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[h1][color=FF6347]Al'at[/color]   [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDCcrTId3DE&index=3&list=RDMM4La4Aol-XwQ]Sal'im[/url][/h1]
[i]The Wolf in Sea[/i]
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[b][color=FF6347]Age:[/color][/b] Fifty-Seven ~ "[i]Doesn't look a day over twenty.[/i]"

[b][color=FF6347]Race:[/color][/b] Zaldean

[hider=Zaldean Culture]Zaldeans were born a cursed people. Short lifespans, the constant loss of life essence, a faith system based on giving back to the world with their ultimate demise, and very little interaction with other races in the cosmos due to their isolation. They had little difference to your standard human other than these traits, perhaps even sharing ancestors far-far back in time. It was a miracle that the Grand Apothecaries came to be, an order of brilliant scientists who strayed from their own culture’s social norms to find ways to extend their small lifespans. Life on Zaldea would seem abundant before they would find their first breakthroughs, millions of different species; Murhales, were in particular the grandest spectacle that a few advanced species came to see without the Zaldeans even knowing. Massive eighty-foot fall mammals with beautiful golden shimmering horns, they looked very similar to a deer with a long tail that trailed behind them. But an even more unique aspect to the Murhales is that their bodies were abundant with life essence. Not only them, but many of the larger species that tread Zaldea held great wells of this energy within their being.

A few more decades would pass with Zaldeans worship of Eya, their god of life and death. But the Grand Apothecaries would assist a young, brilliant Sal’im in coming to find her own research. Their own goals aligned, and the small girl was a perfect figurehead for their cause. The earliest days of this rebellion would be simple rallies of angry Zaldeans doomsaying at their temples shouting their disbelief in such a cruel god. The lack of outcome turned their anger into violence however, riots would begin at the places of Zaldean fate causing turmoil among their people. A split between those who wanted things to remain and those who wanted change. Ke'ra Sal'im was the spearhead in this endeavor, while the Grand Apothecaries worked behind the scenes of their society turning brothers against one another and eventually a full-on civil war would be incited. Those whom retained their faith in their deity, and those who wished to leave behind the wasteful beliefs to find a cure for their doomed existence. 

Contrary to Ke'ra and by connection the Sal'im Bloodline's beliefs, it was not actually the determination of the people who supported their push for knowledge that ended the war. It was much less graceful, the Grand Apothecaries had brewed up a biomagical weapon [b]The Crimson[/b], a red vapor that was a frankenstein creation of a necrotic pathogen that was native to the planet but thought completely eradicated. Thousands of dead Zaldeans soaked the planet enriching the soil with their life essence, and sewing the seeds for future generations to live greater-longer lives. Ke'ra Sal'im would become the sole political leader for the people, the Grand Apothecaries saw her as a young blossoming intelligence who would not allow morality to halt her search for knowledge- they wanted that. The society that lived in the past was torn down to rebuild anew, temples and the small humbles homes that they once lived peacefully within replaced with castles, labs, farms, and cities. Contrary to what people will say, all Zaldeans are currently quite happy with their society and culture- they live in a technological, alchemical, masterpiece that holds an immortal Victorian-Era aesthetic. They've learned from their loss and plan to wait for the races whom don't agree with their teachings to eventually weigh onto their side in time, and when they do- oh the things they will learn.


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[b][color=FF6347]Occupation:[/color][/b] Royalty 

[b][color=FF6347]Training List:[/color][/b]
[i]⍣ ; Political Representive
⍣ ; Swordsmanship
⍣ ; Linguist
⍣ ; Magic Scholar
⍣ ; Alchemic Knowledge
⍣ ; Surgeon
⍣ ; Master of Persuasion[/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Powers:[/color][/b] [i]Essence is the life force that runs through all things in Zaldea, the fauna and flora and even the intelligent beings. Throughout the planet's time being inhabited, the Zaldeans have researched the essence and it is in the royal bloodline that the research came to fruition. The first Sal'im to receive the Blood Binding was Highlord Ke'ra, the grand apothecaries sacrificed hundreds of living creatures to successfully channel enough Life Essence to imbue into the heart of Ke'ra. And with her first heartbeat after the binding she could feel the essence within her, and even within those around her. As lifeblood pumped through her veins, she slowly felt the substance waning away as her lifespan shortened every day. She could see her lifespan, and the lone queen did what any ruler whom feared mortality would- sought immortality. Right? First she learned to control the essence within her self, this allowed the Highlord to perform miracles such as levitation and healing minor injuries upon herself. She would teach those below her of the gift, and trained a small group of strong-willed the art, though not as adept as her. Though soon, with her own practice and research she would learn to steal the essence from other living creatures by draining their blood and drinking it. As she extracted more and more from multiple creatures, she began to look younger, her body biologically rewinding to sustain the amount of essence accumulating within her body. The Zaldeans ever since have been looked down upon with universal dismay as the culture ever since then has sunken into new lows, dabbling in biological experimentation, and forbidden alchemy.

