Gustav Shepherd
Gustav Shepherd
The Wandering Archmage of Ten Thousand Roads
Race: Human
Age: Unknown (believed to have lived over a century due to magical longevity)
Occupation: Archmage, adventurer, author, guild founder
Affiliation: Guild of Itinerant Magical Practitioners (Founder)
Known For: Writing The Beginner’s Guide to Adventuring Magic, developing practical field spells, evading guild authority with flair
Appearance
Gustav Shepherd is no fragile scholar. Broad-shouldered, barrel-chested, and standing nearly a head taller than most mages, he’s a walking contradiction: a brawler with a wizard’s hat. His signature look includes a storm-blue travel cloak, a battered but enchanted staff capped with a humming arcane crystal, and a belt pouch always filled with marbles, copper coins, chalk, and dried beef.
His beard is thick and russet, his eyes twinkle with mischief, and his hands are calloused from both magical dueling and hiking across hostile terrain.
Personality
Flamboyant, gregarious, and stubbornly independent, Gustav radiates charisma and good humor. He was known to drink with pirates, debate with dragons, and sneak into forbidden libraries disguised as a traveling cook.
Despite his jovial nature, he’s no fool. Gustav is deeply strategic and has survived more assassination attempts than most warlords. He despises rigid authority, detests bureaucracy, and openly mocks the more elitist magical guilds.
History
Early Life
Little is known of Gustav’s early years. Some say he was born under a wandering star, others that he was the child of a hedge witch and a bandit king. What’s certain is that by his teenage years, Gustav was already on the road—charming his way into libraries, learning from swamp witches, and outwitting mage hunters.
Adventuring Years
Gustav rose to fame as an adventuring mage, joining a dozen different adventuring companies over the years, surviving everything from cursed tombs to volcanic demigod cults. Along the way, he collected spells, allies, recipes, and magical oddities.
His practical magical style—focusing on survivability, quick casting, and utility—was born from these trials. He eventually began sharing his knowledge with other freelance mages, scribbling notes in campfires and inns, until those notes evolved into the legendary tome The Beginner’s Guide to Adventuring Magic.
Guild Founder
In response to harassment from the more rigid Guild of High Thaumaturgy and its enforcers, Gustav founded the Guild of Itinerant Magical Practitioners—a loose affiliation of mages who prefer freedom, travel, and applied field magic. The Guild quickly gained popularity among hedge wizards, witches, and adventurers alike.
Magical Specialties
- Kinetic Magic: Often seen hurling crates with his mind, or using force pulses to leap across chasms.
- Utility Sorcery: Flashlights, locks, wards, translation charms—he’s a walking magical toolkit.
- Rune Slapping: A self-developed technique involving pre-written runes slapped onto surfaces to trigger effects.
Famous Works
- The Beginner’s Guide to Adventuring Magic
A wildly popular and widely copied spellbook containing eight core adventuring spells anyone can learn. Includes annotations like “Don’t use this spell near bees.” - Ten Thousand Roads: A Wizard’s Travelogue
Less a grimoire and more a rambling set of tales, this semi-autobiographical volume is beloved by storytellers and unreliable historians. - The Wandering Wand: A Treatise on Magical Improvisation
A more advanced but equally informal study on adapting magic to field conditions.
Legacy
Gustav is remembered not just as a mage, but as a philosophy: that magic should serve people, not the other way around. His guild remains active across the lands, and even among his rivals, he is spoken of with a mixture of admiration, frustration, and awe.
Rumor holds he still lives, wandering the world in disguise—teaching spells to tavern boys, out-drinking smug nobles, and leaving half-finished magical contraptions in every village he passes.
Quote
"Never trust a map that hasn’t been burned, re-drawn, and argued over in at least three languages.”
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