Hassan Al-Nasir
Hassan Al-Nasir is an Ahl-i-Batin Mage from the British Isles during the Dark Ages.
Background
Hassan Al-Nasir claims to be the child of an Arabic Batini mage, raised and educated in Grenada. He wanders throughout the Isles, though he can be most frequently found in the area near Winchester. Fearing persecution, he disguises himself via magic as a young Norman scholar. His role is twofold. He is something of an ambassador from the Ahl-i-Batin of Grenada to the Mages of England, and frequently consults powerful and important mages throughout the Isles on the orders of his master. Also, he is an active member of a new cross-order cabal in Winchester, a relative rarity, and he seeks to find common threats against which to unite mages. Al-Nasir (whose name in Arabic means "the victorious") is an active and ambitious young man, driven to excel.
Al-Nasir claims his forename is Hassan (meaning "slave" in Arabic). He was not born with that name. Many Batini take particular names upon reaching the level of Murid. Al-Nasir is different, however. He was born Joesph, in Canterbury, in 1200. In 1212, fired by religious fervor and powerful dreams, Jospeh joined the Children's Crusade, traveling along with hundreds of other English children to the port of Marseilles. Like all the others who survived the voyage from Marseilles, he was enslaved and sold in the slave markers in Tunisia.
A man who needed a child to clean his sanctum - and perform other, depraved, duties - purchased him. The man took him to Grenada, where the Batini condemned the boy's master as an infernalist and destroyed him. The Batini saw magical potential in Joseph and trained him as a mage. His years among the Batini changed him; his skin color darkened as he subtly adopted the body language and appearance of his Ahl-i-Batin tutors. But each night, he dreamed of his time in the hold of the merchant ship and the long dark nights in his first master's bed. The dreams tormented him. To ward off sleep, Joseph worked, studied, practiced and mediated harder. He went through his apprenticeship in half the normal time. He mastered a dozen languages - the eastern Saxon English of his home, the French of the Normans and the French of the people of Languedoc, Kurdish, Farsi and many Arabic dialects. He was named the "victorious one" as the other Batini praised his work ethic and potential. Then they sent him to England.
Now, al-Nasir works closely with Julius, a Hermetic mage, in Winchester, and serves the ends of his Fellowship in Grenada. He harbors a deep hatred of infernalists and anyone who would hurt children. However, al-Nasir is also a broken man, his sanity fraying at the edges. He is too close to home. He has also recently heard that his mother still lives, in Cambridge. He refuses to visit her, knowing it would destroy his sanity (and possibly hers).
Image
While disguised as a Norman, al-Nasir has fair hair and fair skin and appears to be a slightly overweight, soft-skinned scholar. Normally, he is a lean, thin, muscular man who appears to be of Iberian Arabic descent (with a hint, perhaps, of native Spanish blood). In either guise, he wears a scholar's robes.
References
- DA: Dark Ages: British Isles, p. 124-125