Post by Shin RyuKen on Mar 31, 2011 19:35:37 GMT -5
Name: Alen
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Race: Enhanced Human
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 148 lbs
Likes: Snow, the night sky, hunting, himself
Dislikes: Failure, people with larger egos than himself
Rank: Master
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral - Although Alen seems like he could attributed to Evil, he ultimately cares about himself and has no real interest in meddling with the affairs of foreign corporations for the most part.
Class: Penumbra Sniper
Appearance: Alen is dark skinned, with a thin yet hardy body. His face mirrors almost the look of a fair prince, but is somewhat concealed by a subtle sneer. His hair is quite shaggy and is shaded with a crisp, dark red color that contrasts his obscenely light blue eyes...which are to the point where it seems like Alen's eyes are not even natural. A scar can be seen above the right side of his upper lip, somewhat closer to his right cheek.
Alen's equipment is more or less light and appropriate for his build; he has been comfortable with fairly decent equipment as far as defense goes, while retaining all of his mobility. A plated leather shirt is worn over his upper body, granted with leather plates along the chest area. The back of his shirt with noticeable protection behind the shoulder joints is emblazoned with an insignia of a serpent with a faint red aura around it, in contrast to the violet color of the armor and ebony color of the shirt. The armor is connected to a lightly-padded iron pauldron on his left shoulder, which has a similar serpent symbol to the back of his shirt, but this time with a sword symbol going through it. He has an iron pauldron on his right shoulder as well, but it is disconnected from the armor and has no symbols to go with it, and is instead bound to the armor by black cloth strings which look somewhat like fishnets.
His lower body from the waist down consists of dark-colored jeans with a vestige of some shade of violet color, complimented by a pair of light iron knee-pads that cling to his kneecaps. A faint dragon insignia can be seen radiating along the side of his pants, only a lighter shade than the pants themselves. His feet are protected by well-buckled, black leather boots with steel laces and a small, sharp iron ridge on the tips of his boots(which he has personally customized in the scenario in which he can properly kick the opponent as they grovel on the ground, should Alen be willing to do so, which he might).
Below Alen's neck, a black half-mask is compressed, which he can raise up slightly to put just over his face up to his nose, concealing his mouth and nostrils wherever it may be necessary. His taste in accessories otherwise isn't particularly spectacular, either, as he has one generic silver ring worn on the thumb of his right hand. Upon closer inspection, there are some strange hieroglyphics written in a red color on the interior of the ring. This ring's relationship to Alen is currently unknown, although it looks to be just an accessory.
Personality: To Alen, hunting and life are one and the same; they seem like a struggle to survive, but instead feel more like a struggle to find excitement. Always up for a cheap thrill and a chance to break the mold somehow, Alen is certainly never one who is satisfied...but that's because he's experienced enough defeat in his life to find decent satisfaction in his excursions.
Consequently, Alen is incredibly cocky as a result of so many victories past a history of failures. To be specific, it would be better to call him a narcissist if anything, because he has a distinct fear(and possible phobia) of feeling weaker than others. If he is given the option of working independently, he will stubbornly adhere to doing so and unless he is helping some poor soul on the pathway, he will deliberately refuse to ally with others, especially considering more often than not, his experience in battle and in hunting have granted him with many techniques at his disposal, and an ally would force him to micromanage to make sure they don't become an obstacle. If he really must ally with somebody, he probably would not be supporting them as much as he would be making sure they don't get in his way.
Alen's egotistical behavior translates into social situations to some degree of contingency. While he is definitely not emotionally detached, he has been built upon being independent and reclusive and thus doesn't seem very willing to give ingratiating himself with others a second thought. Communicating almost feels reluctant for Alen for this reason, and he rarely has the interest to step into other people's problems. As a result, he mostly comes off as cocky, somewhat immature, and condescending upon others, and this is even moreso in combat. If someone truly tried to open up to him, perhaps some of Alen's hesitancy will go away with it.
Much of the reason why people may actually feel uncertain around him are the impressions from those people; one would take a look at him, especially in battle, and quickly assume that is evil or of demoniac nature, when in fact, he is far from it. To define Alen as a "free spirit" would be a very simple and cliche statement to describe him. Alen would not bind himself to the whim of any organization as a given, but it could go without saying that he has no interest in following rules. He has never lived amongst other people's "laws", and he doesn't plan to either. He prefers not to let other organizations and laws dampen his interests just as much as he would with other individuals, which almost seems like he is condescending upon law and order.
Distinctive Traits:
-Alen, as implied many times, enjoys hunting. There was a point where he made the forest his home.
-Alen happens to like bass/beat-heavy music(hip-hop, drum-and-bass, etc...) since it reminds him of a rhythm he associates with a heartbeat, the only thing he usually heard during a quiet hunt(unless it was the screams of the animals he killed)
-Alen's eyes seem to faintly glow, giving them a tint that does not appear particularly normal in an average human.
-Alen likes to clamp his hands together and place them behind his head, as if resting on them. It relaxes him, strangely enough.
-Alen prefers to rest on an open field rather than on a bed.
History:
Alen wasn't born with any particular label. You could say he was born as an ordinary child to a single parent somewhere in the Galiyhan suburbia. As a child, he was essentially worried that his mother was doing him too much good; his mother praised him every waking day, answered his every call, made his every meal, and even did his laundry. To a fault, he was essentially a spoiled child. This would eventually impact him on a psychological level in the sense that he was expecting the world to treat him the same way as his mother did.
