Moonlit Academy (Interest check)

Deep in the darkest parts of the world exists monsters, beings born of the Dark that exist to haunt humanity toward the Light. Beasts with sharp fangs and ripping claws, spirits that haunt and sneak, and demons who tempt and ruin. Since the dawn of time the two forces have existed in their odd symbiosis. Light and Dark balanced in such a way that any chaos was kept to the minimum.

But then humanity surged, and in their advancement they pushed against the Dark, driving spirits into the deepest shadows without remorse, burning magic and myth and exposing the world to the harshness of Light. And with their 'foes' defeated humanity turned on itself without fear, devouring one another without worry for the things that laid in the dark falling upon them at their weakest moments.

Time passed, and the Dark found it necessary to go against its nature and change in order to survive this new era. The survivors of the first purge were brought together within the newly formed city of Shade, a refuge created by the most potent creatures of Dark. Here all beings from around the world could band together and find a new way to survive. And the next generation would need to be guided down a road that would bring tradition and innovation together in the form of an academy that would cater to all creatures of the Dark, training a generation that would strike terror once more into the heart of humanity.

And through their actions, come to save the Light from burning itself to cinders.

_________

The world of Moonlit Academy is a world of monsters and nightmares, but at the same time it is not a world of pure survival where the weak are left to suffer. Morality in and of itself is odd, as there are rules that govern the lives of the various monsters who have taken residence within Shade.

• 1- Act in the best interests of all aligned with the city regardless of old grudges.

• 2-Spread fear through humanity but do not act with hatred. Terror is our craft and death our art, to lower ourselves to slaughter for its own sake reduces our cause.

• 3-Do not expose the city of Shade to the forces of the Light, else the final sanctuary of the world be lost to us.

• 4-In all else act in instinct, and never lose the drive that pushes our kind forward.

So take on the roll of one of the beasts that stalk the dark, inflict terror and nightmares upon humanity and remind them why the first thing they came to fear was the setting of the sun!

Character Sheets

• Character Sheet
• Name:
• Age: (Age will vary for different races. A 'young' spirit can be 100's of years old, etc. The Academy is for training the next generation of monsters after all.)
• Species: (What kind of monster is your character? A werewolf? Vampire? Ghost? Zombie? Demon? Maybe a human touched by the Dark in some way.)
• Abilities: (What makes your character special, what can they do?)
• Backstory: (How did they come to Shade? Where were they ran out of?)
• Personality: (How your character interacts with others.)
• Equipment: (Anything special they might use or is important to note them having)
• Appearance: (What they look like, face claim or description is fine)
• Etc: (Anything else)

Name: Arachne the weaver AKA "What the HECK are you?" (Just Arachne is fine)

Age: about 400 years old.

Species: Spider/dark phoenix/demon(?)/shadow hybrid thing. (Even she's not entirely sure what the heck she is! A complicated family tree is to blame.)

Abilities:

Spider stuff: She can do anything a spider can do, but fit to a level of monsters (yes including the strength of one...).

Her bites hurt. She has spider fangs and venom. In a beak.

Can produce durable spider silk from any part of her body. Limbs are the easiest though. Can be used to make clothing and other fabric supplies. Can be transformed into shadows with physical contact.

Shapeshifting: Exactly as it says. She can shapeshift into any form... in theory (if only she could figure out how first). In practice, all shapeshifted forms (The whole thing total) must have at least 1/3 things: wings, spider features, shadows. WHERE or how obvious these are is up to her. She can change only one limb and that's fine as long as the requirements are met somehow with another body part. (From the shadow monster)

Shadow powers: She is made of shadows and solid matter at the same time. Pure darkness shaped into mass is basically her body. Can make and control her own shadow/body and the fire is shadow fire for a lack of better words. Fire in the shape of shadows. Mixed with shapeshifting and there's a reason her looks vary.

Shadow storage: She can store anything in her shadows as long as the item in question can survive the shadow transformation process. The items can be normal items or monster made.

Phoenix flames and stuff: She heals faster than normal and can focus to speed up said healing. Dark flames placed on her self make the affected injury heal faster. Her flames can also act like normal fire, but said flames are shadow like in appearance no matter what.

