Z. Altius (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chimericalclaw) wrote2025-12-31 01:05 pm
chimericalclaw) wrote2025-12-31 01:05 pm
edictum app
Player: Ryoko
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lumieresdedragon, DragonLights at discord
Age: plenty old (30+)
Timezone: CST... for now
Current Characters: n/a
Character Name: Zekarion Altius (Onyx)
Character Canon: Original
Canon Point: Shortly after his ward takes a blow protecting him.
Age: 36
Crime: Child sacrifice. This is an accusation that shakes him in a number of ways; his childhood friend giving up her life as a result of the Spirits' encouragement sent him on his revenge quest initially, only for him to loop around twenty years later and essentially use a young person for his own goals without regard for that young man's life. Plus, he is actively stalking and fighting against a group of teenagers and preteens in order to reach his ultimate goal of killing everyone. Oops.
Background:
In his high school years, two Spirits—beings formed of concepts and given power by the human unconscious—came to him and his small group of outcast friends to stop the emergence of another, greater Spirit, which wished to destroy everything as they knew it. Aurora and Glen, Spirits of light and earth, armed him and 6 others with magical Gems that granted them the power needed to subdue Chaos and its pawns, transforming them into "Crown Nobles." Their enemy would wreak havoc on the city by directly infecting conflicted individuals to cause disasters, summon monsters, and generally put people in danger, all things that were written off as freak accidents by the public due to this world's magic naturally disappearing from non-magic-users' minds and mundane recordings. Zekarion, as Noble Onyx, was their de facto leader, and though they fought valiantly, none of those directly used by Chaos could be saved. The Nobles' final act as a team was merely to create a barrier to contain the weakened Spirit.
Unfortunately, this barrier could only be generated with a human life, and the 10-year-old sister of Zekarion's best friend stepped up to offer hers. This event all but destroyed the team, and after an agreement to leave their Gems in Zekarion's care, they were ready to part ways. With the barrier in place, they were no longer needed; its initial creation powered by Akane, it would be maintained by the power of the Gems. To ensure its preservation, Glen and Aurora created dozens more to spread them throughout the world and prevent anyone from effecting Chaos's escape.
But it wasn't long until Zekarion broke the Gems in his possession aside from the Onyx in a fit of grief. He first justified the decision as keeping them from having to go through all that again, and when confronted by his friends, he reminded them that the Spirits made others, saying that if anything were to happen, he’d take care of it himself. After months of consideration while further isolating himself, he decided to take care of things himself... by destroying the Spirits responsible for all this. For that, he would need power: power that had now spread across the world, only accessible to one with a great number of connections, resources, time, and dedication. With that goal in mind, he put in the work, climbing his way through school and business, traveling and seeking out what Gems he could. He kept all of this to himself, foregoing any relationships that he couldn't use to keep moving forward.
After gathering a number of Gems, some from secure locations and some from people who'd realized their power, Altius found himself in a hostage situation where his attempt to resolve things peacefully ended with him being shot and many civilians killed, thanks to a combination of violent criminals and trigger-happy authorities. Traumatized and already exposed to the darker aspects of society through his journey, he began to believe that humanity, a source of Spirits' power and capable of terrible things by themselves, might be the problem. To tackle that problem, he'd need more than just Gems. He would need a Spirit.
After breaking most of the relics in his possession, he traveled to the semi-separate realm Aurora and Glen created to contain Chaos. Although Aurora attempted to dissuade him, he ignored her entirely and made a pact with Chaos—the seal just fractured enough to leak some of its power through—and the abilities it granted him allowed him to thenceforth hide from any other Spirit's sight. Unfortunately, Chaos's influence only deepened his belief that everything should be returned to nothingness, however driven by Zekarion's desire to limit suffering it may have been initially.
He eventually became the head of an international company specializing in medical equipment, and with that he had the resources to travel, and a better ability to track magic with his new powers. He continued his crusade, including his first semi-intentional kill: he fought a Gem wielder and was pushed far enough that killing was the easiest way to defend himself. He saw this as a sign that the person was horrible anyway, if they’d rather kill or die than relinquish the Gem's power, and his ideas of the worst of people solidified. The irony didn't escape him, though; his hatred of himself and what he was doing spiraled further, but he only became more eager to do whatever it took to free Chaos and destroy the world that allowed such awful people to exist.
