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Simon is an ORIGINAL CHARACTER from an ORIGINAL WORLD. He belongs to me. Mine mine all mine.

During the second world war there were those who experimented with many things involving paranormality and magic. The results of these experiments ranged from nothing at all, to monsters that the allies had to fight alongside the normal troops of the time. Simon Lee was an American member of the French Foreign Legion, having joined at the age of eighteen near the beginning of the war. He was a gentle man who believed strongly in what he was doing, and worked very hard to make certain that any time his squad went out, everyone came back in. The horrors of war ground down on him slowly, but steadily, taking the bright shine off of his outlook on life while making him believe even more strongly in the sanctity thereof. Two months before his twentieth birthday Simon was captured by a German unit and turned over to one of the units investigating the paranormal, deep in the Black Forest.

What happened after that was torture, pure and simple. He was examined for magical abilities, he had none. He was examined for paranormal abilities of any other kind, he had none. He was exposed to lycanthropy, vampirism, a host of other communicable ills and somehow managed to retain his humanity through it all. Eventually, though, he was chained down in his stone room with magical symbols inscribed on the floors and walls and chained in the centre. The lead researcher, a man who was as much mad wizard as he was mad scientist, performed a ritual which was to have several effects; it was supposed to use Simon as a sacrifice to call up a lesser Salamander and bind it to the wizard's bidding, the death of Simon's body trapping the elemental on this plane forever.

The first thing that went wrong was that a Greater Salamander was contacted rather than a lesser one. That is where Simon's resistance to magical interference finally came in handy. The magic backfired just enough that instead of the salamander rushing in and immolating him the young man and the elemental were able to meet in a sort of magical neutral ground where, in the space of an instant, they could speak to each other and trade information. Rather than kill Simon and be trapped forever, the Salamander and Simon traded bits of their souls to each other, the bit of humanity freeing the Salamander from the magical bindings of the wizard and the bit of elemental giving Simon access to the plane of fire; indeed making him partially of that plane.

Melting his chains and immolating the wizard who had him bound Simon led a breakout of the other magical creatures in the compound, some already working on their own freedom and some being freed by those who followed Simon. Many of these magical creatures were, like Simon, results of the torturous experimentation done by the scientists, others were creatures born of magic who had been caught and traumatized. They were all linked together by the tragedy and horror of their time in the compound. Due to the war still raging outside of their relatively tucked away corner of Germany the majority of them chose to stay, making what was their prison into their home.

Calling the place Schutzhafen, safe haven, they wove spells and set guards until no one that was not welcomed by them could even find the compound. Eventually they chose to create a school, a university where those who were not quite normal could learn about their powers and place in the world in a way much kinder than that of the survivors.

Simon became a physics professor, although most of his classwork to get the necessary degree of information had to be done at long distance. He was never able to control the elemental bit of his soul enough to pass as human beyond a casual glance. His skin temperature was far too high for even a fever, touching his skin would cause burns. He had to be careful about his clothing, what he touched, where he sat. There were minor physical changes as well; the colour of his eyes became a flat black, his tongue became that of a lizard, his teeth changed shape slightly, but those paled beside the temperature change.

With this inability to touch others without harming them, Simon withdrew socially. He was involved with the creation of the school, and involved with the students to the best of his ability, but he took less and less time to simply speak with others or spend time doing things outside of work. There was almost a desperation in his attempts at burying himself in work; if he were buried in the mundanities of life he wouldn't be getting his temper up and wouldn't be causing fires wherever he went.

It left him lonely, but refusing to admit that he was lonely. He had few who would call themselves friends, only the Nix and the school counsellor, Nicholas, sought him out. The counsellor did so mostly because he was a receptive empath who couldn't help but feel the locked down pain and sought to alleviate it as best he could. The librarian simply liked him, but as she was a Nix - a water spirit - the two of them had a hard time even being in the same room without harming each other and would have to shout across the room. There was only so much that Simon could take of that.

In time Simon's social isolation took a toll on him. His grip on humanity is fragile, leaving him extraordinarily volatile.
He has a terrible temper, is terse and does not welcome attempts at being friendly. He is, however, an excellent teacher and will spend hours of his free time assisting anyone who asks for help with the lessons.

Simon is approximately 5’10” tall, hispanic, with black hair streaked with small amounts of grey. His age is hard to determine, as there are lines of pain and stress baked into his expression so deeply that they might as well be wrinkles. He is always wearing a black three piece suit, shirt and tie made out of the same material as the coat and trousers. His boots are of Elven make. His eyes are black from rim to rim, and his tongue occasionally flicks out to lick an eye. Warning: Simon is extremely hot to the touch. His skin temperature is sufficient to scorch paper, wood, and other such flammable things. Including flesh.