Raiff Maltese

Raiff Maltese (Born Gaius Ashbury) is a child of magic and privilege. At just over six feet tall he cuts a handsome if somewhat rakish figure. He has blond hair and a carefully groomed gotee. He favors dark clothing with a tendency toward severe high collared suits in ostentatious natural fabrics. He never uses technology even going so far as to eschew a portable commlink (he has one at his house).

Gaius's parents are both Magicians of renown in England and his family claims lineage through his mother's line to several magical practitioners back into the late 20th. His father teaches spirit binding and summoning at Oxford's prestigious Thaumaturgical College, of which Gaius is a graduate himself. Few realize that Gaius practically failed his theory classes and was only granted a passing grade out of the instructor's fear of Gaius's father. In all areas but theory Gaius excelled, yet Gaius began to fear that his father would realize his son's secret shame. Gaius came to reject Hermetic discipline in favor of the darker and more dynamic path his mother follows (Left Hand Path). Gaius's mother was allegedly a member of a Black Magical organization in her youth (perhaps the Black Brotherhood). The family lineage of Black Magic is an open secret in the community with the Ashbury's being widely seen as one of the darker Magical lineages in the UK. Gaius's sister, Morgana, has political aspirations and is radically opposed to Black Magic. She claims that these associations and practices will be the undoing of the family.

After completing his double masters in Summoning and Sorcery, Gaius applied to do a Doctorate at Seattle's University of Washington, hoping to get away from his family and enjoy some freedom. His father couldn't understand why he would want to attend a foreign university in an unawakened nation, but Gaius's mother supported him in getting away for a while. They gave him some funds, arranged a few contacts for him, and bid him good luck. Gaius has changed his Doctoral thesis plans from its original trajectory examining "Air Elemental Metamagical Summoning Techniques" to a darker topic exploring "the application of nightside goetic techniques in a post-christain setting." He has yet to tell his supervisor of this change and is uncertain if he will. Instead Gaius has decided to raise funds for his studies privately and to apply them in a setting in which no one will judge him for his dark interests... the underworld of Seattle's shadowrunner culture. Gaius has been spending more and more time moonlighting as a runner and enjoys the sense of empowerment that comes from being his own boss and being free to apply magical techniques to dynamic situations. He has been studying combat magic and manipulation spells more seriously and is hopeful his job may grant him access to cadavers suitable for re-animation and spirit possession.