He continued until he could no longer sense any other Gems but one: the Garnet, in the possession of a boy whose parents worked for his company. He was familiar with them; the Gallaghers were a hardworking couple and their son was bright. Unfortunately, his investigations confirmed that the Garnet practically never left the lad's neck, so he set up an accident. During a stormy night, he conjured a magical monster to destroy the family's home and burn it to ash. When Ferran crawled out of the wreck and fell unconscious, Onyx drew his sword... and reconsidered. He could sense multiple weaker Gems had already been created within the city somewhere, and he considered the idea of the Spirits creating another team of children like they had with his friends, close enough that Garnet could join them. If he could take Ferran in, he could use the boy to get to whoever was going to be set upon him. Onyx knew his limits; he could take on one or two Gem users with no issue, and 5 or 6 might even be manageable. But 11? That required a more subtle plan.
He offered to take in the recovering Ferran, and was gratefully accepted. Zekarion put every effort into a genuine-seeming support of the young man, and though Ferran isolated himself to the point of not going according to plan, Altius didn't let the mask slip once. As Onyx, meanwhile, he sent his magical monsters after Ferran to trigger his Noble transformation and start "training" him. Garnet acted as a solo hero for several weeks, and Onyx eventually knocked him down and forced a shard of Chaos's power into his Gem to slowly corrupt him like Chaos once had with its pawns. Much later, he'd reveal himself properly, but for the moment he used his magic on Garnet so that memories of Onyx's face and exact acts were erased, leaving only an unsettled determination to find the monsters' creator, who Garnet was certain killed his family.
Weeks later, the group of new Nobles emerged, and Onyx stepped forward to confront them, though only to test them with the classic monster of the week and maniacal flair, disappearing whenever Garnet appeared. They were indeed Ferran's friends and a few others, whom he gradually acquired information about through his own research and acting curious about Ferran's life. Though Altius even encouraged him to go see them, the boy remained stubborn and kept his distance. With enough fights together, though, the other Nobles won Garnet over, and he agreed to work with them genuinely—but Onyx showed himself to Garnet at last and let Ferran have his realization. After finding his fled ward the next day, he took the shell-shocked boy "home" and finally broke him with a subtle threat, the betrayal ultimately enhancing Chaos's power and twisting him into a weapon willing to fight for Zekarion and not capable of much else, acting on distorted desires with no hesitation.
Garnet fought for him, stealing the Gems of his friends. What Zekarion did not realize, however, was the length to which Ferran was willing to fight for him, though he was given an initial hint of this when discovering that the boy attempted to steal his friends' Gems without a direct order. In a confrontation shortly after, when one of the Nobles aimed a shot at him that Onyx saw coming a mile away, Garnet used a stolen power to teleport between them, taking both the shot meant to kill and the blade Onyx summoned to block it. For the first time in a very long time, Zekarion felt terror. He fled through a portal with the boy in his arms, and set to healing him. A terse question to Ferran of why gave him this answer:
"The thought of losing you too... I can't stand it."
A moment later, the fragment of Chaos fractured Ferran further, and Onyx was left alone with a boy who could no longer wake without the aid of magic.
Expiation CRAU: Zekarion's time in Expiation, while not entirely breaking through his facade, left a significant mark on him. Between having to build his influence (and businesses) almost from the ground up, dealing with supernatural threats and allies out in the open—a considerable difference from the suppressed and hidden nature of his own world's magic—nearly dying a handful of times, and being forced to display pieces of his true nature, he became more anxious and paranoid regarding the secrets he keeps.
On the other hand, he made a number of unexpected connections he felt genuinely for, including finding love for the first time in a very long time, giving him the kind of support he thought he would never have again. It was because of those connections that he made it through those instances where he lost control, and over time he allowed a few small pieces of his true emotional core through, including some silent acknowledgement to himself that he cares about the pain he's caused his ward. But he's still as dedicated to his goal of destruction as ever—perhaps even more than before, given the possibility of different worlds and his desire to keep those he cares for from suffering.
