One’s Own Silence - William cloaks himself in a mystic glamour, turning himself invisible as long as he is holding his breath.

One’s Own Voice - William telepathically projects his own voice to a person he knows well, speaking with them through vast distances.

One’s Own Pain - William makes every physical blow or cut he makes with either his body or a weapon hurt twice as much.

One’s Own Joy - William induces a feeling of wellness and joy through his own body, deadening any pain he suffers in battle. He can spread this feeling to other people by touching them, with the magic acting as an anesthetic…

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore - William transforms himself into a cloud of eighteen Ravens, one for each year he has lived in the world. These birds share William’s conciousness between them and he can use each one to project his powers as well as spy on multiple places at once. Not merely that, but William can transform back by gathering the Ravens together into one place and recombining them through magic...

Drawback: These Ravens are physically ordinary birds, and can be killed through ordinary means. Should all the Ravens be killed, William will die too.

Forge of the Soul- William can manifest a forge and tools made of light drawn from his very soul. He does not require fuel for the forge, and it is always exactly what he needs to get the job done, however it does still take time to craft artifacts in this manner, leaving him vulnerable if one should attack him while he is working. Additionally, the process can be not merely physically draining for the effort, but also a drain upon his magical energy. Use of this ability in the midst of battle is extremely risky, and requires the cooperation of allies to protect him in his working state, and exhausted state should that also arise from extended use of the Forge of Soul.

Eyes of the Artificer- Upon observation of a magical artifact, William is able to understand how it works, and is able to completely duplicate it, providing that he can acquire the materials and magic to do so.

Cognition of Components- In tandem with his ability to see how an artifact works, William is also able to sense the location of the materials needed to craft any given object, rendering him always capable of finding just what he needs. However, sometimes obtaining them can be another matter entirely.

Binding of Magic- William can bind magical power into an artifact in order to render it... well, magical. It may be his own magic, or that of others, or other artifacts, or whatever it is available to him, but he must have the time to do so in order for the process to be completed. This can be used in order to make items specific to a user by binding their magic to it, or it can be by taking a fragment of power away from its original source. In the latter case, the magical power of the original source is diminished by whatever amount he has removed from it. The greater the amount of power which he has to re-channel, the more of a strain it is upon him.

Endurance of the Blacksmith- A general enhancement which temporarily hardens William's skin like stone and increases his physical resistance.

Name: Seth Murdock



Age: 18

Bio: If you have never heard the Murdock name before, count yourself lucky; It means you have yet to lose anyone.

The Murdock Morgue had been operated by the same family for generations and catered to nearly everyone in the city. Skilled coffin makers and masters of bone and blood magics, the Murdocks prided themselves at making any who had recently departed look as beautiful and peaceful as possible before they are laid to rest. It was not an easy task by any means. In a world filled with untold dangers, and a specific group being hunted by any means, there was no telling how someone would go out. But nevertheless, Clide and Sharon Murdock strived to make sure everyone could have an open casket no matter how much manipulation was needed.

Continuing with tradition, the Murdocks sought to teach their sons the same magics they had mastered so that they may continue the family business. However, their eldest son, Seth, didn’t seem to have the same connection they had. He struggled to reshape the flesh of the departed while his younger brother Cody was a natural. It became clear rather quickly who would indeed be taking over the morgue when they grew up. Though they never said anything, Seth could feel his parents began to favor Cody. They started focusing their attention more to the younger sibling during lessons leaving Seth to mostly fend for himself. At gatherings they would ask Cody to show off his abilities to the guests, while Seth simply stayed at their side.

He would not be deterred, though. Since the family lived above the morgue, it was a simple matter of sneaking down stairs every night to practice. But in the dark quiet of the moonlight, in the company of those who were no longer of this world, Seth began to hear voices in his mind. At first they were nothing more than faint whispers mistaken for the wind. Yet with every night they grew, louder and louder. Each one called to him though no one spoke. He could feel their presence yet was alone. They compelled him to look deeper than the flesh and bone before him, to reach into the endless void. And so, he plunged his hands into the great beyond, and found he could manipulate bodies, just not with their earthly components.

At the age of 15, two years after he found how to reach beyond the mortal realm, Seth was now able to fully bring back and command a single body on a whim. Though he soon found he had gone as far as he could on his own. His parents had never delved into Necromancy, and his schooling had no courses on such a macabre subject. If he ever wanted to truly hone his skills, he would need to go to the one place where such things were welcomed with open arms; Ishcar School for Creative Minds.