The fire will follow her intent as she uses it, and can be controlled by her.

Of course, she can fly!

Backstory:

It's hard to be scary when no one is even sure what the heck you are... including the humans! When the HUMANS are just as confused as the monsters are regarding what you are species wise... they (the humans) find you more befuddling to look at more than anything else. Who could blame them? Even the monsters have trouble keeping track of her family tree. Including herself and her own family.

Off to Shade she went! Her own family has no idea how she can be effective at being scary (not malicious, just understandably confused beyond belief). Seriously her family tree looks like a spider web made by drunk spiders. On both sides. No one can make heads or tails of what the heck her genetic mystery stew is, including herself!

Personality:

She is very practical and observant. High intelligence that shows though her actions, and is always thinking about what to do next. She's always planning something... including what to make next.

Equipment:

A pair of oversized bladed lances: Made of shadows, and intended to be used as a tool. This is for making giant clothes, not weapons. Although these could be used as weapons in a pinch. The size will vary, but these at min are 6 feet long and the blade length changes to match her fabric needs. There is a small hole on the end of the handle to attach silk. Thin and the blades are sharp enough to cut threads and other things, doubling as a multitool for her hobby.

Knitting/sewing needles: See her hobby.

Supplies for hobbies: Yarn, needles, dyes, fabric etc. Well Duh. Always seems to have a project going on at all times.

Appearance:

Female humanoid with constantly changing spider limbs and phoenix wings growing out of her back. Has spider eyes and 2 human arms and a pair of human legs. Able to change her size at will so she can fit inside. Will always have a pair of phoenix wings made from dark shadowy fire and various pairs of spider limbs on her back (usually 2), but more of either will be randomly added or added by will.

Her face has 8 spider eyes instead of human ones and her mouth is that of a bird (any beak is fair game depending on her mood) rather than a human mouth at default. With a neck that stretches like a heron's with seemingly no limit. Has "hair" that will have wings, spider features, and/or fire shaped shadows in it at all times. Length wildly varies, and this is often how she gets past the (temporary) shapeshifting requirements.

Uses her hair to hide her spider limbs, and shows her wings. Hair is made of her shadows.

Her feet is that of a bird of prey's rather than human.

Etc: (Anything else)

She likes contraband aka human fashion magazines and sewing/knitting supplies. Shapeshifting is VERY useful for getting said supplies.

Is trying to use costumes and props to look scary... with mixed results.

Will randomly knit when bored.

Edited by sci300768 on Mar 28th 2023 at 5:20:09 AM

• Name: Gogo Gadjet (Is in the process of choosing a new name for herself. Her current one no longer fit)
• Age: 21
• Species: Formerly human. Current species is debatable.
• Abilities: After constant experimentation, Gogo has exceeded the boundaries of mortal constraints. Her six limbs are incredibly strong. She can tear out human hearts and turn them to paste . Her carapace is resilient and sturdy and can take a beating. With her mandibles, she can crush small skulls and dig through the earth, useful for building laboratories. She's a brilliant scientist and engineer, but her altered state has made her physically formidable.
