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1. Player Information
Name: Bry
Username: aim – littlefishy206
Current characters in ToS: Mary Shannon and Joan Campbell
Reserve: Here
3. Original Character Information
Name: Devon “Darkness” Darconin
PB: Gaspard Ulliel (with long hair)
Journal: the4united
Age: 26
Appearance:
Devon is lean but relatively muscular and of average height. He has long, dark hair that falls to his shoulders. Most of the time he keeps it down, but every so often (especially when he is fighting) he’ll tie it back into a ponytail. Unfortunately he’s not very good at doing that, so it tends to be a rather messy one. He has blue eyes, though the left one has a visible horizontal scar across the iris. Since he is completely blind and rather susceptible to light, he almost always has sunglasses on. Sometimes he even uses the blue strip of cloth he keeps tied around his upper arm as a blindfold under the sunglasses to keep out the light. While he’s a jeans, purple t-shirt, and black jacket type of guy he’s willing to switch up what he wears. Two things he will always have on him are his wooden staff and a pendant with his family crest mixed with his own style and four jewels (The largest, central one, is blue. The other three (crystal, red, and yellow) are smaller and form a half moon type pattern along the bottom side of the middle one.). The staff has a purple strip of cloth tied around the top and a lever that when pushed up will reveal a small knife from the top of the staff, though he won’t have the knife when he arrives.
While he holds himself with confidence, Devon doesn’t come across initially as someone to be concerned about. Since he’s young and generally relaxed, he looks like nobody important or overly powerful. Being blind doesn’t help make him stand out in a good way, and while he tries to meet people’s eyes it doesn’t work very well. Seriously piss him off though and his face will harden to the point that he does look more threatening. If someone is close to him they will also notice that often times his hair and clothes seem to be moving as if there were a small breeze. There is a small breeze, in fact. He uses the air to help him navigate when simple hearing doesn’t cut it.
Home World: Devon is from a world called Salardi. It’s filled with warriors of all types, from animal, to humanoid creatures, to human archers, swordsmen, and mages. Even basic farmers are trained to fight, though they might not be incredibly talented at it. Technology levels are rather scattered. Each primary group or clan within the group has a computer system to keep track of their members, but outside of where each group lives there is no true technology at all. It’s basically a wilderness, though a well-traveled one.
Devon has little interaction with people outside of the magician clans, though there are a few groups of non-mages he is close to. There are various different clans or families of magicians, all specializing in a specific kind of magic. Devon’s clan is “dark magic” though other clans include light, black, white, lightning, sea, crystal, and various other more specialized areas. Each magician, regardless of clan, is also associated with a specific element (fire, water, wind, or earth). For example, Devon is a dark mage with a specialty in water. His father was a dark mage with a specialty in fire, but they are both in the same clan. They are capable of using or manipulating that element according to their will, though limited by power and skill level. It’s possible to learn how to use the other elements, and about half of the magicians are capable of working with two of them. Only a handful have ever learned three. No one besides Devon can use all four.
These families don’t get along with other magicians very well. While their relationships aren’t quite at the level of enmity or a feud, each clan views other clans as inferior. They tend not to associate with each other at all, but when a fight for power occurs it can be incredibly violent. A mere insult or open distain can devolve into a full scale battle as well. In general the magician clans are far more divided than any of the other groups.
In the past, when the magicians of old (the first magicians that existed in the world) lived the clans weren’t as divided, but the division has significantly grown over the years. While already deceased from the world, the magicians of old still have some connection with the living clans. They reside in a parallel world watching over the living one. The weaker magicians of old can return to the living world for short periods of time as spirits, but they must be given permission to do so and have very strong limitations on what they can and can’t alter or help change. Usually they can just give verbal advice or warning. Historically they choose one magician to try and reunite and bring together the clans because they fear that one day another group might target the magicians. Separated, the clans would be torn apart. None of these magicians have ever fully succeeded in the task, and the clans remain divided. Uenos can speak mentally with this chosen magician, and he likes to send other magicians of old to “test” the chosen one to help him become stronger.
History:
Shortly before Devon was born word reached his parents that their lives were in danger. Another clan wanted them dead and would stop at nothing to make sure it would happen. Being a black fire user (a fire that burned hotter and more unstoppable than normal), a group of magicians thought Devon’s father was far too dangerous to remain alive. They fled to a cabin in the wilderness to try and save themselves and their son. In order to protect Devon, they kept his existence totally hidden. He wasn’t even called by his true name, but merely by “Darkness.” They didn’t even tell him that they were all magicians. The plan worked until Devon was almost seven years old. A few days before his birthday those that wanted his parents dead caught up to them. Hidden inside a cabinet and watching from the crack between the doors Devon witnessed his parents’ deaths up close and personal. Thankfully his parents had managed to keep all knowledge of Devon hidden, so their murderers didn’t even know they had a son.
