Member
The Jest
The Arcane Forge
Age: 20
“Yes I know I am very cool,”
He steps into town with a smug smile and a declaration of his coolness. Ordinarily most would be turned off by such attention seeking behavior, yet there was something warm, inviting, even charming about this strange young man that made you want to know more about his level of coolness. Approaching the 5’6”, 167cm, young man he vaguely smiles at you. He seems the friendly one of the group, though his eyes, irises the color of rusted metal with a tinge glow in them reveal someone a lot more cunning than the one who had just declared his coolness a few seconds ago.
“What brings you into town?” you ask him. He smiles, brushes a bang out of his eyes. His forearms and palms are black, lifeless, with long demonic nails. Yet the rest of his skin is white and bronze.
“We’re just sightseeing,” he says with a casual shrug.
“Really?” you look at his very armed and dangerous looking company. He notices too and merely laughs.
“Can’t get enough protection these days when everything wants to eat your entrails, huh,” he tells you.
“Suppose not,” you smile back at him.
“We’re just sightseeing,” he says with a casual shrug.
“Really?” you look at his very armed and dangerous looking company. He notices too and merely laughs.
“Can’t get enough protection these days when everything wants to eat your entrails, huh,” he tells you.
“Suppose not,” you smile back at him.
His voice is airy, but smokey. It’s got a casual cadence that makes you want to know more. Even his clothes seem less prepared for battle, deciding to wear a pair of faded slacks, and a pair of canvas shoes. A tan colored vest and a white dress shirt makes him feel like he stepped out of time. Though his hair is like flames itself. Being shaven on his sides, while allowing the top to grow out, curly, orangy, fiery, copper in color.
Now that he’s this up close, he’s very masculine pretty. Long eyelashes and full lips, give him a softness to his appearance, the thin nearly arched eyebrows as well. But his lean athletic build, and squared jaw gave him a boyish charm. A loose and crooked bow tie, he’s no gentleman though as his next declaration is;
“So you single because the world has ended and I might have rapture you later,” he winks.
Tempted by the offer, but also a bit off put that his next go to line seems to be some form of flirtation. An awkward attempt at flirtation at that.
“Thanks, but I um, have to go clean something,” you mumble awkwardly.
“Hey no problem, I am here till the end of the century,” he laughs and snaps his fingers, only to wince in pain doing so. He plays it off with a smile and places his hand on his hip attempting to look cool leaning on the largest member of the party as if he’s a pillar.
“Hey no problem, I am here till the end of the century,” he laughs and snaps his fingers, only to wince in pain doing so. He plays it off with a smile and places his hand on his hip attempting to look cool leaning on the largest member of the party as if he’s a pillar.
Personality:
“They say Simon get serious, Simon why don’t you take this seriously? Simon you need to focus more and be more serious. And I say the next time someone tells me that I got sticks for brains and that I am moron you ain’t going to get a shinier toy, but a duller one.”
Simon seems like the odd man out on occasion in comparison to the other Orphans. He’s always seemed to be the more inquisitive one, even if it got him trouble at times, and the one more readily to learn. It’s a curiosity perhaps the Gods didn’t account for, someone so interested in the world beyond the little ghost town the Orphans grew up with no one. While it’s true Simon do anything for the other Orphans, literally giving up part of his soul as a cost to save one of them, Simon also has an innate curiosity about the world out there The Beyond as he calls it, the expansive Beyond. While the Orphans spend the time defending the home, practicing for the end Simon’s always been the one known to wander off. And that’s how Simon’s observed people, people not like them, but people. How he’s understood the politics and economics of the Beyond.
If there has always ever been a complaint about Simon it’s that he never seems serious enough. And it’s true, Simon’s a bit socially awkward, though always the one to engage strangers first. He’s a bit odd, and his humor doesn’t always necessarily land a bullseye with the laughter. He seems openly relaxed and carefree, almost to a point that some criticize he’s not even really looking at the bigger picture. These criticism only really come from strangers or the Orphans who don’t really know him. They’ve just assigned him the role of goofball, idiot who knows nothing.
And this necessarily doesn’t bother Simon being the one usually to downplay many of his efforts in the party or the group. Never been the one to showboat or boast about the things he does, he sits in the background, never really appreciated by some, never really receiving the credit he deserves. But Simon never demands it, might quietly seeth to himself sometimes when one of the Orphans downplays his role. But passes it off with a shrug and an outward smile, a dismissal that only confirms those of the Orphan’s suspicions that he wasn’t cut out for this.
