”Shifting, I find, is not all the same in the land of the dead - change is a magic of the living. I brought it with me, but I lack the amount of magic that it’d need to make the full shift. Instead, I focus on what I deem most important - tooth, claw, and tail.

I am a monster, and now I look like one.

I forget everything around me; forget that these monsters were once souls, because an ice cold dragon has little compassion at all when he’s hunting. I forget most of the others, though I am aware that they’re roughly on my side of this battle, if one could call this skirmish a battle at all. I know there’s cliffs on one side and a river at my back, and I know there’s no way to avoid a fate of suffering and death.

I am a monster, and I’ll take as many of them with me as I can.

I was never the rescuing type, never the martyr that some seem to think I am. Of course I’ll die heroically - for those who weren’t there. The ones who are, know the ugly truth. I am not a good man. Never have been; I’ve been haunting girls, annoying leaders, and stepped on every toe that ever stuck out in some way. I’ve challenged dragon and king alike, and I became one myself. I am a walking example of irony and hypocrisy.

I am a monster, and I want my territory back.”

- Leilan, BQ year 212, They all come into the light

TEMPORARY: Leilan’s body has become fully black, his mane and tail being black and metallic gold. He still has a layer of icy scales, which usually catch the light and dimly reflect some colours similar to a rainbow or oily stain.

Draft and baroque heritage show, it is mixed blood similar to a Murgese horse in build, resulting in a roman nose, thick feathering, and relatively long, thick and wavy baroque mane and tail. His shoulders and hind are prominent, but not overly stocky, and he’s not a giant by any means. Color-wise, for an otherwise relatively standard horse he has a quite unique mix of genes, being a silver bay roan. His silver gene is not very prominent, given that his lower legs barely show any silvering and remain rather dark, as well as his mane and tail have mixed silver-cream and black locks.

His mane and tail are streaked with gold after winning a set of games, giving him tri-coloured mane and a mostly gold-and-cream tail with one single black lock. His skin is laced with icy dragon scales rather than hair for the most part, covering nose to back and about until his knees, afterwards his fetlocks take over on the lower legs. His legs are covered in vanta-black swirling tattoos, the origin of which is unknown but probably hereditary.

Some might say Leilan is hard to describe, others just straight out use the word ‘nuisance’ or 'trickster' and are done - and right about it, too. Leilan has a tendency to show off and at the same time hide his true feelings, preferably behind a mask of annoying tricks and bad (dad) jokes. While some see through it, these are or become mostly his close friends or direct family, while others bristle at the mere sound of his voice after a just one meeting.
While he has a good head on his shoulders, he tends to use it to make the worst joke he can think of rather than to patch a situation. He has an absolute disdain for politics or religion and usually steers around any sort of relation to the topic. Cynical at times, aggressive at some, he also has a good part and switches easily between one day ruthlessly ruining every connection he has with someone, and helping someone find their way the next.
It all comes down to his mood, really. And he prefers it that way.

Mother was a queen in a matriarchal society, and he had mostly sisters when he grew up because his brothers had already left to care for their own families. He was and still is a little brat in the family, pushing buttons and wandering this way and that.
Accidentally fell in love, was held hostage, escaped, braved the world to find nothing of what he wanted. In the name of love, terrible things were done, as a substitute for what he couldn’t have. Found love at last, lost a child to their shared stubbornness, lived a few years in happiness before everything went downhill. Survived a kelpie bite, a plague, land shifts, long-lasting darkness and a dive into the underworld. Claimed land, gave it away, took it back, was crowned king and gave that away once more.
Loved again but never dared to, so he lost that too. In short, life is a string of emotion, and Leilan has done his best to avoid it.