Left orphaned, alone, and terrified, Devon spent the next half of a year living on the streets of various non-magician clans’ towns and stealing to stay alive. He was found and taken in by Master Ans of a ninja clan, where he was then trained in the use of a staff along with the other children. This is where he met his best friend Cabei. They became childhood rivals and liked to tease each other with pranks and surprise attacks. Cabei helped Devon open up again and start to enjoy life. Devon remained with the ninjas until he was eleven when a chance meeting outside of the city introduced him to Chaos, a dark magician from his parents’ clan. Chaos, in fact, had known Devon’s parents and had promised them he would look after the child should anything happen to them. Ever since news of their death had reached him he’d been searching for Devon. When Devon met Chaos he finally learned his full name and what he really was.
Devon returned to the magician clan with Chaos and began learning magic. Chaos became like a foster father and taught Devon personally on top of his normal classes. Devon took to magic easily and progressed rapidly despite starting later in life than usual. He rose to the top of his class, which created bad feelings among the other students. Water quickly became his element despite his father’s talents with fire.
In his second year of training, a major fire broke out in the dorms where those in his class stayed. The front doors were pinned closed by fallen debris, and everyone was trapped inside. Not knowing if any of their teachers knew what was happening Devon and the other students had to assume they were on their own. The only way out was to blast through the blocked door. Since Devon had risen to the top of his class already in terms of pure power, he agreed to hit the door with everything he had. He knew it would take every ounce of strength though, and he would likely collapse afterward. Before he struck he made his friend, a young girl named Delilah, promise to drag him out with her so he wouldn’t be left behind. His attack worked, but the last thing he saw as he collapsed was Delilah leaving without him. He didn’t know at the time that a teacher had dragged her out against her will since another teacher was already going to get Devon. Even once he knew the truth, the pain of once again being left by someone he cared about was acute.
While learning magic, he continued practicing with his staff, which ended up shifting his fighting style into something very untraditional since he was mostly self-taught. Whenever he saw Cabei again they dueled, and Devon could hold his own and even win sometimes (much to Cabei’s chagrin).
He began working on learning his second element of earth in his early twenties. It was shortly after he accomplished this that the mages of old took notice of him. The first magician to exist on Salardi and the most powerful mage of old, Uenos, chose Devon for the role of uniting the clans. He was tasked with learning all four elements. The same task had been set out to all previous chosen magicians, but no one had succeeded. Devon did, though is struggled to learn air. His determination was a key factor, though magical talent also played a big role. His parents were both strong magicians. He gained their talent and then some. It also helped that unlike other magicians he truly believed learning all four was possible even though there was no actual proof that it was. Plus, Uenos worked him incredibly hard, driving him to be better, to learn more, to become stronger.
The other magicians didn’t approve of having such a young chosen one, and challenged Devon constantly. Many wanted to put him in his place and take his position while others simply wanted him dead. Despite being so young Devon had more than enough power to protect himself and prove the magicians of old had made the correct choice. His creativity when using magic helped him defeat his challengers more than anything else.
Hatred for him ran deep however, and one mage managed to nearly kill him. Impersonating Devon and hoping to take his place, the magician poisoned him. While the poison didn’t outright kill Devon, it did leave him permanently blind. Even so, he managed to dispatch the other magician and convince everyone of his true identity. He was left in a world of darkness and despair he’d never felt before and didn’t know how to manage. When it was confirmed that he would never regain his sight, Devon returned to Master Ans. They had used a dark room there to train their hearing and instincts. Hoping to learn how to cope with his blindness, Devon spent hours and hours each day training there. He needed to master the skills necessary to hide his disability. After weeks of practice, he succeeded. With the help of his now more acute hearing and wind magic he could maneuver and fight almost as well as before, and practice only made him better. Despite being blind intense light bothered his eyes and ignited severe headaches, so he began wearing sunglasses.
His blinding did little to enamor him to the other magicians, and they continued to look down on him and despise him. Threats on his life continued, though he beat them down each time. One did manage to launch an attack on his face with a knife and land a hit despite Devon dodging back. The knife cut his left eye and left a visible scar there. Despite all of the attacks on his life, Devon continued traveling between the clans and trying to get to know them. He wanted to learn and showed real interest in their form of magic. Slowly his friendly, humble, non-judgmental attitude began winning people over.
Even so, not everyone was swayed. Many still disapproved of him and made their opinions very clear. Attempts to degrade him, turn others against him, and kill him continued. It was during one of these attempts that Devon found a piece of magic he hadn’t known existed. The elements themselves actually had a sentient physical form: miniature dragons made of the element itself that could grow in size and change at their whim. Aquaras, the water dragon, saved his life during an exchange with another magician. Devon grew close to the dragons, and they continued to reveal themselves to him. Within a few months they happily rode on his shoulder and showed him affection, especially Aquaras. They traveled with him, many times helping in fights along the way.
Powers/Talents:
Because of losing his sight, Devon’s other senses are very acute and highly sensitive, especially his hearing. He is an expert with fighting with a staff, though his style is very untraditional and slightly erratic, and he can hold his own in a general fist fight. His physical strength and speed are at the level of an athlete in training, though not at a professional level.