[u]Hemomancy:[/u] As a member of the Sal'im lineage, Al'at has complete manipulation over essence within blood giving them control of the life essence in, or outside of his body. This can be utilized in a multitude of ways, simple construction of objects made of blood in a hardened form, contamination of a life form, or even just standard lose control over blood in its liquid state.  To sustain Sal'im and allow him to utilize his Hemomancy, he carries around several closed phials of Zaldean blood due to the living things that roam his planet being rich with life essence for the reaping. The use of this is however not limited to those six phials, though when using the small amount he carries on hand- he is able to utilize this form of magic to a greater extent.

[u]Arcanascript:[/u] The practice of imbuing scripture with trace essence to create scrolls is not a difficult process. However the Zaldeans have derived a different art of this altogether, siphoning the life essence from many a creatures to form an inkwell of glowing red that is used for the pen work on these scrolls. The Zaldeans say this traps the souls of those sacrificed to make this ink within the scroll until it used, though it really does not. Scrolls that are written upon with this ink are imbued with large amounts of life essence and hold great healing properties, though the primary use that Al'at receives from these scrolls is to imbue pools with life motes- in return giving him a surplus of blood that he can control.

[u]Life Alchemy:[/u] Frowned upon by most races, the Zaldeans hold no restraint in using the lives of others to further advance their magical knowledge. Young Zaldean Royalty in particular are taught biological alchemy early on in their life. They are taught how to reconstruct one living thing into another, how to reanimate small creatures bodies, and even twist the structure of others. This can be utilized when corpses are nearby and the Zaldeans are outnumbered, reanimating the wasted flesh into creations of marvel and horror to fight for the frail species. [/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Equipment:[/color][/b]
[i]⍣ ; Kthru Portable Display
⍣ ; Vials of Blood (6)
⍣ ; Suture Thread 
⍣ ; Antiseptic Liquid
⍣ ; Surgical Tape
⍣ ; Zaldean Sword (at hip)
⍣ ; Book of Blank Parchment
⍣ ; Life Essence Inkwell[/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Airship:[/color][/b] N/A

[b][color=FF6347]Motivation:[/color][/b] [i][url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/06/b8/49/06b849facb0b43a68490fde20725f9c1.jpg]Al'at[/url] is driven by knowledge, he is not an inventor or engineer who seeks to design the greatest of machines or creations albeit. Instead the man seeks to find the cure for death itself. The Sal'im Royal Family slaves away the greatest of minds on Zaldea to seek this answer, to find absolute immortality for their people and to share this knowledge with the world. Some might say that they have already found it, that they harvest the lives of others to extend their lifespans could do so infinitely. It is not so, [url=https://hijiribe.donmai.us/data/sample/__original_and_shinjitsu_no_buryoku_drawn_by_bou_shaku__sample-04623b0cb8c820eb9e805e081f012183.jpg]Ke'ra[/url] died one-hundred years ago while in her child-like body. While they are able to maintain the Life Essence needed to extend their lives, it is taxing on the soul within the body to adjust to such great intakes of life essence at length. The Zaldeans call this the Soul Sickness, as the person seems to be fine in every physical sense but their spirit eventually fades into oblivion leaving the shell behind. Not only this, but Zaldea is in constant need of creatures and cannot sustain those of the planet anymore without reaping them to extinction.[/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Personality:[/color][/b] [i]As a member of the Sal'im Royal Bloodline, it is in their heritage to treat all people as equals and no life as less significant to their own. With this raising, Al'at has grown to be incredibly polite and understanding of most beings regardless of their standing or beliefs. He is one to never interrupt those when speaking, helping whenever he is able to help, and offering knowledge when he has it to give. However this does not make Sal'im a good person, and his moral standing is as questionable as his people's reputation would have you believe. He does not feel restraint when something must be sacrificed for a return greater in his eyes, when it comes to knowledge in particular it holds much greater weight than life and will without a doubt set a blade in the back of another if that knowledge is deemed worth. He is also manipulative to a degree, leading those around him towards his own goals if they are able to be swayed even if he knows that his endgame does not quite match up with their own. All in all, [url=https://78.media.tumblr.com/20272bf1246a4a84daf9561cac7579fe/tumblr_p7zj1rEiZd1sk3s93o2_500.png]Al'at[/url] is incredibly easy to get along with- though must be kept under close surveillance or he may end up dissecting a shipmate of a race he's never seen before.[/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Flaws:[/color][/b]
[i]⍣ ; Cannot fly to save his life.
⍣ ; Nobleman Disposition
⍣ ; Zero Morals
⍣ ; Non-athletic
⍣ ; Prideful
⍣ ; Difficulty with Connection
⍣ ; [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2f/75/20/2f7520d389afba6e211e009da831d1d5.jpg]Blood Withdrawal[/url] [/i]

