The WHITE NECROMANCER
THALION ALDERÄN
┙RACE: HIGH SYLVAN┍---┙GENDER: MALE┍---┙ALIGNMENT: NEUTRAL┍
┙AGE: 450+┍---┙ORIGIN: MAGNUS┍---┙HEX CODE: #a4a4a4┍
If one was lucky to steal a glimpse of his face behind the mask, they would be mostly correct to say that Thalion could have seen better days. His frame is covered with an ornate mix of armor and cloth, standing roughly at 6'2, noticeably taller than the rest of his fellow adventurers.
The White Necromancer is known for the otherwise argent-hued mask that covers the [mostly] scarred and twisted visage which 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 rather than any of the other known eye colors common to his kind, so raw that it seems to devour one's very soul if stared into for too long.
Underneath the robes, his features are seemingly wolflike, lithe, and sharp. His ectomorphic frame is neither seemingly gaunt nor corpulent, Thalion looks surprisingly young, almost as if he was in his mid-twenties by human years; with exaggerated tales and stories placing him around the century mark, though in reality his actual age is easily four times that, give or take a couple of decades, due to his certain affiliations with the Occult.
High Sylvan blood runs through his veins, but unlike others that might share his existence, his skin is not of the fair variety. Instead, Thalion'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 a pact made with Shadar so long ago; complimented by a mane of medium-length silver-white hair that reaches just past his shoulders.
[P E R S O N A L I T Y]
A single word needed to describe Thalion - weird. Or perhaps the word strange fits better; Or for that matter, unique is the only term that comes to mind. He, for a he he is indeed, is generally friendly to most other people, however this friendly behavior is less so toward humans and half-breeds, and can quickly fade into animosity if he happens upon a follower of Kyros or another necromancer that had made the mistake of turning towards the Pale Path.
He is loud, yet quiet; wild, yet tamed. Chances are, the first thing somebody will notice about Thalion would be his... eccentric mannerisms. He is generally laid back with a mix of individual and social demeanor depending on his mood and any perceived conditions, giving others some sort of certain respect, but this respect is highly elevated to those few that he had befriended.
On a darker stance, Thalion is cunning and mentally dangerous. He takes quiet satisfaction in dissecting the minds of those he's dealing with, allowing him to be all the better in interacting with them--but also so that he can string them along however he pleases. He dwells in a world with intellects ranging at either extremity; from the incredibly sharp and devious to the broken and trodden. While it makes for quite fun sport, his personal views and unhinged actions, to their core, dehumanize him.
He tends to look down upon half-breeds, Half-Elves especially, though he is tolerant of them... to a certain extent. Followers of Kyros, as well as followers of the Pale Path aren't allowed such luxury. He holds a particularly nasty distaste for necromancers that raise the dead, as they're a perversion to the natural cycle of life. As the White Necromancer, Thalion does not walk the same dark path as "traditional" necromancers, instead honoring the dead and seek to aid the living, trying to hold a balance between the three Aspects.
[S K I L L S]
[LANGUAGES]
In addition to the common languages known throughout the lands, Thalion 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 Sylvic, Feanic, and Draconic languages that the Necromancer can fluently speak and understand.
[COMBAT]
While Thalion is proficient with some simple weapons such as daggers and staves, he rarely employs such items, as he really has no need nor does he want to be harm's way, especially arms length from an enemy combatant; though that doesn't mean he isn't capable of bippity-boppity-whacking somebody the fuck out with his staff. He prefers to leave the heavy hitting to the fighters and those more martially influenced.
[MISCELLANEOUS]
While not generally noted by most, Thalion does have some pretty funky dance moves.
[A R C A N E K N O W L E D G E]
- Reverie is the Call (INNATE)
As with all members of Sylvan blood, instead of the traditional sense of "sleeping," Thalion is able to periodically enter a 4-hour long meditative state known as "Reverie" allowing him to heal from minor and moderate wounds all the while being conscious of his surroundings. - Magic is the Blood (INNATE)
Unlike the numerous magi that have spent their entire lives studying and mastering a large variety of spells, magic runs strongly through his blood due to a pact made many a year ago. Because of this, Thalion has a unique blending of arcane and divine energies, and is capable of frequently casting a selection of favorable spells; a living reservoir and a focus for his spellcasting. While he lives and breathes what's natural to him, he usually has limited understanding of how the magic that runs through him works. - Connection From Beyond the Veil (PACT MAGIC)
Thalion has held a unique connection to the Veil since birth, a result from a pact made many a century past with Shadar, the very Patron of death itself. As a Journeyman of the Vibrant Path, Necromancy is his specialty of magic and the type he uses almost exclusively. While the use of necromancy is almost always regarded with death and wickedness, this is only true to those that had fallen from the Vibrant Path. True necromancy is really the magic of manipulating the ebbs and flow of life itself, and had long ago once been considered as one of the most revered and holy of the lost magicks. - Aether is the Word (SORCERY)
Over the course of centuries in pursuit of arcane knowledge, Thalion has learned an extensive deal on the subject of magic, and how to cast a number of different spells ranging from various schools, some long forgotten over the years. Most of his spells aren't of the offensive variety, but rather a unique blend of illusion magics and magics capable of altering how the world around him is perceived and manipulated. Some spells range from simple incantations lighting up dark hallways or manipulating small objects from afar, to advanced and specific incantations designed to ward off damage or polymorph and transmute something into something different [for a limited time].
