"If someone offered me a chance to return to Anima Mundi, I'm never taking it. I don't care if I end up losing my magic or whatnot, I'll never, EVER return to that hellhole." Anima Mundi Name: Rial Weisskreuz
Earth Name: Ray Lionel
Age: 71 (Registered as 17 on Earth)
Race: Halfling (Human/Weredragon)
Gender: Male
Alignment: Neutral Good
Personality: Rial/Ray is a bookworm by nature, so he's pretty much always with his face behind a book, trying to get any tidbit of knowledge he can ever possess as a "human". He loves to read whatever you throw at him, so it's an easy bait or bargain to entice him with something he never read before. He also loves to make an entire collection of books and even has a personal library set up at his home.
That also comes with the fact that Rial/Ray has a hard time socializing with people because of his background. However, he's more of the blunt, almost unemotional, and inconsiderate type of loner than the sad and depressed one. He's the sort of person that will always tell others what he feels about the situation and doesn't think about how they would feel if he said X or Y stuff. This makes him hardly approachable and unfriendly out of the gate, but Rial/Ray doesn't do that on purpose. Rather, this was the way he went through life.
Even still, Rial/Ray has his moments of kindness and is a sucker for people who begin to implore for help. Either because he doesn't want people to feel helpless or abandoned as he was in the past, or by the fact that too much begging builds up stress and makes him angry so he just gives in. He also has no patience for betrayals and would rather die than stab someone in the back.
Anima Mundi is a topic that Rial/Ray hates passionately. He hates to be reminded that he came from Anima Mundi, that he doesn't belong on Earth because of his powers, and, especially, being told to come back. He also gets even more pissed off by the idea of ever meeting someone from his homeworld and makes it clear to all who know about it that he has no intention of returning back there and will live on Earth until the moment when he dies.
Lastly, while he's very powerful, he doesn't like to use his powers unless it's a state of emergency of utmost necessity. Rial/Ray tries his hardest to live like a normal human being so he doesn't make use of his magic in his day-by-day life, not even when he's by himself. His magic, despite being useful, is a reminder of his homeworld to him, and as stated before, he'd rather forget his past life for good.
Likes:
- Earth. Rial/Ray loves Earth to its tidbits, in comparison to most humans.
- Studying. He's a bookworm by nature, so studying is a hobby.
- Videogames, especially RPGs. Rial/Ray loves his playtime at home, playing some games.
- Anything sweet. Ever since he came to Earth, Rial/Ray developed a sweet tooth.
Dislikes:
- Anima Mundi. He hates it and it's a sore topic to Rial/Ray, one he prefers to forget about it.
- Bugs. He finds them the utmost of interruptions when they're buzzing and making noises. Except for butterflies.
- Salt. He doesn't hate eating salty stuff, but there's something about too much salt.
Fears: being forced to return to Anima Mundi and/or to become an experiment.
Backstory: Rial Weisskreuz is a halfling born from a human mother and a weredragon father, hailing from the kingdom of Scarletide, at the northwest ends of Anima Mundi. Ruled by dragons and weredragons ever since the beginning, Scarletide's people were prejudicial towards other races since a long time ago, especially humans, who hunted them as if they were horrible monsters. Hence, the birth of halflings that were not entirely draconic was considered blasphemy to the kingdom's own beliefs, and those who were birthed as such were denominated as the "Accursed" and were denominated as slaves.
However, Rial's mother took him away with her to one of the neighboring villages, where she originated from, and has never returned to Scarletide since. His father occasionally came to visit them, but he stopped for reasons that neither she nor Rial ever knew. As such, he was raised alone by her. The problem is that Rial never came to make any friends because of his existence as a halfling since his horns and tail began to appear when he completed 10 years old. So even if he escaped the fate of slavery, he had to grow up lonely because he wasn't accepted by the other villagers who labeled him as a "monster" and feared that he would kill them.