By the time Alen had gone to school, he excelled early on in his academic studies. He was towards the top of his class, but unfortunately this did not satisfy him. His mother's lack of prudence in giving him attention had birthed a lingering sense of inadequacy in the poor child. He was shunned and bullied by his classmates, often out of insecurity or fear of their personal ineptitude. The animosity bred with Alen's classmates would accrete to the point of him being physically harassed every single day. He closed himself off from all but a couple of people who accepted him for who he was, and hid behind his instructors for help and security. Of course, his mother would tell him the same story; Alen was obviously better than these children, who were weak scumbags. This time, however, Alen was not convinced. Perhaps he needed complacency to mend his mental wounds. With the money practically given to him, he bought a wooden bow from the store. It was uncertain what was going on in the child's head at the time, but this would later take a turn for the worse.
Later during his elementary years, Alen would get a penchant for hunting. He hunted on the field, he hunted in the woods nearby town, and he hunted in the skies and the stars for birds that locked eyes with him. The atrocious mix of sovereignty from his mother and inadequacy from his peers was beginning to manifest a sense of delusion in poor Alen. He began to take on a corrupt persona resembling that of the cruel rich, perceiving the children who bullied him as another "animal" for him to hunt down and prove himself as the better man. Alen eventually started to display violent behavior towards his peers which even his instructors began to notice. He scoffed in class, threatened people back, and gloated incessantly whenever he was the top student in the class(which he usually was). Alen's mother simply took a blind eye to these transformations and assumed that Alen was merely "seeing the light", and finally accepting his "superiority above others which he well deserved for his effort." Alen's attitude in his daily hunting excursions started to replicate in his behavior towards others.
As he worked his way into his adolescent years, his life took a turn for the worse. Alen was starting to fall from his valedictorian position he was so used to before, and this led to his ego spinning out of limbo. His behavior gradually became more and more violent, starting to even physically harass other students at times and proclaim that he is the "greatest student this godforsaken school has ever seen." Staff eventually caught on to his behavior and took disciplinary action against Alen, which he took out on his mother. Realizing that her courtesy was not enough to make her son happy, her acts of kindness eventually came to a halt. This was the turning point in the archer's life; eventually, a degree of misanthropy grew within Alen, and he devoted himself to archery and hunting practices vigorously, as if symbolizing his racing need to "prove" something. It was the least he could do now that the only guardian he had his entire life thus far had basically betrayed him. If he left the house, he wouldn't have shelter or couldn't look at his academics with a straight face. What else to do?
His actions since that day would soon belie his original intentions. He felt as if he had a calling in the forest, and found all of the uses he could for the killed wildlife. He used their meat for food, and their pelts for sleep and bartering. He later felt like a "king" in the forest and thus lusted for a more apt equipment to further exercise his "rule" in the forest; or rather, to satiate his deluded mind. He loved the forest. It gave him meaning. It gave him something he could easily conquer. It was a dark haven that could sustain its beauty in any weather or season. However, it was as much of a dark haven as it was a dark prison. He eventually made the forest his home, his "kingdom" in which no trespasser could dominate him.
He would later have to "abdicate" his throne as he met a hermit who traveled to the disturbed forest...she could feel it. The forest was crying. It was filled with an aura of emptiness as soon as it was triumphed by Kaiser Alen. The hermit must've seducted Alen somehow, for she was roughly the same age as he was. The hermit reminded him that he was tainting the forest and killing the life inside of it. She requested Alen to treat the forest with greater respect, and in return would tell Alen the "secret" to his former sovereignty. Former? What did this mean? Oh well, it may amount to something!
It was presumed that it somewhat amounted to something. Alen was forcibly mended in his violent tendencies, and his killings were exercised in not even moderation, but sometimes even borderline abstinence. But then, the hermit began to "tempt" him by finding indirect methods to return Alen back to his murderous self. She began to teach Alen how to hunt more efficiently and how to embrace the shadows to beguile his opponents, somewhat like turning the darkness he loved so much into a weapon. Naturally, he slowly felt more and more confident in his hunting and was pulled back to his feelings of predominance...
It was said to him many times..."There is still much that you don't know."
Then he thought. Why stop at that forest? Many other forests await! Many other lands await! Many other answers await! It was a wasted effort for Alen to exercise his power in one place, so he took an imperialistic perspective and sought out to rush through the fields. The fields emitted a studded beauty that the forest could not duplicate. The night sky. The moon. The snow in the winter. Nothing could stop these iridescent lights as they lit up amongst a dreamy night blue sky. It inspired him to move forward in these ever-expanding fields.
But then he slept one night. A crunch. A canvas of red washed over his sight. A bite. He was bitten by something. Tried to feel his face. There was a pulse. But something was wrong. Maybe he was resistant to the feeling. A demon probably invaded him. Alen awoke, only to be greeted by a cannibalistic demon, just as he thought! Something was telling him...this thing was not what bit him...
Suddenly, a flash. He felt like he was dying. He almost was dying. He was feeling the crimson stain his every limb. Suddenly. He forced it back. He tried to resist the pain. He tried to release himself from pain! But all of a sudden, the demon was gone. A red fog enveloped him. A new weapon. He felt nothing from it, but the insects felt death infecting them. It was so amazing...he laughed. He laughed and laughed. He had no reason to feel stronger than everyone anymore, but he did. At the same time, he feared another moment would happen again. He tried to fight that feeling, but it merely lurked inside of him. In the wake of the demon's presence, Alen suddenly noticed a card. It was a card that signified Death, and was labeled as such. He knew what this meant for him, in more ways than one. Maybe it was a foresight, considering he slowly deviated from madness...
