[center][B][U]Reates Saerne[/B] – [I]The Vanishing Butterfly[/I][/U][/center]
[center][img]http://safebooru.org//images/1093/730bc518c5ec80198c6e36dfc244120a6feeaaf3.jpg?1135628[/img][/center]
[center][url=]Theme[/url][/center]

[hider=Basic Info]
[B]Name:[/B] Reates Saerne.
[B]Alias:[/B] The Cheshire; Graph; Anomaly; and of course The Vanishing Butterfly.
[B]Nicknames:[/B] Ates, Erne, “You madman,” “That crazy professor,” and other [I]endearing[/I] monikers.
[B]Age:[/B] 96.
[I]Apparent Age:[/I] 36.
[B]Species:[/B] Human.
[B]Relations:[/B] Champions of the Enlightened and the following: 

[I]Peskay Genno:[/I] Reates met this intriguing, but somewhat odd, fellow in a bar a few months back. Since then he and Genno have accompanied one another on several hunting excursions, if you will. He stays in contact with the man for both of their sakes and since they met Reates has acted as a sort of go between for Genno and the Academy, the middle man if you will. The two get along well, though Reates can get along with most, and could be considered friends. However, Reates doesn't know too much about Genno just like no one knows much about Reates or his personal life...for the most part. Lately Reates has noticed that if a certain Kasuto or the Champions of the Enlightened are mentioned, Genno will tend to go absolutely silent, or trail off mid-sentence. Reates has also noted some odd things in regards to Genno's essence when in combat without his glasses on. Granted, he has been unable to understand what it is he is seeing and as such has more or less dismissed Genno as a unique type of chimera.

[I]Kasuto:[/I] Reates, while not having met Kasuto in person, has had light dealings with him and his organization. He is intensely interested with the man and his followers. In fact he has a particular interest in the island that Kasuto's organization uses as its base of operations as it is rumored to possess an abnormal amount of aberrations on it. Additionally, Reates has long since realized that Kasuto does not seem to age past his thirties or forties, though he is not sure why, he is determined to figure it out as he believes that the man may have discovered a method to immortality, something he himself is seeking.

[I]Hazumi:[/I] Essentially only aware of one another in passing, Reates does not tend to keep Hazumi as company. However, he does find her rather intriguing due to the fact that he can see the many [I]many[/I] different energy signatures, which make her up. He finds her intensely pleasing to look upon, but has, as of yet, not made any obvious attempts to garner her attention in any meaningful way.

[I]Lily Qarin:[/I] As the principal of the Academy she is obviously aware of Reates presence and mannerisms. Their relationship is decent at best as while Reates is generally fairly easy to get along with she tends to be more reserved in her tendencies meaning their personalities don't mesh all that well. Nonetheless she allows the majority of his antics as long that they have some express purpose and are primarily aimed at the betterment of the Academy's students, and perhaps even staff.

[I]Abstractis:[/I] His...[I]pet[/I] swarm of sentient butterflies, Abstractis, or rather Abstractis Imperialis Veritisi as is its full name, is an anomalous being who can essentially perfectly camouflage itself. Abstractis is essentially always with Reates in some manner, though most are never aware of its presence due to its ability to make itself essentially invisible and beyond the almost entirely beyond the sense. Abstractis enjoys Reates company, though it often remind Reates that some of his activities and intentions are ridiculous in nature.

[B]Additional Appearance Info:[/B] Reates stands at 5'11 with a hardy, but not overly muscular, build. He is considerably strong, but not abnormally so. He almost always wears a wry grin on his face accompanied by an mischievous, and amused, glint in his eyes. He walks with an enigmatic air of self confidence.

[B]General Activity – [I]Professor and Hunter:[/I][/B] Reates is effectively a teacher and a hunter of renegades, criminals, and aberrations. He studies aberrations, and apprehends or kills renegades or criminals that he comes into contact with. Sometimes he will even take mercenary-esque jobs, or assignments from the Academy itself, to take out specific individuals.

