Pauli

Pauli is a Moros mage of The Guardians Of The Veil. He was a Fellow of The Consilium by the Bay, in the cabal The Rose, and remains such in The Consilium of the Stone Circle. Pauli is not part of a legacy.

Early life
Pauli was born Ale Conrad Johannes Hyrtl on 17th June 1975, in Immenstadt, Germany. He was the third of the four children gifted to Trynel and Bastel Hyrtl; the eldest was also male, first name Quirin, whilst the others were female – Gitte the younger and Barbl the elder.

The family were strongly traditionalist, devoutly Catholic, of the old money, and were keen to ensure their children followed in this path. Each child had their lives planned out from when they were born, and their parents pushed them towards this; Quirin was to work in politics, then take over his father's place ruling the 'estate' they owned; Barbl was to be well educated in polite, witty conversation, then marry into another family of good standing; Ale was to be their scientist, and Gitte was to work in low-service to the Church.

Education was the highest of priorities, although anything they could best other people in was thought of as good – music, sports, debating... Weekdays were spent at school, then being drilled through homework and studies by a combined effort of their parents. Still, on Sunday afternoons, the children were often taking up into the mountains and allowed to play there whilst their parents sat on the grass.

By the time Bastel was pregnant with the fourth child, the Quirin was 12 and considered old enough to lead 'expeditions' to the mountains with his two younger siblings. Considering his rather absent-minded nature, this was possibly not wise; more than once did Barbl try to use these adventures to 'lose' her younger brother. To begin with they stayed close to home, and so this wasn't really possible. By the time Ale was 8, Barbl 11 and Quirin 15, however, it became very easy. Luckily, by this point, Gitte was old enough to at least notice there was someone missing.

Eventually, Quirin moved away to Berlin, where he studied politics. Ale didn't realise Barbl could be worse, until she was the eldest. The two never got on, and without even a mentally absent force to control them, the teenagers bickered to the point of only being allowed in a room together at meal times.

Ale was glad when she moved to study philosophy in Munich.

Early Adult Life
When the time came for Ale to leave home, he moved to Vienna, studying Physics. He made friends, made enemies and annoyed his parents by dying his hair purple, growing it long and wearing 'slobish clothing'.

It was here that he met Elka, a student of Fine Art at one of the other universities in Vienna, having moved there from Salzburg. They met when they walked into one another: she was busy studying the sky, and he had his head in a book. They apologised, went on their way, and expected to never meet again.

That was in Ale's first year, and Elka's second. A year later, they were introduced by a common third party whilst on a night out. It ended up being only a matter of time before they were dating.

When they realised that they were both serious about the relationship, it was time to meet the families. First Elka introduced Ale to hers - her elder brother Luca, her mother and father and her mother’s mother. The grandmother laughed at him when he attempted to ask permission to 'court' Elka, although the grandmother was pleased to meet ‘such a polite young man’.

Introducing her to his parents, though, was a different matter. Remembering their reaction to him when he first dyed his hair, Ale made sure to tie up his hair and dress up smart; he also had Elka put on one of her nicer dresses. Only visiting for the day during the summer, they stopped for breakfast on the way. At which point Elka split her coffee down herself, leaving her with only her painting clothes (one of Luca's old rugby shirts and a pair of ripped up jeans) to wear. With no other option, this was how she was dressed to meet Ale's parents. They were not happy.

They spoke nothing of it, however. Not until one Easter, two years later, when Ale came to ask their consent to marry Elka. By this point, both were graduated. Elka was working as an apprentice restorer at one of the museums, and Ale was studying for his PhD. They refused him permission. When he insisted her good character and ways, they fought back with her ‘lesser upbringing’, 'bad influence' (didn't you see her hair?) and ‘poor prospects’. Ignoring their wishes, he continued to date her. It was an argument from which the family would never repair itself; everyone was still on speaking terms, but the rot had set in.

A few years after that, Ale contacted his family once again about marriage; again they refused. This conversation was more heated than the last – he was disowned, but he also disowned them. His father yelled, his mother frowned from her seat beside him, Barbl screamed and Quirin couldn't even be bothered to visit that Christmas. Gitte was the one to chase after him, beg him to come back. He slapped her, and ran off.

Refusing to accept their words, Ale went to Elka’s family, asking consent to marry her, but also explaining he would not be able to use his status to support her; that his family and he had suffered irreconcilable differences. Once again he was laughed at, and told not to worry – that surviving on what you build up yourself if worth far more than a life built on the work of a man long dead.

Married Life
The two were married on January 17th, 2004. Ale’s family were invited, but he received no reply from them and his phone calls were left unanswered and unreturned. At the ceremony, he formally took Elka’s family name – Brunner. Hilderic formally welcomed him into the family with plenty of alcohol – much to his Swiss-French daughter-in-law Marie's displeasure. Part of the reason for that, however, may have been that she had to stay sober to care for their children – already a collection of five.

