"If brevity is the soul of wit, then longevity be that of wisdom."
source: sakurasaku_xyli
Name: Camille Treviere
Title: Twice-Born, End of the Line, Half-Dead Brat
Gender: Male Age: 15 (72) Height/Weight: 159cm/52kg Birthplace: Southern France Likes: Cleanliness, weaving, fruit
Dislikes: (The smell of) Cleaning products, spicy food, insolence
Natural Talents: Necromancy, rituals
Natural Enemy: Kotomine Kirei, Michael Roa Valdamjong Image Song:No Light, No Light
Origin: Momentum Elemental Alignment: "Spirit" (Water and Wind combination) Circuit Quantity: B Circuit Quality: A Circuit Composition: Overlaid
family bio
1211. Southern France, near Avignon. From the woods emerges a ghost, the spirit of a young boy named Guilhelm. Over the course of a summer, he speaks at length with the local clergy on the nature of death, supports his people's crusade against the Cathars, and eventually fades away into obscurity. To history, this was a haunting. To the Treviere, it was a mishap.
Latest in an exceptionally long line of Magi from the Occitanie region, Camille Treviere stands heir to a glorious legacy. As with all children of his line, he has from birth been imbued with the fifty-seven years of experience acquired by his
original self
mother
, and in line with tradition has already resumed the familial duties. Considered foremost among Magi in manipulation of the soul, the Trevieres exist in a position of some considerable influence, to the point where even the holy Church is at times willing to overlook their transgressions in return for services rendered. Extensive connections, however, do not alliances make. While few clans could ever contest the extensive clientele they has amassed in the modern era, few if any of the Treviere's associates feel any great fondness for the family, whilst those who hold them in some great contempt number perhaps somewhere in the thousands. To an extent this is standard; no Magi family makes it past the fourth generation without acquiring a few rivals, nevermind the long centuries to which the Trevieres go back. What distinguishes them, however, is their aggression.
Any collection of Magi whose craft appears even remotely compatible with the Treviere's soul-alteration techniques is immediately made subject to their political pressure. Through calling in favours, through threats, at times through outright aggression, the clan moves to supplant and dismember potential peers before they can even begin to take root. Thus even the necromantic community regards the Treviere family as a dangerous element. That the Trevieres exhibit a level of morbidity extreme even for necromancers when it comes to their attitudes towards life and death does them no favours, nor does the ease with which they incorporate modern technology into their practices all in the name of efficiency.
An example of their fervency would be a century-spanning, entirely one-sided feud with the Einzberns over the power to truly manifest the soul. A feud that, technically, lives on to this day. Rumours that Treviere Magi are barred from becoming Masters in the Heaven's Feel ritual are however completely unfounded. Probably.
character
Every bit the young politician, Camille is eloquent, well-spoken - and unpleasant even by the standards of his line. Certainly, while his fellow Trevieres appear to rejoice over the completion of some long-running project, Camille is nothing but sullen, sardonic, and infuriatingly sarcastic. His speech carries a certain tone of superiority few could ever fail to note, whilst his mannerisms practically radiate a contempt for all he surveys. Jokes at his opponent's expense, casual threats of political pressure to his peers, a callous disregard for his own life, to call him merely hateable would do Camille Treviere too great a service.
The reality being that his attitude is simply the product of the resentment he bears for his line. After all, his death ultimately will be the final step in the Treviere family's long journey. Where his predecessors may at least have had the chance to acquire new techniques or develop new allegiances, Camille represents an existence that was born purely to die, and nothing he can do will ever match up to the results he will produce the second he passes on. As such he has been secluded from the world, waiting until his eighteenth birthday, where he will be expected to produce an heir and ergo an answer to his family's queries. Being surrounded by a family practically praying and braying for your demise breeds naught but disgust.
"I want to be free" is a child's wish. "I want to fly away from here" is a child's dream. "I want to live for myself" is a child's hope.
