The Wake | Application
May. 30th, 2013 09:11 pmPersonal Information
Name: FrenchyWolf
Age: 25 years
Personal Journal: shadownfluff.dreamwidth.org
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frenchywolf
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garnetmenace
Character Information
Name: Raghyar
Age: 524, but acts like a three month old puppy
Appearance: Raghyar appears as a giant mass of something black and smooth, with a modified dog skull for a head. He looks a little like a gorilla, walking on his knuckles with his forepaws, while his hindpaws look more like a regular dog’s. A tuft of white fur decorates his shoulder plates, and two parallel rows of four little bones grow on his back.
His “fur” is very soft to the touch, as smooth as silk, and he is very fluffy, in particular under the throat. His tail is the fluffiest thing ever, but Raghyar doesn’t like when it is touched. Up close, it is easy to see that it's less fur than a oily substance, a little like petroleum, that can separate in strand to form different "hair". The only place he is not black is inside his ears, where it's light grey, and his little tuft. Both look like regular fur.
His forepaws end with actual hands, with a thumb and three thick digits. He is not very skilled with them, but he can at least read the newspaper, and it's the most important. (For him anyway.) His "nails" are short claws, partially retractible and silver in color. Hindpaws are regular dog paws, with silvery blunt claws.
His tail, as said earlier, is really fluffy, and more important always connected to the nearest shadow. If Raghyar's link with the natural shadow is cut, he dies. That's why he doesn't like it touched.
The eight bones on his back are actually the tip of his batlike wings. The ShadowPet almost never uses them, because for some reason, it hurts him a lot to let them out, giving the impression they actually rip off his skin to free themselves even though Raghyar has no skin to speak of, being made entierly of shadows. The spirit uses them if there is really no other option, to save someone or something like that, since a fall from any height can't hurt him. Also black "blood", or rather the shadow substance he is made of tends to "bleed" from the "wounds" the wings cause.
Actually hurting him is hard: steel has no effect on his shadowmass, he regenerates as fast as he is hurt, and doesn't feel a thing. Everything energy based (plasma, magic...) actually hurt him and make him "bleed", but the only way to really kill him is to cut his link to the shadows (his tail most of the time.) or to destroy his focal point(his dog skull).
Like every ShadowPet, Raghyar's eyes are in fact little ball of light. They change of color depending on his mood, and are the real indicators of his feelings, since a skull is not really expressive. They can change of size as well.
Character history: Once upon a time, in a dimension far, far away, lived a Mage. Mages in this universe could call and control the spirits of their world, using the magical creature powers to feed their own projects. It was alright, because most of the time, spirits were nothing more than balls of energy.
But that's another story. Let's go back to the Mage. Because if most of the Mage were rather self centered, this one was a Very Nice Mage, and he had a family he loved very much, a wife, two daughters, and an old dog, who had followed him since his teenager years. The Very Nive Mage (VNM) and his family were living peacefully in a forest, rather isolated, but the people of the nearby village knew they could count on him if there was a drought or a flood, sickness or sudden death: the VNM even helped numerous babies to come to this world, and he was loved by all.
Now, every story has a tragedy in it. But you know, the tragedy is not always a big one. For our story, the tragedy could even be judged not tragic at all: one day, the Mage's dog died of old age. The girls were young but not young enough to not understand that the beloved sherped that had looked after them since they were born, running, playing at their sides, would never come back.
The VNM was devastated by the loss of his oldest friend. He knew that not even a Mage could bring the dead back to life, not even an animal, but he wanted his dog to stay with him, even if it was just a part of him. So the man severed the head of the canine, burying the rest, and left it on an anthill. A week later, only the skull was left, and the Mage took it back to his study room, preparing one of the most dangerous spell there was: the creation of a ShadowPet. It meant bonding shadow spirits to a bone, and it was well known that shadow spirit were amonst the most dangerous spiritual creatures, and linking them by force was very risky, since they could escape containment during the spell and attack the Mage instead. But once the ritual done, ShadowPets became the most reliable soldiers there was, bound by unbreakable spells. The mage convinced himself that it was not his beloved friend he was bringing back, that he just called a slave to protect his little girls, because a Mage in the East was becoming restless and would maybe attack him and his domain.
Fortunately, everything went well for the VNM: he created his soldier. At first, it was nothing more than a black mass with a dog skull, and terrorised his daughters: but after some time, the ShadowPet took a more defined form, that looked only vaguely like a dog. The mage was both relieved and sad at that view: relieved, because his dog wasn't stuck on this Earth as a slave shadowspirit, sad because well, it wasn't his dog.
Most of the ShadowPets are kept on a tight leash by their masters, but the VNM, curious, allowed his slave to do as he pleased, under constant watch, of course. At first, the shadowspirit stayed immobile, listless: but its species fed on emotion, and the VNM's family was happy, so happy, and the villagers that came to the domain were as well that the spirit had nothing but happiness to eat, and eat he did. Good feelings permeated his entire being, blending with his shadow essence, becoming a part of his being. Slowly, the ShadowPet became a "he" and not a "it", adapting to his surroundings, beginning to play with the girls gently, oh so gently, his large eyes changing colors to show his mood to everyone.
A normal Mage would have destroyed the ShadowPet right here and there, because when they became aware, they could try to break the spells that bonded them to their Masters and kill them. But the Very Nice Mage was, well, very nice, and never tried to hurt his Pet. He even cared, giving him the best care when the spirit was hurt defending his domain and the village nearby, petting him and even giving him a name: Raghyar. The VNM understood then that it would never be his dog in front of him, but another being entierly, one that deserved love as well. And thus Raghyar was upgraded from "slave" to "member of the family". He was with the family when the first girl found her love and married, when she had her first child, when the younger daughter came back from the city not as a student, but as a full fledged doctor. The Pet and the Mage were sometimes seen rolling in the grass, mock-fighting, and the VNM was the first human to actually ride a ShadowPet without fearing for his life. (Thought the bones on Raghyar's back made riding somewhat difficult.) He was here as well when the wife of the VNM died of an incurable sickness, because magic can't resolve everything, and tasted sadness, real sadness, for the first time.
