Shifter
10-03-06, 04:41 PM
Name
Thomas Young
Race
Transient
Age
20
Height
5’10’’
Weight
170 lbs
Appearance
Tom could be considered an attractive human youth, though his frame is thinner than it is muscular. His black hair is kept extremely long, clean and well-managed; falling far past his shoulder blades. His eyes vary in color depending on his choice of particle manipulation, sometimes taking a quite uncommon shade for themselves. His face is often clean-shaven.
Thomas Young’s wardrobe makes him stand out as well. He can often be seen wearing jean-like dark leather pants and a white cloth long-sleeve shirt with a leather vest on top. When he’s not wearing his trademark leather gloves, one can see the identical black circles seemingly tattooed to the palms of both his hands. These marks are called aons. His feet are covered by softened leather boots that allow him to make a quick getaway if ever necessary, a minute dagger poking out from the sheath by his right heel.
Personality
Thomas Young is a philosophical realist, if such a thing makes sense. His profound belief in sciences as the pinnacle of sentient understanding has led the youth to have both faith in a logical explanation to all things and belief that anything is possible. His profound studies of physics and mentor, Yrian Nott, have convinced him most stoically of the existence of universal rules governing all forms of reality.
Tom has a profound optimism born from his understanding that all things operate by a set of mathematically decipherable laws; ‘magic’ simply being a word assigned to what has yet to be deciphered. Studying others’ magic is one of his favorite pastimes. He’s quite intelligent by any standard and extremely resourceful. His individualistic views lead him to only take actions that will somehow benefit him in the long run. This isn’t to say that he won’t help others in need, but often times the thought of reward will be his driving motivation.
Inventory
Wardrobe – Tom possesses several variations of similar-looking clothing. His cloth shirts vary in color and quality, though his leather pants and vests are strikingly repetitive. He also has a single pair of leather gloves and boots.
Iron Key – An ornate rusting key, it bears the number ten on its handle. This key opens the corresponding door at a place called Riker’s Inn in Radasanth, where Tom always keeps a room storing his things.
Dagger – Often kept sheathed by his right heel, this 5’ blade is cast in steel and both extremely sharp and surprisingly thin.
Skills
As a transient, Tom travels the learning curve much faster than a normal sentient. However, he is still limited by his physical potential, which is slightly below average than that of the average human. This means that even if he learns how to wield a claymore, his lack of fortitude would keep him from doing so efficiently.
Weapon Mastery – Tom’s knowledge of weapons is rather deficient at this point in time. Other than the inexpert use of his small dagger at times to defend himself, the shifter is quite ignorant of other arsenal usage. He’d be hard-pressed to fight back against a practiced swordsman.
Languages – Thomas Young is perfectly fluent in both Tradespeak and Salvic. His dominion of Drow and Elven is rather rusty, though passable at times. All other languages are lost to him almost completely.
Firm Mentality – A transient’s mind is harder to invade without permission than a typical human's. This makes Tom immune to very weak psychic attacks and difficult to communicate with telepathically unless he consciously allows the interaction.
Particle Manipulation
All transients are born with dark black circles one inch in diameter at the center of both their palms called aons. Aons are used to influence the particles around the transient to perform what lesser intelligent species call magic. The more Tom studies a given physical field, the more capable he is at manipulating its constituents. Depending on the kind of particle manipulation a transient is attempting, his eyes turn into different colors. A shift in color may take Tom roughly five minutes, during which he is quite vulnerable. His eyes are a translucent grey mid-shift. A transient must have free use of both his hands to attempt any of the feats listed.
Gases ~ (Green) – His favored state of matter, Tom is quite adept at manipulating air particles through gravitation. He can hold sway over a peak volume of twenty cubic feet and create a maximum force able to knock over a strong human.
Liquids ~ (Blue) – Denser than air particles, Tom has a harder time of it trying to shift liquid masses. He has found he can only influence a cubic foot of water with strength equal to a strong punch.
Solids ~ (Red) – Tom is almost completely unable to shift molecules in solid form. At his best right now, he can lift and move a five-pound solid object without much force.
Optics ~ (Cyan) – Another of Tom’s favorite areas of study, he is very proficient at shifting photons to create visual illusions. These facades have only ever been as big as Thomas Young’s own form.
Thermodynamics ~ (Magenta) – An often underestimated field of study, this allows Tom to affect the speed of particles regardless of their state; effectively changing their temperature. He can change the temperature of anything he touches by twenty degrees Celsius to a maximum radius of twenty feet around him.
