The Harbinger of Ferocity
Warrior of the Feral Heart
Name
There is no name assumed by the beast, a prospect that has been irrelevant since its first foray into the world abroad tens of thousands of years ago. It exists from a period in which there was no written, let alone spoken world, and the age in which nothing had need of such a thing. Instead, the so-called Harbinger is a more a force of personality than it is a specific name, bearing its title only by what it does innately. As a consequence, it has many other "names" as befitting a time-lost great cat, no small number of which leave it to more mythical status than any shred of tangibility, all as ethereal as the creature's powers themselves.Gender
While it can never be truly certain, as all cats natural or otherwise are difficult to discern apart in meaningful way, in the few recountings of it that exist abroad it is only ever referred to in a male sense. True enough to this proposition, the great cat's deep, rumbling, snarled voice, mere demeanor in presentation, and its masculine appearance suggest as much too, although among mundane members of its kind it might well be indistinguishable otherwise without this context. As consequence, it can only ever be assumed male with these reasonable suspicions.Age
Many tens of thousands of years have passed since the mortal cat once strode the earth upon silent feet, wherein it disappeared without so much as a whisper. But death's hold upon it was weaker than it was others, so it returned again and again, more and more vividly each time until death itself became irrelevant. The cycle would continue, yet in so doing time became irrelevant, age meaningless, and for its effective immortality it has easily physically lived in its incarnations many thousands and far more in the world thereafter before it returned yet again.Species
In life it was one of the many sabertooths that once stalked the boundless wilds, but with its passing it became spirit again, having gone to that from which it came. Return after return blurred these lines until it became evident that it was, in some part now, of both worlds that living and that the thereafter. As a soul embodied now, unfettered by its previous animal limits no matter how grand they were, it is both alive and not at the same time. As while it lives, it breathes, it hunts, it consumes, it ever crosses over and between the bounds of nature and supernature, making it a timeless paragon of what it represented in truest life. As such, it is spoken with in the same breath and veneration as other spirit beasts by among the few who know of it. But to the outside world, it is as much flesh and blood as it appears, in the form of a grand, muscled, faint tenne, marked by rosettes.Appearance
Armor of the Feral HeartWhat sets apart this beast of hushed myth is that just as it takes of knowledge beyond its kind and life thereafter, is that it has been gifted with a mantle otherworldly. From its neck hangs a lonely claw, accompanied by a choker of raw emerald, all of which are undoubtedly gifts from times and places beyond itself it has traveled, but moreover it bears armor beyond the ward of soul. With mere thought the ornamental plates and aged leather may be called, as it is clear not only is the creature a symbol of nature beyond its limits, so too is it the claws and fangs; a warrior of the feral heart. Shoulders flanked by deadly, envenomed quills, there is no question about the origin of this ensemble short of it being magic, for it is called from nothingness and returned to nothingness, perhaps made up solely of the ether itself now.
Personality
There exists an air of confidence and latent power that comes with such a being as well as an undertone of lacking humanity, one of a predator made eternal and keen of itself as well as its situation. It speaks with poise and knowledge beyond itself, the demeanor in which commands respects; that it not be trifled with. No less, as a sage of the natural world and deeper mysticism, the power to see and know beyond regular limit makes it a wizened, ancient creature that is calm, if not kindly at times, solely because it wishes to be. However, for all of its poise and restraint, it bears terrifying power both natural and extraordinary, able to be conjured up at moment's notice that reminds one of just what it truly is at its core. As consequence, when patience has worn thin, it lives up to its adoptive title.Biography
Just where, when, why, or how such a beast of old came to be as it is said to be today is unknown. Some appeal that it was divinely appointed, gifted spiritually that it might serve as a weapon for all time to come, others to decry it as an aspect of nature's vengeance set to rage against the changing world, and others still that it exists as an echo of all these things long dead and passed. And yet, no matter the proposition, it appears not to matter one way or the other. Its original life has since passed and it has moved on to drifting between each, carrying out its role of preserving what remains of nature's domain. As such, what can be said of its motives is that it is an aspect of those things predatory, an image of them, woefully grand and well accustomed to conflict across time and place.Power
Astral ManipulationAs if not content with being a creature of immense physical power, the spiritual world is its power. Nature and supernature made into one, it evokes animism in the world around it without strained effort. Alike the smoldering remains of fading incense, its ghostly hold guides not just its body but the body beyond it. Capable of traversing vast distances with a single step, become as a phantasm, see and know beyond the body, commune with others by projection, animate those things natural, heal the very soul, and impart its will upon those things which are spirited, it is a terrifying force to behold. Yet most notably is that while the great cat lives both sides, even death is only a temporary interruption. As with any defeated spirit, it merely discorporates and reforms later, banished briefly from the physical world before it returns sometime again to the world material without ail.
