Magic
Primary Magic: Soul Dance (Type: Twilight Dragon)
Secondary Magic: N/A
Caster or Holder: Caster
Description: Soul Dance is not so much a type of magic as a method to gain magic abilities, which as the name indicates will depend on the soul of the user. Soul Dance is based on performing various rituals to attune yourself with the flow of magic (especially your own), to the point that the magic interacts with your very being, which results in the magic altering to fit your soul. Like this you gain an affinity for magic, and for fighters more importantly, you gain abilities which fit you almost perfectly. Of course the more strict you are with the use of the rituals and the longer you keep doing them the more effective, but Soul Dance also has a side effect: The more you use Soul Dance, the more your soul and your magic will be combined. This can result in that you gain new weaknesses, like increased drawback effects when you have no magic left. Another example is that if Soul Dance grants you fire abilities, you could become more sensitive to cold. The negative effects become lesser the more effort you put into using Soul Dance and your magic abilities correctly, but they never completely disappear. On the other hand, those who only use Soul Dance to gain some abilities and then recklessly use those abilities will progress faster, but the negative effects will also be a lot stronger. Somebody who only performed the Soul Dance rituals a couple of times and then used the fire abilities they gained from it without restraint or discipline may become powerful, but if they go too far they might even be completely incapable of withstanding low temperatures, to the point that during winter they can't leave their home due to the cold.
In Akeya's case following the teachings of Soul Dance has shown that her soul is like that of a dark dragon: Ruthless, arrogant, mysterious and strong-willed. However, it has also revealed that she has a deep appreciation for knowledge and power, and for beauty in almost all its forms.
Besides of showing what kind of person Akeya is, it also gives her abilities similar to those of a dark dragon: She can use her magic to control the shadows and darkness surrounding her and use it for various purposes, she can infuse herself with magic to give herself draconic traits (increased physical strength). Combining her control over the dark and her draconic physical enhancement she is a dangerous foe: Thanks to the shadows she is difficult to detect, and with her draconic strength she can quickly take down prey before it realizes it should be running. Of course, while she is a strict practitioner of Soul Dance her negative effects aren't too bad, but she still does not like light too much.
Also, there are some important differences between Akeya's Twilight Dragon and Dragon Slayer magic. First of all, Dragon Slayers are meant to hunt dragons, while Akeya's Twilight Dragon allows her to have similar abilities to dragons. For example, Akeya can grow draconic body parts, but she can't heal by eating shadows (although she is resilient to dark based abilities).
Also, because she bears similarities to dragons, Akeya is more vulnerable to Dragon Slayer magic.
Strengths:
Soul Dance overall Strengths:
Akeya's specific Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Weaknesses of Soul Dance:
Akeya's Weaknesses:
Abilities/Powers:
Primary Magic: Soul Dance (Type: Twilight Dragon)
Secondary Magic: N/A
Caster or Holder: Caster
Description: Soul Dance is not so much a type of magic as a method to gain magic abilities, which as the name indicates will depend on the soul of the user. Soul Dance is based on performing various rituals to attune yourself with the flow of magic (especially your own), to the point that the magic interacts with your very being, which results in the magic altering to fit your soul. Like this you gain an affinity for magic, and for fighters more importantly, you gain abilities which fit you almost perfectly. Of course the more strict you are with the use of the rituals and the longer you keep doing them the more effective, but Soul Dance also has a side effect: The more you use Soul Dance, the more your soul and your magic will be combined. This can result in that you gain new weaknesses, like increased drawback effects when you have no magic left. Another example is that if Soul Dance grants you fire abilities, you could become more sensitive to cold. The negative effects become lesser the more effort you put into using Soul Dance and your magic abilities correctly, but they never completely disappear. On the other hand, those who only use Soul Dance to gain some abilities and then recklessly use those abilities will progress faster, but the negative effects will also be a lot stronger. Somebody who only performed the Soul Dance rituals a couple of times and then used the fire abilities they gained from it without restraint or discipline may become powerful, but if they go too far they might even be completely incapable of withstanding low temperatures, to the point that during winter they can't leave their home due to the cold.