[B]Personality:[/B] An eccentric of magnificent proportions, Reates has the tendency to gesticulate quite expressively as well as using terminology and other such figures of speech that will fly over most people's heads like wind around a moving object of any manner, or you know...birds and flying mammals like bats. He is generally cheerful and tends to display an almost disproportionate enjoyment of people's company despite their personality traits with few exceptions. In fact the more abrasive the personality the more fun he tends to have when confusing and generally bothering them with his incredibly, and somewhat intentionally, heavy irish accent and outlandish use of references –often referring to personal experiences and inside jokes that no one would get unless they'd been there.

Reates is, on top of being excessively, and almost obnoxiously eccentric, a decidedly enjoyable manipulator. However, unlike most manipulative individuals, Reates does not generally use his manipulative abilities to harm other people unless it becomes entirely necessary. In fact, most of these traits are used to figure people out. Sort of an indirect psychoanalysis of people's habits and internal mechanisms, allowing him to easily understand people through how they react to his actions, some which may seem entirely random. Aside from this Reates can be described as a good humored individual, both in terms of comical statements, and in terms of his general outlook on life and behavior.

While hardly a facade, Reates, in private, is more often prone to an odd mixture of seriousness and amusement wherein he displays a distinct habit of talking to himself or his pet(s) Abtractis Imperium Veritisi. While Reates is indeed incredibly intelligent he can, at some times, be quite forgetful and oddly it appears that he forgets things almost on purpose. When asked about such he generally confirms that he can force himself to forgets things by more or less losing focus on said thing for a certain duration of time. Others who have tried to replicate said behavior typically fail, suggesting that in some way he is lying about the execution of said process, or is in fact just fucking with people to begin with, which is also quite likely.

Reates is generally beyond angering and will remain calm in almost any situation due to his excessive practice in doing just that, not to mention his Renegade hunting tendencies. Reates has a tendency to feel sympathy, or even empathy for those who have lost one or more loved ones quite dear to them, especially to illness or other unnatural means. When it comes to the three other races Reates has essentially no particular bias towards any of them. He believes that humans, demons, angels, and chimera are inherently equal in nature, and should learn to get along. In fact while he tends to endorse personal freedom and individuality he does advocate for the improvement and maintenance of the current governmental structure that has been established.

Any further information shall be apparent IC as if I keep going this will become exhaustive for other's to read.

[B]Biography:[/B] His mother dying at the time of his birth, Reates was largely taken care of by his uncle as his father, Varen Saerne had been badly, and permanently, disabled in the purifying war led by the nephilim many years before his son's conception. As such his fairly eccentric, and exceptionally rich, uncle brought him up, teaching him the ways of his trade and eventually passing on to him the famous Art of Athriohm. However, this is not to say that his childhood has little bearing on the man he has become for while his interactions with his father were few and far between they left a deep impact on him to this day.

His father, formerly an army conscripted mage and Practitioner of the Art, was afflicted with a rare disease caused by the body's rejection of foreign essence. This disease, known as the Waxing death, kept him bedridden, but ironically prolonged his life considerably, as it does to all its victims. This illness is typically one which inflicts human-angel hybrids, or rather gray angels. It is the result of the body's incompatibility with demonic essence, so instead of the victim become a chimera they are rendered essentially immobile as the essence propagates itself endlessly throughout their body, giving them a lifespan closer in length to that of a demon's while simultaneously rendering them more or less inert from the incredibly painful process and continual rejection by their immune system and the essence of their body.

As such Reates father was often unable to properly communicate with him physically. However, due to his guardian angel heritage he eventually fostered a bond with his son that was strong enough that it allowed the pained man to communicate telepathically. It later became apparent that he had also been able to do this with his mother and uncle as well, explaining why his caretaker often visited the man and simply stood there silently staring at the bed and its occupant.

When he was able, Varen told his son stories, often from his life, that were to teach him lessons. Overall his father was a kind loving man, though certainly a tortured soul by the time he finally expired at the age of one hundred and thirty. Despite being twenty six, Reates was changed by his father's death and while his generally cheerful personality remained, something else took root in him. He was happy that his father's suffering was over, the man's soul deserved to rest in the void, but...part of him was not satisfied by this. He didn't want to accept that fate had simply allowed such a wonderful man as his father to suffer for so long and without great cause or reason. It was unfair.

