HUNGRY DOGS ARE NEVER LOYAL

Tenebrae is the bleak of a winter’s morning. He is the rolling sky in deepest night, the haze of snow covered ground lit by glowing moonlight, turning mid-night into silvery daytime.

Once a Disciple of the Night Order, the most noticeable thing about Tenebrae are the Order’s sigil moons that glow upon each shoulder and upon his forehead. They glow brighter or dimmer with the ebb and swell of his magic. Each of the sigil moons were burnt upon him by his goddess Caligo in the ritual that every Disciple of the Night Order went through. They are sworn to Caligo and in turn she bestows upon them her unique power of shadow-forging. They are her weapons, men borne of shadow and might. As such, Tenebrae is toned for war. Tri-toned skin ripples over thick muscle that shape a lean and agile frame.

His eyes glow white, almost blue. It is a strange anomaly since Caligo Initiated him into the Order.

But despite the soft of his skin, there is nothing soft in the curve of his warm lips, nor the fighter's lines of his face. Tenebrae may have been a a monk, but worship is not all he was made for. His body is a formidable weapon overlayed in muscle and power.

It took the Night Order months to break the orphan boy, Tenebrae, from his penchant for fights and possession over food. He was impulsive and scrappy. He argued with his superiors and fought without refinement. Yet training smoothed the rough edges of him. Devoting himself to his goddess meant he has become devout. The pledges each young stallion makes to their night goddess reflected their dedication and loyalty not just to their god but each other also. Each warrior of the Order is focused in their worship, they give themselves unto death for their goddess.

Tenebrae took his vow of abstinence (from all non-platonic relationships) upon his knees before his Night Goddess' ebony altar. He was honest with every confession, yet he carries with him a deep sense of unease over his past. The Order gave him a new life, the scars upon his back are not mere marks, but ghosts that haunt him. He carries his mother’s death heavily upon his shoulders. Still grieving a mother he never knew.

Tenebrae’s skill with a blade and utter commitment to the Order made him one of their finest warriors. His devotion is unparalleled, his focus upon his goddess was unwavering. Yet, it has long been a source of concern how rebellious and impulsive he can be…

Tenebrae now lives his life in moments. Death is a scar upon him. it is there in the darkness that he was born within. Tenebrae can be wicked and dangerously wild. He can be ruthless and one of the most forbidding creatures. He is the shiver up one's spine, he was impulse chained; desire and want and every kind of lust were dutifully bound and locked away. There had a glint within his eye, a dangerous streak the presses a blade to the binds of his Night Order pledge.

Now Tenebrae, with all of his mistakes, with his broken pledges has proven himself disloyal. He has rendered himself untrustworthy and dangerously impulsive. He carries guilt within him, yet his self-control is the shame of the Night Order in which he grew up. Tenebrae, many would say, is a waste. He would certainly think so of himself. Self-destructive, angry and full of discontent it might be that he was always destined to break the rules.

- Born to a mortal mother and by a father created out of shadow with a Night goddess' magic
- His mother died giving birth to him and his father had long faded back into nothingness and shadow - ceasing to exist.
- It was always Tenebrae's destiny to serve his Goddess as a Disciple of her Night Order.
- The goddess drew the orphan boy back to her when he has been living as a pickpocket
- Tenebrae was raised for battle and protection of his goddess within the Night Order.
- As a disciple within the Order he took his vow before his goddess and his brothers of the Order. In doing so he was given the Goddess' power to her Disciples: Shadowforging.
- For years Tenebrae never questioned his destiny, nor the Order's rules and his goddess' power. Yet one day there was a girl who caught his eye. Relationships were forbidden to monks like him and yet he grew to crave Boudika's company.
- Eyes opening to a world beyond duty and godly rule, Tenebrae met Elena. Their relationship was fitful and swift and startling. It burned fast as a match and soon she became pregnant.
- Elena, fearing Tenebrae's disgrace and removal from the Order, helped to hide their relationship and then, also, their child, from the monk, as well as his brothers.
- As Elena and Tenebrae met in secret, each grew slowly in love with another. Tenebrae with Boudika and Elena with Tenebrae's closest friend Azrael (not a monk).
- So it was that Elena told Tenebrae that her daughter was Azrael's and not his. But by this time Tenebrae was discontent with his place within the Order, with the rules he had to keep, with his goddess' decisions.
- He confessed his relationship with Elena to Boudika who rightly left him with a broken heart.
- Tenebrae was punished and exiled from the Night Order and was sentenced to loose his sight
- Lost and angry he began searching for meaning. In his grief he met Stellanor, another soul abandoned by love.
- Stellanor is now pregnant following their meeting and Elena is back following her own loves and losses with Tenebrae's friend, Azrael. It is time Tenebrae discovered his growing bloodline.

Primary: Shadow forging
Ability to make shadow/darkness and from it he can fashion items and creatures. Also possesses the ability to turn himself into shadow.
Secondary: Magic mimicry
Ability to mimic the magic of others when in their presence.
Tertiary: Ice fire
Ability to produce black flames which possess no heat but terrible cold. They are smokeless and silent. Anything they touch is burned with cold and at worse destroyed and disintegrated by cold. The effect upon Tenebrae is that his skin is cold when using the flames. Frost can dust across his skin and even touching another can leave a frost-burn.

