“I have always tried to live in an ivory tower, but a tide of shit is beating at its walls, threatening to undermine it.” 

- Gustave Flaubert

Did you know that one time, Kossk hid in a swamp for a week, trying to avoid Order duties and yet someone has managed to use a carrier pigeon with a mandatory-to-obey message that found him 'by sheer spite alone'? The pigeon held a grudge against him because Harnock, shooed it away one time while it was resting on top of his paperwork, in his study.

Personality

Reserved and distant if approached and generally uninterested in most interactions. Often accused of looking displeased when that’s just his face. Naturally curious and non-traditional, seeking out novelties or interesting procedures when working. Extremely headstrong and prefers to work alone though frequently ends up in group settings due to the nature of his profession. Wishes he had an ivory tower.

Harnock’s thoughts on:

Colleagues: 

Most if not all people tire Kossk quickly, it’s far worse when it’s people he has to rub shoulders often with. He will freely admit that he is difficult and nigh impossible to read, abiding by a strict personal ruleset that he keeps close to his chest. Inevitably, this will cause some unfortunate encounters, that usually end up with the second party storming out of the room and Kossk musing to himself somewhat bewildered that this was a waste of his time.

His closest friends are few from the Order itself, but more from his time spent wandering Ivras, having collected a roster of people that he can either rely on or use whenever the circumstances demand it.

Strangers: 

Kossk hates strangers. Kossk hates most people. Strangers are often unpredictable, require time to analyze what mischief they could possibly cause or if they can be helpful at all, time that Harnock has little of. As a result, he prefers to keep people at several arms length until they prove themselves worthy. It keeps things tidy, and that’s one thing that Kossk likes.

Family? Relatives?: 

Blood-related-strangers more like. Harnock blocked most of the memories from his time as a colt. He lived up to his teenage years within the confines of a coven that dealt with treating mages nearing corruption. The adults were too busy tending to their sickly own to take care of him and he often wondered whether he was even supposed to happen and what will his purpose be there. He assumed that he would be a mage himself, considering that there was not a single non-mage there and he knew that he was born there and not brought from the outside world. He knew he had some sort of magical affinity, though faint and untrained. Golden sweat bullets would form on his skin when stressed and he could make slight wisps of it float in the air, sometimes grasping things with them. 

Often, he would sneak out and practice his magic in the woods surrounding the hamlet, hunting for birds, rabbits and other fast critters, trying to see what his limits were. He even attempted fleeing the coven several times, but the forest was too dark, too deep, thus he always returned home, defeated. 

As an adult, Kossk considered seeking out a mage that deals with memory magic to erase whatever fragments were left from his early years as they haunted his dreams. However, as an act of defiance to his own cowardice, he reached the mage and asked to resurface whatever echoes of the past were left in his head to face his curiosity.

Oddly enough, there was little left from that time.

The most he could muster was visual imprints of ragged, tired faces, warm fires where gnarly silhouettes stayed huddled like rats for warmth, another shadow coming close to feed them something poured from a black bottle. They hissed at the taste and suddenly they lunged at the person, covering them with their bodies, tearing into them.

Kossk remembers iron gates locking over a pit as at the bottom of it, he could hear screams and hisses, with claws reaching out to the light. A person tucked the key into their shirt pocket and beckoned Harnock to come with them. They enter a musty, foul smelling room illuminated by candle light, inside he sees flasks, tubes, beakers built up to the ceiling and several rusty boilers in the corner of the attic. Pungency wafted from these.

‘I know you didn’t listen to me as I ordered you to and are aware what happened to cousin Derek last night, I saw you sneaking out, there’s no point in lying about it.’ The woman stated, as she rummaged through dusty shelves.

Harnock said nothing. He was handed a heavy leather-coated book. Inside there were hand-written notes and various schematics. One was a drawn diagram of the endocrine system, with certain parts blackened and shriveled by the corruption. Next to it were combinations of ingredients such as plants, animal humours and the like, some were striked out, others had check marks.

‘Read up, boy, it’s time we made something useful out of you.’  

