much of them he can remember until he's reminded.
• Secondary:
  • Patron — Willem owes a great debt to the Ballegheer family for the opportunities they've provided him.
  • Doodler — Willem's mother originally taught him how to draw, how to practice calligraphy, and how to illustrate texts. More than once, he's caught himself absentmindedly adding margin illustrations to a manuscript he was engrossed in.
  • Sedatephobia — He grew up in the city, and has never been entirely comfortable with complete silence. Willem does his best thinking when surrounded by clamor and noise, such as machinery or crowds.