What the others don’t see is a highly observant and soulful individual. Simon’s not the type of person to start conflict or start fight with others, in fact he’d like to get to know some of the people of Beyond. Always questioning the state of their and his existence the most, sometimes Simon’s wonders if he really wants to be a one man army. Of course the Orphans see his lack of fighting spirit as cowardice, when Simon really questions the reason of fighting. Sometimes he wonders if the Gods made them this way so by the end of it they all just realized they are as bad and as powerful as the Deamis which leads to their sacrifice for the coming rapture. Sometimes he wonders if all Deamis are bad, beyond what they have been told. He wants to understand these questions and find answers before he makes any decisions.
This again is misunderstood by some of the others as a lack of action on Simon’s part. Yet, none of the Orphans want to double cross Simon either or confront him. They will in little jabs that peck away at his ego and pride, but they would never actually fight him or battle him because they all know Simon has a long fuse, but when that fuse goes something in him slightly snaps. Probably due to bottling up all that hurt pride and resentment.
Usually the one to pass off judgment or confrontation, once Simon is pissed he’ll let you know. Despite his long fuse he also has an explosive temperament, once his fuse is let go Simon’s fiery rage can be felt. In a verbal argument he’ll say things that hurt others, and once he’s cooled he’ll regret it though not really sure ever how to make it up he just behaves like his ordinary self afterwards avoiding the conflict involved in that situation. Or in a fight he can be merciless, and brutal. He’s known to go a little too far when he’s completely lost it. It’s like his brain shuts off and he can’t take any more. He’ll never really confront others about it, and just pretends it doesn’t happen.
Otherwise he’s usually pretty carefree and follows his own marching drum.
God:
Son of Noelle Goddess of Light and Truth and Thaneus former God of the Hereafter, Omenious grew up with his mother’s expectation that he was meant for greatness. Strange for Noelle her own child ended up mild mannered and quite calm in comparison to her tendencies especially to her Conduits. He was adored and greatly loved by both his mother and likely his grandmother on his Maternal side. Omenious was originally a lesser known God who warned people of ill intent and warned them of bad omens. He would send dreams to people in danger and forewarn them. Lesser known doesn’t mean less powerful being the son of two Gods Omenious was a symbol for great heroes and soldiers in war, as his foretellings often protected them from ill fate in times of turmoil. It is often why some soldiers painted their shields with thorns on their shields in hopes to invoke Omenious protection.
It is said that Omenious gave life to swords, an old warrior’s tale stated that all swords and weaponry had a soul or life force. And it was said that life force given by an omen, that omen being Omenious. They believed by invoking their weaponry with life that they were bestowed the power of Omenious to ward them of evil and ill fate.
Though Omenious being a God of Warriors meant he wasn’t quite known or popular among mortals. As he wasn’t really known among common folk, only invoked by travelers be it merchants or warriors or heroes in times of turmoil and battle. Though Omenious being a quiet soul and a God who tended to stand back in affairs he didn’t mind that he was not erected in temples and worshipped further. His mother, Noelle on the other hand had different plans.
Long before Omenious’ birth the Hereafter stood lawless, and without guidance. The current Gods hadn’t an idea of what to do with a place that filled with the dead and the dead had no instruction or rule. Not really wanted to be tied down to one place or for whatever reasons and excuses they had. It was then bestowed upon a Lesser God, a Knight who died in valor in war, who was bestowed faint Godhood for his courage. That lesser God being Thaneus. His mother Mysery and his brother Erelious each were rendered from the dead and also bestowed lesser Godhood. The Gods believing the three would rule over the Hereafter and round up the chaos that it was.
Thaneus wasn’t very good at his job, he bickered with his mother known for his big head and ego. He had no laws or rules and ran a lawless, chaotic order in the Hereafter. Years, many years later he was invited to a God’s feast that happens every thousand or so years where he was bestowed and blessed the sight of the beautiful Noelle. Whom he slept with upon both of them being quite drunk. The conception of Omenious.
In Omenious lifetime, Noelle grew unhappy that her child was not popular and devised a plan to raise a popularity. Planning a coup with Mysery, his then unknown grandmother, to kick Thaneus from his job and give Omenious his domain. She would bestow him his knew domain on his birthday, a token of her motherhood and her willingness to do anything for him.
And that’s exactly what Omenious got on his birthday, a lawless realm with no order, learning he acquired it because his mother dethroned his father. Omenious was never the type to complain or argue, with Noelle as his mother he learned very quickly there was no arguing against her. So he learned to willingly accept without much fuss. He had always been an easygoing child and there is rarely ever a story that is told of Omenious that paints him in a terrible light.