In Akeya's case following the teachings of Soul Dance has shown that her soul is like that of a dark dragon: Ruthless, arrogant, mysterious and strong-willed. However, it has also revealed that she has a deep appreciation for knowledge and power, and for beauty in almost all its forms.
Besides of showing what kind of person Akeya is, it also gives her abilities similar to those of a dark dragon: She can use her magic to control the shadows and darkness surrounding her and use it for various purposes, she can infuse herself with magic to give herself draconic traits (increased physical strength). Combining her control over the dark and her draconic physical enhancement she is a dangerous foe: Thanks to the shadows she is difficult to detect, and with her draconic strength she can quickly take down prey before it realizes it should be running. Of course, while she is a strict practitioner of Soul Dance her negative effects aren't too bad, but she still does not like light too much.
Also, there are some important differences between Akeya's Twilight Dragon and Dragon Slayer magic. First of all, Dragon Slayers are meant to hunt dragons, while Akeya's Twilight Dragon allows her to have similar abilities to dragons. For example, Akeya can grow draconic body parts, but she can't heal by eating shadows (although she is resilient to dark based abilities).
Also, because she bears similarities to dragons, Akeya is more vulnerable to Dragon Slayer magic.
Strengths:
Soul Dance overall Strengths:
- Those who follow the teachings of Soul Dance are sensitive to magic, allowing them to sense it fairly easily, with advanced practitioners even being capable of sensing it from long distances, determining the type of magic, and precisely pinpointing the origin.
- Soul Dance has the great benefit that what ability it bestows upon you, it's an ability which matches you. This means that every Soul Dancer is 'talented' with their ability, and thus have little difficulty learning to use it.
- Users of Soul Dance never have to worry about not having all the requirements to use their abilities. All they need is magic and their soul. As long as both are present, a Soul Dancer has everything they need.
- Soul Dance materializes your soul as a magic ability. Soul Dancers have a good understanding of themselves, both because of the meditation and rituals used by Soul Dance and because they see just who they are whenever they use their magic.
- There is no limit to the effect Soul Dance can have on the user. The raw strength depends on the user, but otherwise Soul Dance will simply give you the ability most fitting for you, regardless of whether that magic would otherwise be hard to obtain or nearly impossible to learn. Also, abilities granted by Soul Dance tend to keep growing and developing as long as the Soul Dancer keeps performing the rituals and following the training method.
Akeya's specific Strengths:
- Akeya's draconic powers include a toughness above the average human. When prepared for trouble it is hard to cut her skin, and she can take a beating without it knocking her out.
- Like with her toughness, Akeya possesses physical prowess that allows her to overpower most humans when it comes to contests of raw strength. This means that when she hits you, she hits hard, and you stay hit.
- Shadow users tend to be hard to detect and harder to catch. Akeya isn't an exception. Besides being able to use darkness to become hard to see she herself also possesses night vision, allowing her to see clearly even with little light available, although complete darkness still blinds her.
- In contrast to Soul Dance, none of Akeya's Twilight Dragon abilities require much preparation.
Weaknesses:
Weaknesses of Soul Dance:
- While Soul Dance can give an endless variety of abilities, itself it does not contain any fighting abilities. It contains rituals and training methods, meant to help attuning with the flow of magic. It takes a while before the abilities given by Soul Dance are strong enough to be used in real life situations, and until that time you gain very little of practical use.
- Soul Dance gives you an ability which fits you. This can be very advantageous, since it is almost guaranteed that it's an ability that you're very good at using and that has plenty of room for development, it also means that you have no say in what ability you get. If you as a person aren't suited for fighting, the ability you get will not be one which is very usable in a fight, except if you somehow manage to think around the box.