This eventually led to some rather questionable projects, which Reates took up first in the interest of increasing the abilities of the medical field even further through magic, and escalated to outright experimentation with life. Still throughout Reates remained resolute to solve the issue, find a cure for illnesses such as the Waxing death. No one else should have to suffer such a fate and even fewer should have to watch their loved ones slowly wither away in both body and mind. Still what he was doing was taboo for Practitioner's of the Art were not meant to experiment with life, for it was the realm of the divine to play with such forces.

It was thought by the Masters of the Order of Anriohm that to tamper with life was to play a god, and that eventually it was bound to corrupt. In some ways he was right, but in no way did the young Practitioner believe him and so his experiments continued. As they escalated Reates' uncle became more and more suspicious of his nephew's behavior. He had almost become a recluse, though he did go out here and there to hang out with friends or acquire new materials for his studies.

When the boy was gone he would often check in his study and lab to see if there was any residual essence that told of activities that a Practitioner ought not to partake in. Every search failed...until one night Reates, having driven himself into a somewhat manic state, stormed out of the house and forgot to replace the myriad seals that kept his true work place away from prying eyes. Nathan, his uncle, thus found himself walking through something of a portal, or rather an advanced arrangement of matrices, which connected two locations through some very powerful magic.

While Nathan had surely practiced and mastered some rather outlandish forms of magic in his day, what he found past the gateway nearly drove him to retching, after which it almost caused a mental breakdown. Rattled, but now having prepared himself the man rose back to his feet, having fallen to his knees, and looked upon his nephew's workshop once more.

Arranged and ingrained into the walls of the large chamber were a multitude of cages, some empty, others occupied by various types of creatures –some of which he recognized only from books, which cataloged beasts from the plane of hell. However, most disturbing were the wide variety of widely varied Aberrations. He had seen several on field expeditions, but never more than one at a time. Here however, there were at least fifty or so unique specimens. The specimen on their own were not however the problem, rather it was the lingering essence within.

The essence told a gruesome tale of pain...suffering, and biological transmutation. Deeply disturbed by his findings, Nathan left the chamber and decided to initially say nothing of his finding, instead doing his best to close to gateway so that Reates would not realize he had left it open. He loved Reates, he'd raised the boy as he would have his own son and so while his beliefs contradicted those of his nephews and he knew that in all rights he was supposed to report him to the Masters, he could not. Instead, after mulling it over for some time, he made preparations to confront his nephew.

After several days of weaving wards and creating various protective artifacts, Nathan confronted Reates, revealing his knowledge on the younger man's experiments. Reates reacted with force, attempting to bind his uncle, but not to wound him. After an exchange of magical might and a string of his uncle's best attempts to calm him down, Reates eventually gave his last close relative a chance to speak. He was grateful that he heard him out for it seemed that the older man, now having hit roughly the same age as his older brother, Varen, his life prolonged through magical means, intended to help his nephew rather than hinder him.

Nathan planned to take the fall for Reates, something he would have never asked Nathan to do. The mage was left speechless at Nathan's willingness to sacrifice himself for him and so he initially declined. However, Nathan insisted and so the two concocted a rather elaborate plan.

Reates was to notify the Masters of his own activity, but instead call it Nathan's whereas Nathan was to, for a few weeks prior, participate with Reates in his experiments, tainting his own essence and the chamber itself with his essence so as to misconstrue the Masters as to the perpetrator of the heretical procedures. On the surface it appeared simple, but in truth it was a quite complex scheme as the Masters were sure to realize that they had been tricked, so Reates and Nathan would have to continue to uphold the charade to some extent, with Reates revoking his vows before the Masters out of shame for his uncle and an unwillingness to continue his craft due to the man's dishonorable actions.

It would appear to them that the boy was taking the fall so as to save himself from the possibility of corruption in the future, while in truth he would only be revoking vows that he had long undone through his own ministrations. In this way he would disappear off their radar entirely, making it appear as if he eventually died of natural causes whereas his uncle would be purified of his abilities and laid to rest. His name, or the name of their family, would not however be dishonored as theirs was the lineage which originated from the great Vaihrn Katela, who eventually changed his name to Saerne in an effort to isolate himself from his former family.

Their operation went almost perfectly, in fact the only variable they were unable to deal with was how Reates was to save his research. However, Reates himself managed to do just that by creating a secondary lab with more or less identical creatures. The speed at which he worked to do so was impressive and so it was ready when necessary. As such the Masters never managed to truly destroy his work, though Nathan knew nothing of this and truly thought that Reates had abandoned the order in an attempt to honor his death.