Whatever the card would signify, it would hopefully lead him into happiness.That Death card could only send Alen on a current back to the past, as he lived each day after that in a confused daze. Fast forward to the present day, and it would seem that Alen has forbade himself to step in his forest haven ever again. Vestiges of his old self still remain intact, and the events that occurred in between the Death card and the present are somewhat of a blur. But if a hermit could curb him, then perhaps hope would still prevail in the shadow hunter...
Attributes(24):
Might: 2
Swiftness: 16
Will: 2
Endurance: 4
Weapon: Vayu Chernov: Alen's weapon is a longbow that extends to roughly half his body's length. The craftsmanship in this bow was clearly put into consideration; every portion of this bow's design was forged as if made to Alen's demand. The grip of the bow is made of a black oak, and is coated with a bandaged layer so that its user is able to keep a secure hold on the bow. A slightly angled metal ridge is on both sides of the grip, separating the grip itself from the other parts of the bow and further securing the user's hold. On the other side of the angled ridges lies two curved blades, somewhat like two scythe blades(just refer to them as curved blades to disregard my constant scythe references...) made of a silver metal.
This basically allows the weapon to effective both in close quarters and at a distance. At a distance, Alen can fire arrows with sheer finesse at a trepid opponent, but in a dangerous close quarters situation which cannot warrant a shot from a distance, Alen can wield the bow like a blade, able to withdraw the string with the side knob and strike with the same speed and precision as the bow. The blades themselves are even sharper than the arrows, and thus are more likely to pierce armored foes, but obviously are to be used in close quarters, one of the last scenarios an archer may want to be in.
Rank: A(the blades themselves), A-(the skill of the bow itself)
Subweapon: Quiver
Normal Arrow x30: An arrow with a dark blue, almost azure shaft, polished to a beautiful finish. The fletching of the arrow is decorated with a pair of crimson feathers, with small little wings pointed outward in three directions on the top. The actual head of the arrow is ridged with a dark metal, sharpened on the sides for additional sharpness and piercing abilities. The very tip has been sharpened to the point where a simple tap from a finger could leave a notable prick on the finger. Combined with its lightweight material, these arrows are not often this well crafted, or perform this well in battle. They are moderately effective in piercing armor as well, but must be used with a steady mind considering they are not easy to reproduce, and are also very limited.
Rank: C
Venom Arrow x5 (poison): Similar to the normal arrow in appearance, albeit coated in poison and given a couple of barbed edges. Should this arrow impact an opponent, they will be infected by a dangerous pathogen which causes certain decay of internal body systems. There is not enough to kill an opponent with the poison alone, although it can extenuate them and turn the tides of battle if used properly.
Rank: C-
Barbed Arrow x5: A much more menacing version of the normal arrow, this arrow is covered in gory barbs. These barbs are incredibly sharp and tear through armor more effectively than the regular arrow, but if the arrow collides with the body, it will leave a massive gash in the flesh, often causing severe bleeding and probable paralysis or a limb or nerve depending on the impact of the arrow. This is more useful against armored opponents and androids, but is more dangerous to use against a berserk opponent or one which can make use of their own blood(ie: a vampire or some kind of demon)
Rank: A-
Abilities:
Deceptive Riposte: Another application to Alen's mild control of shadow magic is his ability to create illusions with his own arrows. If an open space is within an opposing proximity from Alen and his opponent(ie: if Alen is 5 feet from his opponent, and there is 5 feet of distance behind the opponent as well), Alen can create an illusion of the arrow he is firing, creating another real arrow through shadow magic from that distance behind the opponent. It will seem as if only the arrow that Alen is firing is impacting the opponent, but in actuality, the real arrow is coming straight behind them, and should the illusion arrow impact them, it will have seemed like the arrow is about to pierce them, but the only arrow that damages them is the arrow coming from behind. A foolhardy opponent will be ill-fated to have been penetrated by an arrow from behind their wary eyes. The same effect of "Arrow of Fading Skies" is also applied to this arrow.
Unfortunately, this ability is not without its own costs. The illusion arrow is still treated like a real arrow and thus forcing use of this ability to cost twice as many arrows as used. Alen's vitality is also used up to a small extent as this ability strains him to create a distanced illusion. And obviously, the arrow cannot form if the distance from Alen to the enemy is not proportionate or impeded as opposed to a distance behind the opponent.
Accursed Limelight: How Alen is capable of producing a toxic fog out of what appears to be blood is fairly ambiguous; however, there is a small history behind it. It could be said that Alen had met a vampire sorcerer along his journey who had bestowed him with a recipe for a poison that overrides all immune systems, but Alen had misused the recipe as he confronted a Vehement that fled into the Realta. Alen's mild magic control had malformed a fog in mid-battle from the spilled blood against his Vehement opponent, and since then, Alen had not been prudent in using what was basically a mistake sparingly.
Alen uses his own blood to spread a fog that encompasses a certain wide radius. The fog obviously obstructs one's vision to an extent, but that's not necessarily the purpose of the fog. The fog's central purpose lies in its effects of anyone who dares to trespass its vicinity. The fog infects an individual with a demoniac antigen. If the antigen does not recognize blood in its area of infection, it will simply eat through whatever it is infected in. Therefore, it would proceed to gnaw through the tapestry of that which does not make use of a blood supply.
Because blood only accepts the antigens of the person's respective blood type, this antigen is not recognized by any particular blood group; thus, since it infects the body in mass quantities depending on how much of the fog that the individual has stepped in, the presence of the antigen as antibodies are sent to resist it makes for the rapid clumping and clotting of blood flow throughout the body, as the immune response would be overwhelmed by the influx of antigens in the body. Within a few moments, a body completely within this fog would confront a slow, miserable death as the circulation of blood is completely perversed and their limbs would transition almost spontaneously into failure. The opponent will be left in crippled condition under this fog unless healed or regenerated somehow once withdrawn from the fog.
