Nero is a student at the Queensmouth Academy in Misthaven, which he attends along with his three younger brothers: Nolan and Nicodemus (who are twins) and the youngest, Newt. There, Nero studies the occult and the arcane along with other aspects of a classical education.
In many ways, he may be the most balanced of his siblings, with a serious, steady nature balanced by a sense of fun and adventure. He carries a particular affinity for the air elemental and weather-related magics.
Background
Nero Orpheus Xanthos was born the oldest of four sons, legacies of a long line of mages with a strong sense of familial loyalty and tradition. When they were young, each of the Xanthos children showed an affinity for a particular type of elemental magic, which they continued to study and develop as they got older. Nero's element was air, though it didn't always come as easily to him at first as it did his brothers. Nero tended to be a responsible and serious boy, always looking after his younger brothers, which made it hard for him to embrace the lighter, more flexible ways of air magic. This required him to train heavily to master the magics associated with his gift, from intensive mental discipline training to physical training in gymnastics and martial arts. His chief toy became a boomerang, as it helped him to focus his gifts. In time, though, this intense training paid off, allowing him to achieve similar potential to his brothers--he's just had to work harder than, as far as he can tell, the others did.
Nero has always worked hard to meet and even exceed his parents' expectations. Traditional and affluent, they had very definite ideas of what their boys should grow up to be. In what free time he had, between trying to look after his brothers and master his own challenging abilities, Nero learned to cook and began to study healing arts and alchemy. He made certain to always achieve top grades, though he avoids academic bragging as he's afraid it would make things harder on his younger brothers. Despite all this, since reaching his twenties, Nero has begun to finally loosen up and learn to embrace his more playful side in addition to his more responsible nature.
Studying at Queensmouth, Nero is getting a classical education and a strong background in sorcery and occultism. Perhaps more importantly, though, he's learning to explore more about himself. While it's unlikely that Nero will ever stop being his brothers' keepers, he's finally also learning to do things to please himself. As with so many things in life, he's learning more and more that it's all about balance.
SKILLS
Athletics - Competent Level
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Much like his brothers, Nero is highly athletic. He is adept at running, jumping, climbing, and various sports. He has a particular talent for gymnastics and acrobatics.
Boomerangs - Competent Level
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Nero has not widely studied much about combat with weapons, but he has been wielding boomerangs since he was a kid. It started as a hobby and a way to play with his powers, but over time he has become a highly competent wielder of such weapons. He is particularly practiced with the bladed, metallic boomerangs that he uses to practice his wind and electrical magics.
Cooking - Competent Level
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Nero is very capable in the kitchen, whether cooking meals or baking various treats. He is no gourmet chef, but he's capable of preparing tasty and nutritious meals, having always taken it upon himself to make sure his younger brothers are properly fed.
Knowledge - Competent Level
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Nero has received a classical education at Queensmouth Prep and now at Queensmouth Academy, which focuses on history, literature, logic, sciences, philosophy, and occult studies. He is an exceptional student and maintains top grades in all his classes, though he does not always advertise this fact.
Martial Arts - Competent Level
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In learning to control his wind magics, Nero found that training was essential. While he had to train his mind the hardest and for the least practical effect, he trained his body more moderately but to much greater effect. Despite that oddity, he has learned to be a highly competent practitioner of martial arts, particularly as a method of using and focusing his air-based magics.
Nero has classical training in music, including singing, piano, and the flute. He is not a highly dedicated musician, but studying music is something that his family encourages, and so he has made it a point to gain at least passing skill in that area.
Occultism - Competent Level
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As a student of Queensmouth Academy, Nero has studied the arcane, occult practices, ritualism, mythologies, spiritualism, divination, and general knowledge of the supernatural world. Nero is particularly good at alchemical preparations, especially those for healing.
Presence - Competent Level
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Nero is reasonably charismatic. Often, he's more straightforward and friendly than cunning and manipulative, but he can be forceful, persuasive, intimidating, or smooth when called to be, and is generally good at using his voice, body posture, and other emotive techniques to display exactly what he wants to.
