Madministrator
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Yes, I am turning into a crazy cat lady. No, I don't care.
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Post by Reya Starlyght on Mar 19, 2020 14:33:46 GMT
last edited Apr 13, 2020 0:51:56 GMT by Reya Starlyght
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posted Mar 19, 2020 14:34:08 GMT
Post by Reya Starlyght on Mar 19, 2020 14:34:08 GMT
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1,436 STANDARD YEARS
1,436 STANDARD YEARS
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MALE
MALE
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HETEROSEXUAL | WED
[break]HETEROSEXUAL | WED
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½ HUMAN | ½ EXTRAPLANAR
½ HUMAN | ½ EXTRAPLANAR
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5' 10" | 170 LBS
5' 10" | 170 LBS
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CHAOTIC NEUTRAL
CHAOTIC NEUTRAL
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Appearance[break]
Overview: At a glance appearing to be in his early to mid twenties, Leo's general demeanor is easygoing, a casual smile usually present on his face with a somewhat slouched yet alert stance. He stands at about average height, and in general most of his traits could described as normal, at least compared to the past. That being said, Leo's muted, fragile-looking skin and faded blond hair paint a more jarring picture, along with his cheekbones, jawline, and general features consisting of harsh, almost gaunt angles. Despite trying to mask such on numerous occasions, there is a certain contemplation in his expressions, as if recalling some distant memory even when alert. In fact, Leo has a habit of somewhat exaggerating the more normal outward signs of emotion when around individuals he doesn't know to distract others from noticing such, although this is quite subtle and hard to notice.
[break][break]His hair is swept to the left side of his face, slightly sticking up in places although overall rather tame, with the longest edges just barely reaching his field of vision and on the side of his head kept just short of his ears. Along the same line of thought, Leo is clean shaven most of the time, although occasionally he can be found sporting faint sideburns, disliking anything more prevalent as he thinks it looks terrible on him. However, by far the most telling of Leo's physical characteristics are his eyes, ever slightly sunken in with a hue hard to determine, shifting in light and time from pale carmine to soft gold, yet always carrying a certain sagacity whether it be with good intentions or something more maligned.
[break][break]In spite of his hollow appearance from a distance, it is clear that Leo is at the very least reasonably athletic, if not more than so. His frame is lean but angular, with the widest portion of his body being his shoulders, broader than most would expect for his height. Likewise, his muscle mass is more defined than his poise would seem to convey, not overbearing but certainly present in what is best described as graceful, distinct although not in an unnatural way. Far more aberrant, as a matter of fact, is what flows just beneath the surface. His veins, far more visible than one would expect even with his skin tone, are darker than usual, although this is really only a result of his blood itself, its lightest color a dark crimson and the deoxygenated hue almost black in appearance. Furthermore, not a single permanent mark can be found on his flesh, although Leo frequently sports a host of fresh cuts and slashes due to his occupation.
[break][break]Attire: His sense of fashion is a bit old-fashioned, some would say. Preferring dress shirts, jackets, and jeans over the latest trends, that of which he has great difficultly keeping track of, Leo's choices are simple, and rarely have any flair to them. He has never really cared for much except practically, and indeed the colors he tends toward are dark and therefore easier to cover up stains, most often of which are blood, typically his own. Most of the garments he owns are loose fitting, and for that matter conservative in the amount of skin they show. This is partly due to the fact that he sees no need for bizarre cut outs in clothing and whatever other strange styles, but also because the vast majority of his closet functions secondfold as armor, whether conventionally or magically.
[break][break]That being said, he does have a few pieces that he prefers over others, the primary being a black bomber jacket and second a more muted brown blazer. On essentially all occasions, he can be found carrying an assortment of weapons and minor first aid supplies, whether they be concealed or not, and beneath his sleeves white gauze is wrapped around his forearms, minuscule script defining it. In terms of formal wear, Leo usually tends toward a neutral two or three piece suit, complemented with a neck tie that either matches whatever Eris is wearing or his apparent eye color at the time, along with a watch of some variety.
[break][break]Around his neck he wears two black twine strings tied to a roughly cast circle enclosing an obsidian pendant. This usually isn't visible, as it is hidden under other clothing. Significantly more perceivable and important to him, around his left ring finger Leo wears his wedding band, it being outlined in white gold and in the middle a braided pattern of rose gold residing, both metals tarnished from age and general design.
[break][break][break]Personality[break]
"No matter how hard you try, you will never be one of them."
[break][break]Some would say over the years Leo's demeanor has shifted drastically, while others would argue he has changed little. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in between. On the surface, he appears to to be a decent man, although somewhat anarchic in nature, and indeed this is an accurate, although incredibly base, assumption. As a mercenary, he has more integrity than most of his peers, or at least strives toward such. Often, however, his promises and obligations fall short, usually in one way or another broken by himself or his past.
[break][break]He has a reputation for being more of a passive observer than someone willing to jump headfirst into any conflict, and this is to a degree true. Indeed, Leo tends to exercise restraint on almost all things, preferring to let others take action and shape the future, instead offering encouragement or warning. His primary reasoning for such is to stay relatively anonymous, although this often backfires, shown by the fact that there are more than a few establishments in the galaxy that he has notable connection to, most of them erring on the illegitimate side of the table although certainly places such as bars, dueling rings, and the legal branches of IMG also do apply. He can often be found frequenting such locations, usually earning more money from the various activities they entail than he does from jobs in his chosen profession, although Leo cares little for wealth and far more about entertainment.
[break][break]Regardless of such, his mannerisms are generally more fitting of a gentleman than someone who watches and engages in violence for a living, something that reveals his contradictory nature more than anything; for beneath his somewhat mellow demeanor sulks a far darker truth, matured with age and torment. There is a reason why his smiles often seem shallow and his laughs more often than not consist of just a few choked notes, and the answer is his underlying self hatred, followed by the occasional yet agonizing pull toward ceaseless bloodshed. Little have glimpsed this side of him, and even fewer have truly seen it, but still it persists, the proof that he is nothing more than a broken man haphazardly pieced back together over the centuries.
[break][break]Of those ever able to truly help, all but his wife Eris are long gone, swept up by the river of time. While the two hold some marked differences, they are almost never seen apart, and when they are it is rarely by choice. For better or worse, they have chosen to live to the rest of their days together, and by no exaggeration it has been over a millennium since such promise. Their relationship reflects the time passed, practically instinctive and stranger to both when absent. Often times their interactions play out more like two best friends, probably a result of the fact that almost everyone they once had shared life experiences with are gone now, from one thing or another.
[break][break]While his sense of purpose may be far more convoluted than any typical means, one of his primary goals is to simply make up for his past grievances, that of which are many. Perhaps most notably is Leo's dedication to guarding the many secrets of dead Earthland, and ensuring that the mistakes made on his homeworld are never again repeated. These intents are often obscured for multiple reasons, the least of which being the general tired demeanor he tends to exhibit when referencing topics of importance. Despite his best efforts to conceal it, when recollecting a distant past Leo's weariness usually reveals itself, a certain melancholy that he inevitably finds impossible to shake off.
[break][break][break]History[break]
The story of Leonidas Aglaeca is one long convoluted by time and instability, of both the literal and mental sort. Born on Earthland in the region of Fiore known as the Glacial Flats some four hundred years before catastrophe, his early life was an isolated one. It wasn't a bad one, though, at least until tragedy struck. His father Alastair was a member of the thirty-three lines from the plane of existence known as Tritaihatreis, a desolate world by the most kind standards, and his mother, whose name he no longer can recall, was a native of the Glacial Flats, particularly a sect descended from Isberg, or so Leo assumes based on the stories he vaguely remembers her spinning when he was a child. While such a heritage would seem to be conflicting at best, it was not so bad, for his father had long since abandoned his violent ways, and his mother had been an outcast of her family to begin with. In many ways they were much the same, although Leo's view of them both has been jaded with time.
[break][break]The minute details of his childhood escape him now, however he recalls his father teaching him how to use a sword when he was still just a boy, although of course he looked like such an age for much longer. Leo took an immediate fascination to the art, although at first it was nothing more than innocently entertaining to him, certainly not foreshadowing the darkness to come. Eventually, he forged his own blade, as his father's traditions dictated, one which has stayed with him to the present time, despite the fact that the rest of his distant past has long since been destroyed.
[break][break]His life eventually devolved into chaos, however, when Leo found his aging mother frozen dead after having taking a fallen during a particularly rough snowstorm. Mourning her openly, he was reluctant to return home to his father, unsure of how he could possibly break the news to him. However, when he eventually did, it was as if Alastair had already known, and his eyes seemed duller than they ever had. Together, they buried her on top of a cliff overlooking the flats, a place he still recalls in his earliest memories now. Surprisingly, considering Alastair's horrific past, the man managed to keep it together for a short time, but eventually his calm demeanor cracked.
[break][break]It was about a week after she died when Leo and his father were forced to travel to a nearby village for supplies, during a seasonal festival of all occasions. In retrospect, he should have known there was something wrong, for Alastair said not a word the entire journey there, something incredibly out of character for him, even compared to the few days beforehand. Nonetheless, there was no action taken against disaster until it was too late. While Leo's father was able to blot out the joyous ceremonies for the majority of the time, as night fell so did his facade. Darkness consumed Alastair whole, and his son simply watched, petrified with horror, as he annihilated the entire populace. It was too late to save the town, but eventually Leo snapped out of it, drawing his sword knowing full well he would probably die by doing so. His father was already dead, though, destroyed by the same thing that had taken a hold of the village. And so, he plunged Calamitas into the man's heart, shattering the only world he had ever known.
[break][break]Soon after, Leo left the Glacial Flats, not to return for quite some time and never again permanently. It was all he could do to not flee that very night, but he persevered through his dismay, and buried Alastair beside his mother the next day. He traveled from city to city, across Fiore and Earthland in general, constantly moving in fear that his ancestry would catch up to him. Leo witnessed little other than conflict during that time, yet he never once got involved in the affairs of others, more so participating in passive observation. After all, they were of no concern of him, nor was anything, really. He felt like a blank slate, motivated by little other than to see happiness in world, however sparse it was. However, somewhere down the line he met a woman he immediately recognized as Alastair's sister, their resemblance, and subsequently to a lesser degree Leo's resemblance to her, being uncanny.
[break][break]Adelina never did confirm her identity, but it did not matter to him. They discussed a great many things, subjects Alastair for the most part had been too ashamed to ever address. Of course, Leo had known to some extent the man's past, but not to the great detail she outlined it in, sparing not a gory moment. By killing him, Adelina informed Leo, he had inherited the title his father had once earned through sheer desolation of the rest of the ᚪ line. He dismissed such, however, after all the head of nothing was nothing. She simply told him not to repeat the past in retaliation. In time, though, he did.
[break][break]Not without provocation, of course, but such came soon after they finished their discussion. The knights, illegal intruders for all intents and purposes, captured both of them, naturally without a fight for they had done nothing wrong, wasn't that right? Leo never saw Adelina again, probably sentenced to death or some sort of cruel experimentation that was worse than the former was what he thought for the longest time. Punishment, for nothing but what they were. Monsters, demons, a plague to be wiped from Fiore. Reality felt like a surreal nightmare, until it was very much not so. Relentless, merciless, confined in a small cell meant to deliver justice as they called it. For what? he found himself asking, day after day, becoming numb to the torment. An emotion festered inside him like an infected wound, however, first directed at himself, and then slowly, steadily, at others. Hatred.
[break][break]Ten long years of agony, self-loathing, of being treated like an animal in a cage. Was that not what he was? He spoke to his oppressors before turning on them, their final words that of mocking, of pity, even. He didn't need the sympathy of humanity, for they had long since abandoned Leo with their actions. His only regret as he escaped the facility was that those who crossed his path faced a quick end, too good for their own sins. Death clung to him naturally, as did a sentence to it. He didn't care in the slightest, however, tearing down all those who stood in his way, his only goal to return to the happiness he had once felt, so quickly stripped from him and leaving nothing but a gaping abyss of darkness. Leo learned though, over time, that there was no way to reverse what had already transpired, no way to bring the dead back to life if they would even forgive him. And so bloodshed became his addiction, forgetting who he had once been in all its entirety.
[break][break]A world, so painted in death that it seemed impossible to escape, to do anything but further define it. It was his reality, built by a cage of misgivings, the inability to change for the fear that he would be blamed again, for something he never intended to do. There was no innocence, however. Driven to the point of near insanity, he held no regard for the lives of others, for the victims, the children, the actual persecutors, they were all the same. Anyone who deviated from normality, no matter their character, was cast out. At first, one could have called it cruel justice. It evolved into mass murder, though, and that did not come without consequences.
[break][break]Hunted, like an animal, for that was what he was. A clever, feral beast, capable of blending in with society, and yet unable to truly comprehend the meaning behind it, too many rules, regulations, and standards that were, in the end, completely and utterly pointless. To protect the people? Leo had never witnessed anything remotely close to that. To this day, he still sometimes scoffs at the notion. His world views didn't matter, however. His pursuers were relentless, leaving too many broken nights and shattered intentions. He ran out of fear, eventually learning to avoid civilization altogether, on the off-chance that someone would recognize him. For those who did, the knowledge tended to die with them. The cycle could not go on forever, though, and he knew such. Leo eventually found himself not dead but captured again, wasting away in another cage so similar to his nightmares. There was no resistance. One might have called his actions lamentation, but his hopelessness was more so fueled by terror. Not of his fate, not of authority, but simply of himself. He had become the one thing he had sworn against, and the ties were so deep that every moment he could feel the urge to slip back into the pattern that had consumed his entire existence.
[break][break]Five years, left to rot, forgotten as soon as he had been contained, or so they called it. Not as though time mattered, an eternity could have gone by just as easily and he would have never known the difference. He craved to be left there forever, never again mentioned by anyone in any tale, for his actions to simply undo themselves as if time could ever be changed. The world would not let him off so easy though, or perhaps it desired to give him a second chance at that which he had pursued so wrongly for so long. Whatever the case, her name was Eris Sigal, and although initially reluctant to return to the outside world, she more or less forced him to. A fellow member of the thirty-three lines she was, although thankfully not of his own. Over time, they became close friends, bonding over their shared life experiences and similar interests, notwithstanding the violence of his own past. Such eventually blossomed into romance, although certainly the more pragmatic side of the definition, and they pledged their lives to one another.
[break][break]Their lives were relatively peaceful for a time, filled with trips and adventures with no particular destination in mind. Sooner or later, Eris encountered her brother again, and while both her and Leo held animosity toward him at first, they quickly realized Aaron had changed since her childhood, and the siblings rekindled their familial ties. Leo also became fast friends with him, although for a whole host of reasons Aaron would often visit them for a time and then fly off the radar for years on end. Still, it was a repetitive, content cycle, even as they remained unchanging in a modernizing world.
[break][break]Suddenly, though, things took a turn for the worse. While Leo and Eris had always had to deal with the occasional cultist or whatnot intruding on their lives, one particular incident took a turn for the worse, a complete one eighty to say the least. In a sudden attack, Leo was left with nothing, Eris having been trapped in some kind of seal attached to his sword, both of their lives wound up in some man's cruel game. Leo, of course, killed the perpetrator on the spot, but the grin left on his corpse would haunt him for the next two or so years. He was forced to make new connections with others, something he found incredibly difficult without slipping into a mindset of deception, a natural habit when it came to social behaviors. For months on end, his search was desperate, unrelenting, and his actions started to fall back into the pattern he had tried so hard to forget. Soon, however, his blade dripped red again, although certainly nothing like before. Then, there was a paradigm shift.
[break][break]He never thought the Second Boscan War would amount to much. Its predecessor only a series of skirmishes that led to no change, at least in his mind, Leo merely brushed it off as yet another pointless conflict between equally pointless nations, too caught up in the crisis that had an immeasurably greater impact on his life. At least, such was the case until tales of an eldritch threat released from its slumber at Castle Reinhardt traveled back to Fiore. Noting a possible connection to various anti-occult organizations, he volunteered for a small task force, primarily mages, sent to secure a potential bioweapon being developed by a rogue Boscan officer. The group, fraught with infighting from the start, was practically doomed for failure. They were all foolish, however, and believed otherwise.
[break][break]In the end, Leo failed to do anything of much consequence. The mad colonel, with his missiles and Moonlight Sonata, spread the Blight to the rest of Earthland, unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, breaking the seal that had held back life's archenemy for so long. Disaster befell the continent, but instead of attempting to repel the inevitably overwhelming force, Leo fled any responsibilities or duties and traveled back to the Glacial Flats. While the desolate wasteland was safe, he hated every moment of it. Haunted by his past life in the region and further tormented by his gnawing anxiety about Eris, he was anything but alive psychologically, and after a few months of general terror, he left his home, unbeknownst to him never to return.
[break][break]The devastation of the Blight was everywhere, even in the largely abandoned countryside. It fed off the beauty that had once existed, coating it in repulsive bile and tumors. He scarcely found any traces of humanity, much less those untouched by the Blight. And yet, the closer to the other desert of the country he got, the more life Leo found. Still, Sanzibar was not his final destination. It was the archaic Tower of Heaven that his mind was set on, the last location where he hoped to find the reverse of a far different seal. Just barely tinged by the rapidly spreading decay, the remains of a two part cult vehemently dedicated to purging all lifeforms not native to Earthland were laid out in a series of sinking temples and monuments.
[break][break]The structures were abandoned, however. The area around the tower was indeed a forest of bones, its landscape forlorn of anything but long dead remains, both physically and spiritually. Only a few decrepit temples were worthy of any sort of attention, at least to him, and yet as he entered them there was nothing still, or at least so he thought. Ahead, however, lay a trial, and upon completing it within a hair's breadth, Leo found the answer he had been searching for over the past two years. Destroy the sword. And so he plunged Calamitas into the heart of the nearby alter, shattering most of its blade and at the same time forever altering the fate of both Eris and himself.
