Penance
09-24-12, 03:49 AM
Name: Briathos Autumn
Age: seventeen
Gender: male
Race: metahuman
Hair Color: white-blonde
Eye Color: amber
Height: five-and-eleven inches
Weight: one-hundred-and-sixty pounds
Occupation: highland lord
Physical Description: available above
Personality Description:available below
Skills & Abilities: available below
Character Equipment: available below
Companions: available below
History: available below
———The Fall Lands
The Autumn’s were once one of the most prominent Andvalli noble families, but over the years they've experienced a fall from grandeur – much of their ancestral lands, ‘The Fall Lands,’ have been lost in disputes with neighboring houses. In its prime, Harvest, one of the largest fortified holds in the Highlands and the home of the Autumn family, housed a dozen of Salvar’s greatest knights during the days of Camael Autumn. Camael was the greatest knight and lord the Fall Lands had ever seen, the most renowned knights of his time flocked to his banner to pledge him their swords and lives simply for the opportunity fight at his side. Together they traveled the lands of Fall and oft beyond – righting wrongs – and performing heroic feats of which tales are sung about to this very day.
The decline of the Autumn’s came with the birth of Galeon Autumn – a sadist that raped and pillaged the people he was sworn to protect. Some say that as a result, the gods, angered by the carnival of murder and rape he callously went about, cursed him and his progeny. The less faithful suggest that a witch woman was the one to cast the curse on him and his family with her final words as she lay dying after having been raped by Galeon. Whatever the cause, even if it’s merely some coincidental luck, Galeon was killed two years later to the day by what his knights attested was ‘a shadowy creature with a terrible laughter that threw Galeon screaming into a vortex of disembodied hands, no doubt the damned, and dragged him screaming down to hell.’ Dark rituals and inbreeding became a regular practice among Autumn’s in the wake of his death. Strange disappearances and bizarre sightings of bloodthirsty monsters roaming the night also became commonplace.
Their name has become taboo among the other Andvalli noble houses but physical proof of their alleged black sorcery has never been found. The people of the Fall Lands are quiet and friendly, because those that aren't have an alarming tendency to vanish.
———Lords of Harvest
Camael Autumn was the source of his descendant’s insanity – he was the ideal warrior; perfect in every way, shape, and form: an unreachable zenith. The shadow he cast was dark and inescapable. It isn't a surprise that those that stood in it went mad. Their curse had begun long before Galeon – Briathos’ father told him – it began when Galeon’s ancestors had attempted to replicate the unique miracle of Camael’s birth. Something in his makeup was more than it seemed – some hidden power, some secret potential inside him he had unlocked, and that died with him. As their quest for answers turned up fruitless they fell upon their only means left: dark sorcery. The answers they found were the source of Galeon’s madness, and the source of their family curse: trying to play God.
Their attempts were nearly successful. The interbreeding was only a byproduct of its one defect – the madness – and the potential for the changes one made to become irreversible.
Briathos’ father and his father before him had taken up religion to make amends for their family’s transgressions. They hoped to undo the curse by redeeming themselves through faith, believing it to curb their madness, however they had simply replaced it with another kind of madness, Briathos realized.
Briathos couldn't afford such luxuries. He was born with the family gift. Glory and greatness awaited him.
His father believed that he and his brother could do great things with it; even change the world if they wanted. He pushed them hard, sometimes too hard. Their already heavy burden increased by his desire for them to succeed – to be prepared – but he had been more a prison warden than a father to them.
They had a strict diet to maximize their rigorous training. They were instructed at an early age in the ways of the sword, spear and horseback as well as tactics, leading an army and all manners of politics. Their bodies were honed from vigorous exercise and they soon towered over the other Andvalli boys their age at Harvest. Their genetics were superior, enhanced by quasi-science and magic that had brought out the best in them. The harsh environment of Andvall and the constant struggle for survival did the rest.
Perfect. They were perfect.
Skills & Abilities
Physiological Engineering – a rare family boon; usually only seen once every few generations, it allows the construction and reconstitution of one’s body. In essence it grants the ability to manipulate one’s body in a form of rapid-but-controlled evolution to augment oneself with aesthetic or practical improvements --- both external and internal. This incredible ability doesn’t come without inherent dangers; however, hand-in-hand with this gift is the potential for one’s changes to become permanent and irreversible: old tales tell of monsters appearing simultaneous to the disappearance of one of their lords, devouring and killing until it’s ridden down, more often than not by one of the disappeared lord’s kin. Faster and more complex changes increase the likelihood for the ability to fail --- leaving them forever stuck in whatever hellish reality they dreamt for themselves.
