Have him assume the identity of a noble but the noble who's had his identity stolen is quite obscure but otherwise legitimate.
A nifty twist you could pull with that is have the real noble show up one day (possibly accelerating the coup) or someone find out who the real noble is and that the elementalist character is a fraud.
For bonus points, have both the identity faker and the real noble be very similar in appearance.
Insert witty title here
That sure could make things go to hell pretty fast.
Two hundred years afterwards, another elementalist (this one a legitimate noble) runs away from his father, who wants to kill him because he particularly hates elementalists, and doesn't want anyone to find out there's one in their family. Once again, the elementalist suceeds a coup. Would he use the same strategy? Maybe the elementalist's father told everyone his child vanished, and the elementalist returned home after his father's death?
The original idea was having the elementalist be taken in and then adopted by a noble, or someone extremelly wealthy, from another country. Or maybe an obscure and lesser noble. Hell, the could even copy the first noble's idea, as he was his inspiration.
edited 29th Sep '12 8:24:01 PM by risingdreams
Character was abandoned by biological his mother shortly after birth, and then his adoptive parents had to abandon the guy with family friends.
He's kind of fed up with the prejudice elementalists (being an elementalist is a genetic trait, and you must use magic or the magic will kill you) like him are facing. He infiltrates in the court using a fake name, gathers enough alies (he's fairly charismatic) and eventually overtrows the king (it doesn't help the king wasn't the best ruler around).
He would probably do so by earning the king's favour, enough support amongst nobles and by being fairly charismatic. He would probably be popular with his subjects, at least until someone loyal to the former king finds out he's an elementalist.
Said character would have to be nobility, or at least adopted by nobility to be accepted by the nobles, right? I was thinking of his biological parents having ties with nobility. How could the guy earn enough prestige in the court? Maybe by being a good warrior? Maybe a bard favoured by the king?