[break][break]She was back, but they were both changed. The man had wished to purify them, and he had indeed done such, or at least so they thought for a few, brief, hopeful yet terrifying moments. In reality, their heritage was merely internalized, Eris's horns vanishing from existence as she had always wished and the mark that had plagued Leo's visage similarly dissipating. For a while, they assumed that their biological immortality had also been stripped from them as the two began to age again for a few years, although they later learned such was not the case. Any thoughts of the future were pushed aside though in those few precious moments, and for the time the warnings of Earthland's impending doom were too swept under the rug.
[break][break]The truth of the dying world could not be ignored forever, and they returned to the group Leo had been travelling with for some time, although he had previously more or less ignored their motives. The Unseen, it was eventually known as, an organization dedicated to protecting humanity from the Blight. They had a hand in many things related to such, and Eris immediately leapt on the bandwagon, the two of them establishing themselves as shadow leaders of sorts, although to be fair there was no real leadership among the ranks. The Unseen had a hand in a great many things, the greatest being the overthrowing of the Fiorean monarchy which led to the eventual establishment of the Federation of Fioran States. That being said, by far the most notable in both Leo and Eris's memory was not that event, but another, unsung by history.
[break][break]The truth, that was all they had ever wanted, an answer to the thing that was desolating the only world they had ever known. They got so much more than they had ever asked for, in the most twisted way possible. And yet, they were forbidden from ever mentioning their knowledge, their magic also corrupted in the process. Eris's took a turn toward the human side, its nature problematic but not so much as his own, which proceeded to tear apart the entire landscape around them, almost killing both himself and her. Not hesitating a moment on what the consequences might be later on, Leo had his magic almost entirely sealed, leaving just enough unrestrained so he could simply live normally, and it has remained like such up to the modern day.
[break][break]They searched for the remainder of their time on Earthland for any cure, to get rid the thing that had ensnared their minds, but it was to no avail. They had lost friends in the chaos, and Leo also adamantly refused to believe they were dead, at least for a time. Eventually, though, all hope was lost, the end being when they finally encountered Aaron again, and watched him die before their eyes. They departed Earthland soon after, wanting nothing else to do with the planet and hoping, perhaps, better time lay ahead in the endless expanses of space.
[break][break]Of course, it took around three hundred years for them to get anywhere at all. Watching generations live and die on something neither could have ever imagined exist when they were growing up was not a pleasant time, but they distracted themselves, taking on various hobbies and devising various plans for when they managed to find another home, clinging to the hope that there would be another habitable place somewhere, eventually. In that time, they almost inadvertently climbed up the social ladder of society, after all on starship where old memories of times past were revered almost religiously, having actually lived through them was a rather large advantage, although certainly they played them off as mere stories most of the time. Humanity's long exodus was bound to come to an end, however, and when it did they made a home in what would eventually become known as Trillium.
[break][break]Having a large set of skills, although technological prowess most certainly not being one of them, Leo and Eris got along just fine in the new society, even prospering and becoming quite wealthy, although that was certainly not their intent. What exactly their purpose was something that was lost on them for a while, until rumors of returning to Earthland started to pop up as the tragedy of the Blight began to fade from humanity's recollection. And so they resolved to guard the world against such an event, creating many a organization to combat those who would be so foolish as to attempt to conquer the apocalypse. Their goals today reflect such, although the saddening truth of their experiences has begun to set in after all the years.
[break][break][break]Equipment & Items[break]
Calamitas [𝘚] - Once a formidable sword, Calamitas's bloody history was halted long ago when most of its blade was shattered, resulting in what it is today, nothing but a keepsake and bearer of bad memories for Leo. The hilt itself is rather innocuous, consisting of a blackened steel crossguard with ring guards forged on either side of the blade. The handle of Calamitas is really the only thing that classifies it as a bastard sword now, with enough room to wield with two hands although clearly designed for versatility over one or the other. It is wrapped in black leather that has been replaced numerous times since the blade's inception, not essential for Calamitas's use but a preference of Leo's to aid in gripping the weapon.
[break][break]As previously mentioned, the condition of Calamitas's blade would classify it as junk to many, now only a sparse 6" long as compared to the hilt's 7". At the end of the steel length there is not a clean break, instead jagged edges protruding from where a point would be found on any other weapon. Deeply etched into the sword is the symbol of a rugged crescent with a similarly styled circle placed in the middle of it, and a crude line extending outward to the shattered end of the blade. It is a symbol of Leo's bloodline, yet now waits as inert as the rest of Calamitas, all of the half kilogram that remains. In the cases when he does carry the sword around, it is usually kept in a sheath that's length suggests it is unbroken, and is rarely drawn to ever give away the truth.
[break]Dualist [ᗅ] - The blade known as Dualist is usually not one sword but two, separated by the mechanism that also binds the two together. Called Dua and List respectively, if called anything at all, each has a rather simple blade profile, and are nearly identical except for the fact that Dua's back edge, which isn't sharpened in either, is silver hued, while List's is a darker gray. Each sword has a blade length of 29", with a handle of 6" including their irregularly shaped pommels, for a total length of 35". Each weighs about ¾ of a kilogram.
[break][break]However, even excluding their capabilities to combine, the two blades are far from ordinary. Within their mechanisms to interlock with one another also lies the option to cover their edges entirely, turning the swords into effective bludgeoning weapons when lethal force isn't necessary. This is done with the impress of a button found in the pommel of each sword, said toggle being hard to find unless one knows where to look. The same button also triggers the combination of the two swords into one, if the dull sides of their blades are pressed against each other and the depressions are held simultaneously down.
[break][break]When in this alternate form, Dualist takes the shape of a fairly typical although mechanized longsword, with a blade of 40" and a handle of 10" for a total length of 50". If closely inspected, it can be seen that the added length to the blade is in actuality several partitioned lengths of steel, rather than one solid blade, to account for the fact that Dua and List's individual blades do not reach the length of 40". However, because these sectioned parts of the edge are near the handle of the sword, any reduced function because of their separation is largely negated. A black cruciform hilt extends horizontally from the top of the handle, although eccentric in the fact that it is unrefined, consisting of the shells that hold pieces of the blade when configured differently. As the sword neither loses nor gains any weight when it switches between forms, Dualist weighs one and a half kilograms when combined.
[break][break]Esharvendrae [Ɓ] - The blood of the ᚪ line of Tritaihatreis runs through Leo, a dark stain on his otherwise human appearance. Dark crimson in general appearance to the point of almost being black, it has been the subject of much enmity from him in the past, although for the most part he ignores it now. Being passively activated, over 4 posts Esharvendrae can heal up to one severe and one intense wound. In addition, it accelerates Leo’s natural regeneration to 2½ times the human average, and the ability to regenerate lost limbs over long periods of time and the inability to form permanent scars are granted. The blood also carries a tolerance to poisons, irritants, and diseases of all kinds, capable of reducing techniques with these properties by 5 ranks of effectiveness once every 2 posts. This also carries over to the more mundane, offering almost complete immunity.
[break][break]Ingenia [C] - While kept short by tradition, members of the thirty-three lines naturally have nails that are long and razor-edged, enough so to be considered claws. With the activation of Nyctingenia does Leo's heritage become evident in this respect, the nails of one or more of his limbs extending into deadly weapons. Capable of lengthening up to 6" although a span closer to 4" is typically exhibited, even when in their default state of being are they sharp to the touch.
[break][break]Reinforced Clothing [C] - All of Leo’s clothing has been magically reinforced beyond the standard protection such garments provide, making them equivalent to C-class armor. Any time an item of apparel blocks an attack, a hexagonal silver pattern is revealed for a brief period of time where the clothing was struck, although this is only visible when there is light to see it. It also has the ability to access a linked pocket dimension, where Leo can requip equipment and items either he or Eris owns, with a 3 post cooldown every time this is activated.
[break][break]Argentate [D] - Argentate is a custom made silver plated double action revolver, its chamber capable of holding a maximum of seven shots although because it has no safety toggle only six are ever housed. From grip to the end of the barrel it is 8" long, and fires bullets up to the 9mm caliber. It has a maximum effective range of 25 meters, and weighs 1 kilogram when loaded.
[break]Assorted Knives [D] - Leo almost always carries a few blades on him, from the scale of pocket knives to those of the tactical variety. Some concealed, others not, for the most part they can only have a little if any impact on a battle, especially considering he has a tendency to resort to other weapons before them, in any case. Possessing a large collection of knives, it's hard to guess what exactly he is carrying at any time, although they usually number from two to seven.
[break][break]Miscellaneous
[break]
[break][break]Statistics - 266
[break]Toughness: 50
[break]Acuity: 30
[break]Power: 41
[break]Speed: 65
[break]Magical Strength: 40 [Rank 5]
[break]Magical Fortitude: 40 [Proficiency 5]
[break][break][break]Skills & Disciplines
[break]Knowledge - It does not take much intellect to be able to identify that, as a result of his age, Leo is far more versed in various subjects than many could ever hope to be. While the term knowledge is hopelessly broad, there is too much to meticulously category. Most notable in the day to day would be his fluency in all the standard Earthland languages, although he tends to excel more at those from what was once the north than others, Fioran of course being his native tongue along with the language originally spoken on Tritaihatreis. He is also fairly skilled when it comes to first aid and other medical happenstances, possessing a doctorate in the field along with in various other subjects, most notably magical studies and some histories. He also knows of things he dare not share with others, lest there be severe consequences.
[break][break]Deception - Years of lying about his age, name, race, and just about everything else imaginable has left Leo a master of deceit, capable of fooling nearly all into believing he is telling the truth at any given occasion, or at least when he actually tries to cover something up nowadays. Along the same vein of things, Leo is more than experienced with circumventing the authorities and other meddlesome parties, although such practices are more so a thing of the past to him today, possessing a high societal status at present, especially considering his history. He possesses a fair deal of secrets to trade at any given time as well, and his observation of humanity for so long has given him much practice when it comes to wringing information out of people within only a scant few phrases, acknowledging the telling nature of body language.
[break][break]Combat - When it comes to combat, Leo is highly skilled, although certainly his physicality is lacking some compared to others who claim the same. While he is versed in a wide variety of weapons, both melee and ranged, he has always excelled at swordsmanship over all others, owing a large part to the fact that it was the only weapon he was ever formally trained in. While he favors fighting with a single longsword or bastard sword compared to dual wielding, he is more than capable in both these styles. In unarmed combat, he tends to use his surroundings and others' strength to his advantage, rather than throwing straight blows. In general, he is keen eyed when it comes to combat, and due to experience can usually end predicting others' moves before they make them. He is also more than a bit pain tolerant, although this is more shown by the lack of reactions when he is injured rather than his physical ability to resist blows.
[break][break]Artistry - Three hundred years trapped on a starship is, needless to say, rather boring, however over that time Leo picked up on some skills he probably would have never bothered with otherwise. Most notable in the category of fine arts would be his ability to play the piano proficiently and skill when it comes to drawing, mostly using pencil and paper. However, few know of his talents, as he mostly uses them as a coping mechanism for his various internalized problems, the latter usually something he can be found doing when he can't sleep.
[break][break][break]A Shadow of the Past[break]
Once called by another name, Skadusbaere, or shadow's bane, is now a far more suitable title for Leo's magic. It thrives off chaos, off the desperate pull between the darkness and light. Propelled forward by conflict and halted by peace, his domination over it is shaky at best, as once embraced it is hard to resist further devolution. Whether this is a byproduct of the magic or simply a suppressed side of his own personality made manifest, however, is impossible to tell, as the two are virtually inseparable. That being said, Skadusbaere's sheer destructive capabilities are immense, or at least when unhindered.
[break][break]For these reasons, Leo's magic has been contained, its power a laughable glimmer of the past, but with such weakness comes greater stability, a life not drowned by insatiable, devastating urges. Its seal broken, he clings to the illusion of control, even as it has begun to degrade from his grasp. Yes, the reality remains that his power does not fit into the refined nature of the present, nor does it abide by the rules of the galaxy's realm. Its will to destroy precedes all others, making it dangerous to all, including to some degree himself. Still, it has some capacity to create and support, mostly with the intent to do further harm to whoever or whatever is the intended target.
[break][break]Techniques - 40/41 [21 + 20]
[break]Offensive
[break][break]Defensive
[break][break]Supportive
[break][break]Cantrips
Appearance[break]
Overview: At a glance appearing to be in his early to mid twenties, Leo's general demeanor is easygoing, a casual smile usually present on his face with a somewhat slouched yet alert stance. He stands at about average height, and in general most of his traits could described as normal, at least compared to the past. That being said, Leo's muted, fragile-looking skin and faded blond hair paint a more jarring picture, along with his cheekbones, jawline, and general features consisting of harsh, almost gaunt angles. Despite trying to mask such on numerous occasions, there is a certain contemplation in his expressions, as if recalling some distant memory even when alert. In fact, Leo has a habit of somewhat exaggerating the more normal outward signs of emotion when around individuals he doesn't know to distract others from noticing such, although this is quite subtle and hard to notice.
[break][break]His hair is swept to the left side of his face, slightly sticking up in places although overall rather tame, with the longest edges just barely reaching his field of vision and on the side of his head kept just short of his ears. Along the same line of thought, Leo is clean shaven most of the time, although occasionally he can be found sporting faint sideburns, disliking anything more prevalent as he thinks it looks terrible on him. However, by far the most telling of Leo's physical characteristics are his eyes, ever slightly sunken in with a hue hard to determine, shifting in light and time from pale carmine to soft gold, yet always carrying a certain sagacity whether it be with good intentions or something more maligned.
[break][break]In spite of his hollow appearance from a distance, it is clear that Leo is at the very least reasonably athletic, if not more than so. His frame is lean but angular, with the widest portion of his body being his shoulders, broader than most would expect for his height. Likewise, his muscle mass is more defined than his poise would seem to convey, not overbearing but certainly present in what is best described as graceful, distinct although not in an unnatural way. Far more aberrant, as a matter of fact, is what flows just beneath the surface. His veins, far more visible than one would expect even with his skin tone, are darker than usual, although this is really only a result of his blood itself, its lightest color a dark crimson and the deoxygenated hue almost black in appearance. Furthermore, not a single permanent mark can be found on his flesh, although Leo frequently sports a host of fresh cuts and slashes due to his occupation.
[break][break]Attire: His sense of fashion is a bit old-fashioned, some would say. Preferring dress shirts, jackets, and jeans over the latest trends, that of which he has great difficultly keeping track of, Leo's choices are simple, and rarely have any flair to them. He has never really cared for much except practically, and indeed the colors he tends toward are dark and therefore easier to cover up stains, most often of which are blood, typically his own. Most of the garments he owns are loose fitting, and for that matter conservative in the amount of skin they show. This is partly due to the fact that he sees no need for bizarre cut outs in clothing and whatever other strange styles, but also because the vast majority of his closet functions secondfold as armor, whether conventionally or magically.
[break][break]That being said, he does have a few pieces that he prefers over others, the primary being a black bomber jacket and second a more muted brown blazer. On essentially all occasions, he can be found carrying an assortment of weapons and minor first aid supplies, whether they be concealed or not, and beneath his sleeves white gauze is wrapped around his forearms, minuscule script defining it. In terms of formal wear, Leo usually tends toward a neutral two or three piece suit, complemented with a neck tie that either matches whatever Eris is wearing or his apparent eye color at the time, along with a watch of some variety.
[break][break]Around his neck he wears two black twine strings tied to a roughly cast circle enclosing an obsidian pendant. This usually isn't visible, as it is hidden under other clothing. Significantly more perceivable and important to him, around his left ring finger Leo wears his wedding band, it being outlined in white gold and in the middle a braided pattern of rose gold residing, both metals tarnished from age and general design.
[break][break][break]Personality[break]
"No matter how hard you try, you will never be one of them."
[break][break]Some would say over the years Leo's demeanor has shifted drastically, while others would argue he has changed little. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in between. On the surface, he appears to to be a decent man, although somewhat anarchic in nature, and indeed this is an accurate, although incredibly base, assumption. As a mercenary, he has more integrity than most of his peers, or at least strives toward such. Often, however, his promises and obligations fall short, usually in one way or another broken by himself or his past.
[break][break]He has a reputation for being more of a passive observer than someone willing to jump headfirst into any conflict, and this is to a degree true. Indeed, Leo tends to exercise restraint on almost all things, preferring to let others take action and shape the future, instead offering encouragement or warning. His primary reasoning for such is to stay relatively anonymous, although this often backfires, shown by the fact that there are more than a few establishments in the galaxy that he has notable connection to, most of them erring on the illegitimate side of the table although certainly places such as bars, dueling rings, and the legal branches of IMG also do apply. He can often be found frequenting such locations, usually earning more money from the various activities they entail than he does from jobs in his chosen profession, although Leo cares little for wealth and far more about entertainment.
[break][break]Regardless of such, his mannerisms are generally more fitting of a gentleman than someone who watches and engages in violence for a living, something that reveals his contradictory nature more than anything; for beneath his somewhat mellow demeanor sulks a far darker truth, matured with age and torment. There is a reason why his smiles often seem shallow and his laughs more often than not consist of just a few choked notes, and the answer is his underlying self hatred, followed by the occasional yet agonizing pull toward ceaseless bloodshed. Little have glimpsed this side of him, and even fewer have truly seen it, but still it persists, the proof that he is nothing more than a broken man haphazardly pieced back together over the centuries.
[break][break]Of those ever able to truly help, all but his wife Eris are long gone, swept up by the river of time. While the two hold some marked differences, they are almost never seen apart, and when they are it is rarely by choice. For better or worse, they have chosen to live to the rest of their days together, and by no exaggeration it has been over a millennium since such promise. Their relationship reflects the time passed, practically instinctive and stranger to both when absent. Often times their interactions play out more like two best friends, probably a result of the fact that almost everyone they once had shared life experiences with are gone now, from one thing or another.