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Magic Scales

Fledgling
PrimaryThe first step toward shadow forging is to take light to make shadow. Before light was darkness and so, in order to make shadow one must take away some light. As a monk Tenebrae learned how to absorb light in order to summon shadow in its place. As he becomes skilled in absorbing light, so shadows begin to form. These shadows are formless, but the deepest dark. As they become more skilled, the shadows begin to make small shapes such as a knife, a shield or a small creature, but can last for only a minute or two.
As they absorb light, his crescent moon markings glow brighter. These sigils upon his shoulder and forehead are a sign of his belonging to the Night Order and that he is (now was) a Disciple of Caligo. As Tenebrae's power grows, the shadows grow across his skin, turning his body black as pitch.
Secondary: Tenebrae is able to mimic the tertiary magic of others for only a moment or two before he grows weary.
Tertiary: At this level Tenebrae can produce a small fire which lingers only for a few moments. The smokeless, silent flames are black and freezing to touch. Like true fire, touching these flames will burn, only with the black flames it is with cold. It takes Tenebrae a lot of effort to maintain the flames for this time.

Vacillant
Primary: The second stage is when the disciple has refined the art of absorbing light. He can now forge shadows into larger, more solid objects and animals if he keeps his conjouring to small items. Tenebrae could forge a small sword, as sharp as any true blade. Or a breastplate of shadows stronger than chainmail. Yet these forged items last for only a short while 30 mins or so before becoming permeable once more. It is also during this level of their devotional training that they can summon larger shadows. These shadow may be thicker and more vague, but the larger they are the more formless and less dense they become.
Secondary: He is able to choose to mimic the secondary magic of others for a short period or the tertiary magic of others for a longer time.
Tertiary: Now Tenebrae is able to maintain the ice fire for longer - up to an hour. Yet as he grows stronger and more capable of producing a larger fire, it can easily get out of hand. Tenebrae can lose control of the fire and it will consume in black fire all things around him. Producing frozen ash and turning anything it touches into shards of ice.

Affluent
Primary: The third stage, by this level, Ten is able to forge from darkness great weapons, like swords and whips for use in battle. They can form larger animals such as horses from the dark to aid in battle and they will be unwaveringly solid and black. They could even forge a suit of armour, strong enough to guard against the strongest of weapons. Yet this magic requires great effort from Tenebrae and can last only for around a few hours or so. He can conjure darkness in a greater cloud, enough to darken the sky. The more light he draws, the brighter his sigils glow and the darker the area around him becomes.
Secondary: Tenebrae is now able to mimic and maintain the mimicry of another character’s tertiary magic without issue and can maintain it for the duration that he is near that character. His ability to control his mimicry of another character’s secondary magic is also much improved. He now has glimpses where he can mimic another character’s primary magic, but these remain only glimpses and it tires him hugely.
Tertiary: The risks of Tenebrae losing control of his fire is greatly reduced. Now he can produce the flames when he wishes and control their size. He can leave subtle frost burns upon his foes.

Sage
Primary: Tenebrae can create a number of beasts to fight beside him or one great large one. He can create a creature as large as a dragon, or steal the moonlight from a land for a short time.
Secondary: At this level Tenebrae is able to master his mimicry of other characters’ secondary and tertiary magics, he can maintain his mimicry of their primary magics for a short while, but he tires and his control is poor. He risks losing control of his mimicry of their magic, producing the risk that the magic could do rebound damage upon him.
Tertiary: At this level Tenebrae is able to burn more than the foliage and greenery and inflict more than subtle burns upon his enemies. Now the flames can burn and destroy anything he chooses.

Mythic
Primary: At the heights of his power, Tenebrae is able to forge anything from the darkness he wishes without tiring. He can create multiple dragons, or blot out light from a land.
Secondary: Tenebrae is able to mimic another character’s magic without issue and maintain it as long as he is near that character. Once a character has gone, his ability to mimic their magic fades.
Tertiary: Tenebrae can produce a large fire and let it grow as large as he wish and burn for as long as he wants without tiring..

Actaeon:The Starlight Stag
Actaeon is starlight white, he glows softly like the light of stars. His eyes are midnight black, dark as the space between each star.
Tenebrae and Actaeon met when Tenebrae was tasked with the quest of catching the stalight stag and taking his magic from it. That quest bound Tenebrae and Actaeon and Tenebrae realised they could no longer be apart.
The bond between Actaeon and Tenebrae carries a curse that the Guardian of Strife warned Tenebrae of: if he touches Actaeon, Tenebrae's magic is muted, if not obliterated, for a time after.

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Thia m. 'gift of god'

Thia did not exist before Tenebrae's blinding ceremony. Neither did they really exist immediately after.

Tenebrae's magic was to generate shadows. He could forge them into any shape or animal he wished. But that did not mean the creatures he made were real, or sentient, until, one day, they simply were.

At first Tenebrae felt his magic, its trembling, its grief at his loss of sight, so like his own and yet... different. His magic felt different, it began to act strangely, reacting to him. Until it began to forge creatures, objects, of its own volition. And then, his magic spoke back, communicating through the shadow shapes, shadow beings it made. Tenebrae now communicates with his bonded through mind and voice.

Tenebrae calls his shadows' sentient mind, Thia.

Thia was lost at his emergence into Folklore, but now blooms again, extracting itself from his magic and awakening.

Obsidian (Acheron) (Eve) Florentine Leonidas Leto (Milo) Nightingale (Raum the pony) Sereia