Character Sheet
Grimoire
Quarters and Laboratory
Pere Vilaro Ferrer was born in 1194 to a moderately successful merchant and his young wife. The boy displayed a knack for charming his peers from an early age, though he inherited his father’s love of food and ample girth that came with it. Occasionally his wit would get the best of him, resulting in more than a few thrashings at the hands of his father or other children. He befriended a large servant’s boy named Teodor Capcir at a young age as a protective measure. The relationship they built as children has continued throughout their lives.
Pere’s father ensured he received tutoring in the necessary areas to join the family shipping business. By the age of 10, Pere was accompanying his father to taverns and ships to observe negotiations and develop an understanding of contracts. Within four years he was leading negotiations, displaying a remarkable skill for convincing very surprised ship captains to take questionable deals. The combination of commissions and dockside taverns also fed his appetites, which grew more diverse once puberty took hold.
By the age of 16, Pere’s assistance had allowed his father to buy out his partners in a shipping company. Shortly afterward, Pere finally encountered a merchant who was impervious to his charms – Franc Severel of Jerbiton. Franc recognized the supernatural tricks that Pere was using and quickly determined the young man had no true understanding of them. Franc reported the situation to Farusca and told her to take care of it. After a great deal of arguing with the other magi of Barcelona, she agreed to take Pere as an apprentice rather than run off an unattached person with the Gentle Gift. Convincing Pere to accept apprenticeship was difficult, but she ultimately ‘purchased’ his services from his father and explained the ‘join or die’ concept to Pere. As was his habit, he sent Teodor to neutralize the threat. Teodor was quickly taught an object lesson involving heights and a lack of pants, and Pere’s apprenticeship began.
He resisted Farusca’s instruction for less than a year. Once she demonstrated what Hermetic magic would allow him to do, he dove right into his training with an eye on being the greatest merchant in Barcelona. Convincing him of the importance of the ‘masquerade’ took much longer. He eventually reached a compromise with his parens, learning to employ his magic in subtle ways and accepting that ‘winning’ every single deal would lead to unwanted attention. The second part was based on the idea of longevity rituals. Living for a hundred years or more would allow Pere to lose a few deals now to make more in the long term. It also meant all the drinking and whoring he wanted, since magic would keep him alive regardless. The fact that he was married early in his apprenticeship to a shrewish shipping heiress would also pose no difficulty with the proper spells.
Pere continued to work for his father during his apprenticeship, per the agreement between his father and Farusca. Once he completed his Gauntlet, his father began sending him to ports throughout the Mediterranean to expand the company’s influence. By this time in his mid-30s, Pere was badly overweight and had become reliant on a Jewish physician named Shalev Aguilar to control his gout and other pains. Pere eventually found time in the early 1230s to complete his longevity ritual, but it was not the cure-all he had been led to believe. It was much weaker than he expected and did not alleviate his physical complaints as he had expected. In recent years he has begun chasing rumor of non-Hermetic ways to achieve longevity, with Arabic tales of alchemical solutions being his primary target. The notion of changing his lifestyle has never crossed his mind.
He briefly joined Andorra as a journeyman, before departing amicably in 1235
