Basil was created as a human-looking boy, albeit a playful, shapeshifting one. As a human, he appeared around 13, with slightly tanned skin, dark brown hair to his shoulders, dark eyes, and a great, contagious smile. He was quite good-looking. As a shapehsifter, however, he could change into any animal at any time - or any part of an animal, for that matter. He could have cat eyes one minute and frog eyes the next - feathers, fur, or scales, wings, claws, a tail, canine ears or eagle talons, whatever he or his creator, the Beauty, wanted, and whatever proved most useful or most amusing.

Now, however, Basil has grown up. With the Beauty's abandonment and the corruption of the Otherworld, Basil has developed into the Beast, a nightmarish figure. In his most humanoid form, he stands at 5'7", which is not an intimidating height, but his appearance more than makes up for that. He's dressed in ragged and dirtied clothes in varying shades of brown, looking like he could have stepped right out of a sepia photograph. His clothes are heavily decorated with bones, stitches, scraps of fabric, feathers, and various other trinkets. All the places that would ordinarily expose bits of skin, like his face, hands, and fingers, are covered in wrapped cloth akin to a mummy. Fox tails that sprout from the back of his head seem to make for hair - whether they're really his hair or merely more gruesome accessories is up for debate - and dark horns curve up from the top of his head, lending him a striking silhouette.







He is still capable of shapeshifting, but his most common and formidable beastly form is no natural animal at all. A four-legged, lion-sized monster with a skull for a face, yellow, predatory eyes, and metal teeth and claws. The Beast seems composed of equal parts fabric and bone, wrapped in gauze and wiry strips of cloth, with bone-like ribs and spine protruding. Black quills are scattered over his frame, the longest of which erupt between shoulders and raise and fall expressively in times of anger or fear. The Beast produces all variety of animalistic sounds - growls, snarls, barks, hisses, chirps, and shrieks.






The clever, teasing, and playful personality Basil once had is all but obliterated now, replaced with feral ferocity and instinct. Whether he can even still speak is questionable, though he still harnesses intelligence and can be quite calculating. His only motivators seem to be food, destruction, and the protection of his kingdom in the Otherworld, where he exercises zero tolerance and just as much mercy for intruders of any kind.

Likewise, were his creator to return to the Otherworld, it can be estimated Basil would protect her with the same unrelenting violence… and probably never allow her to leave. But if any other trace of the person he was created to be remains, it will be no easy task drawing it back out.


The Beast is capable of fluid and powerful shapeshifting, changing into any animal or any combination of animals in seconds. He can also silently command the fauna of his kingdom.

More fantastical beasts, like a dragon, phoenix, or something prehistoric, Basil seems unable to achieve now, though he was once capable with help from his creator.

Outside his realm, Basil's shapeshifting takes more concentration to achieve, rendering him more vulnerable while he changes between forms. He also seems to tire more easily outside his realm. As is the case with many animals, Basil has sensitive ears and nose; very high-pitched sounds or noxious odors can scare him off.

     
       
Echoing his creator's fondness for wildlife, Basil had a similar love of nature and a great skill for communing with animals, even the various monsters of the Otherworld. He came to be very knowledgable about Otherworld fauna through his creator's befriending so much of it.

With the Beauty's increasingly ruthless ambition and icy temperament, however, Basil found himself growing more violent and easily frustrated without her. This evolved through the years into a terrible temper, and he became vehemently overprotective of his realm and the creatures in it, until none were allowed in or out. With the Beauty's great care over her appearance, the Beast ripped his own apart out of spite, donning everything that could further dirty his form and developing a monstrous alternate shape to frighten outsiders from venturing into his kingdom.




Basil's kingdom in the Otherworld is wild and ruthless. Though once bursting with colorful plants and all kinds of friendly wildlife, the woods there is now a dark, savage place of dog-eat-dog survival. It seems any creature encountered is well-equipped for killing, no matter their size or habitat, as the Beast's realm hosts a diverse array of environments, from jungle to swamp to grassy plain. Where there were once trails, the realm has become overgrown, making it all too easy to get lost.

At the center, a beautiful clearing of flowers and a pond existed, but now that area has frozen over into a patch of lifeless, icy tundra.