Personality:
Living with Ferran for the past several months has forced him to adopt this agreeable persona with almost no downtime; in some ways it's exhausted him, but in others it's softened him. It's hard to be stern with your secretary for giving up information about you when your ward uses that information to bake you a cake for your birthday. Zekarion also doesn't realize the fact that his support of Ferran has given him the much-needed chance for something like genuine affection. This is largely something he provided because it was clear Ferran needed it; with his ward and with everyone he interacts with, Zekarion is particularly attuned to social cues, body language, and words left unspoken. If he can tell what people want without asking, he can give it to them; if he gives them what they want, they'll owe him. He'll employ a number of tactics for this, whether it's outright gifts and compliments, or something more subtle like the satisfaction of doing something helpful or winning an argument.
Always looking for ways to acquire information and power, he'll play the long game and learn from surprises and mistakes, even if it means suffering a pleasant smile and conversation with people he despises to his core. Speaking of people, Altius categorizes most people into two groups: those who've harmed and those who've been harmed. If they aren't one of them yet, they will be, an inevitable outcome he believes can only be avoided through death. He's aware enough to know how, um, uncommon that view is, and so he keeps it to himself as with most of his personal life. He tends to direct conversational topics towards other people and their needs, desires and interests, but he will answer questions pointed at himself with just a sprinkle of truth amongst the lies in order to avoid suspicion. He will occasionally even offer moments of apparent weakness; pity can be useful, and he'll use anything.
But as far as why he's so willing to go to such lengths... to put it simply: he cares too much, too deeply. The always hopeful Akane was a light for his entire group, but for Zekarion most of all, and her death hit that much harder. Unprepared to grieve for the tragedy, his friends couldn't provide the support he needed when he deliberately pulled away with his self-assigned responsibility over their group; they were struggling with their own issues as they were, and the inhuman Spirits seemed satisfied enough with the outcome. Unable to reveal the full truth to anyone else, as any mention of magic could get him institutionalized, his idea of a just world started to crumble. If the world could not be just, then he had to be, to protect humans from the dangers of Spirits, but he couldn't protect humans from the dangers of themselves, either. He came to realize that the human condition of suffering was no longer acceptable to him, but to prevent suffering, he could no longer afford to avoid causing it. The ends would have to justify the means.
But watching Ferran—his echo, in many ways—and his friends learn to work together and surpass their limitations has brought back memories of his own team, and what he was originally fighting for: his friends, the potential of the future, the small joys that make life worth living. Ferran's near-sacrifice for the sake of "not losing him" has also given him the idea that someone could in fact want Zekarion as himself despite the depths he's sunk to, and he'll struggle to reconcile his feelings over that realization. It can be easy to feel like the world is pointless when you see yourself as impossible to love. What happens when that assumption is no longer so certain?
Abilities:
Each Gem grants its user two main powers, and Onyx's are healing and charming. The former applies to physical bodies only; it can work on diseases of many kinds, but he can't rewrite somebody's hereditary/system-wide problems, regrow limbs, revive the dead, and so on. His healing essentially gives the immune system/natural healing a turbo boost, and he has to be very close to them to do so. It also lets him sense underlying injuries or illnesses, but only when he's touching somebody and actively "looking."
His charming is passive and active; when putting in no effort, people are generally more inclined to give him the time of day and think of him as likeable. With a mild amount of magical effort, he may get somebody to actively start thinking about how nice/good looking/helpful that guy was even after he's left, and so forth. When using it actively, he can command people to do things, but only things they would be willing to do in at least one circumstance; he can't make murderers out of pacifists, or drag secrets out of someone who'd take that info to their grave. When he commands, people don't remember he's done this, and their minds fill in the blank with something reasonable. (Obviously the charming aspect will only work when other players consent.)
His pact with Chaos also granted him a number of other powers, mainly themed around breaking, corrupting, or obfuscating things. For instance, by "breaking" the space between his location and another he's seen, he can create temporary portals, which are unpleasant to traverse. As with Ferran, he can "corrupt" a person with Chaos's energy, but that is extremely unlikely to happen. The more direct connection to a Spirit allows him to vaguely detect magical signatures. He automatically disrupts supernatural efforts to sense him or his heart/mind/soul, and can use broken Gem shards to create warped magical monsters.