Raghyar didn't like the taste. Coming from a creature that shouldn't know what "like" mean, it was something. The Mage lost his interest for magic after that, but he never sent Raghyar back to the spirit world, since the Pet himself had made no move to free himself. Indeed, Raghyar was happy here, with the family, even through the nice wife was gone and the two daughters leaving to live their own lifes.
Raghyar liked humans. He had learned the difference between bad and good, to see the evil in some humans, and the generosity in others. After all, the village near the domain wasn't full only of good people, and the VNM's family wasn't perfect: but all the happiness he had eaten already helped him to understand, to learn how to console, how to make the humans happy: he fed on that happiness, and grew even stronger.
The loss of his wife has devastated the VNM, of course: if he emitted any hapiness, it was muted, hollow, but Raghyar stayed at his sides because, well, the Mage was his beloved Master. Alas, the human's hair soon became white, and his body weaker with each passing day. But the Very Nice Mage wanted to be very nice one last time, so he asked his soldier, his "slave" to come to his study, and simply removed the spell bonding the spirit to him. Raghyar was free to kill him, to go back to the spirit world, to leave his house: the ShadowPet just left the study as if nothing happened and went back to play with the new kitten. He wanted to stay.
Of course, the Mage passed away. Magic, or the loyalty of a spirit couldn't expand one's lifetime. One day, the human went to sleep, Raghyar at the feet of his bed, but he never woke up and the ShadowPet was now all alone. He stayed for the funeral to say good bye to his creator but didn't stay at the manor, despite the supplications of the villagers. Raghyar was very saddened by the loss of his master and couldn't bear to live in the house without him. The spirit went to live with the second daughter, then she died as well, so he lived with her son and so on, until one day, the last descendant of the Mage passed away without children. Raghyar was at loss: he existed to protect the Mage and his family but no family was left, the VNM's blood so diluted now that he couldn't find his descendants anymore.
Raghyar was, in fact, completely free for the the first time. So he went exploring.
The world was in fact a big, very big village: traditions and laws could change, but people were people, good and bad, and Raghyar still loved them all. The first free ShadowPet roamed around the world, helping here and there, feeding on the happiness he could find. Until he met another ShadowPet, 250 years after the death of his creator.
Shan'wi was a very big shadowspirit, created with the spine of a dolphin. Every ShadowPet, once created, keep a trait relative to the animal they are created from. Raghyar kept the dog's loyalty and Shan'wi... It didn't keep the playfulness, the happiness or the smile of a dolphin, but its intelligence. It was, in fact, the most intelligent ShadowPet ever created: from the start, the shadow dolphin understood that it should never, never show his awareness to its master, the Very Intelligent Mage (VIM), or it would be destroyed.
Raghyar and Shan'wi made friends, even though the dolphin wasn't really reactive at first. The two Shadowspirit explored the country around the VIM's domain, as Shan'wi was ordered to not go too far, and the human never saw a glimpse of the shadow dog. After a while, Shan'wi became as aware as Raghyar, and decided that she was female. She never explained it to Raghyar himself, but she took example on the VIM's wife who was lying and cheating on him, exactly like Shan'wi.
The dolphin wasn't jealous of Raghyar' because of his freedom, but wanted it as well. She wanted her master to free her so she could go explore the world. But the Very Intelligent Mage wasn't like the Very Nice Mage, and the only way to free herself was to trick him somehow, or so Shan'wi thought. Usually after becoming aware she could have destroyed the spell bonding her to the human, but the VIM was as intelligent as his ShadowPet, and better Mage than the VNM. The spell he had created was unbreakable.
Then the VIM sent her after thieves. ShadowPets usually are not send to fight humans, or at least not to kill them. But the Mage has been busy with an experiment, and Raghyar was gone exploring, so Shan'wi was alone when she attacked the humans, slaughtering them brutally.
For the first time, she had a taste of pain, and real terror. She loved it. For ShadowPets, these feelings are akin to a drug. It felt good, so very good, and gave them so much power. The dolphin loved every second of the torture she inflicted on them. She became strong enough to ignore the orders that have been given to her, and simply thought that if she couldn't trick the VIM into releasing her, then maybe she could force him?
When Raghyar came back on Shan'wi's territory, he just found a house splattered with blood, the VIM's corpse atrocely mutilated, and his friend torturing the Mage's wife. He tasted pain and terror and "spit it out", the happiness in his Core revulsed. The Shadow dog tried to stop the murderous dolphin, but she didn't listen to him: the Mage had died without freeing her from the spell and his blood had to die as well so it was completely removed. Raghyar tried to explain than the blood has nothing to do with this (and the wife wasn't sharing the same blood than her husband anyway), but his friend was now insane, gorged on pain and fear, killed the wife and went to hunt the VIM's children. Raghyar managed to chase her off, completely devastated. What had happened to his dear friend? That's what happened when a ShadowPet became aware?
Worse, Shan'wi attacked the children again, and again, and each time the shadow dog stopped her, careful to never be seen. Shan'wi was completely insane and deeply convinced that only the total disappearance of her former Master's blood would free her. Which was ironic, because with him dead, she was indeed free: the spell might be still here, but it was not linked to anyone now and the VIM has been careful to make sure that nobody but him could use it.