[break][break]While his sense of purpose may be far more convoluted than any typical means, one of his primary goals is to simply make up for his past grievances, that of which are many. Perhaps most notably is Leo's dedication to guarding the many secrets of dead Earthland, and ensuring that the mistakes made on his homeworld are never again repeated. These intents are often obscured for multiple reasons, the least of which being the general tired demeanor he tends to exhibit when referencing topics of importance. Despite his best efforts to conceal it, when recollecting a distant past Leo's weariness usually reveals itself, a certain melancholy that he inevitably finds impossible to shake off.
[break][break][break]History[break]
The story of Leonidas Aglaeca is one long convoluted by time and instability, of both the literal and mental sort. Born on Earthland in the region of Fiore known as the Glacial Flats some four hundred years before catastrophe, his early life was an isolated one. It wasn't a bad one, though, at least until tragedy struck. His father Alastair was a member of the thirty-three lines from the plane of existence known as Tritaihatreis, a desolate world by the most kind standards, and his mother, whose name he no longer can recall, was a native of the Glacial Flats, particularly a sect descended from Isberg, or so Leo assumes based on the stories he vaguely remembers her spinning when he was a child. While such a heritage would seem to be conflicting at best, it was not so bad, for his father had long since abandoned his violent ways, and his mother had been an outcast of her family to begin with. In many ways they were much the same, although Leo's view of them both has been jaded with time.
[break][break]The minute details of his childhood escape him now, however he recalls his father teaching him how to use a sword when he was still just a boy, although of course he looked like such an age for much longer. Leo took an immediate fascination to the art, although at first it was nothing more than innocently entertaining to him, certainly not foreshadowing the darkness to come. Eventually, he forged his own blade, as his father's traditions dictated, one which has stayed with him to the present time, despite the fact that the rest of his distant past has long since been destroyed.
[break][break]His life eventually devolved into chaos, however, when Leo found his aging mother frozen dead after having taking a fallen during a particularly rough snowstorm. Mourning her openly, he was reluctant to return home to his father, unsure of how he could possibly break the news to him. However, when he eventually did, it was as if Alastair had already known, and his eyes seemed duller than they ever had. Together, they buried her on top of a cliff overlooking the flats, a place he still recalls in his earliest memories now. Surprisingly, considering Alastair's horrific past, the man managed to keep it together for a short time, but eventually his calm demeanor cracked.
[break][break]It was about a week after she died when Leo and his father were forced to travel to a nearby village for supplies, during a seasonal festival of all occasions. In retrospect, he should have known there was something wrong, for Alastair said not a word the entire journey there, something incredibly out of character for him, even compared to the few days beforehand. Nonetheless, there was no action taken against disaster until it was too late. While Leo's father was able to blot out the joyous ceremonies for the majority of the time, as night fell so did his facade. Darkness consumed Alastair whole, and his son simply watched, petrified with horror, as he annihilated the entire populace. It was too late to save the town, but eventually Leo snapped out of it, drawing his sword knowing full well he would probably die by doing so. His father was already dead, though, destroyed by the same thing that had taken a hold of the village. And so, he plunged Calamitas into the man's heart, shattering the only world he had ever known.
[break][break]Soon after, Leo left the Glacial Flats, not to return for quite some time and never again permanently. It was all he could do to not flee that very night, but he persevered through his dismay, and buried Alastair beside his mother the next day. He traveled from city to city, across Fiore and Earthland in general, constantly moving in fear that his ancestry would catch up to him. Leo witnessed little other than conflict during that time, yet he never once got involved in the affairs of others, more so participating in passive observation. After all, they were of no concern of him, nor was anything, really. He felt like a blank slate, motivated by little other than to see happiness in world, however sparse it was. However, somewhere down the line he met a woman he immediately recognized as Alastair's sister, their resemblance, and subsequently to a lesser degree Leo's resemblance to her, being uncanny.
[break][break]Adelina never did confirm her identity, but it did not matter to him. They discussed a great many things, subjects Alastair for the most part had been too ashamed to ever address. Of course, Leo had known to some extent the man's past, but not to the great detail she outlined it in, sparing not a gory moment. By killing him, Adelina informed Leo, he had inherited the title his father had once earned through sheer desolation of the rest of the ᚪ line. He dismissed such, however, after all the head of nothing was nothing. She simply told him not to repeat the past in retaliation. In time, though, he did.
[break][break]Not without provocation, of course, but such came soon after they finished their discussion. The knights, illegal intruders for all intents and purposes, captured both of them, naturally without a fight for they had done nothing wrong, wasn't that right? Leo never saw Adelina again, probably sentenced to death or some sort of cruel experimentation that was worse than the former was what he thought for the longest time. Punishment, for nothing but what they were. Monsters, demons, a plague to be wiped from Fiore. Reality felt like a surreal nightmare, until it was very much not so. Relentless, merciless, confined in a small cell meant to deliver justice as they called it. For what? he found himself asking, day after day, becoming numb to the torment. An emotion festered inside him like an infected wound, however, first directed at himself, and then slowly, steadily, at others. Hatred.
[break][break]Ten long years of agony, self-loathing, of being treated like an animal in a cage. Was that not what he was? He spoke to his oppressors before turning on them, their final words that of mocking, of pity, even. He didn't need the sympathy of humanity, for they had long since abandoned Leo with their actions. His only regret as he escaped the facility was that those who crossed his path faced a quick end, too good for their own sins. Death clung to him naturally, as did a sentence to it. He didn't care in the slightest, however, tearing down all those who stood in his way, his only goal to return to the happiness he had once felt, so quickly stripped from him and leaving nothing but a gaping abyss of darkness. Leo learned though, over time, that there was no way to reverse what had already transpired, no way to bring the dead back to life if they would even forgive him. And so bloodshed became his addiction, forgetting who he had once been in all its entirety.
[break][break]A world, so painted in death that it seemed impossible to escape, to do anything but further define it. It was his reality, built by a cage of misgivings, the inability to change for the fear that he would be blamed again, for something he never intended to do. There was no innocence, however. Driven to the point of near insanity, he held no regard for the lives of others, for the victims, the children, the actual persecutors, they were all the same. Anyone who deviated from normality, no matter their character, was cast out. At first, one could have called it cruel justice. It evolved into mass murder, though, and that did not come without consequences.
[break][break]Hunted, like an animal, for that was what he was. A clever, feral beast, capable of blending in with society, and yet unable to truly comprehend the meaning behind it, too many rules, regulations, and standards that were, in the end, completely and utterly pointless. To protect the people? Leo had never witnessed anything remotely close to that. To this day, he still sometimes scoffs at the notion. His world views didn't matter, however. His pursuers were relentless, leaving too many broken nights and shattered intentions. He ran out of fear, eventually learning to avoid civilization altogether, on the off-chance that someone would recognize him. For those who did, the knowledge tended to die with them. The cycle could not go on forever, though, and he knew such. Leo eventually found himself not dead but captured again, wasting away in another cage so similar to his nightmares. There was no resistance. One might have called his actions lamentation, but his hopelessness was more so fueled by terror. Not of his fate, not of authority, but simply of himself. He had become the one thing he had sworn against, and the ties were so deep that every moment he could feel the urge to slip back into the pattern that had consumed his entire existence.
[break][break]Five years, left to rot, forgotten as soon as he had been contained, or so they called it. Not as though time mattered, an eternity could have gone by just as easily and he would have never known the difference. He craved to be left there forever, never again mentioned by anyone in any tale, for his actions to simply undo themselves as if time could ever be changed. The world would not let him off so easy though, or perhaps it desired to give him a second chance at that which he had pursued so wrongly for so long. Whatever the case, her name was Eris Sigal, and although initially reluctant to return to the outside world, she more or less forced him to. A fellow member of the thirty-three lines she was, although thankfully not of his own. Over time, they became close friends, bonding over their shared life experiences and similar interests, notwithstanding the violence of his own past. Such eventually blossomed into romance, although certainly the more pragmatic side of the definition, and they pledged their lives to one another.
[break][break]Their lives were relatively peaceful for a time, filled with trips and adventures with no particular destination in mind. Sooner or later, Eris encountered her brother again, and while both her and Leo held animosity toward him at first, they quickly realized Aaron had changed since her childhood, and the siblings rekindled their familial ties. Leo also became fast friends with him, although for a whole host of reasons Aaron would often visit them for a time and then fly off the radar for years on end. Still, it was a repetitive, content cycle, even as they remained unchanging in a modernizing world.
[break][break]Suddenly, though, things took a turn for the worse. While Leo and Eris had always had to deal with the occasional cultist or whatnot intruding on their lives, one particular incident took a turn for the worse, a complete one eighty to say the least. In a sudden attack, Leo was left with nothing, Eris having been trapped in some kind of seal attached to his sword, both of their lives wound up in some man's cruel game. Leo, of course, killed the perpetrator on the spot, but the grin left on his corpse would haunt him for the next two or so years. He was forced to make new connections with others, something he found incredibly difficult without slipping into a mindset of deception, a natural habit when it came to social behaviors. For months on end, his search was desperate, unrelenting, and his actions started to fall back into the pattern he had tried so hard to forget. Soon, however, his blade dripped red again, although certainly nothing like before. Then, there was a paradigm shift.
[break][break]He never thought the Second Boscan War would amount to much. Its predecessor only a series of skirmishes that led to no change, at least in his mind, Leo merely brushed it off as yet another pointless conflict between equally pointless nations, too caught up in the crisis that had an immeasurably greater impact on his life. At least, such was the case until tales of an eldritch threat released from its slumber at Castle Reinhardt traveled back to Fiore. Noting a possible connection to various anti-occult organizations, he volunteered for a small task force, primarily mages, sent to secure a potential bioweapon being developed by a rogue Boscan officer. The group, fraught with infighting from the start, was practically doomed for failure. They were all foolish, however, and believed otherwise.
[break][break]In the end, Leo failed to do anything of much consequence. The mad colonel, with his missiles and Moonlight Sonata, spread the Blight to the rest of Earthland, unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, breaking the seal that had held back life's archenemy for so long. Disaster befell the continent, but instead of attempting to repel the inevitably overwhelming force, Leo fled any responsibilities or duties and traveled back to the Glacial Flats. While the desolate wasteland was safe, he hated every moment of it. Haunted by his past life in the region and further tormented by his gnawing anxiety about Eris, he was anything but alive psychologically, and after a few months of general terror, he left his home, unbeknownst to him never to return.
[break][break]The devastation of the Blight was everywhere, even in the largely abandoned countryside. It fed off the beauty that had once existed, coating it in repulsive bile and tumors. He scarcely found any traces of humanity, much less those untouched by the Blight. And yet, the closer to the other desert of the country he got, the more life Leo found. Still, Sanzibar was not his final destination. It was the archaic Tower of Heaven that his mind was set on, the last location where he hoped to find the reverse of a far different seal. Just barely tinged by the rapidly spreading decay, the remains of a two part cult vehemently dedicated to purging all lifeforms not native to Earthland were laid out in a series of sinking temples and monuments.
[break][break]The structures were abandoned, however. The area around the tower was indeed a forest of bones, its landscape forlorn of anything but long dead remains, both physically and spiritually. Only a few decrepit temples were worthy of any sort of attention, at least to him, and yet as he entered them there was nothing still, or at least so he thought. Ahead, however, lay a trial, and upon completing it within a hair's breadth, Leo found the answer he had been searching for over the past two years. Destroy the sword. And so he plunged Calamitas into the heart of the nearby alter, shattering most of its blade and at the same time forever altering the fate of both Eris and himself.
[break][break]She was back, but they were both changed. The man had wished to purify them, and he had indeed done such, or at least so they thought for a few, brief, hopeful yet terrifying moments. In reality, their heritage was merely internalized, Eris's horns vanishing from existence as she had always wished and the mark that had plagued Leo's visage similarly dissipating. For a while, they assumed that their biological immortality had also been stripped from them as the two began to age again for a few years, although they later learned such was not the case. Any thoughts of the future were pushed aside though in those few precious moments, and for the time the warnings of Earthland's impending doom were too swept under the rug.
[break][break]The truth of the dying world could not be ignored forever, and they returned to the group Leo had been travelling with for some time, although he had previously more or less ignored their motives. The Unseen, it was eventually known as, an organization dedicated to protecting humanity from the Blight. They had a hand in many things related to such, and Eris immediately leapt on the bandwagon, the two of them establishing themselves as shadow leaders of sorts, although to be fair there was no real leadership among the ranks. The Unseen had a hand in a great many things, the greatest being the overthrowing of the Fiorean monarchy which led to the eventual establishment of the Federation of Fioran States. That being said, by far the most notable in both Leo and Eris's memory was not that event, but another, unsung by history.
[break][break]The truth, that was all they had ever wanted, an answer to the thing that was desolating the only world they had ever known. They got so much more than they had ever asked for, in the most twisted way possible. And yet, they were forbidden from ever mentioning their knowledge, their magic also corrupted in the process. Eris's took a turn toward the human side, its nature problematic but not so much as his own, which proceeded to tear apart the entire landscape around them, almost killing both himself and her. Not hesitating a moment on what the consequences might be later on, Leo had his magic almost entirely sealed, leaving just enough unrestrained so he could simply live normally, and it has remained like such up to the modern day.
[break][break]They searched for the remainder of their time on Earthland for any cure, to get rid the thing that had ensnared their minds, but it was to no avail. They had lost friends in the chaos, and Leo also adamantly refused to believe they were dead, at least for a time. Eventually, though, all hope was lost, the end being when they finally encountered Aaron again, and watched him die before their eyes. They departed Earthland soon after, wanting nothing else to do with the planet and hoping, perhaps, better time lay ahead in the endless expanses of space.
[break][break]Of course, it took around three hundred years for them to get anywhere at all. Watching generations live and die on something neither could have ever imagined exist when they were growing up was not a pleasant time, but they distracted themselves, taking on various hobbies and devising various plans for when they managed to find another home, clinging to the hope that there would be another habitable place somewhere, eventually. In that time, they almost inadvertently climbed up the social ladder of society, after all on starship where old memories of times past were revered almost religiously, having actually lived through them was a rather large advantage, although certainly they played them off as mere stories most of the time. Humanity's long exodus was bound to come to an end, however, and when it did they made a home in what would eventually become known as Trillium.
[break][break]Having a large set of skills, although technological prowess most certainly not being one of them, Leo and Eris got along just fine in the new society, even prospering and becoming quite wealthy, although that was certainly not their intent. What exactly their purpose was something that was lost on them for a while, until rumors of returning to Earthland started to pop up as the tragedy of the Blight began to fade from humanity's recollection. And so they resolved to guard the world against such an event, creating many a organization to combat those who would be so foolish as to attempt to conquer the apocalypse. Their goals today reflect such, although the saddening truth of their experiences has begun to set in after all the years.
[break][break][break]Equipment & Items[break]
Calamitas [𝘚] - Once a formidable sword, Calamitas's bloody history was halted long ago when most of its blade was shattered, resulting in what it is today, nothing but a keepsake and bearer of bad memories for Leo. The hilt itself is rather innocuous, consisting of a blackened steel crossguard with ring guards forged on either side of the blade. The handle of Calamitas is really the only thing that classifies it as a bastard sword now, with enough room to wield with two hands although clearly designed for versatility over one or the other. It is wrapped in black leather that has been replaced numerous times since the blade's inception, not essential for Calamitas's use but a preference of Leo's to aid in gripping the weapon.
[break][break]As previously mentioned, the condition of Calamitas's blade would classify it as junk to many, now only a sparse 6" long as compared to the hilt's 7". At the end of the steel length there is not a clean break, instead jagged edges protruding from where a point would be found on any other weapon. Deeply etched into the sword is the symbol of a rugged crescent with a similarly styled circle placed in the middle of it, and a crude line extending outward to the shattered end of the blade. It is a symbol of Leo's bloodline, yet now waits as inert as the rest of Calamitas, all of the half kilogram that remains. In the cases when he does carry the sword around, it is usually kept in a sheath that's length suggests it is unbroken, and is rarely drawn to ever give away the truth.
Vokius - 5
[break]Reaching out to the void that had long ago devoured most of Calamitas’s blade, Leo is capable of reforming a shadowy replica of it which appears to have an almost indefinite edge, although this is far from the case as the darkness takes on a durability identical to the rest of the sword itself. Lengthening Calamitas altogether to 45", every strike with the extended part of the blade also deals severe damage to whoever or whatever the target may be, excluding Leo himself. Duration of 4 posts, cooldown of 2 posts. Alternatively, Leo may choose to simply form the blade itself without additional damage, in which case Vokius has an infinite duration, although once dismissed it still endures a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Reaching out to the void that had long ago devoured most of Calamitas’s blade, Leo is capable of reforming a shadowy replica of it which appears to have an almost indefinite edge, although this is far from the case as the darkness takes on a durability identical to the rest of the sword itself. Lengthening Calamitas altogether to 45", every strike with the extended part of the blade also deals severe damage to whoever or whatever the target may be, excluding Leo himself. Duration of 4 posts, cooldown of 2 posts. Alternatively, Leo may choose to simply form the blade itself without additional damage, in which case Vokius has an infinite duration, although once dismissed it still endures a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Dualist [ᗅ] - The blade known as Dualist is usually not one sword but two, separated by the mechanism that also binds the two together. Called Dua and List respectively, if called anything at all, each has a rather simple blade profile, and are nearly identical except for the fact that Dua's back edge, which isn't sharpened in either, is silver hued, while List's is a darker gray. Each sword has a blade length of 29", with a handle of 6" including their irregularly shaped pommels, for a total length of 35". Each weighs about ¾ of a kilogram.
