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Visually striking, Serapis' skin and hair are dark as the night sky, body gilded by elegant tattoos of gold that wend their way from face to fingertips to toes. Contrastingly, his eyes are a hypnotic, warm shade of magenta. He is of slim build, with short, pointed ears, and though he falls somewhat below average in height for a Jin'Norai man, his austere, stony features, stoic mannerisms and cold confidence often lead to others finding him intimidating at first blush. Like most of his kin, his age is difficult to parse, as he will retain his youth until his twilight years.
When in Bastion or other metropolitan areas, he cares a great deal about his appearance. Serapis grooms himself meticulously and dresses sharply with hair down or in intricate braids, accessorizing with fine gold. He prefers clothing light in hue, enjoying golds, pinks, blues and purples among greys and whites, though black and other dark tones still do show up in his wardrobe. When he travels out into the sands of the desert or the depths of the Duat, his hair is instead always tied back and his choices of clothing swap from presentation-focused to functional, as attempting to maintain such vanity is not something he sees as worth the effort.
On the surface, Serapis comes across as a cold, austere academic who cares far more about his work and research than those around him. He can be exacting and harsh, holding both himself and others to high standards. This is the face he chooses to present to the world, as he keeps his emotions, desires and dreams close to himself, trusting few with such details.
However, he does care deeply about his people– the Jin'Norai– and his students, regardless of race. As a professor, he is tough but fair, believing that this attitude pushes his pupils to prove themselves and push their limits. He is scarce with praise, though when it is given, he truly means it.
And though he might not outwardly express enthusiasm very often, he is delighted by many things– his people's history, the study of linguistics, Arcana, fine arts, fine foods, ancient artefacts, neat little trinkets, so on. Sentimental to perhaps a fault, his office at Bastion, living quarters, and Pocket Dimension are all filled with various odds and ends he's collected over the years, meticulously organized and presented with respect for each item. The most valuable of this collection and sensitive documents are usually only found within his Pocket Dimension, but the things he's more wont to show off are lovingly displayed in his office.
By blood, Serapis is tied to the old Mirage Kingdom of Astroloar, though his line is not directly linked to anyone that'd consider themselves 'royal'. He bears the name of his great-grandmother as a surname, so given because she was an immensely powerful and respected sorceress, having achieved the title of Warpweaver– an Ascendant Exodii– as well as mastery of Zephyr, Aqua, and Mysticism, and even achieving the grand feat of returning alive from the True Trial in addition to a smattering of accolades achieved with the academy of Bastion. Because of these impeccable achievements, her name was passed down as surname to her children, and then her children's children, and now Serapis, his siblings, and his immediate cousins.
Because of his grandmother's consummate skill in Exodus, all below her in Serapis' bloodline– himself included– are forced to take on the Galdr as children, and they may then choose to accept any other Arcana they so wish afterwards. Should any child die for this reason, they are deemed too weak to warrant carrying the blood of Hauhet, so say his kin. Naturally, it is a bit traumatic to force these things on children, but even Serapis would argue that this accomplishes the nebulous concept of building character. He was given the magemark around the age of four (remarkably young, even for his family) as his father claimed that his son possessed the propensity for remarkable arcane talent, though when asked from where he drew this conclusion, he would not say, but his mother seemed to agree. Nevertheless, he had no say in the matter.
He did survive and, to the delight of both his parents, proved prodigious in the Arcana, picking it up quickly during a childhood spent bouncing between the three small manors his family occupied in Bast and drowned in strict study. Upon success in his Trail of Adolescence, his family were not wont to give him a break. Almost immediately, they pushed him to apply to Bastion– something he luckily wanted to pursue on his own, as they did not intend to give him much of a choice. Still, the application process and subsequent Trial of Admission were not easy for the young elf emotionally, as he believed his entire worth as a person hinged upon his admittance and subsequent success therein. He was given a scavenger hunt of sorts that dragged him through the city of Bast and the Duat below, a process he ought to have enjoyed were his anxieties not eating him alive. Serapis, young and unable to shoo away the clouds of worry that hung over him, continuously second-guessed himself and his decisions throughout, thereby wasting time and overcomplicating it. Despite the ultimate result being a success, he'd almost starved in the depths of the Duat because he'd let himself get stuck on one too many decisions as the teeth of hunger slowly to gnawed at his body and mind.