- Because Soul Dance focuses on materializing your soul as magic ability, it also means that everybody who sees you using your magic ability can see just what kind of person you are. The only way you can deceive people properly while using Soul Dance is if deception is such a big part of you that it also becomes part of the ability granted by Soul Dance. Otherwise, there is no way to hide who you are, even towards yourself. Not everybody is capable of accepting just what kind of person they are.
- Soul Dance might have great benefits, but it also has great risks. The more you use it, the more powerful you become with it, and the more attuned with magic you become, but the risks also increase, and your weaknesses grow. A fire user will become vulnerable to cold. Somebody who gains the ability to create armour will feel extremely exposed when not armoured. Summoners feel lonely when without their summoned beings, and seeing their summoned beings get hurt might hurt just as much as if they themselves were hurt. Of course, this isn't always to the same extends: Those who properly follow the teachings of Soul Dance, and do not just throw their magic around will progress slowly, but their development is steady, for that lack of speed is compensated by the decrease of negative effects. In contrast, one who only cares for the power gained, and who do not feel the need to restrain themselves, will progress at dangerous speed, but their development is shaky, for that speed is compensated by the vulnerability they afflict themselves with.
- As stated above, Soul Dance is not just a toy for power. It is a method to gain understanding. You could even call it a way of life, if you are inclined to be that dramatic. Either way, those who follow the teachings of Soul Dance must continue to do so, and with great diligence, for while the Soul Dance opens you to magic, from that point on you have to keep working on that hole, otherwise it will turn into a weakness. It is possible to completely abandon Soul Dance, but in the process will almost surely lose anything you may have gained up until that point, because you have to close yourself off from the magic, preventing it from draining and weakening you, but also removing the abilities that connection gave you.
Akeya's Weaknesses:
- Akeya doesn't like light, to the extend that she is vulnerable to light based abilities. Since she is a diligent practitioner of Soul Dance the effects aren't that bad, but she still is clearly weaker when set against a light user from the same power level.
- Like dragons, Akeya is weak against Dragon Slayer magic. it may not be as bad as with dragons, for she is still mostly human, but for her Dragon Slayers are about as dangerous a foe as there is.
- While Akeya can sense magic quite clearly, and has a good understanding of it, she has trouble learning any magic ability which does not agree with her Twilight Dragon. For example, even the simplest orb of light would be a serious challenge for Akeya to create. Soul Dance may bestow understanding and power, but with that come clear limitations.
- Even when not actively using her Twilight Dragon, the effects of Soul Dance have estranged Akeya from most people. They find her intimidating, or they just can't understand her, and in return she can't understand most others, and has the tendency to view normal humanoids as lesser, because compared to dragons humanoids are lesser.
- Dragons are known to have good senses, at least a good nose and good hearing. While that may also be advantageous, Akeya suffers greatly when exposed to lots of noise, or to extreme stench.
Abilities/Powers:
- Akeya has sharp senses, particularly her nose and ears. While her eyes are not actually much better than those of most humans, she does have the advantage that she can see clearly with little light.
- Akeya’s magic grants her an advantage in physical strength, large enough that she can outmuscle most healthy men. Because she has this boost in strength without having the extra weight most people would gain from the muscles required to match it she is also surprisingly fast.
- Akeya has the tendency to intimidate people just by looking at them, thanks to Soul Dance making her Twilight Dragon soul more apparent. For example, she always has small fangs and her fingernails are fairly sharp.
- Akeya can sense magic fairly sharply, and if it's strong or close track it down and get a good feeling of what type of magic it is (for example, that it's water related). If it's a D-rank spell Akeya can normally track it down if the source of the magic is within a 8-yard radius, but her range increases if the spell is stronger or just has more of an effect on its surroundings (for example, a D-rank fireball would be 8 yards, but a D-rank cone of flames would be traceable at 11 yards, because the magic is more spread out and thus easier to detect). A concentrated C-rank spell would be traceable at 16 yards, and an Area of Effect C-Rank spell 20.
