▼ Path In The VoidOld sagas tell of revenants being able to leave their burial mounds by means of 'swimming' through stone. In Rókur's case this has come true, though not exactly this way. Instead he can suddenly disappear into a thin cloud of dark mist, completely disconnecting himself from the world as we know it. In this state he does not interact with matter or energy, denying him the ability to use any of his senses in order to notice what his going on in the ordinary world or to grab, move or attack anything. He can't use
The Ravages Of Time or any magical items either. On the other hand this is a mutual effect: He can't be detected, moved or attacked from this plane of existence or blocked by obstacles. Any stay in the void is merely limited by his need to 'eat' which cannot be satisfied there.
► Limitation(s)Entering this special state is not the issue, nor is it staying in there. The problematic step is returning to the ordinary world since, ironically, it involves a lot more very mortal physics than he can easily compensate for.
The first issue is that, at re-entry, his body has to displace whatever matter is occupying the spot where it happens in a very, very short amount of time. The outcome of this struggle naturally depends on the sturdiness and density of the object in question. In the case of a solid wall there will be a very violent explosion along with Rókur's immediate death. A solid body of liquid is more survivable, but will result in severe damage to flesh and bones alike. Smaller objects like chairs or otherwise not too massive pieces of furniture will cause injury, but are survivable. Gas like air on the other hand is very light, can dissolve in water and be vented slowly afterwards. However this process consumes time. For this reason a burst of maybe half a dozen events within a short period of time is okay, but anything more will have increasingly unpleasant side effects. Also he should know the layout of any building he moves around in prior to doing so.
The second problem is that he cannot accelerate, decelerate or change direction of movement while being in the void, simply for the lack of anything to push against. Thus any momentum required to actually move has to be gained prior to entering the void and (if necessary) be gotten rid off after exiting it. For example, in order to travel upwards, he has to jump and then enter the void while still being on the ascending part of the jump.
The third limitation is that he naturally can't hold on to any object, be it worn on his body or held in his hands. While this can be very benign in the case of burning gasoline on his skin or handcuffs around his wrists it is much less so if he wants to take any piece of equipment with him. There are two exceptions to this rule though: His bow and his garments, essentially the items that have been put into his grave, had over a thousand years to become infused with his magic.
► Weakness(es)Disabling his legs and arms will render him unable to pick up momentum before entering the void, thus forcing him either to reappear at the same place he disappeared at. Also, even if mobile, he can't escape from prisons too convoluted with obstacles for him to re-enter anywhere safely. Aside from this it is possible to figure out that he always goes in a straight line, allowing to move oneself while he can't see anything so it is less dangerous when he reappears.
Time is the worst enemy of almost everything, but it passes by at a rate of merely one second per second. While technically not messing around with that, Rókur can still amplify the ubiquitous forces of decay and add quite a touch of his own to them. The precise effects depend on both the object in question and the circumstances, but a rough classification can be provided.
People and animals will at first experience non-physical effects: A cold sensation encroaching upon them, the feeling that one's throat is cording up. None of this is really happening, but it increasingly feels as if. These psychological influences will disappear immediately if the exposure to Rókur's influence is stopped. If not the second stage will set in and induce a state of increased physical exhaustion, leading to a gradually increasing reduction in the affected individual's strength, speed, stamina and reflexes. This is fully reversible in a more or less short amount of time, depending on the individual's state of training. Continued exposure after this stage however will allow for real damage to occur. Bones will become brittle and break much more easily, tendons might snap and any wounds sustained by other means will likely be more severe than they would have been otherwise while those already existing are prone to be torn open even wider. This stage can also be fully recovered from, but it takes time comparable to healing out 'conventional' wounds. If exposure should still persist after this stage has been passed the victim's doom is pretty much imminent: While being unpredictable for Rókur, he can count on some kind of organic malfunction or infection to ultimately kill the target.
Using his magic in this manner also serves as food for him: He virtually drains life itself. This doesn't have any boosting effects, but satiates his hunger and is a requirement for his regeneration process. However it allows him to notice if he actually hits a living object or not. For example he can probe an adjacent room for the presence of individuals without having to visually inspect it. Walls do not stop this kind of magic.
Material and technology on the other hand does not have any feelings, but nonetheless can fall victim to him. One can literally see rust growing on previously blank steel or fatigue cracks growing in solid concrete until they have lost the entirity of their mechanical strength. The latter is not important to electronics, but these are dependent on components working properly and not drifting away too far from their original specifications. What kind of malfunction will appear at the end of the process again is unpredictable, but the system will ultimately be out of service and in need of reconstruction. The strength of the material or complexity of the system to be affected has no influence on the required duration.
