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| Book 3 |
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| Fan art |
"My name is Barry. I am twenty-eight years old and I could quite accurately be described as your everyday ordinary guy." ― Barry[1]
Barry is the main protagonist in Magium, who the player partially controls. Marked from the start by his daring nature, sarcastic commentary, and his determination to become a mage, his gradually unveiled knowledge, abilities, and life reveal a far more able-minded and experienced character throughout his group's adventures.
Appearance[]
Barry is described as an average-looking human male[1] with an expressive face that tends to give away his bluffs under stress.[2] Although he underwent several months of physical training in preparation for the tournament, he is often teased for being scrawny.[3] Barry wears a long-sleeved shirt with buttons, pants, and a belt with a dagger hanging from it.
Personality[]
Much of Barry's personality can vary based on player choices. For example, the very first choice the player makes decides whether Barry feels excited, calm, or afraid once the tournament has begun.[1] Consistent regardless of player choices is Barry's obsession with becoming a mage, frequent use of witty and/or sarcastic humor, loyalty to his allies. He has also developed a tendency to completely ignore his survival instincts, largely due to his trauma of being too frozen with fear to save his parents . Barry is completely aware that trying to win the tournament without being a mage is crazy, but chooses to keep pushing forward despite this.[1]
History[]
The events surrounding Barry's birth and lineage remain largely a mystery. His ability to access a Stat Booster's full capabilities shows that he is half-lessathi, half-human.[4] In lessathi society, this would only be allowed within the top brass.[5] At some point his parents left Varathia and travelled to a village on the Western Continent, where they were murdered in broad daylight by a group of lessathi. Barry was adopted by two of the villagers and was raised alongside their daughter and son, the son being the youngest of the three. Barry remained unaware of his true parentage until the Tournament.[6] By the age of 5 Barry wished to become a mage, which would become his obsession from then on. [1]
When Barry was thirteen, his sister Claire began showing signs of magical powers, to the excitement of her family. Unfortunately, due to the village's isolation, the true cause of the development wasn't known until it was too late; a banshee, a parasitic spirit banished from the magical plane, had possessed Claire, taking several weeks to meld with her aura before gaining control of her body. One afternoon, Barry came home to find the banshee awoken and in control while his parents tried to bring his Claire back to her senses. Too scared to move, Barry watched the banshee sadistically murder his parents before his eyes, while they begged him to intervene, and the banshee laughed at his cowardice. Barry only managed to act when it moved to kill his younger brother. Since the banshee had only just awoken, it was unable to access its magical power, allowing Barry to kill it and Claire by impaling it with a pitchfork. Barry would come to repress his memory of specific parts of this the event, convincing himself that his parents had already been dead before he returned home.[6] Following this incident, his relationship with his brother deteriorated. Barry hasn't spoken with him since, and his current status is unknown.[7]
At 17, Barry left home to travel across the Western Continent in hopes of fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a mage. He took up a variety of jobs including test-flying gnomish planes, accompanying professors and relic hunters, and discussing magical theory with hermits; anything where he could potentially pick up bits of information. Barry has been the apprentice of several mages, some of which are famous. One notable example is Brinhorn, as Barry was the true inventor of "Brinhorn's Dispelling Technique", which revolutionized the dispelling of magical traps.[8] Brinhorn offered Barry the opportunity to become a scholar, but Barry declined, only being interested in becoming a mage himself.
Several months ago, Barry learnt of the upcoming mage tournament to be held in Varathia, and that the prize would be the legendary Magium. Hoping to use the Magium to become a mage, Barry entered the tournament, and began training in preparation. One reason he even considered entering was that others would likely mistaken him for a stillwater, and avoid him. He also purchased his Stat Device as a backup plan. The organizers made no attempts to verify if the entrants were actually mages, so Barry was allowed to participate, and was magically transported to Varathia.
Abilities[]
Half-Lessathi Aura[]
As a half-lessathi, Barry has partial resistance to paralysis, electricity and sleep spells, and is capable of utilizing a stat device to its full potential, including the use of magical stats. Unlike full-blooded lessathi, Barry's aura does have some magic in it, but it is less than normal humans, being very close to zero. This also makes him easily mistakable as full-blooded human and/or stillwater to those without a good aura-sense, and almost indistinguishable from a full-blooded lessathi unless someone with incredibly accurate aura-sense goes out of their way to check.