He has various different skills in magic. The most basic one is dark magic, the style of his clan. About all he can do with this is create large, destructive blasts of pure power. His elemental magic is much more complex. He can create all of the elements themselves and use what he created however he would like. This is much easier to do when they are already in existence near him. For example, if he’s standing on the ground he can make a pillar shoot up in front of him without disturbing anything in the rest of the landscape, which is much easier than creating a pebble when he’s away from the ground. He can twist and alter the elements into whatever form he would like. Once he does, earth and ice (at least until it melts) will hold that form without any effort from him. Fire, air, and pure water need him to be actively applying magic and holding them in their form. He is very creative in his shaping and can alter the shape or create something he’s never tried before on the fly. He can’t alter part of an element that is already in existence, like a hill or the flame of candle. For example, if a fireball is coming at him he can’t suddenly shrink it down until it snuffs out or take control of it and change its course. He could run like hell though, shoot a blast of water at it to cancel the two out, or shield to protect himself though. However, since water is his main element he can alter it when it already exists, like a lake or stream. The larger the amount, the harder it is, especially if the water is moving.
Devon prefers to use water and ice over any other element. He’s most comfortable with water’s forms and has more control and options. He favors forming a water whip and creating shards of ice that he can spray in all directions. The forms he can have water take are only limited to his imagination and his level of energy/magic power. Since he learned the earth element second he’s comfortable using that as well, but he tends to avoid it when earth isn’t already present since making it is completely exhausting. While Devon is competent with fire, he is really bad with working with air. Most air magicians can use air magic to hover or fly. Devon is totally incapable of any of that (he’s tried before and the results were comical and painful). The most he does with air is call his staff to him when it’s out of reach and use it to help get a feel for where he is.
He can also use the different elements together in a way that doesn’t quite combine them but opens up more possibilities. He’s still experimenting with what he can do with this, but so far he’s used small earth “bombs” that use the power of steam to explode the earth covering when the inner fire and water mix. Since he can use all four elements, he can combine them together into a “twilight” attack, but it’s so massive and uncontrollable that he rarely uses it because there could be so many accidental casualties. Plus it leaves him utterly drained.
Personality:
Devon’s personality is anchored to two main events in his life: the death of his parents and becoming an orphan and being picked as the “chosen magician.” He’s lost quite a few people that he was close to and cared about, so he always feels rather alone. All he wants is to “fit in” or more accurately, be one of them. He has always felt like he’s on the outside looking in. Because of this Devon doesn’t mention his rank very often since it makes people treat him differently. He’s very humble about his rank and abilities. In all honesty, he would rather someone else had been chosen and wouldn’t mind handing the title over, but he can’t. He tries to hide what he can do and meet and befriend people on his own terms as simply Devon instead of the Chosen Magician. He has an easy smile and can be a little bit bashful, especially about his talents.
While he doesn’t have trouble making friends, he had very few close ones (and those he does have aren’t magicians). Losing the few that he’s made at home is going to be incredibly painful for him. He’s generally very quiet and doesn’t draw attention to himself. When he does speak to other people he’s kind, compassionate, and understanding. It’s his job to bring about peace, and he’s very dedicated to that goal. The best way to do it is to demonstrate what he wants others to do, to simply accept everyone and give them a chance despite any preconceived notions about them. If someone really gets to know him, they’ll realize he’s actually very light-hearted. He enjoys teasing those closest to him, and he’s not above pranking his best friends. Suddenly dropping a gallon of icy water onto a buddy’s head and running away while laughing hysterically so he doesn’t get killed? Sure, why not.
Devon is not the person you want to piss off though. He’s incredibly forgiving and lets insults by without blinking most of the time. Go too far, however, and he’s had enough. He can harden his voice and stand with the authority befitting his rank without much concern when he needs to. If someone thinks he’s weak and wants to prove it, he tries to talk them down first with a kind warning. When that doesn’t work, he prefers to lightly humiliate the other person by easily sidestepping attacks and making his victory look like a piece of cake (which is basically is). Unless it’s absolutely necessary, he won’t overwhelm an attacker with pure power. Creativity is his biggest asset, and he uses it well.
Devon’s determination is both a strength and a downfall. It’s one of the reasons he was chosen by Uenos in the first place. He will not give up a fight or quit trying to learn a new technique. Even when he’s hopelessly overwhelmed he won’t quit. Sometimes he will push himself until he literally collapses from exhaustion. Not all of those times are necessary either. When he fails at something or success takes far long than he thinks it should, he does get frustrated. It doesn’t mean he gives up completely; he just thinks less of himself.
His responsibility as the chosen magician means he can’t show very much weakness to other magicians. When in their presence he has to keep a strong face, even when he’s hurting or upset. Devon can stand tall and act like nothing bothers him, but he’s only human. He’s also very young and mostly alone. Things do bother him, and he can’t always hide the mental hurt swirling around inside of him. The power and responsibility he holds is heavy weight for such young shoulders. Sometimes it all becomes too much to handle. He tries to lock away his emotions and hold back his tears until he’s alone.
