Birth Name: Cyrus Gnilfeit Alexandrus Avalon
Other Names: The Shade, Lord Avalon, The Shadow King, Obberon, Undertaker
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Ranks/Titles/Social Class: Second son of a Barron, Lower Nobility. Captain Avalon, The Honorable Cyrus Avalon. Cyrus is recognized as nobility and is sometimes invited to gatherings of the upperclass but is for the most part disregarded and forgotten as his father never speaks of him unless he has something to gain from it. He has enough money to make it by though, because “No son of the Avalon family is going to live a life anything less than what we already have” - Miles Avalon.
Appearance:
Physical: Cyrus is pale skinned with blue eyes and brown hair, he stands five feet and eight inches tall, weighing 190 pounds. Cyrus’s body seems to give the image of a soldier, he is tall for the time, he is well muscled and his stern gaze speaks of someone who has seen too much. This seems to be a point of pride in him as he holds himself in the posture of a military man, not as a noble. Adding to his soldier’s appearance is the trace signs of many broken noses, as well as a large scar that looks like someone drew an “X” on his back, left on him by a superior officer who found his “attitude” improper. He also has a tattoo of an Ouroboros on his left shoulder that matches the tattoos of fourteen other men, all soldiers from Cyrus’s first Calvary unit.
Outfit: Generally Cyrus wears black boots, black slacks, a black overcoat, a black suit coat, black gloves, a black hat, a black vest, a red scarf, and a red dress shirt. He doesn’t enjoy color very much and avoids it for the most part, the shirt is red for a reason Cyrus won’t tell and the scarf was given to him by a young child who had saved Cyrus. Cyrus sees it as his most valued possession.
Possessions:
~Black cane with a brass handle
~Cavalry saber
~Revolver
~Rifle [kept at home unless needed]
~Horse; named Calypso [Kept in stables unless needed]
~Red scarf: Given to Cyrus by a child who saved him
Personality: Cyrus is, for the most part, easygoing and always ready to not be stuck alone or in silence. The way he sees most aspects of life is that he’s going to die someday eventually, why not live life to it’s fullest now. Cyrus usually will find himself entranced by the serendipity of nature and the wonders it can produce. This love for nature sprouted from the only thing he and his father truly connected on, their paganism. Although Cyrus keeps this private, no sense in drawing anymore attention to him in the case of persecution. Despite his normal mannerisms Cyrus can become intense and serious depending on the situation. When it comes down to lives, Cyrus’s persona changes. He becomes serious, intense, and cruel.
Psychic Tallent: Umbrakinesis: Cyrus can control darkness and shadows. He can change the size and shape of his and other people’s shadows. He also used it to slow his fall once but has been unable to repeat the effect, and not willing to test the ability as he was still badly hurt by the fall. As it is, Cyrus can't remember how he did it, he just remembered darkness and waking up at the bottom of the cliff he fell from. All Cyrus needs is darkness or a shadow.
Due to his ability to control darkness Cyrus has always been cold to the touch, if someone didn’t know better he could be mistaken for a corpse very easily. Manipulating shadows causes different levels of exhaustion in relationship to the task. Hiding his shadow for a minute or two, or creating a shadow story on a wall will hardly effect Cyrus. However hiding in shadows for hours on end or making frequent use of darkness as a shield will drain Cyrus until he looks more pale and exhausted than normal. Constant use through a day will cause Cyrus nausea, headaches, nose bleeds and vomiting, in extreme cases he can black out. So he tries to avoid over exerting himself that much.
Skills:
~Horseback Riding: Originally something his parents insisted on him learning. It then became a part of his life when he joined the cavalry.
~Language: French, Italian, and Latin. Because. “No son of the Avalon family is going to squander his chances to better himself!” - Miles Avalon
~Singing: Cyrus not only has a beautiful voice regarding Opera, he is also excellent at “Rambunctious tavern songs” as his father calls them. This is because his mother had insisted that singing lessons would help to improve his fine tastes and his chances at attracting a wife. However the tavern songs came by as a result of his time in the military. Cyrus will sing to himself when he is alone but if ever asked about this skill he will completely deny it.
~Constitution:Cyrus will drink you right under the table and keep on drinking. He probably won’t even have a hangover the next day.