Alen's magic ability is unfortunately sub-par at best, so performing this ability can exhaust him if it is done continuously in larger quantities.
Arrow of Fading Skies: Alen has mild control over the shadows, and can apply it directly to his arrows. What this basically enables him to do is strengthen his bow with darkness to allow its arrows to conceal itself as it flies in the air towards its target, possibly even increasing their velocity against currents and other environments as the arrows vanish. The arrows themselves would bathe with the air, and quickly fade into the air that they inhabit as the arrows impact their target. This implies that the arrows themselves become imperceptible in midair until they make physical contact with an opponent, reducing their noise in the process; however, the environment indeed plays a part in influencing this ability. In the nighttime, the arrows are almost instantly faded into the darkness, not even making a single sound as they greet their target with an unexpected pierce through the heart. In broad daylight with complete sun exposure, the arrows have a harder time blending in with the light and thus cloak themselves with less speed and finesse.
Kuro~Tsuigeki(Black Hunt): Another extension to Alen's control of shadow is the ability to empower his own as a way of outsmarting his prey or opponent. The way Alen manipulates his own shadow involves compressing the tension created by stepping on the ground and connecting it to his own shadow, essentially extending it to create a trail on a solid surface. Alen can manipulate this trail as long as it does not exceed fifteen feet, and he does not separate from his shadow by impact or by exposure to an environment that does not allow him to see his shadow. If Alen's trail exceeds the fifteen feet mark, the "beginning" of the trail will be cut off to include whatever distance Alen has just walked. Anything that sets foot on the shadow trail will essentially be "entangled" by the extension of Alen's own shadow and thus cannot see anything or move outside of the trail unless they jump out, as if they "fell" into the shadow. Their vision and regular movement is obviously reimbursed once they leap away from the trail, or simply any other way of getting off the trail by means of attacking or Alen or having the shadow get cut off somehow. The trail is treated somewhat like a ball-and-chain as it begins to slow down Alen's movement if it exceeds past 5 feet, by fault of Alen's lack of proficiency with shadow manipulation. (To make a rough estimate, Alen's Swiftness is reduced to 10 by the 15 foot trail.)
Keiro~No~Shi(Path of Death): Alen can set a simple trap with his arrows that endangers anyone following his shadow even further. While a simple application can be to fire an arrow blindsided at his shadow and preventing an enemy from making a subsequent back-attack without getting caught by an arrow viciously rising from the ground like a spear by the time they step into his shadow(but then it would probably be noticed), the trap is mainly applicable to Alen's shadow trail. Since Alen is actually allowed to peer at his trail, he is also allowed to fire an arrow at any designation in the trail not already preoccupied by someone/something's nearby presence. This basically hides the arrow(assuming it impacts the shadow trail) until something steps around(the limit is roughly an inch or two around the arrow) the area it was placed(think surface tension), causing the arrow to instantly rise from beneath the opponent roughly at the same velocity as if it was fired from Alen's bow. The short distance in comparison to the arrow's velocity should be (nearly) enough to decommission an unwary, unarmored opponent. Along with the trail, the arrow is rendered useless if the shadow is cut off and also cannot be used in the presence of light. If Alen fires this at a shadow other than his own, he is limited to other solid surfaces and can be impacted by his own arrow since the shadow is not of his own and thus does not discern the identity of the victim in the same way. He is also limited to other stationary surfaces, meaning the arrow can't meld into an actively moving object(the only exception is the shadow trail and by extension, his own shadow)
Combat Style: Alen treats combat closely to how he treats the hunt: like a game. Alen's cocky demeanor is somewhat echoed in battle; his overall tactics -and his abilities, to an extent- revolve mainly around one principle: to make his opponent feel weak and/or stupid. Alen is definitely not predictable with his arrows and will use his abilities in conjunction with a prudent, yet tricky usage of the arrows at his disposal, even though he has the dexterity to fire arrow after arrow with little room for recovery. At the same time, Alen takes great advantage of his superlative agility and will dart around the opponent at a distance, or widen the gap when necessary. His reflexes are just as superlative as his actual agility and he has little to no problem dodging most attacks as long as he still has the vitality to do so.
If Alen's opponent is overly aggressive and will not give him a chance to retreat so easily, Alen is capable of still fending for himself in close quarters. He is very capable of using the bladed ends of his bow in close quarters combat as self-defense, and if he sees it as the right moment, he may attempt to disarm his opponent while they're attempting to take a shot at him. Again, Alen will not make it easy to hurt him in battle, as he is always quick to dodge attacks and may even resort to wily tactics at times with his arrows.
Weakness: Alen is particularly inept at dealing with light and is thus weaker against holy attacks and has a harder time fighting in environments heavily bathed in sunlight. Although he also has self-defense since he can use this bow as a blade, he has fewer options than he does with using the bow at long range, where it is meant to be used.
Relations to other characters:
Yeshua: 1: Having only met Yeshua recently, he still looks down upon him for lowering himself to dealing with Inferno, but at the same time is impressed by his ability to cope with Inferno. Perhaps there is a bond in that which Alen doesn't even recognize yet...
Xerxes: 1: Alen doesn't normally respect his elders all that much, but he can't help but notice the amount of power this old man contains...perhaps they will cross paths again, and at that time, Alen will not have to be forced into cooperating with the old man for help and guidance.