For the next 200 years, a secret war took place betwween the two ShadowPets: Raghyar protecting the descendants of the Mage, Shan'wi doing her best to kill them all. The dog managed to keep them all alive, but it was hard to fight against the dolphin and her intelligence, especially since he couldn't understand why she was so intend on killing. The children had nothing to do with this! When they became adult, they stopped interesting Shan'wi, but until then she was resolute to try EVERYTHING to kill them. The war was invisible to mortal eyes, Raghyar very careful to never be seen or a Mage would be called to destroy him and the two preferring to fight in their natural habitat, the shadows. The VIM's descendants were soon called lucky: there were always accidents, often very serious, and they always barely escaped death.
But like the blood of his beloved Master, Raghyar saw the blood of the Very Intelligent Mage thin, and then disappear. To be fair, Shan'wi's attacks had stopped a little while ago, even though Raghyar had no idea why. When the last descendant of the VIM gave birth to a little boy with absolutely no trace of the Mage in his blood, the shadow dog knew his self inflicted duty was over, and he went to look for his former friend.
When he found her, she was nothing but the shadow of what she has been. Fear and pain indeed give great power to a ShadowPet, but there was a price to pay. You needed more, always more of it, to keep your shadowmatter from dissipating but Shan'wi, too intent on her "revenge", hasn't feed enough in a long while. Most of her power were lost, to the point her dolphin spine even disappeared, and with it her intelligence and awareness. She was now nothing more than one of those little bad spirit, lurking in the darkness, that loved to play tricks on the humans, but she was not even strong enough to hurt them anymore.
Raghyar's friend was definitely gone now. She -well "it" now, really- didn't even recognize him when he finally found it. The Dog mourned his loss from some time, and then moved on. The world was still here, with nice and less nice people.
Since then, Raghyar has been wandering in the shadows. For a lot of magic users, he is considered as a protective spirit, and some had tried to summon him: he never answered those call, prefering to chose himself the ones needing his protection, most of the time children.
And then he got dropped on Nautilus. Not that he mind. A little change of scenery is always good.
Personality: ShadowPets, when they are allowed to become aware, behave very differently than humans. For Raghyar, only the present really counts: he remembers the past, and mourn his losses ( He always keep his first Master in mind) but he quickly moves on. When he is attached to someone, he is loyal to death and really loves him/her. But when this person passes away, he has to continue, though he doesn't take another human under his protection before a few years had passed.
Raghyar acts like an overgrown puppy, and nobody is safe from his hugs when he is in a cuddly mood. He is very friendly and does not feel hate, as his matter is mostly impregnated of happiness and other positive feelings that leave very little place to anger and hate. It IS possible to anger him, but it's not advised, because he will stop at nothing before dismembering his offender. Don't forget that he can hide in the shadows! Hurting children is the best way to piss him off, if you are feeling suicidal. But except in the case of someone being in need of his protection, Raghyar is non agressive. He had rather flee than fight.
Nobody knows how intelligent Raghyar really is. Because his perception of time is different that ours, some of his actions seemingly random have effects ten years later, and the shadow dog's behavior proves that he had meant to have those results all along. (He once planted some sort of seed, only to come back five years later when the cherry tree bloomed for the first time.) He knows causes and consequences, but can't grasp the importance of some of those consequences. Making someone loses his job to protect him is not a problem for Raghyar. Same for school. He knows the importance of family, though.
Other than that, Raghyar is definitely a good guy, ready to throw himself at danger to protect someone. His preference goes to children, even though he never shows himself to them either. He is incredibly gentle with anyone more fragile than he is (so mostly everyone in his world) and very brave in the face of danger.
His favorite pastime is reading the newspaper, and if he doesn't eat human food, he loved the scent of sweet things, like cake or candy. Rolling in the grass is always cool too.
He knows basic math (additions, divisions, and the like) and reading. Since he can make text appear, it's supposed that he knows how to write too, or maybe his thoughts just appear on screen?
Now, he is not without fear. He really doesn't like rain and water in general: the shadows in it are sort of "muted" and feels "blurry" (That's what he says, at least.) He can swim, sorta, but he is not very fast and make his displeasure known by angry whistles and snapping of his jaw.
Fire makes him distinctly uneasy, especially big ones. He has no problem with bright light however, the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.
Powers and Abilities: Raghyar has the standard powers for a ShadowPet, plus a few he picked up after being set free.
ShadowPets abilities:
Great Strenght: Most of the time, the only weapons of the ShadowPets is their inhuman strenght. They are created to rip their enemies apart. Some can bite, but not Raghyar: his skull being the focal point keeping his shadowmass together, he is not going to get it close to something that could hurt him.
Walking Through The Shadows: A ShadowPet can walk into the shadows in one place, and exit from another shadow, in another place. Works only if the Pet has seen his destination first and can't be used while fighting, except for running away, since it works only for long distances. They can also stay in the same shadow to hide, given that the shadow is big enough to support all their shadowmass.
Impervious to Mind Control: A ShadowPet cannot be mind controled. The only magic working on them is the offensive magic. Anything else, even curative magic, has no effect except maybe pissing them off.
Hibernation Form: The name is wrong, since they don't exactly hibernate, but they can hide their shadowmass in the bone they are made of, leaving it sitting where they choose to "hibernate". They rarely, if ever do that: leaving their focal point alone without protection is calling for trouble, but if they need to hide in a place with too little shadow, that's what they do. Be careful when you enter a cemetary, as there could be one hiding in plain sight!
