A Youth

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The story of Alexander Page, a dull and simple one in his own opinion, doesn’t begin with him, but rather with the man he considers his father. This individual, known as Celsus, began life as a young farmer boy who aspired to be an alchemist, just like the ones admired in the large towns away from the small land he called home.

Once he was at a suitable age, he left the farm and headed to the nearest town to show off what he had learned in the past years of magic and alchemy, all from books he collected. This went well, for a while, but Celsus was inexperienced and naive. Those he showed off to manipulated him without his realizing, taking his belongings and leaving him behind with few options. Angered at them and at himself, he refused to go home in defeat. The boy searched until he found a mage who would take him on as an apprentice and there he stayed and practiced, being taught the mystical arts while personally still honing his young skills in alchemy.

The years passed and Celsus eventually took his leave from the mages, having learned all that he could. He had gained a fair amount of fame in the town and wouldn’t abandon it, but he also didn’t want to reside directly in it any longer, in fear of thieves or anyone going after him. And so he went a bit further than the edge of the nearby forest, in an area difficult to get to, and spent time crafting a large building there. It would be invisible from the outside to everyone but himself, adding an extra way to prevent others from reaching him. Once the building was complete, he began decorating the inside, part of it being the actual living areas while the rest was for storage and for the future collections he would have.

After his home was complete, he began using the skills he learned to make proper profit for himself, without the assistance of another. People would come to Celsus for his magic, asking him for various tasks such as divinations, performances, translating, and whatever else they could think of. Most paid in money while a fair couple gave items of worth to him, which were still accepted. Some magics could be used to retrieve other pieces from such things, such as memories associated with the item, which Celsus saw as worthwhile.

These offered items began to stockpile up in his home. As well, aside from buying the necessities for himself, he also bought tomes of all kinds, both for his own reading but also for something he now had as a small side plan. Once his collections were large enough, he prepared the storage areas of his home to be like a full library, though parts also resembled a museum. Taking the name ‘Paranae Library’, it would be a place people would teleport into after performing a certain ritual. They could find what could possibly be the right passage they were looking for, or perhaps they could donate to the library something they vastly didn’t want, all done for proper exchanges, whether they be physical goods or otherwise. This way, his collection would grow, his name and renown would flourish little by little, and he would profit all in all.

And though life was well for Celsus, his dream of being a known alchemist by all hadn’t vanished. The idea had constantly been there, and now was a moment when he believed he could make it come to fruition with all he knew. If he was to do this, he could do it with a single grand action rather than working up for a long period of time. And what could be more grand than life itself?

Birth

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His goal was to make an artificial being via alchemy and gain the admiration of the town and eventually the entire country. It had to be the best he could possibly create, and his way of accomplishing that was through some grim methods, those being finding the most skilled individuals that were deceased and taking a body part from each of them. For parts that couldn’t be easily taken, he chose whichever forest animals he believed would give his creation the best advantages.

Setting up the circle, placing the parts and ingredients where they needed to be, and checking over and over the instructions in his mind, the end result ended up being a ‘person’ with pale hair and red eyes, staring up almost lifelessly. Yet it was alive.

Celsus was overjoyed once he learned what he did wasn’t a failure and began checking his new creation for anything that could quickly cause it to die. Aside from its lack of understanding and difficulty communicating back to him, it all looked fine and well. That was until they stepped outside the building. The homunculus’ skin quickly reacted out in the sun. Celsus didn’t see it as too much of an issue before the pain began. Once his creation began screaming and its eyes became watery, they rushed back inside and treatment began. Celsus tried to figure out what was going on with it, but could only come to the conclusion that somewhere he had messed up. This was further realized once he properly began to teach it how to speak and listen, with the creature not retaining much of what it was being taught and needing to hear it over and over. As well, it seemed to have a tired disposition often enough that it was notable. Tch. All that effort for what he saw as a defective homunculus, no matter if it succeeded at all.

But it was still a homunculus and so he wrapped the creation in clothing, telling it over and over to keep itself covered, before taking it outside and practically having to drag it over to town, where he showed it off to other alchemists and those of noble families. Once they had confirmed that it was truly an artificial being, they were amazed, though also unnerved by Celsus’ actions. Creating life itself like this was no small and irrelevant feat after all. Questions were asked, one of which was about its name. The alchemist hadn’t thought of a name yet, so as he looked down at the cloth-covered child, he took a few seconds to answer.

“...it’s called Alexander.”

The being, now Alexander, was enough to highlight Celsus as an alchemist of great skill. After more talking with his peers and finally returning home, he waited until the next morning to give his creation instructions. It was to act as a librarian while he studied and worked on experiments in his own quarters, meanwhile also. Alexander was given instructions on what was where and the basic things to say should someone end up there. If anything was wrong, he was to be called upon to handle it. This began the times when Celsus wouldn’t give his creation much attention at all, more focused on trying to keep up his fame among the people and do better with what he creates next. Meanwhile, Alexander did as told as best as he could. Whenever no one was around, which was often in those early months, the homunculus would read and study, bettering its knowledge of language as well as acquainting itself with the contents of each volume, mainly magic.

Creating The Second

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Months passed. Years passed. Celsus had grown more stressed as the time went by, yet he believed he finally found a way to create a perfect homunculus. Enlisting the aid of Alexander, they gathered the materials necessary and . With both Celsus’ magic and Alexander’s growing magic skills, they completed the ritual and found themselves facing a new creation. One that was able to speak properly right from the start, one whose mind had all the knowledge of every being it was made from perfectly intact, and one who had none of the faults that had been present in Alexander. This new creation was dubbed Alraun.