- D Rank:
- Dark Dragon's Claws:
- Name: Dark Dragon's Claws
Rank: D
Type: Darkness. Partial Take-Over.
Description: Akeya turns her hands and feet into dark dragon claws, with her arms and legs also becoming covered in tough dark scales. Also grants Akeya increased strength and speed (15% increase in strength and speed).
Strengths:- Greatly improves Akeya's hand-to-hand combat.
- Allows Akeya to defend using the scales on her arms and legs.
- Akeya can use the increased strength in combination with the claws to inflict notable. damage to most common materials.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 3 posts. Cooldown: 4 posts.
- Akeya is a lit less nimble while using the claws. More raw force and less skill in attacks.
- Akeya's Shadow Dance is less effective if she also has Dark Dragon's Claws active. Easier to detect.
- When the duration ends Akeya has to adjust to her normal limbs. Temporarily decreased reaction time (10% decrease in reaction time).
- Greatly improves Akeya's hand-to-hand combat.
- Dark Dragon's Limbs:
- Name: Dark Dragon's Limbs
Rank: D
Type: Shadow. Partial Take-Over.
Description: Akeya grows a tail and wings, giving her an extra limb to attack with (the tail), and increased mobility (through short flight with wings). Tail does D-rank damage. Can fly about 12 yards continuously at running speed when not changing altitude.
Strengths:- Allows for short flight.
- Tail allows for unique attacks.
- Tail also covered in scales which can be used to defend (can take 2 D-rank attacks, after that is wounded just as easily as the rest of her).
Weaknesses:- Duration: 2 posts. Cooldown: 4 posts.
- Makes Akeya a lot easier to detect (wings are big).
- Can't be used in small spaces.
- Wounds sustained on wings and tail persist after duration ends (turn into wounds on her shoulders and small of the back).
- After the duration ends Akeya needs some time to adjust. Briefly decreased reaction (5% decreased reaction time when ability ends).
- Allows for short flight.
- Dark Dragon's Skin:
- Name: Dark Dragon’s Skin
Rank: D
Type: Shadow. Partial Take-Over
Description: Akeya turns her skin into that of a dragon, her entire body becoming a dark blue and covering her in scales of the same colour. While in this form Akeya takes less damage from all sources do to her tough scales, and thanks to the dark colour of her skin she becomes harder to detect in dark areas.
Strengths:- Akeya becomes more resilient while this ability is active, increasing her toughness by 20%.
- Thanks to the dark colour of this ability Akeya can use it to become even harder to detect while in the shadows. This effect becomes even stronger when used in combination with Shadow Dance.
- In this form Akeya is rather sinister and intimidating, which can help deal with the weak-willed.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 2 posts. Cooldown: 3 posts.
- While harder to detect in dark areas, at the same time that means Akeya is easier to spot when it isn’t dark.
- This protection does not work against Dragon Slayer abilities, since those are specifically meant to bypass the defences of dragons.
- As useful as this ability is when intimidating the weak-willed, that doesn’t help in any way when dealing with strong-willed people, instead just helping them distinguish Akeya from others.
- Akeya becomes more resilient while this ability is active, increasing her toughness by 20%.
- Shadow Dance:
- Name: Shadow Dance
Rank: D
Type: Shadow. Supportive.
Description: Akeya fades in with the shadows, becoming harder to detect. While not exactly invisible, people who don't know she is there will have trouble noticing anything, and even those who know she is there will have trouble spotting anything. If Akeya leaves the shadows her details will still be somewhat obscured, but the effect is drastically reduced.
Strengths:- Allows Akeya to sneak around without being spotted, at least when the enemy is not using special tricks to detect her.
- Because it just makes Akeya hard to see, instead of turning her completely invisible, it Shadow Dance can be kept active for longer.