Once in the position of the Hereafter, Omenious brought order to the dead the other God’s had sought so long. Omenious appointed duties to officials who existed long before him, but with no authority or job. He declared the realm entirely under his law and that no other God should interfere the moment the enter the threshold of eternity. He gave his father duty of protector of the gates alongside the gatekeeper, though Thaneus has always been bitter about Omenious’ sudden fortune of changing the Hereafter into what it is now.
To the mortals Omenious brought death rites and rituals, traditions to please and soothe the souls of the dead as they passed on with less grieving. He used his powers to enter the dreams of others to give the living the last words of the dead. And he himself is the last judge of the dead. If a Soul contest to him that they shouldn’t be dead, it is Omenious who has the last say after they have went through the proper chain of command. Reaper, Dowager, and then he himself. And while looking over the Hereafter Omenious also continues his duties of warning heroes and soldiers alike, though most of them are dead now.
Many mistake easygoing and forgiving, as naively so, but Omenious always had a bit of his mother in him. While few stories depict him in anything, but fortunate light there is one story lost, or merely forgotten or one that no one wants to believe that paints an otherwise and revered god in a poorer frame. It is the tale of Omenious and Sister Victoria Aurah de Fraya.
Sister Victoria Aurah de Fraya was a cleric sister of a long forgotten church, one that invoked, worshipped the image of Omenious. They were sisters to the tending of funeral rites and protecting corpses, which Omenious condoned and blessed the sisters. Even at times visited them and partook in telling stories, even known to play the harp as well.
Victoria was always the type to push her luck, she was challenging of Omenious rules of death. He is a patience and easygoing god so he accepted her debates as merely that. She questioned his laws of defiling the dead and what constitutes as such. She questioned his belief in medical advancement and studies. She questioned his belief in what uses a corpse could provide the world. Omenious never once got mad at these discussions he welcomed them. He believed in science, and thus gave Mortals the choice to give their body up for science to advance medicine. But he felt it was the right of the consent of the dead.
The end of this tale goes two ways. Those on Victoria’s side say that Victoria took that as Omenious blessing to research the dead, to create her experiments. She called them medicines of science. While those on Omenious side call her experiments a defilement, abominations, and experiment on human biology. Franken creations, that violated both the laws of science and spirituality.
Omenious disgusted with what Victoria had done banished her from the Further, he cursed her from dying and told her she’d never walk the land of the dead. Taking the several zombie like things she had made into the Further with him to give them some sense of peace after death.
Omenious never partook in the Deamis imprisonment. He didn’t see it his place after all. Instead he decided to take his duty as caretaker of the dead seriously, as did he when the Deamis escaped.
Due to the connection that they have with Death. Mui being a symbol of time as death and a bringer of death, while Omenious being a caretaker of death he has a slight affection for her when she descends from the night in her mortal form. A woman veiled in stars.
Deamis:
Sister Victoria de Aurah Fraya as she was known back in the day when her sect the Onorous Mortem Sanctum still existed. She was respected among many of her sisters, no one looked down at her as an unfortunate individual and no one - some even deny her descent into madness or that she had always been mad. Always a little too close to death, always a little too enamored by it, but also a little too resentful of death Victoria did not start her life as a respected sister heeding the way to greatness in history. She started off as all mortal woman do, as mortal children.
Victoria was born during a tumultuous time. Her birth while eagerly awaited, was met with fear of death. That she too with feared the blackened death that so many children and so many adults, even the healthy ones, were stricken upon. The plague had struck her village and she grew up around a swell, a pit of death and decay. Some say she was lucky or fortune to live through those times, but Victoria had always been put off by the thought of death and the pile of dead had her grow a detachment to death. There were no rites or ceremonies in her childhood, there was just the stench of rendered flesh and the diseased dying on the streets with no one looking.
It seemed odd then in her teenage years she took upon herself to join a small sect beginning to form. Someone had taught the girls or brought the boys and girls the right way to treat and pose a body. To Victoria it was all gaudy dressing. The dead packaged and adorn in their favorite things, as if they would need it upon arriving to the otherside if there was a otherside. It was all pageantry to her, what use was dressing the dead and treating corpses better than your people? It sickened her, yet she stayed. It was the closest to a job that she could remain in close proximity to her true hobby. She called her experiments, the ones she performed as a girl miracles of science.
A doctor once told her that to cure diseases and understand them you must dissect the dead. If that were the case, then why dress the dead up like they are living? People treated corpses as if they were living so why should she not bring back the very thing they wanted? If corpses were this important, being treated as if they were living what wrong was it to try and defeat death itself? What the doctor said to her about preventing disease stuck to her, and so what were other things you could prevent with the manipulation of the dead?