Theme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_JU1OD-OLU&feature=player_embedded
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Race: Enhanced Human
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 148 lbs
Likes: Snow, the night sky, hunting, himself
Dislikes: Failure, people with larger egos than himself
Rank: Master
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral - Although Alen seems like he could attributed to Evil, he ultimately cares about himself and has no real interest in meddling with the affairs of foreign corporations for the most part.
Class: Penumbra Sniper
Appearance: Alen is dark skinned, with a thin yet hardy body. His face mirrors almost the look of a fair prince, but is somewhat concealed by a subtle sneer. His hair is quite shaggy and is shaded with a crisp, dark red color that contrasts his obscenely light blue eyes...which are to the point where it seems like Alen's eyes are not even natural. A scar can be seen above the right side of his upper lip, somewhat closer to his right cheek.
Alen's equipment is more or less light and appropriate for his build; he has been comfortable with fairly decent equipment as far as defense goes, while retaining all of his mobility. A plated leather shirt is worn over his upper body, granted with leather plates along the chest area. The back of his shirt with noticeable protection behind the shoulder joints is emblazoned with an insignia of a serpent with a faint red aura around it, in contrast to the violet color of the armor and ebony color of the shirt. The armor is connected to a lightly-padded iron pauldron on his left shoulder, which has a similar serpent symbol to the back of his shirt, but this time with a sword symbol going through it. He has an iron pauldron on his right shoulder as well, but it is disconnected from the armor and has no symbols to go with it, and is instead bound to the armor by black cloth strings which look somewhat like fishnets.
His lower body from the waist down consists of dark-colored jeans with a vestige of some shade of violet color, complimented by a pair of light iron knee-pads that cling to his kneecaps. A faint dragon insignia can be seen radiating along the side of his pants, only a lighter shade than the pants themselves. His feet are protected by well-buckled, black leather boots with steel laces and a small, sharp iron ridge on the tips of his boots(which he has personally customized in the scenario in which he can properly kick the opponent as they grovel on the ground, should Alen be willing to do so, which he might).
Below Alen's neck, a black half-mask is compressed, which he can raise up slightly to put just over his face up to his nose, concealing his mouth and nostrils wherever it may be necessary. His taste in accessories otherwise isn't particularly spectacular, either, as he has one generic silver ring worn on the thumb of his right hand. Upon closer inspection, there are some strange hieroglyphics written in a red color on the interior of the ring. This ring's relationship to Alen is currently unknown, although it looks to be just an accessory.
Personality: To Alen, hunting and life are one and the same; they seem like a struggle to survive, but instead feel more like a struggle to find excitement. Always up for a cheap thrill and a chance to break the mold somehow, Alen is certainly never one who is satisfied...but that's because he's experienced enough defeat in his life to find decent satisfaction in his excursions.
Consequently, Alen is incredibly cocky as a result of so many victories past a history of failures. To be specific, it would be better to call him a narcissist if anything, because he has a distinct fear(and possible phobia) of feeling weaker than others. If he is given the option of working independently, he will stubbornly adhere to doing so and unless he is helping some poor soul on the pathway, he will deliberately refuse to ally with others, especially considering more often than not, his experience in battle and in hunting have granted him with many techniques at his disposal, and an ally would force him to micromanage to make sure they don't become an obstacle. If he really must ally with somebody, he probably would not be supporting them as much as he would be making sure they don't get in his way.
Alen's egotistical behavior translates into social situations to some degree of contingency. While he is definitely not emotionally detached, he has been built upon being independent and reclusive and thus doesn't seem very willing to give ingratiating himself with others a second thought. Communicating almost feels reluctant for Alen for this reason, and he rarely has the interest to step into other people's problems. As a result, he mostly comes off as cocky, somewhat immature, and condescending upon others, and this is even moreso in combat. If someone truly tried to open up to him, perhaps some of Alen's hesitancy will go away with it.
Much of the reason why people may actually feel uncertain around him are the impressions from those people; one would take a look at him, especially in battle, and quickly assume that is evil or of demoniac nature, when in fact, he is far from it. To define Alen as a "free spirit" would be a very simple and cliche statement to describe him. Alen would not bind himself to the whim of any organization as a given, but it could go without saying that he has no interest in following rules. He has never lived amongst other people's "laws", and he doesn't plan to either. He prefers not to let other organizations and laws dampen his interests just as much as he would with other individuals, which almost seems like he is condescending upon law and order.
Distinctive Traits:
-Alen, as implied many times, enjoys hunting. There was a point where he made the forest his home.
-Alen happens to like bass/beat-heavy music(hip-hop, drum-and-bass, etc...) since it reminds him of a rhythm he associates with a heartbeat, the only thing he usually heard during a quiet hunt(unless it was the screams of the animals he killed)
-Alen's eyes seem to faintly glow, giving them a tint that does not appear particularly normal in an average human.
-Alen likes to clamp his hands together and place them behind his head, as if resting on them. It relaxes him, strangely enough.
-Alen prefers to rest on an open field rather than on a bed.
History:
Alen wasn't born with any particular label. You could say he was born as an ordinary child to a single parent somewhere in the Galiyhan suburbia. As a child, he was essentially worried that his mother was doing him too much good; his mother praised him every waking day, answered his every call, made his every meal, and even did his laundry. To a fault, he was essentially a spoiled child. This would eventually impact him on a psychological level in the sense that he was expecting the world to treat him the same way as his mother did.