He was wrong. To Reates the necessity that his uncle must die for his alleged crimes against the Order of Anriohm was evidence that the order itself was an outdated relic, a belief he had fostered for quite sometime. Now that belief had been justified.

Driven by the death of his uncle, Reates began to make preparations to one day wrest the Order from its hinges and cast it out of the world entirely. This goal was one he knew he would have to spend much of his life to reach, so in the interest of such the man began to break even more of his forsaken vows as he began the quest for immortality. At first he made little progress, but eventually he found a way to at least prolong his own life, a technique that many a Practitioner had used throughout the ages.

With this he essentially ceased aging around the time of his 36th birthday. From that day on he continued his experiments, making sure not to forget why he had started them, while he added to his repertoire and began attempting to essentially transplant anomalous properties between entities. He has been studying this and methods to treat formerly untreatable illnesses, both biological and magical in nature.

So far he has succeeded in finding a cure for the Waxing Death and several other more minor, less severe illnesses. He has been duly compensated for his contribution to magical medicine, though he doesn't tend to flaunt such achievements. In the last 60 years Reates activities have been notable in two fields. The first of these is his extensive research into aberrations and anomalous artifacts. He has successfully been able to replicate the properties of several minor and rather useless anomalous artifacts and his demonstrated such in several conferences. He has still been entirely unable to synthesize, replicate, or transplant the anomalous properties of Aberrations, much to his chagrin. The other half of his activities have been focused in gaining himself a masters degree in teaching and also the hunting and capturing of Renegades. He has worked closely with the Champions of the Enlightened and Master Melody's Academy for the Fine Arts. In the last five years Reates has served as a professor at the aforementioned academy, teaching three separate classes to the students of the Academy.

His activities and the growing knowledge of his name has begun to alert the Order of Anriohm to the likelihood that he is not only alive, but still very much a magic user. This is something he is painfully aware of and is working on. One can only hope that his plans in regards to the Masters have come a long way since their conception.

In regards to his reputation among the Academy's students he is often called the school's local eccentric. While he is well known for his rather strange mannerisms and behavior, he is also known for his general patience and willingness to help, rather than hinder, any given student's learning process. He has even gone out of his way to assist select students in the interest of achieving their goals. While some would call this favoritism it is more that most students don't directly request his help and so more often than not don't receive it, likely because they're boring or just downright afraid of him anyways.[/hider]
[hider=The Art of Athriohm]The Art, as it is called by those who practice it, is what one might consider magical science as it relies on fundamental laws and patterns that exist in reality. Through their mimicry of these patterns in both symbol and movement alike Practitioners can draw forth he same results that the natural patterns would instil. Rather than simply manipulating their own essence, as angels do, or sacrificing the essence of others, Anriohm, as Practitioners are known, memorize, modify, and bring together the patterns of their world, forged of their own essence, to draw forth the unbridled power of the world's own life-force. While this makes them no more powerful than an angel or a demon, it can certainly elevate them to the same tier. However, this is only achieved through long years of study and meticulous experimentation to reap experience from their activities.

The Art of Athriohm is, despite the turning of the times, largely a secret to the average individual and is kept in the shadows of society, only taught between master and student, passed down through lineage or simply between those who are chosen. Regardless, the Art is something coveted by its Practitioners, though not in a negative light. Rather, the majority of Anriohm are ever limited by the power of the oaths they take upon being inducted into the Practice of the Art. It is through their secrecy and these oaths that the Art remains largely without abuse by humanity, and untouched by angel and demonkind alike.

[I][U]Capabilities:[/U][/I] The scope of the Art's abilities varies greatly with the Practitioner, as each has their own specialties not to mention knowledge base, which more or less dictates what they are capable of doing via their Art. Some Practitioners prefer to focus on the Weaving aspect of the Art, making them similar to alchemists or enchanters in practice, as they draw forth the properties of objects and phenomena and imbue them into other objects, or even themselves, to create miraculous tools, armor, and weaponry alike. Other Anriohm will specialize in the making of sigils, letting them draw forth the forces, or elements, of nature to create effects and properties, rather than draw them from pre-established entities or objects. This allows them both to utilize what most refer to as seals, to temporarily condense their desired effects into a symbolic representation of the movements of Essence which create them. These can then be triggered by their will or even a set of predetermined circumstances. 

