Caius Alexander Black

Birth and Childhood

Caius Alexander Black was born to Henry Phillip Winthrop and Margaret Black at the Boston Medical Center on December 18th, 2002. Henry was a struggling Harvard educated public defender at the time; he found his post-graduate path much harder than he reckoned at first due to his public and bitter break with his politically powerful and well-connected family over an idealogical stance. His wife, Margaret Black, was a Celtic art historian, an alumnus of Emerson University, with a passionate love for humanitarian ideals. In her life, Margaret was a driving force who, in many ways, pushed the young Henry Winthrop to be a better man. At the time of Caius' birth, the couple were poor, but in many ways happy.

Henry was a gifted young lawyer, and his strong and occasionally brilliant work in the office of the public defender soon drew the attention of the District Attorney's office. Henry's decision to leave public defense and join the prosecution would turn out to be the final wedge driven into a crumbling marriage, with the two officially divorcing in 2009. Caius was left in the care of his mother as his father began to drift back into the orbit of his own powerfully connected family.

Caius was a strange child in many ways. Temperamental, moody, and occasionally erratic, he was also intensely gifted intellectually. Needless to say he was a difficult student who found his public education to be all but trivial, which in many ways drove him to act out out of boredom. His behavior occasionally verged on the autistic, and the difficulty of dealing with Caius was, in many ways, a contributing factor to the intense pressure that finally broke his parent's marriage. He was, unbeknownst to his parents, teachers, or counselors, an incredibly powerful burgeoning paranormal.

His abilities began manifesting at an early age, mostly taking the form of strange and disquieting disturbances centered around the boy and his family. Strange fires, breaking glass, and more or less dangerous accidents plagued the struggling family no matter where they moved or how safe they proofed their home. As a child, he was often overheard having one-sided and sometimes disturbing conversations in his room late at night, or waking the house by screaming in terror for no discernible reason. He was prone to fits, with seemingly innocuous situations on the schoolyard, or on the bus, or in the park causing him to freeze in terror or spin stories of monsters or demons or angels.

Eventually, the stress of it all drove his mother to return to the faith of her Irish Catholic ancestors and his father out of the house entirely. Though her patience was great, in Margaret was a growing fear of her erratic but often wonderful child, a fear that science, medicine, and therapy could hardly explain away. The final blow came two years after the divorce when she was diagnosed with a degenerative nerve disease. Caius watched with horror as his strong, loving, and independent mother grew weak and unstable, her mind decaying with delusions and madness. When she finally passed away, it was more of a relief than a tragedy, and Caius went to live with Henry and his new wife. It was three days after his tenth birthday.

Adolescence

Moved in with father and stepmother. They fought and grew to resent each other.

Uncle Roland Black shows up at his mother's funeral. Befriends the boy and bewitches his family.

Takes Caius away at 14 to a "private school in Great Britain".

Caius enters apprenticeship to Roland. Incredibly difficult but rewarding magical tutelage.

Runs away at 21.

Sojourn

Travels the world on foot. Cambridge, circus troupe, Sorbonne, fencing in Munich, gypsies, fakir in Iran, sannyasa in Gujarat, hapkido in Korea, mahasiddha in Tibet.

While in Tibet he faces his inner darkness and resolves to return to confront his past.

Returning Home

Roland is gone and has left his fortune to Caius.

Caius returns to Commonwealth City and determines to take responsibility for the city, to use his power and training to make things better. 75% Responsibility Motivation, 25% Pride.

Powers

Sorcery

Wielding magic in an eclectic style all his own, Memento has merged the Western hermetic traditions of symbology and incantation with the Eastern philosophies of internal balance and inner will to adapt a style of magic all his own. He favors magic that can control, confuse, and disable his opponents, often augmenting his very real magic with very old illusionists tricks.

Abilities

Martial Artist

Trained in martial arts across Europe and Asia for over 6 years, he is a 5th degree black belt in hapkido, jujutsu, and ninpo. He is also an accomplished sport fencer of the classical school.

Eidetic Memory

Capable of instant recall of conversations, text, scenes and scenarios in vivid detail.

Polymath

He has studied Biology, Technology, Mathematics, Physics, Mythology, Law, Geography, & History. He has mastered Diverse Environmental Training, Security Systems, and illusion/sleight of hand by the time he was 23.

Multi-Lingual

In addition to his native English, he has mastered Classical Latin, Classical Greek, Arabic, Hindi (Sindhi dialect), Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Gaelic.

Escapologist

Trained in escapology by multiple teachers across Europe and Asia, he is fully capable of shedding straight-jackets, chains, ropes, and handcuffs under duress or on display.

Actor

He is a talented and convincing actor and a master of disguise capable of using raw materials and opportunity to create believable persona and illusions.

Ventriloquist

He is gifted ventriloquist, capable of adapting his voice and throwing it with little to no effort.

Ames-Webster Mansion

306 Dartmouth St.