When his mother passed away due to an illness, at the age of 60, Rial was already an adult. He left the village and ended up in the academic kingdom of Harbington, where he began to live on his own. By doing some quests here and there, he managed to make a living off of his own and even settle himself as a student of Harbington Academy, where he began the pursuit of knowledge and magic, not following the pursuit of strength like the people of Scarletide do.
However, his student life was nowhere easy either, as Rial had to face the same prejudice from before. Some of his classmates, as well as underclassmen and upperclassmen alike, were revolted that a halfling such as him was admitted to the academy. They were quick in their attempts to hurt him, physically and emotionally, in order to make Rial leave the school or even rebel and show his violent nature, which would result in a rather bloody ending considering his dragon physiology from his heritage.
What was unexpected, though, was that Rial did not concede to their prejudice against him. He kept studying hard and becoming an impressive magician, showing a great deal of spellcasting and domination of the elemental magic he chose, which was following the light elemental magic. And because his mana was really stronger than a normal human's, he ended up reaching advanced levels of magic, surpassing even some of Harbington's elven teachers.
Years passed and Rial was ready to graduate from Harbington, having also received a notice from the principal himself that he was recommended to continue his studies at the Great Academy of Manakiel, in the Elven Kingdom of Lunadea. But as he passed to talk with the principal in his room, he overheard a talk between some people. During this talk, Rial learned that he wasn't being sent to Lunadea to improve his magical abilities but to be an experiment to see how much his powers would actually improve and how strong a magic from a half-human, half-dragonkin could get, as well as how the elves could put him to use.
Rial returned to his room, packed everything he could, and ran away, without looking back and never attending the graduation ceremony in the end. While running away from Harbington, he "stumbled" upon a strange "portal" in the middle of a grass field next to the kingdom. In order to not be found, he touched it and was sucked all the way in.
After a rather rushed travel, Rial ended up in a strange place he never saw before. Everything was incredibly weird: the houses were all enormous and could reach the sky (at least looking from the ground up), the carriages didn't have any horses and were incredibly fast, and people all around him were dressed in the weirdest of fashions ever seen. As people looked around at him, he was sure that it was because of his horns and tail. But as he touched his head and looked at his back, they were gone. Completely. Which made him panic for the second time in his life and cause a huge scene.
Some minutes later, Rial was taken to a place called "police station". The people who surrounded him started to ask him questions in a language that he never heard in his life and he wasn't understanding anything being thrown at him. Seeing his confusion, the police took him in as a "lost immigrant". Luckily, by the time he was taken in, one of the officers kindly took him in to settle him and see if they could figure out what actually happened for him to be found there.
For the next few days, Rial began to learn stuff and found himself dumbfounded by what he learned: he was no longer in Anima Mundi but in a world called "Earth", only humans and some of the animals he knows about live there, magic doesn't exist and the list goes on. He even started to learn their language. When it got to a point where he learned to do some conversation, Rial just explained everything to the police officer who took him in. While the officer initially took it as a joke, it was only when Rial managed to show his horns and his tail that it started to sound true, startling even the poor guy who didn't know how to react. Giving him time to calm down, the officer who was named Allan Lionel, decided to help Rial set himself up for a new life here.
The first thing they did was to give him a new identity as a "human" of Earth. With a quick change of appearance, the long hair that he used to have disappeared and he got a new set of clothing to wear. Allan took it upon himself to explain to his colleagues and create a "story" that Rial was a cousin that got here in an exchange program and was lost for days without being able to get in contact with him. Thus, with a miracle that somehow landed, he managed to make official documents and get Rial his new name as an Earth person.
Now, settled on Earth, in the city of New York, Rial... no, Ray Lionel is a high school student participating in an exchange program. His life is peaceful, he's "free" to do whatever he wants and doesn't have to deal with the idea of being an experiment as long as he doesn't step out of line. The only thing that he never counted on is that he might not be the only person from Anima Mundi, and that he might get himself into trouble...
Motivation: To keep living on Earth and never return to Anima Mundi.
How Much Time on Earth?: 1 year.