While certainly the two are similar, their difference lies in reliability, as Weaving is more predictable though its potency pales in comparison to the potential of Sigils. As if to balance the two disciplines, Sigils are more difficult to make, and their practice more complex, making them inherently more powerful, taking less effort to reach such heights than Weaving would require. However, the difficulty comes from the mental focus and memory required to precisely create sigils. This is why many Practitioners stick to weaving, gaining them the title of alchemists or enchanters, while the more daring take to Sigils, earning them the title of Mage.

[I][U]Functionality:[/U][/I] While it is not common knowledge as to how the Art functions, and why it does so, over the past 200 years there have been a number of Practitioners, spearheaded by a man known as Vaihrn of the Sigil, who have largely uncovered the nature of the Art. With the creation of the ruling Chimeras, Dorin Katela's notes, and the results of the destruction of the last gate Vaihrn and his disciples managed to discover that the Art of Athriohm, as its 'founder,' supposed, was not created by man, or any other race. Rather, the Art was merely happened upon by chance, though its formation into what it is today was largely through the ministrations of its founder. Thus, in the book of Vaihrn's life work, it is simply stated that rather than a purely magical practice, the Art is instead the study of the nature of creation. In this way, Practitioners of the Art, known as Anriohm, are scientists, though they not only experiment to verify, but they also utilize their findings to assist, or in rare cases deter, society. They utilize their knowledge to mimic the forces of nature and creation, but only to an extent, as in their Oaths it is stated clearly that they are never meant to seek godhood through their Art. 

[I][U]Oaths, Taboos, and the like:[/U][/I] 

[I][B]“Forces outside myself who hold thought within them are beyond the scope of my wishes to bend and know around them.”[/B][/I] This Oath specifies that the Practitioner will not manipulate the essence of conscious living things, such as the three races, though this includes chimeras as well. The oath does not explicitly state that the Practitioner will not bend or modify their own essence, though many take it to mean such.

[I][B]“The void, unreachable to us borne outside it, should not be drawn within the fold beside it. All within and those between and beside, should restrict their contact with this force that does deride. Draw not from its depths, and cease all thought of traversing, for it is not a place to go, not for I or those beside my person.”[/B][/I] This Oath is sworn to restrict Practitioners from drawing the emptiness of the void into the world, and to stop them from entering it themselves. Through this they are also not allowed to seek gods, or other such entities who might dwell beyond their own world. Additionally, if those who take this Oath find another who has broken it, or intends to, they are to stop them from doing so if it is within their power.

[I][B]“While there are few words to speak to make my life less fleeting, I will not seek to find and reap the seeds that offer us eternity.”[/B][/I] This Oath dissuades Practitioners quite strongly from seeking eternal life, though it does not state that they are not to lengthen their own, nor does it state for how long they are allowed to do so.

The use of the Art on Living Things is essentially taboo.

The use of the Art to create life is taboo, the study of such is not, though it is frowned upon.

To seek eternal life, immortality as it is called, is a taboo. This is also to make it far more difficult for the Art to be abused as the less time one has to dedicate to the learning and mastery of such, the less likely they are to achieve power enough that it would corrupt them.

[I][U]The Order of Anriohm:[/U][/I] In short the Order of Anriohm is an organization with the sole purpose of isolating and regulating the use of the Art of Athriohm. It is led and administrated in secrecy by a council of masters who are simply referred to as, well, The Masters. It is this organization, or cult as those few outsiders who know of it tend to call it, who make sure that use of the Art does not become widespread. This is due to their firm belief that man is not yet ready to handle what more or less amounts to the power of creation and destruction.