[break][break]However, even excluding their capabilities to combine, the two blades are far from ordinary. Within their mechanisms to interlock with one another also lies the option to cover their edges entirely, turning the swords into effective bludgeoning weapons when lethal force isn't necessary. This is done with the impress of a button found in the pommel of each sword, said toggle being hard to find unless one knows where to look. The same button also triggers the combination of the two swords into one, if the dull sides of their blades are pressed against each other and the depressions are held simultaneously down.
[break][break]When in this alternate form, Dualist takes the shape of a fairly typical although mechanized longsword, with a blade of 40" and a handle of 10" for a total length of 50". If closely inspected, it can be seen that the added length to the blade is in actuality several partitioned lengths of steel, rather than one solid blade, to account for the fact that Dua and List's individual blades do not reach the length of 40". However, because these sectioned parts of the edge are near the handle of the sword, any reduced function because of their separation is largely negated. A black cruciform hilt extends horizontally from the top of the handle, although eccentric in the fact that it is unrefined, consisting of the shells that hold pieces of the blade when configured differently. As the sword neither loses nor gains any weight when it switches between forms, Dualist weighs one and a half kilograms when combined.
[break][break]Esharvendrae [Ɓ] - The blood of the ᚪ line of Tritaihatreis runs through Leo, a dark stain on his otherwise human appearance. Dark crimson in general appearance to the point of almost being black, it has been the subject of much enmity from him in the past, although for the most part he ignores it now. Being passively activated, over 4 posts Esharvendrae can heal up to one severe and one intense wound. In addition, it accelerates Leo’s natural regeneration to 2½ times the human average, and the ability to regenerate lost limbs over long periods of time and the inability to form permanent scars are granted. The blood also carries a tolerance to poisons, irritants, and diseases of all kinds, capable of reducing techniques with these properties by 5 ranks of effectiveness once every 2 posts. This also carries over to the more mundane, offering almost complete immunity.
[break][break]Ingenia [C] - While kept short by tradition, members of the thirty-three lines naturally have nails that are long and razor-edged, enough so to be considered claws. With the activation of Nyctingenia does Leo's heritage become evident in this respect, the nails of one or more of his limbs extending into deadly weapons. Capable of lengthening up to 6" although a span closer to 4" is typically exhibited, even when in their default state of being are they sharp to the touch.
[break][break]Reinforced Clothing [C] - All of Leo’s clothing has been magically reinforced beyond the standard protection such garments provide, making them equivalent to C-class armor. Any time an item of apparel blocks an attack, a hexagonal silver pattern is revealed for a brief period of time where the clothing was struck, although this is only visible when there is light to see it. It also has the ability to access a linked pocket dimension, where Leo can requip equipment and items either he or Eris owns, with a 3 post cooldown every time this is activated.
[break][break]Argentate [D] - Argentate is a custom made silver plated double action revolver, its chamber capable of holding a maximum of seven shots although because it has no safety toggle only six are ever housed. From grip to the end of the barrel it is 8" long, and fires bullets up to the 9mm caliber. It has a maximum effective range of 25 meters, and weighs 1 kilogram when loaded.
Argentate's Ammunition [D] - As it is a revolver, Argentate uses individual bullets rather than cartridges, however the firearm is usually loaded with six of these, typically hollow point in nature. Rarely if ever does Leo carry more, the revolver being a backup weapon in the first place.
[break]Assorted Knives [D] - Leo almost always carries a few blades on him, from the scale of pocket knives to those of the tactical variety. Some concealed, others not, for the most part they can only have a little if any impact on a battle, especially considering he has a tendency to resort to other weapons before them, in any case. Possessing a large collection of knives, it's hard to guess what exactly he is carrying at any time, although they usually number from two to seven.
[break][break]Miscellaneous
[break]
Barberpole [C] - A red and white striped candy cane, its flavor a delicious peppermint. It never seems to wear down or get sticky, no matter how much somebody licks it. At will, the candy cane can transform into a katana of similarly themed colors, with a length of 39" and a weight of 1 kilogram. This form can last for an upwards of 3 posts, with a 3 post cooldown once it is deactivated. Alternatively, the katana can be summoned in its sheath, in which case it takes the form of a larger candy cane.
[break][break]Statistics - 266
[break]Toughness: 50
[break]Acuity: 30
[break]Power: 41
[break]Speed: 65
[break]Magical Strength: 40 [Rank 5]
[break]Magical Fortitude: 40 [Proficiency 5]
[break][break][break]Skills & Disciplines
[break]Knowledge - It does not take much intellect to be able to identify that, as a result of his age, Leo is far more versed in various subjects than many could ever hope to be. While the term knowledge is hopelessly broad, there is too much to meticulously category. Most notable in the day to day would be his fluency in all the standard Earthland languages, although he tends to excel more at those from what was once the north than others, Fioran of course being his native tongue along with the language originally spoken on Tritaihatreis. He is also fairly skilled when it comes to first aid and other medical happenstances, possessing a doctorate in the field along with in various other subjects, most notably magical studies and some histories. He also knows of things he dare not share with others, lest there be severe consequences.
[break][break]Deception - Years of lying about his age, name, race, and just about everything else imaginable has left Leo a master of deceit, capable of fooling nearly all into believing he is telling the truth at any given occasion, or at least when he actually tries to cover something up nowadays. Along the same vein of things, Leo is more than experienced with circumventing the authorities and other meddlesome parties, although such practices are more so a thing of the past to him today, possessing a high societal status at present, especially considering his history. He possesses a fair deal of secrets to trade at any given time as well, and his observation of humanity for so long has given him much practice when it comes to wringing information out of people within only a scant few phrases, acknowledging the telling nature of body language.
[break][break]Combat - When it comes to combat, Leo is highly skilled, although certainly his physicality is lacking some compared to others who claim the same. While he is versed in a wide variety of weapons, both melee and ranged, he has always excelled at swordsmanship over all others, owing a large part to the fact that it was the only weapon he was ever formally trained in. While he favors fighting with a single longsword or bastard sword compared to dual wielding, he is more than capable in both these styles. In unarmed combat, he tends to use his surroundings and others' strength to his advantage, rather than throwing straight blows. In general, he is keen eyed when it comes to combat, and due to experience can usually end predicting others' moves before they make them. He is also more than a bit pain tolerant, although this is more shown by the lack of reactions when he is injured rather than his physical ability to resist blows.
[break][break]Artistry - Three hundred years trapped on a starship is, needless to say, rather boring, however over that time Leo picked up on some skills he probably would have never bothered with otherwise. Most notable in the category of fine arts would be his ability to play the piano proficiently and skill when it comes to drawing, mostly using pencil and paper. However, few know of his talents, as he mostly uses them as a coping mechanism for his various internalized problems, the latter usually something he can be found doing when he can't sleep.
[break][break][break]A Shadow of the Past[break]
Once called by another name, Skadusbaere, or shadow's bane, is now a far more suitable title for Leo's magic. It thrives off chaos, off the desperate pull between the darkness and light. Propelled forward by conflict and halted by peace, his domination over it is shaky at best, as once embraced it is hard to resist further devolution. Whether this is a byproduct of the magic or simply a suppressed side of his own personality made manifest, however, is impossible to tell, as the two are virtually inseparable. That being said, Skadusbaere's sheer destructive capabilities are immense, or at least when unhindered.
[break][break]For these reasons, Leo's magic has been contained, its power a laughable glimmer of the past, but with such weakness comes greater stability, a life not drowned by insatiable, devastating urges. Its seal broken, he clings to the illusion of control, even as it has begun to degrade from his grasp. Yes, the reality remains that his power does not fit into the refined nature of the present, nor does it abide by the rules of the galaxy's realm. Its will to destroy precedes all others, making it dangerous to all, including to some degree himself. Still, it has some capacity to create and support, mostly with the intent to do further harm to whoever or whatever is the intended target.
Elemental Manipulation - Darkness [Offensive Specialist]
[break]Rank 5
[break]Proficiency 4
[break]Rank 5
[break]Proficiency 4
[break][break]Techniques - 40/41 [21 + 20]
[break]Offensive
Kaosmakien - 5
[break]Not a directly offensive technique, Kaosmakien is more so a description of the destructive nature of Leo's magic. It is a passive technique, and applies additional severe damage to all offensive techniques and cantrips cast. The caveat, however, is that Kaosmakien also causes all of Leo's offensive spells to not be able to distinguish between friend and foe, not only in their damage but also in any additional harmful effects they may have. Kaosmakien's range is equal to whatever spell it's affecting, although spells of higher rank than Kaosmakien fired at their maximum range will not be affected by the damage side of the technique, although friendly fire applies no matter what.
[break][break]Eretheos - 5
[break]Making contact with the ground, whether it be directly or through a weapon enchanted with Eretheos that is not more than 50 meters away, Leo is capable of shattering the surface with black, slicing energy. Forming a cone with an angle of 60°, a length of 40 meters, and a height of 20 meters, severe damage is dealt to all within the area - those with a Toughness less than or equal to 50 being thrown off their feet. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Melasraike - 5
[break]A violent onslaught of umbral energy outpours from Leo’s person, dealing severe damage to all those caught within 30 meters of the spherical blast. Those with a Power less than or equal to 50 who are struck will also be pushed back up to 10 meters, depending on how close they are to this threshold. Leo can also channel the destructive power of Melasraike into a weapon of some kind, instead performing three slashes that are extended 15 meters by shadows. These strikes can be performed in rapid succession or dispersed over a single post, each dealing serious damage and capable of pushing targets up to 5 meters away from their previous position. Potential duration of 1 post, cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Pytsphaira - 5
[break]Forming a condensed umbral sphere a few inches from a point on his person - whether it be a weapon, finger, or similar - Leo can fire such in a straight line of dark energy, continuing on for up to 120 meters. Upon contact with something, Pytsphaira will explode, dealing severe damage to the target and all within the blast radius of 20 meters, although if extended to its maximum range only serious damage will be dealt to those between 10 and 20 meters from the impact. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Styrsenzan - 5
[break]Summoning a cyclone of destructive magic up to 40 meters high with a radius of up to 5 meters in one hand, Leo is capable of bringing such down in a single direction or targeting the skies directly, dealing severe damage to all those caught inside the whip-like darkness. All things aside from himself within a 30 meter radius of the vortex with a Power less than or equal to 50 will also be pulled toward Styrsenzan, beings closer to such threshold being less impacted than those not. The technique has a duration of 1 post, and a cooldown of 2.
[break]Not a directly offensive technique, Kaosmakien is more so a description of the destructive nature of Leo's magic. It is a passive technique, and applies additional severe damage to all offensive techniques and cantrips cast. The caveat, however, is that Kaosmakien also causes all of Leo's offensive spells to not be able to distinguish between friend and foe, not only in their damage but also in any additional harmful effects they may have. Kaosmakien's range is equal to whatever spell it's affecting, although spells of higher rank than Kaosmakien fired at their maximum range will not be affected by the damage side of the technique, although friendly fire applies no matter what.
[break][break]Eretheos - 5
[break]Making contact with the ground, whether it be directly or through a weapon enchanted with Eretheos that is not more than 50 meters away, Leo is capable of shattering the surface with black, slicing energy. Forming a cone with an angle of 60°, a length of 40 meters, and a height of 20 meters, severe damage is dealt to all within the area - those with a Toughness less than or equal to 50 being thrown off their feet. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Melasraike - 5
[break]A violent onslaught of umbral energy outpours from Leo’s person, dealing severe damage to all those caught within 30 meters of the spherical blast. Those with a Power less than or equal to 50 who are struck will also be pushed back up to 10 meters, depending on how close they are to this threshold. Leo can also channel the destructive power of Melasraike into a weapon of some kind, instead performing three slashes that are extended 15 meters by shadows. These strikes can be performed in rapid succession or dispersed over a single post, each dealing serious damage and capable of pushing targets up to 5 meters away from their previous position. Potential duration of 1 post, cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Pytsphaira - 5
[break]Forming a condensed umbral sphere a few inches from a point on his person - whether it be a weapon, finger, or similar - Leo can fire such in a straight line of dark energy, continuing on for up to 120 meters. Upon contact with something, Pytsphaira will explode, dealing severe damage to the target and all within the blast radius of 20 meters, although if extended to its maximum range only serious damage will be dealt to those between 10 and 20 meters from the impact. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Styrsenzan - 5
[break]Summoning a cyclone of destructive magic up to 40 meters high with a radius of up to 5 meters in one hand, Leo is capable of bringing such down in a single direction or targeting the skies directly, dealing severe damage to all those caught inside the whip-like darkness. All things aside from himself within a 30 meter radius of the vortex with a Power less than or equal to 50 will also be pulled toward Styrsenzan, beings closer to such threshold being less impacted than those not. The technique has a duration of 1 post, and a cooldown of 2.
[break][break]Defensive
Nysvaengr - 5
[break]The technique Nysvaengr forms two black, incorporeal wings on Leo’s back, consisting of shadows roughly approximating feathers when observed closely. Having a maximum wingspan of 7 meters, they are capable of lifting him up to 100 meters off the ground, and can support Leo’s weight plus an added 70 kilograms. They offer no speed bonus, instead Leo is capable of manifesting them in the physical world, offering a shield that can block up to one instance of intense damage. Once this shield expires, the wings return to their former state. He can maneuver each wing freely so long as they remain anchored to him, no motion necessarily required for flight. Nysvaengr has a duration of 4 posts, and cooldown of 3 posts.
[break]The technique Nysvaengr forms two black, incorporeal wings on Leo’s back, consisting of shadows roughly approximating feathers when observed closely. Having a maximum wingspan of 7 meters, they are capable of lifting him up to 100 meters off the ground, and can support Leo’s weight plus an added 70 kilograms. They offer no speed bonus, instead Leo is capable of manifesting them in the physical world, offering a shield that can block up to one instance of intense damage. Once this shield expires, the wings return to their former state. He can maneuver each wing freely so long as they remain anchored to him, no motion necessarily required for flight. Nysvaengr has a duration of 4 posts, and cooldown of 3 posts.
[break][break]Supportive
Remanoir - 5
[break]Remanoir is a passive technique that enhances Leo's senses, specifically his night vision and the addition of a limited sixth sense. For the former, he has the ability to see up to 75 meters away in pitch black darkness, and in relative darkness as well as he can normally. For the latter, Leo is able to sense the presences of living beings up to 75 meters around him, most individuals possessing unique life forces based on their history regarding bloodshed, magic, and other related subjects. For those he has met before, Leo is capable of easily distinguishing them from a crowd, although this is also determined by his relationship with the individual in question.
[break][break]Endrnimanz - 5
[break]By wreathing an object in shadows, Leo is capable of levitating it with his mind, travelling at a maximum Speed and Power of 50. He can influence up to 5 non-living objects this way, though their total weight cannot exceed 70 kilograms, neither can items opponents possess that are A-class or greater be manipulated. Once they are 25 meters away, any items fall out of the reach of his dominion. Endrimanz has a duration of 4 posts, and a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Remanoir is a passive technique that enhances Leo's senses, specifically his night vision and the addition of a limited sixth sense. For the former, he has the ability to see up to 75 meters away in pitch black darkness, and in relative darkness as well as he can normally. For the latter, Leo is able to sense the presences of living beings up to 75 meters around him, most individuals possessing unique life forces based on their history regarding bloodshed, magic, and other related subjects. For those he has met before, Leo is capable of easily distinguishing them from a crowd, although this is also determined by his relationship with the individual in question.
[break][break]Endrnimanz - 5
[break]By wreathing an object in shadows, Leo is capable of levitating it with his mind, travelling at a maximum Speed and Power of 50. He can influence up to 5 non-living objects this way, though their total weight cannot exceed 70 kilograms, neither can items opponents possess that are A-class or greater be manipulated. Once they are 25 meters away, any items fall out of the reach of his dominion. Endrimanz has a duration of 4 posts, and a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Cantrips
3/3
[break]Malifel - 2
[break]Darkness is a force that seeps beyond the physical realm, into the unknown. By harnessing such aspect of the element, Leo is capable of dealing moderate psychological damage to a target he makes direct contact with, up to once per post. During and for the post after Malifel is cast, techniques and cantrips count as one rank below written for the purpose of calculating magical exhaustion.
[break][break]Nyctingenia - 2
[break]From Leo’s fingertips coagulates shadows, nails extending into dripping claws. Coating a single limb in darkness, he is capable of dealing additional moderate damage to all he strikes with his ingenia, although the spell also extends to blunt damage dealt with the chosen limb. Leo can change the limb afflicted once per post, lower extremities included if he so chooses.
[break][break]Svifagryn - 2
[break]Accelerating through shadows, Leo is capable of dashing up to 10 meters away at an additional 20 Speed comparative to the value of the statistic at any given moment. This dash is situational in categorization, and can be used once per post.
[break]Malifel - 2
[break]Darkness is a force that seeps beyond the physical realm, into the unknown. By harnessing such aspect of the element, Leo is capable of dealing moderate psychological damage to a target he makes direct contact with, up to once per post. During and for the post after Malifel is cast, techniques and cantrips count as one rank below written for the purpose of calculating magical exhaustion.
[break][break]Nyctingenia - 2
[break]From Leo’s fingertips coagulates shadows, nails extending into dripping claws. Coating a single limb in darkness, he is capable of dealing additional moderate damage to all he strikes with his ingenia, although the spell also extends to blunt damage dealt with the chosen limb. Leo can change the limb afflicted once per post, lower extremities included if he so chooses.
[break][break]Svifagryn - 2
[break]Accelerating through shadows, Leo is capable of dashing up to 10 meters away at an additional 20 Speed comparative to the value of the statistic at any given moment. This dash is situational in categorization, and can be used once per post.