Electrostatics ~ (Yellow) – By producing electric field lines from the aons on his palms, Tom can affect magnetic forces and even manipulate electric currents. However, his lack of study in this field leaves the young transient only capable of releasing small sparks or inducing a slight shock to anything he can get both his hands on.
History
Erathia
On an island continent far west of the main Althanian regions, there once was born a human civilization. There is no record of how the humans made it to the land they dubbed Erathia, but it was certainly several thousands of years ago, well before the Demon War. Without the bother of rival sentient races competing for the bountiful island’s resources, these men and women were free to spare thought to the world around them. The result was a civilization based on evolutionary bounds in the fields of science and technological advancements.
The Erathians cultivated habits in profound coexistence with the wealth of assets provided them on the vast, remote island. They made use of everything from the power of rivers for mills to the heat of volcanic pockets for metallurgy. This, in turn, simplified their lives and allowed for a utopian-like subsistence for many years. What little strife befell them was often the fault of alien creatures reaching the island by braving the unknown seas. Such menaces were quickly discouraged or rebuked by the more advanced civilization. They avoided others and, for the most part, others were oblivious to their existence.
For several generations, these humans made great strides in giving mathematical justification to invisible forces such as gravity and magnetism. It was theorized among them that all forms of so-called ‘magic’ in the world could one day be explained with complex formulas that would take into account the variables involved when a mage produces a fireball and the like. It was from this constant unified study that the race made the step from an understanding of physics to an actual measure of control over the physical realm.
Birth of Transients
It was roughly four thousand years ago, when the first nomadic tribes of vampires were settling in Haidia, that the first transient was born on Erathia. Cerina, as she was called, became a topic of much controversy. The official stance of those involved in her birthing was that she was simply the next step in their evolutionary line, her genes combining to give her the aons on her palms, which permitted her to effect changes to particles around her. However, it was whispered that top Erathian minds had been involved in the creation of this ‘mutant’, as some called her. These individuals were disconcerted by what they saw as an affront to nature and the civilization was soon bitterly divided.
Whatever the case, roughly two out of every ten children born in the year proceeding Cerina had similar markings on their palms. In the following decades, the humans were quickly out bred and transients became the dominant race on the island paradise. Humans took a back seat to their descendants and soon the race’s studies were directed toward honing their newfound abilities. Already a compilation of the greatest physicists in Althanas, Erathia became a center for magical study; unbeknownst to the races far east of their white shores.
Marvelous shining universities were erected out of glass and marble, each specializing in a different field of the transients’ form of magic. Due to great intellectual training, youths were deemed ready at the tender age of ten to leave their families behind and choose a school for themselves. Where some sought a better understanding of the movement of mass through gravitation others looked to the draw of magnetic forces for greater answers. This system flourished in its infancy, promising a brighter future for all Erathia. Yet, like all utopias, its single flaw led to its catastrophic downfall.
Malum War
What humans remained saw themselves shunted aside; second-class citizens in a land they had created. Lacking aons, they slowly became obsolete and were cared for by their more useful counterparts. The capable transients preformed more and more of the necessary labors. For many centuries, all went well. However, losing purpose in this new system, humans eventually grew resentful of it. On top of this, their lifespan was shortening with every generation. There seemed to be no explanation for this, but it was noted that this new genetic flaw came about only after Cerina’s birth.
An underground subversive group calling itself the Malum began to threaten the stability of Erathia. Comprised of enraged humans, they spread propaganda of their shortened lives being the result of a transient conspiracy starting with the creation of the very first ‘mutant’. All sorts of theories arose to give foul reasoning to the creation of transients. The transients were, on their part, wary of what their volatile brethren might be capable of in a moment of passion. As suspicion between the sibling races mounted, preparations were made for a conflict all were certain loomed just over the horizon.
Accounts vary on what sparked the war. The Malum tell of a terrible transient general electrocuting women and children unprovoked, exaggerating his callous to great effect; while transients pass on the tale of a human who sabotaged an alchemic lab to explode and incinerate its inhabitants, spreading word of humans’ brutality. In either case, both sides took it as the crack that tore open the floodgates of fear and resentment keeping the two sides at bay. What had once held hope for a truly enlightened civilization took the first steps condemning it to restless oblivion among countless others doomed to strife.
While the transients were thought to have the obvious advantage with their powers and technological superiority, it was the humans who displayed a greater suitability for conflict. The transients were unquestionably more potent, but their weaknesses were out in the open. Where the Malum struck at the universities and other important buildings, transients found it much more difficult to harm their adversaries in light of the guerilla tactics and clever strategies they employed. The result was a horrific deadlock with endless casualties on both sides that wages even now on the faraway isle.