Any individual who defects from the Order without first having the masters remove their ability to practice the Art is typically hunted down and killed. Alternatively these individuals are imprisoned if they cannot be killed or their abilities are sealed. Generally their abilities are sealed only if they are not considered an overt threat to society at large. This group's presence exists all over the Progaia and is strictly human, as no member of another race is allowed, or necessarily able, to practice the Art. Additionally, it should be noted that while their presence is worldwide, their members are comparably few in number.[/hider]
[hider=Companions/Pets][I][B]Abstractis Imperialis Veritisi:[/B][/I] As a whole Abstractis is an astute, if not somewhat blunt personality. The butterflies that make it up move with purpose, though they too must feed like most of its more mundane cousins. The swarm is generally rather friendly, but do not have any real sense for the concept of personal space, causing them to often land on people, though they will often have no idea that the butterflies are their due to their tendency to camouflage themselves. Generally a helpful existence, Abstractis will often do errands for Reates, though they prefer to be around the man, partially because he is their primary source of sustenance. Abstractis' personality can be described as blunt, intellectual, and rather serious. The being does not have a very human sense of humor...for obvious reasons though it does have the tendency of laughing [I]at[/I] people due to what it considers their antics.

[I]Aberrant Biology:[/I] Abstractis is a sentient swarm of butterflies possessing a hive mind intelligence. It identifies as a singular consciousness, which is shared throughout the entire swarm. While butterflies certainly do not have brains or nervous systems even vaguely large enough to support human intelligence, they are nonetheless as intelligent as any of the other races. In fact, the swarm can be considered to possess an IQ of roughly 170 or so. Each individual butterfly in the swarm is capable of disguising itself through apparently unknown means as they can not only alter their physical coloration to perfectly match their surroundings, but the butterflies can also alter the very texture of their bodies making it virtually impossible to tell the difference from a butterfly and brick wall. Last, but certainly not least, it should be noted that these butterflies have essentially no essence signature, mostly due to the fact that their bodies are basically essence insulators, preventing any essence from escaping their forms. Abstractis is, also, by all rights telepathic and unlike their companion can easily speak into people's minds. However, their mental presence is rather...dainty in nature and so they can be blocked out or ignored, though they can generally initiate mental contact likely due to the fact that telepathy is their primary method of communication. The swarm is also capable of intentionally changing its coloration and they do not gain the physical characteristics of the materials, or things, they are mimicking in appearance. When members of the swarm are killed the swarm loses intelligence and/or knowledge due to their hive mind. For a reference to their normal coloration see Reates' reference at the top of this CS.

[I][B]Rystreim:[/B][/I] A much lazier being then Abstractis, Rystreim tends to either follow Reates around or lay somewhere comfortably warm and take excessively long catnaps. Now don't let this fool you, Rystreim is about as sentient as Abstractis if not slightly more intelligent. However, the feline has no reason to demonstrate such and much prefers to just lie around. Also unlike Abstractis, the cat can speak aloud despite its obvious lack of vocal cords. Likely due to its crystalline structure, Rystreim can very easily totally repel psychic contact making it very difficult to speak to for the butterflies. In fact, the cat has the tendency to block out the swarm's pyschic frequency, making it deaf to the being's mental voice. Rystreim, like most cats, is moody and will change its mind about something abruptly and without warning. This means that Reates has several claw and bite marks from recent attempts to pet the cat. In short, Rystreim's personality can be described as lazy, temperamental, and easily annoyed.

[I]Aberrant Biology:[/I] Rystreim is roughly the size of an average tabby cat, but is composed almost entirely of crystal with the exception of several portions of its body, namely the tip of its tail, its eyes, and the very core of the bluish crystal that composes its form. The entity's eyes are completely white and appear to be composed of some kind of energy, their coloration changes when it is exposed to excessive heat, cold, water, or fire. The tip of Rystreim's tail is formed from the same whitish energy, which reacts the same way as the eyes with the exception of the fact that a small smoky energy constantly drifts from it. The very core of the aberrations body appears to be a strange mixture of reddish viscous liquid and the same white energy, which constantly churns within her.

While it is fairly mundane at room temperature and when not exposed to water, fire or any temperature outside of a comfortable range for a cat, Rystreim tends to react rather violently when exposed to the aforementioned. When exposed to water or extreme cold Rystreim's crystalline body will emit a light from its core that will refract off of the hundreds of thousands of facets of crystal that make it up causing it to become blinding to look upon. The light energy that is generated is so intense that it actually emits natural heat, burning most anything within a 2 foot radius of the cat's body. The light also appears to superheat the crystal, partially liquifying Rystreim's form. This causes her to become roughly two times more flexible than she is normally.

