[OOC] Nexus Of Worlds Multiverse (Page 10)

Name: Cathak Talon

Age: 274

Gender: Male

Race: Terrestrial Exalt - Fire-Aspect Dragon-Blooded

Random descriptors: When his anima banner flares, the plates on the back of Cathak Talon's armor appear to melt and stretch into skeletal steel wings, which then burst into brilliant flames. These steel "bones" then melt and reform constantly, with no apparent detriment to Cathak Talon's armor whatsoever. The anima banner of the Dragon-Blooded is a raw, powerful effect. While those of the other Exalted can be intense, and even have lasting impact on their environment, that of the Terrestrials can be so powerful as to inflict considerable damage on their surroundings. The effects of the damage is different for each type of Terrestrial, but the source is always the raw power of the character’s Essence.

If the Dragon-Blood’s anima banner is at the 8–10-motes level of display, it inflicts light heat damage for every minute of contact to everything within a number of feet equal to the character’s permanent Essence. This damage is sufficient to destroy cloth and soft wood in a minute or two. It can eventually reduce even treated hardwoods to junk (within five minutes). At the 11–15-mote level, the banner inflicts moderate fire damage for every few seconds of combat. At these two levels, characters who are able to endure lethal damage without the use of armor or defensive abilities (such as other Exalts) ignore the damage inflicted by Terrestrial anima banners. At the 16+ level, however, the banner generates that same damage every single second, and all beings and objects (except the Exalt’s personal equipment, which is immune to the effect at all levels) suffers this damage.

This anima flux effect has had obvious impacts on their Terrestrials’ fighting style and architecture (among other things). At the expenditure of five motes of Essence, the Children of Hesiesh can draw on their inner passions, forcing their anima banner to erupt. For the duration of the scene, the Exalt is surrounded by a corona of flames, which inflicts no damage on his body or possessions but affects anything else he touches as normal flames would. Any bare-handed or grappling attacks against the Exalt cause the attacker to suffer severe elemental damage, and any similar attacks made by the Dragon-Blood inflict additional elemental damage as well. The Exalt can also ignite flammable materials with a touch.

Character Tier: Intermediate

Character Type: Critical Character - Active Multiverse Participant

Physical Description: I'm terrible at writing descriptions... he looks pretty much like THIS

Personality Description: Brash and bold even for a Fire-Aspect Terrestrial, Talon was not well liked among his peers on the Blessed Isle. This culminated in him being stationed in Lookshy. It was there that he went from devoted to the Realm, to hating it. Always an honorable person despite his outright willingness to do battle, he saw the oppression of others as a personal affront.

He is not beyond fighting with someone at one instant, then offering to buy them a drink the next. Talon can fly off the handle if he feels insulted, or blush like a newlywed bride if he is openly flattered. This makes him a bit of a wild-card in the opinions of most people. However, there's nobody better to have on your side if shit hits the fan. In that regard, Talon is an honorable man... but rarely is able to sit idle if there's some action he could be a part of.

Skills, powers and abilities:

Attributes [+]

Abilities [+]

Advantages [+]

Backgrounds [+]

Lore-based Powers [+]

Athletics-Based Powers [+]

Dodge-based Powers [+]

Melee-based Powers [+]

Even Blade Style Description [+]

EVEN BLADE STYLE

THE VARIANT OF MASTER LORD CHAOWIN REGISTROPHE, FIRST OF HEAVEN’S CHOSEN

The famous and popular Even Blade Style is known not just for its practitioners’ subtlety, speed and awareness, but for the story of its founders. The Masters Azure Crane, Zu Rat Te and Master Lord Chaowin Registrophe (self-styled First of Heaven’s Chosen) are three of the most sought-after teachers in Creation. Young hopefuls travel hundreds of miles for the chance to study in one of their dojos. All three learned from the same sifu and once formed a sworn brotherhood that performed deeds of legend—but they split up almost 200 years ago and established separate dojos.