► Limitation(s)The spell works in a limited volume of space, usually just about large enough to encompass the entirity of a human, that is projected to a specific location. The range of this projection is several yards at best. Also, since the methods employed against them are so different, Rókur can't act against living and inanimated objects at the same time.
While consuming far less time than they originally would, the ravages of time still take a while. It is magic uncapable of delivering a 'quick fix' to any kind of hostile or otherwise dangerous situation. As a rule of thumb one can say that going through all four stages requires roughly 15 minutes, either in one go or as a series of shorter exposures, provided that there's no significant opportunity for the target to regenerate in between. The magic has to be cast actively, consuming the majority of Rókur's attention while in use.
The third limitation is that, at least as far as material is concerned, there is a 'bottom end' at which further decay and decomposition is not possible. A barricade made out of small pieces of rubble or an earth wall for example cannot be affected. One can't burn ash any further or grind what's already dust to even smaller pieces.
► Weakness(es)If one pays close attention to one's feelings one can detect being exposed to his magic at an early stage and try to get some distance between oneself and him. If this is not possible immediately one can at least do it while still being in the more easily reversible phase of his attack. Giving oneself a bit of time will then effectively reset the clock, allowing to jump back unharmed into action subsequently. As far as technology is concerned the best way to avoid his success is to have a good security network with systems that allows for fast response times before critical parts have been weakened critically. After all one could blow up structures using explosives or other tools of demolition as well if there's enough time as well.
Some major functions and metabolic pathways in his body are no longer relevant for his survival. The most important ones are burning calories with oxygen and the circulatory system. This has several beneficial effects for him:
- While he can still breathe in order to make people happy and prevent them from calling the emergency services it is a purely optional activity, allowing him to stay under water much longer and in greater depth than usual or to survive in a vacuum.
- Non-magical poisons, infections or drugs do not have an effect.
- He can survive wounds others wouldn't such as injury to his heart or piercing of his lungs. The method required to definitely kill him is decapitation, either by indeed cutting cleanly through his neck or by utilizing the means of the modern world than can blow up a skull in its entirity, such as very large caliber guns.
- He can regenerate from any non-lethal injury such as regrowing limbs, but this happens at a non-extraordinary rate. Lack of 'food' (his definition thereof) will prevent this process from functioning properly just as it would with an ordinary human body.
► Limitation(s)The most important thing to know is that Rókur, by no means, is resistant to pain. A pierced lung or heart might not stop him 'mechanically', but the pain caused by such kind of injuries is bound to impair him very severely. Of course this also allows for him to be tortured.
While they are driven magically, Rókur still needs his muscles and the bones and tendons attached to them in order to move. Damage to these structures will impair his movements just like with any ordinary human. Also his senses are still coupled to their respective body parts: Burnt skin will disable the sense of touch, stabbed eyes will make him blind and without a nose or ears it will be much more difficult to collect these kinds of sensations.
His special way of existing does not come with any kind of supernatural enhancements with regard to strength, agility, reaction time or stamina. He can't run out of his non-existant breath, but physical exertion induces other kinds of strain that need time in order to be recovered from. Also, because conventional medications do not work, his regeneration can't benefit from modern medicine. If anything at all specialized magic must be applied in order to boost his regeneration process.
► Weakness(es)Killing him is not something that can be achieved with a single blow by most standard equipment, but standard equipment is enough to work one's way towards this goal with a little outside the box thinking. By reducing his ways to escape the remainder becomes much more of an academic question. Aside from this many things like poisoning either by injection or by gas are situations that don't occur often in everyday street life, as violent as it might be. If someone really wants to pull things off that way modern technology has brought stuff that still can do the trick: Acids for example.
▼ ArcheryA skill from the past where this technique still was one of the primary means of battle or acquiring food. He's not a dramatically oversized Legolas, but still very good at it.
▼ ForgingAnother skill that modern machines have taken over or made obsolete for the better part of it, but nevertheless he is able to craft new arrows or repair/reforge his equipment if it should be damaged or destroyed.
▼ Profound historical knowledgeNot really a surprise, is it ? If any high school or university would be willing to hire him he could very well become prominent with regard to his knowledge about the era he comes from. First hand experience is always the best.