Skills[]
According to himself, Barry has no talents, no particular skills, and no academic background.[1] Though he doesn't initially realize it himself, he's actually amassed an incredibly impressive level of knowledge on mages and magic, due to his life-long obsession with becoming a mage, .[1] He has also significantly contributed to magical understanding in his own right, as Barry is the true inventor of "Brinhorn's Dispelling Technique", which revolutionized the dispelling of magical traps.[8]
Boosted Stats[]
Barry can receive various enhancements to his abilities depending on how the player chooses to invest points in his Stat Booster Device. He can also use it to temporarily gain the ability to use magic under specific circumstances.
Weaknesses[]
Shakey Aura[]
Barry's aura is noted to "shake like crazy" whenever he lies, making it incredibly easy for those somewhat proficient in reading auras to tell when he's lying. This can be mitiaged by investing in the Bluff (Aura Concealment) stat.
Equipment[]
Endless Notebook[]
Barry's prized possession is a notebook enchanted to have endless pages, in which he has documented everything he learnt about magic and monsters over his last 11 years of searching for a way to become a mage. It includes passages he copied from various texts, hand-drawn copies of diagrams, and various other information learnt via word-of-mouth with mages and scholars. Much of the information he does not remember by heart, but he generally remembers if he has a page on a particular subject matter.
Enchanted Backpack[]
Barry enters the tournament with an ordinary backpack, which Daren later enchants for him, giving it near-unlimited capacity, and making it impossible to steal from unless the thief knows what they're looking for. The player can choose whether to protect the backpack against being accessed by others.
Dagger(s)[]
Barry has used various daggers to fight, including an ice dagger made for him by Kate, a spare lent to him by Daren, and a few looted from Cutthroat Dave's men. Daren later enchants one of Barry's daggers with basic sharpness and durability enchantments.
Repeating Crossbow(s)[]
Barry's first crossbow is stolen from one of the duke of Bagelberry's men, and can fire 5 bolts before reloading, and is poorly made according to Daren. Barry later chooses one of two different crossbows to buy, both of which outperform his first in every regard. The cheaper one holds 6 bolts, while the more expensive one holds 7 bolts, and has significantly better power, range and accuracy.
Enchanted Scimitar[]
After defeating Velgos in the arena, Barry keeps one of the trolls' two enchanted scimitars to use as his personal weapon. Daren confirms the blade has high quality sharpness and durability enchantments that were cast almost exclusively using elven steel, and that the weapon itself is also high quality. It is valued slightly higher than the expensive repeating crossbow.
Stat Booster Device[]
Base Stats[]
Depending on the reader's chosen investment in stats, Barry can have increased Strength, Speed, Toughness, Reflexes, Hearing and Observation skills. Additionally, with the required invested stats, Barry can learn a bit to almost all Ancient Languages, can gain incredible fighting skills with Combat Technique and can even gain limited future-predicting skills with Premonition. The Base Stats are crucial to Barry's skills, largely deciding what he can and can't do. Depending on your array of stats he can potentially turn into as good of a fighter as Hadrik, or gain knowledge of almost everything.
Aura Stats[]
Barry has three Aura Stats which are unlocked for him by Reidzek.[9] The Aura Stats are immensely useful, however are simply an add-on to the base stats. Bluff (or Aura Concealment) lets Barry completely hide his aura, which mitigates his inherent problem of having a spiky aura whenever he lies. Maxing out this stat grants Barry limited mind manipulation, such as convincing a shopkeeper that he already gave a password that he didn't know.[10] Magical Sense allows Barry to detect people's auras, magical traps, and certain other magical effects from a distance. Aura Hardening allows Barry to harden his aura, increasing both his attack capacity and defenses.
Magic Stats[]
Barry's Magic Stats are eventually unlocked for him by Meridith.[11] These Magic Stats, unlike the Aura Stats, are not just new stats to invest in, but instead are a separate function of the Stat Booster Device. Barry can't invest in these stats or increase it manually, as it will (presumably) increase on its own when faced with powerful magic. The Magic stats are split into Magical Power, which increases the strength of his magical attacks while also increasing his magic reserves, and Magical Knowledge, which gives him access to a larger variety of spells. At first level, Barry can use enough spells that he makes a list of it in his notebook, one of these being a dizziness spell that is similar to Wolford's Daze.[12]