Mute: ShadowPets cannot speak like the humans. They communicate telepathically to one another, but it doesn't work on their Masters. They can emit sounds, though: usually, they copy the first animal they ever heard. Shan'wi mewled like a cat, and Raghyar... chirps. Like a bird. I am not even joking. He squeaks and whistles sometimes too.
Regenerate: In case of wounds, ShadowPets can regenerate their mass by staying in the shadows. It takes some time though.
Raghyar's Abilities:
Shadow Tendrils: Raghyar has enough control on his shadowmass to change it, even slightly. Spells are usually used to force the Pet to take a certain form, or they would just be ball of oily shadow with an animal bone on top but the shadow dog found a way to bypass the spells, if only a little. The shadowspirit can modify his one body to create small tendrils, often used to connect himself to the shadows if his tail is cut. He also uses them for his second ability:
Connection: Raghyar has found a way to communicate with humans, a way he couldn't have when he was created! By connecting one of his shadow tendril to a mobile phone, or a computer, or whatever technology with a text program, the shadow dog can make text appear on screen.
Wings: He has those and hate them.
Bond: During his "war" with Shan'wy, Raghyar learned a useful trick: he could bond himself to the shadow to someone, where he hides, staying close to them to better protect them, and in exchange feed on their emotions.
World Summary: Raghyar's world is pretty much the same than our own, except for the existence of Mages: but they were few and far in between, often too busy with their own lives to bother with the "normal" people.
In the XVIth century, when Ragyar was first created, Mages stayed most of the time cooped up in their castles, with only an handfull of servant forced to work for them. Some, like the Very Nice Mage, were different and allowed a village to settle near their castle, offering protection for loyalty and food. At this time, ShadowPets were common for Mages even though they were dangerous to summon. it wasn't rare to meet a Mage with two or three Pets. They were relatively big too (Raghyar is, in fact, one of the smallest Pet created at this time.)
But Magic was hard to learn, and only a few men could master it (Women rarely had the power to use the same Magic, their own art relying less on the spirits than the very power of the Earth itself.) and soon the knowledge on spirit summoning began to disappear, as Mages found no apprentices willing to work for them and learn their craft. With time, the Science slowly replaced the old art. Now, in the XXIth century, magic exists mostly in fairytales and only a few know how to call the spirit to their help. The ShadowPets still exists but they are small, bound to rat's or little bird's bones.
Magic itself, for men at least, is mostly obtained by binding spirits to your will. Spirits of fire give you power on the fire, spirits of water on water, etc... The only use of shadow spirits and light spirits is the creation of Pets. LightPets are even rarer than ShadowPets, because the lightspirit are mightily more agressive than shadowspirits.
Well, it's not exactly true. Spirits are never "agressive" from the start: they are mostly balls of fire/earth/shadow/etc... energy and completely unaware of their surrounding. But shadow and light are very difficult to harness and have that tendency to blow up in the face of the poor guy that is trying to bind them. Light and ShadowPets are mostly used to fend off other Pets trying to steal a Mage's secrets, or to scare humans thiefs.
Pets only become aware if they eat too much human feelings. The problem for a Mage is to find balance between the "feeding", as Pets need to eat to stay strong, and not give too much, as they become aware and thus more dangerous. As seen with Shan'wi, you must be careful with the feelings you give as food to your Pet as well.
Samples
Network: [The first thing the screen shows is the ball of lights that is Raghyar's eye, colored green, the color of joy and curiosity. The Pet slowly takes a few steps back to appear entierely on the screen. His long ears are pointed toward the communicator, and the Pet whistles once.]
I am bored. [The text appears and an ear flops on the sides] Is there someone who want to play? I dunno what. Catch-me-if-you-can, or hide-and-seek, or something else! I like hugs too! [At that declaration, Raghyar "smiles", his maws opening wide with a happy chirp.] Don't worry I won't hurt you or anything! I just wanna play. 'cause it's boring here!
I don't fight, though. I don't like that. It's not fun.
So, I will wait for you! See you soon!
[The ShadowPet winks playfully and the communicator turns off seemingly on its own.]
Third Person: Nautilus was a sight to behold. Raghyar would never regret coming here. Everything was new, smelled new and he had the chance to see things and people Mages had never seen! He was the luckiest ShadowPets ever, even though he was the only Pet here. The shadows weren't exactly empty (Raghyar had spied the thin black man travelling through the shadows once or twice, but he seemed so angry that the ShadowDog had never tried to talk to him.) but he was sure they were no other Pet here. They were no scent, no trail. It was kinda depressing...
But the Other People, the ones that weren't human but not Pet either, were interesting and most of them were nice. Not all thought, and that was too bad. The Tall Metal Machines scared him a littleand he kept away from them, but they could feel too, and some of them were happy enough to actually feed him! Well, not every Machines could, some of them were kinda gloomy. But hey, Raghyar wasn't going to complain, as long as he could find some happiness to snack on!
The humans here were pretty much like the ones at home, except some could do things even Mages couldn't. But the feelings tasted the same, and Raghyar was strong and well fed. The ShadowPet was feeling shy, though, and always hesitated before leaving the shadows when one of them were nearby. He had always been so careful to never be seen, for hundred of years, than the only thought of meet one of the humans face to face. They were always so afraid of him and his skull, even the adult males, the ones who were supposed be the bravest. The Other People, no problem but the humans... No. Just no.
The Very Nice Mage would have liked it here. His first master had always been so eager to learn new things, to meet new people. But he died a long, long time ago, and Raghyar had stopped mourning him for a while now, except for the occasionnal pang of sadness when the Pet saw something his creator would have loved to see.
But the happy time of the Mage was over now. He was in a new world, and it was time to go explore and maybe plant a seed or two, they were some awesome trees in the South District that would look good next to some buildings in the Northen District.