Skills & Abilities
Description
Regeneration
Minor wounds, like scratches, heal themselves almost instantly while moderate wounds heal at an accelerated rate.
Steel hands
His hands turn to steel and his fingers become sharp and bladed, allowing him to skewer enemies.
Angelic Wings
By undergoing exruciating pain he can grow and ungrow a pair of wings that are vestigial in the sense that he cannot yet fly.
Fledgeling Artifice – an inclination for artifice stemming from his ability to problem solve, visualize, and mechanically understand concepts and ideas, squashed by his father at a young age due to it distracting him from his familial duties.
[Learned]
Martial Combat - a lord of the fall land, and born with a noble pedigree; Barathios is skilled in the use of sword and spear, excelling in both mounted and unmounted combat. He has been drilled in horseback, swordplay, and spear-fighting since a young age and in recent years has played pivotal roles in several sorties versus bandits and raiders. His understanding of tactics, warfare, and effectively marshalling and commanding one’s troops has been passed down to him and his brother by his father, their combat instructor, and their castle’s scholar who taught them to read and write, but experience has been the greatest teacher of all.
[i]———Tides of Battle
Equipment
Description
Andvalli Steel Longsword
Andvall has some of the finest designed weapon's in Althanas, though, they're almost always plain and unadorned. The cold, hardened killers of the Andvalli see no reason to spend money on weapons they'll wield into battle only to have pried out of their dead hands by an enemy. Simplicity and efficiency are important, and the only beauty they require is in their women, but usually they aren't even that picky. The longsword is a bit larger than most Andvalli longswords, a feature only seen in weapons hand-made for especially large Andvalli or Autumn's.
Reinforced Wooden Shield
A standard Andvalli reinforced wooden round-shield with the crest of the Autumn's painted on it: three leaves interposed; yellow, orange, and brown resting above a sword.
Iron Spear
An iron spear designed for use on horseback, its jagged leaf-shaped blade is honed razor-sharp.
Amalgamation of armor
He wears a strange assortment of armor into battle; a chainmail shirt over a rawhide tunic, rawhde leggings, a steel helmet and heavy plate pauldrons, and rawhide boots and gloves, every item both covered in and lined with wolf fur making him appear more animal than man.
———The Cast
Father: Gauzra Autumn, NPC
Brother: TBA
Warhorse: Heliyon
Age: seventeen
Gender: male
Race: metahuman
Hair Color: white-blonde
Eye Color: amber
Height: five-and-eleven inches
Weight: one-hundred-and-sixty pounds
Occupation: highland lord
Physical Description: available above
Personality Description:available below
Skills & Abilities: available below
Character Equipment: available below
Companions: available below
History: available below
———The Fall Lands
The Autumn’s were once one of the most prominent Andvalli noble families, but over the years they've experienced a fall from grandeur – much of their ancestral lands, ‘The Fall Lands,’ have been lost in disputes with neighboring houses. In its prime, Harvest, one of the largest fortified holds in the Highlands and the home of the Autumn family, housed a dozen of Salvar’s greatest knights during the days of Camael Autumn. Camael was the greatest knight and lord the Fall Lands had ever seen, the most renowned knights of his time flocked to his banner to pledge him their swords and lives simply for the opportunity fight at his side. Together they traveled the lands of Fall and oft beyond – righting wrongs – and performing heroic feats of which tales are sung about to this very day.
The decline of the Autumn’s came with the birth of Galeon Autumn – a sadist that raped and pillaged the people he was sworn to protect. Some say that as a result, the gods, angered by the carnival of murder and rape he callously went about, cursed him and his progeny. The less faithful suggest that a witch woman was the one to cast the curse on him and his family with her final words as she lay dying after having been raped by Galeon. Whatever the cause, even if it’s merely some coincidental luck, Galeon was killed two years later to the day by what his knights attested was ‘a shadowy creature with a terrible laughter that threw Galeon screaming into a vortex of disembodied hands, no doubt the damned, and dragged him screaming down to hell.’ Dark rituals and inbreeding became a regular practice among Autumn’s in the wake of his death. Strange disappearances and bizarre sightings of bloodthirsty monsters roaming the night also became commonplace.
Their name has become taboo among the other Andvalli noble houses but physical proof of their alleged black sorcery has never been found. The people of the Fall Lands are quiet and friendly, because those that aren't have an alarming tendency to vanish.
