┙THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND GOES BY...┍
Asteridax Nazeric; known by all as the Ebon Headsman and formally as Father Ebon, though to those he hunts, the Devil's Bogeyman is the moniker that's often whispered. Most have difficulty in pronouncing his given name, and in turn given him the shortened form of "Axe."
┙WHILE HIS AGE IS FINITELY AGELESS...┍
Largely hidden from the general populace, though exaggerated tales place him within his mid-fifties. However, due to his affiliation of the Order of the Raven, his actual age is easily thrice that, give or take a couple of decades.
┙REMEMBERED FOR THE ACTIONS HE TAKE.┍
Asteridax is a rogue and an assassin, first and foremost. He often serves the current King of Agrodawn as a nightblade, taking blood contracts that these other so-called "hunters" refuse to touch. His price is simple: What he kills, he keeps.
┙HE WATCHES HIS MARKS FROM THE SHADOWS...┍
If one was lucky to steal a glimpse of his face behind the mask, they would be mostly correct to say that Asteridax could have seen better days. His 230+ pound frame is covered with an ornate mix of boiled leather armor and cloth, just shy of 7 feet in height, often on par with a majority of the "monsters" he hunts.
Asteridax mostly wears an ivory-bone colored mask to cover the scarred and twisted visage that he calls his face. His facial features aren't exactly gaunt but slightly sunken, giving his still-otherwise youthful features a feeling of exhaustion. With that said, his eyes are most unusual, having a unique reddish-orange hue so raw that it seems to devour one's very soul if stared into for too long.
Elvish blood runs through his veins, but unlike others that might share his existence, his skin is not of the fair variety. Instead, Asteridax's cursed flesh is of an ashen shade, gray but not yet dark enough to be called black nor light enough to be labeled as bone. This difference of skin tone isn't as genetic so much as a gradual byproduct from years of using Fel practices that he's often associated with.
┙FOR THE DARKEST HOUR NEVER COMES IN THE NIGHT...┍
He wears a set of boiled leather armor with liberties to a design specific to a particular order of hunters and assassins, dubbed the Nightmare Shroud. The leather used is curated from various hunted beasts and monsters, which is then boiled in a mixture of waxes and oils that allow the leather to become capable of withstanding most elements and hazardous conditions, however he has geared his suit to be on the lighter side for greater movement. The armor is, for the most part, quite expansive in its coverage, adding extra protective plating to areas normally left exposed and extra armor to critical spots of the body, however it still allows for a wide range of movement. The ivory-bone colored mask that Asteridax is known for is dual-purpose: The mask effectively serves as a public face while on business as well as containing a mixture of herbs and aromatic items to combat the putrid air that surrounds the numerous swamps and ghastly dwellings where the prey he hunts often call their homes.
He doesn't carry an axe on his body ironic to his namesake, as he is most comfortable in using a customized pair of double-barreled wheellock handcannon firearms dubbed "Dread and Dispair," though for his more delicate procedures, he also utilizes a chain-sickle along with a number of assorted light blades and poisons. However, when push comes to shove, when he has exhausted all available weapons he has available, his gauntlets hold two secrets for those who've come too close: In addition to the sharpened fingertips built into the gauntlets' design, nestled within his right wrist is a hidden crossbow not used for injuring, but rather a delivery system for his custom poisons.
Dread and Dispair are what others would consider his bread and butter and are his primary armament. While firearms are quite the rare sight throughout these lands, having two is doubly so. These two weapons are a matching pair of customized onehanded breech-loading ranged instruments of destruction capable of piercing most armors with ease, with an effective range of no more than ten yards. They are wheellock operated, with each firearm holding a double-barrel design, and are the length of an average man's forearm, each firing a number of alchemical cartridges created with the firearms' design in mind. For ammunition, Asteridax has the know-how and the talent to create alchemical cartridges of varying effects, with the most common being a simple combination of gunpowder and bullet sealed within a wax and parchment capsule that burns away when lit, to cartridges that have the capabilities of entangling and slowing the target.
Aside from these obvious items of interest that he has on his body, Asteridax also carries a wide assortment of alchemical extracts, mutagens, and reagents, used for the useful purpose of creating potions and salves [of magical nature] in addition to the much required alchemical cartridges used by his dual firearms. The properties of these substances, when mixed, create effects from healing wounds to certain potent poisons of his design.
The Pumpkin Song is a unique alchemical cocktail of Asteridax's design, when introduced to a chosen victim (much more helpful if said victim is helpless), it slowly fills their mind with unsettling and wracking urges and visions. Part would be fright; part would be agony; part would be anguish. They all affect the victim simultaneously in near equal magnitude, and if one is resisted, the other two are amplified. If two can be endured, the third becomes distinctive. Most minds can't last long under the constant bombardment of these mental assaults, often breaking down within mere minutes which allows him to easily retrieve whatever information he was after. It's his little sound of madness.
┙...AND THE NIGHT IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.┍
He will not toy around with his opponents. He is blunt and direct when not actively holding stealth. Efficiency is his only style; he does not care for splatter and fanciful methods of killing when a simple single shot is all that will suffice. He will deal with opponents the simplest and quickest way possible only because he does not intend to waste time, resources, and effort any more than he has to.
