Before the Reckoning hit, Lucas Maddison was the kind of mage forever destined to play second-string in the Order, behind a long line of powerful Archmasters and players in Major Houses. With the death of the Archmages and the Avatar Storm, however, he - like the rest of House Ex Miscellanea - have reexamined their role in the Order and Traditions at large and have begun to move forward into prominenceEven as he understands the need for secrecy, he's never been exactly comfortable with the idea of hidden worlds. Despite that he's skirted them his entire life. Youngest child and only son of a game park warden and diamond heiress in South Africa, Lucas' formative years on the Western Cape were largely pleasant, if always tinged by something other. Mostly revolving around his mother's eccentric Johannesburg family, but centered around the woman herself - Barbara Maddison was infamous in social circles and her family alike for her capricious temprament - she, along with his two older sisters, the rest of his uncles and cousins, always seemed tarred with a brush that went beyond. Beyond the veneer of their class, their dysfunctional relationships and eccentricities - far more aloof and reclusive than even the ugly culture of apartheid around them. He spent his childhood being told that he was somehow better than the majority of people around him - the question that was never answered to his satisfaction was 'how come?'
How come was one of those questions that had more than one answer.
He was inducted into the Order by one of his professors who recognized some hidden spark of inspiration in the his work, and took Lucas under his wing in both a mundane and magical sense. Initiatied into House Jerbiton, in the Hodgepodge, he Awakened after landing a job with the National Geographic Society, on assignment in Northern Africa during a violent sandstorm. Not long after, photographing a rural town in Cornwall, he met a young British Army officer - perhaps by providence, also a mage of House Tytalus - who would later become his wife, muse, and strong grounding influence. Were it not for her, he might have fallen from his path and tumbled straight out of history. Through Twilight, the Conflaguration, the Second Massasa War, other perils of their demanding mundane and magical careers - not to mention the average strains on any marriage - they have remained consistant companions. Reaffirming a bond that is rare within the Traditions, much less the Order.
Attached to Horizon's Circle of Artemis cabal in the stronghold's twilight hours, Lucas applied his gift for documenting the natural world to the realm's wildernss. His talent for Ars Conligationis and Ars Spirituum also made him a perfect candidate to stand as the Cabal's bonded Herald - one of the last to be Fatemarked by the Council of Nine before the Conflaguration. He was, actually, within Horizon when it fell, but managed to escape - narrowly - when the Realm imploded. When he fled, he managed to bring with him