Abilities/Skills:
- Dragon Physiology (Partial): Rial/Ray, as a halfling born from a human and a weredragon, gained some traits from his father. From a physical perspective, his aging process is decelerated, which explains why he looks like a teenager, even though he's an elder by human notions. Then there are his horns and tail, which are natural for a weredragon, even though he doesn't have wings or scales of his own. Lastly, and perhaps the most important part, the supernatural physiology of a weredragon makes him stronger, sturdier, faster, and has more stamina than a normal human has.
However, his dragon physiology is only partial, which explains the fact that he still needs constant training and to be observant of his health to make advantage of it. He isn't strong as a normal dragon or a weredragon either, so other races that are very focused on getting strong can still win over him and deal lethal damage on him if he's not careful. - Mystical Soul: The reason why Rial/Ray is magically powerful is because of the fact he was born with the mystical soul of a dragon, which is why his mana flow is stronger than a normal human, to begin with. The same reason why he's actually able to use advanced magic with quite ease is that it doesn't take a huge toll on his mana flow when using said spells. It's also important to notice that Rial/Ray's mystical soul is what makes his magic stronger than normal, which makes even the weakest of spells deal more damage than before.
Rial/Ray's mystical soul also allows him to execute his magic without the need for a spellbook, rod, wand, staff, or any object to serve as a magical catalyst, as he can execute the spells with only his hands. - Light Magic: As stated before, Rial/Ray studied the ability to use light magic while staying at Harbington Academy. This includes the ability to create/generate and manipulate light at his disposal, as well as some variations from the norm.
Rial/Ray's abilities with this magic include shaping the light in various forms to attack, such as spheres, beams, lasers, waves, and pillars, as an example. Defensively, he can create shields and barriers to defend himself or someone else from any sort of attack. He can also use his light magic to create illusions to trick his enemies.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
- Quick Learner (Strength): Rial/Ray is a very quick learner and can easily learn things being thrown at him. As stated before, it didn't take too long for him to learn advanced magic, but he also learned how to speak English in a matter of days and managed to pull a conversation with Allan only a few days after arriving on Earth.
- Great Memory (Strength): Dragons and weredragons are said to be very intelligent and have a good memory that's able to store various events and information. This is the case with Rial/Ray since he doesn't have too many problems learning loads of stuff for once.
- Supernatural Condition (Strength/Weakness): His weredragon heritage gives him better strength, speed, stamina, sturdiness, and resilience than humans do, which makes Rial/Ray stronger than most humans. There are times, though, when he doesn't control his power and ends up exceeding his actions, such as opening a door.
- Weak Against Cold (Weakness): Rial/Ray's existence as a halfling of a weredragon makes him weak against cold and ice. Winter is the worst of all seasons to him because he doesn't even leave his house, only if he's extremely (and exaggeratedly) clothed against the weather. Ice and cold manipulators can also damage him incredibly.
- Not Too Sturdy (Weakness): Since he abandoned the pursuit of strength to become a full-fledged mage, Rial/Ray isn't exactly strong to take on too many physical attacks. He may be sturdier, but not following the pathway of a warrior made his defenses weak enough for any physical attackers get the advantage over him.
- Hatred of Anima Mundi (Weakness): It may sound like an exaggeration, but Rial/Ray gets immensely triggered by anything related to Anima Mundi and easily loses his self-control because of how much he hates his homeworld. People can use that against him to make him spiral into a rage and cause destruction.
Weapons and Tools:
- His trusty bag, in which he carries most everything when walking around.
- A cellphone. Rial/Ray settled for an Android because he hates how Apple's iOs work.
- A spellbook that he carries to keep on learning about magic, mostly just as a pass time since he never uses his magic that much.
- A heart pendant that was given to him by his mother when he was little, with the initials A and R, from their names.
Main Theme: Fides -Materia Mami- (Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Portable)Battle Theme: The Witches' Ball ~ Magus -Remastered- (Seihou: Shuusou Gyoku)VS. Anima Mundi: Shadows of the Labyrinth (Persona 4 Arena)