Eusim: 4 Fails = Death | 3 Successes = Life

Voltaren was born and raised in the sprawling, often shadowed city of Porthaven (or where in eusim) Even as a young child, he possessed an insatiable curiosity and a sharp intellect that seemed to absorb information like a dry sponge. While other children played in the muddy streets, Voltaren could often be found poring over discarded scrolls or listening intently to the ramblings of the city's eccentric scholars.
His home life was marked by the constant worry of his father's debilitating illness. From Voltaren’s earliest memories, his father was frail and weak, confined to his bed by a persistent and mysterious ailment that baffled the local healers. His mother, a strong and resilient woman, worked tirelessly to care for them both, but the strain was always evident.
At the age of eight, while rummaging through some of his father's old belongings, Voltaren accidentally triggered a small, forgotten magical trinket. A spark of arcane energy flared around him, and he instinctively understood how it worked. This accidental discovery ignited a passion within him. Magic, he realized, was a force that could potentially understand and even combat the illnesses that plagued his family.
He kept his newfound abilities a secret at first, practicing in secluded corners of their small home and the quiet alleys of Porthaven. He devoured any scraps of magical knowledge he could find, often trading favors or small trinkets for tattered pages or whispered secrets. His resourcefulness, born out of necessity to help his family, became a defining trait.
As he grew older, Voltaren sought out more formal instruction, but legitimate magical academies were expensive and exclusive. Desperate to find a way to help his increasingly ill parents – his mother had also begun to show worrying symptoms, though less severe than his father – Voltaren fell in with a somewhat unorthodox and morally ambiguous figure: a reclusive doctor named Silas Thorne.
Doctor Thorne was known for his unconventional methods and his unsettlingly effective remedies. He recognized Voltaren’s intelligence and burgeoning magical talent, taking him on as an apprentice. Voltaren quickly excelled, learning not only about anatomy and herbalism but also how to weave magic into medical practices.
However, the true nature of Doctor Thorne's work gradually became clear. To fund his research and create his potent (and often magically enhanced) medicines, Thorne was involved in a clandestine blood trafficking operation. He would acquire blood from various sources – sometimes willingly given, sometimes not – and use arcane rituals and alchemical processes to create potent concoctions.
Voltaren, initially horrified by this revelation, found himself trapped. He knew that Thorne's methods, while ethically reprehensible, were the only way he could afford the increasingly expensive treatments his parents needed. He became complicit, using his magical abilities to facilitate the acquisition and processing of blood, always justifying it to himself as a necessary evil to save his family.
Years passed in this morally grey area. Voltaren became a skilled wizard and a capable assistant, his knowledge expanding rapidly under Thorne's tutelage. He developed powerful spells, often with a medical or restorative focus, but the guilt of his involvement in the blood trade gnawed at him.
Now, at 24, Voltaren is reaching a breaking point. His parents' conditions are worsening, and while Thorne's "medicines" offer temporary relief, Voltaren knows this path is unsustainable and wrong. He yearns for a way out, a way to use his considerable intellect and magical abilities for good, without the stain of his current activities. He seeks knowledge and power not just for its own sake, but to find a legitimate cure for his parents and to escape the clutches of Doctor Thorne's dark enterprise. He is ready to take the risks necessary to forge a new path, even if it means confronting dangerous individuals and the consequences of his past actions.