And Camille Treviere is still a child.
magecraft
couture-âme
my eternity unto your eternity, my everything as your everything
Soul-stitching. The technique for which house Treviere is best known, on which they base their misdeeds. Passed down for the better part of a millennium, a spell lacking any grand foundation whose origins are long since forgotten. The closest comparison, given the Treviere's detailed understanding of the soul, would be a form of possession. Perhaps a practical explanation would be best. Picture a Treviere magus of some ancient age, eager to find some means by which he might extend his lifespan and in turn his research. Thus he implants his soul into his newborn child, dominating their being completely. When the child's life nears its end, he repeats the process - only to implant his current body's original soul into the new child instead. This then repeats ad infinitum until a boy named Camile is implanted with the soul of his mother and matters continue as usual.
In effect, all Treviere children are possessed by one of their own parents, and do not truly "live" until they have for themselves stolen the body of one of their progeny. A possesses B to produce AB, who then gives birth to C who B possesses to produce BC, who births D to produce CD, etc. B's soul is moved from AB's body to newborn C at the exact second of conception, at which point AB, now A, begins to steadily decay as the body rejects a soul that is not its own.
For the duration of possession, the foreign soul completely supplants and suppresses the body's original soul, preventing it from developing consciousness, existing solely to maintain the body's function. As such, a given Treviere's soul does not begin to think until it has been moved into the body of its child, despite having existed within its original body for the duration of its lifespan. This prevents the complications of self and dysphoria common to other soul-alteration techniques, as the implanted soul soon adjusts to match the body into which it is placed. Furthermore, as the original and foreign soul are connected by blood, rejection or resistance will not take place for so long as the original soul remains. Exorcism techniques are likewise wholly ineffective.
Thanks to this technique, it is no surprise that the Trevieres are at times referred to as "half-ghosts."
As for the actual benefits to this practice, they are twofold. First, each Treviere receives a portion of the knowledge and experience first accrued by the ancestor who utilised their old body. Thus maturation on a mental level takes place at a dramatically-enhanced pace and attaining a degree of mastery over the house's Magecraft requires little to no training. Because each Treviere's "active" soul was suppressed and did not develop an identity while in its original body, a Treviere does not regard the memories they receive as being their own, which can and did earlier in the clan's history result in multiple cases of identity disassociation in early life, where children would struggle to maintain their own sense of self and not simply regard themselves as a continuation of their forebears. Thanks to the Treviere's widespread acceptance of modern conveniences however, state of the art psychiatric techniques are implemented at an early age to ensure each member of the family is able to achieve an acceptable baseline of mental health. By the standards of Magi, at least.
Second is the means by which the Trevieres hope to one day reach the Root; at the moment of conception, each Treviere male or female forcibly ejects their body's native soul, and implants it within the embryo. Beyond simply ensuring the child will survive to term, this has an added symbolic weight. After all, there is only one scenario in which the soul typically voids the body. Through simulating "death" in this manner, the implanted soul briefly - for periods of time scarcely measurable even in attoseconds - glimpses the oblivion at the end of the cycle of reincarnation, immediately before entering its new body. This memory will - unlike the memories each soul acquires within a body, which are lost between generations - carry down along the line of descendents, building bit by bit the image of Akasha. This is the great project of the Trevieres. A slowly-assembling picture of infinite wisdom.
At the current count, starting from around the eight century AD, a view of the Root sufficient to attain enlightenment should be available to the next generation. That is to say, Camille's child. No wonder the family is excited. And why Camille, who knows better than any that he will never personally attain the fruition his family fought for, is so very resentful.
Treviere Magecraft
Though given the family's practices, this title may be something of a misnomer. Indeed, the sheer shamelessness with which the Trevieres pilfer the techniques of their peers means their Magecraft is almost nonsensical by most standards, incorporating contradictory concepts from a variety of belief systems with no apparent regard for anything but their raw applications. The Egyptian conception of the soul merged with Buddhist reincarnation, animism with Aristotle, etc. Regardless, thanks to their efforts over the centuries, the Trevieres are simply without peer when it comes to manipulating the soul. Hence "a Treviere technique" is synonymous with the Ship of Theseus paradox in certain magical circles. A sample of their common Spells is given below.
spells
ordre: surgir
ye rested, now restless
A "preliminary" technique that typically precedes most Treviere Spells, it is the act of calling on souls in the immediate area and forcing them to manifest in a visible form. While human souls are typically the most valuable, that they are not always available means Camille can call on the spirits of deceased animals, plants, or even inanimate objects. A single blade of grass can produce a soul Camille might use as a means of delivering a message, or raw fuel for a high-level ritual.