Thomas Young
There were those, both transient and human, who did not wish to take part in the senseless battles that followed. Taking to the seas was the only option left to those who would not fight. Karyn Young, a direct descendant of Cerina, was one such pacifist transient. She boarded a watercraft bound for the eastern lands of Althanas, taking her newborn son with her. This constituted and abandonment of both her husband and her home, but the constant state of dread that had descended upon Erathia wearied her. War had transformed her spouse into a creature of unspeakable wrath. She would not raise Tom in such an environment. Though it weighed on her heart, she knew escape was best.
Yet, the journey east was not as serene as Karyn might have hoped. Poor weather and hasty planning led to a shortage of rations for all onboard weeks before their projected arrival to the mainland. Tightening their belts, the migrating transients limited the amount of water and food distributed to all aboard. In a deeply altruistic act, Karyn gave most of her shares to her child, so he might live on even if she could not. She blamed herself for the separation of father and son she had wrought and would not allow the innocent boy to die for her weakness after damning him to an orphan’s existence. When the transient ship touched sand on Corone, Thomas Young was found to be sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms, her malnourished face frozen in blank sadness. It was hypothesized she died less than an hour before their arrival.
Without any living relatives, custody of Karyn’s son became a concern. It was an old widower by the name of Yrian Nott who took care of young Tom for the following years. He had known Karyn’s father long ago and stepped forward diligently when a guardian was requested for the boy. On the mainland, the ship’s surviving transients went their separate ways. Yrian wisely decided to make use of his thermodynamic powers and settled in Radasanth, finding easy work as a blacksmith. His craft quickly became renowned in select circles. With income taken care of, Yrian’s only other responsibility was to care for the last living relative of the world’s first transient, now millennia down the genetic tree branch.
Thomas’ caretaker nurtured the youth’s innate curiosity as he grew to great effect. A former instructor in Erathia’s universities, Yrian Nott had never seen a child of such potential. Believing this to be linked to his ancestry, the old teacher took careful care with his adoptive child’s scientific upbringing. Every day he was taught a new lesson and every day he was expected to practice use of his aons. Under this training regime, Thomas Young became a competent optical illusionist at the tender age of twelve. By fifteen he was shifting air and by eighteen he produced the first electric sparks from his aons. In congruence with his growing power, a deep-seated devotion to Yrian thrived within the boy with every passing year. Not remembering Erathia or his escape from it, theirs was a relationship stronger than Tom had ever known.
Thomas Young
Race
Transient
Age
20
Height
5’10’’
Weight
170 lbs
Appearance
Tom could be considered an attractive human youth, though his frame is thinner than it is muscular. His black hair is kept extremely long, clean and well-managed; falling far past his shoulder blades. His eyes vary in color depending on his choice of particle manipulation, sometimes taking a quite uncommon shade for themselves. His face is often clean-shaven.
Thomas Young’s wardrobe makes him stand out as well. He can often be seen wearing jean-like dark leather pants and a white cloth long-sleeve shirt with a leather vest on top. When he’s not wearing his trademark leather gloves, one can see the identical black circles seemingly tattooed to the palms of both his hands. These marks are called aons. His feet are covered by softened leather boots that allow him to make a quick getaway if ever necessary, a minute dagger poking out from the sheath by his right heel.
Personality
Thomas Young is a philosophical realist, if such a thing makes sense. His profound belief in sciences as the pinnacle of sentient understanding has led the youth to have both faith in a logical explanation to all things and belief that anything is possible. His profound studies of physics and mentor, Yrian Nott, have convinced him most stoically of the existence of universal rules governing all forms of reality.
Tom has a profound optimism born from his understanding that all things operate by a set of mathematically decipherable laws; ‘magic’ simply being a word assigned to what has yet to be deciphered. Studying others’ magic is one of his favorite pastimes. He’s quite intelligent by any standard and extremely resourceful. His individualistic views lead him to only take actions that will somehow benefit him in the long run. This isn’t to say that he won’t help others in need, but often times the thought of reward will be his driving motivation.
Inventory
Wardrobe – Tom possesses several variations of similar-looking clothing. His cloth shirts vary in color and quality, though his leather pants and vests are strikingly repetitive. He also has a single pair of leather gloves and boots.
Iron Key – An ornate rusting key, it bears the number ten on its handle. This key opens the corresponding door at a place called Riker’s Inn in Radasanth, where Tom always keeps a room storing his things.
Dagger – Often kept sheathed by his right heel, this 5’ blade is cast in steel and both extremely sharp and surprisingly thin.
Skills
As a transient, Tom travels the learning curve much faster than a normal sentient. However, he is still limited by his physical potential, which is slightly below average than that of the average human. This means that even if he learns how to wield a claymore, his lack of fortitude would keep him from doing so efficiently.
