Basil Mandro

Basil is the kind of man who can talk and talk without ever saying anything of substance. He has no reservations about using flattery and (white) lies to get his way, twisting the truth to his advantage without ever once breaking the character of a charismatic man with good intentions. And, if you dig far enough, there are often good intentions at the core of his actions - they just rarely work out the way he wants them to and usually get tainted by his own selfish interests. Turns out reality doesn't change when you attempt to alter it through words alone and others don't take kindly to being lied to, especially when you're the only one benefitting in the end.

Needless to say, Basil isn't big on self-restraint and often reacts impulsivly, making potentially life-altering decisions on a whim. He's the kind of guy to leap first and look later - and hey, if that leap takes him down an endless, dark abyss, then so be it. His impulsivity makes him spontaneous at least and he often approaches even serious matters in a light-hearted, near childishly careless manner... which could be endearing if it didn't almost always get him in serious trouble.

An once book smart boy has grown into a more street smart man. Still, there is a certain air about him that has never quite faded. Some would likely classify it as haughtiness, and it's true that Basil can be quite self-absorbed and preoccupied with what he wants. However, below the mask he wears (figuratively and literally) is a much more vulnerable man who really misses his family and would do absolutely anything for those he loves, be it showering them in expensive gifts (just don't ask where he got the money from... or the gift, for that matter) or fist fighting a demon (though he will lose, so... you better have a backup plan). Yes, he craves love and affection, yes he's touch-starved, no he will never admit to that out loud.

He tends to be pretty cagey about his childhood and past in general, usually opening up only to those he trusts with his life... or, when drunk enough, to random strangers in taverns and bars he will likely never see again in his life. Generally speaking, as long as he has his mask on, he has an easier time dealing with complete strangers than anyone he starts feeling one way or another for. Talking to somebody you care for about something actually meaningful is terribly difficult at times. Still, he's a good listener and surprisingly good at not spilling secrets. For a guy that's otherwise unscrupelous when it comes to lying and cheating and talking his way through life, he's at least good at doing one decent thing for others.

Basil has a tendency to be a bit flirty by default. The ladies certainly seem to like it... though their angry, pitchfork-wielding husbands less so. His flirting is actually rarely a genuine display of interest and instead just a fun little "game". If told to stop, he will. And if someone flirts back? 99 out of 100 times he'll likely just continue to play along. However, if it's the 1 time that he's actually attracted to the person he's flirting with, you might just spot a little blush underneath that mask of his. Maybe even a little stutter if you're lucky. Is he secretly a romantic at heart? Yeah. Is he down to just mess around and then promptly pretend you don't knw each other the following morning? Also yes.

What do you do to repair your noble family's reputation when you yourself played a major role in disgracing the good family name in the first place? Well, obviously become a very real doctor while still practicing necromancy on the side, of course! Take it from Ilixidor Leyrodres, a man so great at the whole "redemption" thing, he's had to change his name to remove any association with his incredibly unthankful family. And they claimed he didn't have any manners... a simple "thank you for trying!" would have been enough. Ungrateful bastards.

There's not much of note to Ilixidor's early upbringing - a priviliged life as the second of four children to wealthy parents, right up until his dabbling in necromancy was revealed (likely the only time his parents would have preferred he'd joined a weird sex cult instead, far easier to cover up). And suddenly, there were a lot of questions. Hadn't the family just recently financed a complete restoration of the local cemetery? Hadn't they started a fund to help poor citizens pay for proper funerals? Which then led to even more questions from the family; after all, hadn't Ilixidor been the one to push these ideas on them for the sake of "improving public opinion"?

One thing led to another and Ilixidor quickly found out that sometimes, blood isn't thicker than the muddy puddle water on the streets he found himself on. The harsh reality of a regular way of life quickly became apparent, like the fact that breakfast costs money and most people will not react well to being asked if they can just give it to you for free. Which led Ilixidor to thinking - rarely a good thing - and he realized he needed to fix this mess somehow. Do something good and reputable for once in his life. Could be fun! And what's more reputable than being a doctor? He could just wing it, figure things out along the way. After all, what's the worst that could happen?

As it turns out, having an approximate idea of where organs are located in the body isn't quite enough, nor is brewing "medicine" that's really just sweet sugar water with morphine, or sticking leeches onto people to help with an imbalance of the four humours. Oh, and people really don't like it when you use a bit of necromancy and blood magic to bring their deceased loved ones back to life. Who'd have thought? Certainly not the guy who was disowned by his family for practicing necromancy!

Eventually, things got to a point where the threats of his family suspiciously started sounding more like death threats. Ilixidor, intrigued by death but not quite willing to take that step himself just yet, promptly changed his name and went undercover in response. Well, as undercover as someone like him could ever hope to be, anyway. It worked to get his family off his back, at least. Still didn't fix the original problem though... or the ones Basil's made along the way.