Having long given up on running the family business, Seth begged his parents to send him to Ishcar. They did not have many connections, but driven by their love for their son and regret for making him feel lesser, Seth’s parents got to work. They called in every favor and pulled every string until Seth’s application for admission was sitting on Nergal’s desk. Seth waited every morning for the mail to show up, until the fateful day when he finally received his acceptance letter. Now at the age of 18, having studied the magics of the dead for three years, Seth has become one of the most capable necromancers of his time. Now it’s time to see if he can put his skills to the test.

Mundane Skills: Outside of magic, Seth is an extremely talented knife thrower. It’s not uncommon for him to have an abundance of throwing knives on hand at all times. He has also taken to learning Alchemy. He finds it’s a lot like cooking but with a magical kick. He has also picked up playing the saxophone and is an expert at strategy games.

Magic: Necromancy:













Personality: One would think dealing with death and decay would turn a person's demeanor to a dark and brooding one. Seth however is the exact opposite. Loud, obnoxious, and over all a complete goofball. He is just as likely to summon a skeletal warrior simply to high five it as he would for use in combat. He does not share the same disdain or disgust for his magic as others do, and will flaunt his necromantic powers at a whim. Some would say disturbing the dead for such trivial things is disrespectful, Seth would say they weren’t busy with anything else.

This may give the appearance that Seth is uncaring. Quite the opposite, in fact. His humorous attitude is to make others laugh and brighten up the room. After spending his whole life around the dead and knowing what it's like to feel pushed aside, Seth has grown to appreciate life and wants to make sure others are living their best as well. In the end he is just a curious student willing to learn even the most taboo schools of magic purely in the pursuit of bettering the world at large. And hey, a little power along the way never hurt.

Faction (Marduk, Ishtar, or Cassandra Club when it's founded): Ishtar for now. Cassandra once formed.
Are you a Descendant of the Illuminated Poet?: No

Name: Mathew S. (Samuel) Davies
Appearance: Mathew stands at 5" 8', and weighs almost three hundred pounds. His rotund figure is covered by an exceptional amount of brown hair, the young man even sporting side burns, and a mustache. His flab hides under it a thick layer of muscle, which can be seen when he strains himself. His attire is normally a white dress shirt, black slacks, and black dress shoes.
Age: 17
Bio: A student of Ishtar's School for Creative Minds, Mathew's childhood was surprisingly pleasant. His father was an immigrant from Hermannreich who fled to Iliad to start a new life, and fell in love with Mathew's mother who was an Illiad native. Becoming an exceptionally powerful Magi, Mathew's father was able to afford a life of luxury for himself, his wife, and son. However Hermannreich had other plans as they prepared for an attack against Iliad and Mathew's father knew what he had to do. He returned to his home country, and died there dismantling as much of the attempted invasion as he could. Mathew's Father died a hero in Iliad, and as a traitor to Hermannreich.

Poor Mathew, left without his father watched as his life began to fall apart. His mother had to work herself ragged to try to maintain a similar life style as they fell down the rungs of society, eventually ending up among the poorest denizens of the city for a time. Mathew took to stress eating and bouts of aggression, unable to handle the stress befalling him as he watched his mother almost go crazy trying to keep them afloat. His time at Ishtar became speckled in violent brawls and nasty fights with other students as he became something of a bully to his class mates. He became despised, but seemed to soak in the negative attention like a blubbery steak submerged in a sweet marinade. However, in his 15th year something happened to jar him from his path of degeneracy. His mother had brought home a man of ill repute, abusive and vile who had coerced her with promises of being a father for her faltering child, and a source of money for them to live. His lies hooked her deep, and she became infatuated with him for a time until he revealed his true evil. Beatings, death threats, and worse began to plague the Davie's household.

Knowing this man was no good, and that he'd need to be able to protect himself and his mother, Mathew began to work on himself. He read from his father's old magical notes, and started to improve his body to turn the fat and flab he had built from his stress eating into muscle and physical power. Mathew and his new "Step-Father" came to blows constantly over the smallest of things, but what caused it all to come to a head was when Mathew saw him punch his mother in the jaw with a magically enhanced punch, breaking her teeth and jaw into a grizzly scene of blood and bone shards. Mathew struck his Step-Father in the side with a punch hard enough to snap ribs, but his Step-Father on a high of Adrenalin and rage unleashed a spell, attempting to flay the skin from Mathew's body. Deep wounds opened across Mathew's body as blood flowed freely and a sudden surge of light headedness was brought on by blood loss. Mathew, fearing for his life from this abusive monster unleashed every bit of strength he had left into a spell, unleashing one of the Dark Art's basic principles. He began to rip the life out of his Step-Father to heal his own wounds. As the tears in Mathew's flesh sealed, and blood returned to him he watched his step-father turn to dust before him. Carrying his mother to a healer, Mathew had to truly reflect upon what had happened. After being questioned by the authorities, it was ruled that Mathew had acted in self defense, and what he had done was to preserve his, and his mother's lives. Mathew took some of the time he had to himself to look deep in order to view himself