A tendency for the cold has clung to him in his old world, growing from a more simple frost aura, to ice dragon mimicry and ice dragon shifting, until after some and then some more sacrifices, he was granted full magic, based on ice and cold. However in Mythos, everything is different, and his trickster nature and previous ice-dragon-shifting trait have changed his magical abilities into something… new.
Enchanted item: ice sword
Leilan carries a short that is not a sword. In fact he doesn’t even technically carry it until he uses it: it is made of magic and yet was found as a solid-like thing in the snowy blizzards surrounding Isdel. Technically it doesn’t exist on this plane as long as no ice magic touches it, best described as figuratively an empty hilt. Upon coming into contact with Leilan’s magic, the sword came into existence as a sword made entirely of ice. It will look like he conjured it with his magic on a whim, but there is a… something, there, that was solid on another plane before he first found and later on drew it.
Passive magic: colour-changing eyes (formerly part of dragon vision, inherited from his mother)
Leilan’s natural eye colour used to be a warm chocolate brown, but this changes with his mood. When his magic level increases, his eye colour will naturally turn to ice blue more often than not and only in situations where he ‘melts’ the chocolate colour still shows. Most notable colours are: emerald green (humour), black (anger), blue (compassion/sadness), red (shame), white (shock), and quicksilver (magic use) - of which the green colour tends to be his tell-tale eye colour usually. Colours can mix to produce all kinds of shades, like cyan/aqua, purple, greyish blue.

Primary magic: ice magic

Ice magic entails, when untethered, all variations of magic but all is touched with a tendency of cold. That said, ever since he has had this magic, Leilan has primarily focused on teleportation (either by portal or by turning into snowflakes and moving around), illusionism (tiny ice crystals reflecting the light to produce a coloured image), and the more general ice manipulation. Minor additions have been healing, mind reading, empathy. He probably won’t re-learn these until mythic level, or maybe never, as he is just not too interested at the moment.

Secondary magic: trickster

Following Leilan’s focus on ice-illusions and teleportation, something new has awoken in him - though some would argue it is just an extent of his personality. Trickster magic encompasses the ability to make believe: it helps him to pretend that something is real, until at its strongest level, his make-belief becomes reality.

Tertiary magic: ice dragon shifting

Leilan used to be able to shift into a dragon. This type of magic, when combined with ice magic, allows for just that: to change into a dragon, adapted to the ice element rather than fire.

FLEDGLING

Leilan will be able to move existing ice and snow around, pack it tighter or disperse it. Adapts to the cold more easily, but is not immune to the cold and can still get frostbite. The scales on Leilan’s body are truly made of ice, cold to the touch, and emit a cold aura, not affecting anything at the moment.

VACILLANT

Ice and snow may be crafted from bodies of cold water, and this gets easier where snow or ice naturally exists. Moving around snow and ice can be done with more precision, making shapes (ice sculptures/snowmen) that may be moving for a few minutes at best, or polishing ice to gleam like a mirror. Combining ice and trickster magic, he will also be able to create minor images (illusions) using snowflakes or ice prisms that reflect the light, so that small objects or parts of objects (e.g. a tree branch) are altered in appearance or seem to appear/disappear. These will be short-lasting illusions and easy enough to see and break through by others if they pay attention to it, and are cold to the touch should one test it.
As his ice magic and dragon shifting take a more definite hold on his body, Leilan also becomes more resistant to the cold to the point that he doesn’t feel cold anymore safe for in extreme weather, though he must be careful as parts of him may still freeze over unnoticed, and he doesn’t tolerate heat so well. His ice scales emit a constant cold aura, and may cause ice blooms on windows or metal objects, or freeze small droplets of water in his near vincinity. He may also occasionally show more pointy dragon teeth, usually when his draconic trickster nature is triggered or when he’s more or less on a hunt (figuratively or literally). His eyesight slightly enhances, seeing sharper in longer distances.

AFFLUENT

Ice may now be created from any water source, including moist air or ground water, and shaped and moved effortlessly. He may create ice-based portals to move from one side of a town to the other a few times after each other if necessary, but this would be a tiresome way of travel. Combining ice and trickster magic, he could make a rather convincing show and change the decor of one’s surroundings temporarily, briefly turning illusion into a cold version of reality (this lasts 1-3 minutes, after which they’re still illusions, but just that and no longer ‘real’). Although these illusions are still based on ice, they no longer emit a cold aura and are only cold if one fully immerses themselves in it (e.g. tries to walk through an illusionary tree or figure), and they can be detailed and coloured, making them hard to see through upon first glance, unless someone has a lie detection/illusionism type of magic themselves.
As a partial ice dragon, cold immunity reaches its peak and he won’t hurt from the cold any longer, coming at a loss of ability to adapt to warmer climates unless he actively emits a cold aura for himself. At this level, Leilan is able to shift his dragon teeth, eyes, claws, wings and tail in and out at will, although he is still subject to his own mood changes initiating such bodily change. Dragon sight includes hawk-eye vision now, aiding him in flight.