Because of his own past, Devon cares a great deal about kids. He doesn’t like to see them hurting, scared, or alone. He knows what that feels like after all. If there’s a way he can help a child or make them smile, he will. He’s found that he is a very good magic teacher for kids who are having trouble, and he can ignite passion and excitement about magic in them. If he had a choice in the matter that’s what he would spend his life doing, but unfortunately he has other responsibilities.
Why would your character be chosen?
Devon is an incredibly determined and creative person who wants to bring about peace. He also has a huge talent with magic and the elements (which shows in the fact that he was chosen as the icon for all magicians).
How much does your character know about nonhumans?
Devon has quite a bit of experience with non-humans since his world is literally full of them. Angels, demons, ghosts, talking animals, sentient plants, elves, humanoids with characteristics besides human. Pretty much you name it. He doesn’t have a lot of experience dealing with them though; however, he deals with Uenos, who being dead isn’t officially human, and the dragons quite often. He even knows a talking wolf with enhanced abilities named Fang who plays his “seeing eye dog” for fun sometimes.
Why this character: Devon has been floating around as a daydream in my head for years. Literally years. Like, since I was in high school years. I figured it was time to actually make use of him, which was easy enough with a bit of modification.
4. Samples
Please either include a first-person entry that could be your character’s first post on The Network, or a third-person prose or action spam sample that could be your character’s reaction to arriving in Dagaz. For the other two samples, links to previous character examples are fine.
First-Person:
I’m new here, so perhaps one of you can explain something to me. Something about the water.
[There’s a pause as he runs his fingers through it again, curious. It doesn’t physically feel like extraordinary water, but his magical senses keep saying something isn’t right.]
I know water. Better than I could probably describe. I know it’s alive, even if most don’t view it that way. The water here though is nothing like I’ve ever felt before. It’s like…
[Again he pauses and his forehead wrinkles as he struggles to come up with the right word. In the end he simply can’t. There’s no way to actually describe it.]
More alive than usual. Or something. I don’t know. Does anyone know anything about it?
Third-Person:
Something wasn’t right. Of that Devon was sure, though he couldn’t actually explain why he thought that. He’d been taking a few moments to himself when the world had suddenly become chilly, like the sun had vanished and he was sitting in shadows. The feeling hadn’t lasted long. At first he hadn’t thought much of it (the sun easily could have drifted behind a cloud for the moment). Of course when he took two steps forward and walked face first into a wall that hadn’t been there before he changed his mind and decided something definitely was wrong.
He reached out and tentatively touched the wall. It was cold and smooth, likely a polished stone or metal. Definitely not something he’d been near moments before. An uneasy shiver coursed thought him. Not knowing where he was left him at a distinct disadvantage, especially since he couldn’t see. Plus, he had no idea where his staff had ended up. Without it he would be walking around, well, blind. It should have been right in front of him, but that was when the wall hadn’t existed. Not having it was even more disconcerting than the situation he found himself in. Remaining perfectly still, he strained his ears for any sign of movement. There was nothing, but he thought he heard breathing. Someone else was there with him. As carefully and quietly as he could, he took a few steps toward the sound. It was instantly disorienting. His steps echoed, throwing off his sense of direction and balance.
Devon ground to a stop and decided to investigate the room another way. With magic. He lifted his hand up and sent small threads of wind out in all directions. Since he could feel where they were, it gave him a sense of how big the room was and where things were. The room was definitely big and relatively empty. That would have been great for him (less to run into), but it didn’t tell him where this person was. There was more than one thing out there, and the echoing made it nearly impossible to pinpoint a location. Well, he was left with only one option. Locking down all of his unease and uncertainty, he spoke.
“Hello?”
Third Sample:
“Aquaras?”
Devon knew it was useless to try to call the little dragon again, but he couldn’t help trying. Aquaras had been such a reassuring constant. A friend that was always with him, and he had so few of those.
“Aria?”
He wasn’t any more confident the air dragon would show up, but again he had to try. It was worth the attempt even for the remote possibility. Unfortunately he had no better luck. Devon hung his head over the sink and released a long, pain-filled breath. The dragons weren’t here, and he couldn’t call them even if he wanted to. He was alone again. His chest tightened and tears pooled behind his eyes.
Nobody was in the room, of that he was sure, but he wasn’t completely positive that someone didn’t live there. He’d walked in on more than one person by accident and had learned the lesson of checking to make sure the drawers were as empty as the room after the second time. He hadn’t felt anything that would indicate a person lived there, but again, he couldn’t be totally sure. If someone suddenly walked in, he didn’t want them to see him crying. It hurt though.
Devon managed to hold back his tears, but he dropped down onto the ground and wrapped his arms around his knees, holding on tight. He could deal with investigating the ship and learning his surroundings later. At the moment he had to take some time to let the pain out. After, it would be alright. He would find a way just like he did every other time.
