10 Wizards

1. Parazited by a mushroom colony. Hazy eyed, perpetually hallucinating. Spends most of his time napping. Robes, hair and beard always damp and funky smelling. Lives out of society in his tower, 

all windows shut or draped to preserve from the light, with his two apprentices, on their way to be colonized too. The fungi feeds off connexion to magic. All the books of his giant and otherwise complete library are moldy. The knowledge is now in the mycellium, the apprentices never talked to the wizard or each other since they moved in. 

2. Has seen the inside of a dying star by mistake during a scrying spell gone wrong. No more face, a big black hole instead. Impossible geometry, a voice seemingly coming from all angles, as a scream and a whisper at the same time. Looks like a bad reflection from a bent mirror when not looked at directly. Perhaps hovering, maybe vibrating. Colors fading. Knows what is between this reality and the next. Sometimes speaks backwards.

3. No longer has skin, due to a disagreement with a devil. Always in pain, slightly slimy. Knows everything there is to know about distils and cauldrons. Renowned alchemist, looking always deeper for the secrets of the natural world. After having spend his life searching for answers in the material world, he had to ask around in another, but lost his epidermis after talking back a little too much to a devil he had convocated for trading secrets with. Understandably still holds a grudge with the devil that took his skin, and is conspiring with other  otherwordly entities to get it back.

4. Due to too much star gazing, the wizard can no longer understand what people mean when they speak aloud, only what the movement and placement of the sky prophecizes. Spends more time looking at the planets than writing down what they say. No longer can they predict what people would do based on their behavior or their promises. The future remains only in the stars for them.

5. Spent too long studying wall scriptures and clay pot inscriptions, in a city deserted of all life for centuries.  Is now hearing voices and seeing shadows in the corner of their eyes, always paranoïd, always checking behind themselves. Has a small notebook that they keep against their heart and frantically clutch when they are surprised. Very knowledgeable on past civilisations, and especially the reasons they disappeared, sometimes overnight.

6. Is there even someone under that robe and that hat ? You cannot be sure, everytime you think you can have a glimpse of the wizard, there is dust in your eye, the sun shines unpromptedly, or your friend moves in front of you. The old dude is not making it easy either, he wears a scarf, long gloves, even indoors. and never looks anyone in the eyes, always shifting in place. He is a specialist of forgotten secrets and hidden truths that he dedicated his life to.

7. The old man lives in a lighthouse next to the windy ocean, on a cliffside. He claims he can read the movement of the waves and will never go to a place where he can no longer see the water. His abode smells like salt and dried kelp. This wizard spends his days on the beaches and the creeks, gathering sand, salt, seashells and algea, and his nights feverishly watching the ocean with a rusty looking glass. Will not shut up about the upcoming end of the age of man, but is suddently silent and shifty when asked what will come next, and trying to avoid the subject. the bottom of his robes are always wet.

8. Sleeping in an open grave, claims he can listen to the secrets of the worms, the maggots and the bugs during the night. This wizard says he is not one, and that everything he ever wrote down in his spell book has been dictated by his nightly  visitors. Seems always distracted and listening to three different things at the same time, and often mumbling in response. Has a 3-day beard every day. Is always questionning the ingredients when he is preparing a potion, expecting answers that he is the only one to hear. When asked about something he is repeating it multiple time, and seem as surprised as you  are by the answers. Grave dirt, worms and maggots are always falling from his sleeves.

9. This wizard is now made of stone, with two fiery eyes. He has been stuck to the wall of a mountain for years now, perhaps decades, after a duel with his rival. People from around the country bring him offerings, because his eyes never stopped burning since then. He can still communicate during nights of storms, where he can project his thoughts in the cracking of thunder. It is said that he can see everything that happends in the mountain through the eyes of the birds of prey flying in circles high above. The wizard is eager to share his knowledge of evocation spells whith whoever asks.

10. His skin is weirdly textured, almost like it has fingerprints sometimes dotting his arms or his forehead, his eyes are a deep dark color, and seem dead and full of life at the same time. Like marbles filled with a roaring fire. The voice is deep and rocky, too deep, too rocky... This is not the original wizard, this one has been fabricated years ago in the laboratories, out of clay, herbs and oils. The wizard gave it life with a fire that was stolen from a city of spirits. He taughts him everything he knew, and one day died of old age in between scrolls and books. The homonculus assumed his place and continued his oeuvre, his research into the creation of artificial life.