Having a natural inclination to mentalism, Nero learned to control his mind long before he ever learned to start doing mind-magic. As a result of this he has quite the iron will. He is an expert at resisting compulsion or thought manipulation, and while he doesn't always choose to exercise it, when he wants he has extremely powerful self-control.
ABILITIES
Magic: Aeromancy - Supreme Level
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Nero can manipulate air in nearly any way one might imagine. He has the fine control to push or pull air out of small spaces, can create a vacuum bubble or a vortex of gale force winds, is able to lift and move many objects, and can use wind as a living weapon. This allows him to perform such feats as flying or lifting others, whipping up air funnels or currents, deflecting attacks or creating "blunt" or "sharp" blasts of wind to attack, or even create temporary simple "constructs" of air, such as a tight sphere of churning air intense enough to serve as a shield or to support the weight of those standing on it for a short time. Even in a seeming vacuum, he always has a flow of air about him if he so chooses.
Perhaps his greatest feat, though one that requires great concentration, is agitating the air in just the right way to call forth arcs of lightning-like electricity. He can aim such bolts with great accuracy, such as making them strike a particular target, though he cannot control them in a complex way, say beyond directing a quick bolt. He cannot manipulate electricity otherwise, certainly not to the degree of a true electrokinetic, but his affinity for air does make him extremely resistant to electrical attacks and magics. He can be struck repeatedly by lightning and take no harm from it.
Innate: Awareness - Enhanced Level
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Nero was born with an especially keen mystic intuition and awareness. This includes sharp, enhanced senses, but more than that it gives him a kind of extrasensory perception that makes him especially good at detecting and deciphering spells, enchantments, or other mystical effects or perceiving and understanding magical creatures, mystical effects, and the ebb and flow of magical energies. He is also adept at scrying, seeking, and other forms of magic sensory projection and observation. It is unusually difficult to fool his senses or to hide things from his awareness.
As the firstborn of his siblings, Nero is particularly attuned to his younger brothers. He lacks anything like the strength of the Twin Link held by Nolan and Nicodemus, but Nero is almost able to feel a general empathic sense of his siblings, alerting him to their emotions, general state of being, and some sense of their location.
Magic: Mentalism - Enhanced Level
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The air elemental is often associated with the mind, which is likely why Nero has a natural talent for mentalism. He has developed this talent enough to become quite accomplished at basic telepathy and mental communication. However, he has as yet never delved much into manipulation or the more coercive mental arts. He is sensitive to others and can, with focus, read unshielded thoughts or emotions or pick up on ambient or imprinted psychic energies, but this remains in general his most recent and untrained talent. His ability in mentalism, though, does give him enhanced-level resistance to mental coercion, intrusion, attack, or other influence.
Power: Speed - Enhanced Level
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Though his speed is modest by the standards of a Superia super-speedster, Nero is still capable of moving at blinding speeds. He is able to move at up to around 250 miles per hour, and he has reflexes and the ability to complete tasks at roughly fifty times the speed of a human in optimal physical condition. Moving at increased speed taxes him just as much as it would a normal person, however, so if he's running around at maximum speed, he'll become just as tired as if he were sprinting. Thus, in practical terms, he can only move at top speed in bursts of about 5-10 seconds before he has to slow down and pace himself. Continuous exertion at more moderate levels also still tires him, much as it would a marathon runner--so after a few hours of speed exertion, even when pacing himself and keeping to lesser levels, he'll be completely tired out.
Magic: Warping - Supreme Level
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Magicians have often been said to vanish "into thin air," and Nero has learned much the same trick. He has expanded this into a general talent for spatial manipulation, allowing him to teleport people or objects up to intercontinental distances. He can also use this power to create wards or barriers that will not only keep out attacks or prevent one from passing, but that can also prevent teleportation or portal effects within them. With great focus, he can even appear in multiple places at once. With the right preparation or an unusually strong source of power, he can even create temporary "reality fragments," which are are essentially tiny pocket realms. At present, these realms can take the form of spheres up to about 100 yards in diameter. These exist outside of normal space-time and can be used to store objects, hold creatures, or simply escape to a private location for a while.