By the time Alen had gone to school, he excelled early on in his academic studies. He was towards the top of his class, but unfortunately this did not satisfy him. His mother's lack of prudence in giving him attention had birthed a lingering sense of inadequacy in the poor child. He was shunned and bullied by his classmates, often out of insecurity or fear of their personal ineptitude. The animosity bred with Alen's classmates would accrete to the point of him being physically harassed every single day. He closed himself off from all but a couple of people who accepted him for who he was, and hid behind his instructors for help and security. Of course, his mother would tell him the same story; Alen was obviously better than these children, who were weak scumbags. This time, however, Alen was not convinced. Perhaps he needed complacency to mend his mental wounds. With the money practically given to him, he bought a wooden bow from the store. It was uncertain what was going on in the child's head at the time, but this would later take a turn for the worse.
Later during his elementary years, Alen would get a penchant for hunting. He hunted on the field, he hunted in the woods nearby town, and he hunted in the skies and the stars for birds that locked eyes with him. The atrocious mix of sovereignty from his mother and inadequacy from his peers was beginning to manifest a sense of delusion in poor Alen. He began to take on a corrupt persona resembling that of the cruel rich, perceiving the children who bullied him as another "animal" for him to hunt down and prove himself as the better man. Alen eventually started to display violent behavior towards his peers which even his instructors began to notice. He scoffed in class, threatened people back, and gloated incessantly whenever he was the top student in the class(which he usually was). Alen's mother simply took a blind eye to these transformations and assumed that Alen was merely "seeing the light", and finally accepting his "superiority above others which he well deserved for his effort." Alen's attitude in his daily hunting excursions started to replicate in his behavior towards others.
As he worked his way into his adolescent years, his life took a turn for the worse. Alen was starting to fall from his valedictorian position he was so used to before, and this led to his ego spinning out of limbo. His behavior gradually became more and more violent, starting to even physically harass other students at times and proclaim that he is the "greatest student this godforsaken school has ever seen." Staff eventually caught on to his behavior and took disciplinary action against Alen, which he took out on his mother. Realizing that her courtesy was not enough to make her son happy, her acts of kindness eventually came to a halt. This was the turning point in the archer's life; eventually, a degree of misanthropy grew within Alen, and he devoted himself to archery and hunting practices vigorously, as if symbolizing his racing need to "prove" something. It was the least he could do now that the only guardian he had his entire life thus far had basically betrayed him. If he left the house, he wouldn't have shelter or couldn't look at his academics with a straight face. What else to do?
His actions since that day would soon belie his original intentions. He felt as if he had a calling in the forest, and found all of the uses he could for the killed wildlife. He used their meat for food, and their pelts for sleep and bartering. He later felt like a "king" in the forest and thus lusted for a more apt equipment to further exercise his "rule" in the forest; or rather, to satiate his deluded mind. He loved the forest. It gave him meaning. It gave him something he could easily conquer. It was a dark haven that could sustain its beauty in any weather or season. However, it was as much of a dark haven as it was a dark prison. He eventually made the forest his home, his "kingdom" in which no trespasser could dominate him.
He would later have to "abdicate" his throne as he met a hermit who traveled to the disturbed forest...she could feel it. The forest was crying. It was filled with an aura of emptiness as soon as it was triumphed by Kaiser Alen. The hermit must've seducted Alen somehow, for she was roughly the same age as he was. The hermit reminded him that he was tainting the forest and killing the life inside of it. She requested Alen to treat the forest with greater respect, and in return would tell Alen the "secret" to his former sovereignty. Former? What did this mean? Oh well, it may amount to something!
It was presumed that it somewhat amounted to something. Alen was forcibly mended in his violent tendencies, and his killings were exercised in not even moderation, but sometimes even borderline abstinence. But then, the hermit began to "tempt" him by finding indirect methods to return Alen back to his murderous self. She began to teach Alen how to hunt more efficiently and how to embrace the shadows to beguile his opponents, somewhat like turning the darkness he loved so much into a weapon. Naturally, he slowly felt more and more confident in his hunting and was pulled back to his feelings of predominance...
It was said to him many times..."There is still much that you don't know."
Then he thought. Why stop at that forest? Many other forests await! Many other lands await! Many other answers await! It was a wasted effort for Alen to exercise his power in one place, so he took an imperialistic perspective and sought out to rush through the fields. The fields emitted a studded beauty that the forest could not duplicate. The night sky. The moon. The snow in the winter. Nothing could stop these iridescent lights as they lit up amongst a dreamy night blue sky. It inspired him to move forward in these ever-expanding fields.
But then he slept one night. A crunch. A canvas of red washed over his sight. A bite. He was bitten by something. Tried to feel his face. There was a pulse. But something was wrong. Maybe he was resistant to the feeling. A demon probably invaded him. Alen awoke, only to be greeted by a cannibalistic demon, just as he thought! Something was telling him...this thing was not what bit him...
Suddenly, a flash. He felt like he was dying. He almost was dying. He was feeling the crimson stain his every limb. Suddenly. He forced it back. He tried to resist the pain. He tried to release himself from pain! But all of a sudden, the demon was gone. A red fog enveloped him. A new weapon. He felt nothing from it, but the insects felt death infecting them. It was so amazing...he laughed. He laughed and laughed. He had no reason to feel stronger than everyone anymore, but he did. At the same time, he feared another moment would happen again. He tried to fight that feeling, but it merely lurked inside of him. In the wake of the demon's presence, Alen suddenly noticed a card. It was a card that signified Death, and was labeled as such. He knew what this meant for him, in more ways than one. Maybe it was a foresight, considering he slowly deviated from madness...