These monsters can vary wildly. Tiny, mostly powerless shards can only create lesser, mostly powerless creatures no bigger than a large dog. Combining these with larger shards that still hold on to some of their Gem's former power can be used to create enormous monsters up to several stories high in various shapes, containing powers related to the fragments such as elemental creation and manipulation, defying the laws of physics, hypnosis of various kinds, etc. The more fragments involved and the more powerful those fragments, the more effort and energy it takes from Onyx; he can create half a dozen of the small ones without any struggle, but anything larger than combining two powerful fragments is a last resort that would drain him for at least a week or two. None of these have any intelligence greater than an animal, and they can only understand simple commands; they're also feral when initially created, requiring Onyx to use his other magic to make them obey. Also, once they're defeated and broken, the shards that created them are gone and can't be reused.
His powers come with additional limitations: while "usual" Nobles simply wear themselves out by overusing their magic, Onyx is in danger of not only painful collapse should he use his powers recklessly, but the degradation of his body and soul. Similarly, most Nobles have no issues aside from momentary weakness and losing their magic should their Gem be destroyed, but Onyx's pact with Chaos means the destruction of his Gem would remove the conduit of sorts for the Spirit's power, and reduce him to a state not unlike Ferran's, or Chaos's other pawns, after which he would likely die. Humans are not meant to directly harness Spirits' magic.
Phew! Okay, that's enough of the magic stuff. Outside of all that, Altius has specifically trained with his sword, so he can use one even without his more magically-acquired expertise, and has a mind for strategy. He knows a handful of languages well enough to do business in them, he's familiar with the medical field, and knows quite a bit of first aid.
(Note: Without access to his Gem or his pact with Chaos, he will come into the game powerless and messed up about it. Yay!)
Samples: TDM Non-TDM
Questions:
Contact:
Age: plenty old (30+)
Timezone: CST... for now
Current Characters: n/a
Character Name: Zekarion Altius (Onyx)
Character Canon: Original
Canon Point: Shortly after his ward takes a blow protecting him.
Age: 36
Crime: Child sacrifice. This is an accusation that shakes him in a number of ways; his childhood friend giving up her life as a result of the Spirits' encouragement sent him on his revenge quest initially, only for him to loop around twenty years later and essentially use a young person for his own goals without regard for that young man's life. Plus, he is actively stalking and fighting against a group of teenagers and preteens in order to reach his ultimate goal of killing everyone. Oops.
Background:
Being abandoned at birth tends to give a man a complex about being wanted...
...an issue that also came up with regards to his adoptive father, who took him in after the man's own wife and child had already passed away. Between wondering if he was only a replacement despite his father's attempts at affection and living practically paycheck to paycheck growing up, he was a rebel in school. Occasionally getting into fights and shunning most of his classmates, he preferred to spend his time alone in the woods, where he could be sure he'd stay alone.In his high school years, two Spirits—beings formed of concepts and given power by the human unconscious—came to him and his small group of outcast friends to stop the emergence of another, greater Spirit, which wished to destroy everything as they knew it. Aurora and Glen, Spirits of light and earth, armed him and 6 others with magical Gems that granted them the power needed to subdue Chaos and its pawns, transforming them into "Crown Nobles." Their enemy would wreak havoc on the city by directly infecting conflicted individuals to cause disasters, summon monsters, and generally put people in danger, all things that were written off as freak accidents by the public due to this world's magic naturally disappearing from non-magic-users' minds and mundane recordings. Zekarion, as Noble Onyx, was their de facto leader, and though they fought valiantly, none of those directly used by Chaos could be saved. The Nobles' final act as a team was merely to create a barrier to contain the weakened Spirit.
Unfortunately, this barrier could only be generated with a human life, and the 10-year-old sister of Zekarion's best friend stepped up to offer hers. This event all but destroyed the team, and after an agreement to leave their Gems in Zekarion's care, they were ready to part ways. With the barrier in place, they were no longer needed; its initial creation powered by Akane, it would be maintained by the power of the Gems. To ensure its preservation, Glen and Aurora created dozens more to spread them throughout the world and prevent anyone from effecting Chaos's escape.
But it wasn't long until Zekarion broke the Gems in his possession aside from the Onyx in a fit of grief. He first justified the decision as keeping them from having to go through all that again, and when confronted by his friends, he reminded them that the Spirits made others, saying that if anything were to happen, he’d take care of it himself. After months of consideration while further isolating himself, he decided to take care of things himself... by destroying the Spirits responsible for all this. For that, he would need power: power that had now spread across the world, only accessible to one with a great number of connections, resources, time, and dedication. With that goal in mind, he put in the work, climbing his way through school and business, traveling and seeking out what Gems he could. He kept all of this to himself, foregoing any relationships that he couldn't use to keep moving forward.