[b][color=FF6347]Bio:[/color][/b] [i][center][color=FF7F50]The Rise of the Sal'im[/color][/center]
Zaldea is a dying world, doomed to be picked dry by the vultures whom were born upon it. Those said vultures, are the Sal'im. Their family dates far-far back to when the Zaldean people were once religious, they were monotheistic and worshipped Eya the mother of life and death. It was in their blood, their culture, to both covet and fear death as an inevitability. Their soul would return to Eya and their body would become the soil for more life to grow from. But it was a young, intuitive, Ke'ra who would stray from these teaching and change the norm of their society. She turned to the sciences that other races tried to introduce to their religious people, seeking the root of what pressed their people into such a bleak belief system. She would find that these 'motes' would remain in their dead, and when their deceased were carried out to the wilds to be absorbed by nature- the trees and nearby life would absorb these motes into themselves. It was a cycle, with reason, but it was no god thought the young Ke'ra. She sought to educate the brighter minds, those whom had lost, who sought answers, and she gave it to them- there was no higher power which took those from us early, there was something that we would lose and give back to Zaldea itself. But what if it could be harnessed, grown, cultured, reproduced? It was this thinking that led to revolution. Once led by a religious Cardinal, the young Ke'ra rallied enough followers to assassinate their former religious leader and claim the power for herself as the first young Highlord.

[center][color=FF7F50]Al'at is Born[/color][/center]
Ke'ra has passed one-hundred years ago and a new Highlord now reigns of Zaldea. Na'tos Sal'im is the great grandson of her majesty, and he was selected due to the knowledge he accumulated in his time working under the grand apothecaries. His achievements were most notably, the Life Vats that stored abundant sums of Life Essence within them and could sustain a Zaldean for several months, and the other being his own son Al'at. The new Highlord held the young child high during his heralding speech, boasting that his son would be the next Ke'ra and would drive their society towards their ultimate goal of immortality. Al'at underwent multiple types of experimentation in his infancy, performing the Blood Binding mere moments before he was born to accelerate these processes. Multiple IVs ran through his newborn body rich with crimson essence, and as a side-effect of this early supplement of the substance stunted the child's aging. At thirty years of age, Al'at remained physically a teenager- though he still donned a labcoat and spent his long hours within the research facilities of the Grand Apothecaries to offer himself and his mind towards their greater goal. Years would pass, and as the Highlord's son who was christened to find immortality for his entire people- that weight would fall upon Al'at and his shoulders would not bear it. 

[center][color=FF7F50]The Son Sets Off[/color][/center]
Unable to find any sort of breakthrough that his father wished he would, Al'at would seek to leave Zaldea in search of their answer being somewhere else in the cosmos. They had been visited by alien species before, though none have seen eye-to-eye with the new Zaldean ways and their search for knowledge. It was hard to find a way off the planet through legal means, so with the family's accumulated wealth he sought out an illegal method to do so. A slaver ship would sometimes travel to their homeworld in search of those with Soul Sickness we could no longer care for, these people with no ability or will would be sold off for high sums of currency and with those funds we would invest back into our research. The young Zaldean approached the criminals with a heavy silken bag filled to the brim with coins and asked to simply stowaway until they reached their next location. He wasn't worried about the three alien individuals so much as he was that they would actually take him somewhere that wouldn't know of his lineage, he could dispose of them if they made any attempts on his life with ease. But they held true to their word, likely to ensure that they would keep trading ties with the family.
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[b][color=FF6347]Extra Info:[/color][/b] [i][url=https://i.imgur.com/vUirPjm.jpg]Al'at[/url] will begin to deteriorate if he does not consume Life Essence for more than five days. On day six hemomancy will begin to act on its own, attempting to accumulate as much possible to sustain the man. This typically looks like streams of crimson gathering around his arms and legs to secure them. Day seven he will begin to develop dark rings around his eyes and become disoriented, this will cause him to question friend from enemy as his mind starts to slip away. This is not Soul Sickness, but instead withdrawal symptoms due to being exposed to the magic substance throughout his life since an early age.

He does still require food and water, and is nearly biologically identical to a human. [/i]
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