Starfall

A Nice Welcome Back Spar

@notdeadyet

Heh, alright.

I'll go with Monolith Graveyard. If we fight I'll most likely use Satori, an adept shadow mage employed by Shin-Ra Industries as part of their KNIGHTS division and has managed to edge her way into being my main character as of late.

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

Yeah, I figured it was best to get the ball rolling.

The World of War: Central Hub/Main Thread/Chen's Tavern

I decided it best to build up to the aforementioned drunken rampage. But I promise it will happen.

The World of War: Central Hub/Main Thread/Chen's Tavern

When Xiomara had been summoned to the World of War he had been expecting a crusade of endless blood and violence. He had been expecting to cross blades with champions from all across the stars from the moment he took his first step. What he had not been expecting was a land that had settled neatly into the rut that was bureaucracy.

And he had never expected to find a panda running a tavern.

But Liu was an honest man with good taste in liquor, most likely because he was not a man, and that alone put him in the budding ascendants favor. It was not an unfamiliar scene to see the grumpy avatar lumbering through the Alexandria, shoulders squared and long limbs sweeping out from side to side, shoving those lesser warriors who had been cajoled into civility by those in power like some ungainly wraith. A thick white fur cloak hung around his shoulders, hood thrown down with the face of the bear who had died to gift him eyeballing those he left behind, its skin was leathery and cracked but frozen in the same snarl it had worn the day it died. He wrote half armor as he often did, from the right pectoral all the way to the right hand he was clad in black armor while the rest of his body was adorned with simple trinkets, from a necklace fashioned out of jagged teeth to a bracelet around the left wrist bearing a stolen amulet. Some of them were worthless, most were trophies that bore some significance or another to the man in question, and just a handful were powerful magical artifacts that thrummed with unstable auras of power. If stripped of them all he wore was simple white from the loose shirt to the pants that eventually tucked themselves into a pair of rider’s boots.

‘You are my favored, you are my champion, you are my herald. Wait for your chance to strike and it shall come.’

The repeating mantra in his head was a constant companion and one he chose to ignore, stepping through the open doors of Shen’s Tavern, out of the dry sunlight and into the pleasantly multi-hued glow of the tavern. It was relatively empty given the time of day and so allowed Xio to maneuver his way towards the bar with practiced ease, dancing past the tables and patrons therein, and eventually sliding a stool out of the way. He chose not to sit for the town being and instead leaned forward, mounting his elbows on the counter top while he loosed a shout.

“Liu, show yourself, I have need of your council.” Xio’s normally beautiful face was dirtied by the dour look on his face, “Bring your liquor with you, do not ask how much, as much as you can manage and then some.” Xiomara was not a thing meant to be caged, the complacent city of Alexandria was working on his very last nerve, and now there were dark thoughts bubbling to the surface of his mind. He needed to know whether to act on them or to ignore the but first he needed to dispel the nagging voice of Vorsours. “I will need more before this night is done.”

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

So if anyone else wants to show up with Shin-Ra feel free to interject yourself. We keep our transports freshly stocked with booze and food.

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

Klick-clak went the rickety wooden wheels as they rolled down the uneven path, overlapping the idle hum of the APC’s engine. Some genius in the R&D team had opted to disguise the vehicle as a massive carriage for this operation, as though the sight of a motor vehicle would cause the peasants of this world to riot in terror. It was a good disguise too; lacquered red panels gilded gold covered every inch of heavy armor and oversized wheels rolled beside reluctant tires. A seat had been affixed to the front of the APC so a faux-driver could hold the point and a team of eight extremely unhappy horses had been given the task of pulling it along.

It had been a quiet trip so far but Satori was beginning to have doubts…

Not in the hunt, Satori loved a challenge and today promised to be quite the hurdle, but in forming an alliance with non-Shin-Ra agents. A dark god was plaguing these lands this world needed saving before his fell touch consumed the entire world and it had been Satori herself who had proposed an alliance between those disjointed heroes who had arrived, but that didn’t mean she liked it, she just didn’t want to be greedy especially when they weren’t the first ones on the scene. Even a hunter followed a code of honor, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Satori was a tall girl in her late teens with a lean predatory body and skin as pale as the moon itself. She was riding shotgun in front of the carriage with her knee-length coat tucked underneath her bottom, it was a gentle shade of white-pink that stood out against the dreary background that had been hemmed in black and dyed crimson along the inside, sleeves currently folded up at the elbow. Beneath that she wore simple functional black clothing including a pair of teethed boots and a pair of clawed gauntlets. She was far from unarmored but in a more traditional manner than one might expect for a military commander with a large blade hanging off of her left hip, a modestly sized warhammer strapped to her back, and an ornate handgun on her left. Over that coat she wore a white furred cloak as though she needed to protect herself from the cold and her black hair had been tucked in a wide-brimmed hat colored the same soft pink as her coat.

Shin-Ra Industries had opted to send their two most occult-savvy agents to deal with the dark god gone wild. Satori herself was something more than human as evidenced by the eerie glow in her gaze and the chattering shadows that crowded around her. Her pretty face frozen in mid-puberty for all of eternity. A glamorous monster with enough vanity to more than make up for Nergal, the newly hired dark knight who was even now preparing himself with a dark ritual in the back of the APC, and likely causing undue distress to the other occupants. The driver wore a dapper black suit but beneath that was a hollow suit of metal moving with a mind of name, once code-named Katana the mountainous black automaton was an empty headed bodyguard assigned to protect those with Shinra blood pumping through their veins, but not particularly inclined towards self-preservation.