Name: FrenchyWolf
Age: 25 years
Personal Journal: shadownfluff.dreamwidth.org
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Current Character(s):
garnetmenaceCharacter Information
Name: Raghyar
Age: 524, but acts like a three month old puppy
Appearance: Raghyar appears as a giant mass of something black and smooth, with a modified dog skull for a head. He looks a little like a gorilla, walking on his knuckles with his forepaws, while his hindpaws look more like a regular dog’s. A tuft of white fur decorates his shoulder plates, and two parallel rows of four little bones grow on his back.
His “fur” is very soft to the touch, as smooth as silk, and he is very fluffy, in particular under the throat. His tail is the fluffiest thing ever, but Raghyar doesn’t like when it is touched. Up close, it is easy to see that it's less fur than a oily substance, a little like petroleum, that can separate in strand to form different "hair". The only place he is not black is inside his ears, where it's light grey, and his little tuft. Both look like regular fur.
His forepaws end with actual hands, with a thumb and three thick digits. He is not very skilled with them, but he can at least read the newspaper, and it's the most important. (For him anyway.) His "nails" are short claws, partially retractible and silver in color. Hindpaws are regular dog paws, with silvery blunt claws.
His tail, as said earlier, is really fluffy, and more important always connected to the nearest shadow. If Raghyar's link with the natural shadow is cut, he dies. That's why he doesn't like it touched.
The eight bones on his back are actually the tip of his batlike wings. The ShadowPet almost never uses them, because for some reason, it hurts him a lot to let them out, giving the impression they actually rip off his skin to free themselves even though Raghyar has no skin to speak of, being made entierly of shadows. The spirit uses them if there is really no other option, to save someone or something like that, since a fall from any height can't hurt him. Also black "blood", or rather the shadow substance he is made of tends to "bleed" from the "wounds" the wings cause.
Actually hurting him is hard: steel has no effect on his shadowmass, he regenerates as fast as he is hurt, and doesn't feel a thing. Everything energy based (plasma, magic...) actually hurt him and make him "bleed", but the only way to really kill him is to cut his link to the shadows (his tail most of the time.) or to destroy his focal point(his dog skull).
Like every ShadowPet, Raghyar's eyes are in fact little ball of light. They change of color depending on his mood, and are the real indicators of his feelings, since a skull is not really expressive. They can change of size as well.
Character history: Once upon a time, in a dimension far, far away, lived a Mage. Mages in this universe could call and control the spirits of their world, using the magical creature powers to feed their own projects. It was alright, because most of the time, spirits were nothing more than balls of energy.
But that's another story. Let's go back to the Mage. Because if most of the Mage were rather self centered, this one was a Very Nice Mage, and he had a family he loved very much, a wife, two daughters, and an old dog, who had followed him since his teenager years. The Very Nive Mage (VNM) and his family were living peacefully in a forest, rather isolated, but the people of the nearby village knew they could count on him if there was a drought or a flood, sickness or sudden death: the VNM even helped numerous babies to come to this world, and he was loved by all.
Now, every story has a tragedy in it. But you know, the tragedy is not always a big one. For our story, the tragedy could even be judged not tragic at all: one day, the Mage's dog died of old age. The girls were young but not young enough to not understand that the beloved sherped that had looked after them since they were born, running, playing at their sides, would never come back.
The VNM was devastated by the loss of his oldest friend. He knew that not even a Mage could bring the dead back to life, not even an animal, but he wanted his dog to stay with him, even if it was just a part of him. So the man severed the head of the canine, burying the rest, and left it on an anthill. A week later, only the skull was left, and the Mage took it back to his study room, preparing one of the most dangerous spell there was: the creation of a ShadowPet. It meant bonding shadow spirits to a bone, and it was well known that shadow spirit were amonst the most dangerous spiritual creatures, and linking them by force was very risky, since they could escape containment during the spell and attack the Mage instead. But once the ritual done, ShadowPets became the most reliable soldiers there was, bound by unbreakable spells. The mage convinced himself that it was not his beloved friend he was bringing back, that he just called a slave to protect his little girls, because a Mage in the East was becoming restless and would maybe attack him and his domain.
Fortunately, everything went well for the VNM: he created his soldier. At first, it was nothing more than a black mass with a dog skull, and terrorised his daughters: but after some time, the ShadowPet took a more defined form, that looked only vaguely like a dog. The mage was both relieved and sad at that view: relieved, because his dog wasn't stuck on this Earth as a slave shadowspirit, sad because well, it wasn't his dog.
Most of the ShadowPets are kept on a tight leash by their masters, but the VNM, curious, allowed his slave to do as he pleased, under constant watch, of course. At first, the shadowspirit stayed immobile, listless: but its species fed on emotion, and the VNM's family was happy, so happy, and the villagers that came to the domain were as well that the spirit had nothing but happiness to eat, and eat he did. Good feelings permeated his entire being, blending with his shadow essence, becoming a part of his being. Slowly, the ShadowPet became a "he" and not a "it", adapting to his surroundings, beginning to play with the girls gently, oh so gently, his large eyes changing colors to show his mood to everyone.
A normal Mage would have destroyed the ShadowPet right here and there, because when they became aware, they could try to break the spells that bonded them to their Masters and kill them. But the Very Nice Mage was, well, very nice, and never tried to hurt his Pet. He even cared, giving him the best care when the spirit was hurt defending his domain and the village nearby, petting him and even giving him a name: Raghyar. The VNM understood then that it would never be his dog in front of him, but another being entierly, one that deserved love as well. And thus Raghyar was upgraded from "slave" to "member of the family". He was with the family when the first girl found her love and married, when she had her first child, when the younger daughter came back from the city not as a student, but as a full fledged doctor. The Pet and the Mage were sometimes seen rolling in the grass, mock-fighting, and the VNM was the first human to actually ride a ShadowPet without fearing for his life. (Thought the bones on Raghyar's back made riding somewhat difficult.) He was here as well when the wife of the VNM died of an incurable sickness, because magic can't resolve everything, and tasted sadness, real sadness, for the first time.