procès: conversion
a purpose to the lost, the calling to service
The act of "converting" a manifested soul into a form more valuable to the individual Mage's purposes, first developed through occultist rituals that arose out of the Renaissance mysticism wave. Allows for the creation of essentially artificial spectral beings, to ghosts that can haunt an area to banshees to even Japanese youkai, though the most common product are the hordes of will-o-wisps roaming the Treviere's lands, on account of the low effort required to create them.
effet: sacrer
these lands of the living, the dead shall not covet
One of the rituals that sees the Treviere's retaining a place in the Church's good books, it is effectively enhanced exorcism, creating a hallowed region where spirits cannot take form. Useless to the Trevieres themselves, though a decent defense against certain forms of attack.
effet: préservation genius of the spirit, we shall not forget ye
The ritual responsible for the Treviere's safe political position among Magi, it is the preservation of an individual's genius. Or in short, it extracts the soul of a recently-deceased individual, allowing it to be maintained for cheap in exchange for only preserving their knowledge and allowing the actual personality to pass. Routinely used by Magi families whose heads pass away before they are able to convey their teaching down to the next generation, the Trevieres lend their assistance freely - in exchange for the protection of those who may some day require their aid.
procès: purifier your sacrifice we assure shall not be in vain
What typically becomes of souls the Trevieres have extracted and no longer require. It is a process of purification accomplished by implanting the soul into a homunculus with no capacity for movement or sensation, whose brain has been designed such that it experiences time at a vastly accelerated rate. The soul is then wiped clean through experiencing billions upon billions of years of nothing in the span of a second and can be "reprogrammed" to suit a number of purposes. Serving as security, running calculations, storing information, and so on. Effectively turns the human soul into a designable AI. The Church would be upon the Trevieres in a heartbeat if only they knew.
familiars
The Horde
The Treviere family, perhaps more than any other, depends on the continuation of their line to reach the Root. Two Trevieres cannot perform soul-stitching on the same child, as the struggle for dominance between the two implanted souls is inevitable and always disastrous. Few would consider surrendering a child to the Treviere family. Homunculi who can bear children are beyond the family's reach. Serial abductions are nuisance to maintain. The result, obviously, is thus to hold a breeding population, resulting in the horde. "Human" only in a purely genetic sense, they are the descendents of kidnapped villagers from around three centuries ago. Having their souls excised from an early age, they are usually implanted with pre-programmed souls taken from dogs and used as bodyguards until the time for a Treviere to pass on arises, at which point they are used as a means for the Magus in question to procreate. ... The fact they effectively breed with zombies to preserve their lineage has not helped the Treviere family's reputation in the slightest.
creator note
I'm not sure if "half-ghost" really fits the contest criteria, but I had a burst of inspiration and really couldn't let it go.
Last edited by sutaa; January 24th, 2018 at 10:28 PM.
"Whenever I meet one of you mages, I wonder. Which one of us is the real monster?"
Adlar Enoch
"Crest Hunter"
Gender: Male Age: 20 Birthplace: Nunavut, Canada Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Character:
A young man driven by the flames of vengeance. He travels the world, killing every magus he encounters. When he kills a magus, he strips the killed man of his crest and transfers it to his own body. Due to this tendency, he has gained the nickname, “Crest Hunter”.
Over the course of his lifetime, he has killed several dozen mages and has accumulated just as many magic crests. The result of carrying so many crests has caused his body to mutate into something that is no longer human. But if it is to ensure his vengeance, he doesn’t mind throwing away his humanity.
Background
In the barren wilderness of Northern Canada, there once lived an isolated tribe of people, descendants of Cain. Despite their heritage and certain special traits, they were as human as could be. Still, they lived in seclusion for their lineage had long since caused them to be ostracized by the rest of humanity.
Adlar Enoch was born into the tribe, unsatisfied and bored. He hated how isolated his tribe was and wished to explore the modern world beyond the village expanse. One day, his wishes were answered when an outside man stumbled upon their village and met Adlar. The man introduced himself as a magus, come having heard rumors of the tribe’s existence.