Whatever the card would signify, it would hopefully lead him into happiness.That Death card could only send Alen on a current back to the past, as he lived each day after that in a confused daze. Fast forward to the present day, and it would seem that Alen has forbade himself to step in his forest haven ever again. Vestiges of his old self still remain intact, and the events that occurred in between the Death card and the present are somewhat of a blur. But if a hermit could curb him, then perhaps hope would still prevail in the shadow hunter...
Attributes(24):
Might: 2
Swiftness: 16
Will: 2
Endurance: 4
Weapon: Vayu Chernov: Alen's weapon is a longbow that extends to roughly half his body's length. The craftsmanship in this bow was clearly put into consideration; every portion of this bow's design was forged as if made to Alen's demand. The grip of the bow is made of a black oak, and is coated with a bandaged layer so that its user is able to keep a secure hold on the bow. A slightly angled metal ridge is on both sides of the grip, separating the grip itself from the other parts of the bow and further securing the user's hold. On the other side of the angled ridges lies two curved blades, somewhat like two scythe blades(just refer to them as curved blades to disregard my constant scythe references...) made of a silver metal.
This basically allows the weapon to effective both in close quarters and at a distance. At a distance, Alen can fire arrows with sheer finesse at a trepid opponent, but in a dangerous close quarters situation which cannot warrant a shot from a distance, Alen can wield the bow like a blade, able to withdraw the string with the side knob and strike with the same speed and precision as the bow. The blades themselves are even sharper than the arrows, and thus are more likely to pierce armored foes, but obviously are to be used in close quarters, one of the last scenarios an archer may want to be in.
Rank: A(the blades themselves), A-(the skill of the bow itself)
Subweapon: Quiver
Normal Arrow x30: An arrow with a dark blue, almost azure shaft, polished to a beautiful finish. The fletching of the arrow is decorated with a pair of crimson feathers, with small little wings pointed outward in three directions on the top. The actual head of the arrow is ridged with a dark metal, sharpened on the sides for additional sharpness and piercing abilities. The very tip has been sharpened to the point where a simple tap from a finger could leave a notable prick on the finger. Combined with its lightweight material, these arrows are not often this well crafted, or perform this well in battle. They are moderately effective in piercing armor as well, but must be used with a steady mind considering they are not easy to reproduce, and are also very limited.
Rank: C
Venom Arrow x5 (poison): Similar to the normal arrow in appearance, albeit coated in poison and given a couple of barbed edges. Should this arrow impact an opponent, they will be infected by a dangerous pathogen which causes certain decay of internal body systems. There is not enough to kill an opponent with the poison alone, although it can extenuate them and turn the tides of battle if used properly.
Rank: C-
Barbed Arrow x5: A much more menacing version of the normal arrow, this arrow is covered in gory barbs. These barbs are incredibly sharp and tear through armor more effectively than the regular arrow, but if the arrow collides with the body, it will leave a massive gash in the flesh, often causing severe bleeding and probable paralysis or a limb or nerve depending on the impact of the arrow. This is more useful against armored opponents and androids, but is more dangerous to use against a berserk opponent or one which can make use of their own blood(ie: a vampire or some kind of demon)
Rank: A-
Abilities:
Deceptive Riposte: Another application to Alen's mild control of shadow magic is his ability to create illusions with his own arrows. If an open space is within an opposing proximity from Alen and his opponent(ie: if Alen is 5 feet from his opponent, and there is 5 feet of distance behind the opponent as well), Alen can create an illusion of the arrow he is firing, creating another real arrow through shadow magic from that distance behind the opponent. It will seem as if only the arrow that Alen is firing is impacting the opponent, but in actuality, the real arrow is coming straight behind them, and should the illusion arrow impact them, it will have seemed like the arrow is about to pierce them, but the only arrow that damages them is the arrow coming from behind. A foolhardy opponent will be ill-fated to have been penetrated by an arrow from behind their wary eyes. The same effect of "Arrow of Fading Skies" is also applied to this arrow.
Unfortunately, this ability is not without its own costs. The illusion arrow is still treated like a real arrow and thus forcing use of this ability to cost twice as many arrows as used. Alen's vitality is also used up to a small extent as this ability strains him to create a distanced illusion. And obviously, the arrow cannot form if the distance from Alen to the enemy is not proportionate or impeded as opposed to a distance behind the opponent.
Accursed Limelight: How Alen is capable of producing a toxic fog out of what appears to be blood is fairly ambiguous; however, there is a small history behind it. It could be said that Alen had met a vampire sorcerer along his journey who had bestowed him with a recipe for a poison that overrides all immune systems, but Alen had misused the recipe as he confronted a Vehement that fled into the Realta. Alen's mild magic control had malformed a fog in mid-battle from the spilled blood against his Vehement opponent, and since then, Alen had not been prudent in using what was basically a mistake sparingly.
Alen uses his own blood to spread a fog that encompasses a certain wide radius. The fog obviously obstructs one's vision to an extent, but that's not necessarily the purpose of the fog. The fog's central purpose lies in its effects of anyone who dares to trespass its vicinity. The fog infects an individual with a demoniac antigen. If the antigen does not recognize blood in its area of infection, it will simply eat through whatever it is infected in. Therefore, it would proceed to gnaw through the tapestry of that which does not make use of a blood supply.
Because blood only accepts the antigens of the person's respective blood type, this antigen is not recognized by any particular blood group; thus, since it infects the body in mass quantities depending on how much of the fog that the individual has stepped in, the presence of the antigen as antibodies are sent to resist it makes for the rapid clumping and clotting of blood flow throughout the body, as the immune response would be overwhelmed by the influx of antigens in the body. Within a few moments, a body completely within this fog would confront a slow, miserable death as the circulation of blood is completely perversed and their limbs would transition almost spontaneously into failure. The opponent will be left in crippled condition under this fog unless healed or regenerated somehow once withdrawn from the fog.