———Lords of Harvest
Camael Autumn was the source of his descendant’s insanity – he was the ideal warrior; perfect in every way, shape, and form: an unreachable zenith. The shadow he cast was dark and inescapable. It isn't a surprise that those that stood in it went mad. Their curse had begun long before Galeon – Briathos’ father told him – it began when Galeon’s ancestors had attempted to replicate the unique miracle of Camael’s birth. Something in his makeup was more than it seemed – some hidden power, some secret potential inside him he had unlocked, and that died with him. As their quest for answers turned up fruitless they fell upon their only means left: dark sorcery. The answers they found were the source of Galeon’s madness, and the source of their family curse: trying to play God.
Their attempts were nearly successful. The interbreeding was only a byproduct of its one defect – the madness – and the potential for the changes one made to become irreversible.
Briathos’ father and his father before him had taken up religion to make amends for their family’s transgressions. They hoped to undo the curse by redeeming themselves through faith, believing it to curb their madness, however they had simply replaced it with another kind of madness, Briathos realized.
Briathos couldn't afford such luxuries. He was born with the family gift. Glory and greatness awaited him.
His father believed that he and his brother could do great things with it; even change the world if they wanted. He pushed them hard, sometimes too hard. Their already heavy burden increased by his desire for them to succeed – to be prepared – but he had been more a prison warden than a father to them.
They had a strict diet to maximize their rigorous training. They were instructed at an early age in the ways of the sword, spear and horseback as well as tactics, leading an army and all manners of politics. Their bodies were honed from vigorous exercise and they soon towered over the other Andvalli boys their age at Harvest. Their genetics were superior, enhanced by quasi-science and magic that had brought out the best in them. The harsh environment of Andvall and the constant struggle for survival did the rest.
Perfect. They were perfect.
Skills & Abilities
Physiological Engineering – a rare family boon; usually only seen once every few generations, it allows the construction and reconstitution of one’s body. In essence it grants the ability to manipulate one’s body in a form of rapid-but-controlled evolution to augment oneself with aesthetic or practical improvements --- both external and internal. This incredible ability doesn’t come without inherent dangers; however, hand-in-hand with this gift is the potential for one’s changes to become permanent and irreversible: old tales tell of monsters appearing simultaneous to the disappearance of one of their lords, devouring and killing until it’s ridden down, more often than not by one of the disappeared lord’s kin. Faster and more complex changes increase the likelihood for the ability to fail --- leaving them forever stuck in whatever hellish reality they dreamt for themselves.
Skills & Abilities
Description
Regeneration
Minor wounds, like scratches, heal themselves almost instantly while moderate wounds heal at an accelerated rate.
Steel hands
His hands turn to steel and his fingers become sharp and bladed, allowing him to skewer enemies.
Angelic Wings
By undergoing exruciating pain he can grow and ungrow a pair of wings that are vestigial in the sense that he cannot yet fly.
Fledgeling Artifice – an inclination for artifice stemming from his ability to problem solve, visualize, and mechanically understand concepts and ideas, squashed by his father at a young age due to it distracting him from his familial duties.
[Learned]
Martial Combat - a lord of the fall land, and born with a noble pedigree; Barathios is skilled in the use of sword and spear, excelling in both mounted and unmounted combat. He has been drilled in horseback, swordplay, and spear-fighting since a young age and in recent years has played pivotal roles in several sorties versus bandits and raiders. His understanding of tactics, warfare, and effectively marshalling and commanding one’s troops has been passed down to him and his brother by his father, their combat instructor, and their castle’s scholar who taught them to read and write, but experience has been the greatest teacher of all.
[i]———Tides of Battle
Equipment
Description
Andvalli Steel Longsword
Andvall has some of the finest designed weapon's in Althanas, though, they're almost always plain and unadorned. The cold, hardened killers of the Andvalli see no reason to spend money on weapons they'll wield into battle only to have pried out of their dead hands by an enemy. Simplicity and efficiency are important, and the only beauty they require is in their women, but usually they aren't even that picky. The longsword is a bit larger than most Andvalli longswords, a feature only seen in weapons hand-made for especially large Andvalli or Autumn's.
Reinforced Wooden Shield
A standard Andvalli reinforced wooden round-shield with the crest of the Autumn's painted on it: three leaves interposed; yellow, orange, and brown resting above a sword.
Iron Spear
An iron spear designed for use on horseback, its jagged leaf-shaped blade is honed razor-sharp.
Amalgamation of armor
He wears a strange assortment of armor into battle; a chainmail shirt over a rawhide tunic, rawhde leggings, a steel helmet and heavy plate pauldrons, and rawhide boots and gloves, every item both covered in and lined with wolf fur making him appear more animal than man.
———The Cast
Father: Gauzra Autumn, NPC
Brother: TBA
Warhorse: Heliyon