The magus was apparently researching a way to safely transfer magic crests between people. Normally, when this is done, the body will reject the magic crest, similar to an organ transplant. However, the magus theorized that the impurity within the flesh of Adlar’s clan, stemming from their ancestral connection to Cain, would allow them to accept any foreign substance without rejection. Thus, the magus wished to run some experiments with them to further his research. He offered to take Adlar back to his workshop and would give him a great sum of money if he cooperated with his research.
This was the opportunity that Adlar had always wanted, a chance to leave his boring, old village. He accepted and left the village without saying anything to the rest of the clan. For about a year, he lived in the magus’s workshop, allowing the magical man to perform some experiments with him. It seems that the magus’s theory was correct and he was able to successfully implant another person’s crest into Adlar without rejection.
After a year, the magus’s research had advanced considerably and he let Adlar go home with the promised huge sum of cash. Over that year, Adlar had seen so much wonderous things, from the amazing feats of magecraft to the advancements of the modern world. He had even picked up some of the magus’s techniques and secretly learned how to preform the crest transferal process. If he could, he wanted to become a magus himself. He rushed back home to tell everyone about his adventures, with the hopes that he could convince some of them to change their obsolete ways.
When he returned, Adlar found his village in ashes. The whole place had been ravaged; not a single person was left. It had not been much more than a year since he left, yet everything was gone. As he laid in the destruction of his clan, he remained bewildered, shocked, confused, angry. Once the shock had worn off, he came to a conclusion of what must have happened.
A magus must have done it. The only ones with the power to do so, the only ones with the motivation to do so were mages. His clan’s flesh was useful for their research, so one or a few of them must’ve attacked his village to further their personal goals. That was the true nature of a magus, someone who would destroy anything for their own gain. To be a magus and to be human were incompatible concepts.
Unforgivable. He could not let such a crime go unpunished. The amazement in his heart towards mages quickly became hatred. He was the only one left, he had to avenge his village.
So began Adlar’s quest of vengeance against the entire system of mages. He was not satisfied with simply killing them, however. For a magus, losing their crest was a punishment even worse than dying, so he decided to steal it from their corpses. Although he was but one man, this was his way of making a change, his path towards avenging his fallen comrades.
As long as mages live, he could not rest.
Personality
A young man consumed by the flames of hatred. He has come to hate the very concept and nature of mages and strives to wipe them out, no matter what it may take. Using whatever underhanded tactics possible, he will mercilessly assassinate any magus he comes across in his journey, and then desecrate the corpse by stealing its crest for himself.
Although he believes that he will do anything to get his vengeance, he’s surprisingly soft towards people who aren’t related to the world of magecraft. Deep down, he fears he will become the thing he is trying to fight against and desperately clings onto his humanity. Although his body may lose its humanity, he refuses to let the same happen to his morals. When all’s said and done, he’s still just a kid who wanted to explore the world.
His typical demeanor is cold and scornful. He strides with a “leave me alone” type of aura, and keeps to himself. Naturally, he doesn’t have any friends, partly because nobody wants to be associated with a monster like him, partially because he fears that he’ll end up losing someone else. Even under his tough guy demeanor, he occasionally can’t help being himself and gawking at something new and awesome.
He likes to hang out in graveyards since they’re typically quiet and secluded.
Abilities
Physical Traits Tainted Flesh
A natural body trait stemming from one’s ancestral connection to the son of Eve, Cain. Adlar’s body naturally contains a ridiculous amount of impurity in comparison to a normal human’s. Normally, this impurity doesn’t really have any thaumaturgical effect, except perhaps making one more susceptible to the Church’s Holy Sacraments. However, in the case of Magic Crests, it is a huge benefit. Being already impure, the bodies of Adlar’s clan do not have the automated response to conserve their own purity. As such, when they take in foreign substances, their body will not reject them and will eventually acknowledge the substance as part of the body. This allows the clan to gain the crests of other families without rejection. Thanks to this, Adlar has managed to accumulate several dozen crests without destroying his own body.
