[center][h3][color=fff79a]S i k e s[/color][/h3]

[img=http://orig14.deviantart.net/e44f/f/2007/320/f/2/jim_sturgess_by_pulp_vixen.jpg]http://orig14.deviantart.net/e44f/f/2007/320/f/2/jim_sturgess_by_pulp_vixen.jpg[/img]

[color=fff79a]N A M E / A L I A S[/color]
[i]Sikes / Novissah's Prophet[/i]

[color=fff79a]A G E   O F   L E G E N D[/color]
[i]499 years ago[/i]

[color=fff79a]M Y T H O L O G Y[/color]
[i]They always tell stories of the boy blessed by Novissah, the once proud and graceful near-omniscient Goddess. They say he could see the future and the past, sometimes even things happening at that moment but somewhere else. The legend most know tells of Sikes seeing a darkness swell over Ansus, a murky vision with something sinister lurking in it. The tale goes on to say that he then ventured away from his home and family to the Bastion of Light, a dwindling fire dancing in his eyes. It haunted his dreams and left him exhausted, the vision giving the sixteen year old waking dreams in which he traveled toward the fire, waking somewhere different from where he’d fallen asleep.

Weeks later, the boy arrived, disheveled and dirty, demanding to see Novissah’s Fire, and an explanation for his visions. The High Priests refused and Sikes camped just outside the Bastion for thirteen days before the Priests admitted the near starving boy, taking him in and sharing their plight. They had become desperate and fearful, Novissah's Fire no more than embers. It was something they’d never seen and they hoped Sikes could help them to rekindle it, blessed by the Goddess as he was.

Novissah’s dying days were filled with Sikes trying to commune with her and keep her Fire alight, trying desperately to discover what lurked in the dark visions. The general population does not realize he failed, as Sikes and the High Priests never revealed that such an event ever occurred. Most believe that Sikes succeeded, devoting his life to Novissah and to helping maintain the Fire he once rekindled.

No one, of course, connects the ensuing chaos with this myth. No one realizes that this event, a Fire being brought low, was a catalyst for the turmoil that would take over until the Last God fell and Ansus was reunited once more.

Novissah’s Prophet did end up dedicating his life to Novissah, though it was not in the way most thought. He traveled around Ansus, using the abilities he had been granted to keep faith in her alive, hoping to let others feel the personal connection to her he himself did. Even with her gone, he could use his visions and tools to answer the questions of those who were in desperate need of knowledge.

Sikes never betrayed that Novissah’s fire had diminished and he was frequently permitted to visit the Bastion, even as another fire began to suffer the same fate as Novissah's.

As the continent fell further and further to chaos, Sikes found his power overwhelming. There still exist jokes about Novissah's poor prophet, suddenly blinded as he was assaulted with visions of darkness, of something lurking, of a ring of flames being extinguished until nothing remained... And it was as he had one of these visions, at the age of twenty-eight, that he stumbled into the river beside which he'd been resting, on his way to the Bastion once more to seek answers from the High Priests once more. His visions had changed ever so slightly, the complete darkness now followed by a speck of light, which seemed to wound the lurking thing in the darkness... it could only be a sign that the Priests had learned something.

And so the poor prophet never saw his own end coming, the river washing him away before he could get the answers he so desperately seeked.[/i]

[color=fff79a]A P P E A R A N C E[/color]
[i]While not old, Sikes is into adulthood, having spent his years travelling and helping those in need. He’s fit from travel, but not particularly strong, much of his time spent trying to discover the dark thing eliminating the Fires and how to destroy it. Sikes dresses simply, in fact, and his skin is marred by a light tan and the occasional scar from, erm, hurting himself in his survival attempts. Dark hair covers equally dark eyes and his facial features are more rounded than they are sharp. He’s also taller than most people, standing over six feet tall.[/i]

[color=fff79a]A B I L I T I E S / E Q U I P M E N T[/color]
[i]Sikes doesn’t have a lot of equipment, per se. Floating around somewhere, maybe in a museum or mausoleum, is his old hunting knife, something he forged with the aid of his father as a child. There also is a crystal bowl and an assortment of gems which would allow him to more easily control when he received his visions and even ask to receive one. The reflection on the water in the bowl or on the shiny surface of the stone will change to show him things, though it is less often to be something true and even fails. He carries none of this with him now, with only dreams (waking or otherwise) to guide him.[/i][/center]