• Personality: Gogo is enthusiastic, eager, fiesty and a hot-headed egotist. She loves her work, almost as much as she loves herself. She throws herself into every one of her inventions, giving it her all and determined to make it work. But she tends to get ahead of herself. She constantly cooks up batshit plans and inventions that would only be possible with her genius, but often glosses over the details. Her lack of caution has put her in danger more than once, but as long as she gets results, she doesn't care about the cost.
  • Since she began her research, her methodology has become increasingly warped and twisted. Every experiment she performs on herself warps her brain, loosening her restraints and inhibitions. Since then, she's stopped caring about morality and ethics. She will do anything to achieve her goals. She wishes to achieve physical and mechanical perfection, but more than that, she wants to experience the totality of physical existence. Pain, hunger, sex and more. She wants to see it all and do it all. Any sensation that a physical being can achieve, she wants to obtain it. And the best way to do that is through experimentation. Whether it be self-experimentation or living vicariously through her test subjects, she will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. By human standards, she's almost insane, but she doesn't care what they think of her.
  • Equipment: Gogo has several tools to help in her work. She has a laser blaster, a blowtorch and an extensive toolkit. Since she began experimenting on herself, she hasn't needed them as much, but they're useful in a pinch.
• Background: Gadjet is the granddaughter of renowned scientist Professor Reinbach, a leading innovator in several major fields despite his checkered past. After the deaths of her parents, her grandfather took her in, but she felt he didn't appreciate her theories or inventions as much as he should have. But in truth, he appreciated them all too well. He could see the same genius and ambition that he once held, but didn't want her to go down a similar path. By downplaying her achievements, he thought he could discourage her and push her towards other interests, but it only increased her dedication. She was determined to surpass her grandparents and become the world's greatest scientist!
  • But it only the beginning. What began as a need to prove herself became a quest for perfection. After failing to achieve necessary subjects, she began experimenting on herself, but this grew into an addiction. She came obsessed, yearning for sensation and perfection in equal measure. The more she experimented on herself, the more inhuman she became. Humanity was a limitation, and obstacle to achieving her goals. After growing past it several times over, the Academy reached out to her. Somewhere along the way, she had fallen into the Dark, a world of dreadful horrors beyond her imagination. She wasn't keen on preserving this so-called balance, but she couldn't pass this up. It was an opportunity to expand her horizons, to go beyond what humanity considered possible. Packing her bags, she burrowed her way to the Academy, eagar to experience as many thrilling new sensations as possible.

