application for daybreakacademy

[spelleton]

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Ruka
CONTACT: rukafais or blitzbrained
OTHER CHARACTER(S) IN GAME: N/A

CANON INFORMATION

CHARACTER NAME: Ekkehardt Gehring
CANON: Original
HISTORY: OC, not needed.

STRENGTHS:
Sentimentality - Ekkehardt's undying loyalty is exclusive and hard to earn, but his general attachment is less so; for those he considers amusing or worth the effort, he'll go to any lengths to protect. Though his absolute obedience is something exclusive only to his mentors and masters, he's willing to risk damage or compromising his cover as a favour to those he cares about the wellbeing of. His tight hold on his humanity allows him to understand the struggles and motivations that guide people's actions well - even if he tends to also dismiss or ridicule them if he finds them not worth his time. He has no qualms in using lethal force to defend the wellbeing of those he cares for, and given his lack of conventional bodily restrictions, it makes him an even sharper and more focused opponent than he would be otherwise.

Focused - Once given a mission or some kind of goal from someone he listens to, only direct orders will get him to turn his attention away from completing it or upholding it in whatever way he sees as appropriate. A hunter and assassin who leans on stealth, fast strikes and the right collision of events to make his kills as unobtrusive as possible, Ekkehardt is ready and willing to wait as long as it takes for his quarry to come within striking range. In less life-or-death situations, he's determined to finish tasks and get his schedule cleared, so he often resorts to the tried and true method of "move over and let me do it" when people aren't working fast enough for his tastes. He'll absentmindedly take whatever's handed to him if he's in full working mode, and get that done as well.

Lawful - Ekkehardt's adherence to what few rules he has - and the code of his masters - is absolute; he acts swiftly and without mercy in accordance to such things. While he may argue the details if he feels he has the information and the space to do so, he rarely bothers to make additional modifications to a judgement passed down by those who he serves. Though he often bends other rules or considers them otherwise open to interpretation or worth ignoring to suit his needs, a trait developed in the lawless wilds of the Outlands, he sees no reason to be disruptive; he's content to follow the rules the Academy has set and blend in as best he can, and will give others advice and assistance based on this. The best way not to cause disruption is simply to never get caught, after all.

FLAWS:
Jaded - Ekkehardt wouldn't claim he has a perfect understanding of people's psyches, but his perceptive nature, his ability to ferret out unpleasant secrets and his well-trained need to absorb information in preparation for future conflict means he often tends to pick up what people would most like to keep hidden.

This sort of insight into others has left him rather unimpressed overall, so while he often tolerates people or finds them amusing, it's rare that he actually trusts people to do anything more than their jobs. While he doesn't view emotions and personality quirks as weak or the people around him as lesser, he does tend to read and catalogue others dispassionately, storing them in his head as a collection of notable and useful traits that can be pushed one way or another more than anything else. He can remember all sorts of information about people, but whether he cares enough to do anything with it is a completely different thing entirely. His sense of politeness and decorum combined with this attention to detail makes him seem more warm and friendly than he actually is, and as someone who benefits from being seen as harmless, there's no reason for him not to keep up this impression.

Mistrusting - Due to his aforementioned perceptiveness, Ekkehardt makes judgements about others' capabilities and personality traits quickly, shaping himself to fit what's most favorable for their situation within the chosen archetype he projects. This is often a matter of survival and mimicry - his work as a spy and more urgently as an assassin requires him to quickly adjust to suit other people and to present himself as the most harmless version of himself - but it often stifles his own expression to do so.

He's never truly 'being himself' around anyone he doesn't know extremely well and rigidly controls what people are allowed to see of him; in combination with his naturally cynical view of others and his existence being literally and metaphorically veiled in secrecy, this only encourages a sense of isolation that he rarely admits to.

Workaholic - Ekkehardt's tendency to never stop working is only encouraged by being someone who doesn't need to bother himself with most needs inherent to living creatures. As much as this can sometimes be an asset, it's just as much a liability - he tends to become blunter and harsher when focused entirely on work, and in his laser focused determination to complete his tasks will often dismiss or ignore warning signs that he might otherwise have picked up as immediate problems.

Though he's no longer biologically affected by overwork, he's certainly capable of losing himself in it, and needs people to remind him that other things besides his work exist and he has a life outside of that. Without a task to carry out or focus on, he generally tends to find himself at a loose end, and falls into somewhat unhealthy and more-morbid-than-usual self reflection as a result.

Canon Abilities: N/A, OC

AU INFORMATION

AU CHARACTER NAME: Same as canon
AGE: 40
GRADE: Graduate, now working as TA
HOUSING: Since he basically keeps a bigass casket in his room his prefs are either solo or with someone who knows he's already a lich and will keep it quiet.
AU BACKSTORY:
- Born to branch family of larger mage family in Outlands.

- At seven years old, Ekkehardt's family and home wiped out in Outland conflict between rival mage families.

- Adopted by House Gehring, a mixed family of hunters and mages who gave up status and social standing in mage society in order to devote themselves to making the Outlands a safer place.

- Tested for magical aptitude, found positive. Sent to attend Daybreak Academy at the age of 10 for additional training.

- Graduated from Daybreak Academy at 18.

- Recognised as a fully-fledged mage of House Gehring at 20, entrusted with tutoring and caring for House Gehring's various adopted children.

- Captured by rival mages while defending his charges at 24. Tortured at length in an attempt to get him to betray his loyalties. His refusal to do so led to his death. Sent back to House Gehring's doorstep in a box, in pieces.