After gathering a number of Gems, some from secure locations and some from people who'd realized their power, Altius found himself in a hostage situation where his attempt to resolve things peacefully ended with him being shot and many civilians killed, thanks to a combination of violent criminals and trigger-happy authorities. Traumatized and already exposed to the darker aspects of society through his journey, he began to believe that humanity, a source of Spirits' power and capable of terrible things by themselves, might be the problem. To tackle that problem, he'd need more than just Gems. He would need a Spirit.
After breaking most of the relics in his possession, he traveled to the semi-separate realm Aurora and Glen created to contain Chaos. Although Aurora attempted to dissuade him, he ignored her entirely and made a pact with Chaos—the seal just fractured enough to leak some of its power through—and the abilities it granted him allowed him to thenceforth hide from any other Spirit's sight. Unfortunately, Chaos's influence only deepened his belief that everything should be returned to nothingness, however driven by Zekarion's desire to limit suffering it may have been initially.
He eventually became the head of an international company specializing in medical equipment, and with that he had the resources to travel, and a better ability to track magic with his new powers. He continued his crusade, including his first semi-intentional kill: he fought a Gem wielder and was pushed far enough that killing was the easiest way to defend himself. He saw this as a sign that the person was horrible anyway, if they’d rather kill or die than relinquish the Gem's power, and his ideas of the worst of people solidified. The irony didn't escape him, though; his hatred of himself and what he was doing spiraled further, but he only became more eager to do whatever it took to free Chaos and destroy the world that allowed such awful people to exist.
He continued until he could no longer sense any other Gems but one: the Garnet, in the possession of a boy whose parents worked for his company. He was familiar with them; the Gallaghers were a hardworking couple and their son was bright. Unfortunately, his investigations confirmed that the Garnet practically never left the lad's neck, so he set up an accident. During a stormy night, he conjured a magical monster to destroy the family's home and burn it to ash. When Ferran crawled out of the wreck and fell unconscious, Onyx drew his sword... and reconsidered. He could sense multiple weaker Gems had already been created within the city somewhere, and he considered the idea of the Spirits creating another team of children like they had with his friends, close enough that Garnet could join them. If he could take Ferran in, he could use the boy to get to whoever was going to be set upon him. Onyx knew his limits; he could take on one or two Gem users with no issue, and 5 or 6 might even be manageable. But 11? That required a more subtle plan.
He offered to take in the recovering Ferran, and was gratefully accepted. Zekarion put every effort into a genuine-seeming support of the young man, and though Ferran isolated himself to the point of not going according to plan, Altius didn't let the mask slip once. As Onyx, meanwhile, he sent his magical monsters after Ferran to trigger his Noble transformation and start "training" him. Garnet acted as a solo hero for several weeks, and Onyx eventually knocked him down and forced a shard of Chaos's power into his Gem to slowly corrupt him like Chaos once had with its pawns. Much later, he'd reveal himself properly, but for the moment he used his magic on Garnet so that memories of Onyx's face and exact acts were erased, leaving only an unsettled determination to find the monsters' creator, who Garnet was certain killed his family.
Weeks later, the group of new Nobles emerged, and Onyx stepped forward to confront them, though only to test them with the classic monster of the week and maniacal flair, disappearing whenever Garnet appeared. They were indeed Ferran's friends and a few others, whom he gradually acquired information about through his own research and acting curious about Ferran's life. Though Altius even encouraged him to go see them, the boy remained stubborn and kept his distance. With enough fights together, though, the other Nobles won Garnet over, and he agreed to work with them genuinely—but Onyx showed himself to Garnet at last and let Ferran have his realization. After finding his fled ward the next day, he took the shell-shocked boy "home" and finally broke him with a subtle threat, the betrayal ultimately enhancing Chaos's power and twisting him into a weapon willing to fight for Zekarion and not capable of much else, acting on distorted desires with no hesitation.
