The Creation of Characters (short)

I am a scholar and a monk. You will find me in a monastery, or my hermitage. I spend lengths of time in each. I live off of the land, I eat no meat, vegetables are my nutrition. I have written tomes upon tomes, scrolls upon scrolls of my observations of nature, magic, and man. I live alone. I seek no company. The animals of the forest, the plains, the mountains, and the oceans know that I am different from the rest of man. I do not disturb the continuum of nature. I seek not to make my name known, or my presence famous. I seek inner tranquility, I seek transcendence.

At the same time, I find myself craving company, companionship. Thought I have given up all material wealth, I still want it, I still covet it. I am torn between these feelings. I am practiced in the art of defense, I am well in body, but mind and spirit seek different things. The mind seeks the physical plane, and spirit, the spiritual plane. I want to live a life of luxury, of wealth, of materials, and I want to live a life free of possessions, a life of peace, of quiet hermeticism. I am as two people, wanting to go in opposite directions, in one body only able to go in one direction. I find myself in the place of indecision, and in my indecision I am viewed as inactive, for I choose no action in time it would take others to make one. I am misunderstood.

I am the Arcane Man, I exist in the spirit world, and the physical. I am torn between two places. I have a body of spirit, and a body of flesh. I am in two places at once, and yet in one place twice. I am as forgotten as I am remembered. My brothers in the monastery compliment my intelligence as I compliment theirs. Their faith is what brings them together, but it is their meditations that brought me to them. Their development of mind and body, in their pursuit of faith in a Higher Power, I have found peace within my soul. This old soul. I am an old man in a young body. I do not run after little things, I do not let the evils of the world tear me down. I let them teach me of the things I value most. I grower stronger when I am beaten down, I grow more resilient against evil.

(WIP)