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POST EXODUS
POST EXODUS
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IMG | YELLOW [109 REP]
IMG | YELLOW [109 REP]
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LEO; ABBADON
LEO; ABBADON
[attr="class","trinCredits"]TABLE BY TRINITY @ ADOXOGRAPHY
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Name: Leonidas Aglaeca
[break]Nickname/Alias: Leo; Abbadon
[break]Age: 1,436 standard years
[break]Gender: Male
[break]Height: 5' 10"
[break]Weight: 170 lbs
[break]Race: ½ Human [Fiorean] | ½ Extraplanar
[break]Organization: Intergalactic Mercenary Guild
[break]Rank: Yellow [109 REP]
[break]Orientation: Heterosexual | Wed
[break]Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
[break][break]Appearance
[break]Physical Description: At a glance appearing to be in his early to mid twenties, Leo's general demeanor is easygoing, a casual smile usually present on his face with a somewhat slouched yet alert stance. He stands at about average height, and in general most of his traits could described as normal, at least compared to the past. That being said, Leo's muted, fragile-looking skin and faded blond hair paint a more jarring picture, along with his cheekbones, jawline, and general features consisting of harsh, almost gaunt angles. Despite trying to mask such on numerous occasions, there is a certain contemplation in his expressions, as if recalling some distant memory even when alert. In fact, Leo has a habit of somewhat exaggerating the more normal outward signs of emotion when around individuals he doesn't know to distract others from noticing such, although this is quite subtle and hard to notice.
[break][break]His hair is swept to the left side of his face, slightly sticking up in places although overall rather tame, with the longest edges just barely reaching his field of vision and on the side of his head kept just short of his ears. Along the same line of thought, Leo is clean shaven most of the time, although occasionally he can be found sporting faint sideburns, disliking anything more prevalent as he thinks it looks terrible on him. However, by far the most telling of Leo's physical characteristics are his eyes, ever slightly sunken in with a hue hard to determine, shifting in light and time from pale carmine to soft gold, yet always carrying a certain sagacity whether it be with good intentions or something more maligned.
[break][break]In spite of his hollow appearance from a distance, it is clear that Leo is at the very least reasonably athletic, if not more than so. His frame is lean but angular, with the widest portion of his body being his shoulders, broader than most would expect for his height. Likewise, his muscle mass is more defined than his poise would seem to convey, not overbearing but certainly present in what is best described as graceful, distinct although not in an unnatural way. Far more aberrant, as a matter of fact, is what flows just beneath the surface. His veins, far more visible than one would expect even with his skin tone, are darker than usual, although this is really only a result of his blood itself, its lightest color a dark crimson and the deoxygenated hue almost black in appearance. Furthermore, not a single permanent mark can be found on his flesh, although Leo frequently sports a host of fresh cuts and slashes due to his occupation.
[break][break]Clothing: His sense of fashion is a bit old-fashioned, some would say. Preferring dress shirts, jackets, and jeans over the latest trends, that of which he has great difficultly keeping track of, Leo's choices are simple, and rarely have any flair to them. He has never really cared for much except practically, and indeed the colors he tends toward are dark and therefore easier to cover up stains, most often of which are blood, typically his own. Most of the garments he owns are loose fitting, and for that matter conservative in the amount of skin they show. This is partly due to the fact that he sees no need for bizarre cut outs in clothing and whatever other strange styles, but also because the vast majority of his closet functions secondfold as armor, whether conventionally or magically.
[break][break]That being said, he does have a few pieces that he prefers over others, the primary being a black bomber jacket and second a more muted brown blazer. On essentially all occasions, he can be found carrying an assortment of weapons and minor first aid supplies, whether they be concealed or not, and beneath his sleeves white gauze is wrapped around his forearms, minuscule script defining it. In terms of formal wear, Leo usually tends toward a neutral two or three piece suit, complemented with a neck tie that either matches whatever Eris is wearing or his apparent eye color at the time, along with a watch of some variety.
[break][break]Around his neck he wears two black twine strings tied to a roughly cast circle enclosing an obsidian pendant. This usually isn't visible, as it is hidden under other clothing. Significantly more perceivable and important to him, around his left ring finger Leo wears his wedding band, it being outlined in white gold and in the middle a braided pattern of rose gold residing, both metals tarnished from age and general design.
[break][break]Personality
[break]"No matter how hard you try, you will never be one of them."
[break][break]Some would say over the years Leo's demeanor has shifted drastically, while others would argue he has changed little. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in between. On the surface, he appears to to be a decent man, although somewhat anarchic in nature, and indeed this is an accurate, although incredibly base, assumption. As a mercenary, he has more integrity than most of his peers, or at least strives toward such. Often, however, his promises and obligations fall short, usually in one way or another broken by himself or his past.
[break][break]He has a reputation for being more of a passive observer than someone willing to jump headfirst into any conflict, and this is to a degree true. Indeed, Leo tends to exercise restraint on almost all things, preferring to let others take action and shape the future, instead offering encouragement or warning. His primary reasoning for such is to stay relatively anonymous, although this often backfires, shown by the fact that there are more than a few establishments in the galaxy that he has notable connection to, most of them erring on the illegitimate side of the table although certainly places such as bars, dueling rings, and the legal branches of IMG also do apply. He can often be found frequenting such locations, usually earning more money from the various activities they entail than he does from jobs in his chosen profession, although Leo cares little for wealth and far more about entertainment.
[break][break]Regardless of such, his mannerisms are generally more fitting of a gentleman than someone who watches and engages in violence for a living, something that reveals his contradictory nature more than anything; for beneath his somewhat mellow demeanor sulks a far darker truth, matured with age and torment. There is a reason why his smiles often seem shallow and his laughs more often than not consist of just a few choked notes, and the answer is his underlying self hatred, followed by the occasional yet agonizing pull toward ceaseless bloodshed. Little have glimpsed this side of him, and even fewer have truly seen it, but still it persists, the proof that he is nothing more than a broken man haphazardly pieced back together over the centuries.
[break][break]Of those ever able to truly help, all but his wife Eris are long gone, swept up by the river of time. While the two hold some marked differences, they are almost never seen apart, and when they are it is rarely by choice. For better or worse, they have chosen to live to the rest of their days together, and by no exaggeration it has been over a millennium since such promise. Their relationship reflects the time passed, practically instinctive and stranger to both when absent. Often times their interactions play out more like two best friends, probably a result of the fact that almost everyone they once had shared life experiences with are gone now, from one thing or another.
[break][break]While his sense of purpose may be far more convoluted than any typical means, one of his primary goals is to simply make up for his past grievances, that of which are many. Perhaps most notably is Leo's dedication to guarding the many secrets of dead Earthland, and ensuring that the mistakes made on his homeworld are never again repeated. These intents are often obscured for multiple reasons, the least of which being the general tired demeanor he tends to exhibit when referencing topics of importance. Despite his best efforts to conceal it, when recollecting a distant past Leo's weariness usually reveals itself, a certain melancholy that he inevitably finds impossible to shake off.
[break][break]History
[break]The story of Leonidas Aglaeca is one long convoluted by time and instability, of both the literal and mental sort. Born on Earthland in the region of Fiore known as the Glacial Flats some four hundred years before catastrophe, his early life was an isolated one. It wasn't a bad one, though, at least until tragedy struck. His father Alastair was a member of the thirty-three lines from the plane of existence known as Tritaihatreis, a desolate world by the most kind standards, and his mother, whose name he no longer can recall, was a native of the Glacial Flats, particularly a sect descended from Isberg, or so Leo assumes based on the stories he vaguely remembers her spinning when he was a child. While such a heritage would seem to be conflicting at best, it was not so bad, for his father had long since abandoned his violent ways, and his mother had been an outcast of her family to begin with. In many ways they were much the same, although Leo's view of them both has been jaded with time.
[break][break]The minute details of his childhood escape him now, however he recalls his father teaching him how to use a sword when he was still just a boy, although of course he looked like such an age for much longer. Leo took an immediate fascination to the art, although at first it was nothing more than innocently entertaining to him, certainly not foreshadowing the darkness to come. Eventually, he forged his own blade, as his father's traditions dictated, one which has stayed with him to the present time, despite the fact that the rest of his distant past has long since been destroyed.
[break][break]His life eventually devolved into chaos, however, when Leo found his aging mother frozen dead after having taking a fallen during a particularly rough snowstorm. Mourning her openly, he was reluctant to return home to his father, unsure of how he could possibly break the news to him. However, when he eventually did, it was as if Alastair had already known, and his eyes seemed duller than they ever had. Together, they buried her on top of a cliff overlooking the flats, a place he still recalls in his earliest memories now. Surprisingly, considering Alastair's horrific past, the man managed to keep it together for a short time, but eventually his calm demeanor cracked.
[break][break]It was about a week after she died when Leo and his father were forced to travel to a nearby village for supplies, during a seasonal festival of all occasions. In retrospect, he should have known there was something wrong, for Alastair said not a word the entire journey there, something incredibly out of character for him, even compared to the few days beforehand. Nonetheless, there was no action taken against disaster until it was too late. While Leo's father was able to blot out the joyous ceremonies for the majority of the time, as night fell so did his facade. Darkness consumed Alastair whole, and his son simply watched, petrified with horror, as he annihilated the entire populace. It was too late to save the town, but eventually Leo snapped out of it, drawing his sword knowing full well he would probably die by doing so. His father was already dead, though, destroyed by the same thing that had taken a hold of the village. And so, he plunged Calamitas into the man's heart, shattering the only world he had ever known.
[break][break]Soon after, Leo left the Glacial Flats, not to return for quite some time and never again permanently. It was all he could do to not flee that very night, but he persevered through his dismay, and buried Alastair beside his mother the next day. He traveled from city to city, across Fiore and Earthland in general, constantly moving in fear that his ancestry would catch up to him. Leo witnessed little other than conflict during that time, yet he never once got involved in the affairs of others, more so participating in passive observation. After all, they were of no concern of him, nor was anything, really. He felt like a blank slate, motivated by little other than to see happiness in world, however sparse it was. However, somewhere down the line he met a woman he immediately recognized as Alastair's sister, their resemblance, and subsequently to a lesser degree Leo's resemblance to her, being uncanny.
[break][break]Adelina never did confirm her identity, but it did not matter to him. They discussed a great many things, subjects Alastair for the most part had been too ashamed to ever address. Of course, Leo had known to some extent the man's past, but not to the great detail she outlined it in, sparing not a gory moment. By killing him, Adelina informed Leo, he had inherited the title his father had once earned through sheer desolation of the rest of the ᚪ line. He dismissed such, however, after all the head of nothing was nothing. She simply told him not to repeat the past in retaliation. In time, though, he did.
[break][break]Not without provocation, of course, but such came soon after they finished their discussion. The knights, illegal intruders for all intents and purposes, captured both of them, naturally without a fight for they had done nothing wrong, wasn't that right? Leo never saw Adelina again, probably sentenced to death or some sort of cruel experimentation that was worse than the former was what he thought for the longest time. Punishment, for nothing but what they were. Monsters, demons, a plague to be wiped from Fiore. Reality felt like a surreal nightmare, until it was very much not so. Relentless, merciless, confined in a small cell meant to deliver justice as they called it. For what? he found himself asking, day after day, becoming numb to the torment. An emotion festered inside him like an infected wound, however, first directed at himself, and then slowly, steadily, at others. Hatred.
[break][break]Ten long years of agony, self-loathing, of being treated like an animal in a cage. Was that not what he was? He spoke to his oppressors before turning on them, their final words that of mocking, of pity, even. He didn't need the sympathy of humanity, for they had long since abandoned Leo with their actions. His only regret as he escaped the facility was that those who crossed his path faced a quick end, too good for their own sins. Death clung to him naturally, as did a sentence to it. He didn't care in the slightest, however, tearing down all those who stood in his way, his only goal to return to the happiness he had once felt, so quickly stripped from him and leaving nothing but a gaping abyss of darkness. Leo learned though, over time, that there was no way to reverse what had already transpired, no way to bring the dead back to life if they would even forgive him. And so bloodshed became his addiction, forgetting who he had once been in all its entirety.
[break][break]A world, so painted in death that it seemed impossible to escape, to do anything but further define it. It was his reality, built by a cage of misgivings, the inability to change for the fear that he would be blamed again, for something he never intended to do. There was no innocence, however. Driven to the point of near insanity, he held no regard for the lives of others, for the victims, the children, the actual persecutors, they were all the same. Anyone who deviated from normality, no matter their character, was cast out. At first, one could have called it cruel justice. It evolved into mass murder, though, and that did not come without consequences.
[break][break]Hunted, like an animal, for that was what he was. A clever, feral beast, capable of blending in with society, and yet unable to truly comprehend the meaning behind it, too many rules, regulations, and standards that were, in the end, completely and utterly pointless. To protect the people? Leo had never witnessed anything remotely close to that. To this day, he still sometimes scoffs at the notion. His world views didn't matter, however. His pursuers were relentless, leaving too many broken nights and shattered intentions. He ran out of fear, eventually learning to avoid civilization altogether, on the off-chance that someone would recognize him. For those who did, the knowledge tended to die with them. The cycle could not go on forever, though, and he knew such. Leo eventually found himself not dead but captured again, wasting away in another cage so similar to his nightmares. There was no resistance. One might have called his actions lamentation, but his hopelessness was more so fueled by terror. Not of his fate, not of authority, but simply of himself. He had become the one thing he had sworn against, and the ties were so deep that every moment he could feel the urge to slip back into the pattern that had consumed his entire existence.
[break][break]Five years, left to rot, forgotten as soon as he had been contained, or so they called it. Not as though time mattered, an eternity could have gone by just as easily and he would have never known the difference. He craved to be left there forever, never again mentioned by anyone in any tale, for his actions to simply undo themselves as if time could ever be changed. The world would not let him off so easy though, or perhaps it desired to give him a second chance at that which he had pursued so wrongly for so long. Whatever the case, her name was Eris Sigal, and although initially reluctant to return to the outside world, she more or less forced him to. A fellow member of the thirty-three lines she was, although thankfully not of his own. Over time, they became close friends, bonding over their shared life experiences and similar interests, notwithstanding the violence of his own past. Such eventually blossomed into romance, although certainly the more pragmatic side of the definition, and they pledged their lives to one another.
[break][break]Their lives were relatively peaceful for a time, filled with trips and adventures with no particular destination in mind. Sooner or later, Eris encountered her brother again, and while both her and Leo held animosity toward him at first, they quickly realized Aaron had changed since her childhood, and the siblings rekindled their familial ties. Leo also became fast friends with him, although for a whole host of reasons Aaron would often visit them for a time and then fly off the radar for years on end. Still, it was a repetitive, content cycle, even as they remained unchanging in a modernizing world.
[break][break]Suddenly, though, things took a turn for the worse. While Leo and Eris had always had to deal with the occasional cultist or whatnot intruding on their lives, one particular incident took a turn for the worse, a complete one eighty to say the least. In a sudden attack, Leo was left with nothing, Eris having been trapped in some kind of seal attached to his sword, both of their lives wound up in some man's cruel game. Leo, of course, killed the perpetrator on the spot, but the grin left on his corpse would haunt him for the next two or so years. He was forced to make new connections with others, something he found incredibly difficult without slipping into a mindset of deception, a natural habit when it came to social behaviors. For months on end, his search was desperate, unrelenting, and his actions started to fall back into the pattern he had tried so hard to forget. Soon, however, his blade dripped red again, although certainly nothing like before. Then, there was a paradigm shift.
[break][break]He never thought the Second Boscan War would amount to much. Its predecessor only a series of skirmishes that led to no change, at least in his mind, Leo merely brushed it off as yet another pointless conflict between equally pointless nations, too caught up in the crisis that had an immeasurably greater impact on his life. At least, such was the case until tales of an eldritch threat released from its slumber at Castle Reinhardt traveled back to Fiore. Noting a possible connection to various anti-occult organizations, he volunteered for a small task force, primarily mages, sent to secure a potential bioweapon being developed by a rogue Boscan officer. The group, fraught with infighting from the start, was practically doomed for failure. They were all foolish, however, and believed otherwise.
[break][break]In the end, Leo failed to do anything of much consequence. The mad colonel, with his missiles and Moonlight Sonata, spread the Blight to the rest of Earthland, unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, breaking the seal that had held back life's archenemy for so long. Disaster befell the continent, but instead of attempting to repel the inevitably overwhelming force, Leo fled any responsibilities or duties and traveled back to the Glacial Flats. While the desolate wasteland was safe, he hated every moment of it. Haunted by his past life in the region and further tormented by his gnawing anxiety about Eris, he was anything but alive psychologically, and after a few months of general terror, he left his home, unbeknownst to him never to return.
[break][break]The devastation of the Blight was everywhere, even in the largely abandoned countryside. It fed off the beauty that had once existed, coating it in repulsive bile and tumors. He scarcely found any traces of humanity, much less those untouched by the Blight. And yet, the closer to the other desert of the country he got, the more life Leo found. Still, Sanzibar was not his final destination. It was the archaic Tower of Heaven that his mind was set on, the last location where he hoped to find the reverse of a far different seal. Just barely tinged by the rapidly spreading decay, the remains of a two part cult vehemently dedicated to purging all lifeforms not native to Earthland were laid out in a series of sinking temples and monuments.
[break][break]The structures were abandoned, however. The area around the tower was indeed a forest of bones, its landscape forlorn of anything but long dead remains, both physically and spiritually. Only a few decrepit temples were worthy of any sort of attention, at least to him, and yet as he entered them there was nothing still, or at least so he thought. Ahead, however, lay a trial, and upon completing it within a hair's breadth, Leo found the answer he had been searching for over the past two years. Destroy the sword. And so he plunged Calamitas into the heart of the nearby alter, shattering most of its blade and at the same time forever altering the fate of both Eris and himself.