What he found was that he was closer to the monster he had just put down than he liked, and realizing that his father would be so disappointed with how his life was going he has made efforts to turn himself around. What was once a raging bully and would be petty tyrant has become a much more thoughtful individual.

Mundane Skills: Boxing, "Botch" Style Wrestling, playing the Royal Game of Ur.
Magic:
Son of the Patriot: Developed after his near death experience, this spell is a modified version of the Helpful Arts which allows Mathew to turn his skin a dark metallic gray, and inherit an exceptional amount of durability. This drains a high amount of stamina to maintain, but makes him virtually indestructible while the spell is active except against truly matter destroying effects. This is normally paired with Red Sun to keep his stamina up while he batters his foes with his wrestling and brawling skills.

Red Sun: Using a combination of the Combat arts and the Dark Arts, Mathew creates a dome of red light around him about twenty yards in radius. In this dome, the stamina and fatigue of all within it are drained into Mathew to reinvigorate him. The dome can be shattered by attacking it directly with magic, and doing so fatigues Mathew as he tries to maintain it.

Crimson Bonds: A purely Dark Arts style spell, this spell attempts to rip the life from an enemy. This was the spell that Mathew used to save his own life when fighting his Step-Father. While the name implies actually absorbing blood from his foe, it actually draws life from the eyes of his opponent like a green mist, turning crimson as it flows into Mathew, either through open wounds or his mouth should he be healthy. Closing one's eyes after the spell has been cast will stop the flow, but doing so requires a strong sense of willpower.

Personality: "You still don't get it. In Iliad, people can die and kill for what they BELIEVE! Not for money, not for Poets! Not for what they're told is right. Every man is free to fight his own wars! Like my father before me, when Hermannreich comes around for round two, I'll be there to bring them down! Hermannreich is diseased, rotten to the core...There'll be no saving it. We'll need to rip them out by the roots, sunder it all, BURN IT DOWN! From the ashes of the old world, a new world will rise! Evolved, but untamed, without the useless hate mongering propaganda it's been poisoned with now. The Headmaster wants us to run and hide, like cowards. Not while I live....Wanna know why? "I have a dream." That one day, every person in this world will control their OWN destiny. A land of the TRULY free, dammit. A world of ACTION, not words. Ruled by STRENGTH, not committee. Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around. Where power and justice are back where they belong: in the hands of the people! "
Bombastic barely caged fury is an apt description of Mathew's personality. While his older self was a rampaging bully, he has honed his fury into strength, true strength. He stands tall in the face of those who would try to push him or his friends around, or those who would topple Iliad. He feels that fleeing would simply leave them cornered, and that they must topple Hermannreich with overwhelming force in order to secure their future. He sees the rivalry between schools as foolish, but necessary to breed competition and push both to become as strong as possible. He is the son of the Patriot, and he will not falter!
Faction:Ishtar
Are you a Descendant of the Illuminated Poet?: No.

Name: "Lynx"

Appearance:

No matter how many times she edits her appearance some things remain forever nonhuman, but thankfully are easily hidden. Indigo eyes with a cat's vertical pupils are hidden by contacts, her flexible spine and floating collar bone only noticeable if one were to walk in on her squeezing into some tight space. Her ridiculously low heart rate (less than ten beats per minute) and ability to operate in low oxygen environments are essentially invisible under normal circumstances.

Age: She lost track of the exact number long before living memory but she's been kicking around since the creation of the universe.

Bio: Whatever name Lynx had gone by at the beginning of time, however she had carried herself, she had probably already been bored. Springing into existence at the dawn of the universe fully formed and ready to rumble she originally quite liked the powers that had been given to her. But when the novelty wore off it quickly became apparent just how unpleasant of a life she was going to have. The speed at which she processed information meant that the world was in a constant state of slow motion for her, every moment spent waiting an unbearable torment.