Conversely, when exposed to intense heat or fire Rystreim's body will absorb the heat and, through an unknown process, convert it into electromagnetic energy after which point its body will emit several powerful magnetic fields that range between 1 foot to 10 meters in radius. Magnetic objects within this range will be violently energized with electrical energy and tend to melt from the sheer heat of such unless particularly sturdy. Contact with Rystreim's body will cause mild electrical shocks or electrocution depending on its mood. Needless to say, Reates does his absolute best not to allow the cat to become [I]agitated[/I] by excessive temperature change.[/hider]
[hider=Abilities and Gear]
[B][U]Equipment:[/U][/B]

[U]Glasses:[/U] Due to Reates possessing what is commonly referred to as 'The Sight,' by Practitioners, he tends to wear these specially adjusted glasses so as to filter his essence vision. He can activate or deactivate various filters or types of essence via small influxes of, well, essence into the glasses. This allows him to filter through various systems of essence. The primary reason that Reates fashioned these glasses is the fact that his Sight has developed to such an advanced stage that it becomes difficult for him to focus or remain aware of the physical nature of his surroundings after roughly ten minutes of unfiltered visual input.

[U]The Faraday Pair[Magitech 'Gauntlets']:[/U] Faraday, a name which refers to Reates' pair of magitech gauntlets, comes from the traits that the gauntlets possess; first and foremost their ability to easily extract or replicate essence from non-organic things within 40 meters of their location. These 'gauntlets' are composed of a mixture of magical energy gathered and distributed via sigils inscribed on Reates hands and forearms as well as plates of iron and silver which are held around the aforementioned body parts via complex magical and electromagnetic fields. As mentioned these gauntlets are able to extract essence from non-organic things within a certain radius. However, the essence extracted is specifically related to the traits held by the given object(s). This essence can then be easily transplanted or modify whilst suspended around Reates by the gauntlets. The Faraday can also pull essence to them as long as that essence is not bound in seals, though they can only pull the essence to themselves and then rapidly expel it away from themselves much like electricity is attracted and repelled from a Faraday cage.

[U][url=http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/034/d/0/silver_celtic_star_chainmaille_pendant_necklace_by_janabolicjewelry-d4oj1vd.jpg]Pendant:[/url][/U] A lost artifact made new, this pendant, once known as the Pendant of (de/a)'ttachment has been somewhat re-purposed by Reates. Whereas its ancient purpose was to seal, access, create, or unlock sigils and other such magical barriers regardless of their complexity it now holds another unique ability. While its original abilities are dampened somewhat and require essence and considerable focus from the user, aka Reates, the pendant now acts as a conduit and repository for essence and more specifically a set of sigils which allows Reates to connect two given locations –typically his lab and another desired locale-- at will.

[B][U]Physical and Mental Capabilities[/U][/B]

[U]Enhanced Biology:[/U] It should be noted that Reates is, first and foremost, a mage, and thus not a physical combatant. However, due to the essence that he constantly channels through his body he is slightly more resistant to damage than a normal human as well as being faster than average and agile when he needs to be. He is decently strong, but not abnormally so. Lastly Reates body ages much slower than the average human and he is slowly integrating further sigils and the like to reduce his body's decrease in regeneration and cell mitosis. The essence that is channeled through his body would make him something of a beacon to anyone who can sense essence. However, due to his pet(s), Abstractis Imperium Veritisi, his essence does not leave his body as it should. Instead the butterflies consume it to feed themselves, or store it within his pendant, rendering his essence signature comparatively average in terms of human mages.

[U]Excessively Knowledgeable and Intelligent:[/U] If you hadn't gathered this already, Reates is exceptionally intelligent and, largely due to his innate curiosity, very knowledgeable as well. He has knowledge in topics spanning from the ancient history of birdhouses and their origin, to the various inhabitants of the Wildlands of hell. However, his primay focuses when it comes to knowledge happen to be on the general physical and energetic biology of the four races, those races being Angels, Demons, Humans, and Chimera. In addition to this he has knowledge in various Scientific disciplines, magic in general, and the properties and behavior of various Aberrant beings/objects.

His knowledge of the aforementioned types of biology and the general study of Aberrant beings and objects can be considered his primary focuses, with the others being very important, but slightly less the current focus of his research.