[break][break]She was back, but they were both changed. The man had wished to purify them, and he had indeed done such, or at least so they thought for a few, brief, hopeful yet terrifying moments. In reality, their heritage was merely internalized, Eris's horns vanishing from existence as she had always wished and the mark that had plagued Leo's visage similarly dissipating. For a while, they assumed that their biological immortality had also been stripped from them as the two began to age again for a few years, although they later learned such was not the case. Any thoughts of the future were pushed aside though in those few precious moments, and for the time the warnings of Earthland's impending doom were too swept under the rug.
[break][break]The truth of the dying world could not be ignored forever, and they returned to the group Leo had been travelling with for some time, although he had previously more or less ignored their motives. The Unseen, it was eventually known as, an organization dedicated to protecting humanity from the Blight. They had a hand in many things related to such, and Eris immediately leapt on the bandwagon, the two of them establishing themselves as shadow leaders of sorts, although to be fair there was no real leadership among the ranks. The Unseen had a hand in a great many things, the greatest being the overthrowing of the Fiorean monarchy which led to the eventual establishment of the Federation of Fioran States. That being said, by far the most notable in both Leo and Eris's memory was not that event, but another, unsung by history.
[break][break]The truth, that was all they had ever wanted, an answer to the thing that was desolating the only world they had ever known. They got so much more than they had ever asked for, in the most twisted way possible. And yet, they were forbidden from ever mentioning their knowledge, their magic also corrupted in the process. Eris's took a turn toward the human side, its nature problematic but not so much as his own, which proceeded to tear apart the entire landscape around them, almost killing both himself and her. Not hesitating a moment on what the consequences might be later on, Leo had his magic almost entirely sealed, leaving just enough unrestrained so he could simply live normally, and it has remained like such up to the modern day.
[break][break]They searched for the remainder of their time on Earthland for any cure, to get rid the thing that had ensnared their minds, but it was to no avail. They had lost friends in the chaos, and Leo also adamantly refused to believe they were dead, at least for a time. Eventually, though, all hope was lost, the end being when they finally encountered Aaron again, and watched him die before their eyes. They departed Earthland soon after, wanting nothing else to do with the planet and hoping, perhaps, better time lay ahead in the endless expanses of space.
[break][break]Of course, it took around three hundred years for them to get anywhere at all. Watching generations live and die on something neither could have ever imagined exist when they were growing up was not a pleasant time, but they distracted themselves, taking on various hobbies and devising various plans for when they managed to find another home, clinging to the hope that there would be another habitable place somewhere, eventually. In that time, they almost inadvertently climbed up the social ladder of society, after all on starship where old memories of times past were revered almost religiously, having actually lived through them was a rather large advantage, although certainly they played them off as mere stories most of the time. Humanity's long exodus was bound to come to an end, however, and when it did they made a home in what would eventually become known as Trillium.
[break][break]Having a large set of skills, although technological prowess most certainly not being one of them, Leo and Eris got along just fine in the new society, even prospering and becoming quite wealthy, although that was certainly not their intent. What exactly their purpose was something that was lost on them for a while, until rumors of returning to Earthland started to pop up as the tragedy of the Blight began to fade from humanity's recollection. And so they resolved to guard the world against such an event, creating many a organization to combat those who would be so foolish as to attempt to conquer the apocalypse. Their goals today reflect such, although the saddening truth of their experiences has begun to set in after all the years.
[break][break]Equipment & Items[break]
Calamitas [𝘚] - Once a formidable sword, Calamitas's bloody history was halted long ago when most of its blade was shattered, resulting in what it is today, nothing but a keepsake and bearer of bad memories for Leo. The hilt itself is rather innocuous, consisting of a blackened steel crossguard with ring guards forged on either side of the blade. The handle of Calamitas is really the only thing that classifies it as a bastard sword now, with enough room to wield with two hands although clearly designed for versatility over one or the other. It is wrapped in black leather that has been replaced numerous times since the blade's inception, not essential for Calamitas's use but a preference of Leo's to aid in gripping the weapon.
[break][break]As previously mentioned, the condition of Calamitas's blade would classify it as junk to many, now only a sparse 6" long as compared to the hilt's 7". At the end of the steel length there is not a clean break, instead jagged edges protruding from where a point would be found on any other weapon. Deeply etched into the sword is the symbol of a rugged crescent with a similarly styled circle placed in the middle of it, and a crude line extending outward to the shattered end of the blade. It is a symbol of Leo's bloodline, yet now waits as inert as the rest of Calamitas, all of the half kilogram that remains. In the cases when he does carry the sword around, it is usually kept in a sheath that's length suggests it is unbroken, and is rarely drawn to ever give away the truth.
[break]Dualist [ᗅ] - The blade known as Dualist is usually not one sword but two, separated by the mechanism that also binds the two together. Called Dua and List respectively, if called anything at all, each has a rather simple blade profile, and are nearly identical except for the fact that Dua's back edge, which isn't sharpened in either, is silver hued, while List's is a darker gray. Each sword has a blade length of 29", with a handle of 6" including their irregularly shaped pommels, for a total length of 35". Each weighs about ¾ of a kilogram.
[break][break]However, even excluding their capabilities to combine, the two blades are far from ordinary. Within their mechanisms to interlock with one another also lies the option to cover their edges entirely, turning the swords into effective bludgeoning weapons when lethal force isn't necessary. This is done with the impress of a button found in the pommel of each sword, said toggle being hard to find unless one knows where to look. The same button also triggers the combination of the two swords into one, if the dull sides of their blades are pressed against each other and the depressions are held simultaneously down.
[break][break]When in this alternate form, Dualist takes the shape of a fairly typical although mechanized longsword, with a blade of 40" and a handle of 10" for a total length of 50". If closely inspected, it can be seen that the added length to the blade is in actuality several partitioned lengths of steel, rather than one solid blade, to account for the fact that Dua and List's individual blades do not reach the length of 40". However, because these sectioned parts of the edge are near the handle of the sword, any reduced function because of their separation is largely negated. A black cruciform hilt extends horizontally from the top of the handle, although eccentric in the fact that it is unrefined, consisting of the shells that hold pieces of the blade when configured differently. As the sword neither loses nor gains any weight when it switches between forms, Dualist weighs one and a half kilograms when combined.
[break][break]Esharvendrae [Ɓ] - The blood of the ᚪ line of Tritaihatreis runs through Leo, a dark stain on his otherwise human appearance. Dark crimson in general appearance to the point of almost being black, it has been the subject of much enmity from him in the past, although for the most part he ignores it now. Being passively activated, over 4 posts Esharvendrae can heal up to one severe and one intense wound. In addition, it accelerates Leo’s natural regeneration to 2½ times the human average, and the ability to regenerate lost limbs over long periods of time and the inability to form permanent scars are granted. The blood also carries a tolerance to poisons, irritants, and diseases of all kinds, capable of reducing techniques with these properties by 5 ranks of effectiveness once every 2 posts. This also carries over to the more mundane, offering almost complete immunity.
[break][break]Ingenia [C] - While kept short by tradition, members of the thirty-three lines naturally have nails that are long and razor-edged, enough so to be considered claws. With the activation of Nyctingenia does Leo's heritage become evident in this respect, the nails of one or more of his limbs extending into deadly weapons. Capable of lengthening up to 6" although a span closer to 4" is typically exhibited, even when in their default state of being are they sharp to the touch.
[break][break]Reinforced Clothing [C] - All of Leo’s clothing has been magically reinforced beyond the standard protection such garments provide, making them equivalent to C-class armor. Any time an item of apparel blocks an attack, a hexagonal silver pattern is revealed for a brief period of time where the clothing was struck, although this is only visible when there is light to see it. It also has the ability to access a linked pocket dimension, where Leo can requip equipment and items either he or Eris owns, with a 3 post cooldown every time this is activated.
[break][break]Argentate [D] - Argentate is a custom made silver plated double action revolver, its chamber capable of holding a maximum of seven shots although because it has no safety toggle only six are ever housed. From grip to the end of the barrel it is 8" long, and fires bullets up to the 9mm caliber. It has a maximum effective range of 25 meters, and weighs 1 kilogram when loaded.
[break]Assorted Knives [D] - Leo almost always carries a few blades on him, from the scale of pocket knives to those of the tactical variety. Some concealed, others not, for the most part they can only have a little if any impact on a battle, especially considering he has a tendency to resort to other weapons before them, in any case. Possessing a large collection of knives, it's hard to guess what exactly he is carrying at any time, although they usually number from two to seven.
[break][break]Miscellaneous
[break]
[break][break]Stats - 266
[break]Toughness: 50
[break]Acuity: 30
[break]Power: 41
[break]Speed: 65
[break]Magical Strength: 40
[break]Magical Fortitude: 40
[break][break]Skills & Disciplines
[break]Knowledge - It does not take much intellect to be able to identify that, as a result of his age, Leo is far more versed in various subjects than many could ever hope to be. While the term knowledge is hopelessly broad, there is too much to meticulously category. Most notable in the day to day would be his fluency in all the standard Earthland languages, although he tends to excel more at those from what was once the north than others, Fioran of course being his native tongue along with the language originally spoken on Tritaihatreis. He is also fairly skilled when it comes to first aid and other medical happenstances, possessing a doctorate in the field along with in various other subjects, most notably magical studies and some histories. He also knows of things he dare not share with others, lest there be severe consequences.
[break][break]Deception - Years of lying about his age, name, race, and just about everything else imaginable has left Leo a master of deceit, capable of fooling nearly all into believing he is telling the truth at any given occasion, or at least when he actually tries to cover something up nowadays. Along the same vein of things, Leo is more than experienced with circumventing the authorities and other meddlesome parties, although such practices are more so a thing of the past to him today, possessing a high societal status at present, especially considering his history. He possesses a fair deal of secrets to trade at any given time as well, and his observation of humanity for so long has given him much practice when it comes to wringing information out of people within only a scant few phrases, acknowledging the telling nature of body language.
[break][break]Combat - When it comes to combat, Leo is highly skilled, although certainly his physicality is lacking some compared to others who claim the same. While he is versed in a wide variety of weapons, both melee and ranged, he has always excelled at swordsmanship over all others, owing a large part to the fact that it was the only weapon he was ever formally trained in. While he favors fighting with a single longsword or bastard sword compared to dual wielding, he is more than capable in both these styles. In unarmed combat, he tends to use his surroundings and others' strength to his advantage, rather than throwing straight blows. In general, he is keen eyed when it comes to combat, and due to experience can usually end predicting others' moves before they make them. He is also more than a bit pain tolerant, although this is more shown by the lack of reactions when he is injured rather than his physical ability to resist blows.
[break][break]Artistry - Three hundred years trapped on a starship is, needless to say, rather boring, however over that time Leo picked up on some skills he probably would have never bothered with otherwise. Most notable in the category of fine arts would be his ability to play the piano proficiently and skill when it comes to drawing, mostly using pencil and paper. However, few know of his talents, as he mostly uses them as a coping mechanism for his various internalized problems, the latter usually something he can be found doing when he can't sleep.
[break][break]Magic
[break]Name: Skadusbaere
[break]Type: Elemental Manipulation - Darkness [Offensive Specialist]
[break]Proficiency: 5
[break]Rank: 5
[break]Description: Once called by another name, Skadusbaere, or shadow's bane, is now a far more suitable title for Leo's magic. It thrives off chaos, off the desperate pull between the darkness and light. Propelled forward by conflict and halted by peace, his domination over it is shaky at best, as once embraced it is hard to resist further devolution. Whether this is a byproduct of the magic or simply a suppressed side of his own personality made manifest, however, is impossible to tell, as the two are virtually inseparable. That being said, Skadusbaere's sheer destructive capabilities are immense, or at least when unhindered.
[break][break]For these reasons, Leo's magic has been contained, its power a laughable glimmer of the past, but with such weakness comes greater stability, a life not drowned by insatiable, devastating urges. Its seal broken, he clings to the illusion of control, even as it has begun to degrade from his grasp. Yes, the reality remains that his power does not fit into the refined nature of the present, nor does it abide by the rules of the galaxy's realm. Its will to destroy precedes all others, making it dangerous to all, including to some degree himself. Still, it has some capacity to create and support, mostly with the intent to do further harm to whoever or whatever is the intended target.
[break][break]Techniques - 40/41 [21 + 20]
[break]Offensive
[break][break]Defensive
[break][break]Supportive
[break][break]Cantrips
[break]Nickname/Alias: Leo; Abbadon
[break]Age: 1,436 standard years
[break]Gender: Male
[break]Height: 5' 10"
[break]Weight: 170 lbs
[break]Race: ½ Human [Fiorean] | ½ Extraplanar
[break]Organization: Intergalactic Mercenary Guild
[break]Rank: Yellow [109 REP]
[break]Orientation: Heterosexual | Wed
[break]Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
[break][break]Appearance
[break]Physical Description: At a glance appearing to be in his early to mid twenties, Leo's general demeanor is easygoing, a casual smile usually present on his face with a somewhat slouched yet alert stance. He stands at about average height, and in general most of his traits could described as normal, at least compared to the past. That being said, Leo's muted, fragile-looking skin and faded blond hair paint a more jarring picture, along with his cheekbones, jawline, and general features consisting of harsh, almost gaunt angles. Despite trying to mask such on numerous occasions, there is a certain contemplation in his expressions, as if recalling some distant memory even when alert. In fact, Leo has a habit of somewhat exaggerating the more normal outward signs of emotion when around individuals he doesn't know to distract others from noticing such, although this is quite subtle and hard to notice.
[break][break]His hair is swept to the left side of his face, slightly sticking up in places although overall rather tame, with the longest edges just barely reaching his field of vision and on the side of his head kept just short of his ears. Along the same line of thought, Leo is clean shaven most of the time, although occasionally he can be found sporting faint sideburns, disliking anything more prevalent as he thinks it looks terrible on him. However, by far the most telling of Leo's physical characteristics are his eyes, ever slightly sunken in with a hue hard to determine, shifting in light and time from pale carmine to soft gold, yet always carrying a certain sagacity whether it be with good intentions or something more maligned.
[break][break]In spite of his hollow appearance from a distance, it is clear that Leo is at the very least reasonably athletic, if not more than so. His frame is lean but angular, with the widest portion of his body being his shoulders, broader than most would expect for his height. Likewise, his muscle mass is more defined than his poise would seem to convey, not overbearing but certainly present in what is best described as graceful, distinct although not in an unnatural way. Far more aberrant, as a matter of fact, is what flows just beneath the surface. His veins, far more visible than one would expect even with his skin tone, are darker than usual, although this is really only a result of his blood itself, its lightest color a dark crimson and the deoxygenated hue almost black in appearance. Furthermore, not a single permanent mark can be found on his flesh, although Leo frequently sports a host of fresh cuts and slashes due to his occupation.
[break][break]Clothing: His sense of fashion is a bit old-fashioned, some would say. Preferring dress shirts, jackets, and jeans over the latest trends, that of which he has great difficultly keeping track of, Leo's choices are simple, and rarely have any flair to them. He has never really cared for much except practically, and indeed the colors he tends toward are dark and therefore easier to cover up stains, most often of which are blood, typically his own. Most of the garments he owns are loose fitting, and for that matter conservative in the amount of skin they show. This is partly due to the fact that he sees no need for bizarre cut outs in clothing and whatever other strange styles, but also because the vast majority of his closet functions secondfold as armor, whether conventionally or magically.
[break][break]That being said, he does have a few pieces that he prefers over others, the primary being a black bomber jacket and second a more muted brown blazer. On essentially all occasions, he can be found carrying an assortment of weapons and minor first aid supplies, whether they be concealed or not, and beneath his sleeves white gauze is wrapped around his forearms, minuscule script defining it. In terms of formal wear, Leo usually tends toward a neutral two or three piece suit, complemented with a neck tie that either matches whatever Eris is wearing or his apparent eye color at the time, along with a watch of some variety.
[break][break]Around his neck he wears two black twine strings tied to a roughly cast circle enclosing an obsidian pendant. This usually isn't visible, as it is hidden under other clothing. Significantly more perceivable and important to him, around his left ring finger Leo wears his wedding band, it being outlined in white gold and in the middle a braided pattern of rose gold residing, both metals tarnished from age and general design.
[break][break]Personality
[break]"No matter how hard you try, you will never be one of them."
[break][break]Some would say over the years Leo's demeanor has shifted drastically, while others would argue he has changed little. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in between. On the surface, he appears to to be a decent man, although somewhat anarchic in nature, and indeed this is an accurate, although incredibly base, assumption. As a mercenary, he has more integrity than most of his peers, or at least strives toward such. Often, however, his promises and obligations fall short, usually in one way or another broken by himself or his past.
[break][break]He has a reputation for being more of a passive observer than someone willing to jump headfirst into any conflict, and this is to a degree true. Indeed, Leo tends to exercise restraint on almost all things, preferring to let others take action and shape the future, instead offering encouragement or warning. His primary reasoning for such is to stay relatively anonymous, although this often backfires, shown by the fact that there are more than a few establishments in the galaxy that he has notable connection to, most of them erring on the illegitimate side of the table although certainly places such as bars, dueling rings, and the legal branches of IMG also do apply. He can often be found frequenting such locations, usually earning more money from the various activities they entail than he does from jobs in his chosen profession, although Leo cares little for wealth and far more about entertainment.
[break][break]Regardless of such, his mannerisms are generally more fitting of a gentleman than someone who watches and engages in violence for a living, something that reveals his contradictory nature more than anything; for beneath his somewhat mellow demeanor sulks a far darker truth, matured with age and torment. There is a reason why his smiles often seem shallow and his laughs more often than not consist of just a few choked notes, and the answer is his underlying self hatred, followed by the occasional yet agonizing pull toward ceaseless bloodshed. Little have glimpsed this side of him, and even fewer have truly seen it, but still it persists, the proof that he is nothing more than a broken man haphazardly pieced back together over the centuries.