Raghyar didn't like the taste. Coming from a creature that shouldn't know what "like" mean, it was something. The Mage lost his interest for magic after that, but he never sent Raghyar back to the spirit world, since the Pet himself had made no move to free himself. Indeed, Raghyar was happy here, with the family, even through the nice wife was gone and the two daughters leaving to live their own lifes.
Raghyar liked humans. He had learned the difference between bad and good, to see the evil in some humans, and the generosity in others. After all, the village near the domain wasn't full only of good people, and the VNM's family wasn't perfect: but all the happiness he had eaten already helped him to understand, to learn how to console, how to make the humans happy: he fed on that happiness, and grew even stronger.
The loss of his wife has devastated the VNM, of course: if he emitted any hapiness, it was muted, hollow, but Raghyar stayed at his sides because, well, the Mage was his beloved Master. Alas, the human's hair soon became white, and his body weaker with each passing day. But the Very Nice Mage wanted to be very nice one last time, so he asked his soldier, his "slave" to come to his study, and simply removed the spell bonding the spirit to him. Raghyar was free to kill him, to go back to the spirit world, to leave his house: the ShadowPet just left the study as if nothing happened and went back to play with the new kitten. He wanted to stay.
Of course, the Mage passed away. Magic, or the loyalty of a spirit couldn't expand one's lifetime. One day, the human went to sleep, Raghyar at the feet of his bed, but he never woke up and the ShadowPet was now all alone. He stayed for the funeral to say good bye to his creator but didn't stay at the manor, despite the supplications of the villagers. Raghyar was very saddened by the loss of his master and couldn't bear to live in the house without him. The spirit went to live with the second daughter, then she died as well, so he lived with her son and so on, until one day, the last descendant of the Mage passed away without children. Raghyar was at loss: he existed to protect the Mage and his family but no family was left, the VNM's blood so diluted now that he couldn't find his descendants anymore.
Raghyar was, in fact, completely free for the the first time. So he went exploring.
The world was in fact a big, very big village: traditions and laws could change, but people were people, good and bad, and Raghyar still loved them all. The first free ShadowPet roamed around the world, helping here and there, feeding on the happiness he could find. Until he met another ShadowPet, 250 years after the death of his creator.
Shan'wi was a very big shadowspirit, created with the spine of a dolphin. Every ShadowPet, once created, keep a trait relative to the animal they are created from. Raghyar kept the dog's loyalty and Shan'wi... It didn't keep the playfulness, the happiness or the smile of a dolphin, but its intelligence. It was, in fact, the most intelligent ShadowPet ever created: from the start, the shadow dolphin understood that it should never, never show his awareness to its master, the Very Intelligent Mage (VIM), or it would be destroyed.
Raghyar and Shan'wi made friends, even though the dolphin wasn't really reactive at first. The two Shadowspirit explored the country around the VIM's domain, as Shan'wi was ordered to not go too far, and the human never saw a glimpse of the shadow dog. After a while, Shan'wi became as aware as Raghyar, and decided that she was female. She never explained it to Raghyar himself, but she took example on the VIM's wife who was lying and cheating on him, exactly like Shan'wi.
The dolphin wasn't jealous of Raghyar' because of his freedom, but wanted it as well. She wanted her master to free her so she could go explore the world. But the Very Intelligent Mage wasn't like the Very Nice Mage, and the only way to free herself was to trick him somehow, or so Shan'wi thought. Usually after becoming aware she could have destroyed the spell bonding her to the human, but the VIM was as intelligent as his ShadowPet, and better Mage than the VNM. The spell he had created was unbreakable.
Then the VIM sent her after thieves. ShadowPets usually are not send to fight humans, or at least not to kill them. But the Mage has been busy with an experiment, and Raghyar was gone exploring, so Shan'wi was alone when she attacked the humans, slaughtering them brutally.
For the first time, she had a taste of pain, and real terror. She loved it. For ShadowPets, these feelings are akin to a drug. It felt good, so very good, and gave them so much power. The dolphin loved every second of the torture she inflicted on them. She became strong enough to ignore the orders that have been given to her, and simply thought that if she couldn't trick the VIM into releasing her, then maybe she could force him?
When Raghyar came back on Shan'wi's territory, he just found a house splattered with blood, the VIM's corpse atrocely mutilated, and his friend torturing the Mage's wife. He tasted pain and terror and "spit it out", the happiness in his Core revulsed. The Shadow dog tried to stop the murderous dolphin, but she didn't listen to him: the Mage had died without freeing her from the spell and his blood had to die as well so it was completely removed. Raghyar tried to explain than the blood has nothing to do with this (and the wife wasn't sharing the same blood than her husband anyway), but his friend was now insane, gorged on pain and fear, killed the wife and went to hunt the VIM's children. Raghyar managed to chase her off, completely devastated. What had happened to his dear friend? That's what happened when a ShadowPet became aware?
Worse, Shan'wi attacked the children again, and again, and each time the shadow dog stopped her, careful to never be seen. Shan'wi was completely insane and deeply convinced that only the total disappearance of her former Master's blood would free her. Which was ironic, because with him dead, she was indeed free: the spell might be still here, but it was not linked to anyone now and the VIM has been careful to make sure that nobody but him could use it.