Weapon Mastery – Tom’s knowledge of weapons is rather deficient at this point in time. Other than the inexpert use of his small dagger at times to defend himself, the shifter is quite ignorant of other arsenal usage. He’d be hard-pressed to fight back against a practiced swordsman.
Languages – Thomas Young is perfectly fluent in both Tradespeak and Salvic. His dominion of Drow and Elven is rather rusty, though passable at times. All other languages are lost to him almost completely.
Firm Mentality – A transient’s mind is harder to invade without permission than a typical human's. This makes Tom immune to very weak psychic attacks and difficult to communicate with telepathically unless he consciously allows the interaction.
Particle Manipulation
All transients are born with dark black circles one inch in diameter at the center of both their palms called aons. Aons are used to influence the particles around the transient to perform what lesser intelligent species call magic. The more Tom studies a given physical field, the more capable he is at manipulating its constituents. Depending on the kind of particle manipulation a transient is attempting, his eyes turn into different colors. A shift in color may take Tom roughly five minutes, during which he is quite vulnerable. His eyes are a translucent grey mid-shift. A transient must have free use of both his hands to attempt any of the feats listed.
Gases ~ (Green) – His favored state of matter, Tom is quite adept at manipulating air particles through gravitation. He can hold sway over a peak volume of twenty cubic feet and create a maximum force able to knock over a strong human.
Liquids ~ (Blue) – Denser than air particles, Tom has a harder time of it trying to shift liquid masses. He has found he can only influence a cubic foot of water with strength equal to a strong punch.
Solids ~ (Red) – Tom is almost completely unable to shift molecules in solid form. At his best right now, he can lift and move a five-pound solid object without much force.
Optics ~ (Cyan) – Another of Tom’s favorite areas of study, he is very proficient at shifting photons to create visual illusions. These facades have only ever been as big as Thomas Young’s own form.
Thermodynamics ~ (Magenta) – An often underestimated field of study, this allows Tom to affect the speed of particles regardless of their state; effectively changing their temperature. He can change the temperature of anything he touches by twenty degrees Celsius to a maximum radius of twenty feet around him.
Electrostatics ~ (Yellow) – By producing electric field lines from the aons on his palms, Tom can affect magnetic forces and even manipulate electric currents. However, his lack of study in this field leaves the young transient only capable of releasing small sparks or inducing a slight shock to anything he can get both his hands on.
History
Erathia
On an island continent far west of the main Althanian regions, there once was born a human civilization. There is no record of how the humans made it to the land they dubbed Erathia, but it was certainly several thousands of years ago, well before the Demon War. Without the bother of rival sentient races competing for the bountiful island’s resources, these men and women were free to spare thought to the world around them. The result was a civilization based on evolutionary bounds in the fields of science and technological advancements.
The Erathians cultivated habits in profound coexistence with the wealth of assets provided them on the vast, remote island. They made use of everything from the power of rivers for mills to the heat of volcanic pockets for metallurgy. This, in turn, simplified their lives and allowed for a utopian-like subsistence for many years. What little strife befell them was often the fault of alien creatures reaching the island by braving the unknown seas. Such menaces were quickly discouraged or rebuked by the more advanced civilization. They avoided others and, for the most part, others were oblivious to their existence.
For several generations, these humans made great strides in giving mathematical justification to invisible forces such as gravity and magnetism. It was theorized among them that all forms of so-called ‘magic’ in the world could one day be explained with complex formulas that would take into account the variables involved when a mage produces a fireball and the like. It was from this constant unified study that the race made the step from an understanding of physics to an actual measure of control over the physical realm.
Birth of Transients
It was roughly four thousand years ago, when the first nomadic tribes of vampires were settling in Haidia, that the first transient was born on Erathia. Cerina, as she was called, became a topic of much controversy. The official stance of those involved in her birthing was that she was simply the next step in their evolutionary line, her genes combining to give her the aons on her palms, which permitted her to effect changes to particles around her. However, it was whispered that top Erathian minds had been involved in the creation of this ‘mutant’, as some called her. These individuals were disconcerted by what they saw as an affront to nature and the civilization was soon bitterly divided.
Whatever the case, roughly two out of every ten children born in the year proceeding Cerina had similar markings on their palms. In the following decades, the humans were quickly out bred and transients became the dominant race on the island paradise. Humans took a back seat to their descendants and soon the race’s studies were directed toward honing their newfound abilities. Already a compilation of the greatest physicists in Althanas, Erathia became a center for magical study; unbeknownst to the races far east of their white shores.
