Character Theme - Unavoidable Battle


"Keep staring, just don't look behind you..."

Name: Vladimir
Codename: The Phantom, Phantom Assassin, Ghost
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Race: Human

Appearance: Vladimir has a very feminine appearance, much to his disliking. He has a very slender figure with very smooth, pale skin. His long, silky black hair is often tied up into a long ponytail to keep strands of hair out of his eyes. His iris is a very light grey, which gives his eyes a very blank, empty look from a distance. He usually is seen wearing a very standard short sleeved black tunic with matching trousers, thick leather belts wrapped around his waist and thighs with holsters for his glaives. When travelling he usually equips a heavy set of shoulder pauldrons with a tattered black cape tucked under them. He always wears armor over his forearms and shins accompanied by thick leather boots. His guild mark is imprinted on the left side of his chest, it is a dark grey color.

Personality: Vladimir is very stoic, but more out of being overly sensitive than being antisocial. He's very shy and usually takes a while to warm up to, but once he's comfortable around you he starts to become much more warm and caring. He's a very reliable person, to the extent that people can always trust him to help them out when they most need it. He's angered easily by those who would try to hurt him or his honor, but he is very good at keeping a lid on his temper during battle.
Likes: Reading, drinking, listening to stories
Dislikes: being alone, hotheads, assassins
Fears: commitment (that which comes with serious relationships), being alone, his past

Guild: Azure Drake
Rank: C Rank
Guild Tattoo: Dark Grey, left side of chest
Meaning: Vladimir considers the guild his first real home, a place where he never has to struggle to survive. He finds it hard to mix with the other members, but he is getting better.

Magic: Speed Magic
Caster or Holder: Caster
Description: Vladimir's speed magic is the reason why people refer to him as the 'Phantom Assassin'. While it is not a glamorous form of magic, it is very efficient in allowing Vladimir to dash in and out of combat to quickly pick off key targets before disengaging to safety by giving him quick bursts of speed that allow him to instantly blink to any location before anyone has realised he's gone. In a sense he is a literal phantom, quickly appearing to strike down a foe before disappearing again without a trace.

Blink Strike - Vladimir blinks to any location in a moderate range within a split second. Blink Strike doesn't just cost Magic Power, but also relies on another resource known as Ghost Fuel. Ghost Fuel are three floating wisps of power that circle Vladimir when he first activates his magic. The first Blink Strike Vladimir uses costs only Magic Power, but from there on any additional Blink Strikes will expend one Ghost Fuel. If Vladimir runs out of Ghost Fuel, he will be unable to blink until they are recharged.

Sacrifice - Vladimir sacrifices 1/3 of his remaining Magic Power to restore 1 Ghost Fuel.

Betrayal -[/u] Vladimir steals an amount of Magic Power from all nearby allies, using it to recharge 1 Ghost Fuel. The amount of power he steals from each person is dependent on how many people are nearby. If only one friend is nearby, Vladimir will steal a whole 1/3 of their current Magic Power to recharge his Ghost Fuel. When lots of friends are nearby, he only needs to steal a little power from each to recharge a Ghost Fuel.

Coup de Grace - Vladimir expends one Ghost Fuel to charge his weapon with speed magic. His next attack moves at insane speeds, inflicting massive damage to both his target and himself. If Coup de Grace kills his target, all his Ghost Fuel's are restored.

History: Vladimir barely remembers his family at all. He remembers that they liked to change towns a lot, hopping from one tavern to another. He was raised mostly by tavern folk who taught him to fight, swindle cash, cheat strangers and basically everything else he knew. His parents worked a lot as salesmen, trying to push their product in every town they visited, but they were very unsuccessful. It came to a point where they no longer could afford to pay the innkeeper to stay at their tavern. Before leaving, Vladimir's mother begged the innkeeper to keep him, knowing that he wouldn't survive with them during the winter. It was a strange request, but the innkeeper had grown fond of the little tyke who spent many a day playing with his beard. He didn't want to see Vladimir live with deadbeat parents, so he accepted the request and took in Vladimir as his own son.

Vladimir was a very disruptive child. Whenever other children stayed at the inn he always wanted to play with them, and he always became easily angered when things didn't go his way. He got into a lot of fights with the other kids, to the point where their parents didn't allow him to come near them anymore. His adopted father would often scold him for it, yelling and threatening to throw him out on the streets if he couldn't behave. In order to keep his anger under control, he took up swordsmanship from a blacksmith who often spent many nights drinking himself to sleep at the tavern. Within a few short years, his skills with a blade had surpassed that of his master and his training in patience and emotional control was top notch. There was a great improvement, and he would often spend a lot of time outside the tavern, training against sparring dummies.

One day a man approached him, saying he admired his skills from afar and had a special request for him. A certain relative of his had snitched on him to the Rune Knights several years ago when they had both dealt in 'imported goods', and he felt it was time for him to be taught a lesson. The man was asking him to assassinate his family member using his skills with a weapon. Vladimir was appalled, but thoughts of his father came to mind. The man was offering a great deal of money, enough to pay for the surgery his father needed in his knee as well as to refurbish his tavern completely. He accepted the job and set off to find his mark based off of the directions he'd been given.

He still remembers the look of confusion and then sudden fear as his target realised what he had came for. It was a horrid feeling, but knowing that he would be able to support his father was more than enough. Once his father figured out what he had done, he was dishonored. He asked Vladimir to leave, and to take all his money with him. Wandering the world alone, word had gotten out about his little mission and eventually more and more people came to him with assassination requests. They were all simple, petty things; but they paid really well. He eventually learnt Speed Magic, using it to silence his targets quicker than usual which caused people to know him as the Phantom Assassin; the assassin who strikes faster than lightning then vanishes without a trace.

Vladimir fell into a depression. The lives he had taken were not worth the money he'd been given. They weren't worth being kicked out of his only home. He rested at a local tavern where he met a woman named Beatrix. She was starting up her own Wizard Guild, and it felt like a perfect opportunity for Vladimir to redeem himself through honest work. He keeps his past unknown to most of his fellow allies at Azure Drake, but when old clients start to resurface he can't help but fear that they are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together.