The only thing stopping her was the answer to her question. A God. Of course they mettle in the affairs of the living and dictate what they can and cannot do. Yet the God was not wrathful nor vengeful, every time she would challenge him or a belief, he would agree with what was sensible and disagreed with what was not. Would be the objective thing to say. However, in Victoria’s view he was being that lived outside her Mortal constraints and he had no right to dictate what Mortals could and couldn’t do to the undead. But because the God gave his belief in science, she carried on her dream of bringing the dead back to life.
This is where the story takes a turn.
Sect the Hallowed Revenius
As Victoria grew in respect and in name, and with her push towards using the dead to advance medical science she broke from the Onorous Mortem Sanctum, to a sub group known as the Hallowed Revenius. And depending on who is telling this story, those of the Hallowed Revenius adored Victoria. They saw the arcanist as a miracle worker and praised her work. News of her ability to bring family members back to life painted her as a lifegiver and a healer.
If one was to be truthful, what she was a perfectly good illusionist and what she brought back to their families was something not at all like the family members she told them they were. She knew all the dress up and show would impress others because they valued corpses over people’s livelihood. In truth she believed all corpses were to be treated the same, in a pit to be burned.
But if it meant she was cheating death and fooling the God as well she saw no reason to quit her work. Instead she found herself closer and closer too what she was achieving a world with no death. Or so she would have done so if the God of the Hereafter hadn’t interfered.
Souls were not passing the Threshold many of them in pain and agony and begging to die. The balance of death was being overturned and many of the Souls were in so much grief they went insane. Forced into purgatory where they didn’t belong and unable to truly die.
“You claim this science?” Omenious looks appalled at the dead suffering in agony.
“Why should there be death if we’re not going to treat the dead like dead?” Victoria replies.
“The Souls still carry the memories of the living, they are touched by these rituals, it means so much to them that their families are able to express and share their love upon departing. Without that love Souls only go mad with and grief and pain, that is why there is darkness in the world. And likely the origin of why Deamis exist, Souls corrupted by madness mutated into things that harbor the Sin of Men,” Omenious replies.
Victoria throws her head back and laughs, “What an utter load of fucking crap!? Science can save people and you hold onto this notion that the dead feel something.”
“So you may learn the lesson of the madness that the eternal suffer I forbid you from entering the Threshold and you will never reach the Further. You will never die and maybe then you will understand it’s importance, I am taking these poor souls to pass on as peacefully as they can even if it is somewhat too late,” Omenious tells her
“Why should there be death if we’re not going to treat the dead like dead?” Victoria replies.
“The Souls still carry the memories of the living, they are touched by these rituals, it means so much to them that their families are able to express and share their love upon departing. Without that love Souls only go mad with and grief and pain, that is why there is darkness in the world. And likely the origin of why Deamis exist, Souls corrupted by madness mutated into things that harbor the Sin of Men,” Omenious replies.
Victoria throws her head back and laughs, “What an utter load of fucking crap!? Science can save people and you hold onto this notion that the dead feel something.”
“So you may learn the lesson of the madness that the eternal suffer I forbid you from entering the Threshold and you will never reach the Further. You will never die and maybe then you will understand it’s importance, I am taking these poor souls to pass on as peacefully as they can even if it is somewhat too late,” Omenious tells her
Though the story written from Victoria’s side and those who were here apologist, write a different take. A raving mad God, who erupted in shadow in their temple. Defiling it and breaking their effigies, throwing a tyrad and spitting insults at Victoria. It is the story she likes to tell and the story that turned Omenious from the soothing death God into one hiding seething rage. In truth the Hallow Revenius never died, they remained for many years, but only went into hiding somewhere.
Members cloak n’ dagger never mentioning the sect by name. But grew over the years to enthusiast of pseudoscience, those who uses corpses for purposes otherwise unsavory to others. All the helm of an immortal woman Victoria. Who likes to tell a tale of victimhood,of a God who forbade science and doesn’t want the ill or wounded to survive.
In fact the punishment meant to teach Victoria a lesson ended up strengthening her resolve instead. Seeing the God of Death as someone who could easily stop death from happening. That he created the laws of death merely to handicap Mortal innovation. Another story she tells to manipulate others sick with madness. The more and more Victoria remained immortal the more her sins grew, poisoning her soul black.
Without the ability to die none of the Gods could kill her and Omenious devised a plan for her not to be killed, instead devoured by his Uncle Erelious. The issue was when the time came, Victoria was granted and given power no Mortal should acquire. Her Sin of Men allowed her to become a hybrid of sorts, half Deamis, Half Immortal. Her soul now tangled and corrupted by a Deamis Icarrus.