- Is not removed by attacking.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 2 posts. Cooldown: 3 posts.
- Requires shadows, and preferably enough to completely cover Akeya.
- Does not make Akeya completely undetectable.
- Bending of shadows makes it easier to guess Akeya's location.
- There's a limit to how far Akeya can move while using this, depending on how much shadow there is to use. The range goes from 20 to 30 yards, with 20 if she has very little shadow to work with and 30 if she doesn't have to worry about the shadows at all.
- The more energetic Akeya is while using this (moving fast, stuff like that) the easier it is to detect her, meaning she can only really use this reliably if she is being sneaky.
- If Akeya only has her own shadow to work with the effect is drastically reduced, turning from semi-invisibility to merely making it somewhat harder to guess her appearance and movements.
- Is removed if all shadows around Akeya, including her own, are removed.
- Allows Akeya to sneak around without being spotted, at least when the enemy is not using special tricks to detect her.
- C Rank:
- Dark Dragon:
- Name: Dark Dragon
Rank: C
Type: Shadow. Full Take-Over.
Description: Akeya temporarily infuses her entire body with her magic, turning her into a dragonkin for the duration. While most of her structure stays human her entire body gets covered in dark blue scales, and her hands and feet turn into claws. Out of her back two large wings grow, capable of granting Akeya short flight (18 yards at about running speed), and above her behind a reptilian tail grows, tough enough to protect and attack with (does D-rank Damage). Along her spine a row of spikes appears, running down her back and over her tail towards the tip. Her head changes from that of a human to that of a dragon, in Akeya’s case a rather elegant dragon, reminiscent of the more common lizard, but with two dark horns behind the eyes, growing backwards and curving very slightly downwards. Oh, and she’s got quite sharp fangs in that maw. While in this form Akeya’s Strength is increased by 20%
The special extra effect of the full form of Dark Dragon is that Akeya becomes even faster than when using Dark Dragon’s Claws, giving her a total speed boost of 50% (original 20% from Dark Dragon’s Claws and the 30% from the Full Form).
Dark Dragon combines the following Partials:- Dark Dragon’s Claws
- Dark Dragon’s Limbs
- Dark Dragon’s Skin
Strengths:- Allows for short flight.
- Tail allows for unique attacks.
- Entire body is covered in scales which reduce damage by 30%, and Akeya can use the scales on her limbs to protect herself.
- Tail can block 2 D-rank attacks or 1 C-rank attack before becoming as easily wounded as the rest of Akeya.
- Greatly improves Akeya’s hand-to-hand combat, due to the increased physical prowess, the added toughness and the claws and fangs.
- Thanks to the dark colour of the ability Akeya becomes harder to see in dark surroundings, to the point where she nearly appears to blend in with the shadows.
- Thanks to her claws and increased strength, together with her own increased toughness, Akeya can inflict damage to most common material without suffering for it like a human would (for example, a human punching a stone with their bare hand is not going to be happy. Akeya wouldn’t like it either, but it hurts less and she’ll at least leave some marks on the stone).
- In this form Akeya looks extremely intimidating, allowing her to inspire fear in weaker opponents and generally everybody who would have trouble dealing with the fact that they’re facing off against a humanoid dragon.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 4 posts. Cooldown: 5 posts.
- While her dark appearance means that Akeya is harder to spot in dark areas, at the same time her appearance is a lot more noticeable than normal, meaning that she’s quite easy to detect when it’s not dark.
- Due to the size of her wings Akeya can’t use this in small spaces. Well, she could, but it wouldn’t be very useful.
- Wounds received on parts of the body which don’t exist on Akeya’s human form (like the wings) are still retained when she changes back (if her wing is wounded she gains a wound on the respective shoulder-blade once the ability ends).
- Once the ability ends Akeya needs some time to adjust (reaction time is decreased by 15% when the ability ends).
