The professor

It's hard to do right by your morals

Personality

WC: 186

Monte has an air of indifference, at first glance. An icy stare and impersonal manner of teaching leaves most feeling as though their temper is brittle, easily snapped. But beneath their outer shell, teaching is their passion, their students are their family, and pride sits beneath the surface waiting to burst. But that Monte has long been pushed behind, for fear of punishment, of getting too attached to people, and mostly just of The Order. It's easier to be impartial under the instruction of The Order.

Often, they can be found researching, usually with the aid of an apprentice, for their curiosity is vast. They love this field, the mysteries, and being able to better understand magic and mages. Long nights in the lab and the field have been spent studying, the next day's lecture given with a little less pep than had they gotten a full night's sleep. The inhumane research The Order is looking for, however, fills Monte with nothing but sadness, and the abuses perpetrated by their own hooves are something that Monte tries to bury in their studies, and in their drink.

History

WC: 395

Monte was born on a rocky coast, east of Namarast, glowing from the start. Their parents, homesteaders and fishermen, needed the incoming help from their child, and so simply did not say anything to their friends and family back in the village. Monte lived for ten years under the radar, happy, if a bit lonely. Frolicking was their pasttime as a lamb, and tending to the chickens, the boat, and anything else was their job. Something clicked in them when they began to read, a hunger for more of this thing called knowledge. They made it their job to know all about the plants around them, the birds above them, and the history of this land.

Something changed when they were ten. Their powers grew stronger- now no longer a chill in the air, but a full on freeze that would kill plants and, incidentally, animals. They were sent to Namarast in order to control their powers and become less of a liability to the farm and their family. They ended up staying forever, never having seen their parents again. They assume that they had been replaced by another child. This was the beginning of their treatment as just another tool to be used.

Monte ended up fitting right into the academic life, even after having no experience with it. They loved to read and to know, and though they had a hard time connecting with anyone, the change wasn't altogether unpleasant. Until the experimentation started.

Pushed to their limits, made to hurt others in an examination of power, and then tamped down like a campfire, Monte was beaten and battered in order to make them a dutiful member of the Order. And, in part, the Order suceeded in creating Monte into a tool. Monte still harbors thoughts of doing good, of genuinely helping out their students, but the psychological warfare was effective, and so they only dare to dream of such things. 

Despite the abuse, however, Monte excelled in their studies. It was the one thing they were truly passionate about, especially alchemy, and they were proud of their work. One thing followed another, and they graduated top of their class, staying for continued study until they found their life calling of teaching others. These days, they teach alchemy at Namarast, and study the properties of plants, and magic, and the connections between them. 

Oh yeah they lopped off their horn as a form of self-expression, there wasn't any sort of injury or anything haha

Cold Feet