SAGE (unlocked)

Ice manipulation is effortless and easy, and ice can be crafted out of thin air with exception of dry (desert at night: still too dry) or hot circumstances (jungle: humid but too hot). Illusions become more detailed and hard to see through even when the background is moving, creating the opportunity to hide himself completely in corners and shadows. Ice-based illusions may be so convincing that the target forgets that any cold or ice is there, making it harder to tie the illusion to Leilan directly, as well as creating small objects from ice sort-of-permanently - making the illusion real for up to an hour, pending the amount of people he has to convince.
Portals may now be opened for longer distance travelling (e.g. within a guardian crystal’s area) - the longer the distance, the more time he needs to recover to create another.
Leilan may also shift fully into an ice dragon, but his size is limited to approximately that of a horse of 20hh, and he can only do this once per day. Shifting back, he could do a few hours later at the earliest, so he could be stuck as a dragon for a while. Even in equine form, his ice-scales stay, as well as his dragon sight which includes both hawk-eye vision and heat vision.

MYTHIC

Ice can be created and manipulated anywhere and at any time, including under duress, with the exception of hot and dry climate combined (desert by day). Illusions can now move by themselves and become real for an hour up to half a day, so he can move around invisible if needed and send a copy somewhere else at the same time. These illusions have no traces of the ice they were originally made from, and a copy of himself would look and feel real to anyone without a counter magic. He could make minor additions to the landscape and they would temporarily become real, e.g. turning a forest floor into a bog, though it depends on the amount of difference between fantasy and reality how long this lasts.
Portals may now be crafted going from one side of Mythos to the other, and he can turn into a snow-version of himself and drift on cold winds to transport as well, but the latter works only as long as this wind is cold (e.g. in winter or in the northern lands).
Ice dragon shifting comes as naturally as walking by now, and in full dragon size, although the shift itself is a magical strain so it would not be possible to shift back and forth multiple times within a shorter time frame.

Limitations

Ice magic makes Leilan susceptible to heat, and it is still weak in hot climates and when the days are long and hot (summer seasons). For example even at Mythic level he may portal from Dewsdour to Vinevrin, but once there can only move short distances. Will suffer from long-term exposure to heat and dragonfire, though he may counter it temporarily by creating shields or auras of ice.
Trickster magic works best on the gullible and/or the naive, and when the target wants to and is capable of believe. Those who are very uncreative thinkers and/or stubborn as a mule like Leilan himself, or those who possess a magic of illusionism or lie detection of their own, may be tricked less often (magic counters: dependent on the target’s magic level vs. Leilan’s magic level).
Dragon shifting magic is mostly limited to the time spent as one. Another thing he should be cautious with is, if he dons his ice dragon form for too long, it is entirely possible for him to lose himself in hunting, hoarding, and a general lack of care for anything that is not draconic in nature.

Toskr (also Toski, Ratatoskr): once Gyrfalcon, but changed into a Winter Wyvern upon arrival (this was a few weeks after Leilan’s own arrival, leaving them separated for a while), and again into a small ice dragon, white but with glowing gold and ice blue ‘marbling’ markings. Holds a small piece of Leilan’s soul, after Leilan gave it up willingly to end a years-long eclipse and help return the sun’s light to his homeland. It stands to note that Leilan’s eye colour remained fixed into his natural chocolate brown until Toskr reunited with him, suggesting that a part of Leilan's magic was stored inside the piece of soul that Toskr carries.

Companion magic: dragon breath (blue, ice). Toskr may breathe blue fire, which are freezing to the touch and its immediate surroundings. This icy “fire” causes major freeze-burns upon exposure beyond a heartbeat or two, or freeze an entire small prey animal in place. Harmful mostly to small critters, Toskr may still cause some damage to other equines or companions (with player permission).

Vanilla Custard Ahti Altan Aster Elayne Ezra Ilma Lelena Murgrona Oren (Robin) Rora Tecla


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