More than a little unhinged.

• Etc: Has developed a taste for raw flesh. Isn't picky about where it comes from.

Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 27th 2023 at 10:37:47 AM

• Name: Kokoro
• Age: Around 20 years old.
• Species: Some sort of cryptid demon, resembling a unique kind of fox spirit.
• Abilities:
  • Inhuman Physiology: Kokoro is an enigma, with a lanky body akin to that of a humanoid fox and an indestructible smiling mask affixed to her face. Kokoro is supernaturally agile and able to contort herself into knots with ease, and can even extend her body parts to twice their normal length in order to reach high points or attack her foes from a distance. Kokoro possesses sharp claws on her hands and feet, abnormal strength about thrice that of an ordinary human, a toughened hide able to resist bullets (though not sharp blades, magic, or explosives) and a healing factor that enables her to survive almost any injury delivered to her if she's given enough time to recover after a fight (though not during, as it has a delay which leaves her open to further attacks). Kokoro's regeneration ability originates from her five stolen human hearts which are positioned throughout her body, which bolster her vitality and strength when they're working in unison. Destroying or removing these hearts will weaken her, and if every one of her hearts is destroyed then she'll pass out and likely die—generally speaking she'll panic and retreat if three of her hearts are taken out of commission. In regards to Kokoro's mask, no one can witness what lies beneath it without either being driven to madness or dying on the spot: whatever Kokoro's true face is, it is impossible to perceive without consequences.
  • Inhuman Mind: Kokoro possesses impenetrable mental shielding, rendering her incapable of being mind-controlled or mentally invaded by any means; including the most powerful telepaths. Attempting to peer into her mind will result in a fierce retaliation that will likely pain the person responsible, and the more effort one exerts in trying to force their way in, the more extreme and abnormal the retaliation will become. Aside from being impenetrable, Kokoro's mind functions in a strange way: never seeming to forget information yet simultaneously adjusting itself to her environment in order to more efficiently solve problems in her way. While Kokoro ordinarily isn't the sharpest tool in the shed in terms of more conceptual thinking, her brain is wired to be quick to adapt and pick up on mental skills that would take an ordinary person a while to fully process. This essentially allows her to mimic the body language, speech patterns, and general behaviour of others around her by means of observation: if given a sufficient disguise, she could likely copy a person near-flawlessly as a distraction while the real individual sneaks past unnoticed. Kokoro is also able to perceive incorporeal spirits as easily as physical beings, and sees no difference between the two.
  • Electrokinesis: Kokoro has the ability to drain electricity from her surroundings, store it within her body, and then release it to either overcharge electronics or electrocute her enemies with immense voltage. Kokoro has fairly low capacity for storing electricity, however, and so in normal circumstances she will drain herself almost completely after a single attack delivered to her opponent, requiring her to find a new source of electricity to drain. However, Kokoro's body retains a small amount of static charge even while drained—enough to give a person a small jolt with a handshake or bust a lightbulb with her pointer finger. Kokoro can also charge her claws and teeth with electricity, along with any conductive materials she touches; including improvised weapons made out of metal.
• Backstory: Kokoro is a presence that has lingered in the public consciousness for twenty years, infesting the human world time and time again in her endless quest for hearts to feed upon during the time period in which cryptids were most feared. However, now that this era has come to a close, Kokoro has found it harder and harder to achieve her goal: though people still fear her and fall into a vulnerable shock, more and more of them are fighting back and rejecting her status as a monster in favour of something they can better understand. The feeding grounds have become hostile, and Kokoro's prey have become the predators, and so the demon fox has ventured into the city of Shade in hopes of finding sanctuary and a better provision of hearts for her to feed upon. While she's had to adjust to being around creatures which don't all want to kill her, Kokoro is ultimately finding it a little easier to live in Shade than the human realm, and the existence of the Academy has intrigued her immensely. With her adaptive mind, she hopes to take in as much new information as she can, not wanting to squander this opportunity of an education that she would've otherwise never received.
• Personality: Kokoro presents herself as childish and energetic, feigning a young feminine voice and adopting mannerisms that are commonly identifiable as cutesy or charming by others. She has a penchant for referring to herself in the third person, and speaking of herself and the hearts she consumes with the same word; making it difficult to distinguish when she's hungry or just wanting attention from others. Kokoro's violent side does not come from malice, rather an inherent instinct to feed on hearts and an insatiable Horror Hunger that rears its ugly head at often inappropriate times. Though normally simplistic and driven by base desires, Kokoro's problem-solving skills are that of a genius, and she can quickly work out logical puzzles and mimic the behaviours of others in order to achieve a specific goal. Kokoro is also a rapt listener, even while she seems distracted: she has a penchant of sitting cross-legged and rocking herself backwards and forward, which to the unaware observer would seem like a childlike move, but in actuality it is a method of meditation that allows Kokoro to pay close attention to her surroundings without suspicion.
• Equipment: An old sack which Kokoro uses to collect her hearts. It's bigger on the inside, and stinks of blood. Kokoro sometimes hides inside it, either to sleep or to recover from her injuries in private.
• Appearance: [1]◊ [2]◊ 6'3" tall, or 12'6" at maximum stretch. Do not look beneath the mask. Though the expression of her mask is static, it has a tendency to jitter and chitter on occasion like it has a mind of its own, and occasionally small fleshy tendrils can be seen adjusting its position on Kokoro's face from beneath.
• Etc: Leitmotif.

