AGE: 24

APPEARANCE:
Standing at 5’10” with a pale complexion, Axel is of average height and build. His hair is light blonde in colour, sometimes defined as platinum, and shaggy with multiple waves throughout it; it is medium length for a men's cut. The most appealing thing about Axel is his smile, it could make a group of girls weak at their knees should he choose to use it for that purpose. His jawline is strong but his eyesight is not, and for that he remedies it with a pair of thick rimmed glasses that have a deep red frame. Staring through them are a pair of dark grey eyes that have blue flecks throughout them, though it wouldn't be noticeable unless you were up close and personal. Axel’s choice in wardrobe is rather casual, sporting semi-loose straight cut jeans, plain crew cut t-shirts that sometimes have graphics on them, and various assortments of coats, jackets, or cardigans.

PERSONALITY
When life gets you down, what do you do? Well Axel, he would laugh at it. Seriousness was meant only for his work, in every other aspect of his life, he was a comic. Charming, charismatic, and well versed in the oral language, Axel is easy to get along with. As a young child he was an outcast, as a young adult, he is quick to make friends. In his everyday life, Axel is rather humble and believes hard work is what gets you places. In Haven, he is a lot more smug, but other than that, his personality is constant through to the digital world as it is a familiar place for him. At times Axel can be indecisive and questionable of others; yes he draws people in quite easily, but trusting them is a whole other story. He plays off a lot of his worries by making a joke and very rarely shows someone how he is truly feeling. He created a certain image for himself, both in and out of the digital world, and it is one that is meant to protect his insecurities about himself.

BACKGROUND:
Axel Lundin, a Swedish boy born into a family of three brothers, no sisters, and a dog. His parents, though still together seemed to hate each other and constantly argued; a circumstance that later divided the family. Axel’s brothers were rather successful, following in their parent's footsteps and pursuing a career in law. Law was not a particular interest in Axel’s life and at a young age he took an interest in technology. While Axel’s brothers were playing in the mud and kicking a ball around, he was sitting in his room taking apart computers. Technology was the grounding hobby for the child, he was fascinated with the magnitude of parts and more so what each of them meant. The minute he was able to, he began taking them apart in a whole new manner; through code.

Through Axel’s teenage years he explored the land of the internet and stumbled upon the world of programming. That’s where it all changed for him. It was obvious to any person that the young boy had a knack for the world of code and he quickly began working on various projects; from designing websites, to indie games, to even cell phone apps. His brain processed what it meant to program like his brain processed breathing to survive. As Axel was graduating high school, he had just finished developing a platform that harboured multiple mass advertising companies, providing them the ability to all work out of a secure network location that delivered analytical data as soon as it was processed. It was genius in the marketing world and it nailed him a scholarship for the Computer Sciences program at UVS.

It was while Axel was at UVS (and far far away from his parents), that he learned about Open World Works. As a Computer Sciences major, it was his job to know everything about everything when it came to the digital world. He followed the companies politics diligently, silently dreaming that one day he would be part of their team as a programmer. It was like someone’s birthday, no.. Axel’s birthday, the day that Haven was released. He wouldn’t be found lining up outside of a store like the poor schmucks that couldn’t afford the pre-release buy to ensure his access right away. He made sure to scrape up enough cash through his freelance coding jobs (did I mention he’s an experienced hacker?) to purchase a pre-release so that he could log on the instant the game went live.

In the beginning it was just a game but soon he was hooked. Axel was marveled by the beauty that was Haven, he couldn’t even fathom the amount of work and dedication that went into the game. His goal soon became to learn as much about the world as possible and develop something to offer Open World Works, something that would land him an internship. What he didn’t know was that in 4 short years, he would be presented with an opportunity he never thought could exist; the threat which was [NERO]. Developing new platforms and systems was Axel’s speciality and he knew that if he could create some kind of a data protection system to combat the criminal group, maybe… just maybe, he could win that internship. Axel immediately got to work and what better place to test his system, than on the game itself? Numerous quest text changes, NPC remodels, and 27 reports later… the system is very much still in progress.

TALENTS AND SKILLS:
Freelance Hacker and Programmer
Skateboards
Persuasive

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STATS:
STR: ▰▰▰▱▱▱
STA: ▰▰▰▰▰▱
DEX: ▰▰▰▰▰▰
INT: ▰▰▰▰▱▱
WIS: ▰▱▱▱▱▱
LUC: ▰▰▱▱▱▱

ABILITIES
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Shadow Ascendance
The Shadow Realm is one that exists in every corner of the world. Wherever light exists, a shadow can be cast. The ability to manipulate and control elements of the shadow realm is not learned, but rather, it is earned. Shadow Ascendance was last available to be “won” during a special event in Haven three years ago to celebrate the anniversary of the game. The ability went to the player or group of players who were able to secure five legendary items by the end of the week. Shadow Ascendance was awarded to but a single player.

Shadow Ascendance has various elements and attributes to control, but the ability itself never came with a manual or a description. The user was given the opportunity to explore the peaks and limitations of the ability, creating it what they wanted it to be. With the freedom to contort the ability to match your player’s needs, it also meant that fully mastering Shadow Ascendance would be near impossible. An important note about Shadow Ascendance, is that it does not operate like your typical spell as it doesn't require the use of mana to use; it draws its power from the player's health pool. Each ability cost a percentage of health to be "sacrificed" in order to use it, however; certain abilities grant the user health.

Shadowphage - A sub ability to Shadow Ascendance
Shadowphage grants the player the ability to use shadows as portals. The player can enter one shadow and travel to another existing shadow in the area, exiting it in that spot. The player does not have to phage their entire body through a shadow, the player can choose one part of their body to send through the shadow (such as their arm). The player is not able to use their own shadow as a portal.

Shadow Swimming - A sub ability to Shadow Ascendance
The user is able to enter their own shadow and move freely along the ground in their shadow form. The user cannot enter another person's shadow. The user is immune to damage in their shadow form, however; if you turn out the lights… they no longer exist.

Shadow Crippling - A sub ability of Shadow Ascendance
The user is able to inflict damage to another person through their shadow. The user has to be in their shadow form to be able to inflict damage onto another person’s shadow. Shadow Crippling restores a percentage of the player's health back with each hit.

Create Shadow - A sub ability of Shadow Ascendance
The user is able to physically create a shadow and use it as an animate object, however; once the user is no longer physically touching the shadow object, it disappears. Most commonly used to create weapons, barriers, or armor of some kind. If a player is struck by a shadow object, the user's health is restored by a percentage of the damage he dealt; if the user deals a critical strike, the player is granted the full percentage of damage as health.

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INVENTORY:
Twin Shadows: High-tier dual daggers that increase critical strike chance and were obtained through countless hours spent grinding quests. [EQUIPPED]
Fleeted Boots: Black leather boots with wings stitched into the ankles; increases movement speed both in and out of combat. [EQUIPPED]
Spray Paint: For graffiti purposes!
Meat Shanks: Boy’s gotta eat.

NOTABLE FEATURES:
"Only someone who has played as long as I have... could have such a generic name without it having a bunch of numbers and underscores attached to it"