Name: Bry
Username: aim – littlefishy206
Current characters in ToS: Mary Shannon and Joan Campbell
Reserve: Here
3. Original Character Information
Name: Devon “Darkness” Darconin
PB: Gaspard Ulliel (with long hair)
Journal: the4united
Age: 26
Appearance:
Devon is lean but relatively muscular and of average height. He has long, dark hair that falls to his shoulders. Most of the time he keeps it down, but every so often (especially when he is fighting) he’ll tie it back into a ponytail. Unfortunately he’s not very good at doing that, so it tends to be a rather messy one. He has blue eyes, though the left one has a visible horizontal scar across the iris. Since he is completely blind and rather susceptible to light, he almost always has sunglasses on. Sometimes he even uses the blue strip of cloth he keeps tied around his upper arm as a blindfold under the sunglasses to keep out the light. While he’s a jeans, purple t-shirt, and black jacket type of guy he’s willing to switch up what he wears. Two things he will always have on him are his wooden staff and a pendant with his family crest mixed with his own style and four jewels (The largest, central one, is blue. The other three (crystal, red, and yellow) are smaller and form a half moon type pattern along the bottom side of the middle one.). The staff has a purple strip of cloth tied around the top and a lever that when pushed up will reveal a small knife from the top of the staff, though he won’t have the knife when he arrives.
While he holds himself with confidence, Devon doesn’t come across initially as someone to be concerned about. Since he’s young and generally relaxed, he looks like nobody important or overly powerful. Being blind doesn’t help make him stand out in a good way, and while he tries to meet people’s eyes it doesn’t work very well. Seriously piss him off though and his face will harden to the point that he does look more threatening. If someone is close to him they will also notice that often times his hair and clothes seem to be moving as if there were a small breeze. There is a small breeze, in fact. He uses the air to help him navigate when simple hearing doesn’t cut it.
Home World: Devon is from a world called Salardi. It’s filled with warriors of all types, from animal, to humanoid creatures, to human archers, swordsmen, and mages. Even basic farmers are trained to fight, though they might not be incredibly talented at it. Technology levels are rather scattered. Each primary group or clan within the group has a computer system to keep track of their members, but outside of where each group lives there is no true technology at all. It’s basically a wilderness, though a well-traveled one.
Devon has little interaction with people outside of the magician clans, though there are a few groups of non-mages he is close to. There are various different clans or families of magicians, all specializing in a specific kind of magic. Devon’s clan is “dark magic” though other clans include light, black, white, lightning, sea, crystal, and various other more specialized areas. Each magician, regardless of clan, is also associated with a specific element (fire, water, wind, or earth). For example, Devon is a dark mage with a specialty in water. His father was a dark mage with a specialty in fire, but they are both in the same clan. They are capable of using or manipulating that element according to their will, though limited by power and skill level. It’s possible to learn how to use the other elements, and about half of the magicians are capable of working with two of them. Only a handful have ever learned three. No one besides Devon can use all four.
These families don’t get along with other magicians very well. While their relationships aren’t quite at the level of enmity or a feud, each clan views other clans as inferior. They tend not to associate with each other at all, but when a fight for power occurs it can be incredibly violent. A mere insult or open distain can devolve into a full scale battle as well. In general the magician clans are far more divided than any of the other groups.
In the past, when the magicians of old (the first magicians that existed in the world) lived the clans weren’t as divided, but the division has significantly grown over the years. While already deceased from the world, the magicians of old still have some connection with the living clans. They reside in a parallel world watching over the living one. The weaker magicians of old can return to the living world for short periods of time as spirits, but they must be given permission to do so and have very strong limitations on what they can and can’t alter or help change. Usually they can just give verbal advice or warning. Historically they choose one magician to try and reunite and bring together the clans because they fear that one day another group might target the magicians. Separated, the clans would be torn apart. None of these magicians have ever fully succeeded in the task, and the clans remain divided. Uenos can speak mentally with this chosen magician, and he likes to send other magicians of old to “test” the chosen one to help him become stronger.
History:
Shortly before Devon was born word reached his parents that their lives were in danger. Another clan wanted them dead and would stop at nothing to make sure it would happen. Being a black fire user (a fire that burned hotter and more unstoppable than normal), a group of magicians thought Devon’s father was far too dangerous to remain alive. They fled to a cabin in the wilderness to try and save themselves and their son. In order to protect Devon, they kept his existence totally hidden. He wasn’t even called by his true name, but merely by “Darkness.” They didn’t even tell him that they were all magicians. The plan worked until Devon was almost seven years old. A few days before his birthday those that wanted his parents dead caught up to them. Hidden inside a cabinet and watching from the crack between the doors Devon witnessed his parents’ deaths up close and personal. Thankfully his parents had managed to keep all knowledge of Devon hidden, so their murderers didn’t even know they had a son.