Marvelous shining universities were erected out of glass and marble, each specializing in a different field of the transients’ form of magic. Due to great intellectual training, youths were deemed ready at the tender age of ten to leave their families behind and choose a school for themselves. Where some sought a better understanding of the movement of mass through gravitation others looked to the draw of magnetic forces for greater answers. This system flourished in its infancy, promising a brighter future for all Erathia. Yet, like all utopias, its single flaw led to its catastrophic downfall.
Malum War
What humans remained saw themselves shunted aside; second-class citizens in a land they had created. Lacking aons, they slowly became obsolete and were cared for by their more useful counterparts. The capable transients preformed more and more of the necessary labors. For many centuries, all went well. However, losing purpose in this new system, humans eventually grew resentful of it. On top of this, their lifespan was shortening with every generation. There seemed to be no explanation for this, but it was noted that this new genetic flaw came about only after Cerina’s birth.
An underground subversive group calling itself the Malum began to threaten the stability of Erathia. Comprised of enraged humans, they spread propaganda of their shortened lives being the result of a transient conspiracy starting with the creation of the very first ‘mutant’. All sorts of theories arose to give foul reasoning to the creation of transients. The transients were, on their part, wary of what their volatile brethren might be capable of in a moment of passion. As suspicion between the sibling races mounted, preparations were made for a conflict all were certain loomed just over the horizon.
Accounts vary on what sparked the war. The Malum tell of a terrible transient general electrocuting women and children unprovoked, exaggerating his callous to great effect; while transients pass on the tale of a human who sabotaged an alchemic lab to explode and incinerate its inhabitants, spreading word of humans’ brutality. In either case, both sides took it as the crack that tore open the floodgates of fear and resentment keeping the two sides at bay. What had once held hope for a truly enlightened civilization took the first steps condemning it to restless oblivion among countless others doomed to strife.
While the transients were thought to have the obvious advantage with their powers and technological superiority, it was the humans who displayed a greater suitability for conflict. The transients were unquestionably more potent, but their weaknesses were out in the open. Where the Malum struck at the universities and other important buildings, transients found it much more difficult to harm their adversaries in light of the guerilla tactics and clever strategies they employed. The result was a horrific deadlock with endless casualties on both sides that wages even now on the faraway isle.
Thomas Young
There were those, both transient and human, who did not wish to take part in the senseless battles that followed. Taking to the seas was the only option left to those who would not fight. Karyn Young, a direct descendant of Cerina, was one such pacifist transient. She boarded a watercraft bound for the eastern lands of Althanas, taking her newborn son with her. This constituted and abandonment of both her husband and her home, but the constant state of dread that had descended upon Erathia wearied her. War had transformed her spouse into a creature of unspeakable wrath. She would not raise Tom in such an environment. Though it weighed on her heart, she knew escape was best.
Yet, the journey east was not as serene as Karyn might have hoped. Poor weather and hasty planning led to a shortage of rations for all onboard weeks before their projected arrival to the mainland. Tightening their belts, the migrating transients limited the amount of water and food distributed to all aboard. In a deeply altruistic act, Karyn gave most of her shares to her child, so he might live on even if she could not. She blamed herself for the separation of father and son she had wrought and would not allow the innocent boy to die for her weakness after damning him to an orphan’s existence. When the transient ship touched sand on Corone, Thomas Young was found to be sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms, her malnourished face frozen in blank sadness. It was hypothesized she died less than an hour before their arrival.
Without any living relatives, custody of Karyn’s son became a concern. It was an old widower by the name of Yrian Nott who took care of young Tom for the following years. He had known Karyn’s father long ago and stepped forward diligently when a guardian was requested for the boy. On the mainland, the ship’s surviving transients went their separate ways. Yrian wisely decided to make use of his thermodynamic powers and settled in Radasanth, finding easy work as a blacksmith. His craft quickly became renowned in select circles. With income taken care of, Yrian’s only other responsibility was to care for the last living relative of the world’s first transient, now millennia down the genetic tree branch.
Thomas’ caretaker nurtured the youth’s innate curiosity as he grew to great effect. A former instructor in Erathia’s universities, Yrian Nott had never seen a child of such potential. Believing this to be linked to his ancestry, the old teacher took careful care with his adoptive child’s scientific upbringing. Every day he was taught a new lesson and every day he was expected to practice use of his aons. Under this training regime, Thomas Young became a competent optical illusionist at the tender age of twelve. By fifteen he was shifting air and by eighteen he produced the first electric sparks from his aons. In congruence with his growing power, a deep-seated devotion to Yrian thrived within the boy with every passing year. Not remembering Erathia or his escape from it, theirs was a relationship stronger than Tom had ever known.