Life continued for the couple; their lack of children was not distressing to them, content as they were to be the crazy aunt and uncle for Luca’s brood – Christophe, Louis, Eric and twins Hans, and Maria (Estelle, the youngest, was born a few years later; Ale never saw her as more than a baby). Maria tended to latch onto Ale even from a small age, much to his confusion and everyone else’s amusement. Christophe, as the eldest, would often make jokes about her being the most important woman in Ale’s life. It was not long before the others joined in.

In time, Ale moved on from pure research to a combination of that and lecturing, whilst Elka went on to gain more and more credibility in her field. It was this period of his life that Pauli would consider himself as having been truly happy.

Awakening
It was in November 2009 that things finally changed, for the worse once more. Tuesday 17th November, to be precise. Ale had been at a conference in London that morning, Elka coming with him to see the sights. For the afternoon, they had driven a short way out of London, visiting a place recommended to them. Their return, however, was late and in heavy rain. Ale had started driving, although asked to change driver when he started to tire. Pulling into a service station, they changed drivers. Elka now in control, they continued on their way back into London. Not knowing the area, they quickly found themselves looping around the M25 ringroad, hoping to spot a signpost to their exit.

In the dark and the wet, a car slid into another not far from them, then another crashed into them. Elka slammed on the brakes, the car skidding as she did so. Into the car in front they crashed, lurching the two of them forward. However, that car was stopped and their momentum had been reduced by the braking. The adrenaline of the situation was released with nervous laughter from both parties – they were jolted, sore and bruised, but nothing appeared broken.

They did not hear the screams from the roadside.

A moment later, they were hit again. The car crumpled as designed, but continued deforming further. The laughter was silenced in a moment.

By the time the emergency services arrived, Elka was dead – her entire body crushed by the metal then burnt by the fire. Ale was unconscious and his body broken and torn all over, pulled from the fire caused by the oil carrier that collided with his car by one of the others on the roadside. The medics wondered how he was still alive, but rushed him to hospital with the other injured.

It would be months before he opened his eyes, but it was during this time that he awoke; Pauli’s next memory after the crash was of a deep peace settling over him; a place of total serenity, of Styia and of the watchtower of the lead coin. Into the watchtower he carved the one name he could think of – Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist whose mind he had always admired. The damage to his body, however, was not undone by his awakening; he remained in hospital for months after his awakening, some of that in an induced coma. If you asked him, he couldn't say whether his soul was dragged alone by his wife's, or if his soul left of its own accord.

In all truth, he probably would have gone mad with his new powers if not for the few mages working in the London hospital – a Guardian, a Mysterium and a Free Councillor. They explained matters, although his mind had a very hard time accepting the matter; it was also at this point that his faith, religious and otherwise, took a knock from which it still has not recovered. The doctor, the nurse and the porter represented the three orders he became best acquainted with; although he was aware of the others, he did not take kindly to visitors even then. Whilst there, he quickly decided he did not wish to continue in the life he had before; Elka was the only thing holding him to Vienna, and he did not wish to return without her. Still in hospital, he quit his job and informed her family of what had happened. When Hilderic started asking about him, Pauli hung up and broke his phone. When his brother-in-law rang back on the hospital line, he refused to take the call.

By the time he came to leave hospital, he realised he would have to join an order. First, however, he arranged to rent a ground floor flat and went to the government offices – the European Free Movement Agreement made this a lot easier. Following, he sat in the dark, contemplating his choice. The Mysterium seemed like the obvious choice, but if he were to join them, he would be made to bring forth his knowledge – something he was now unwilling to do. If his wife had awoken too, he had no doubt they would have ended up together in the Free Council; she was always a forward thinker, an idealist, while he would have followed her anywhere. He did not desire, and never did, to lead as the Ladder does, and even if he had wanted to join them, the ladder would have laughed him off – a wiry man in his early thirties, with no prior experience and his right leg held together with steel pins would never succeed in their order. The Guardians drew him, and there he stayed. With no real plan for his life, no family to speak of (Elka’s family would likely have taken him back, but he could not stand to face them again) and no other ties to the world they allowed him to twist himself into their web, and he allowed them to take from him what they pleased, to change him however they wished – so long as it did not interfere with his deep-rooted standards he never could quite shake off. Without even being asked, he legally changed his name (pick something generic they said when he asked them for advice on choosing a new name your accent is too thick still to be a local, so a generic name from your place). If you ever do find official paperwork of his, you will find his name to be Friederich Schmidt. To Pauli, Ale Brunner died in that accident; whether he stays that way or not, only time will tell.

The Central Line Consilium
Until recently, Pauli had no memories between leaving hospital and about a week before leaving London, despite this being a full three years of his life. This is the reason of his detailed, almost obsessive, note taking - he daren't forget again.