Edited by Enirboreh on Mar 27th 2023 at 2:35:55 PM

• Name: Annalise
• Age: Around 50 years old chronically, 8 mentally
• Species: Spirit-possessed doll
• Abilities:
  • Annalise is quite agile. She can move quickly and can climb up things easily.
  • Due to her small size, she can fit in spaces that other students can't enter. So she can go through vents for example and tiny tunnels.
  • Despite her size, she can pick up things that are bigger than her such as books and pillows. However there's a limit as she can't lift up things that are humongous by her standards (such as cabinets).
  • Annalise is able to teleport to other places but it must be within 20 feet, takes some concentration and that it can be only done when no one is directly looking at her (she can theoretically teleport when observed by cameras).
  • Considering her somewhat fragile doll body, Annalise knows how to patch herself up. She can sew up her own rips and tears with needles and thread.
• Backstory:
  • Annalise was once a young 8-year-old human girl who only had her mother and her favorite rag doll for company. Her mother struggled to make it by but she loved Annalise dearly. The two had a strong bond with Annalise being somewhat clingy towards her mother. However tragedy struck when one day, Annalise with her rag doll in hand, carelessly walked onto the street and got fatally run over by a car. Annalise's mother mourned her heavily, often blaming herself for her death. She held onto Annalise's doll, patching it up and often hugging it as she slept, with it being a memento of Annalise.
  • She never moved on from Annalise's death even as decades rolled by. However unbeknownst to her, because of her love, Annalise's spirit came to the doll and slowly built her presence in it over time. On the 50th anniversary of Annalise's death, the mother held the doll close to her as she drew out her last breath. There, the doll sprung to life, possessed by Annalise herself. Unable to recognize the now elderly woman as her mother, she left her arms and began searching for her mother, confused and scared.
  • She searched and searched but couldn't find her mother, unaware that she actually left her in the first place and that she had passed on. She had many sleepless nights where she cried out for her mother. Eventually she stumbled upon the city of Shade. She was afraid by the many monsters that lurked there but with the help of one kind bear monster, Annalise ended up in Moonlit Academy.
• Personality:
  • Annalise exactly acts like her mental age. She's innocent, naive and playful. Despite living in a city full of monsters, she gets frightened easily but usually doesn't mean any kind of ill will towards those who scare her. In fact, once she gets out of her frightened state, she's usually very trustful of others. She's gentle and kind hearted, thus she likes helping others. When she sees someone down, she tries cheering them up whether it'll be hugs or saying funny things.
  • Because of the aforementioned mental age, Annalise has a tendency to copy others but not entirely understand what she's mimicking, whether it'll be actions or words. Thus, it's possible for her to drop a swear without knowing its meaning because she heard someone else say it.
  • She likes pulling pranks on people. They're harmless as she just moves their things around when they aren't looking or replacing things with other objects. It's all for good fun and she'll apologize if someone she pranks gets quite upset over it.
  • Annalise still misses her mother very much and seeks out to be with her again. She gets sad when she talks about her and every now and then, someone can hear her crying about her mother in the middle of the night.
• Equipment: N/A
• Appearance:
  • Annalise is a little rag doll around 16 inches tall. She has a face similar to the Raggedy Ann doll which consists of round eyes with beady black irises and little simple eyelashes on the bottom, a maroon colored triangle nose, some blush and a simple smile. She has only one thumb on each of her otherwise fingerless hands but that doesn't hinder her from carrying things that much. Her legs are made of a slightly different material from the rest of the body and thus very squishable.
  • Her appearance is modeled after Flappers. Thus she has bobbed hair made of dark-colored yarn, a black cloche hat that's stitched on top of her round head, a same-colored dress that doesn't go below the knees and her legs are white to indicate stockings. Her black, roundish square feet are supposed to represent the shoes.
  • She also has several stitches around her body. If you look closely, you can see some subtle dried out blood stains that went through several washes on her body that came from when Annalise got run over.
  • If Annalise gets flashbacks of herself as a human, she appears as a young girl with long chestnut hair and blue eyes who resembles her mother. She usually wears white dresses.
• Etc:
  • Her dialogue color will be Cinnamon
  • Annalise's face can still express emotions and her mouth can move as she speaks, although she can't put things in it as it's entirely 2D.
  • She's vulnerable to fire which can kill her.
  • Despite her appearance being based on a flapper, Annalise doesn't know what a flapper is nor is she knowledgeable on The Roaring '20s.