[break][break]Of those ever able to truly help, all but his wife Eris are long gone, swept up by the river of time. While the two hold some marked differences, they are almost never seen apart, and when they are it is rarely by choice. For better or worse, they have chosen to live to the rest of their days together, and by no exaggeration it has been over a millennium since such promise. Their relationship reflects the time passed, practically instinctive and stranger to both when absent. Often times their interactions play out more like two best friends, probably a result of the fact that almost everyone they once had shared life experiences with are gone now, from one thing or another.
[break][break]While his sense of purpose may be far more convoluted than any typical means, one of his primary goals is to simply make up for his past grievances, that of which are many. Perhaps most notably is Leo's dedication to guarding the many secrets of dead Earthland, and ensuring that the mistakes made on his homeworld are never again repeated. These intents are often obscured for multiple reasons, the least of which being the general tired demeanor he tends to exhibit when referencing topics of importance. Despite his best efforts to conceal it, when recollecting a distant past Leo's weariness usually reveals itself, a certain melancholy that he inevitably finds impossible to shake off.
[break][break]History
[break]The story of Leonidas Aglaeca is one long convoluted by time and instability, of both the literal and mental sort. Born on Earthland in the region of Fiore known as the Glacial Flats some four hundred years before catastrophe, his early life was an isolated one. It wasn't a bad one, though, at least until tragedy struck. His father Alastair was a member of the thirty-three lines from the plane of existence known as Tritaihatreis, a desolate world by the most kind standards, and his mother, whose name he no longer can recall, was a native of the Glacial Flats, particularly a sect descended from Isberg, or so Leo assumes based on the stories he vaguely remembers her spinning when he was a child. While such a heritage would seem to be conflicting at best, it was not so bad, for his father had long since abandoned his violent ways, and his mother had been an outcast of her family to begin with. In many ways they were much the same, although Leo's view of them both has been jaded with time.
[break][break]The minute details of his childhood escape him now, however he recalls his father teaching him how to use a sword when he was still just a boy, although of course he looked like such an age for much longer. Leo took an immediate fascination to the art, although at first it was nothing more than innocently entertaining to him, certainly not foreshadowing the darkness to come. Eventually, he forged his own blade, as his father's traditions dictated, one which has stayed with him to the present time, despite the fact that the rest of his distant past has long since been destroyed.
[break][break]His life eventually devolved into chaos, however, when Leo found his aging mother frozen dead after having taking a fallen during a particularly rough snowstorm. Mourning her openly, he was reluctant to return home to his father, unsure of how he could possibly break the news to him. However, when he eventually did, it was as if Alastair had already known, and his eyes seemed duller than they ever had. Together, they buried her on top of a cliff overlooking the flats, a place he still recalls in his earliest memories now. Surprisingly, considering Alastair's horrific past, the man managed to keep it together for a short time, but eventually his calm demeanor cracked.
[break][break]It was about a week after she died when Leo and his father were forced to travel to a nearby village for supplies, during a seasonal festival of all occasions. In retrospect, he should have known there was something wrong, for Alastair said not a word the entire journey there, something incredibly out of character for him, even compared to the few days beforehand. Nonetheless, there was no action taken against disaster until it was too late. While Leo's father was able to blot out the joyous ceremonies for the majority of the time, as night fell so did his facade. Darkness consumed Alastair whole, and his son simply watched, petrified with horror, as he annihilated the entire populace. It was too late to save the town, but eventually Leo snapped out of it, drawing his sword knowing full well he would probably die by doing so. His father was already dead, though, destroyed by the same thing that had taken a hold of the village. And so, he plunged Calamitas into the man's heart, shattering the only world he had ever known.
[break][break]Soon after, Leo left the Glacial Flats, not to return for quite some time and never again permanently. It was all he could do to not flee that very night, but he persevered through his dismay, and buried Alastair beside his mother the next day. He traveled from city to city, across Fiore and Earthland in general, constantly moving in fear that his ancestry would catch up to him. Leo witnessed little other than conflict during that time, yet he never once got involved in the affairs of others, more so participating in passive observation. After all, they were of no concern of him, nor was anything, really. He felt like a blank slate, motivated by little other than to see happiness in world, however sparse it was. However, somewhere down the line he met a woman he immediately recognized as Alastair's sister, their resemblance, and subsequently to a lesser degree Leo's resemblance to her, being uncanny.
[break][break]Adelina never did confirm her identity, but it did not matter to him. They discussed a great many things, subjects Alastair for the most part had been too ashamed to ever address. Of course, Leo had known to some extent the man's past, but not to the great detail she outlined it in, sparing not a gory moment. By killing him, Adelina informed Leo, he had inherited the title his father had once earned through sheer desolation of the rest of the ᚪ line. He dismissed such, however, after all the head of nothing was nothing. She simply told him not to repeat the past in retaliation. In time, though, he did.
[break][break]Not without provocation, of course, but such came soon after they finished their discussion. The knights, illegal intruders for all intents and purposes, captured both of them, naturally without a fight for they had done nothing wrong, wasn't that right? Leo never saw Adelina again, probably sentenced to death or some sort of cruel experimentation that was worse than the former was what he thought for the longest time. Punishment, for nothing but what they were. Monsters, demons, a plague to be wiped from Fiore. Reality felt like a surreal nightmare, until it was very much not so. Relentless, merciless, confined in a small cell meant to deliver justice as they called it. For what? he found himself asking, day after day, becoming numb to the torment. An emotion festered inside him like an infected wound, however, first directed at himself, and then slowly, steadily, at others. Hatred.
[break][break]Ten long years of agony, self-loathing, of being treated like an animal in a cage. Was that not what he was? He spoke to his oppressors before turning on them, their final words that of mocking, of pity, even. He didn't need the sympathy of humanity, for they had long since abandoned Leo with their actions. His only regret as he escaped the facility was that those who crossed his path faced a quick end, too good for their own sins. Death clung to him naturally, as did a sentence to it. He didn't care in the slightest, however, tearing down all those who stood in his way, his only goal to return to the happiness he had once felt, so quickly stripped from him and leaving nothing but a gaping abyss of darkness. Leo learned though, over time, that there was no way to reverse what had already transpired, no way to bring the dead back to life if they would even forgive him. And so bloodshed became his addiction, forgetting who he had once been in all its entirety.
[break][break]A world, so painted in death that it seemed impossible to escape, to do anything but further define it. It was his reality, built by a cage of misgivings, the inability to change for the fear that he would be blamed again, for something he never intended to do. There was no innocence, however. Driven to the point of near insanity, he held no regard for the lives of others, for the victims, the children, the actual persecutors, they were all the same. Anyone who deviated from normality, no matter their character, was cast out. At first, one could have called it cruel justice. It evolved into mass murder, though, and that did not come without consequences.
[break][break]Hunted, like an animal, for that was what he was. A clever, feral beast, capable of blending in with society, and yet unable to truly comprehend the meaning behind it, too many rules, regulations, and standards that were, in the end, completely and utterly pointless. To protect the people? Leo had never witnessed anything remotely close to that. To this day, he still sometimes scoffs at the notion. His world views didn't matter, however. His pursuers were relentless, leaving too many broken nights and shattered intentions. He ran out of fear, eventually learning to avoid civilization altogether, on the off-chance that someone would recognize him. For those who did, the knowledge tended to die with them. The cycle could not go on forever, though, and he knew such. Leo eventually found himself not dead but captured again, wasting away in another cage so similar to his nightmares. There was no resistance. One might have called his actions lamentation, but his hopelessness was more so fueled by terror. Not of his fate, not of authority, but simply of himself. He had become the one thing he had sworn against, and the ties were so deep that every moment he could feel the urge to slip back into the pattern that had consumed his entire existence.
[break][break]Five years, left to rot, forgotten as soon as he had been contained, or so they called it. Not as though time mattered, an eternity could have gone by just as easily and he would have never known the difference. He craved to be left there forever, never again mentioned by anyone in any tale, for his actions to simply undo themselves as if time could ever be changed. The world would not let him off so easy though, or perhaps it desired to give him a second chance at that which he had pursued so wrongly for so long. Whatever the case, her name was Eris Sigal, and although initially reluctant to return to the outside world, she more or less forced him to. A fellow member of the thirty-three lines she was, although thankfully not of his own. Over time, they became close friends, bonding over their shared life experiences and similar interests, notwithstanding the violence of his own past. Such eventually blossomed into romance, although certainly the more pragmatic side of the definition, and they pledged their lives to one another.
[break][break]Their lives were relatively peaceful for a time, filled with trips and adventures with no particular destination in mind. Sooner or later, Eris encountered her brother again, and while both her and Leo held animosity toward him at first, they quickly realized Aaron had changed since her childhood, and the siblings rekindled their familial ties. Leo also became fast friends with him, although for a whole host of reasons Aaron would often visit them for a time and then fly off the radar for years on end. Still, it was a repetitive, content cycle, even as they remained unchanging in a modernizing world.
[break][break]Suddenly, though, things took a turn for the worse. While Leo and Eris had always had to deal with the occasional cultist or whatnot intruding on their lives, one particular incident took a turn for the worse, a complete one eighty to say the least. In a sudden attack, Leo was left with nothing, Eris having been trapped in some kind of seal attached to his sword, both of their lives wound up in some man's cruel game. Leo, of course, killed the perpetrator on the spot, but the grin left on his corpse would haunt him for the next two or so years. He was forced to make new connections with others, something he found incredibly difficult without slipping into a mindset of deception, a natural habit when it came to social behaviors. For months on end, his search was desperate, unrelenting, and his actions started to fall back into the pattern he had tried so hard to forget. Soon, however, his blade dripped red again, although certainly nothing like before. Then, there was a paradigm shift.
[break][break]He never thought the Second Boscan War would amount to much. Its predecessor only a series of skirmishes that led to no change, at least in his mind, Leo merely brushed it off as yet another pointless conflict between equally pointless nations, too caught up in the crisis that had an immeasurably greater impact on his life. At least, such was the case until tales of an eldritch threat released from its slumber at Castle Reinhardt traveled back to Fiore. Noting a possible connection to various anti-occult organizations, he volunteered for a small task force, primarily mages, sent to secure a potential bioweapon being developed by a rogue Boscan officer. The group, fraught with infighting from the start, was practically doomed for failure. They were all foolish, however, and believed otherwise.
[break][break]In the end, Leo failed to do anything of much consequence. The mad colonel, with his missiles and Moonlight Sonata, spread the Blight to the rest of Earthland, unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, breaking the seal that had held back life's archenemy for so long. Disaster befell the continent, but instead of attempting to repel the inevitably overwhelming force, Leo fled any responsibilities or duties and traveled back to the Glacial Flats. While the desolate wasteland was safe, he hated every moment of it. Haunted by his past life in the region and further tormented by his gnawing anxiety about Eris, he was anything but alive psychologically, and after a few months of general terror, he left his home, unbeknownst to him never to return.
[break][break]The devastation of the Blight was everywhere, even in the largely abandoned countryside. It fed off the beauty that had once existed, coating it in repulsive bile and tumors. He scarcely found any traces of humanity, much less those untouched by the Blight. And yet, the closer to the other desert of the country he got, the more life Leo found. Still, Sanzibar was not his final destination. It was the archaic Tower of Heaven that his mind was set on, the last location where he hoped to find the reverse of a far different seal. Just barely tinged by the rapidly spreading decay, the remains of a two part cult vehemently dedicated to purging all lifeforms not native to Earthland were laid out in a series of sinking temples and monuments.
[break][break]The structures were abandoned, however. The area around the tower was indeed a forest of bones, its landscape forlorn of anything but long dead remains, both physically and spiritually. Only a few decrepit temples were worthy of any sort of attention, at least to him, and yet as he entered them there was nothing still, or at least so he thought. Ahead, however, lay a trial, and upon completing it within a hair's breadth, Leo found the answer he had been searching for over the past two years. Destroy the sword. And so he plunged Calamitas into the heart of the nearby alter, shattering most of its blade and at the same time forever altering the fate of both Eris and himself.
[break][break]She was back, but they were both changed. The man had wished to purify them, and he had indeed done such, or at least so they thought for a few, brief, hopeful yet terrifying moments. In reality, their heritage was merely internalized, Eris's horns vanishing from existence as she had always wished and the mark that had plagued Leo's visage similarly dissipating. For a while, they assumed that their biological immortality had also been stripped from them as the two began to age again for a few years, although they later learned such was not the case. Any thoughts of the future were pushed aside though in those few precious moments, and for the time the warnings of Earthland's impending doom were too swept under the rug.
[break][break]The truth of the dying world could not be ignored forever, and they returned to the group Leo had been travelling with for some time, although he had previously more or less ignored their motives. The Unseen, it was eventually known as, an organization dedicated to protecting humanity from the Blight. They had a hand in many things related to such, and Eris immediately leapt on the bandwagon, the two of them establishing themselves as shadow leaders of sorts, although to be fair there was no real leadership among the ranks. The Unseen had a hand in a great many things, the greatest being the overthrowing of the Fiorean monarchy which led to the eventual establishment of the Federation of Fioran States. That being said, by far the most notable in both Leo and Eris's memory was not that event, but another, unsung by history.
[break][break]The truth, that was all they had ever wanted, an answer to the thing that was desolating the only world they had ever known. They got so much more than they had ever asked for, in the most twisted way possible. And yet, they were forbidden from ever mentioning their knowledge, their magic also corrupted in the process. Eris's took a turn toward the human side, its nature problematic but not so much as his own, which proceeded to tear apart the entire landscape around them, almost killing both himself and her. Not hesitating a moment on what the consequences might be later on, Leo had his magic almost entirely sealed, leaving just enough unrestrained so he could simply live normally, and it has remained like such up to the modern day.
[break][break]They searched for the remainder of their time on Earthland for any cure, to get rid the thing that had ensnared their minds, but it was to no avail. They had lost friends in the chaos, and Leo also adamantly refused to believe they were dead, at least for a time. Eventually, though, all hope was lost, the end being when they finally encountered Aaron again, and watched him die before their eyes. They departed Earthland soon after, wanting nothing else to do with the planet and hoping, perhaps, better time lay ahead in the endless expanses of space.
[break][break]Of course, it took around three hundred years for them to get anywhere at all. Watching generations live and die on something neither could have ever imagined exist when they were growing up was not a pleasant time, but they distracted themselves, taking on various hobbies and devising various plans for when they managed to find another home, clinging to the hope that there would be another habitable place somewhere, eventually. In that time, they almost inadvertently climbed up the social ladder of society, after all on starship where old memories of times past were revered almost religiously, having actually lived through them was a rather large advantage, although certainly they played them off as mere stories most of the time. Humanity's long exodus was bound to come to an end, however, and when it did they made a home in what would eventually become known as Trillium.
[break][break]Having a large set of skills, although technological prowess most certainly not being one of them, Leo and Eris got along just fine in the new society, even prospering and becoming quite wealthy, although that was certainly not their intent. What exactly their purpose was something that was lost on them for a while, until rumors of returning to Earthland started to pop up as the tragedy of the Blight began to fade from humanity's recollection. And so they resolved to guard the world against such an event, creating many a organization to combat those who would be so foolish as to attempt to conquer the apocalypse. Their goals today reflect such, although the saddening truth of their experiences has begun to set in after all the years.
[break][break]Equipment & Items[break]
Calamitas [𝘚] - Once a formidable sword, Calamitas's bloody history was halted long ago when most of its blade was shattered, resulting in what it is today, nothing but a keepsake and bearer of bad memories for Leo. The hilt itself is rather innocuous, consisting of a blackened steel crossguard with ring guards forged on either side of the blade. The handle of Calamitas is really the only thing that classifies it as a bastard sword now, with enough room to wield with two hands although clearly designed for versatility over one or the other. It is wrapped in black leather that has been replaced numerous times since the blade's inception, not essential for Calamitas's use but a preference of Leo's to aid in gripping the weapon.
[break][break]As previously mentioned, the condition of Calamitas's blade would classify it as junk to many, now only a sparse 6" long as compared to the hilt's 7". At the end of the steel length there is not a clean break, instead jagged edges protruding from where a point would be found on any other weapon. Deeply etched into the sword is the symbol of a rugged crescent with a similarly styled circle placed in the middle of it, and a crude line extending outward to the shattered end of the blade. It is a symbol of Leo's bloodline, yet now waits as inert as the rest of Calamitas, all of the half kilogram that remains. In the cases when he does carry the sword around, it is usually kept in a sheath that's length suggests it is unbroken, and is rarely drawn to ever give away the truth.
Vokius - 5
[break]Reaching out to the void that had long ago devoured most of Calamitas’s blade, Leo is capable of reforming a shadowy replica of it which appears to have an almost indefinite edge, although this is far from the case as the darkness takes on a durability identical to the rest of the sword itself. Lengthening Calamitas altogether to 45", every strike with the extended part of the blade also deals severe damage to whoever or whatever the target may be, excluding Leo himself. Duration of 4 posts, cooldown of 2 posts. Alternatively, Leo may choose to simply form the blade itself without additional damage, in which case Vokius has an infinite duration, although once dismissed it still endures a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Reaching out to the void that had long ago devoured most of Calamitas’s blade, Leo is capable of reforming a shadowy replica of it which appears to have an almost indefinite edge, although this is far from the case as the darkness takes on a durability identical to the rest of the sword itself. Lengthening Calamitas altogether to 45", every strike with the extended part of the blade also deals severe damage to whoever or whatever the target may be, excluding Leo himself. Duration of 4 posts, cooldown of 2 posts. Alternatively, Leo may choose to simply form the blade itself without additional damage, in which case Vokius has an infinite duration, although once dismissed it still endures a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Dualist [ᗅ] - The blade known as Dualist is usually not one sword but two, separated by the mechanism that also binds the two together. Called Dua and List respectively, if called anything at all, each has a rather simple blade profile, and are nearly identical except for the fact that Dua's back edge, which isn't sharpened in either, is silver hued, while List's is a darker gray. Each sword has a blade length of 29", with a handle of 6" including their irregularly shaped pommels, for a total length of 35". Each weighs about ¾ of a kilogram.