Left orphaned, alone, and terrified, Devon spent the next half of a year living on the streets of various non-magician clans’ towns and stealing to stay alive. He was found and taken in by Master Ans of a ninja clan, where he was then trained in the use of a staff along with the other children. This is where he met his best friend Cabei. They became childhood rivals and liked to tease each other with pranks and surprise attacks. Cabei helped Devon open up again and start to enjoy life. Devon remained with the ninjas until he was eleven when a chance meeting outside of the city introduced him to Chaos, a dark magician from his parents’ clan. Chaos, in fact, had known Devon’s parents and had promised them he would look after the child should anything happen to them. Ever since news of their death had reached him he’d been searching for Devon. When Devon met Chaos he finally learned his full name and what he really was.
Devon returned to the magician clan with Chaos and began learning magic. Chaos became like a foster father and taught Devon personally on top of his normal classes. Devon took to magic easily and progressed rapidly despite starting later in life than usual. He rose to the top of his class, which created bad feelings among the other students. Water quickly became his element despite his father’s talents with fire.
In his second year of training, a major fire broke out in the dorms where those in his class stayed. The front doors were pinned closed by fallen debris, and everyone was trapped inside. Not knowing if any of their teachers knew what was happening Devon and the other students had to assume they were on their own. The only way out was to blast through the blocked door. Since Devon had risen to the top of his class already in terms of pure power, he agreed to hit the door with everything he had. He knew it would take every ounce of strength though, and he would likely collapse afterward. Before he struck he made his friend, a young girl named Delilah, promise to drag him out with her so he wouldn’t be left behind. His attack worked, but the last thing he saw as he collapsed was Delilah leaving without him. He didn’t know at the time that a teacher had dragged her out against her will since another teacher was already going to get Devon. Even once he knew the truth, the pain of once again being left by someone he cared about was acute.
While learning magic, he continued practicing with his staff, which ended up shifting his fighting style into something very untraditional since he was mostly self-taught. Whenever he saw Cabei again they dueled, and Devon could hold his own and even win sometimes (much to Cabei’s chagrin).
He began working on learning his second element of earth in his early twenties. It was shortly after he accomplished this that the mages of old took notice of him. The first magician to exist on Salardi and the most powerful mage of old, Uenos, chose Devon for the role of uniting the clans. He was tasked with learning all four elements. The same task had been set out to all previous chosen magicians, but no one had succeeded. Devon did, though is struggled to learn air. His determination was a key factor, though magical talent also played a big role. His parents were both strong magicians. He gained their talent and then some. It also helped that unlike other magicians he truly believed learning all four was possible even though there was no actual proof that it was. Plus, Uenos worked him incredibly hard, driving him to be better, to learn more, to become stronger.
The other magicians didn’t approve of having such a young chosen one, and challenged Devon constantly. Many wanted to put him in his place and take his position while others simply wanted him dead. Despite being so young Devon had more than enough power to protect himself and prove the magicians of old had made the correct choice. His creativity when using magic helped him defeat his challengers more than anything else.
Hatred for him ran deep however, and one mage managed to nearly kill him. Impersonating Devon and hoping to take his place, the magician poisoned him. While the poison didn’t outright kill Devon, it did leave him permanently blind. Even so, he managed to dispatch the other magician and convince everyone of his true identity. He was left in a world of darkness and despair he’d never felt before and didn’t know how to manage. When it was confirmed that he would never regain his sight, Devon returned to Master Ans. They had used a dark room there to train their hearing and instincts. Hoping to learn how to cope with his blindness, Devon spent hours and hours each day training there. He needed to master the skills necessary to hide his disability. After weeks of practice, he succeeded. With the help of his now more acute hearing and wind magic he could maneuver and fight almost as well as before, and practice only made him better. Despite being blind intense light bothered his eyes and ignited severe headaches, so he began wearing sunglasses.
His blinding did little to enamor him to the other magicians, and they continued to look down on him and despise him. Threats on his life continued, though he beat them down each time. One did manage to launch an attack on his face with a knife and land a hit despite Devon dodging back. The knife cut his left eye and left a visible scar there. Despite all of the attacks on his life, Devon continued traveling between the clans and trying to get to know them. He wanted to learn and showed real interest in their form of magic. Slowly his friendly, humble, non-judgmental attitude began winning people over.
Even so, not everyone was swayed. Many still disapproved of him and made their opinions very clear. Attempts to degrade him, turn others against him, and kill him continued. It was during one of these attempts that Devon found a piece of magic he hadn’t known existed. The elements themselves actually had a sentient physical form: miniature dragons made of the element itself that could grow in size and change at their whim. Aquaras, the water dragon, saved his life during an exchange with another magician. Devon grew close to the dragons, and they continued to reveal themselves to him. Within a few months they happily rode on his shoulder and showed him affection, especially Aquaras. They traveled with him, many times helping in fights along the way.
Powers/Talents:
Because of losing his sight, Devon’s other senses are very acute and highly sensitive, especially his hearing. He is an expert with fighting with a staff, though his style is very untraditional and slightly erratic, and he can hold his own in a general fist fight. His physical strength and speed are at the level of an athlete in training, though not at a professional level.
