Pierce Roche

Pierce Roche (31 January 1962 - 12 June 2003) was an American magician of the Guild of American Magicians and former head of House Roche during the end of the 20th century. Although he fought against the Scholars in the Grey War, his use of forbidden magic led to his arrest, conviction, and execution.

Early Life
Pierce was born on 31 January 1962 to Oscar and Mary Roche. His birth followed a series of miscarriages and stillbirths, and he was the first of the couple's two children. His younger brother Patrick was born 2 years later. He was established as the heir to the House.

Neither of the Roche parents were caring, often holding their sons to impossible standards and punishing them when they inevitably fail. Patrick ended up leaving the family, staying with extended family members, but Pierce stayed in the household. He developed a noticeably disturbed personality, showing an obsession with forbidden magic and rituals even from an early age. Both Pierce and Patrick became journeyman magicians young at age 12, and they were elevated to masters by 18. Both of the Roche sons were known to be strong magicians.

Head of House Roche
Pierce became the head of House Roche following the death of his father on 25 April 1990.

Grey War
Although he was the head of House Roche, Pierce was one of the first to assist in the Guild efforts against the Scholars of the First Sin. The Roche family home was based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so they were among the first affected by the Scholars' initial advances. Many members of the family were murdered by the Scholars throughout the initial months of the war. Management of the House was left to Patrick in Pierce's absence, but the younger brother was restricted from taking full control.

Pierce often came under fire for using questionable methods against the Scholars and the civilian populations within the Scholars' occupied territories.

The most notable incident was the Asley Massacre. Asley was a village in central Illinois with a population of 253 in the 1990 census. The village had been occupied by the Scholars early in 1998, but following the Red Mississippi campaign, the village had nominally come under the control of Guild and federal forces. Recent Scholar activity in the are continued to inflict casualties on the Guild and federal soldiers, and a number of villages in the area were suspected of sheltering the Scholars. Pierce left his group behind, heading into the village of Asley, early in the morning of 24 May 1999. There, he used his extensive knowledge of forbidden spells to kill 233 of the estimated 244 residents in the village. Then he returned to his group, and the massacre was not discovered until 26 May 1999. Initially the massacre was believed to be the result of the Scholar activity in the area, but after a survivor, left for dead with severe injuries, recovered, the Crownsguard began an investigation into the possibility of a Guild magician being the culprit of the crime.

Arrest and Conviction
Pierce was arrested by the Crownsguard on 17 July 2000. He was convicted of the 233 murders in Asley as well as another 24 murders across the Midwest that were eventually tied to him. Although his lawyer fought for life imprisonment, he was sentenced to death.

Execution
His execution occurred on 12 June 2003 at 12:15 am at Utah State Prison in Draper. Although the default method of execution for American criminals sentenced to death had been lethal injection, he chose to die by firing squad. A squad of 10 volunteers from the Crownsguard was used in the execution, but the names and ranks of the members used has never been published. The members used masks with specialized information-disrupting spells to further protect their identities. He was placed on a black metal chair with restraints designed for magicians, and a hood was placed over his head. Sandbags were placed around him to absorb bullets. The firing squad stood about 25 feet away from Pierce, aiming at a white target over his heart. Only one rifle had a live round; the remainder had non-lethal wax bullets to obscure who fired the fatal shot. After verifying Pierce's lack of pulse at the neck and lack of pupillary light reflex, the medical examiner pronounced him dead at 12:17 am. His body was cremated and released to his son to be taken back to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Education
Pierce was homeschooled by his parents, and he learned magic only from their instruction. He was known to be a powerful magician in his own right, and with access to House Roche's extensive library of magical documents, he was able to learn obscure and borderline forbidden spells and rituals.

Even after becoming the head of House Roche, Pierce continued his investigation into the most obscure fields of magic. He became a voracious collector of documents and records of both Guild and Independent magicians who were ostracized by the magical community for their breakthroughs.

Focus
Pierce had 3 known focuses over his life, though he only used 1 at any given time.

His first focus, used throughout his teenage years to his ascension to the position of head of the House, was very plain. His parents refused to spend any appreciable amount of money on either of their sons, and he received a cheap ring focus from the local store upon becoming a journeyman magician. Despite the limitations of the focus, Pierce was still able to use a high level of magic, proving himself to be a powerful magician.

His focus from his ascension to the head of the House to the beginning of the Grey War was an heirloom passed down through the Roche family. It is a demi-hunter watch made of white gold with silver accents. The pocket watch had been created by master magical craftsman Alberto Negreiros in 1853, and it had been known that although the watch was a generalized focus, it was an incredibly powerful focus capable to catalyzing a wide variety of spells. Somehow the Roche family had managed to take possession of the watch, and it became a family heirloom. Pierce received the watch as part of his inheritance after his father's death, and he passed it to his son Aiden shortly before he left to join the Guild forces in the Grey War.

Pierce's final focus, which he used throughout the Grey War until his arrest in 2000, was a necklace-style focus. The necklace was made of gold and silver with four gems embedded into pendants hanging from the chain. The focus was nominally to enhance a variety of spells, similar to his former focus, but the focus was actually specialized for the obscure and forbidden magic that Pierce had become adept in.

Grimoire
As a master magician of the Guild, Pierce possessed a grimoire.

After his conviction, he was forced to turn over his grimoire, and the Crownsguard destroyed it in order to destroy the information it contained. The destruction of the grimoire severely impacted Pierce's health, and he nearly died as a result.