Any hobby or pastime would have all the enjoyment sucked out of it within weeks or days, the Custodian quickly dissembling the activity and piecing it back together thousands upon thousands of times. She bounced from job to job, serving as everything from professional chef to starship captain to doctor and leaving after a few years when it became unbearably mundane. She merely existed for millions of years, trapped in constant race for gratification and amusement.

When some of her brethren went rogue it blindingly obvious that it wouldn't go well for them. The majority of Custodians that had stayed loyal had literal God on their side, only an idiot would have taken those odds. But fighting a doomed war followed by bitter defeat sounded more interesting than curbstomping a few rebels so of course she picked the losing side. The war went about as well as expected, she took out a few loyalists before getting booted out with the surviving rebels.

Historia made a decent place for a crash landing. The Custodian found herself among humanity, a race that measured up to hers about as well as ants did to them. But how interesting they were! Fragile and short-lived creatures they still dedicated themselves to climbing mountains and crossing barren deserts, just as willing to create beautiful (by their standards anyway) works of art as they were to form armies and raze each others homes to the ground. Irrational and hot-blooded, driven to prove that their lives had meaning even though the universe would have forgotten about them in a million years or two, they were simultaneously kind of pathetic and sort of inspiring in their stubbornness.

The Custodian was fascinated by them and wanted to get a closer look, so she began to disguise herself as members of their race. She spent time in the guise of queens, knights, artist, beggars, murderers, thieves and every archetype under the sun, poking at society to watch how it squirmed. She helped establish codes of law and then proceeded to break them to get a look at the prisoners suffering in salt mines, commissioned great works of art for museums and then joined barbaric hordes and stole them. She spent time living on the streets, watching the faces of those who'd give her a few coins and those who acted as if she didn't exist.

It was essentially an undercover investigative report. She learned just as much about humans watching them drag Descendants out of their beds as she did seeing them band together to recover from natural disasters. Over the millennia she built up a strangely patronizing affinity for them, regarding them as amusing animals that could do tricks.

Eventually she ended up in Hermannreich in the form of a gunrunner turned revolutionary, working with a cell of freedom fighters that sabotaged military installations and assassinated high value targets until they were wiped out by a surprise raid. The alien made her exit as her comrades were being lined up for summary execution, escaping to Iliad under the guise of a gunslinger and mechanic turned insurgent fleeing political persecution. With her billions of years worth of technological experience both human and otherwise it was easy enough to set up shop as a mechanic and machinists, getting herself a job as the shop teacher at Marduk. She got herself another position as a history instructor, firsthand knowledge of the world's major events coming in handy.

And so Instructor Lynx became a upstanding citizen of Iliad, wiling away the time grading essays and dismantling engine blocks as she waited for the inevitable need to drop everything and run.

Mundane Skills: Quite frankly her skillset is immense to the point of being too long to list. But for the sake of getting into character the Custodian limits herself to whatever her current identity would be good at. In Lynx's case her skill with firearms and melee combat is quite literally superhuman, at a level obtainable only through her natural powers and millennia of practice. She is a talented alchemist and machinist, modifying her gear and crafting different types of ammo for different types of targets,and has a penchant for explosives. Her careers of planning and foiling assassinations and robberies give her a good sense of small-scale tactics, her specialty being ambushes and smash-and-grab type operations. Stealth is a given, the alien just as quiet as her current namesake when she wants to be.

Powers:
Supernatural Senses- Like her namesake Lynx relies on her senses to get an edge over her opponents. On a day to day basis her sense of smell is as good as a dog’s, counting individual threads on a person’s shirt from across the room and hearing each breath they take. She’s capable of much more when she focuses but limits this to avoid sensory overload.

The real advantage is her ability to detect magic. If you’re paying attention there’s certain giveaways inherent to arcane energy. A low hum of some great machine, a minuscule hint of copper on the tongue, a faint shimmer in the air.Lynx can pick up on these clues that others miss and follow them, seeing through illusions and trailing mages by traits specific to their spells.

Super-Speed- Good luck getting the draw on her. Lynx can move at about the speed of sound when running and hit Mach 2 if she were to sprint all out. Incredibly fast but also incredibly exhausting. Moving that fast for any longer than a few hours necessitates her to eat about half her weight to fuel the boost in metabolism so she tends to cruise at four hundred or five hundred miles an hour (when she's not forced to crawl along out of discretion.)