Alen's magic ability is unfortunately sub-par at best, so performing this ability can exhaust him if it is done continuously in larger quantities.
Arrow of Fading Skies: Alen has mild control over the shadows, and can apply it directly to his arrows. What this basically enables him to do is strengthen his bow with darkness to allow its arrows to conceal itself as it flies in the air towards its target, possibly even increasing their velocity against currents and other environments as the arrows vanish. The arrows themselves would bathe with the air, and quickly fade into the air that they inhabit as the arrows impact their target. This implies that the arrows themselves become imperceptible in midair until they make physical contact with an opponent, reducing their noise in the process; however, the environment indeed plays a part in influencing this ability. In the nighttime, the arrows are almost instantly faded into the darkness, not even making a single sound as they greet their target with an unexpected pierce through the heart. In broad daylight with complete sun exposure, the arrows have a harder time blending in with the light and thus cloak themselves with less speed and finesse.
Kuro~Tsuigeki(Black Hunt): Another extension to Alen's control of shadow is the ability to empower his own as a way of outsmarting his prey or opponent. The way Alen manipulates his own shadow involves compressing the tension created by stepping on the ground and connecting it to his own shadow, essentially extending it to create a trail on a solid surface. Alen can manipulate this trail as long as it does not exceed fifteen feet, and he does not separate from his shadow by impact or by exposure to an environment that does not allow him to see his shadow. If Alen's trail exceeds the fifteen feet mark, the "beginning" of the trail will be cut off to include whatever distance Alen has just walked. Anything that sets foot on the shadow trail will essentially be "entangled" by the extension of Alen's own shadow and thus cannot see anything or move outside of the trail unless they jump out, as if they "fell" into the shadow. Their vision and regular movement is obviously reimbursed once they leap away from the trail, or simply any other way of getting off the trail by means of attacking or Alen or having the shadow get cut off somehow. The trail is treated somewhat like a ball-and-chain as it begins to slow down Alen's movement if it exceeds past 5 feet, by fault of Alen's lack of proficiency with shadow manipulation. (To make a rough estimate, Alen's Swiftness is reduced to 10 by the 15 foot trail.)
Keiro~No~Shi(Path of Death): Alen can set a simple trap with his arrows that endangers anyone following his shadow even further. While a simple application can be to fire an arrow blindsided at his shadow and preventing an enemy from making a subsequent back-attack without getting caught by an arrow viciously rising from the ground like a spear by the time they step into his shadow(but then it would probably be noticed), the trap is mainly applicable to Alen's shadow trail. Since Alen is actually allowed to peer at his trail, he is also allowed to fire an arrow at any designation in the trail not already preoccupied by someone/something's nearby presence. This basically hides the arrow(assuming it impacts the shadow trail) until something steps around(the limit is roughly an inch or two around the arrow) the area it was placed(think surface tension), causing the arrow to instantly rise from beneath the opponent roughly at the same velocity as if it was fired from Alen's bow. The short distance in comparison to the arrow's velocity should be (nearly) enough to decommission an unwary, unarmored opponent. Along with the trail, the arrow is rendered useless if the shadow is cut off and also cannot be used in the presence of light. If Alen fires this at a shadow other than his own, he is limited to other solid surfaces and can be impacted by his own arrow since the shadow is not of his own and thus does not discern the identity of the victim in the same way. He is also limited to other stationary surfaces, meaning the arrow can't meld into an actively moving object(the only exception is the shadow trail and by extension, his own shadow)
Combat Style: Alen treats combat closely to how he treats the hunt: like a game. Alen's cocky demeanor is somewhat echoed in battle; his overall tactics -and his abilities, to an extent- revolve mainly around one principle: to make his opponent feel weak and/or stupid. Alen is definitely not predictable with his arrows and will use his abilities in conjunction with a prudent, yet tricky usage of the arrows at his disposal, even though he has the dexterity to fire arrow after arrow with little room for recovery. At the same time, Alen takes great advantage of his superlative agility and will dart around the opponent at a distance, or widen the gap when necessary. His reflexes are just as superlative as his actual agility and he has little to no problem dodging most attacks as long as he still has the vitality to do so.
If Alen's opponent is overly aggressive and will not give him a chance to retreat so easily, Alen is capable of still fending for himself in close quarters. He is very capable of using the bladed ends of his bow in close quarters combat as self-defense, and if he sees it as the right moment, he may attempt to disarm his opponent while they're attempting to take a shot at him. Again, Alen will not make it easy to hurt him in battle, as he is always quick to dodge attacks and may even resort to wily tactics at times with his arrows.
Weakness: Alen is particularly inept at dealing with light and is thus weaker against holy attacks and has a harder time fighting in environments heavily bathed in sunlight. Although he also has self-defense since he can use this bow as a blade, he has fewer options than he does with using the bow at long range, where it is meant to be used.
Relations to other characters:
Yeshua: 1: Having only met Yeshua recently, he still looks down upon him for lowering himself to dealing with Inferno, but at the same time is impressed by his ability to cope with Inferno. Perhaps there is a bond in that which Alen doesn't even recognize yet...
Xerxes: 1: Alen doesn't normally respect his elders all that much, but he can't help but notice the amount of power this old man contains...perhaps they will cross paths again, and at that time, Alen will not have to be forced into cooperating with the old man for help and guidance.
Theme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_JU1OD-OLU&feature=player_embedded