Thoughts on Creating a Mage

I'm making a new character!
He is not from the past.
  Though, he may be from the future. Or a future. Or from a past with magic. Or from something similar to a fantasy realm.
He is not a pacifist.
   Labels are stupid. Avoid them. Drew was a pacifist, and you felt constrained by it.
He knows how to speak English completely. He can speak it clearly.
   Number 1 reason Drew failed. Felt constrained by the damnable speaking.
   Maybe he has an accent. Accents are cool.
I want a mage. I really do.
   I want a mage that's... kinda sorta not from Earth. I don't want to create a new society completely, but yeah.
   Something like Fiskworld. Or RantEarth. But keep in mind that you have to consider how magic is going to have changed the development of things.
   If you want a modern mage, there are several routes to go with it.
1) Magic is a secret.
- Go the Callie/Tunc route. Have it be something you channel and learn to work with. That can either be through the idea that anyone can do it if they worked with it long enough, like it seems Callie/Tunc did, or there can be a veil in play, and some people are just inherently more gifted with it than others, a la Dresden.
   - If you go the Dresden route, two rules. One. Molly is a better choice than Harry. Work the technical side rather than the brute force side. Better to work with mental magic, and help folks down that route, and working veils, and working with fiddly technical aspects and be empathetic, than try to make a combat mage. Specialize. Because Niixa will always be the battle mage.
   - Similarly, Callie is the abjurer.
      - The goal is extended character longevity. They can't just be a mage.
           - By that token, they can't just be learning to be a mage, either. Everyone continues to develop and intermix their skills throughout life, but Alban was a bad way to go with it. Despite being a teacher, he was /just/ a mage. I liked his system. Maybe revisit it, with someone who uses their skills for something apart from just magery. Because it can't just be a mage. Or a teacher of magic.
I mean, I'm not just a retail drone. I'm into D&D, and I want to be an engineer, and I'm good at math, and I read a tonne, fantasy and sci-fi. And I'm into trivia. And, I board game. Which all somewhat lends itself well to character longevity. They're non-active things that can be portrayed easily in the textual setting of RP without too much trouble.
  -Advance things a century or two. Throw in a reference to Alban somewhere. Perhaps in a method used or something. That'd be neat.


Obviously, this is something of a mess. I'm just trying to get into a writing mood at the moment, and this is what I got on the subject of mages.