Rumor in the Martial Arts World says the masters now hate each other because they could not reconcile their differences about the style they designed together. (Spiteful former peers say they fell out in a three-way lover’s tiff.) Each master certainly argued for one particular ending to the Even Blade Style. Their passion, skill and inability to agree resulted in something so rare that most masters thought it impossible: Each of them created their own, specific style, that yet began in the same way as the others’.

The three teachers’ dissension also had wider ramifications than they realized, which was revealed when Resolute Brigada, a student of Azure Crane’s, abandoned her teacher to study with Zu Rat Te. Brigada discovered, to her horror, that this gained her not Zu Rat Te’s Even Blade variant, but an entirely new, fourth version of the style. Brigada did not set up her own school because she thought she had failed to follow Zu Rat Te’s ideal path. To this day, she tells most would-be students that they should follow Zu Rat Te’s teaching instead.

Despite their stylistic differences, all three masters (and their disciples who set up dojos of their own) use similar training methods. Students learn basic kicks, blocks strikes and thrusts in the classroom as well as 20 elaborate katas using wooden practice blades. All three masters also enjoy assigning tasks that initially seem useless, arbitrary and impossible. Master Azure Crane insists that her best students be able to catch a buzzing fl y between two toothpicks. Master Lord Chaowin Registrophe, First of Heaven’s Chosen, sometimes starves his apprentices for days on end. The followers of Master Zu Rat Te commiserate about being asked to pull a specific straw from a bale of hay in one swift strike, without warning or preparation.

All three teachers also place a particular emphasis on ritualistic, meditative upkeep of one’s sword. The blade, they constantly repeat, must be treated with loyalty and faith, respected as a close partner and loved as a friend. Since the style focuses so much on sword usage, some dojos also work hard on Melee Charms and encourage students to use them in Combos with the traditional Even Blade Charms. In those places, an apprentice is lauded more for coming up with an interesting and flexible new Combo than for actually mastering the style itself.

Even Blade Style is elementally neutral. It focuses on the blade, not any particular element.

Weapons and Armor:
The Even Blade Style favors slashing swords. Indeed, sifus generally demand that their followers use one and will judge an unknown stylist by the quality of her blade. Master Azure Crane, in particular, does not even teach how to use the style with other weapons or barehanded (though her assistants surreptitiously make sure her students know how anyway).

Characters may use this style while wearing armor, but only up to medium weight.

Complementary Abilities:
Even Blade dojos teach conventional swordsmanship as well as the style’s special techniques. To learn this martial art, a character must possess at least two dots in Melee.

Martial Arts Powers [+]

Combo Powers [+]

Character Equipment:

Red Jade Wavecleaver Daiklave named "Flame of Freedom"

Speed: 4
Accuracy: +3
Damage: +8L/3
Defense: +1
Rate: 2
Minimums: Str ••
Attune: 5
Cost: ••
Tags: O

Red Jade Reinforced Buff Jacket named "Cloak of Heshiesh"

Soak: +7L/10B
Hardness: 5L/5B
Mobility: -1
Fatigue: 0
Cost: ••
Attune: 3
Tags: N/A

Yellow Jade Hearthstone Amulet - Cathak Talon regains one additional mote of Essence per hour.

Gemstone of Last Resort equipped into his sword. This smooth, dull-brown stone is speckled with black. Its bearer can ignore all wound penalties during a combat. When the character reaches Incapacitated, this effect ends immediately, and he can still die. The bearer can choose to invoke or cancel the stone’s power at will. Wounds sustained while the bearer used this power take twice as long to heal, and the Essence cost of any Charms or other magics used to heal these wounds is doubled.

Bag of 50 Blood Berries - Blood berry vines grow in Wood-aspected demesnes throughout the outer edges of the Northeast. Since they root in tree branches high above the ground, however, they are seldom harvested outside the arboreal Haltan Republic. In the last months of Descending Fire, these vines produce clusters of tart, red berries, which people who know of their properties then pick and dry in the sun. These berries owe their name to their curative power as well as their oozing, crimson juice. A character who eats a dozen blood berries a day can halve the time required to heal one lethal wound that caused a great deal of blood loss when it was inflicted. (For instance, the berries help heal gashes but not broken bones.) Dried blood berries keep for a year, after which they lose their potency.

