Magnus Starshine

[Magnus Starshine]

(( General Information ))

Character Name: Magnus Starshine

Age: 972

Identified Court: The Exalted Court of Luminescence and Light

Fey Blood: Full blooded Light Fey

Appearance: Magnus stands at a sturdy and forthright six feet, two inches tall. Being a warrior, his frame is broad and deeply muscular, implying tremendous strength. Heavily muscled shoulders balance out a trim waist and strong, shapely legs. The man swings a sword for a living and his form reflects that to the utmost, as he practices his art every day of his life. His body also bears the scars of his many battles, as well as the training of his youth. The skin of his hands is covered in a delicate web of tiny scars gathered from all the hits he couldn't guard against completely, and even all the times he nicked himself while learning to properly sheath a blade. (Not to mention the rather lumpy and unattractive knuckles that resulted from being broken several times. Punching people hurts!)

Blond hair crowns his head, twined with several shades of gold ranging from pale wheat to late afternoon sunshine, and falls to just below his shoulder blades. It is most often kept in a low tail at the nape of his neck, and seems to glow with all of the gentle warmth of early morning sunlight. Lapis colored eyes watch the world with a lazy observance, taking in every detail and betraying nothing. They crinkle at the edges when he smiles and radiate warmth and life when he laughs.

Magnus' face is perhaps not the most beautiful, but it is well sculpted with a high forehead and a solid square jaw, definitely falling into the category of "handsome, if a bit rough". The cheekbones are just prominent enough to lend shape to his face, while his nose is a little pointed on the end and crooked from having been broken on several occasions.

The wings that grace the warrior's back are surprisingly delicate for such a fierce warrior. They're very reminiscent of dragonfly wings, with the thin membranes and thick veins. The membranes are clear with a slightly opalescent cast to them, but the veins of the wings are what make them truly beautiful. The veins are clear but look to be filled with liquid gold, the fluid moving and swirling through them every time the move and flicker. Magnus also has a tendency to "buzz" his wings, or rub them together to produce a sharp buzzing noise while thinking, much as a human would tap their fingers or kick a foot. The wings themselves are over sized and reach down to his ankles when folded back, their span covering well over ten feet when extended.

All of this is wrapped up in surprisingly soft skin that is well tended and looks to have a very slight golden patina. He has been known to shimmer slightly in the light, and tends to get rather shiny when he's excited.


Inner Court: Ruler of the Light Court, qualifications listed under his history (Just ask me and I can tell you why I'm a good candidate, and if you need further convincing feel free to ask Phaedra as she knows my skill quite well.)

Level: Level 2

Powers: Born with the ability to magnify light to blinding intensities, he uses this ability to blind and distract opponents. Any source of illumination can be magnified, even something so weak and distant as starlight. (Hence his name.) Of course, the weaker the source of light, the less that can be done with it. For stronger manifestations, more or stronger light is needed. i.e. Magnus can intensify the glare of sunlight along the edge of his sword to make its movements harder to follow as well as effectively dazzling his opponent's eyes, leaving them wide open to attack.

Magical Knowledge: Magnus received a rather standard magical education that was expounded upon once he took up his warrior training. He possesses all of the basic skills of Light Weaving as in creating basic glamours, lighting lamps, and creating free floating sources of light (such as spheres that float above the shoulder to provide illumination), amongst others. His skills were refined into using light as more of a weapon rather than for anything practical. i.e he can actually use the "sharpness" of light to enhance the edges of his weaponry. Since becoming king however, he's pretty much gone back to school and has expanding his Light Weaving skills,as well as in several other areas such as earth feeling that it is more becoming of a king to be skillful in such areas. He now qualifies as a master sorcerer, and has shown an aptitude for fire and wind magics.

(( Personality ))

Magnus is a warrior through and through. He believes firmly in action, strength, honor, discipline, respect, practice, refinement, and everything else that goes into sharpening the mind, body, and spirit. He detests sitting still and waiting for things to happen. If you don't go out and make things happen, they never will, is a philosophy of his. This warrior is also a very cordial individual with a pleasant and likable personality. He believes in playing just as hard as he works, but his reputation is impeccable. He is true to his word, utterly dependable, and loyal to a fault.

Rank has not changed him one bit. Magnus is still the good natured, down to earth fey that he's always been. He is quite content with his looks, rough as they are after centuries of war and fighting, as he knows that with most women charm and personality can go a long way. Certainly the fey enjoys the company of women, but his duty is his life. As distasteful as it can be at times.

Magnus enjoys swordplay, tactics, and challenges, but he does not enjoy the killing that follows in the wake of a war. As a Light fey, life to him is sacred. He honors the sacrifice of every soldier he has felled or that has fallen under his command. Death is not to be feared, but it is to be respected and he has no wish to go to those fey any sooner than he has to.

Simple pleasures are the order of the day with Magnus: the feel of sunshine on his face, a fine goblet of wine, a cool breeze blowing over skin heated by practice, a woman's soft laughter in the dark.

