You have been talented your entire life.  Despite every challenge your small-town life put in front of you, you surmounted it with relative ease.  Being the prodigy of your community has made life an absolute bore.  So when you came of age, you took the fastest way out, whether it was merchant caravans or military conscription, it was an escape.  You excelled in your new life as well, rising in the ranks to a position of prominence in your organization. It was then when you first saw it, the true power of arcane energy.  Immediately enamored with it, you used whatever resources or social status you had in order to gain opportunities to learn arcane secrets, and you failed.  For the first time, you tasted real failure, as time and time again you found yourself incapable of producing more than some minor cantrips.  This fueled your need for it, as you spent every free moment pouring over texts, and finding a measure of success.  Your obsession with this endeavor consumed you to the point that you let the life you have built slip, possibly going as far as to desert it altogether.  Now your path is devotion to the arcane arts, using your previous experience to get you from one study to the next.

At a young age, you discovered you possessed a predilection for the magical arts. Deciding that this talent could not be squandered on ordinary life, you left home and began to teach yourself the secrets of the arcane while surviving the best you could on the streets and alleys of a great city. The magical skill you learned from dusty old tomes in libraries made stealing that next loaf of bread just a little easier, and the languages you picked up on the bustling streets let you decipher even the most obscure scrolls. You spent years learning the lore of the multiverse. You scoured manuscripts, studied scrolls, and listened to the greatest experts on the subjects that interest you. Your efforts have made you a master's in your field of study. You do however have a strange twist on your spells. All visible spells cast by you take on an odd color (ex. Black Fire or Red Ice), which is different than normal. Non Visible spells cause your skin, hair, or eyes to change color temporarily. The alteration to the norm is determined when you acquire each spell.

 

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana Perception

Tool Proficiencies: Your choice of Alchemist's Supplies, Calligraphers Supplies, or Forgery Kit

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: A set of artisan's tools, a set of common clothes, a bottle of ink, a quill, a trinket, and a pouch containing 15 gp.

Suggested Characteristics

For one who seeks to unlock the secrets of arcane power, they must forsake all else.  Giving up all that they know in order to pursue this knowledge tends to lead a person to wander from archive to catacomb, in search of undiscovered knowledge.  Therefore the Arcane Obsessed doesn't get too comfortable in any one location for too long.  Past relationships become strained and new ones become more of an assessment of usefulness as opposed to companionship.  The obsessed believe that once they find that which they seek that their life will be complete and all of the sacrifices will have been worth it.  The crux of this ideal is that most spend nearly a lifetime obtaining the prize with little life left to use it.  

 

 Arcane Obsessed are defined by their extensive studies, and their characteristics reflect this life of study. Devoted to scholarly pursuits, Arcane Obsessed values knowledge highly—sometimes in its own right, sometimes as a means toward other ideals. But they are defined not only by their study of magic, but also by their rough upbringing, and their characteristics reflect the struggles involved in this double life. Unlike someone schooled in the traditional way, an arcane prodigy likely sees knowledge as a means to an end and not an end unto itself.

 

d8	Personality Trait
1	I begin or end my day with small traditional rituals that are unfamiliar to those around me.
2	I … speak … slowly … when talking … to idiots, … which … almost … everyone … is … compared … to me.
3	I tend to look down on others who didn't work as hard as I did or had more advantages than me.
4	I care very little for whether a method is "proper," only if it is effective.
5	I don’t run from evil. Evil runs from me.
6	I’ve lost too many friends, and I’m slow to make new ones.
7	I don’t talk about the thing that torments me. I’d rather not burden others with my curse.
8	I’m convinced that people are always trying to steal my secrets.

d6	Ideal
1	Knowledge. The path to power and self-improvement is through knowledge. (Neutral)
2	No Limits. Nothing should fetter the infinite possibility inherent in all existence. (Chaotic)
3	I’m a monster that destroys other monsters, and anything else that gets in my way. (Evil)
4	Self-Improvement. The goal of a life of study is the betterment of oneself. (Any)
5	Logic. Emotions must not cloud our logical thinking. (Lawful)
6	Greater Good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defense of others. (Good)

d6	Bond
1	My life’s work is a series of tomes related to a specific field of lore.
2	I’ve been searching my whole life for the answer to a certain question.
3	I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy.
4	There’s evil in me, I can feel it. It must never be set free.
5	One of the components I use for a spell was given to me by someone I trust very much and don't want to let down.
6	I work to preserve a library, university, scriptorium, or monastery.

d6	Flaw
1	Once I pick a goal, I become obsessed with it to the detriment of everything else in my life.
2	Most people scream and run when they see a demon. I stop and take notes on its anatomy.
3	I would sacrifice the world if it meant being smarter and more powerful than those around me.
4	I talk to spirits that no one else can see.
5	Unlocking an ancient mystery is worth the price of a civilization.
6	I believe that I’m intellectually superior to people from other cultures and have much to teach them.