Raistlin Majere (person)

Raistlin is twin brother to Caramon Majere and half-brother to Kitiara uth Matar. From the beginning, he was very weak; the midwife suggested that he would be best off left to die, but his sister Kitiara decided to fight and save him. She always referred to this as "my first fight was against Death, and I won".

Although Raistlin was, according to Margaret Weis, based on character made up on fly by Terry Phillips for D&D session, he was built to a stereotype of modern geek at worst. Raistlin was highly intelligent yet shunned by peers due to his appearance, nasty nature and, of course, his intelligence. He got bitter, and after few more attempts and normalizing his life were crushed, he vowed to "show them all".

And, like all bitter and lonely kids wished to be, he lived up to his plan. He love-hated his brother, was jealous to him due to Caramon's popularity, and sheltered himself from the society by making himself believe he is above everyone. Abusing the aid from his brother and his brother's friends who followed him, Raistlin gained power until he could stand on his own, after which he abandoned without a word of thanks those who had helped him to continue his plan to "show them all" - to ascend to godhood. In the end, as he was about to succeed, he gave up just in time as he saw what the results would have been, and saved mankind with his sacrifice instead.

Although sympathetic may not be the first word to associate him with, countless nerds and others have taken up his name or variation of it in honor of Raistlin (and possible hopes of becoming like him). I believe his story was made by Margaret with similar intentions to those of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Ikari, to create a prototype of certain type of people, to show them where their attitude would eventually lead them.