Perhaps he isn't always the swiftest to reply, or to even speak his mind, but this doesn't mean that he is stupid by any stretch of the imagination. He simply prefers to think everything through before committing himself to any course of action. Rarely has anyone made a fool of themselves by keeping their mouth shut.

(( History ))

Magnus went to the academy to train as a soldier and join the military because he was the fourth child in a merchant family and stood no chance whatsoever of inheriting. Becoming a soldier was the only way he was going to be able to make a living for himself as he had no real desire to run a business. His talents had always run to strength, agility, and discovered later, weapons work and command.

This fey is the type who led by example rather than by creed, which won him tremendous amounts of support and loyalty from the rank and file of the general infantry. This called the top brass' attention to Magnus, and he was watched and marked out as going to make something great of himself. This was proven time and time again with his heroics on the battlefield. Being only a lieutenant in rank when the war began, part of his swift ascent was due to the sheer rate of attrition. The other part was the fact that the soldiers actually listened to him and willingly followed his commands, growing ever more attached to him with victory after victory.

One such battle was how he acquired his new surname of Starshine.

He was facing off against one of the great warriors of the Dark Court, a fey very much equal to himself in sheer skill. Both units, the Dark and the Light, had maneuvered each other into a stalemate that had been standing for three weeks. Neither side could gain an advantage over the other, so the captains agreed to a trial of arms. The two warriors circled each other, feinting, waiting for an opening in the other's guard, for what seemed like hours. They wounded each other several times each before the battle was over.

Both warriors were grievously wounded by the end, but the Earth fey manged to save Magnus' life. The chaos that followed the death of the Dark fey captain broke the enemy lines and those that didn't flee were cut down by their Light sided brethren. What had formerly been a stalemate was now a rout, and the victorious unit marched forth to rejoin the rest of the army. Only, when they reached the main body it was learned that most of the high command had been wiped out with a devastating magical attack. Magnus was now the highest ranking officer.

Having no choice but to step up to command, Magnus did so. There was no way that he could allow his fellow fey to degenerate into chaos and be slaughtered due to lack of leadership. This act gained him the queen's attention, along with news of the earlier rout. She formalized his rank, promoting him to General and naming him her heir as she had no children, during one of the natural lulls that happen during wars when both sides need to pull back and consolidate forces and supplies.

It took a another hundred years of war and death for him to become the Commander-General, or the Warrior of the Light Court. He had become a teacher and mentor to many fey as he was regarded as unparalleled in his blade skill and tactics. One in particular was one of the rogues, the Untouchables, of the Light Court who showed great promise.

During that hundred years, the Queen was killed in battle thus earning Magnus the crown of the Light Court. His coronation happened much sooner than he would have liked, but it is how such things are done in times of war.

All through his career though, Magnus always prayed for the fallen, always begged forgiveness for every life he had to take. Life was sacred and special to him, which is why he fought so ferociously, why he used the tactics he did: to save as many lives as possible, all the while regretting the cutting down of their darkside brethren. He honored their memories by fighting as hard as he did, by not making it easy to beat him or his army, and carrying on that legacy until the Death Fey grew fed up with all the bloodshed and split the world down the middle.

He personally feels the bite of shame every time his eyes spy the bottomless fissure that separates his people.

(( Role-play Sample ))

The fortifications that had been erected by the Earth fey were being undermined quicker than they could be repaired, shattering and tumbling down in huge chunks that inadvertently became weapons in and of themselves. They were going to have to retreat soon to the second layer of protections. Fire and darkness were swallowing everything.

Magnus signaled for the retreat to be sounded but received no response. Looking around wildly, he searched for his officers only to find them all slain. The troops were floundering and being overrun by the light devouring shadows wielded by the Dark Court. Yanking his sword from its scabbard, the Light fey captain whirled around, searching for an enemy, for someone, something that he could destroy to stop the massacre. But he was all alone.

The light was suddenly blotted out, and the fey spun around once again to find a huge shadow rising up from the ground as it began to heave and shake. The earth split with a sound like thunder, widening faster than any land should ever move, the blackness surged with the split, cresting above him like a wave.

It crashed over his head, blocking out all light and air, smothering him, crawling into his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as it pulled him into the rift. He tried to scream but the blackness swallowed it all. The warrior felt himself dragged from solid ground and yanked into bottomless dark, falling forever, only to find himself sitting bolt upright in his bed. The only shadows present were those cast along the walls by the street lamps below.

Slowing his breath, Magnus swallowed harshly, wiping sweat from his brow. He'd not had a nightmare like that in years. Prophecy was not one of his gifts so what could it possibly mean? Was it just a side affect from knowing that the Dark Court was plotting and moving once more? With a sigh he threw himself back down into his bed, the fine linen sheets tangled around his legs, and stared at the ceiling until the sun began to crest the horizon.