- Reassembled and body infused with magic in an arcane and complex ritual that brought him back as a lich, with mind and humanity intact. Spent the next ten years honing his skills and hunting the monsters of the Outlands, with a special focus on power-hungry mages and other sadistic, sentient creatures; he sharpened his abilities as a spy and assassin by infiltrating their communities and integrating into their social circles until it was time to strike them down - which he did so without remorse.

- Returned to Daybreak Academy as a teacher's assistant at 36, as part of a promise of allegiance between House Gehring and Daybreak Academy.

- Now in his fourth year of assisting at the school. Present day.

AU PERSONALITY DEVIATION: N/A

RACE: Formerly human, now undead.
SECRET SOCIETY: Formerly human mage who died in the defense of the mage family he served. Painstakingly resurrected as a lich by some very tricky and very delicate and powerful rituals. Still just as loyal to them after his death as before it.

No known bloodline - presumably mage blood ran in his family to some extent, but since his birth family was killed in magical infighting and he was adopted by House Gehring at a young age, knowledge of his former heritage is lost.

POWERS:
- Healing magic

Ekkehardt is skilled at examining and determining if injuries have supernatural causes, curses or any other kind of lingering magical aftereffect. As someone who's trained his magical power more towards surgery and other delicate operations, Ekkehardt is proficient at handling delicate situations like reattaching body parts, making minor adjustments to the body, and so on.

He has enough power to fix otherwise unsalvageable injuries, enough control to fix internal injuries, and can ensure that someone won't bleed to death until he has a chance to work on them, but lacks bigger, flashier healing abilities (like healing several people at once, or restoring someone to full health quickly).

He can work some magic on corpses, namely preserving them and protecting them from natural decay and minorly deterring anything attracted to them. He can also jolt them into minor life - making them sit up, open their eyes, walk a few steps and other small effects - but as he finds this sort of puppeteering distasteful, it's by far his weakest power.

- Medical training

Ekkehardt has been well trained to administer ordinary medical care as well as magical. He can provide a high level of medical care both in battle and away from it, as long as he has the proper resources at hand. His specialties lie in surgery and detection and treatment of poison, but he has some offhand practical knowledge of treating common ailments and afflictions.

tl;dr he can fix scrapes and scratches and bruises but he's a surgeon not a doctor, don't expect him to be able to identify diseases beyond "hmm you're sick and it's not a curse or poison? nurse's office"

- Bandages/spells

Due to the family he serves having connections with the Rune Guard due to their status as hunters, his body is protected by bandages inscribed with runes. They serve to give him the illusion of flesh, but can be commanded to unwind themselves so he can use them as bindings.

The bandages can also be torn away and detonated with mental commands to invoke certain spells based on what is written on them. He must be holding the bandage and concentrating on the spell in order to cast.

This use consumes the bandage that the spell script is written on, and will need to be replaced from his personal stock afterwards.

His spell scripts are:

Fire - send a plume of fire at chosen target.
Push - send a wave of force at chosen target, pushing them backward. Spell is powerful enough to launch someone through a window, but not through a wall.
Pull - invisible force yanks chosen target within physical grabbing range.
Shock - send a bolt of lightning at chosen target.
Slow - invisible force slows target's movement. Can be used to slow falling, running, or any movement that requires significant motion in a direction.
Shell - magical bubble surrounds Ekkehardt and absorbs the first magical effect to hit it, dispelling it.

- Undeath + glamour

Ekkehardt is a lich and therefore a skeleton that doesn't need as much maintenance as living creatures. He doesn't need to breathe, drink or eat (though he can eat and drink to keep up appearances and 'consume' it for minor magical energy). He needs to rest in a special casket for at least 8 hours every two days to fully replenish his magic; not doing this regularly will limit his ability to cast spells or do anything magical beyond keeping himself functioning.

He can also recharge his magic via drinking a specific type of specially-enhanced alcohol, the contents of which are a mystery but are almost certainly poisonous to living things; he keeps several bottles of this on hand for emergencies and carries a flask of it for longer missions.

He has a specially made glamour that allows him to pass as human. Its major trigger is keyed to his mask and veil. Removal of both key items immediately disperses the glamour.

His clothing is specially made to reinforce his glamour and to hide his true nature from other beings.

Due to his undead nature, he cannot be killed by conventional means, though he can be wounded and inconvenienced, as the magic that reanimates him also allows him to feel pain to complete his illusion of life. His bones can be broken if struck with sufficient force, which will limit his ability to move and act properly, and can only be repaired given proper magical care and time (though he can do this himself).

If his body is completely destroyed, he reconstitutes himself in his casket, which takes up to two weeks to fully complete (though the minimum time is a week). He can use a self-destruct mental command to destroy his own physical form and cause a magical explosion powerful enough to kill or severely injure anything he's making contact with at the time.

Destroying his phylactery is the only way to truly kill him. He has entrusted it to the current headmistress of Daybreak Academy as part of a pledge of allegiance between the family he serves and the Academy itself.

- Assassin skillset

Ekkehardt is trained for stealth, misdirection, surprise attacks, and close-combat knifework. This shows itself in his combat style, which is generally avoiding trading blows directly with anything until he can get close enough to weaken it and then finish it off. He moves quickly and efficiently, rarely wasting movement.

He has several knives hidden around his body (two wrist blades, one on each hip, one hung around his neck concealed by his clothing, one used to weigh down his veil from the back, one knife hidden in his belt clasp) and one more elaborately patterned and longer knife visibly strapped to his belt, used for more mundane tasks.

The hip knives and the knife around his neck are specially engraved to cut through magic and spellwork, and are kept in special sheaths until they need to be used.

RP SAMPLE
TDM sample