His admittance earned him a spot, initially, within the Department of the Invisible, as his skill as a fledgling Mystic must've swayed the staff in such a direction. And though this was an immense relief, his first few years at the academy were ones filled with worry that he'd disappoint both his family and the standards he'd set for himself, irrespective of his academic performance. He did quite well despite the initial emotional turmoil, taking a shine to Mysticism, his people's history, and linguistics, learning several additional tongues as a result. Serapis hadn't actually applied with any ultimate goal in mind besides eventually wanting to graduate and claim the vaunted title of professor, and as such was happy to extend his tenure as a student pursuing any subject that interested him, spending a lot of time within both his own department as well as that of Natural History.
Over the years, his continued successes helped him build enough confidence in himself to finally calm his roiling anxieties, and it was around the time his mind cooled down that he had, along with some friends, decided to partake in a tea made from a flower known for its hallucinogenic properties. This was something he'd previously been reluctant to engage in, afraid that his worries would cause him to have a horrible experience. It started out much as one would expect per the drug they'd taken, but unlike his peers, Serapis experienced a bizarre melding of body and mind. In the haze of his high, he unknowingly opened himself up to Triton's influence, leading his soul to being forevermore marked by the Pact of Fathom.
When next he woke sober, he had a strange, insatiable hunger. Afraid and not sure what to do, he visited a medic within Bastion who, through their Mysticism, identified the new 'gift' he'd been left with an arrangements were made for him to receive tutelage by a similarly blessed member of staff within the Department of Song. With his mind now expanded, he found it a lot easier to filter and compartmentalize his emotions, as well as sweeping improvements to his cognitive functions including memory, executive function, problem solving, etc, all things which brought upon him immense joy whilst fast tracking his academic success.
After a total of fifteen years as a student– longer than average due to the many rabbit holes he wandered down– Serapis submitted the requisite paperwork to pursue his Trial of Graduation. Before it began, he was only told the vague notion that 'arrangements were being made' and then on an evening like any other, he fell asleep only to wake up in the middle of the desert some few hours later while the moon still hung high in the sky. Disoriented, he soon found his mind being assailed by innumerable thoughts, emotions and memories that were not his, causing him to struggle to take in his surroundings at all much less ground himself. His first instinct was to retreat into his Pocket Dimension to scrape together his own thoughts, and then his Nexus when that failed, and then he tried to make a series of portals to several different locations, all of which, for one reason or another, failed.
Though still overwhelmed, Serapis began to sift through this unending stream of information, much of which, he soon realized, was useless (he assumed most of it was only intended to serve as noise). Still, his mastery of Fathom had given him a mind potent enough to sieve out a series of instructions, themselves presented as an esoteric riddle of words, images, and emotions. Realizing that he likely did not have much time to spare, he would move as soon as he could make out the next step forward. It soon dawned on the disoriented elf that he was both quite far away from Bast, and that returning home was not his only goal. He had to follow the muddled riddles floating around in his head to collect a scroll case hidden away by the Rakshasa, as without presenting it upon his return, he would fail. To speed up his travel between checkpoints, he would mostly rely on Blink, a bit skittish to waste much more of his Aether, though he would scale the tier of the cast based on nearby hazards. In addition, he was forced to deploy a field of Psychoplasm on several cases to either protect himself from the whirling desert sands or manipulate the environment around him but, eventually, he would return to Bast, wary and malnourished, but scroll case in hand.
The fresh graduate's desires to pursue professorship had been known to those around him for quite some time, so following his graduation, he began the process of training to become one beneath existing Bastion staff. He would succeed in this endeavor, initially teaching Mysticism within the Department of the Invisible. Over the years, he expanded his scope to teach classes within the purview of the departments of Natural History and Song on the subjects of Jin'Norai history, several different languages, and Fathom.
While Serapis does so love to teach, a wanderlust that had been growing within him for quite some time has reached a size large enough that he can no longer ignore it. As such, he has in recent years stepped back a bit, cutting his available classes substantially and now using that time to explore the mysteries of the Mirage Kingdoms alongside other Bastion Alumni and staff.
Serapis' Pocket Dimension is a cylindrical room with a ceiling that appears to stretch far beyond where one is capable of reaching, granting a hypnotic view of the Aetherium above. The walls and floors appear to be of finely carved marble trimmed with gold and black accents. It is a cluttered place, though sparse with regards to furniture, containing a stone desk built into the curvature of the walls, a plush chair, and a small yet ornate bed. Other than that, it is filled with various documents, keepsakes and valuables Serapis has squirreled away.
