Name: Spark. He has no real last name.

Age: Technically six, but appears more around his early twenties.

Gender: Technically neither, but presents and acts as male. For the purpose of clarity, I'll refer to Spark as a male in the IC.

Race: An Ashphol, a being born from lightning coming into contact with Talze Utera. They resemble humans, but are often strangely colored. Their natural lifespan is only four to five years and is shortened every time they use their abilities. Ashphol can instinctively and naturally manipulate their own electrical essence, giving them the ability to instantly and easily conjure anything from tiny, firestarting sparks to enormous bolts of elemental lightning. Depending on how powerful the lightning they use is, they lose more of their energy and life each time. However, they can absorb electrical energy to reinvigorate themselves and bolster their abilities. The tradeoff for this is simple: though they appear to be human, they are still entirely formed of elemental lightning, and magic users can manipulate his body as such. This essentially means that if he reveals his ashphol nature to a magic user, his life is quite literally in their hands, because he could functionally be used as a battery of electrical energy until his life is totally spent and he redisperses into the atmosphere.

Nation: Talze Utera

Appearance:

A tall, somewhat androgynous being, Spark cuts a sharp figure with his long white hair. His entire body is crisscrossed with an elaborately patterned 'tattoo' that mimics the flow of lightning through his body. Upon using his powers to channel electric force, his hair stands up on end, forming a sort of crown around his head that lightning arcs around and over. He is flamboyant, and loves dressing in elaborate, expensive robes. However, he seldom comes by them legally.

But by far, his most distinctive trait are his eyes, which are an incredibly sharp electric blue and glow brightly in dim light. They are the greatest mark that he is not entirely human.

He cannot sit still. He finds it physically painful, as all ashphol do. He must always be moving, or else slip into a terrible mood.

Personality: Spark finds human culture entirely alien. First and foremost, he does not understand laws. He is always in danger of imprisonment, because he doesn't...understand. He has tried—he isn't stupid by any means—but he simply can't. This misunderstanding with others characterizes nearly everything he does. Though ashphol are born full-formed and have a general understanding of the world and what they do and are, they cannot understand things that aren't strictly part of the natural world. This is a huge part of Spark's racial identity. Nearly all ashphol share the same characteristic as him: petulance. He is childish and finds it difficult to accept being denied, becoming petulant.

Once again owing to his ashphol nature, Spark finds it difficult to control his emotions. He bounces back and forth between extremes with little provocation, and always acts on his emotions, instead of restraining himself in any way. Owing to what was mentioned when describing his race, he is extremely cautious about revealing his true nature in any way and finds it very difficult to find friends, since he cannot implicitly trust anybody with the primary nature of his identity without literally putting his life in their hands. He is utterly terrified of placing his trust in anybody, and yet, is absolutely terrified of being alone.

As a final note, he dislikes being inside, and cannot take being physically restrained in any way, and has difficulty understanding the concept of items that are important to someone. As a being with such a short life span, he has difficulty being attached to anything.

Biography: • Born in the west of Illiserev by Talze Utera coming into contact with a terrible storm.
• Wandered for two years in the wilderness, occasionally absorbing the wild lightning of Illiserev's countless weather disasters to extend his rapidly closing life.
• Eventually wandered into the city of Illiserev properly, and with no understanding of human customs, accustomed only to the 'might-makes-right' rule of Talze Utera, killed three people with a rogue bolt of lightning.
• Imprisoned by the Talents of Illiserev who could actually deal with his abilities, a period of time that lasted all of four seconds before Spark dematerialized and fled the city, giving up a great deal of his life span in the process. He is a wanted man there still.
• In his travels after fleeting Illiserev, he learned more about human culture with each faux pas he made, and eventually became socially acceptable, if still not very good at interaction. Eventually wandered into Astopol, and currently exists there, living in the shadows and trying not to stick out too much despite his innate inclination for attention.

Abilities: Spark doesn't have abilities in the traditional sense. Instead, he can use his innate energy to manipulate electricity however he wishes, even returning to his elemental state and turning into incorporeal lightning. The tradeoff to this vast flexibility in powers is that the energy used in his abilities is the same energy that fuels his continued conscious existence. If he wishes to continue living, he must be highly cautious with how he uses his lightning and recharge it as much as he possibly can. Certain abilities carry a much greater cost, with the lowest being projecting minor sparks and the current highest being turning into electrical energy and traveling at the speed of light, which, though it doesn't need to last long, drains his energy so quickly that even a second of sustained electrical being would likely kill him.