He has various different skills in magic. The most basic one is dark magic, the style of his clan. About all he can do with this is create large, destructive blasts of pure power. His elemental magic is much more complex. He can create all of the elements themselves and use what he created however he would like. This is much easier to do when they are already in existence near him. For example, if he’s standing on the ground he can make a pillar shoot up in front of him without disturbing anything in the rest of the landscape, which is much easier than creating a pebble when he’s away from the ground. He can twist and alter the elements into whatever form he would like. Once he does, earth and ice (at least until it melts) will hold that form without any effort from him. Fire, air, and pure water need him to be actively applying magic and holding them in their form. He is very creative in his shaping and can alter the shape or create something he’s never tried before on the fly. He can’t alter part of an element that is already in existence, like a hill or the flame of candle. For example, if a fireball is coming at him he can’t suddenly shrink it down until it snuffs out or take control of it and change its course. He could run like hell though, shoot a blast of water at it to cancel the two out, or shield to protect himself though. However, since water is his main element he can alter it when it already exists, like a lake or stream. The larger the amount, the harder it is, especially if the water is moving.
Devon prefers to use water and ice over any other element. He’s most comfortable with water’s forms and has more control and options. He favors forming a water whip and creating shards of ice that he can spray in all directions. The forms he can have water take are only limited to his imagination and his level of energy/magic power. Since he learned the earth element second he’s comfortable using that as well, but he tends to avoid it when earth isn’t already present since making it is completely exhausting. While Devon is competent with fire, he is really bad with working with air. Most air magicians can use air magic to hover or fly. Devon is totally incapable of any of that (he’s tried before and the results were comical and painful). The most he does with air is call his staff to him when it’s out of reach and use it to help get a feel for where he is.
He can also use the different elements together in a way that doesn’t quite combine them but opens up more possibilities. He’s still experimenting with what he can do with this, but so far he’s used small earth “bombs” that use the power of steam to explode the earth covering when the inner fire and water mix. Since he can use all four elements, he can combine them together into a “twilight” attack, but it’s so massive and uncontrollable that he rarely uses it because there could be so many accidental casualties. Plus it leaves him utterly drained.
Personality:
Devon’s personality is anchored to two main events in his life: the death of his parents and becoming an orphan and being picked as the “chosen magician.” He’s lost quite a few people that he was close to and cared about, so he always feels rather alone. All he wants is to “fit in” or more accurately, be one of them. He has always felt like he’s on the outside looking in. Because of this Devon doesn’t mention his rank very often since it makes people treat him differently. He’s very humble about his rank and abilities. In all honesty, he would rather someone else had been chosen and wouldn’t mind handing the title over, but he can’t. He tries to hide what he can do and meet and befriend people on his own terms as simply Devon instead of the Chosen Magician. He has an easy smile and can be a little bit bashful, especially about his talents.
While he doesn’t have trouble making friends, he had very few close ones (and those he does have aren’t magicians). Losing the few that he’s made at home is going to be incredibly painful for him. He’s generally very quiet and doesn’t draw attention to himself. When he does speak to other people he’s kind, compassionate, and understanding. It’s his job to bring about peace, and he’s very dedicated to that goal. The best way to do it is to demonstrate what he wants others to do, to simply accept everyone and give them a chance despite any preconceived notions about them. If someone really gets to know him, they’ll realize he’s actually very light-hearted. He enjoys teasing those closest to him, and he’s not above pranking his best friends. Suddenly dropping a gallon of icy water onto a buddy’s head and running away while laughing hysterically so he doesn’t get killed? Sure, why not.
Devon is not the person you want to piss off though. He’s incredibly forgiving and lets insults by without blinking most of the time. Go too far, however, and he’s had enough. He can harden his voice and stand with the authority befitting his rank without much concern when he needs to. If someone thinks he’s weak and wants to prove it, he tries to talk them down first with a kind warning. When that doesn’t work, he prefers to lightly humiliate the other person by easily sidestepping attacks and making his victory look like a piece of cake (which is basically is). Unless it’s absolutely necessary, he won’t overwhelm an attacker with pure power. Creativity is his biggest asset, and he uses it well.
Devon’s determination is both a strength and a downfall. It’s one of the reasons he was chosen by Uenos in the first place. He will not give up a fight or quit trying to learn a new technique. Even when he’s hopelessly overwhelmed he won’t quit. Sometimes he will push himself until he literally collapses from exhaustion. Not all of those times are necessary either. When he fails at something or success takes far long than he thinks it should, he does get frustrated. It doesn’t mean he gives up completely; he just thinks less of himself.
His responsibility as the chosen magician means he can’t show very much weakness to other magicians. When in their presence he has to keep a strong face, even when he’s hurting or upset. Devon can stand tall and act like nothing bothers him, but he’s only human. He’s also very young and mostly alone. Things do bother him, and he can’t always hide the mental hurt swirling around inside of him. The power and responsibility he holds is heavy weight for such young shoulders. Sometimes it all becomes too much to handle. He tries to lock away his emotions and hold back his tears until he’s alone.