[break][break]However, even excluding their capabilities to combine, the two blades are far from ordinary. Within their mechanisms to interlock with one another also lies the option to cover their edges entirely, turning the swords into effective bludgeoning weapons when lethal force isn't necessary. This is done with the impress of a button found in the pommel of each sword, said toggle being hard to find unless one knows where to look. The same button also triggers the combination of the two swords into one, if the dull sides of their blades are pressed against each other and the depressions are held simultaneously down.
[break][break]When in this alternate form, Dualist takes the shape of a fairly typical although mechanized longsword, with a blade of 40" and a handle of 10" for a total length of 50". If closely inspected, it can be seen that the added length to the blade is in actuality several partitioned lengths of steel, rather than one solid blade, to account for the fact that Dua and List's individual blades do not reach the length of 40". However, because these sectioned parts of the edge are near the handle of the sword, any reduced function because of their separation is largely negated. A black cruciform hilt extends horizontally from the top of the handle, although eccentric in the fact that it is unrefined, consisting of the shells that hold pieces of the blade when configured differently. As the sword neither loses nor gains any weight when it switches between forms, Dualist weighs one and a half kilograms when combined.
[break][break]Esharvendrae [Ɓ] - The blood of the ᚪ line of Tritaihatreis runs through Leo, a dark stain on his otherwise human appearance. Dark crimson in general appearance to the point of almost being black, it has been the subject of much enmity from him in the past, although for the most part he ignores it now. Being passively activated, over 4 posts Esharvendrae can heal up to one severe and one intense wound. In addition, it accelerates Leo’s natural regeneration to 2½ times the human average, and the ability to regenerate lost limbs over long periods of time and the inability to form permanent scars are granted. The blood also carries a tolerance to poisons, irritants, and diseases of all kinds, capable of reducing techniques with these properties by 5 ranks of effectiveness once every 2 posts. This also carries over to the more mundane, offering almost complete immunity.
[break][break]Ingenia [C] - While kept short by tradition, members of the thirty-three lines naturally have nails that are long and razor-edged, enough so to be considered claws. With the activation of Nyctingenia does Leo's heritage become evident in this respect, the nails of one or more of his limbs extending into deadly weapons. Capable of lengthening up to 6" although a span closer to 4" is typically exhibited, even when in their default state of being are they sharp to the touch.
[break][break]Reinforced Clothing [C] - All of Leo’s clothing has been magically reinforced beyond the standard protection such garments provide, making them equivalent to C-class armor. Any time an item of apparel blocks an attack, a hexagonal silver pattern is revealed for a brief period of time where the clothing was struck, although this is only visible when there is light to see it. It also has the ability to access a linked pocket dimension, where Leo can requip equipment and items either he or Eris owns, with a 3 post cooldown every time this is activated.
[break][break]Argentate [D] - Argentate is a custom made silver plated double action revolver, its chamber capable of holding a maximum of seven shots although because it has no safety toggle only six are ever housed. From grip to the end of the barrel it is 8" long, and fires bullets up to the 9mm caliber. It has a maximum effective range of 25 meters, and weighs 1 kilogram when loaded.
Argentate's Ammunition [D] - As it is a revolver, Argentate uses individual bullets rather than cartridges, however the firearm is usually loaded with six of these, typically hollow point in nature. Rarely if ever does Leo carry more, the revolver being a backup weapon in the first place.
[break]Assorted Knives [D] - Leo almost always carries a few blades on him, from the scale of pocket knives to those of the tactical variety. Some concealed, others not, for the most part they can only have a little if any impact on a battle, especially considering he has a tendency to resort to other weapons before them, in any case. Possessing a large collection of knives, it's hard to guess what exactly he is carrying at any time, although they usually number from two to seven.
[break][break]Miscellaneous
[break]
Barberpole [C] - A red and white striped candy cane, its flavor a delicious peppermint. It never seems to wear down or get sticky, no matter how much somebody licks it. At will, the candy cane can transform into a katana of similarly themed colors, with a length of 39" and a weight of 1 kilogram. This form can last for an upwards of 3 posts, with a 3 post cooldown once it is deactivated. Alternatively, the katana can be summoned in its sheath, in which case it takes the form of a larger candy cane.
[break][break]Stats - 266
[break]Toughness: 50
[break]Acuity: 30
[break]Power: 41
[break]Speed: 65
[break]Magical Strength: 40
[break]Magical Fortitude: 40
[break][break]Skills & Disciplines
[break]Knowledge - It does not take much intellect to be able to identify that, as a result of his age, Leo is far more versed in various subjects than many could ever hope to be. While the term knowledge is hopelessly broad, there is too much to meticulously category. Most notable in the day to day would be his fluency in all the standard Earthland languages, although he tends to excel more at those from what was once the north than others, Fioran of course being his native tongue along with the language originally spoken on Tritaihatreis. He is also fairly skilled when it comes to first aid and other medical happenstances, possessing a doctorate in the field along with in various other subjects, most notably magical studies and some histories. He also knows of things he dare not share with others, lest there be severe consequences.
[break][break]Deception - Years of lying about his age, name, race, and just about everything else imaginable has left Leo a master of deceit, capable of fooling nearly all into believing he is telling the truth at any given occasion, or at least when he actually tries to cover something up nowadays. Along the same vein of things, Leo is more than experienced with circumventing the authorities and other meddlesome parties, although such practices are more so a thing of the past to him today, possessing a high societal status at present, especially considering his history. He possesses a fair deal of secrets to trade at any given time as well, and his observation of humanity for so long has given him much practice when it comes to wringing information out of people within only a scant few phrases, acknowledging the telling nature of body language.
[break][break]Combat - When it comes to combat, Leo is highly skilled, although certainly his physicality is lacking some compared to others who claim the same. While he is versed in a wide variety of weapons, both melee and ranged, he has always excelled at swordsmanship over all others, owing a large part to the fact that it was the only weapon he was ever formally trained in. While he favors fighting with a single longsword or bastard sword compared to dual wielding, he is more than capable in both these styles. In unarmed combat, he tends to use his surroundings and others' strength to his advantage, rather than throwing straight blows. In general, he is keen eyed when it comes to combat, and due to experience can usually end predicting others' moves before they make them. He is also more than a bit pain tolerant, although this is more shown by the lack of reactions when he is injured rather than his physical ability to resist blows.
[break][break]Artistry - Three hundred years trapped on a starship is, needless to say, rather boring, however over that time Leo picked up on some skills he probably would have never bothered with otherwise. Most notable in the category of fine arts would be his ability to play the piano proficiently and skill when it comes to drawing, mostly using pencil and paper. However, few know of his talents, as he mostly uses them as a coping mechanism for his various internalized problems, the latter usually something he can be found doing when he can't sleep.
[break][break]Magic
[break]Name: Skadusbaere
[break]Type: Elemental Manipulation - Darkness [Offensive Specialist]
[break]Proficiency: 5
[break]Rank: 5
[break]Description: Once called by another name, Skadusbaere, or shadow's bane, is now a far more suitable title for Leo's magic. It thrives off chaos, off the desperate pull between the darkness and light. Propelled forward by conflict and halted by peace, his domination over it is shaky at best, as once embraced it is hard to resist further devolution. Whether this is a byproduct of the magic or simply a suppressed side of his own personality made manifest, however, is impossible to tell, as the two are virtually inseparable. That being said, Skadusbaere's sheer destructive capabilities are immense, or at least when unhindered.
[break][break]For these reasons, Leo's magic has been contained, its power a laughable glimmer of the past, but with such weakness comes greater stability, a life not drowned by insatiable, devastating urges. Its seal broken, he clings to the illusion of control, even as it has begun to degrade from his grasp. Yes, the reality remains that his power does not fit into the refined nature of the present, nor does it abide by the rules of the galaxy's realm. Its will to destroy precedes all others, making it dangerous to all, including to some degree himself. Still, it has some capacity to create and support, mostly with the intent to do further harm to whoever or whatever is the intended target.
[break][break]Techniques - 40/41 [21 + 20]
[break]Offensive
Kaosmakien - 5
[break]Not a directly offensive technique, Kaosmakien is more so a description of the destructive nature of Leo's magic. It is a passive technique, and applies additional severe damage to all offensive techniques and cantrips cast. The caveat, however, is that Kaosmakien also causes all of Leo's offensive spells to not be able to distinguish between friend and foe, not only in their damage but also in any additional harmful effects they may have. Kaosmakien's range is equal to whatever spell it's affecting, although spells of higher rank than Kaosmakien fired at their maximum range will not be affected by the damage side of the technique, although friendly fire applies no matter what.
[break][break]Eretheos - 5
[break]Making contact with the ground, whether it be directly or through a weapon enchanted with Eretheos that is not more than 50 meters away, Leo is capable of shattering the surface with black, slicing energy. Forming a cone with an angle of 60°, a length of 40 meters, and a height of 20 meters, severe damage is dealt to all within the area - those with a Toughness less than or equal to 50 being thrown off their feet. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Melasraike - 5
[break]A violent onslaught of umbral energy outpours from Leo’s person, dealing severe damage to all those caught within 30 meters of the spherical blast. Those with a Power less than or equal to 50 who are struck will also be pushed back up to 10 meters, depending on how close they are to this threshold. Leo can also channel the destructive power of Melasraike into a weapon of some kind, instead performing three slashes that are extended 15 meters by shadows. These strikes can be performed in rapid succession or dispersed over a single post, each dealing serious damage and capable of pushing targets up to 5 meters away from their previous position. Potential duration of 1 post, cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Pytsphaira - 5
[break]Forming a condensed umbral sphere a few inches from a point on his person - whether it be a weapon, finger, or similar - Leo can fire such in a straight line of dark energy, continuing on for up to 120 meters. Upon contact with something, Pytsphaira will explode, dealing severe damage to the target and all within the blast radius of 20 meters, although if extended to its maximum range only serious damage will be dealt to those between 10 and 20 meters from the impact. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Styrsenzan - 5
[break]Summoning a cyclone of destructive magic up to 40 meters high with a radius of up to 5 meters in one hand, Leo is capable of bringing such down in a single direction or targeting the skies directly, dealing severe damage to all those caught inside the whip-like darkness. All things aside from himself within a 30 meter radius of the vortex with a Power less than or equal to 50 will also be pulled toward Styrsenzan, beings closer to such threshold being less impacted than those not. The technique has a duration of 1 post, and a cooldown of 2.
[break]Not a directly offensive technique, Kaosmakien is more so a description of the destructive nature of Leo's magic. It is a passive technique, and applies additional severe damage to all offensive techniques and cantrips cast. The caveat, however, is that Kaosmakien also causes all of Leo's offensive spells to not be able to distinguish between friend and foe, not only in their damage but also in any additional harmful effects they may have. Kaosmakien's range is equal to whatever spell it's affecting, although spells of higher rank than Kaosmakien fired at their maximum range will not be affected by the damage side of the technique, although friendly fire applies no matter what.
[break][break]Eretheos - 5
[break]Making contact with the ground, whether it be directly or through a weapon enchanted with Eretheos that is not more than 50 meters away, Leo is capable of shattering the surface with black, slicing energy. Forming a cone with an angle of 60°, a length of 40 meters, and a height of 20 meters, severe damage is dealt to all within the area - those with a Toughness less than or equal to 50 being thrown off their feet. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Melasraike - 5
[break]A violent onslaught of umbral energy outpours from Leo’s person, dealing severe damage to all those caught within 30 meters of the spherical blast. Those with a Power less than or equal to 50 who are struck will also be pushed back up to 10 meters, depending on how close they are to this threshold. Leo can also channel the destructive power of Melasraike into a weapon of some kind, instead performing three slashes that are extended 15 meters by shadows. These strikes can be performed in rapid succession or dispersed over a single post, each dealing serious damage and capable of pushing targets up to 5 meters away from their previous position. Potential duration of 1 post, cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Pytsphaira - 5
[break]Forming a condensed umbral sphere a few inches from a point on his person - whether it be a weapon, finger, or similar - Leo can fire such in a straight line of dark energy, continuing on for up to 120 meters. Upon contact with something, Pytsphaira will explode, dealing severe damage to the target and all within the blast radius of 20 meters, although if extended to its maximum range only serious damage will be dealt to those between 10 and 20 meters from the impact. Cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Styrsenzan - 5
[break]Summoning a cyclone of destructive magic up to 40 meters high with a radius of up to 5 meters in one hand, Leo is capable of bringing such down in a single direction or targeting the skies directly, dealing severe damage to all those caught inside the whip-like darkness. All things aside from himself within a 30 meter radius of the vortex with a Power less than or equal to 50 will also be pulled toward Styrsenzan, beings closer to such threshold being less impacted than those not. The technique has a duration of 1 post, and a cooldown of 2.
[break][break]Defensive
Nysvaengr - 5
[break]The technique Nysvaengr forms two black, incorporeal wings on Leo’s back, consisting of shadows roughly approximating feathers when observed closely. Having a maximum wingspan of 7 meters, they are capable of lifting him up to 100 meters off the ground, and can support Leo’s weight plus an added 70 kilograms. They offer no speed bonus, instead Leo is capable of manifesting them in the physical world, offering a shield that can block up to one instance of intense damage. Once this shield expires, the wings return to their former state. He can maneuver each wing freely so long as they remain anchored to him, no motion necessarily required for flight. Nysvaengr has a duration of 4 posts, and cooldown of 3 posts.
[break]The technique Nysvaengr forms two black, incorporeal wings on Leo’s back, consisting of shadows roughly approximating feathers when observed closely. Having a maximum wingspan of 7 meters, they are capable of lifting him up to 100 meters off the ground, and can support Leo’s weight plus an added 70 kilograms. They offer no speed bonus, instead Leo is capable of manifesting them in the physical world, offering a shield that can block up to one instance of intense damage. Once this shield expires, the wings return to their former state. He can maneuver each wing freely so long as they remain anchored to him, no motion necessarily required for flight. Nysvaengr has a duration of 4 posts, and cooldown of 3 posts.
[break][break]Supportive
Remanoir - 5
[break]Remanoir is a passive technique that enhances Leo's senses, specifically his night vision and the addition of a limited sixth sense. For the former, he has the ability to see up to 75 meters away in pitch black darkness, and in relative darkness as well as he can normally. For the latter, Leo is able to sense the presences of living beings up to 75 meters around him, most individuals possessing unique life forces based on their history regarding bloodshed, magic, and other related subjects. For those he has met before, Leo is capable of easily distinguishing them from a crowd, although this is also determined by his relationship with the individual in question.
[break][break]Endrnimanz - 5
[break]By wreathing an object in shadows, Leo is capable of levitating it with his mind, travelling at a maximum Speed and Power of 50. He can influence up to 5 non-living objects this way, though their total weight cannot exceed 70 kilograms, neither can items opponents possess that are A-class or greater be manipulated. Once they are 25 meters away, any items fall out of the reach of his dominion. Endrimanz has a duration of 4 posts, and a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break]Remanoir is a passive technique that enhances Leo's senses, specifically his night vision and the addition of a limited sixth sense. For the former, he has the ability to see up to 75 meters away in pitch black darkness, and in relative darkness as well as he can normally. For the latter, Leo is able to sense the presences of living beings up to 75 meters around him, most individuals possessing unique life forces based on their history regarding bloodshed, magic, and other related subjects. For those he has met before, Leo is capable of easily distinguishing them from a crowd, although this is also determined by his relationship with the individual in question.
[break][break]Endrnimanz - 5
[break]By wreathing an object in shadows, Leo is capable of levitating it with his mind, travelling at a maximum Speed and Power of 50. He can influence up to 5 non-living objects this way, though their total weight cannot exceed 70 kilograms, neither can items opponents possess that are A-class or greater be manipulated. Once they are 25 meters away, any items fall out of the reach of his dominion. Endrimanz has a duration of 4 posts, and a cooldown of 2 posts.
[break][break]Cantrips
3/3
[break]Malifel - 2
[break]Darkness is a force that seeps beyond the physical realm, into the unknown. By harnessing such aspect of the element, Leo is capable of dealing moderate psychological damage to a target he makes direct contact with, up to once per post. During and for the post after Malifel is cast, techniques and cantrips count as one rank below written for the purpose of calculating magical exhaustion.
[break][break]Nyctingenia - 2
[break]From Leo’s fingertips coagulates shadows, nails extending into dripping claws. Coating a single limb in darkness, he is capable of dealing additional moderate damage to all he strikes with his ingenia, although the spell also extends to blunt damage dealt with the chosen limb. Leo can change the limb afflicted once per post, lower extremities included if he so chooses.
[break][break]Svifagryn - 2
[break]Accelerating through shadows, Leo is capable of dashing up to 10 meters away at an additional 20 Speed comparative to the value of the statistic at any given moment. This dash is situational in categorization, and can be used once per post.
[break]Malifel - 2
[break]Darkness is a force that seeps beyond the physical realm, into the unknown. By harnessing such aspect of the element, Leo is capable of dealing moderate psychological damage to a target he makes direct contact with, up to once per post. During and for the post after Malifel is cast, techniques and cantrips count as one rank below written for the purpose of calculating magical exhaustion.
[break][break]Nyctingenia - 2
[break]From Leo’s fingertips coagulates shadows, nails extending into dripping claws. Coating a single limb in darkness, he is capable of dealing additional moderate damage to all he strikes with his ingenia, although the spell also extends to blunt damage dealt with the chosen limb. Leo can change the limb afflicted once per post, lower extremities included if he so chooses.
[break][break]Svifagryn - 2
[break]Accelerating through shadows, Leo is capable of dashing up to 10 meters away at an additional 20 Speed comparative to the value of the statistic at any given moment. This dash is situational in categorization, and can be used once per post.