Name: Airyaman (Aliases: Erya, Copper Tower, Tarnished Magus)
Race: Sorcerer/Otherkind
Age: Some hundreds of years
Height: 2,2 m at his tallest and 1,8 m at the shortest, usually.
Weight: Somewhat heavier than his build in any given form would suggest.
Appearance:
Physical Attributes
Strength: Amazing
Agility: Exceptional
Constitution: Amazing
Magic: Very High
Sorcery is the ability to channel the power of the faeries and spirits to perform miracles, creating, transforming or destroying aspects of the world through intuitive disposition. A sorcerer's power can improvise numberless wonders, but it is not boundless. A caster of Airyaman's overbearing strength can perform lesser magics or momentary conjurations with consumate ease, the equivalent to Very Low and ephemeral Low effects, but proper spells are an art of effort and resonance. To cast them you need to make use of something which invokes the result you desire or the method you employ, and the more complex the effect the greater the focus it demands.
For example, a farsight spell requires a crystal ball or a mirror as a medium of vision, and to create a ward that will forcefully keep hostiles away you must physically mark a boundary first. To command a river's stream you call the spirits of the water with a chant or offering, and to curse someone you need a piece of them and a representation of what you wish done, while imbuing an item with magical protection needs the intent to be carved into it by craftwork or ritual. A glamour needs a strong image to use as a basis, and a travel spell requires a link or a medium to the destination.
The exception to these restrictions is a sorcerer's motif, the personal essence of his magic and inclination as a miracleworker. This is the resonance ingrained into a person's body and soul as a channeler of the power of the other world.
Airyaman's
motif is "Tarnish", the idea of corrosion spreading over metal and of staining materials through an adverse reaction. This affinity allows him to subject things to corrosion both physical and spiritual, weaken the surroundings with severe metallic erosion that spreads from his person, and cover things with a greenish patina that acts as a medium to more complicated magic. He may also conjure and manipulate metals that are closely associated with tarnish, creating winding thorns of bronze or copper and raising structures of warped, verdigrised metal, while he can cast sorcerous flames from any of these things.
In his motif, he can easily invoke effects of up to High potency without any kind of ritual or notable casting time. He could wind his hand in a circle and conjure a wide cloud of razor-sharp metallic butterflies that could tear a group of soldiers to pieces, or merely will it to create curtains of emerald or brass vines that pursue a target or wrap around him in defense. More potent or complex sorcery still demands more, however.
Lasting creations of sorcery always require a minimal amount of ritual, and the more powerful the intended result the greater the time they demand; from hours to days of work, or efforts over exponentially longer amounts of time for grander and much more complex phenomena, such as those beyond his standard reach.
The Sight: The talent to see magic and the supernatural for what it is, and to perceive and interact with things that common people cannot recognize. Through this ability he can communicate and barter with the spirits and unseen forces that surround everything in the world and flock around him.
Other AbilitiesForeign Kinship: Airyaman is a being extremely close in nature to a creature of the otherworld, but on two points he differs; unlike those beings he is enfleshed and anchored to the material, and there is no land or group that his magic rightfully belongs to. Spirits and faeries feel a relation to him, but cannot recognize his remote origins.
Tarnished Body: Although it has biological functions close to a human being, Airyaman's body is made of living metals and stranger substances in concert with inhuman flesh. His horns or hair are emerald verdigris, his skull and limbs are alternatively formed by brass or run through with agate, and when revealed his scale-like skin is flecked in oxidized bronze. His blood is a silvery compound that is both acidic and toxic. When wounded, vitriol and cracks run from his injuries, but his unique constitution allows him to ignore degrees of organ damage that would be lethal to a human and walk off torn body parts, except for his brain or head respectively. This also means he'll recover from any injury that doesn't outright kill him over time, including regrowing limbs and organs.
Shapeshifting: When you have a unconventional fantastic body, changing shape isn't the most difficult thing in the world. Airyaman can rearrange the structure of his body in a limited fashion, transforming easily between two humanoid forms, one larger and more blatantly inhuman, bearing an animal-like skull, horns, and dark skin, and a smaller one, with a softer, more human-like seeming and mostly pale skin. Or he can assume a shape like a lion statue of stained bronze, adorned with curling horns and exposed joints like copper wires, where his
Strength lowers to
Exceptional and his
Agility becomes
Amazing. Of his humanoid forms, the smaller one is easier to assume when damaged, to conserve mass while healing. His voice tends to retain its unusually soft tone regardless of the form taken.
Enchanted Craftsmanship: Airyaman is skilled with traditional crafts and has extensive experience making enchanted items. Over the centuries he's learned woodcarving, metalworking, and other techniques. His work is made superbly efficient and dispenses with more complex tools thanks to the aid of sorcery, and he imbues objects with enchantments and magical qualities through the inscription of runes. He is also adept at creating simple medicine and magic potions. Crafting more powerful enchanted items requires exponentially more work, as with sorcery, but also unique and mythically significant materials or potent ingredients.
Wisdom of the Magus: In the time he's walked the earth Airyaman has learned a great deal of magical and mythical lore; he began from Zoroastrian wisdom, and expanded his knowledge into major traditions from Europe to Asia and even into Mesomamerican practices. He knows a lot about the occult, and he's appropriated practices from many magical traditions to round out his own.