As an additional note, though he does require food, drink and sleep, these needs are suspended when he absorbs a sufficient amount of elemental lightning, anywhere from a few hours to days on end without needing to sleep, eat or drink. His body makes no distinction between alcohol and any other drink, to his eternal and highly vocal lamentations.

Important Items: The only think Spark has that is truly important to him is a small, gnarled piece of driftwood-looking oak that he has hung around his neck. Nobody knows what makes it important to him, but the two are totally inseparable.

Name: Nickolas of Ormskirk

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Nation: "Born" in Talze Utera, fights for Dansila

Personality: Nickolas has been under immense stress since the first moment he can remember. Never having enough coin to get by and fighting monsters since 14 years old has made him extremely sturdy. Spends a lot of free time meditating and reflecting.

Biography:

• Wakes up at 14 with amnesia and is taken in by a mercenary
• Mercenary dies a year later fighting a werewolf
• Nickolas takes on the mantle of mercenary and the events at Ormskirk take place.*
• He travels to Dansila to look for work and ends up killing a rift beast on a regular contract.
• He accepts a Talentium sword and a contract from the Dansilan government. The contract is for every Rift Beast he encounters.

Abilities: Master swordsman in an unknown and unconventional technique, extreme resistance to most toxins, quadrupled metabolic rate of a regular human

Important Items: Talentium Longsword called Silver, A Steel Longsword he would rather not talk about, harness that allows him access to everything he carries without the need for a backpack.

Name: The AMAZING ALEXANDER, aka Alec Crow
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Nation: Dansila

Personality: Cheerful, flashy, polite, and somewhat brash. These words can be used to describe The Amazing Alexander. A man who isn't afraid to take risks, a daredevil who meets adversity with a smile and a flourish. The Amazing Alexander is all of these things, but Alec Crow is different. A rather nervous careful planner blessed with quick thinking, but prone to worrying. But these two share an Achilles heel. His love of taking risks is tempered by his fear of failure, making him the first one in and the last one out. To take risks and succeed, to accomplish the impossible despite the impossible odds, these are the things that give Alexander's life meaning. Alec wouldn't settle for a life in the shadows, he aspires to be greater than that. Alexander wants renown and recognition, he wants his name to resound in all the land, from Astopol to Talze Utera. Alec wanted to be amazing, and as Alexander, he had a chance.

Important events in The AMAZING ALEXANDER'S origin story:

• Alec's birth, although the events after the fact are what make it worth mentioning. He never knew his parents, he only knew that they left him to the streets. A gang picked him up, taught him how to steal, treated him like their other orphans, which is to say, they treated him poorly. Nevertheless, Alec would use some of their principles to shape his own (while dutifully forgetting the rest), but his life dips further as the second most significant event in his life occurs.
• Getting his right forefinger cut off was a bad situation, but in retrospect, it was extremely important for his growth. It taught him discretion and it taught him how to run away very quickly, 2 skills that would be absolutely essential to his life later on. He'd tried to pickpocket a particularly important, angry and armed bar patron. Long story short, he lost his finger and was abandoned by his gang, leading to his brief solo career as an unfortunate 4 fingered street urchin. The skills he learned during this stint were important for the next event.
• Meeting his master, a retired alchemist, wouldn't have meant much to anyone else, but the alchemist took pity on the street urchin and taught him about alchemy and various miscellaneous skills, like how to hide from debt collectors.
• Getting his Talentium finger was kind of important. The alchemist got one of his friends to make it for Alec. He got it for a pretty penny, but it was worth it.
• Choosing his outfit may have been one of the most important decisions Alec ever made. He'd been taught how to blend in, how to be one of the crowd. But he didn't want to do that anymore. For all of his life he'd been bowing and scraping and following orders. It was time he took an identity of his own. Bright colours and ornaments to distract, with hidden pockets and tricks to confuse. Alec could be a good thief with his skills, but he knew he could be better.