• Name: Isra del Mar
• Age: 15
• Species: Sea monster
• Abilities:
  • Aquatic Adaptation: Isra is capable of surviving in and adapting to underwater environments; he can breathe water in lieu of air, swims extraordinarily fast, and can easily endure high water pressure and extreme water temperatures.
  • Underwater Senses: Isra has extremely accurate senses underwater, able to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste with utmost clarity. In fact, his senses are better underwater than they are out of it.
  • Natural Weaponry: Man's got a mouthful of sharp teeth. If he bites you, it's gonna hurt.
• Backstory:
  • Isra's people lived in the oceans near Honduras once, sinking ships and eating sailors as haunts of the sea. But time passed, and humanity grew bolder, eventually chasing them out to reclaim the ocean.
  • As such, Isra was born in Shade, and has never actually seen the sea in his life. He was the last of five children, and never received much attention due to being quieter and more introverted than his siblings. More self-sufficient. Lacking much in the way of a social circle, Isra turned to a hobby to occupy his time: contraband.
  • See, among a...certain populace in Shade, a thriving black market had sprouted up. Not blood or organs or anything like that, but material from the human world. Books, comics, DV Ds...that sort of thing. Isra, loner outcast that he was, took an interest in that, and started purchasing such items, hiding them in his room and going through them often.
  • And maybe due to all the exposure to human culture, Isra's worldview...shifted. All sorts of strange ideas started going through his head, such as "maybe terrorizing humanity was a dick move on our part" and "we probably could've gotten what we needed without killing people" and "wouldn't it have been better if we'd co-existed from the start?" His parents hadn't a clue what to do with him and his radical ideas, and when he started being outspoken about them, they promptly shipped him off to the academy in hopes it would end his rebellious ways...
• Personality: When it comes to his beliefs, Isra is three things: passionate, adamant, and stubborn as all hell. He wholeheartedly believes in his cause and will fight for it if need be. Unfortunately, sometimes "fight" becomes all too literal; Isra's emotions run high, and he has difficulty getting along with other monsters, so confrontation is likely. He has a...strong dislike for the academy and everything it stands for, and knows full well he likely won't find allies there. Still, if anyone shares his beliefs? They've got a friend for life.
  • (He's also, like, a HUGE nerd when it comes to human pop culture. Seriously, if he was able to make a Tumblr account he'd so make a Tumblr account.)
• Equipment: While the majority of his "contraband" remains hidden in his room back home, he did manage to sneak some of it in. Not much, but enough to keep him from dying of boredom while stuck in the school.
• Appearance: A rebellious spirit◊. Stands at 5'3. (Dyes his hair, natural color is black)

Edited by LilyTheLitten on Mar 28th 2023 at 10:56:08 AM

• Name: Caerba Cwningen Palug
• Age: 23 in rabbit years
• Species: Demonic Rabbit
• Abilities: Caerba has disproportionate strength for her small size. In particular, she can leap vast distances and overpower adult humans with ease. Her kicks are quite deadly, as are her claws and sharp teeth. She's quite durable as well, and can accelerate her natural healing by consuming meat or blood. Her best attribute, however, is speed - her fighting style revolves around attacking rapidly to deny her opponents any openings. Being a rabbit, she has keen senses of smell and hearing.
• Backstory: Long have there been unholy spirits hidden in the woodlands of Wales. Caerba traces her lineage back to a legendary demon rabbit that supposedly did battle with King Arthur, though no records of such a thing exist in Arthurian canon. Her family claims that this was intentional censorship on the part of scholars. Regardless of the truth, the 'killer rabbits' haunted humans for quite a while, until the growth of humanity forced them far into the shadows. It was only natural that Caerba would wind up in Shade.
• Personality: Hot-blooded, aggressive, and always looking for a fight. Caerba enjoys fighting people who can give her a good challenge, eating raw meat, and scaring others. She has a tendency to try too hard at the latter, prompting other monsters to think of her as an edgelord. She strangely dislikes killing - in her mind, killing the weak is for cowards, while killing the strong denies the possibility of fighting them again. While she acts tough, she also enjoys company, and is actually easy to get along with if you don't make her mad. Just don't poke fun at her height.
• Equipment: A black scythe, which she claims was made with a corrupted fragment of the fabled sword Arondight. Regardless of its origin, it is a powerful weapon, nigh unbreakable and enchanted to never loses its deadly edges. Unlike a normal scythe, both the inside and outside edges are sharp. Caerba can make it fly back to her hand at will, allowing her to reclaim it if dropped.
• Appearance: Cute as a button, deadly in the Dark. Stands 3' even.
• Etc: Theme song.