Garnet fought for him, stealing the Gems of his friends. What Zekarion did not realize, however, was the length to which Ferran was willing to fight for him, though he was given an initial hint of this when discovering that the boy attempted to steal his friends' Gems without a direct order. In a confrontation shortly after, when one of the Nobles aimed a shot at him that Onyx saw coming a mile away, Garnet used a stolen power to teleport between them, taking both the shot meant to kill and the blade Onyx summoned to block it. For the first time in a very long time, Zekarion felt terror. He fled through a portal with the boy in his arms, and set to healing him. A terse question to Ferran of why gave him this answer:
"The thought of losing you too... I can't stand it."
A moment later, the fragment of Chaos fractured Ferran further, and Onyx was left alone with a boy who could no longer wake without the aid of magic.
Expiation CRAU: Zekarion's time in Expiation, while not entirely breaking through his facade, left a significant mark on him. Between having to build his influence (and businesses) almost from the ground up, dealing with supernatural threats and allies out in the open—a considerable difference from the suppressed and hidden nature of his own world's magic—nearly dying a handful of times, and being forced to display pieces of his true nature, he became more anxious and paranoid regarding the secrets he keeps.
On the other hand, he made a number of unexpected connections he felt genuinely for, including finding love for the first time in a very long time, giving him the kind of support he thought he would never have again. It was because of those connections that he made it through those instances where he lost control, and over time he allowed a few small pieces of his true emotional core through, including some silent acknowledgement to himself that he cares about the pain he's caused his ward. But he's still as dedicated to his goal of destruction as ever—perhaps even more than before, given the possibility of different worlds and his desire to keep those he cares for from suffering.
Personality:
On the surface, Altius is a pleasant man, open to compromise but not so much to be a doormat.
He'll adapt to the situation and to those he's interacting with, willing to put in whatever work is needed. He's apparently curious, confident, and level-headed, but he has his moments of being serious and even terse just like anyone, mostly with regards to active danger. He's careful to balance expressing his opinions like a genuine person and expressing what will get him what he wants, but practically never raises his voice in anger.Living with Ferran for the past several months has forced him to adopt this agreeable persona with almost no downtime; in some ways it's exhausted him, but in others it's softened him. It's hard to be stern with your secretary for giving up information about you when your ward uses that information to bake you a cake for your birthday. Zekarion also doesn't realize the fact that his support of Ferran has given him the much-needed chance for something like genuine affection. This is largely something he provided because it was clear Ferran needed it; with his ward and with everyone he interacts with, Zekarion is particularly attuned to social cues, body language, and words left unspoken. If he can tell what people want without asking, he can give it to them; if he gives them what they want, they'll owe him. He'll employ a number of tactics for this, whether it's outright gifts and compliments, or something more subtle like the satisfaction of doing something helpful or winning an argument.
Always looking for ways to acquire information and power, he'll play the long game and learn from surprises and mistakes, even if it means suffering a pleasant smile and conversation with people he despises to his core. Speaking of people, Altius categorizes most people into two groups: those who've harmed and those who've been harmed. If they aren't one of them yet, they will be, an inevitable outcome he believes can only be avoided through death. He's aware enough to know how, um, uncommon that view is, and so he keeps it to himself as with most of his personal life. He tends to direct conversational topics towards other people and their needs, desires and interests, but he will answer questions pointed at himself with just a sprinkle of truth amongst the lies in order to avoid suspicion. He will occasionally even offer moments of apparent weakness; pity can be useful, and he'll use anything.
But as far as why he's so willing to go to such lengths... to put it simply: he cares too much, too deeply. The always hopeful Akane was a light for his entire group, but for Zekarion most of all, and her death hit that much harder. Unprepared to grieve for the tragedy, his friends couldn't provide the support he needed when he deliberately pulled away with his self-assigned responsibility over their group; they were struggling with their own issues as they were, and the inhuman Spirits seemed satisfied enough with the outcome. Unable to reveal the full truth to anyone else, as any mention of magic could get him institutionalized, his idea of a just world started to crumble. If the world could not be just, then he had to be, to protect humans from the dangers of Spirits, but he couldn't protect humans from the dangers of themselves, either. He came to realize that the human condition of suffering was no longer acceptable to him, but to prevent suffering, he could no longer afford to avoid causing it. The ends would have to justify the means.
