AatR: Therryn

Introducing Therryn Masterson, my wildmage - whether or not he really wants to be, right now.

TL;DR follows ...

History

Therryn's past, as far as he's concerned, is no one's business but his own. This much, at least, is known to most people: He was born in a small human village, the only son of the village blacksmith and a wandering Elvish bard. When he was a youth, his mother vanished overnight - the manner of her disappearance led Therryn to believe she'd betrayed the empire, and in turn led him to abandon his musical gifts and take to the woods in hopes of somehow redeeming his family by hugging many trees. Ultimately, he was recruited by what was effectively the continent's police force, dedicated himself to their service to make up for the stain of his mother's treachery, and made his way up through the ranks -- until the day that a demon destroyed their central headquarters and killed everyone affiliated with the organization.

Since then, he has along with a handful of other survivers sought to find and kill the demon, before the world itself comes to an end.

Somehow, the whims of his creator don't really seem all that urgent in comparison.

Magic:

- Basics: Therryn is a wildmage, which means that his magic is intimately connected to nature. The most basic form of his power, and the most often seen, is elemental summoning and manipulation. He can, to varying degrees, create and guide fireballs, summon water or create waterspouts and the like from existing bodies, manipulate earth and stone, control or create plantlife, manipulate weather. He can still be damaged by all of these elements, though he's skilled enough not to strike himself with lightning or hit himself with a fireball, and can create calm patches in storms or tidal waves to protect himself and his allies. He can't cast any direct sheild magic, but can raise barriers of earth, water, fire, what have you to serve as temporary shields if need be. He can also teleport only himself short distances.

- Healing: Therryn has some healing magic; given what he is, and his affinity for plantlife, he's able to heal himself easily. Animal-creatures (humans) take much more effort, and more time, but he can stabalize an otherwise fatal blow, and heal reasonable cuts and scrapes without too much trouble.

- Shapeshifting: Therryn can take the form of any natural living thing, be it animal or plant, although he usually perfers not to. He can similarly adjust his basic appearance, changing hair or skin colour, facial features, even gender - although he has no control over his clothing, or how well they fit other shapes. He is not able to turn into fantastic creatures, nor can he modify standard animals to create mixtures - no panthers with wings. He can't speak in either animal or plant form, but he can still cast spells. In both cases, his clothing and staff temporarily vanish to a pocket dimension.

Aside from disguising his unusual apperance, Therryn prefers to avoid changing shape when possible. He'll use it only if the form offers him something necessary that he can't do on his own (flying, swimming underwater for long periods of time, climbing mountains, blending into the forest as a shrubbery, &c) and will return to disguised-humanoid shape as quickly as he can -- the one exception being when he's very upset, at which point he'll try to shift into a fern and mull things over (read: sulk). Therryn's shape changes can be maintained indefinitely, even while asleep, but he'll revert back to green-elf if knocked unconscious or killed, or more rarely if he's disruped by strong, strange magic.

Personality:

First impressions aside, Therryn is actually a relatively decent elf. He's serious, thoughtful, perhaps even wise, and is both dedicated and incredibly loyal to those he deems worthy of that loyalty. He is not particularly fond of people-and-other-humanoids, but is incredibly devoted to nature -- he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect the spirit of a forest, allowed that spirit to turn him into a plant-like creature to use as an instrument, and considers the loss of his humanity (as it were) to be no price to pay -- and is fundamentally a gentle soul.

Unfortunately, he has an artistic temperament, combined with a rather regerettably Elvish lack of humour. This led him as a child to think that the worst scenario was most likely, spinning a rather bleaker world than he really needed to live in. He has spent most of his life trying to atone for his mother's guilt, when her treason has never been proven or even really suggested, and faced with the destruction of his organization decided to almost single-handedly take up the mantle of saving the world.

With so much hanging in the back of his mind, therefore, Therryn has become rather impatient particularly with respect to side-issues. He is capable of being incredibly thoughtful, insightful, and helpful, so long as he dosen't feel that he's wasting his time. In most cases, though, he'd rather brush through any possible distraction as quickly as possible, to get back to what's really important. This leads to a sort of indifferent polarization between good and evil - Therryn doesn't really care about people (or elves, or dwarves), and will just as happily save an orphanage as raze it to the ground (though he'd rather do neither), depending on which will get him back on his quest the easiest.

Getting him to sit down and relax, much less smile or laugh, can be a challenge.

Fighting Style:

Powerful, efficient, brutal.

A nature-lover and something of an intellectual, Therryn spends a lot of his time irritated or twitchy, and has very few legitimate excuses to let that out. Opportunities to fight, therefore, become ways of venting his frustration on a semi-legitimate target, or at the very least of accomplishing something tangible, and he throws himself into it as a form of therapy. He has a lot of magical power and few qualms about using it, can take quite a beating and doesn't really mind doing so, and can pack a powerful punch with his staff if he's really irritated.

That having been said, he's not sadistic or irrational: Therryn's main goal is to get everything out of the way and get back to what really matters. Usually, that just means killing or incapacitating everyone in sight and continuing down the path. If the most efficient way out of a conflict involves letting someone surrender or using diplomacy instead of firepower, however, he'll only grumble briefly before setting aside personal satisfaction and doing it the peaceful way. Fortuantely, extended negotiations are rarely more efficient than a well-placed fireball.

Inter-character relations:

~~ Kat: respects her, enormously, as his creator and as a person and would protect her with his life it it was really, really unavoidably necessary -- but is pretty sure he's got better things to do with his time than follow her around.
~~ Giselle: is a child, which he's never been good with. She's a sweet one, though, and is quiet, and stays out of his way, so he has a soft spot for her.
~~ Claire: is very hot, and smart, and would be Therryn's type, except for the part where she clearly doesn't like him much. He quibbles with her instead.

Therryn Masterson © ~persekore
Artists at the Ready © *TheReal-OCT