• Name: Drake Palmer
• Age: He thinks he might be 19 or 20, he can't tell due to how the Banes have scarred him physically and the gaps in his memory lend the possibility of even more lost time.
• Species: Touched Human
• Abilities:
  • Paradigm's Breach: Multiple alternative definitions of Light and Dark hold host within Drake and seek to break free and redefine what Light and Dark really mean within the world. Each offers powers to tempt him while also rendering baneful consequences of their xenoideological nature.
  • Paradigm of Bombs And Swords:
    • Light's Boon, Knife Of Solar Fire: From nothing, Drake can manifest a shard of weighted metal burning with the fury of the sun. It does not last long, but it lasts long enough to stab or throw the knife.
    • Light's Bane, Guardian Grace: Drake has immense difficulty remembering his life before arriving at the Academy and has to fill the gaps with fictions and best guesses.
    • Dark's Boon, Pulling The Strands: Casting an arm out, Drake can grapple onto the supposed strings that tie reality together and pull himself towards them.
    • Dark's Bane, Witness To The Proof: In the back of his head, there is a driving hunger to prove his own existence by defeating others (usually through killing) and denying their existence after doing so.
  • Paradigm Of Umbral and Astral:
    • Light's Boon, Echo Before The Noise: The greatest gift of this Light is to know where an enemy's attacks will strike before they make a move. While the usefulness of this power is limited in melee engagements or against particularly instinct-driven foes, it's usually just enough warning to mitigate the strongest hits.
    • Light's Bane, Sins Devoured: Drake Palmer is changing, slowly. He can feel his soul slowly rolling towards this Light's stasis whenever he isn't actively trying to be active. The fact that it causes him to turn ever paler and occasionally cough up white luminescent blood is just a reminder of a seemingly inevitable transformation.
    • Dark's Boon, The Darkblood: For the Darkness of this paradigm, being bloodied is just cause for returning that pain multiplied upon your foe. This blast of concentrated energy is short-range but still carries all the anguish that generated it.
    • Dark's Bane, Fray Persona: A piece of Drake's's personality has split off, a piece that is not happy about his attempts to straddle the line between good and bad. Or perhaps Drake has just gotten a lot more open about voicing his frustrations. He doesn't really know which, but sometimes he just can't help but dress down those that anger him, even among his allies.
  • Paradigm of Virtues and Vices:
    • Light's Boon?, Bane To The Dark: Against beings of the Dark, strikes with mundane weapons ought to bear even more of a sting... And yet, they don't. Something about this Light holds itself back against the residents of Shade, as though it sees something it could reconcile with itself.
    • Light's Bane, Sensitive To Suffering: The suffering of others causes physical pain to Drake until he can find some way to address it.
    • Dark's Boon, Sustained By The Horror: Places where terrible things have happened, where intent to cause suffering was turned to action, provide sustenance and energy to Drake. Especially so if he himself is the source of the act...
    • Dark's Bane, Integrity Breaks Down: Betraying his values, choosing to do what does nothing but harm, overindulging in the sustenance Sustained By The Horror brings. They all chip away at him, making it harder and harder to not just give into a monstrous mentality.
• Backstory:
  • Drake does not remember much of where he came from, with one of the paradigms within him to blame. He has shreds of memory from before arriving at the Academy: A comfortable middle-class family with an older brother, a love of video games and other fiction, the horrific emergence of the powers within him and then... A crow or a rabbit or an echoing voice leads him to the city of monsters and the door of the Academy. He can't even remember how long the journey took him or what he did enroute...
  • He does, however, remember oh so much of the stories from which the paradigms within him originate. He tries to feign ignorance though, coming up with his own stories to attempt to make the powers congruent with the nature of the world as it already is.
• Personality: Reserved and quiet, Drake is trying to stand on the border between Light and Dark ideologically while also standing on the border of three other sets of Light and Dark ideologies. The problem is that he is someone who trends towards strong ideals and he's actively having to betray those ideals to maintain what he hopes is an acceptable level of neutrality. Over all else, he is terrified of everything about his powers and quietly hoping that being part of the Academy will open up an opportunity to tame or shed the influences and actually enjoy the powers and potential for good they bring.
• Equipment:
  • A fairly well-built walking cane that could easily double as a melee weapon.
  • Assorted trinkets that seem to be from the same place as the paradigms.
• Appearance: The powers trying to force their way into reality through his body has marked him so hard. What once was probably a very normal-looking human boy is covered in patches of withering skin and bleaching complexion. His eyes are a very pale yellow and glow faintly from beneath the dark of the large hat he wears along with a big jacket to try and hide these deformities.
• Etc: Drake fears that the Bane of the Umbral Light hides a more insidious transformation he calls the Inflorescence, a Light with no Dark to balance it. He has not sung ever since coming to this suspicion and is quick to request that if he ever does start singing randomly then they should kill him as soon as possible.