Crest Chimera
The result of obtaining the magic crests of several mages. Many magic crests are made with parts of phantasmal species. Normally, this doesn’t mean much since a normal magus only has one magic crest. However, upon gaining so many magic crests, a significantly large portion of Adlar’s body has become made of magic crests. In other words, a large percentage of his body is now made of phantasmal species. The result is that the inherent biological features resting within the magic crests have begun to awaken in Adlar. He is now much less of a human as he is another phantasmal creature, a Chimera combining the features of several phantasmal species into one creature.
The following is a list of powers Adlar has gained due to his chimera form:
Phantasmal Abilities
Dragon’s Breath
The signature attack of a dragon. By releasing a torrent of destructive mana over a wide area, one can create a powerful long-range attack that can wreck entire armies. The type of breath is dependent on the dragon; it seems that Adlar has both red dragon and blue dragon parts in his crests so his breath attack is combination of flames and lightning. The attack power of a dragon breath is dependent on constitution value, so the breath of a humanoid like Adlar is several levels weaker than a giant dragon’s.
Prana Burst (Flame & Heat)
The ability to infuse magical energy into one’s body and weapon and instantly expelling it. Adlar’s version uses the magical energy to generate intense amounts of heat and fire. This ability stems from the dragon and oni parts in his magical crests. The dragon part is responsible for the flames and the Oni part generates the heat. Since the magic crests carrying these parts are all on his left arm, he can only emit fire attacks from his left side.
Wings of Flame
The ability to create wings made out of fire from one’s back. It seems that this ability stems from a combination of harpy, Pegasus, and even phoenix parts. Although Adlar doesn’t normally have wings, by passing magical energy through the crests on his back, these ephemeral wings can be formed. He isn’t particularly sure how they works, but it seems that they’re not powerful enough to actually let him fly. Although he isn’t capable of full flight, he can still use them to help his movement in air and as extra limbs in close combat. By flapping the wings really hard, he can create a gale of scorching wind.
Monstrous Agility
The beast-like physical abilities of a monstrous beast. These stem from several monster parts in Adlar’s crests, but primarily monstrous boars and bulls. It seems that even werewolf parts were used in the creation of some of Adlar’s crests, or at least some wolf-like creature. They seem to grant him increased physical agility and senses beyond normal human capability. His nose is comparable to that of a blood hound. In addition, he has significantly greater body hair and sharper nails.
Serpent Venom
Highly acidic saliva stemming from the sea serpent parts in Adlar’s crests. It simply raises the acidity of his saliva and grants him some resistance to poison. However, the acidity of his saliva isn’t particularly strong and won’t melt through anything but the thinnest substances.
Magecraft
Adlar has very little thaumaturgical knowledge. He could hardly be considered a magus, or even a spellcaster. At best, he has picked up a few tricks and knowledge of how to transfer magic crests from his victims to himself. In fact, his original body didn’t even have magic circuits.
However, with the use of his magic crests, he can still reproduce miracles. By running magical energy through one of his crests, he can access the spells stored within. This allows him to control a wide variety of spells without any thaumaturgical knowledge or finesse. His range of spells varies vastly from simply elemental magecraft to curses like gandr to transmutation and more. At this point, he is capable of overpowering a first-class magus in a duel of magecraft, simply by merit of his high magical energy and range of powerful spells.
Techniques Explosive God Breath
Adlar’s ultimate technique that infuses all of his abilities into one definitive instant-kill attack. By accessing both the spells and phantasmal powers stored within his crests all at once, he releases a tremendous stream of flames from his left hand, equal in strength to a true dragon’s breath attack. The core of the attack comes from his prana burst ability and it’s enhanced by his crest’s elemental magecraft, curse, and reinforcement spells. It is an attack that possesses such ridiculous amounts of firepower that it really shouldn’t be in the hands of a human.
The existence of this technique is proof that deep down Adlar is still just a kid who likes cool stuff.
1 point: Adlar Enoch. I admit I'm voting for this one in part because his "Crest Hunter" concept is like (a much better version of) my own Gastro Adipose sheet.
Uggghhhh first time I decide to vote and it is so difficult! They are so good! YOU GET THREE POINTS! AND YOU GET THREE POINTS! EVERYBODY GETS THREE POINTS!
