Age: 34
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 163 lbs
Eye color: white/grey (originally brown)
Hair color: Dark Brown
Unique Trait: the ability to comunicate with and manipulate creatures that register on a magical scale naturally. The level of control depends on the relative sentience of the creature and the amount of effort put forth by Cedric. In simple terms it works at the instinctual level, guiding and luring the subject rather than taking control of a creatures conscious mind.
Unique reaction: Cedric's mana color does not seem to follow conventional theory as to how mana color manifests. As a result Cedric suffers both physical and mental reactions to the use of his mana. These reactions can be excruciating and have forced him to adopt a very restricted approach to the use of mana. The reaction scales from "early phase" at low level use to "late phase" near the top of Cedric's power limit. Initially this forced Cedric to never operate above 50% of his power in an effort to keep his morality from fracturing (not to mention exhaustion, physical pain and possible risk of death which would remain) though once he broke that barrier and gave into the black mana he was able to withstand using 100% of his power for a short time with out a familiar.
Mana color: Black
Mana Affinity: Primarily uses Dark elemental magic followed by fire and ice (can use other elements in a pinch to lesser extent), Telekinesis, Wards and Buffs, Illusion/Projection, Detection, minor Chronomanipulation, minor Mimicry
Familiar: the Dragon.
Even Cedric is unsure of the origins of the creature he uses as a familiar. In the simplest terms it is a pan-dimensional mana dragon, apparently having come into existence and existing in the space between dimensions. It is not known to have a physical form in real space. His connection with the Dragon allows Cedric to use his powers to their natural limit without triggering his reaction, and use mana "by proxy" above and beyond that. When Cedric taps into this power he risks the whim of chance as to how his reaction will present. At times it does not present, at times it presents at the "early phase" and at times it presents as "late stage" relative to his natural mana scale. In the later instance the results can be dramatic and dangerous to both Cedric and those around him. Thus far Cedric has no way of gaging how the reaction will present if he goes beyond that limit.
Unique items: the black ring
Cedric keeps a simple black ring on him at all times. The original material of the ring is undetectable and it's meaning is unknown, though Cedric seems to have more of an attachment to it than as a simple tool. The depth of black increases as Cedric uses more mana, it has been described as radiating solid blackness into the light around it. This ring originally served as a sort of limiter and buffer for his magic use, designed and enchanted to help control his mana reactions curve and limit his use. It now serves as a gauge against that same original mana curve so that Cedric is always aware of how close to the threshold he is.
Ship name Minori
Background:
-Childhood:
Cedric is the son of wealth. His family has had wealth for as long as there has been wealth to be had. They aren't necessarily business men, they weren't all wise investors, most of them weren't even business owners. They employ those kinds of people. However Cedric was not raised to flaunt his wealth. His grandfather Marcus Valentine believed in living comfortably, certainly there was no reason for them not to, but also in being understated in public, "You walk like a man, you talk like a man, at the end of the day we all die the same way. You're no better a man for your wealth, money doesn't make you a good man, and it doesn't make you happy." Cedric's grandfather spent many years teaching him about the better men in his family history, and warning him of the fates of the worse men.
And so Cedric grew up with a sense of empathy for those 'below' him as economics would say, he had an honest sense that he was not better then them, better off, but not better. He grew up to be a good kid with a decent head on his shoulders. It would have assuredly been a different situation had he not been raised by his grandfather. Cedric's father Alex was the opposite of Marcus, the man never had time for his son, despite not actually having to do anything to make a living, he was constantly chasing more wealth, more companies to buy and sell, more land to own and trade, more governments to get his hands into. Alex did believe that money made him a better man, he firmly believed that he was above all things that walked on the earth, the man hated the happy poor almost as much as he hated the saddened poor. So, while Cedric grew extremely close with his grandfather, he grew to resent his father deeply.
He first presented at the age of 11, keeping his peculiar skills hidden from the vast majority of people in his life, his grandfather was the first to know, the man was very close to Cedric and as a boy he kept nothing from him. He knew his secrets would be safe in those hands. Private schools and tutors in his younger years included various Gatewatchers who trained his magical ability (though he was unaware of the organization specifically at the time and they chose not to reveal it to him) turned into time at Harvard where he was first approached officially by the Gatewatchers, and later Oxford, where he finally accepted their offer. Since then a couple of other non-mana users have come into the knowledge but he tries to keep this list close to the chest.
-Gatewatchers and Project Icarus
Cedric joined the Gatewatchers program out of a desire to control his bodies reaction to mana use, and to prevent a dream. For years he had a reoccuring dream in which he witnessed the murder of his grandfather by a shadow, one he could never stop, never interact with. He spent a number of years in the program, becoming something of an oxymoron, a well respected agent but at the same time something of a paraiah. People in the oganization were suspcious of Black mana users at face value. Regardless of this Cedric had a relative moral compass than allowed him to track down and detain some extremely dangerous individuals and dispatch even more dangerous creatures with the RaMESSESS division. Near the end of his time with the organization Cedric was recruited into an unsactioned operation called "Project Icarus". This had been born of the attempt to research the Gateway phenominon by sending agents through them to collect data. Knowing the type of creatures that came through the gateway the sponser of the covert operation knew a RaMESSESS agent would be a valuable addition, and with his natural ability, experience, and existance on the edge of the organization Cedric was the prime candidate. While hesitant at first a series of events that included his being technically dead twice in two days lead Cedric to agree to sign on with the intent of finding a sutaible familiar to minimize his unique reaction and to increase his magic ability in an attempt to stop certain events that were set in motion including the murder of his beloved grandfather.
-Imprisonment, the dragon, entry to the multiverse
During project Icarus the team encountered a sigularity that forced them to retreat back to their own dimension, and Cedric made a personal sacrifice of himself to facilitate that escape. This resulted in Cedric being trapped in the space between dimensions, causing massive mental trauma. In what felt like ages Cedric was tormented in a state of un-existance by a creature in the void, a dragon that seemed to exist between dimensions naturally. All the while he clung to his reality, fought against the natural darkness of his magical alignment, and tried to keep himself from slipping into the dark that had haunted him for years, but it was not to be so. Finally realizing that his only hope for breaking free of this torment was allowing that darkness to take over his mind. So he built up what strength he had, stayed his mind to the inevitable, and awaited the dragons return. When it returned Cedric poured every ounce of energy he had into subduing the creature, he could feel his mind fracture, the line between light and dark fall away, and darkness covered his eyes. It was at this point that a dream that he had been chasing for seventeen years unfolded in reality. Cedric came face to face with the shadow that he had witnessed kill his grandfather in his dreams, and determined to destroy it before that event could take place. With a new found energy Cedric set on the shadow for what seemed to the mortal like ages. The fight drove Cedric's mana reaction to his breaking point, but he found that he did not break, and the man stood victorious over the shadow. In a fit of hate Cedric put an end to his advisary in the same way he had seen the shadow kill his grandfather so many times, only for the shadow to fade and see the lifeless form of his own grandfather in it's place.
There, standing in that room with the horror of reality laid before him the man found that he lacked the emotion to fit the scene. He had cried over this man hundreds of times, over this exact scene, and now the reality of it barely registered on his heart. He only knew that he could not, would not, remain there, in that reality, in that dimenison. So he set out, using the new found familar to traverse from existance to existance. He did what he knew, built business, created empires, influenced governments. Now he has found a new existance, a new reality. The Multiverse.