Outer Shintai: If pressed, then Airyaman may unleash the inherent magic that holds his body together, reversing the structure of his alien soul to expose the immense power it possesses. He cracks gruesomely, bursting into a sky-reaching pillar of poisonous brilliance, and becomes an eight-armed brassed monstrosity with a mane of brilliant copper and innards of baleful fire spilling from a hollow ribcage. His possessions and clothes vanish temporarily.
His physical attributes become
Fantastic/
Amazing/
Fantastic, and he loses anything resembling vital spots bar the inside of his skull, while recovering from damage that would deprive him of body mass exponentially faster, such that the common eye can observe the regrowth of limbs and bones. In this state he cannot wield sorcery, but his own magic seeps out uncontrollably, and manifests following his instincts. Fire and effects within his motif can spread continously from Airyaman as spontaneously-occurring phenomena of potency equal to
High magic, and he is unfazed in the middle of this chaotic conflagration.
Outer Shintai can be maintained for no more than a hour before he collapses back into himself, making the state unusuable for a day, and he is likely to become afflicted with severe sorcerous strain in the aftermath the longer it lasts.
Familiar: A mythical otherworldly creature connected to Airyaman by a magical bond. Familiars partake of a magic user's power in exchange for their loyalty and own magical ability, allowing the sorcerer to make use of them as resonance for their spells and offload excessive strain from magic. When not physically manifest, Airyaman's familiar hides in his shadow or lingers over his aura. They also share each other's senses.
Nills the rakshasa, a tiger-like Hindu devil with clawed hands, vicious fangs, burning eyes and tussled fur.
Strength: Incredible
Agility: Amazing
Strength: Incredible
Magic: The rakshasa may use illusion magic to appear for all effects and purposes to be as small as a housecat, or as large as an 80 feet giant, though its true form is the size of a grizzly bear. The smaller the appearance the more harmless it seems, appearing nothing more than an ordinary animal at its shortest, while the bigger it is the more monstrous it becomes, its tallest like a terrifying devil titan wrapped in shadows and gleaming with power. This masks weight, volume and all else perfectly, acting nearly like transformation magic, but the rakshasa can only rely on its true attributes regardless of how it looks. This also allows it to create or bar passages in architeture and slightly transform the geography of alleys and streets.
Other Abilities: The rakshasa has sharpened beast-like senses and can see through less than masterful illusions with ease.
GearWillow Staff: A staff made from a solid piece of Willow wood ending on an intrincately carved inscrutable canine head. It aids in communicating with the dead or warding them off, and also resonates with magic that treads in-between worlds.
Meteoric Vajra: A three-pronged tip double-sided club forged from meteoric iron. It is a weapon that symbolically resonates with the reinforcement of the mind and spirit, and enhances manifestations of indestructiblity and irresistible force.
Obsidian Knife: A short blade of mirrored obsidian. It is used as a mystical tool in blood sacrifice, and a resonant focus for divination and the casting of omens.
Origin: The sorcerer called by many the Copper Tower doesn't know where he came from. He hazily remembers a world of beauty and pain, and the sight of silver sands giving way to earthern ones amid humid mountains. There is where, a foreigner to himself and the world, he was found and sheltered by a wise one. There he learned truthfulness and will despite his strangeness, and his teacher named him "Airyaman".
He was accepted there, but neither the otherkind nor those who sheltered him believed he belonged, and after a time he left. He ventured North and past the sea with only a cloak upon his back, his teachings in mind, and uneasy questions in his chest.
He traveled through the lands above what would be called the Mediterranean, and the kingdoms to the East, settling for a short time then wandering again. He had other teachers, and sometimes he took on students, passing on what had been given to him. He did good deeds and enjoyed their recompense, but sometimes he eschewed them. At times he was helpful, and at times he was a monster. He looked for others like him, and where he had come from, but no land could recognize him as one of it, and no companionship gave him the answers he sought.
His fame grew as he returned from round the world, yet so does his unease. Ariyaman remembers those who lent him a hand, but still wonders what he must do to find what he truly wants. He isn't sure of what that is, even, but he finds his eyes turned to humans and those close to them. And questions himself.
WeaknessesGold: He's allergic to the touch of gold, being that it is uncomfortable at best and painful with extended contact, while weapons of it leave sizzling, difficult to heal wounds.
Sets of 23: The number 23 has a certain influence over Airyaman. He cannot physically stand against a person brandishing a completed set of 23 objects, and boundaries or seals of 23 parts or which incorporate the symbolism of the number in a central fashion have the power to bind him until someone releases him.
Sorcerous strain: Channeling ambient power the way sorcerers do always demands compensation. The use of large scale sorcery or repeated channeling of power superior to High magic is most visibly draining to Airyaman. While a normal sorcerer might find their physical condition deteriorating with consequences from a high fever to damaged organs or collapsing into days long sleep, he finds his body growing unstable and its spiritual balance thrown out of whack. At best, this damages the integrity of his form and warps its features, and at worst it locks his body into non-humanoid anomalous shapes and clouds his mind with alien urges. Control over his own magic is hurt relative to the severity. These effects can last for days if enough stress is accumulated, but might be relieved early by significant spiritual care.
Faerie Mischief: Drawing the attention of faeries and spirits means he's susceptible to suffering from willful acts of magic on their part, which sometimes causes inconveniences like pranks or small but impractical distractions.
Likes: Being called "a fairytale sorcerer", long naps, how easy wind spirits are, chewing on things
Dislikes: Hearing his titles, having his origins questioned, being outside the loop, shoddy craftsmanship
