Nostradamus

The public has long since known of a famed seer who went by the name Nostradamus, and who first appeared in the historybooks in the mid 16th Century.

Known as an incredibly prolific writer and collector of prophecies, modern society tends to regard him as a historial curiosity. A crazy man who gained some political clout by bamboozling superstitious aristocrats out of their petty cash with a little mysticism and a few educated guesses.

And that's exactly how he prefers to be seen by the general population.

Early Life
Nostradamus was born on December 21, 1503. As is normal, December 21 was that year the date of the winter solstice in the north and summer solstice in the south. Through some strange combination of the time, the spirit of the age, and perhaps pure dumb luck, young Michel de Nostredame was born different.

He seemed remarkable intelligent for his age, absorbing information on mathematics, religion, natural philosophy and the classical arts almost as if he had studied them before. By the age of 12, he spoke his native French as well as Greek, Latin, Italian, English, and Arabic, and could read fluently in those languages as well. At the age of 15 he was accepted into the University of Avignon, and less than a year later the school was forced to close because of an outbreak of the plague. Strangely enough, young Nostredame had left the day before the outbreak to visit home, and had taken all of his belongings.

Records past this point are sketchy until he reemerges, apparently as the charlatain and seer he is known as in popular history. Students of the occult, or members of less clandestine organizations, know that there was more to him than met the eye though. One of his books was never mass produced, and only 3 copies survive to the modern day. In this book are perfectly accurate and incredibly straightforward predictions of several major historical events, including the Great Fire of London in 1666, the American Revolution and later the Civil War, the discovery of flight by the Wright Brothers, and a label under the date July 16, 1945 which simply reads "The sun comes from the sky to rest in the hand of men. Prometheus' true flame is ignited. We have become Death, Destroyers of Worlds."

One of the surviving copies, though battered and damaged, is under study and heavily guarded in the Vatican Archives, where Nostradamus is considered a seer who saw for a moment the face of God, and thereby gained a portion of his omniscience.

Modern Day
Though it is not known to most, there is a Nostradamus still alive today. Adrian Nostradamus is the CEO of Novum Technology, a multinational corporation with a focus on expanding the frontiers of aerospace engineering, nanotechnology, and finding practical applications for new discoveries in nuclear and quantum physics. Adrian appears to be a man in his late 30's, with dark hair and a short cropped beard. His most commonly remarked on feature are his eyes, not just sky blue but almost a plasma-blue color. They seem to give off some kind of inner light which, when asked about, he claims to be a prototype of a new kind of contact lens.

In reality, Adrian Nostradamus is the same person as Michel de Nostredame, still alive more than 500 years after his birth. He has the gift of true Prescience, the ability to instinctively know and understand aspects of the near or far future. With this knowledge, he can accurately predict nearly any aspect of the near future, with the accuracy increasing as the event comes closer to fruition. This manifests as both visions, an instictive understanding, and a conscious choice to search for information. Nostradamus has used this ability to steal from the future the formula for an Elixir of Life, which has made him biologically immortal. He also founded a company which he knows is poised to make several vital technological breakthroughs over the next few years, and without any input from him required other than hiring the correct people and acquiring the correct materiels. He is a capable CEO, always seeming to make the correct choices in a business negotiation, and is a perfect judge of character. According to his offical documentation, he has graduated summa cum lade from both Harvard and MIT, and holds both a J.D and a degree in quantum and nuclear physics. He holds the patents on several technologies which at the beginning seemed useless but which later formed vital components of modern life, including certain wireless technologies, LIDAR, and an important aspect of the GPS system.

Nostradamus has recently seemed to be preoccupied, spending long hours alone in his office or at his home near the company headquarters in Silicon Valley, CA. He has also been entertaining incredibly strange visitors, who seem to appear out of nowhere, and have ranged from what appear to be world-class bodybuilders to emaciated old men in wheelchairs. When asked, his only response to the public is that he is, "Trying to think through an interesting problem."