Alraun was immediately shown off to the town with grand success. Celsus’ ego grew and Alraun was fond of the attention they garnered despite their few days being alive up to that point. From that time on, Alraun received the vast majority of Celsus’ own attention, being taught his skills and taking them under his wing like an apprentice of sorts. Meanwhile, Alexander was merely given instructions as usual or used for tests due to their magic potential, even if it wasn’t as high as Alraun’s. Yet, Alexander didn’t feel bad from this lack of love or care. It was normal and what he believed it was meant to be like. This was how people operated, right? And it was the difference that faults and being flawless could make.

However, Alraun did make time to be with Alexander and assist in the library. Together, they made small familiars to be helpers, and Alraun acted as a tutor to Alexander through small tasks and lessons disguised as normal conversations. The faulty homunculus couldn’t understand why the other wouldn’t be with Celsus or go outside or do anything else besides being here with him. Though, he didn’t mind. Alexander found the company suitable, and was content with these moments.

Disperse

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And the moments would soon come to cease. Years continued to pass them all by. The homunculi never aged while Celsus could only hide his aging through temporary magic. While continuing to keep up his fame, Celsus was now also experiencing the fear of death. He didn’t want to end up a spirit or leave the mortal realm at all. He wished to never leave, to become immortal, and as he stared at his creations, an idea formed.

One late night was the one when Alexander found Alraun packing a bag with items. When asked what was going on, they said they needed to leave because something was off. Not understanding, Alexander asked for more details, which Alraun wouldn’t give. All he was told was that he would soon understand why they left, but they’d try to come visit when possible. Only a few moments after stepping away from them and walking back to one of the storage areas did he hear the door open and then close again, with Alraun gone like the wind.

Failure

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Celsus was obviously furious when he learned of Alraun’s disappearance. Alexander acted as if he had also just learned about it, keeping his short discussion with Alraun the night before a secret. Oddly stressed beyond words, the alchemist forced Alexander to help him go searching outside for parts for an experiment. Once enough were obtained, they quickly ran back to home, to which Celsus gave the remaining homunculus instructions on what to do. When asked what they were making, the old man merely replied, “A perfect vessel.”

At the word perfect, Alraun was the first thing to come to mind, and with that came the slow realization of what they had been meaning before.

Once everything was set, Alexander watched from a distance as the modified ritual was now taking place. Yet things didn’t go as planned for Celsus. A small explosion and an opaque cloud of smoke covered the room. Once it was gone, he could only see the still bodies of the attempted homunculus vessel and his creator. There was no life, yet he wasn’t sure if it was merely a delayed effect. The bodies were put somewhere comfortable and he worked while he waited, and waited, and waited. Perhaps it was very delayed, but Alexander already had an idea of the truth. His creator’s attempt at switching to a new and perfect body to escape death had failed.

Life

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And so this meant that the library was now his, Alexander guessed. It always felt like it was theirs for the past few years, but now Paranae Library was officially under their sole possession. Nothing truly changed with that. Alexander did his usual tasks, read, and ran the library. A couple people came by and asked what happened to Celsus, to which he simply said he was gone and that the building was now under his management completely.

It was hard to count the years, but who could blame him? Not many fascinating things happen when you stay inside a library for most of your life, especially with day and night being the only ways to tell time. He honed his magic, learned more alchemy, charmed books to keep a record of his memories, and kept running the library as he must. Going outside ended up necessary too, in which they made sure they were always bundled up, but these times leaving the abode were rare and few.

As the months and years progressed, people looking around the library became much more common. News had spread to many worlds of the place and the method to reach it, so a myriad of people from all walks of life arrived inside Paranae Library. Alexander was curious of all of them, and he questioned them, though attending to their needs was always first and foremost, sadly.

Alraun visited very occasionally, the last visit being years ago. Yet, it was a friendly revisiting of what happened in the time that had passed. In that same conversation, they asked what Alexander’s surname was to be. He didn’t believe one was needed, but at the other’s insistence (because one was necessary for a professional person), he looked around and came up with ‘Page’.

“Not creative, but it works.”

And so life continued on for Alexander Page. He gained the title of Dimmed Librarian due to both his own appearance whenever he went outside as well as the fact that no natural light was allowed in the open areas of the library, making everything appear much more dim besides the candlelight available. The days passed and Alexander was peaceful.

Moodboard

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Celsus

'Father'

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Alexander’s creator and ‘father’. Celsus had wanted to create a homunculus to show off his prowess as an alchemist and become one of the most regarded in the country. However, due to the faults of Alexander, such as his memory and weakness to the sun, he was deemed a failure despite winning Celsus renown by those he showed the homunculus off to. Celsus didn’t give much attention to Alexander afterwards aside from mainly teaching and giving orders to help around the library. Despite this, he still has his creation’s respect due to his skills and their connection. Currently, Celsus is dead, a wandering soul after his failed attempt at transferring his body to a new vessel.

Alraun

'Sibling'

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The second successful homunculus created by Celsus. Though Alexander is the older of the two, he calls Alraun the older sibling due to how much more skilled they are. The two share a decently amicable relationship despite the differing treatment they got from Celsus and the fact they haven’t seen each other for years. Alraun is currently alive, wandering the country of Alf as a famous mage while hiding their true identity.