Archimedes: A magi of Verditius

The man who would be known as Archimedes   was born in 1190 A.D. in Palermo Sicily as Conradin vonManfred, the only child of a common builder. Conradin's mother died giving birth to him and his father, Manfred, never forgave him for that. Manfred was a builder and engineer who worked for the new German leaders of Sicily and he dragged Conradin around to wherever he went. Soon, Conradin was helping with the jobs and discovering a real love for building and engineering. At first his father was begrudgingly proud of Conradin, but that quickly ended as Conradin always wanted to know the 'why' behind what they were doing. Why were arches strong? Why did a longer lever provide more strength? Why couldn't you exactly measure the difference between a circle's circumference and its radius? To these questions, Conradin received savage and brutal beatings from his father who didn't want to hear any of this "devil's talk." Conradin quickly learned to ask others these questions but received reactions ranging from apathy to hostile stares when asking others. Once his prodding caused his father to be fired from a job and Manfred beat Conradin so dearly that he couldn't get out of bed all winter. Thereafter, he learned to keep his questions to himself.

Life didn't get much easier in the years that followed. Traveling from job to job with his father, Conradin never felt like he belonged. He tried to make friends but the other boys made fun of him and soon he retreated into a twitchy, shy existence. During these years he did discover that many Arabic scholars on Sicily seemed to know some of the geometry questions that Conradin had. He would see them drawing figures in the dirt and would try to watch them before being either shooed away by the Muslims or hauled away by his father for a beating "for avoiding work."

Finally, during his 11th summer, Conradin met a man who would change his life. While building the church of St. Lucy in Syracuse, Conradin saw a Greek man giving a talk in a town square. Although his Greek was weak, Conradin was fascinated by this man, who seemed to be talking about the wisdom of the Ancients and the mathematics they knew. Most people were ignoring the man, a few were listing, and more were jeering him. Conradin, although knowing a beating would follow for his absence, stopped to listen to the man. After an hour, only the two of them were left. When the man saw this, he switched languages a few times until stumbling across German, Conradin's native tongue. The two engaged in a dialogue that Conradin had never had before: this man answered his questions, asked him more, and listened to him. Soon the day had passed to evening and the man, whose name was Darius, asked Conradin if he was happy were he was. Conradin told him that he wasn't. Darius asked if he wanted to go to a place where there were others who thought like him, where he could build things and learn why things worked and how the universe was put together. Conradin said 'yes' and left with Darius, never seeing his father again.

And that is how Conradin came to Genos Aretê, a Hermetic covenant in Syracuse. He discovered that Darius was a magus of house Jerbiton and that there were others who could work magic and build items of wonder and amazement. Conradin was home. He was apprenticed under a magus by the name of Guntramus of Verditius and went to work learning magic. His skills as a builder came in handy to Guntramus and the two got along well. However, Conradin was frustrated ­ he understood how to work magic and could perform it when alone in his room but he could never show his findings to Guntramus. Whenever he tried to work magic in front of him, or anyone, all he saw was his father and how disappointed and angry he'd be. This image prevented him from remaining calm enough to cast the spells. Eventually, Guntramus saw that this was a permanent block and let Conradin work magics when alone. As long as he could perform the magics, that was good enough.

15 years passed quickly and Conradin grew in power. He made many small magic items and helped Guntramus with larger ones. Finally he was ready to make his Gauntlet item. He created a forge that would help him in his laboratory. Guntramus agreed that this was good enough to become a magus and even added a few more effects to the forge for him. Then he gave Conradin took the name 'Archimedes' in honor of the great builder of Syracuse and admitted him to the Order.

Unfortunately, there were too many Verditius at Genos Aretê and not enough labs or vis to go around. Luckily for Archimedes, he received a letter from Calixtus of Criamon to travel to the Alps to start a new covenant. There, Archimedes hopes to create many interesting items that will gain him Hermetic prestige.