However, it has come to be that he has learnt, with the help of Demdike, some of what went on to cause the mind-wipe. It emerged that the Pentangle had not found Pauli first, but a seer known as Sekhmet did. Using blood obtained from the hospital's pathology lab, she would intermittently take control of Pauli's body to use as a weapon again the Consilium.

It took four murders (Odyssey, Solo, Hearth and Sandman) and a member of the Eleventh Question, Hotspur, to catch him. Being caught by an Eleventh Question likely saved Pauli from execution; the mage investigated further, and discovered Sekhmet to have been behind it. She was executed, and then it emerged she had also been interfering with Pauli's emotions, preventing him from dealing with anything and injecting timely doses of fear and confusion to keep him easier to deal with. From her end, at least.

By the time Pauli's trial was finished, for the record he was acquitted, he was barely sane. Being subtle didn't work, so the Guardians made an executive descision to temporarily mind-wipe him, letting his soul mature before he had to deal with it again, and sending the problem elsewhere. They also decided against telling the elsewhere, which happened to be the Consilium by the Bay, what had happened.

It was around the time of the trial that he cut and stopped dying his hair for two reasons: to prove to himself he could actually do it now Sekhmet was gone, and as part of forcing himself to become the man his parents had wanted him to be. He didn't make contact with them, but if acting out had lead to her death...

The rest of the Consilium of the Central Line were also not informed of the mind-wipe, leading to those friends Pauli had outside his order very confused. One of note would be Borderwolf, a woman he made friends with after they both assisted in the chase through the London Underground to track down and destroy a Left-Handed Moros. Specifically, they were there to deal with the ghosts she kept setting on the group.

Pauli did not question the request to transfer only a few days after Balthazar, his ranking superior, re-explained his job, trusting their knowledge of what was best. This, however, does mean he had no knowledge of why, other than a firm belief it was necessary.

Lancaster
Once in Lancaster, he was set up with a job repairing instruments; money makes the world go round, and he still refuses to take money out of the account his old wages, and the insurance pay-out for the accident, were paid into, even though there is quite a large sum of money there. He still works there; it doesn’t pay well, but more than enough for a single man in rented accommodation, and he is mostly content doing it. Demdike also seems to be able to pull strings when need be, which helps.

He joined the Rose with its founding. Initially he was the Doorwarden, a title passed to Rayth when people remembered she could ward and he couldn't.

Of late, he has started dating and choosing to maintain closer contact with friends/associates again, making him a busier man than he was upon first moving to the area.

Personality
For the most part, Pauli is reserved and quiet. In conversations, he speaks only when asked for his opinion on the matter, or when he feels it is travelling in circles thanks to a lack of new input. Even then, he tends to skirt around giving his personal opinion directly - 'my decision is already made' and 'I understand your point' are some of his standards responses. Information about himself is only given if there is a need to do so, although his perception of when information, and what information, is needed can vary greatly from what is considered normal.

When they are given, the opinions he holds tend to be on the conservative side, likely a side effect of his upbringing. Since leaving home he has become steadily more liberal, but at a very slow pace; that development was also pushed back a decade or two by his awakening. Others of his opinions and beliefs are simply incorrect, just nobody who has found out has deemed it necessary to correct them. His logic for connecting points is clear to himself, but rarely do people see it without assistance.

Pauli is not a man who makes life easy for himself, or for other people, especially when getting hold of him is concerned. Most just assume he is a bit eccentric and/or technophobic, and leave the issue there. In recent times, he has become better at this.

People close to him eventually come to see a deep streak of emotional instability, which manifests at seemingly random times, and in unpredictable fashion. He is very aware of this issue, frequently attempting to force himself to calm or trying to get out of situations prematurely. Neither tends to have a positive effect.

Around the time of The Convocation Trials, however, this instability reached a snapping point, preventing him from functioning as a human being for nearly two weeks. Dealing with the fallout is, as of writing, still a work in progress. It has, however, put things rather back in perspective for him, as it forced him to finally stopped running from everything. Just, attempting to deal with everything at once proved unwise.

In the time between that and term 3, he has steadily become less anti-social and formal. This has not been noticed by many, mostly due to it being a gradual process. This is a development mostly involving accepting what he has done and has happened to him - even if he holds the wrong understanding of some of it - prompting the start of him returning to the person he was before the events of November 2009, and the following mess his time in London was. The effects of these will likely always be apparent, and he was never massively socially inclined, and is still the person he was, but those events no longer rules every aspect of his being.

Other Semi-Useful Information
Pauli has used multiple names in his work for the Guardians, although there are a few names he has used multiple times - these include what is now his legal sleeper name, Friedrich Schmidt, Johannes Wolf when he needs a name not legally associated, and the much less used alias Dr Alexis Kholer. The latter is only used when he absolutely needs people to know his level of education.

A list of his relatives can be found here.

A brief-ish summery of his thoughts on certain matters is included in this article.