Icarrus was a lesser Deamis Victoria ran into one time. Curious about her underground sect and her work with the dead. While lesser, he was still more powerful than a mortal. He had heard of the tales of a woman who couldn’t die one who defied death and disobeyed the laws. A Shadow Fae himself, Icarrus was curious as to what monstrous soul would kill others and place parts of people not belonging together. There he met Victoria a human woman who enamored him in many ways. Thus he made a pact with her. Halving his power further and giving her part of his soul.
Now she was untouchable by the Gods and protected from Omenious plan and she could continue her work. Then the Monoliths rose and the Deamis Kings arose out of their imprisonment. While she was not personally there, she heard of the Gods plan to kill the Deamis Kings, so she devised a plan of her own to take the God’s heroes for her own.
Weapon:
Ender of the Lost
In lone and forgotten temples, that now lie as ruin and dust once stood with vaulted ceilings murals on the wall depicting stories of creation. Each with their own interpretation of what and who came first. Sitting on depicted pedestals were round objects, no bigger than tennis balls, decorated in ornate fashion, made of stained glass. Described as having unearthly properties, resonating with power. It was these objects used in worship to commune with the Gods, Spirits, to traverse from one place to the next and they all came from the Abyssal plane. Yet, all Soul Idols were used in every function of worship. These objects were not inherently evil, on the contrary they were just idols used to tell stories, or proudly display souls of revered and respected Fathers and Mothers.
Though the Soul Idols can be twisted, used for what they weren’t intended to be used for. Victoria used them to bring back the dead, to call them into her twisted and tainted creations.
While Omenious primary source of power was in his soul idol, which he used to commune the dead’s wishes to the living, transported from the Hereafter to the mortal plane, how he crossed from God’s realm to the next, and how he brought life to inanimate objects, swords with souls and how he forewarns warriors and heroes on their journeys.
The Ender of the Lost in itself is not an authentic Soul Idol, it’s existence is not depicted in any of the histories. The interpretation is that the Ender of Lost was solely then constructed by one that could have constructed such a thing for Simon’s use. That it is his own Soul Idol to make what he wants of it in his history.
In an essence the Ender has the ability to;
Soak in the Souls of Deamis which are then deconstructed into raw energy, this raw energy is then used in various effects.
Lvl 0. Soul Taker - When a Deamis dies, the Ender of Lost can absorb that soul, though currently the Ender can only take in the souls of Lesser Deamis. Which means it’s mending and energy giving abilities are weaker than it’s full potential.
Lv 0. Soul Tag - The souls that are then converted into raw energy can be expelled from the Ender of soul and stick onto a target of Simon’s choosing, about 3 to 5ft away and cause a small explosion on the target. On the target means - on the target, arm, shoulder, leg, bicep, etc.
Lv. 0 Energy Mender - Within the Ender is a store of energy it breaks down souls into pure energy. This energy then can be used to heal cracks in blades or be pulled out to aid in Simon’s ability to mend, shape, and upgrade weapons through his abilities.
Abilities:
Arcane Forge - lvl. 0
Simon has the ability to manipulate the energy of a weapon or blade, more specifically of the Orphan’s blade. While it was not Omenious idea to have a child with his essence infused into them, that was Noelle’s idea, it was Omenious who felt it important to give the child a fragment of his own power to compliment the trinkets the Gods left the children behind, the only thing Omenious left his spawn with beside his connection and welcome to the Hereafter even in living state.
In its current form the Arcane Forge, which is represented by magical strings manipulate the energy in the Orphan’s blades. The Arcane Forge maintains and keeps the blade charged. However, the Arcane Forge once awakened will begin to deconstruct the weapons into its part and restore bits of the blades power till it eventually awaken to its true state.
Blessing of the Hereafter
While it might not have been Omenious idea to have a spawn of his own, in good faith he has given Simon the clearance to enter the Hereafter even as a living being. It also gives Simon the ability to negotiate prices with the Reaper, ordinarily prices to restore Souls are pretty high. Simon can pay the Reaper or really any of the Orphans associated with him a lower price in Deamis Medallions and ordinarily the cost isn’t much.
However, a part of Simon’s soul was taken by the Reaper for Talia’s life because he otherwise didn’t have any other currency. While Omenious wasn’t too happy by the Reaper’s decision, Simon accepted the price he paid. His arms are blackened, dead and unfeeling. Omenious admired the boy’s acceptance of his fate.
Deamis
Possession