- While still elegant, while in Dark Dragon form Akeya’s fighting style becomes less nimble and more a case of strength.
- If the opponent isn’t intimidated it just means they have an easier time recognizing Akeya.
The increased toughness granted by the scales does not work against Dragon Slayer abilities. In fact, while in Dark Dragon form Akeya takes extra damage from Dragon Slayers.
- Dark Dragon’s Claws
- Fleeting Shadows:
- Name: Fleeting Shadows
Rank: C
Type: Shadow. Offensive.
Description: Akeya forms 20 sharp shadow scales on each forearms, but besides of using them to enhance her body she can also launch them, showering her opponents in a barrage of spikes. Each of her arms contains a charge, and she can either launch them as a stream or shoot them in all directions. If hit by both streams of spikes this does the full C-rank damage, if only hit by one stream or by the area of effect attack it does D-rank damage. The spikes disappear shortly after having been launched. The concentrated streams have a range of 30 yards, the area of effect burst has a range of 10 yards. If used to enhance her melee attacks the spikes deal D-rank damage. If hit by a full charge from one arm at a distance closer than 2 yards it deals C-rank damage.
Strengths:- Can be used both for attacking a single target and suppressing multiple targets.
- Multiple charges means extra flexibility.
- While they are meant for ranged attacks Akeya can still use the spikes to inflict melee damage.
- Concentrated streams allow for long ranged precision attacks.
- Can inflict heavy damage when launched from short range.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 2 posts. Cooldown: 3 posts. Duration here means how long the spikes last if Akeya doesn’t launch them.
- At long range lacks penetration power, meaning that it can only affect armoured enemies at short range.
- Since they are normal projectiles they can be rather easily dodged if they enemy knows they’re coming.
- In general doesn’t deal that much damage, since it is hard to hit any target with the full barrage.
- The spikes are rather easily destroyed when countered with area of effect abilities. They’re especially easily destroyed by light based abilities, being shadow spikes
- When used for melee combat the fact that they’re on Akeya’s forearms means she has to get close enough to hit her enemies with her forearms, even closer than necessary for normal hand-to-hand combat.
- When used to pelt Akeya’s surroundings she can’t really do much about the spikes possibly hitting her allies.
- Can be used both for attacking a single target and suppressing multiple targets.
- Contrast:
- Name: Contrast
Rank: C
Type: Shadow. Supportive.
Description: Akeya controls the shadows around herself and her target, causing them to gathering around the target. For as long as the ability lasts the target will see flecks of darkness swirling and streaming across their vision, making it hard to see anything or to focus. Maximum range at which this ability can be used is 5 yards.
Strengths:- The fact that the shadows are constantly moving and don’t completely cover the target’s eyes means that besides hindering their sight it also greatly distracts them.
- Can also be used on non-opponents, for example to obscure something for everybody in the area instead of just one person.
- Akeya’s night vision means that the effects of this ability are a lot weaker on herself, with as result that she could also just target herself and thus make it harder for the enemy to focus on her or gauge her movements correctly.
- Akeya can freely control just how many shadows she uses with this ability. If enough shadows are present Akeya can choose to completely cover something in shadows rather than partially obscure it.
Weaknesses:- Duration: 3 posts. Cooldown: 5 posts.
- Requires enough shadows to obscure whatever Akeya is targeting.
- Is less effective on creatures who possess night vision.
- Has no effect against beings which don’t have or require sight.
- The effect can’t extend further than 5 yards from Akeya, so an opponent can get out of the spell by moving away from Akeya.
- Unless Akeya has enough shadows she can’t completely hide or blind somebody, which means that even though the constantly swirling shadows are distracting and hindering they still possess some vision.
- The fact that the shadows are constantly moving and don’t completely cover the target’s eyes means that besides hindering their sight it also greatly distracts them.
Last edited by FilFire on 29th June 2014, 11:03 am; edited 3 times in total