However do not mistake him as a sociopath. He derives no pleasure from killing, nor does he relish the action of inflicting pain. He will just as coolly walk past you as he would shoot you in the face. He does not care whether people live or die, he merely deals with "obstacles" as he sees fit. If dealing with said obtrusions requires slaying, then that is what must be done. These obstacles may be anything as serious as a guard shooting at him to something as trivial as merely asserting his standing in a bar; in both instances there will be shots fired and bodies strewn across the floor.
He is as cold and uncaring as the vacuum of the void. Neither his own life or death matter to him. When on assignment, only the objectives hold priority. Currently only the Order of the Raven holds his loyalty, and to what extent even that holds those not in the clandestine organization can only guess. That is not to say he cannot be crossed, even if he rarely displays any anger or emotion. Those who have drawn his ire will only see how harsh the cold heart of the Darkness can be.
┙HERE'S TO THE HEARTS HE'LL BREAK...┍
Unfortunately, some will say that Asteridax is no better than the prey he hunts, and will always be seen as a perversion of nature in the eyes of any self-righteous follower of the divines, especially those found within the walls of Agrodawn. His personal views and actions, to their core, will always dehumanize him.
While this seems as a tactically positive reaction to his shrouded history and training, others (for the most part) often fail to attach a human face to what lingers behind his mask, and his aberrant nature does nothing to remedy this. While the others can't hold a humanizing persona or features to Asteridax, he no longer does the same for them, as he often sees companions as a liability at best, though there have been exceptions to this rule.
Unlike many others of roguish nature, Asteridax is not much one for stealth and discretion, for to him the best stealth comes from the open through the art of distraction and misdirection. While he, like most of his kind, likes to get the jump on his enemies, Asteridax holds a preference to do things with as much directness as he can.
┙...AND FROM THE STRANDS OF TIME, TORN AND FRAYED...┍
Every nation, every government, and every organization has its dark practices, and these lands are no exception. Clad in a jet-black armor reminiscent to the shades of old, Asteridax, by far, is one of the more elusive operatives that the King has been known to utilize through the use of the Ravens within the Black Veil. Hailing from the dark city of Shadestar, his background and upbringing remains a mystery, so Asteridax's life, in essence, was Tabula Rasa until he was discovered by the Black Veil and through them, the Order of the Raven.
While the history of how Asteridax became to be affiliated with the secretive Order remains shrouded, it is known among other hunters that he is a member of the Black Veil while being removed and hidden from the general public's view. When the King, or by proxy the Court, has to make a call for somebody to take on the monsters that are too dangerous to be captured by conventional means...
...This is where he comes in. He is the Devil's Bogeyman, for all the things that go bump in the night, he's the one that bumps back.
┙HE'LL MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CAN'T TRADE HIM FOR AN APPARITION.┍
With years of serving and working for various organizations, both official and unofficial, Asteridax created what he believed to be an extremely versatile method of battle: to deliver as much crushing force in as little time as necessary. His marks rarely play fair, but neither does he. By distracting or otherwise catching an opponent in a disadvantaged and poorly defended position (whether by having them flanked by allies or catching them unprepared), Asteridax can utilize any opening windows of opportunity in order to strike at vital areas to deal additional critical injuries.
He is well versed with unconventional combinations of weaponry and fighting styles that only assassins, and on a lesser note rogues, can employ. While he can't take often a strike, he's specialized in evasive combat techniques used for preventing unnecessary damage altogether, focusing on enhanced dexterity and agility to keep his targets outside of melee range.
In addition to the common languages known throughout the lands, Asteridax is well seasoned in the understanding and use of Rogue's Cant, a secret mix of code words, dialects, and markings that's only used by rogues and otherwise those that live on the fridge of society to communicate freely amongst each other without fear of being overheard by those not in the know. This is in addition to the Sylvan and Felish languages that the nightblade can fluently speak and understand.
┙WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH AND THE CHIPS ARE DOWN...┍
Asteridax is one of the few practitioners of what is known as "Umbral Magic," an apocryphal and archaic combination of three schools of magic - Illusion, Necromancy, and Conjuration - and its ways a closely guarded secret to the members of the Order; designed solely upon the act of detecting and defending against the use of dark sorceries and monsters by turning their own power against them. The second and more commonly use of this "fel magic" falls within its name: The capability to manipulate nearby shadows to conceal and obscure the user in a mist of nondetection and illusions, or to cast misdirection upon those around them. Asteridax is also known to use spells that aren't tied to any specific school, such as allowing him to reload his weapons without much physical activity, however these spells carry a toll on his well-being after heavy use.
It has been rumored, but never confirmed, that Asteridax may have certain unnatural enhancements. This suspicion comes from his strength, speed, and reflexes displayed during battle, however it is hard to guess whether these abilities come from rare fel magicks or from extensive training.
┙THE BOGEYMAN BECKONS, AND THE MONSTERS SHALL HEED HIS CALL.┍
Asteridax is a rogue member [acting out on his own agency] of an offshoot sub-faction located deep within the Black Veil's very structure known as the Order of the Raven to differentiate themselves from the rest of the organization's more official branches. They are an elusive bunch, secretive in their nature, an intricate network of spies and hunters, but are fiercely loyal to the King and often called for when a fellow hunter acts out against their tenets or when an obstacle to the crown needs removing. Yet they don't openly discuss to others about their affiliations, as this valuable information can be used against them and can backfire, often resulting in an agent's death.
Though he will often ask, How far will one obtain freedom from the grasp of certain fate?