For the next 200 years, a secret war took place betwween the two ShadowPets: Raghyar protecting the descendants of the Mage, Shan'wi doing her best to kill them all. The dog managed to keep them all alive, but it was hard to fight against the dolphin and her intelligence, especially since he couldn't understand why she was so intend on killing. The children had nothing to do with this! When they became adult, they stopped interesting Shan'wi, but until then she was resolute to try EVERYTHING to kill them. The war was invisible to mortal eyes, Raghyar very careful to never be seen or a Mage would be called to destroy him and the two preferring to fight in their natural habitat, the shadows. The VIM's descendants were soon called lucky: there were always accidents, often very serious, and they always barely escaped death.
But like the blood of his beloved Master, Raghyar saw the blood of the Very Intelligent Mage thin, and then disappear. To be fair, Shan'wi's attacks had stopped a little while ago, even though Raghyar had no idea why. When the last descendant of the VIM gave birth to a little boy with absolutely no trace of the Mage in his blood, the shadow dog knew his self inflicted duty was over, and he went to look for his former friend.
When he found her, she was nothing but the shadow of what she has been. Fear and pain indeed give great power to a ShadowPet, but there was a price to pay. You needed more, always more of it, to keep your shadowmatter from dissipating but Shan'wi, too intent on her "revenge", hasn't feed enough in a long while. Most of her power were lost, to the point her dolphin spine even disappeared, and with it her intelligence and awareness. She was now nothing more than one of those little bad spirit, lurking in the darkness, that loved to play tricks on the humans, but she was not even strong enough to hurt them anymore.
Raghyar's friend was definitely gone now. She -well "it" now, really- didn't even recognize him when he finally found it. The Dog mourned his loss from some time, and then moved on. The world was still here, with nice and less nice people.
Since then, Raghyar has been wandering in the shadows. For a lot of magic users, he is considered as a protective spirit, and some had tried to summon him: he never answered those call, prefering to chose himself the ones needing his protection, most of the time children.
And then he got dropped on Nautilus. Not that he mind. A little change of scenery is always good.
Personality: ShadowPets, when they are allowed to become aware, behave very differently than humans. For Raghyar, only the present really counts: he remembers the past, and mourn his losses ( He always keep his first Master in mind) but he quickly moves on. When he is attached to someone, he is loyal to death and really loves him/her. But when this person passes away, he has to continue, though he doesn't take another human under his protection before a few years had passed.
Raghyar acts like an overgrown puppy, and nobody is safe from his hugs when he is in a cuddly mood. He is very friendly and does not feel hate, as his matter is mostly impregnated of happiness and other positive feelings that leave very little place to anger and hate. It IS possible to anger him, but it's not advised, because he will stop at nothing before dismembering his offender. Don't forget that he can hide in the shadows! Hurting children is the best way to piss him off, if you are feeling suicidal. But except in the case of someone being in need of his protection, Raghyar is non agressive. He had rather flee than fight.
Nobody knows how intelligent Raghyar really is. Because his perception of time is different that ours, some of his actions seemingly random have effects ten years later, and the shadow dog's behavior proves that he had meant to have those results all along. (He once planted some sort of seed, only to come back five years later when the cherry tree bloomed for the first time.) He knows causes and consequences, but can't grasp the importance of some of those consequences. Making someone loses his job to protect him is not a problem for Raghyar. Same for school. He knows the importance of family, though.
Other than that, Raghyar is definitely a good guy, ready to throw himself at danger to protect someone. His preference goes to children, even though he never shows himself to them either. He is incredibly gentle with anyone more fragile than he is (so mostly everyone in his world) and very brave in the face of danger.
His favorite pastime is reading the newspaper, and if he doesn't eat human food, he loved the scent of sweet things, like cake or candy. Rolling in the grass is always cool too.
He knows basic math (additions, divisions, and the like) and reading. Since he can make text appear, it's supposed that he knows how to write too, or maybe his thoughts just appear on screen?
Now, he is not without fear. He really doesn't like rain and water in general: the shadows in it are sort of "muted" and feels "blurry" (That's what he says, at least.) He can swim, sorta, but he is not very fast and make his displeasure known by angry whistles and snapping of his jaw.
Fire makes him distinctly uneasy, especially big ones. He has no problem with bright light however, the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.
Powers and Abilities: Raghyar has the standard powers for a ShadowPet, plus a few he picked up after being set free.
ShadowPets abilities:
Great Strenght: Most of the time, the only weapons of the ShadowPets is their inhuman strenght. They are created to rip their enemies apart. Some can bite, but not Raghyar: his skull being the focal point keeping his shadowmass together, he is not going to get it close to something that could hurt him.
Walking Through The Shadows: A ShadowPet can walk into the shadows in one place, and exit from another shadow, in another place. Works only if the Pet has seen his destination first and can't be used while fighting, except for running away, since it works only for long distances. They can also stay in the same shadow to hide, given that the shadow is big enough to support all their shadowmass.
Impervious to Mind Control: A ShadowPet cannot be mind controled. The only magic working on them is the offensive magic. Anything else, even curative magic, has no effect except maybe pissing them off.
Hibernation Form: The name is wrong, since they don't exactly hibernate, but they can hide their shadowmass in the bone they are made of, leaving it sitting where they choose to "hibernate". They rarely, if ever do that: leaving their focal point alone without protection is calling for trouble, but if they need to hide in a place with too little shadow, that's what they do. Be careful when you enter a cemetary, as there could be one hiding in plain sight!