Name: Thassalos, or Dark Lurker

Age: Inconclusive, possibly 66 years old, likely older.

Species: Abomination from the Unknown

Abilities: Thassalos can create illusions so strong her prey is unlikely to escape. This takes time, sometimes even weeks, as she consumes her prey’s life and fear. The powers don't work on monsters (in her words There is nothing for me to take.). Her four arms are good for slashing soft things to pieces, being able to overpower a single human and not much else. She is very slippery due to her ability to change the shape of her body, this requires the bones of anything she wants to turn into. While she was still among humans, she was able to turn into a creature somewhere between a moose and a bear. But she's lost the required bones now only having those for a human and large cat.

Backstory: To the larger family of monstrosities, Thassalos is a newcomer. A being that showed up when the light grew brighter and stretched outwards to the stars. She's a something that was called by the fear of the vast unknown that humans harboured. A limb of a much stranger passive entity that separated away due to its own compulsions and curiosity. Though Thass has lived among humans, she's been adapting surprisingly well to Shade. Until recently her life orbited around human fear, and trading the possessions of her victims under the name of Dark Lurker to those who paid her price, meaning she's quite the name to look out for on the Black Market for the quality and variety of the artifacts brought by her. As to the reason they had entered the Academy, perhaps it was easier to avoid the eye of Shade authorities as a student, or perhaps there was more of a curiosity to what the various classes taught at the academy were and what doors they could open.

Personality: Thassalos is a shy monster, her weak body gives her reason to hide away from any would be dangerous elements, and not cause problems. She talks little to avoid violence but becomes very friendly when she believes that she's protected. Her hobbies, include collecting things she believes it unfair that humans get to keep so many shiny things, Botany, and Horror stories. Outwardly she fakes a concern for Shade and the belief in the grand plan, but inside she doesn't care about whether that succeeds or not. To Thassalos humans either continue their way and the light burns itself out plunging the world into pitch darkness, or the light only creates darker crevasses inside the human mind for her to lurk in. Her treatment of humans is not kind, she may play with one for a bit and then leave, or fully immerse herself in tormenting the mind. If she’s feeling very playful and likes the human, they might find themselves communing as she lets the human use her powers. Thass especially enjoys manipulating those humans into depravity and murder, consuming them once they begin to bore her.

Equipment: Various tools made of bone, a box full of dice (one of her favourite hobbies includes their use), a pile of random items she's collected from humans, and her most prized possession an astronaut helmet that she sleeps in.

Appearance: Thassalos is a thin, tall and humanoid creature with four arms. Her body is made up of a pitch-black material with a partially visible human skeleton. The anatomy of the isn’t perfectly human, like it has some extra pieces in the wrong places. She wears a shirt that is long enough to cover the void between her chest and hips. A crop leather jacket, and baggy pants. Disguises her face as human, her eyes remain fully black which Thass hides with sunglasses or with a some disgust contacts.

Etc: Concept Theme

Edited by Faelisya on Apr 2nd 2023 at 12:19:18 PM

Got any room for one more?

Name: Guy

Age: 14

Species: Revenant Human

Abilities: He's already dead. He can't die, and any wounds he has heal near-instantaneously. Despite his lack of magical abilities compared to his monstrous brethren, he makes up for it by being very good at utilizing his body. He can stretch his arms by using his blood vessels and arteries, spray blood in enemies' eyes, put much more force on his attacks and increase his speed due to being able to overtax his body, basically manipulate his body however he likes. He also has a heightened resistance to pain, which makes him able to do all of these things without screaming and crying, and doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.

Backstory: Guy woke up six feet under. At first, he didn't know what do do, hand how his body changed in death. This made him stuck under there for a few years, until he could dig himself out. He was chased away by humans who saw his abilities, and he wandered until he reached Shade. Maybe he can truly put his powers to use.

Personality: Guy shows no emotion, at least through his facial expressions. However, he acts quite energetic for someone so stoic, being a smart kid who'd rather make friends than foes.

Equipment: He has a knife that he makes out of bones, and a gold locket shaped like fire.

Appearance:

Etc: dying is gay

Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAb7DeG_O3Q

Edited by Jules-Firenze on Apr 27th 2023 at 11:27:03 AM