Character History: The story of Cathak Talon begins many years before the present day. Born to Cathak Jura and an un-exalted human male, Talon was expected to exalt just like his mother. And indeed, at the age of 16, Talon was imbued with the might of the Elemental Dragons. He was then sent to a sort of "basic training" program that his mother had herself gone through more than a century before. The training Talon would receive on the Blessed Isle was fairly standard for Dynasts, with an emphasis on his martial prowess and athletic ability. He quickly mastered the charms and skills taught to him in the program, and moved on to command training.

Here, Cathak Talon learned to give orders to troops and mercenaries, as well as strategize on the battlefield. In time, he was even given command over a small regiment of soldiers. Pleased with his progress, the powers that be passed him through the rest of the program rather quickly... allowing Talon to pursue his own interests. Wanting to become the best fighter possible, and to more easily overcome any "Anathema" he may come across, Cathak Talon began to study the Even Blade Style of Terrestrial Martial Arts under Lord Chaowin Registrophe. Over the next fourty years, he learned nearly everything there was to learn about Even Blade. The form, the techniques, the history, and even the deadliest attacks that the style had to offer. Now nearing his first full century of life, It was time for something... more.

However, before he could request a posting... some of his former rivals in the academy had used the last fourty years to rise in station rather than better themselves... and had Cathak Talon stationed far from the Blessed Isle, in the city of Lookshy. It was there he remained for over another century. After many years, he befriended a group of young men and women from the local guard force. But unbeknownst to him, these men and women would change his life. One day, a man by the name of Yuri did not report to his post. Yuri was one of the mortals that Talon had befriended since coming to Lookshy. And while the missing man wasn't worried about at first... three days passed without so much as a word from him or his family.

It was time to investigate. Luckily, being an Exalt among mortals had many advantages. When Talon said he was leaving to find someone, the guard forces not only didn't stop him... but sent him on his way with a token force of around one-hundred soldiers. This was in addition to the nearly fifty mortals that swore their service to the Dynast over the last ten years. They investigated any and all leads they could find, and learned that for some reason... Yuri had traveled to the city of Nexus. Consulting his map, Talon saw that Nexus was over one-thousand kilometers to the east. "Why would he go there?" thought Talon as he and his forces marched to the city.

The horrifying truth quickly came to light shortly after Cathak Talon arrived. Yuri was an Anathema... a Solar Exalt. Had he been one this whole time? Had he simply exalted and left Lookshy to avoid his friend? The Dyanst needed answers... and he would only find them with Yuri. Finding the Solar took only three days... and it seemed like he wasn't even TRYING to hide. Indeed, when Talon approached, Yuri greeted his old friend as if nothing had changed. ... he had been born to fight them, he had been taught they were evil, he had SEEN them kill his comrades! Then WHY could Talon not attack this Anathema like he had done with others in the past?

His mind torn, Talon instead chose to find out what had happened. As his friend, Yuri was more than happy to explain. While Nexus was known as a popular gateway to the realm of Yu-Shan, few knew why it was truly named as it was. The city was built over a far more mysterious relic... a gateway to a UNIVERSAL Nexus. His Solar soul had once used this nexus gate and traveled the cosmos, venturing to realms that no one in Creation had ever seen and bringing back several objects of immense power in an attempt to thwart the usurpation. However... there was a catch.

Yuri explained that this gate required something to function. It required the heart's-blood of a Solar to operate. And suddenly the truth hit Talon like a great-maul to the head. Yuri had been waiting for him. He wanted his friend to see that there was more to the universe than what he knew. Standing in stunned silence, Talon could not stop Yuri as he slammed a knife into his own chest and pierced his heart. It was then that a blaze of golden light erupted from the floor and enveloped both Talon AND the forces he had brought with him. ... when they awoke, they were in a place most unfamiliar... the Planar Nexus.

[OOC] Nexus Of Worlds Multiverse Page 10

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