But watching Ferran—his echo, in many ways—and his friends learn to work together and surpass their limitations has brought back memories of his own team, and what he was originally fighting for: his friends, the potential of the future, the small joys that make life worth living. Ferran's near-sacrifice for the sake of "not losing him" has also given him the idea that someone could in fact want Zekarion as himself despite the depths he's sunk to, and he'll struggle to reconcile his feelings over that realization. It can be easy to feel like the world is pointless when you see yourself as impossible to love. What happens when that assumption is no longer so certain?
Abilities:
As a former Crown Noble, Zekarion has been granted a magical Gem...
...that allows him to wield a number of powers and transform into a much stronger, sturdier form (complete with outfit change ofc). This Gem, the Onyx, has to be on his person for him to access these powers, and as a result he never lets it out of his sight. It takes the form of a silver tie clip. Other than your bog-standard magical girl/boy upgrades like enhanced reflexes, strength, and senses, it also grants him a physical weapon in the form of a rapier. This can technically manifest as another type of weapon, but he's had no reason to pursue this. He can summon and dismiss it at will, whether he's transformed or not.Each Gem grants its user two main powers, and Onyx's are healing and charming. The former applies to physical bodies only; it can work on diseases of many kinds, but he can't rewrite somebody's hereditary/system-wide problems, regrow limbs, revive the dead, and so on. His healing essentially gives the immune system/natural healing a turbo boost, and he has to be very close to them to do so. It also lets him sense underlying injuries or illnesses, but only when he's touching somebody and actively "looking."
His charming is passive and active; when putting in no effort, people are generally more inclined to give him the time of day and think of him as likeable. With a mild amount of magical effort, he may get somebody to actively start thinking about how nice/good looking/helpful that guy was even after he's left, and so forth. When using it actively, he can command people to do things, but only things they would be willing to do in at least one circumstance; he can't make murderers out of pacifists, or drag secrets out of someone who'd take that info to their grave. When he commands, people don't remember he's done this, and their minds fill in the blank with something reasonable. (Obviously the charming aspect will only work when other players consent.)
His pact with Chaos also granted him a number of other powers, mainly themed around breaking, corrupting, or obfuscating things. For instance, by "breaking" the space between his location and another he's seen, he can create temporary portals, which are unpleasant to traverse. As with Ferran, he can "corrupt" a person with Chaos's energy, but that is extremely unlikely to happen. The more direct connection to a Spirit allows him to vaguely detect magical signatures. He automatically disrupts supernatural efforts to sense him or his heart/mind/soul, and can use broken Gem shards to create warped magical monsters.
These monsters can vary wildly. Tiny, mostly powerless shards can only create lesser, mostly powerless creatures no bigger than a large dog. Combining these with larger shards that still hold on to some of their Gem's former power can be used to create enormous monsters up to several stories high in various shapes, containing powers related to the fragments such as elemental creation and manipulation, defying the laws of physics, hypnosis of various kinds, etc. The more fragments involved and the more powerful those fragments, the more effort and energy it takes from Onyx; he can create half a dozen of the small ones without any struggle, but anything larger than combining two powerful fragments is a last resort that would drain him for at least a week or two. None of these have any intelligence greater than an animal, and they can only understand simple commands; they're also feral when initially created, requiring Onyx to use his other magic to make them obey. Also, once they're defeated and broken, the shards that created them are gone and can't be reused.
His powers come with additional limitations: while "usual" Nobles simply wear themselves out by overusing their magic, Onyx is in danger of not only painful collapse should he use his powers recklessly, but the degradation of his body and soul. Similarly, most Nobles have no issues aside from momentary weakness and losing their magic should their Gem be destroyed, but Onyx's pact with Chaos means the destruction of his Gem would remove the conduit of sorts for the Spirit's power, and reduce him to a state not unlike Ferran's, or Chaos's other pawns, after which he would likely die. Humans are not meant to directly harness Spirits' magic.
Phew! Okay, that's enough of the magic stuff. Outside of all that, Altius has specifically trained with his sword, so he can use one even without his more magically-acquired expertise, and has a mind for strategy. He knows a handful of languages well enough to do business in them, he's familiar with the medical field, and knows quite a bit of first aid.
(Note: Without access to his Gem or his pact with Chaos, he will come into the game powerless and messed up about it. Yay!)
Samples: TDM Non-TDM
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