Because of his own past, Devon cares a great deal about kids. He doesn’t like to see them hurting, scared, or alone. He knows what that feels like after all. If there’s a way he can help a child or make them smile, he will. He’s found that he is a very good magic teacher for kids who are having trouble, and he can ignite passion and excitement about magic in them. If he had a choice in the matter that’s what he would spend his life doing, but unfortunately he has other responsibilities.
Why would your character be chosen?
Devon is an incredibly determined and creative person who wants to bring about peace. He also has a huge talent with magic and the elements (which shows in the fact that he was chosen as the icon for all magicians).
How much does your character know about nonhumans?
Devon has quite a bit of experience with non-humans since his world is literally full of them. Angels, demons, ghosts, talking animals, sentient plants, elves, humanoids with characteristics besides human. Pretty much you name it. He doesn’t have a lot of experience dealing with them though; however, he deals with Uenos, who being dead isn’t officially human, and the dragons quite often. He even knows a talking wolf with enhanced abilities named Fang who plays his “seeing eye dog” for fun sometimes.
Why this character: Devon has been floating around as a daydream in my head for years. Literally years. Like, since I was in high school years. I figured it was time to actually make use of him, which was easy enough with a bit of modification.
4. Samples
Please either include a first-person entry that could be your character’s first post on The Network, or a third-person prose or action spam sample that could be your character’s reaction to arriving in Dagaz. For the other two samples, links to previous character examples are fine.
First-Person:
I’m new here, so perhaps one of you can explain something to me. Something about the water.
[There’s a pause as he runs his fingers through it again, curious. It doesn’t physically feel like extraordinary water, but his magical senses keep saying something isn’t right.]
I know water. Better than I could probably describe. I know it’s alive, even if most don’t view it that way. The water here though is nothing like I’ve ever felt before. It’s like…
[Again he pauses and his forehead wrinkles as he struggles to come up with the right word. In the end he simply can’t. There’s no way to actually describe it.]
More alive than usual. Or something. I don’t know. Does anyone know anything about it?
Third-Person:
Something wasn’t right. Of that Devon was sure, though he couldn’t actually explain why he thought that. He’d been taking a few moments to himself when the world had suddenly become chilly, like the sun had vanished and he was sitting in shadows. The feeling hadn’t lasted long. At first he hadn’t thought much of it (the sun easily could have drifted behind a cloud for the moment). Of course when he took two steps forward and walked face first into a wall that hadn’t been there before he changed his mind and decided something definitely was wrong.
He reached out and tentatively touched the wall. It was cold and smooth, likely a polished stone or metal. Definitely not something he’d been near moments before. An uneasy shiver coursed thought him. Not knowing where he was left him at a distinct disadvantage, especially since he couldn’t see. Plus, he had no idea where his staff had ended up. Without it he would be walking around, well, blind. It should have been right in front of him, but that was when the wall hadn’t existed. Not having it was even more disconcerting than the situation he found himself in. Remaining perfectly still, he strained his ears for any sign of movement. There was nothing, but he thought he heard breathing. Someone else was there with him. As carefully and quietly as he could, he took a few steps toward the sound. It was instantly disorienting. His steps echoed, throwing off his sense of direction and balance.
Devon ground to a stop and decided to investigate the room another way. With magic. He lifted his hand up and sent small threads of wind out in all directions. Since he could feel where they were, it gave him a sense of how big the room was and where things were. The room was definitely big and relatively empty. That would have been great for him (less to run into), but it didn’t tell him where this person was. There was more than one thing out there, and the echoing made it nearly impossible to pinpoint a location. Well, he was left with only one option. Locking down all of his unease and uncertainty, he spoke.
“Hello?”
Third Sample:
“Aquaras?”
Devon knew it was useless to try to call the little dragon again, but he couldn’t help trying. Aquaras had been such a reassuring constant. A friend that was always with him, and he had so few of those.
“Aria?”
He wasn’t any more confident the air dragon would show up, but again he had to try. It was worth the attempt even for the remote possibility. Unfortunately he had no better luck. Devon hung his head over the sink and released a long, pain-filled breath. The dragons weren’t here, and he couldn’t call them even if he wanted to. He was alone again. His chest tightened and tears pooled behind his eyes.
Nobody was in the room, of that he was sure, but he wasn’t completely positive that someone didn’t live there. He’d walked in on more than one person by accident and had learned the lesson of checking to make sure the drawers were as empty as the room after the second time. He hadn’t felt anything that would indicate a person lived there, but again, he couldn’t be totally sure. If someone suddenly walked in, he didn’t want them to see him crying. It hurt though.
Devon managed to hold back his tears, but he dropped down onto the ground and wrapped his arms around his knees, holding on tight. He could deal with investigating the ship and learning his surroundings later. At the moment he had to take some time to let the pain out. After, it would be alright. He would find a way just like he did every other time.