Magic: Weather-Working - Enhanced Level
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Nero's control over air also translates into a talent for weather-working. He can easily create fog or cloud cover, summon rain or other forms of precipitation, and whip up storms--or, for that matter, dispel such effects. His area of effect is limited, but he can create weather effects sufficient to directly affect a few hundred yards in radius and, indirectly, up to a few square miles. He might, for instance, create a localized storm as a direct effect, and he could control that storm fully. The storm could create stormy weather, indirectly, for a much larger area, but he wouldn't have complete control over it. Similarly, he could calm the heart of a storm, thus leading to clearer weather for miles around. This ability also grants him a high degree of resistance to the elements, so natural levels of cold, wet, or other such weather-based effects do not bother him. Strong enough supernatural effects, though, may still harm him.
ADVANTAGES
Nero owns a set of master-crafted metallic boomerangs. These can fold up like a fan for easy storage, and they are designed to work well with his air-based powers, including his ability to call lightning.
Nero owns a variety of magical paraphernalia, including a respectable alchemy set, various herbs and reagents, and assorted other occult and mystical items. He makes certain to keep enough on hand to share, since he considers himself personally responsible for supplying his younger brothers with all their own various magical items and resources.
Nero comes from a long line of traditional mages. They have a lot of expectations that they place on their children, the legacies to that line. But, at the same time, they also provide a support structure that makes sure that the boys want for very little. A home, a safe place to go, an education, an allowance, and a healthy trust fund are just a few of the benefits of being a Xanthos.
Nero has refined the use of his warping magics well enough that he has a permanently established pocket realm. It is not the largest he is capable of making, but it is stable, allowing him to access it at any time, even when he is otherwise mystically exhausted. As it exists wholly outside normal space-time, this realm is extraordinarily difficult for anyone to locate, let alone enter, without Nero's permission.
The doorway to this realm resembles a standard single door in size, and it can be summoned at his location in the physical world at any time. Once the door is closed, it vanishes; it's more like a bridge or corridor that must be created between the physical world and the realm, as opposed to a locked door that can be forced open. From within the realm, the door may be re-opened anywhere within one hundred miles of where it was previously opened in the physical world.
The realm itself is the size of a small studio apartment and roughly made up like one. Comfortably furnished, it offers all of the amenities of such an apartment. He's even managed to set up a few effects to ensure electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing. He keeps it stocked with food, a supply of magical supplies and reagents, plenty of healing items and supplies in case of emergencies, and various small personal items as well.
WEAKNESSES
Nero is complicated. One one hand, he's an oldest brother and a disciplined student, so he has steady, responsible qualities. On the other hand, air is his element, so he tends to have a more playful, free, easygoing side. These two sides of his nature frequently exist in some opposition to one another, which can be the source of some challenge and frustration in his life.
There are a lot of familiar expectations placed on Nero. He comes from a long line of mages and his parents have aspirations for their children. There is a constant pressure to live up to them. As the oldest of his brothers, he feels this pressure very keenly.
Nero's magic is powered by his will. Casting small to medium spells and minor to moderate effects can be done with relative ease and maintained for some time, however, the more powerful a spell (whether larger in scope or intensity or longer in duration if it must be maintained, or if it is a permanent spell that takes a great deal of energy) the more quickly he will tire. Using too much energy will cause him to become depleted, weak, and exhausted, requiring a full eight hours of rest before he can cast again. If he has been casting supreme-level spells, he may end up unconscious for up to a full 24 hours.
Nero does consider himself his brothers' keeper. It's partly a question of being the oldest and, thus, feeling responsible for them, but he also genuinely loves his brothers and has an intensely close bond with them. As a result, he will do anything that he feels he should in order to protect them and look out for their best interests, up to and including doing things they may not always like or acts of self-sacrifice.