As to Reates intelligence it can be described simply as his incredible aptitude to store and recall information as well as process various forms of newly learned material quickly and the creation of new ideas more or less on the fly. One could say that Reates has made it a distinct point to think on his toes. He does this in essentially every interaction he engages in, testing people's reactions to various mental or environmental stimuli so as to further his understanding of the psychology of the races in addition to their biology.

[U]Universal Toolbox:[/U] Partially due to his unorthodox nature, and secondly due to his intellect, Reates is very capable of turning almost any number of objects in his vicinity into weapons or useful items. He does this either by extracting, modifying, or combining their essence or by simply using the objects themselves in a variety of unique ways to assist him in any given situation. As such Reates has taken to calling the world, or just his surroundings, a 'Universal Toolbox,' and has thusly dubbed this ability to use these 'tools' by said name.

[I]Psychic Aptitude and Telepathy:[/I] Reates is fairly able when it comes to his mind and has developed some psychic aptitude. While he is not a psychic powerhouse he is capable of extending his psychic presence to notify individuals of his location and he is also very good at erecting psychic or mental barriers against intrusion. Conversely his offensive abilities are extremely limited and tend to be based in crude brute force or small clever tricks. Generally he is unable to pierce the psychic defenses of any individual who has mental resistance above the baseline average human who does not practice magic or meditation. Beyond this it should be noted that Reates is capable of telepathic communication between, primarily, willing individuals. He can however handle communicating with no more than three people, not including himself. He can send out a generalized mental impression or message, but if one's mental guard up then these messages will not pierce, thus revealing the limit of his abilities.

[B][U]Magical Skills:[/U][/B]

[U]'The Sight':[/U] Like his some of his ancestors, Reates is able to see essence, but unlike his predecessors his Sight is passive, meaning that he cannot turn it off at will. His Sight is also so developed that he can see the very make up of the sub-atomic particles and various forces that make up a given object, entity, or being. The detail that he can ascertain and the amount of information input that this causes is considerably higher than any human, including Reates, is generally capable of processing for any prolonged period of time. Reates, having been born with the Sight, has gradually adapted to it and as such is able to use it unfiltered for roughly 10 minutes after which point he will have to close his eyes or he will suffer from a form of shock due to sensory overload. If used for longer than 10 minutes, Reates can actually black out from the sheer stress that the sensory input causes his brain.

[U]Environmental Awareness and Magical Attunement:[/U] Due to his ability to physically perceive essence via his eyes, Reates has developed an additional ability to detect it via a sort of sixth sense which does not rely on any of his other five senses. This ability extends for roughly two miles in every direction, his body being the epicenter. When in motion Reates is capable of detecting and mentally visualizing essence within half that distance (one mile). Finally when in combat or in close proximity to considerable amounts of essence, or generally overwhelmingly powerful individuals, this ability is dampened considerably allowing him to only sense within the space of roughly two city blocks. When in situations that require intense amounts of concentration or mental attention Reates is only able to sense up to 50 or so meters around him.

[U]Practitioner of the Art:[/U] Due to his prolonged lifespan and thus the multitude of time he has had to practice the Art of Athriohm, Reates has become what many would consider a grandmaster of the Art. He is beyond proficient in the use of Sigils and Weaving and as such can be considered exceptionally masterful in his magical abilities. Partially due to his somewhat inherent understanding of essence, derived in part from his Sight, he is largely capable of something that most Practitioners do not dare attempt, namely the utilization of essence that one has no prior experience with handling.

[I]Aberrant Manipulation and Psychic Fortitude:[/I] Reates has developed the ability to extract anomalous traits and/or essence from objects and aberrant organisms. While he is unable to infuse these traits into other objects or organisms he can amplify them and use them in weaponized forms. This is an ability that no Practitioner in recorded history is capable of, though records of Athriohm himself are fragmented and largely untranslatable making it very possible that he too was capable of such a feat. Reates is also exceptionally resistant to memetic and psychic assaults delivered from both natural and anomalous sources allowing him a unique edge against such things. If there is one type of anomalous trait that has rubbed off on him it is probably that he is abnormally able when it comes to interacting peacefully with aberrations almost regardless of their typical level of aggression. There are of course exceptions and this ability is not universal to all aberrations.[/hider]