Enhanced Endurance- Moving twice as fast as sound requires a tough body. Lyxn is mostly unaffected by extreme speed or temperatures and needs only a few hours of sleep a week. Her stomach is strong enough that she can taste poisons to evaluate their strength, her skin shattering mundane weapons and deflecting some spells. Walls are no trouble, able to be smashed through with no adverse reaction.

Equipment : Krait- One of the first things she made after being so rudely ejected from the One's favor. The glove houses a container for storing all manner of liquids and a nozzle designed to eject it as an aerosol up to 15 feet. Typically loaded with various irritating agents or toxins.

Wife and Mother- A pair of matched revolvers that she took off a dying loyalist in the war in Heaven. Prime examples of Custodian engineering they generate the energy required to fire and are "reloaded" by letting the excess heat drain. The hammers can be fanned for rapid fire but doing so runs the risk of overheating them.

Starstrike- The usage of advanced Custodian materials allow the bow to be as strong as steel while remaining flexible, able to loaded with arrows of varying types. It's most valuable trait is its ability to absorb and charge arrows with starlight, the energy channeled into the tip to punch through armor and unleash a corona of searing light inside them.

Savagry-A tribute given to her during her days as warlord, Savagery is designed to hold under the extreme stresses of her usage, staying solid under forces and temperatures that would reduce a normal dagger to slag.

Plasmids: Not actually part of a bacteria's cytoplasm but the combination of chemicals and computer input that let her change her face. A thoroughly unpleasant process that requires her to isolate for a week as her durable body slowly melts and reforms.

Tools- The selection of wrenches, hammers, drills, plasma cutters, and other tools she uses to fix machines and make bombs and arrowheads as well as the stockpile of materials for doing so. These range from sheets of metal waiting to be cut to old cars dumped out in her back yard and rusty weapons ready to be stripped for parts.

The Essentials- Cigars and her hip flask.



Personality: "Blessed" with otherworldly speed and the required reaction time to manage it every moment of everyday in Lynx's life is more or less a living hell. Her natural impatience combined with the fact that time appears to move much slower for her than it would anyone else means that she bounces around from distraction to distraction, spending scarcely a few minutes on anyone thing before moving to the next. Her self-restriction of her speed causes her to twitch and fiddle with coins and other small objects, a nervous tic she passes off as shell-shock.

While she understands the difference between right and wrong it doesn't really factor much into her daily life. She does what the current persona she's inhabiting would do whether that's building orphanages and going on one woman crusades to rescue kidnapping victims or earning a reputation as fearsome raider pillages villages for sport. The morality of an act is much less important to her than if its in-character or interesting.

"Lynx" is more or less a good person, an exiled freedom fighter turned mechanic and teacher. She pays her taxes, shows up to work on time and gives students the extra attention they require and always has customer's repaired items returned to them promptly. She has a poker game every Thursday, plays golf on weekends with friends from work or just around the neighborhood and generally presents as a good-natured veteran that is sometimes a bit off.

Faction (Marduk, Ishtar, or Cassandra Club when it's founded): Marduk for the time being, whatever seems interesting after that.

Are you a Descendant of the Illuminated Poet?: No

Important Relations:
-Lilith: A pickpocket, beggar and all around street rat Lynx picked up off the street shortly after arriving in Iliad. In return for room and board she serves as Lynx's apprentice and errand-runner, working on orders that come in when her boss is out.
-Ereden Helbrien : Four or five centuries ago the Helbriens slighted Lynx in some way she's now forgotten about. Since she was posing as stranger sorceress at the time she cursed the family so that every thirty years they would suffer tragedy, a promise she has been making good on since then because it's mildly funny. Much to her delight a couple of their number brought their family to Iliad in an attempt to escape the curse and now the son is one of her top students.

Ereden is studious, serious and determined so it was no surprise to Lynx that much of his studies were devoted curses and how to break them. She hasn't decided if she'll let him succeed.

-Lieutenant Rin Mistold: An old poker buddy of Lynx's and higher up in the local law enforcement. In return for bringing the beer and snacks to their weekly games Lynx is more or less immune to the noise complaints sometimes generated by her late experimentation.

-Family: She lost track of how many spouses, flings and common law partners she's had over the years and doesn't much care to try and remember. None of them ever knew her true nature and she generally either waited for them to die before cutting ties with the family or simply disappeared from their lives. Her children were simply told their Custodial powers were their form of magic.

In total she's mothered (and fathered depending on her form at the time) hundreds of offspring and would have a truly incredible amount of descendants, not like most if any of them would know who she is.

Theme:
TBD