Mute: ShadowPets cannot speak like the humans. They communicate telepathically to one another, but it doesn't work on their Masters. They can emit sounds, though: usually, they copy the first animal they ever heard. Shan'wi mewled like a cat, and Raghyar... chirps. Like a bird. I am not even joking. He squeaks and whistles sometimes too.
Regenerate: In case of wounds, ShadowPets can regenerate their mass by staying in the shadows. It takes some time though.
Raghyar's Abilities:
Shadow Tendrils: Raghyar has enough control on his shadowmass to change it, even slightly. Spells are usually used to force the Pet to take a certain form, or they would just be ball of oily shadow with an animal bone on top but the shadow dog found a way to bypass the spells, if only a little. The shadowspirit can modify his one body to create small tendrils, often used to connect himself to the shadows if his tail is cut. He also uses them for his second ability:
Connection: Raghyar has found a way to communicate with humans, a way he couldn't have when he was created! By connecting one of his shadow tendril to a mobile phone, or a computer, or whatever technology with a text program, the shadow dog can make text appear on screen.
Wings: He has those and hate them.
Bond: During his "war" with Shan'wy, Raghyar learned a useful trick: he could bond himself to the shadow to someone, where he hides, staying close to them to better protect them, and in exchange feed on their emotions.
World Summary: Raghyar's world is pretty much the same than our own, except for the existence of Mages: but they were few and far in between, often too busy with their own lives to bother with the "normal" people.
In the XVIth century, when Ragyar was first created, Mages stayed most of the time cooped up in their castles, with only an handfull of servant forced to work for them. Some, like the Very Nice Mage, were different and allowed a village to settle near their castle, offering protection for loyalty and food. At this time, ShadowPets were common for Mages even though they were dangerous to summon. it wasn't rare to meet a Mage with two or three Pets. They were relatively big too (Raghyar is, in fact, one of the smallest Pet created at this time.)
But Magic was hard to learn, and only a few men could master it (Women rarely had the power to use the same Magic, their own art relying less on the spirits than the very power of the Earth itself.) and soon the knowledge on spirit summoning began to disappear, as Mages found no apprentices willing to work for them and learn their craft. With time, the Science slowly replaced the old art. Now, in the XXIth century, magic exists mostly in fairytales and only a few know how to call the spirit to their help. The ShadowPets still exists but they are small, bound to rat's or little bird's bones.
Magic itself, for men at least, is mostly obtained by binding spirits to your will. Spirits of fire give you power on the fire, spirits of water on water, etc... The only use of shadow spirits and light spirits is the creation of Pets. LightPets are even rarer than ShadowPets, because the lightspirit are mightily more agressive than shadowspirits.
Well, it's not exactly true. Spirits are never "agressive" from the start: they are mostly balls of fire/earth/shadow/etc... energy and completely unaware of their surrounding. But shadow and light are very difficult to harness and have that tendency to blow up in the face of the poor guy that is trying to bind them. Light and ShadowPets are mostly used to fend off other Pets trying to steal a Mage's secrets, or to scare humans thiefs.
Pets only become aware if they eat too much human feelings. The problem for a Mage is to find balance between the "feeding", as Pets need to eat to stay strong, and not give too much, as they become aware and thus more dangerous. As seen with Shan'wi, you must be careful with the feelings you give as food to your Pet as well.
Samples
Network: [The first thing the screen shows is the ball of lights that is Raghyar's eye, colored green, the color of joy and curiosity. The Pet slowly takes a few steps back to appear entierely on the screen. His long ears are pointed toward the communicator, and the Pet whistles once.]
I am bored. [The text appears and an ear flops on the sides] Is there someone who want to play? I dunno what. Catch-me-if-you-can, or hide-and-seek, or something else! I like hugs too! [At that declaration, Raghyar "smiles", his maws opening wide with a happy chirp.] Don't worry I won't hurt you or anything! I just wanna play. 'cause it's boring here!
I don't fight, though. I don't like that. It's not fun.
So, I will wait for you! See you soon!
[The ShadowPet winks playfully and the communicator turns off seemingly on its own.]
Third Person: Nautilus was a sight to behold. Raghyar would never regret coming here. Everything was new, smelled new and he had the chance to see things and people Mages had never seen! He was the luckiest ShadowPets ever, even though he was the only Pet here. The shadows weren't exactly empty (Raghyar had spied the thin black man travelling through the shadows once or twice, but he seemed so angry that the ShadowDog had never tried to talk to him.) but he was sure they were no other Pet here. They were no scent, no trail. It was kinda depressing...
But the Other People, the ones that weren't human but not Pet either, were interesting and most of them were nice. Not all thought, and that was too bad. The Tall Metal Machines scared him a littleand he kept away from them, but they could feel too, and some of them were happy enough to actually feed him! Well, not every Machines could, some of them were kinda gloomy. But hey, Raghyar wasn't going to complain, as long as he could find some happiness to snack on!
The humans here were pretty much like the ones at home, except some could do things even Mages couldn't. But the feelings tasted the same, and Raghyar was strong and well fed. The ShadowPet was feeling shy, though, and always hesitated before leaving the shadows when one of them were nearby. He had always been so careful to never be seen, for hundred of years, than the only thought of meet one of the humans face to face. They were always so afraid of him and his skull, even the adult males, the ones who were supposed be the bravest. The Other People, no problem but the humans... No. Just no.
The Very Nice Mage would have liked it here. His first master had always been so eager to learn new things, to meet new people. But he died a long, long time ago, and Raghyar had stopped mourning him for a while now, except for the occasionnal pang of sadness when the Pet saw something his creator would have loved to see.
But the happy time of the Mage was over now. He was in a new world, and it was time to go explore and maybe plant a seed or two, they were some awesome trees in the South District that would look good next to some buildings in the Northen District.