~Cooking: Cyrus is a spectacular chef. Anyone who comes across him cooking would be thoroughly surprised, not only does he make delicious food, and he dances while cooking, but the fact that he knows how to cook. His father would have beaten Cyrus if he was caught in the kitchen. Cyrus used to sneak into the kitchen as a child and watch the food being prepared, in the later years of his youth when his family was away from home more often Cyrus would find reasons for why he would stay home, and he would cook.
~Dancing: Cyrus knows how to dance, as all nobility should. Also as all officers should. He was taught as a child and this was one of the few things that made his father proud, Cyrus was a natural. Miles Avalon was even impressed with Cyrus’s skill at “commoner’s dances.” If given the chance, Cyrus will show this skill off, as long as there is a woman who is willing to assist him.
Weapons/Fighting:
~Saber: While his brothers learned the art of fencing Cyrus was drilled until he could use a saber on foot or on horseback.
~Rifle: As per standard issue military training.
~Revolver: The symbol of an officer, and it really annoyed the other officers that Cyrus was better with a revolver than most of them before Cyrus was even a captain.
~Bare-knuckle boxing: There was no better way to pass the time when he and his unit were camped out for training or otherwise than to have boxing matches.
~Singlestick fighting: It was not just the navy who were taught how to use a saber in this fashion.
History:
Cyrus was born in london, the second son. He also had one younger brother and two younger sisters. His father was Baron Miles Avalon, his mother Baroness Elizabeth Avalon. Cyrus was not the golden child, that title was property of his elder brother Henry Avalon, and Henry took every opportunity to remind Cyrus of this fact. So Cyrus grew to hate his brother. While Miles put high stock in his eldest son he paid enough attention to Cyrus to be disappointed in nearly everything Cyrus tried. Elizabeth however saw that Cyrus was much better than Henry and treated Cyrus far better than she did Henry, this only furthered the rivalry between the two brothers.
As a child Cyrus was afraid of the dark, and he had a more founded reason then other children. He claimed that the darkness would wrap around him when he was alone, or make shapes of monsters. He was certain by age seven that the darkness was alive. But when he was twelve he blocked a swing from his brother with darkness. This gave Cyrus the idea that maybe the darkness worked for him. Over the next three years of his life Cyrus experimented with this newfound power until he was certain that he could actually control the darkness.
Cyrus joined the military at age fifteen, thanks to his father sending him to join. Cyrus joined the cavalry and served until he was twenty three. Cyrus had become a captain by age twenty two, he probably would have remained in the military had it not been for a skirmish in which he had been nocked from his horse and had a saber stabbed through his abdomen and through his back. Cyrus would have died on the field if a young girl hadn’t found him, she wrapped her scarf around his stab wounds and ran and got help. After Cyrus had recovered and cleaned the scarf he offered it back to the girl but she declared he needed it more than she did. Due to his injury Cyrus was deemed unfit to serve and was honorably discharged at the age of twenty-three. Cyrus only stayed at his family's estate for a month before he left for Prague, and it's agreeably dark forests. The only reason he even stayed that long was because his father and elder brother were on a hunting trip in Africa during that time.
His motives were not only guided by his dislike for his family, but because of his belief that an ancient Egyptian scroll describing the true cause of the 'ninth plague of Egypt.' Cyrus is convinced that the plague was actually the power of someone else with Umbrakinesis. It was this investigation of the scroll and his experiments in the forests around Prague that got Cyrus a meeting with the master of the society. Seeing his chances of finding the scroll grow, Cyrus decided it was in his best interest to stay. What's more, it gave him the structure that he used to have in the military. Cyrus found that being part of the Ianus Congreatio was not all that it was made out to be, as he spent a good part of his time investigating things that had no connection to the psychic. Most recently was his investigations into the natural deaths of three members of the society. He was used to this by now, just another job to keep Cyrus busy, this time however Cyrus felt that there was something different, not everything added up in his mind. He couldn't tell if he was just being paranoid about it so he was sure to send in his report as soon as he could.
Random: Loves long coats. Hates his father and elder brother. Single and ready to mingle. 8. Cyrus covers so much of his skin partially to prevent people a shock if they were to come in contact with his skin he is always very cold. Mainly he covers his skin because he is afraid of people seeing into his past through skin contact.