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Oct. 7th, 2017 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There's something to be said about a mage's curiosity, especially when said mage had a tenacity to snoop for answers to his questions that bordered on lethal and had gotten him sent to a hermit in a tower after he stuck his nose into something a few times too many. Which is to say that if you were to look for the word in the dictionary, you would find Khadgar's face as the only definition.
Khadgar's curiosity is what lead him down the path to the man he is at the current stage in his life. He has gone through so much and still retains his near-obsessive need to learn things. He is often keen to use the enemies weapons against them, willing to dive into the wealth of unsavory magic that he can gather to himself and use it for the betterment of Azeroth.
Take the Fel for instance, where Khadgar should balk at the idea of the casual use of it, the Warlocks that master it and keep themselves from going off the edge and going head first into becoming an issue for those around them. Khadgar, who had been taught that demons were bad, that this magic was bad and he had seen what it did to his mentor up close. He is welcoming of it. Tentatively of course, at least as he isn't fond of them due to the memories or the fact that they tend to do what they want and summon a demon under Dalaran for example.
Hearing him grouse quietly to himself over it isn't uncommon, but he seems to tell himself that he has seen the Fel do great things on the side of life and push past it to work with them.
The man is one of the most powerful mages in the history of Azeroth and definitely one of the more eccentric ones. His humor plays back with that, using such a tool to lighten the mood or annoy the champion in front of him enough for them to keep an arm's length away from them as to not... well, lose any more people he cares for. Humor where he tells them he's cool as a cucumber or makes outrageous puns.
Khadgar is a man who wears many faces, some important to the people of Azeroth and others, less important and more the secret sadness of a man who has lost a great many people in his lifetime. Some faces he shows to the citizens of Azeroth can be aggravating and lead others to want to smash his face in, but others, the ones he shows in the privacy of the few whom he feels he can let the mask down with... A deep sadness can be found. Even then it is rare to find the man to show it.
Looking at the face Khadgar shows to the people at deliverance point, one would not think that the man was anything less than a man with a plan. A slightly fatal plan, but a plan nonetheless. Khadgar will stand tall and walk proudly, almost arrogantly as he is the smartest man there and knows it. The Archmage is a leader in this mask and as such, he acts the part of a steady rock for those around him to lean on -- rely on even. He will walk straight up and not shy away from those around him, not using Atiesh to help him move around and even washing it about in grand gestures that lend aid to his cause.
He will not waiver and will not stumble, because to him, that is the most important part of what he does. He is the one who will stand tall in the face of the Legion's reign – in the face of anyone who should be unlucky enough to attempt to throw a wrench in the goal of peace reigning freely over Azeroth. He is a stubborn old goat that way and he knows it. It is his tool and his mask, one of many that allow him to force himself forward.
Finding Khadgar sitting down and pouring after books alone off in his quarters is a normal thing if the man is comfortable with you and he's more than likely to be hunched over his desk and his hand scribbling away at whatever notes he was taking at that moment. There is not a chance of him paying any attention to his surroundings or even paying mind to the people around him. He will leave the world behind, muttering under his breath the calculations that he envisions while toiling away. Trying to catch his attention when he's so burrowed into this world of books and learning curled around him is almost a chore and most would not even be graced with anything more than a mumbled greeting.
If he's near someone he's comfortable with or is alone, he will move in a much more relaxed way, using Atiesh to push things out of his way and occasionally he will lean most of his weight on the great staff as a method to keep him upright. He will allow himself to stumble or look like a chicken with his head cut off while he works himself into a fit. During those times he's likely to be looking exhausted, though not as much should he be thinking no one is spying on him.
He was cursed with a spell that inflicted old age upon him, it forced his then 17-year-old body to rapid progress to being a man thrice his age. The Archmage does not find himself attractive in any sort of serious capacity because of said curse. He is old and that's unappealing to anyone. Khadgar holds a great many negative views on how he looks and well, that has lead to some repressed body image based problems. It has lead him to not realize when others are taking an interest in him. He is attractive in his own way, at least should you ask the thirsty citizens of Dalaran of their opinion of him.
Due to this, Khadgar is a flustered man when people – women mainly, come onto him. He turns red, cheeks and ears both, stutters and tended to run away and hide if he can. If he can't he suffers through it and escapes at the most convenient point in time that appears. If he's comfortable with a person who's there, there's a high chance he will hide behind the other and allow them to handle whoever is causing him such distress.
Khadgar is not as sturdy as he appears and though he may not be out of shape, he is a mage and very easily overpowered by warriors and those who use close combat.
Concerns would be the curse that Medivh/Sargeras placed upon him before he and Anduin Lothar killed him. As with age comes fragility, Khadgar doesn't help matters by throwing himself into the frontlines or forgoing sleep and food to further his research on any possible thing to help the Champions of Azeroth push whatever threat back.
Speaking of Medivh, Khadgar holds a special place in this world for his old mentor, the Last Guardian and former vessel of the fallen titan Sargeras. Khadgar viewed him as a person he could learn from and lean on, fondly remembering his lessons in Medivh's care with much adoration. He had taken a lot away from the experience but the most prominent is guilt.
The Archmage has a tenacity to not ask for help unless it is for the actual grunt work of a plan, that being said, let it be known that his self-preservation is still low as he's more than once put himself in the way of harm on purpose and simply laughed it off. He's also not above using himself as bait, as seen both in the Legendary Questline during Warlords of Draenor where he baited Gul'dan and the Shadow Council into sending the alternate universe's version of his old friend Garona to kill him. Another example of this infuriating behavior is during the Hunter Campaign in Legion where he offers himself up to be bait. In fact, such a thing drove Cordana Felsong, a warden sent to keep guard over Khadgar to join the Burning Legion after he repeatedly tossed his well-being into question without a pause and caused her to doubt his methods as well as his regard for his own personal safety.
The man has a horrid guilt complex and deals with it by putting forth effort into doing right by the people of Azeroth as atonement. Cordana's betrayal was one of the more recent guilts heaped upon his pile. He had come to view her as a friend and cared for her, though not romantically. Garona's blade being shoved deep into his side was nothing compared to that pain, one he feels as deeply as any other that he believes is his fault.