Himself: 

Kossk values performance and discipline above all else. He knows that within this lies a chance of arrogance, however, he assumes responsibility for it and believes that he has earned his right to be so. Trust is placed foremost on himself and secondly, the others around him. Fear of the unknown and the uncomfortable do little to him and is not afraid to endure. Harnock’s duty is to himself and anything that comes with the territory, as a result he will not hesitate to help his Order brethren, regardless of his thoughts on them. 

WC: 855

History

Earlier this morning I’ve had the chance to pry a few words out of the wandering mage Harnock Kossk, a notorious member of the Order, known for his general apathy towards it, while also contributing to several items in the alchemical field (Kossk’s Soporific, Philtre d'Ombres, Red Verdigris Extract, Corrupted Ichor Apozem, etc.) that have greatly helped us further our efforts against the growing corrupted threat.

Truthfully, Kossk knows his way around the vials, but that’s the only thing the public knows about him and since his heroic stance alongside his comrades on the 9th of the Verdant Season, 1228 in Faline, there have been attempts at actually garnering some more background on this reclusive individual, but with mixed results, most of them ending briskly and me learning something new about my relatives.

In the end, while I was attending the inauguration of the new statue to commemorate the incident, I caught a glimpse of him, his shiny expensive decorations glistening in the sun and betraying his position. After ensuring that I cornered him properly between a carriage and a honey bagel stand I shall relate the entire unabridged variant of this awaited interview:

‘Excuse me, my lord, I’ve been writing some short papers on the brave folk who fou-’

‘No.’

‘No? I only have some brief questions that can have brief answers, if you could lend me a bit of your time.’

‘No.’

Then the carriage moved to the side a bit and like a donkey in thick fog, he vanished in the crowd.

Since this has been the 4th time I got this discourteous treatment I decided to rely solely on second party accounts thus here’s a pieced-together summary of the elusive bastard vagrant:

‘Born in the winter of 1179, Kossk was raised in an obscure and distant community that harbored mages on the brink of complete corruption. It seems that the main purpose of the group was to find ways to control the spread and delay it. Most members could not have been identified, but a few did stand out. Among them were several infamous mages that have been banned from the Order due to them performing cruel experiments on their subjects even going as far as to kidnap people. For a while, certain higher-ups have concealed this in the hopes that the results were going to be worth it, however the mages were edging too close to a potential disaster and the risk of exposing themselves was too great. The exile was a natural follow-up and the mages grouped together to pursue their studies further in an abandoned village. Soon other stray mages joined them and it became an unfortunate, downtrodden community. The mages who were there, hoped that their corruption would be cured, but were mere test subjects at the whims of others.     

Everything about this was dangerous and it soon showed so when the Order raided the settlement and clashed with multiple mages, who under extreme duress both from the attack and the concoctions consumed to subsume the decay, they essentially exploded into grotesque displays, causing heavy casualties on both ends.

Kossk, aged 15, escaped the cleansing of the place, finding shelter in the nearby woods for days before he was picked up by the remainder of the Order mages, headed to their headquarters. Noticing that he exhibits magical capabilities, the mages agreed to make use of him and send him for training and counseling.

Life as a newly appointed apprentice was rough for Harnock, finding it hard to adapt to his new routine and surrounding allies and would often quarrel with his colleagues.

Numerous times he would almost be expelled, but his unique penchant for alchemy was invaluable and ensured his position within the future mage ranks. Most notably, was the fact that he managed to have saved some valuable notes from his former settlement on corruption treatment and has managed to create a substance which would be a safe delaying agent for anyone who might be in danger of losing oneself to corruption. Currently that agent is part of his namesake potion ‘Kossk’s Soporific’ and is currently still in early stages of experimentation on willing subjects with positive results so far.

Otherwise, his time with the Order has been tumultuous to say the least. Once Kossk reached adulthood, he took his belongings and left to wander the world as a mercenary mage, only returning when he needed resources or when aid was desperately needed such as the Faline tragedy where a set of amazing individuals and himself braved a terror that hasn’t been seen before.’

This marks the end of my personal-life-invading notes, from what it seems, it does make sense so I have little reason to believe I’ve been fed false information though verification might still be needed. Either way, one day I’ll learn how to master getting people to talk to me even if they’re canny at first because at this stage, I’m taking it as a personal challenge.

Excerpts of a script from ‘The Journal of a Journalist’, Author Anonymous.

WC: 841