A family descended from a noble who lived during medieval times, the Drakes are now a prominent and very wealthy family in modern-day America. Over the last century they rose from obscurity to become among the nation's elite weapons designers for a very long time, before selling their businesses and factories to another prominent defense contractor. Since, the family has settled down to a more relaxed lifestyle -- one that suits the fortune that they have built for themselves.
In addition to this, they have managed to pass down their many traditions from father to son. In recent decades, the late Elijah Drake introduced the teaching of various martial arts to members of the family. This new tradition has been repeated in various methods over the years, in order to keep the family's power and prestige intact through the next generation. Over the years, the Drake family's name has become synonymous with "power" and "strength," because of their collective dedication to remaining at the top of the food chain.
However, the family's history isn't without its flaws. Even though their general reputation is that of a civilized family, they are known to a select few as being the descendants of the powerful geomancer Elijah Drake, who was allegedly responsible for setting off at least one of atomic bombs that hit Japan at the end of WWII. Some even suspected that he himself WAS the bomb -- or else was the one who created it with his bare hands.
Regardless of the speculation, this event (whether it actually happened or not) haunted the family and its otherwise illustrious reputation for years. Tiberius Drake, Elijah Drake's son, was known for his strong sense of honor. He did all he could to restore the family's pride and glory, so that when people looked at a Drake, their first impression would be of the one they saw, not their infamous ancestor.
Charles was Tiberius's eldest son, and he proved to be just as much of a Drake as the rest of the family. He was strong, resourceful, and completely headstrong. Unlike his father, he believed that one's personal honor was never tied to their family -- it was theirs, and theirs alone. This philosophy was the cause of most of the conflicts that Charles had with his father and grandfather, and the rift that developed between them was never repaired even after Elijah Drake had passed away.
Somewhat like Charles, Tricia was an oddity for her family, in her own way. Well after WWII had ended, Tricia Smith was the first in her family to use magic, shortly before entering high school. After a flaming outburst after school one day, Tricia was picked up by a classmate named Jon to control her pyromancy, and he seemed unnaturally knowledgeable about the powers she displayed. He introduced her to his family, and Jon's aging father turned out to be a medic during the war, becoming one of America's forerunners in the utilities of fire magic. Jon was set to take over his father's school as a teacher. During her training, Tricia grew intimate with Jon, but they had broken things off some time after graduation. Tricia later met a headstrong man named Charles, and built her life with him.
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Their son, Adrian Tiberius Drake, was partly named after his grandfather. Much like Charles, Adrian was both headstrong after his own way, and took to his mother very early on instead of his father. Much to Charles's disappointment, Adrian's fighting style grew to revolve around quick and fluid movements, simple spells, and defending himself by constantly disrupting his opponents. This sort of style was completely peculiar to the rest of the Drake family, who usually preferred using their sheer strength and endurance to carry the day.
Over time, Charles's rather forcible methods of teaching his son tore a rift in his relationship with his son. In spite of the fact that this caused his son to hate him with a passion, he persisted, and it paid off after a fashion. Over time, Adrian's mind and magic had both strengthened, and he had learned how to strengthen himself and his magic at the right moments. It wasn't much to Charles, but he took what he could get, and kept doing what he could to make his son the strongest he could possibly be.
One day, Adrian and his father's mutual disdain for of each other had reached its peak. After witnessing his mother fight with his dad over his future, he stepped in and tried to intervene on his mother's behalf when he sensed that the argument was about to become violent. This earned a solid blow from his angry father, whose fuse was already short that day. Quite naturally, a fight ensued, but this time both decided to put their all into it. Both were stubborn in their own way, and both refused to back down in the slightest.
Adrian fought with an intensity that he never had before -- he perceived that he wasn't only physically defending himself, but his mother as well. Charles, on the other hand couldn't stand his own son's brazen attitude anymore, and decided to teach a lesson that Adrian would never forget. The fight, although brief, was the fiercest display of fire and earth magic that Adrian had ever used, and Charles happily obliged to match his son's magic with more than equal force. The rapidly escalated the violence of their attacks -- Adrian because he couldn't beat his dad, and Charles because he wanted to overpower his son enough to really knock some sense into him.
After seeing Tricia nearly get hurt with one of their Earth spells, they both finally agreed on something -- it was time to draw the line. They both witnessed the destruction they had caused, and both had seen what could happen had they abused their abilities like this. It was a hard lesson for both, and it was one neither would ever forget. Even though the two respected one another in their own way after this, they still clashed frequently as usual -- albeit in far less violent ways than those they resorted to that day.
After he turned 15, he received a letter from Vale, inviting him to attend, and to grow as a mage through the hardships he would face there. Tricia was reluctant to let her son go, but Charles was all too eager to send him off. His parting words to Adrian were, "If I can't teach you, they will. And if they can't, they'll break you -- physically, and mentally."