Now, seriously, it was really difficult to choose, you are all very creative and talented. You put a lot of effort on this and it shows, and I wish I could give points to everyone. Sadly, this is a contest, so here is my ranking:
3 points - Cassiopeia Ketas Mikrísapoikías: A surprisingly good sheet. At first I was "A goddamn jellyfish mage? WTF?" But then I kept reading and saw how well you mixed Greek Mythology (of which I am a proud enthusiast) and Biology (in middle school I actually made a presentation about jellyfish reproduction when we were supposed to choose an animal that reproduced sexually or asexually, so nostalgia was a factor, too) to create an interesting origin story for a clan of Magus and a "successor" of the Gorgon without going through the obvious path (I specially liked how you turned the Mystic Eyes into Mystic Nematocysts). It ended up being a hard competition with the one below this, but in the end this one came on top because of its alienness (also, anything that relates with Medusa starts with +10)
2 points - Hildelana Fornes Veterkonungr: This sheet. This sheet. This sheet. This sheet. This sheet. Aaaaarghhh!!!! I had managed to create a mental ranking of the candidates so far and then this woman comes out of nowhere and has the nerve to be everything I expected of a prompt like this. The way you took the Norse myth of creation and the origin of the jotnar and interpreted it as a possible way of reaching the Root for a family of Magi was such an unfair and original way of linking Mythology and Nasuverse lore! And then came her abilities, Mystic Codes and her Familiar!!! If I was able to let go of my biases, probably this one would have been First Place. But I am not, so too bad for you.
1 point - Roo Ulfred Lavretsson: Well, I knew this one was going to be a hard choice. While I knew Cassy was gonna be Top, I had two other favourites (Roo and Joanna) for the 2nd and 3rd places and didn't really want to choose between them, as they both appealed to me in their own way. However, it eased my mind to know that both would get points anyway. THEN A WILD NORWEGIAN APPEARS! SHE CASTS YMIR! IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!! THE RANKING FAINTS!!! And so the pressure returned. In the end, Roo won mainly because of his biography. While they were pretty much tied in the appeal of their abilities, personality and appearance (I have broad tastes) Roo's story was much more intriguing because he and his family struggled a lot to get where they are and we do not know where his journey will end. Joanna, on the other hand, is an special individual in a privileged family of Magi who has her future pretty much defined. That is absolutely not bad per se, but it doesn't make you invested in the fate of the character as Roo's search for his roots does. And in her own words, I too want a piece of 'that Canadian wolf, rawr'.
Honorary Mentions: Joanne Eloise Tierpfleger (ditzy monstergirls are justice), Zhu Daiji (really good, got Overshadowed By Awesome), Jaromir Borovoi (another one who would have got in, had it not been for my biases)
Last edited by Half-Blood Master; January 25th, 2018 at 10:37 PM.
I'd rather not, thanks. That can lead only to irrevocable, awful garbage.
I tried making a thread about it a while back. Most of the results were some variation of, "get rich and masturbate." While there were a few gems, it was mostly exactly what you'd expect.
Nasuverse in a Nutshell
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Gilgamesh fired weapons like rockets back in the day, Enkidu was a shapeshifting mud doll, Elizabeth Bathory had dragon blood, the origin of life is an insane giant, and vampires rule over humans in this odd way where they claim to be the apex of life and are perfect beings. Also every planet has super ultimate beings that are the apex of each planet and will one day come to Earth to rock our shit, and each of these ultimate beings are comparable to vampires.
Originally Posted by asterism42
Jeanne was speaking to the counter force and Karl was driven by aliens. And Jesus was probably Martha's imaginary friend, I'd imagine.
I tried making a thread about it a while back. Most of the results were some variation of, "get rich and masturbate." While there were a few gems, it was mostly exactly what you'd expect.
...I had forgotten that such power corrupts.
The Act of dozing off in the afternoon is a luxury indeed. Coffee would be nice, though.
I'd rather not, thanks. That can lead only to irrevocable, awful garbage.
Originally Posted by Balthizar
I tried making a thread about it a while back. Most of the results were some variation of, "get rich and masturbate." While there were a few gems, it was mostly exactly what you'd expect.
the winner has complete control over what's next no matter how terrible the prompt may be
although if its terrible and no one actually responds then it was your fault
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Dumas flashed a fearless grin at Flat and Jack as he rattled off odd turns of phrase.
"And most importantly, it's me who'll be doing the cooking."
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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