Before them stood the Plague Forest. Well the locals weren’t exactly the most creative people but one couldn’t fault their honesty. An endless stretch of dead forest that eventually led to a vicious mountain range where their quarry supposedly lay in wait. With a twist she called back into the faux-carriage, “Well gentlemen, if any of you are having doubts I suggest you voice them now. From here there’s no turning back.”

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

@Thanatos

Sounds like you've got five challengers lined up. I suggest a roll of the dice unless you're willing to play with everyone at once, you certainly have enough NPCs for it.

A Nice Welcome Back Spar

I had a friend try to lure me to Kik once but it never stuck. I'll be curious to see what you learned while you were there.

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

I'll loose my soul all over you, just don't complain if you can't stomach all of the Burning Courage. Joking aside do you intend to bring all of those NPCs with you? I'm interested but curious.

The World of War: Central Hub/Main Thread/Chen's Tavern

Here's my character, if no one posts by the time I'm accepted I'm going straight to Melon's bar and drinking all of the rum.

Hider

Xiomara the Sun’s Favored



Once upon a time there was a hermit, who sequestered himself from the world
When he climbed free from his hole he looked upon the land with hope
Only to find decay and decadence
In tears he beseeched the gods with the power to save his home
When the rising sun heard his voice, she became enamored with his dream
For the humble hermit she crafted a gift with all the powers that she possessed
It only cost him a face

Birth Name: Thaddeus
Alias: Xiomara
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Age: Mid-Thirties
Gender: Ostensibly Male
Ethnicity: Nethla

Physical Description:

Xiomara stands at six feet and three inches tall with a body that celebrates both the male and female aspects of the human form. Broad shoulders and powerful muscles line his form without being ostentatious enough to detract from the subtle curves that flow steadily downwards. Aside from the unusual blending of genders Xiomara is a picture perfect example of human health with two arms, two legs, and a head. His skin is a pale shade of brown with a tendency to bronze over the course of an encounter while his face is that of a woman with predatory features and given to stern expressions but beautiful nonetheless. A head full of wild red hair follows his every step with individual strands that writhe with a mind of their own.

Xiomara prefers to wear furs, trinkets, and trophies obtained over the course of his adventures that often result in him appearing as something of a half-armored savage.

Personality Description:

Xiomara is an shockingly honest person. Blunt to the point of being rude with a complete inability to understand metaphors, allusions, or other obfuscating tools of language. Though not quite a luddite he is derisive of modern values and lives by a strict code of honor, stubbornly so, even when proven wrong. As one might expect he loves combat. Despite a slew of negative personality traits, largely centered around savagery, there is a streak of humanitarianism running through the core of his being; one that while harsh is nonetheless fair.

Powers, Skills, and Abilities:

[Favored of the Sun]

When Thaddeus beseeched the gods for their help he never expected a response but a response he received and an emphatic one at that. Savage Vorsours descended from heavens and breathed her holy fire into him with a kiss, destroying the man he had been and forging him into something more than human, all so that he could carry her gift inside of him. Now his heart is an engine that pumps liquid fire through a body built like a machine. He is stronger, faster, and more durable than he could have ever dreamed of with dire magic pumping through his veins but in exchange Vorsours tore off that face and stole that voice that had enchanted her so. Realizing that it would not do for her favored to wander without a face she gave him her own and fashioned his new body so that it could better represent her. In a sense Thaddeus is gone and he has been replaced with the avatar Xiomara.

Xiomara has a number of natural abilities afforded to him which will be presented in list form for the sake of brevity:

*Increased physical strength, speed, and durability.
*Immunity to disease, toxins, aging, weather, and other natural hazards.
*Flame generation and manipulation.
*Steady out of combat regeneration.
*Communication with and control over non-sentient predators.
*Increased resistance to mental incursion as well as a complete immunity to subversive tactics.
*Able to manipulate his own physiology in order to create extraneous limbs, weapons, and defenses.
*Untapped blood magic to perform minor magical tricks and rituals.
*Able to grasp, manipulate, and otherwise damage supernatural energy forms including the magical and the immaterial.

[Eclipse of the Sun]

Though Xiomara is certainly powerful all of this power comes with a serious drawback. Over the course of battle Xiomara steadily deals damage to himself with the most obvious sign of wear and tear being the steady darkening of his flesh. Though resting in the middle of combat can allow his body to cool down the effect is constant and the final stage involves complete calcification at which point Xiomara himself is completely vulnerable, both to outside attacks and to the vicious will of Vorsours.

Equipment:

[Bloodwood Sword]

Carved from the Bloodwood tree, so named for the way that it feasts on corpses and the rusty red of the wood it produces, the Bloodwood Sword is a five foot long double-edged monster of a weapon. Though dull along each edge the Bloodwood Sword produces a natural sap that hardens the edges to a keen point that is capable of cleaving through stone and steel alike. Though incredibly durable the Bloodwood Sword can in fact be broken, in fact it regularly suffers damage throughout the course of battle, but as the blade is alive it will eventually regrow so long as it remains connected to the hilt. The magical nature of weapon allows it to cut and cleave through the magical and other energy based constructs while still dealing maximum damage, if not more given the tendency for most immaterial creatures assay defense.

Finally the Bloodwood Sword while not particularly intelligent is malignant in its own manner. The blood will soak up any blood that it encounters and if it finds purchase in an opponent it will attempt to take root within the foe and swallow them whole. Any blood that it drinks is transformed into energy which Xiomara has full access too.

[A/N: Though Xiomara is technically a hermaphrodite I will refer to the character using exclusively male pronouns. This because the character still thinks of himself as male but also because I find gender neutral pronouns to be completely obnoxious.]