Unlike his pact necromancy, Thalion can only cast these spells through the use of certain vocal incantations. - Purple is the Taste (ALCHEMY)
He carries a wide assortment of alchemical extracts, mutagens, and reagents, used for the sole purpose of creating potions [of magical nature]. The properties of these substances, when mixed, create effects from healing wounds to certain potent poisons of his design, to even negating the effects of sunlight for a limited time.
The Pumpkin Song is a unique alchemical cocktail of Thalion'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. - MISCELLANEOUS
It's by no means a secret that Thalion is much older than he lets on. His unnatural lifespan can be seen as both a perk and a curse from his pact with Death, and it does gain some wanton attention from many would-be [misunderstood] paladins and exorcists. These unfortunate encounters do sometimes provide Thalion some limited entertainment, however.
He is more-or-less always wearing the same outfit, oddly enough. This outfit consists of a highly ornate set of (personally) magically enhanced Plate Mail armor, ornate being the descriptive word, with liberties to a design befitting a particular White Necromancer, complemented with a set of white and silver robes reaching down to his ankles and effectively concealing his form. 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 Thalion for a wide range of movement.
What makes this particular armor unique is, while it's considered by some as heavy armor due to being related to plate mail, it is surprisingly light. It weighs as much as a set of chainmail, and this is due to the enchantments that Thalion placed on it. One particularly unique property of the armor is that it seems to "heal" itself of any slight damage over time. Now how this is done, is something that even the necromancer refuses to talk about.
[I T E M S]
For those who are more martially inclined, one will notice that he holds little to no weapons on his person, sans a jade ceremonial dagger for those times it's needed. This is due to the belief that he holds true: "Why fight yourself if you can have others do it for you?" Yet, if he is required to enter the fray, his confidence and combat effectiveness lie well within his spells and magical prowess.
However, the most important item that Thalion carries is a black leather-bound spellbook; magically locked and sealed. One can argue that this grimoire serves as a focus for his magical abilities, but the Necromancer knows better, as it serves nothing more than part journal-slash-diary and part tome whose contents are about monsters, the Veil, and Occult Rituals along with various "dark" spells, with a dedicated space for a recipe guide for wordcasts, incantations, and their effects.
He is also seen holding a wooden staff adorned with a number of hanging talismans from time to time, but the staff is nonmagical and is just a simple walking stick in reality, and the so-called talismans are nothing more than simple adornments to make said staff look pretty.
[H I S T O R Y]
The taint of the undead runs through his family. Thalion was never supposed to have existed in the first place, never should have survived birth. A tale of what should have been sorrow. A pact made from birth with Death itself that can't be broken.
--Born of Magnus origin to a pair of High Sylvan mages, Thalion's birth was the results of a pact made with Shadar, the Reaper of Souls himself; an example of divine intervention if one would wish to call it that. His parents - his father a sorcerer and his mother a druid, both devout followers of Elua their entire lives - had done everything in their own power to prevent the yet-to-be-born Necromancer's death before birth, made a desperate yet simple plea to the Elder Spirit after all had been done and failed.
While it seemed that Elua had already made her decision on this particular soul, it had also seemed that her husband had plans of his own: He had answered their pleas to provide a breath of life for their stillborn son - on the condition that Thalion would be his to claim, and his alone--
Thalion has been a Journeyman of the Vibrant Path since his birth, his abilities first awakening at an early age - the same time when he had been removed from his parents' care and given to the Temple of the Triune to begin his journey as a healer...and for some a White Necromancer.
The centuries had came and gone since his training with the temple, both before and after his vows and his leaving, and Thalion had gained much progress on his Path, travelling through much of the world in pursuit of knowledge and providing aid to those in need.
