[hider=The Old Man, Dreamwalker, and Occultist Extraordinaire!] [center][color=B0C4DE][h1][b]Knossos Dreamwalker[/b][/h1][/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/1Mi0uoA.jpg[/img][/center] [color=B0C4DE]Race, Age, Time in the Caravan[/color]: Human, 72, 17 years with the Pilgrim's Caravan [color=B0C4DE]History[/color]: [hider=Long History Warning (Edited 11/3/23)] Knossos is a man who was born to a small village family in the humble farming village of Aktí within the Kingdom of Ordos, a coastal nation with a large eastern coastline and access to the sea since seemingly time immemorial. A kingdom that had little access to the outside by land, save for a pair of crucial northern and western mountain passes respectively dubbed the "Chióni" (Greek for "ice", aka the 'northern pass' out from the nation's northern border) and the "Fiume" (Italian for "river", named such due to the great river flowing alongside the pass down a steep cliff as one passes through it), it had been in the middle of various issues or conflicts over the years as well as notably involved at sea. Yet even with having the sea so accessible, the growing of crops and rearing of livestock was still very much important. Indeed, this would be the task the family of young Knossos had taken up for many generations within the inner land region of the kingdom proper. At birth Knossos's surname, as was his family's already, continued on in the same old local tradition of one's surname being taken from the work and job they had. A simple enough matter, as it were, for the region and culture in which he lived. Meanwhile, Knossos' first name was actually somewhat abnormal for common folk. Whilst the first names of children would originate from anything ranging from figures in legend, to places they were born, to those who the family or parents wished to honor in their lives or pay respects to, and so forth, trends in this naming structure trended toward certain lines of things depending on one's place and status of birth. Farmers and Woodcutters and such would usually use more land and terrain-focused names, whilst those such as scholars and magic users might get names based on famous authors or constellations or other phenomena that sounded fancy and sophisticated to use as a name, etc. So in this vein Knossos' own name was something of an oddity, only chosen when a passing magic scholar was hosted by the family on a journey to the north and assisted in his birth when one of the local midwives or the village doctor would not be able to make it in time. So grateful were Knossos' parents for the help that the traveling magic scholar was given the chance to name him out of respect. No small honor to be sure, no matter one's class! Thus the newborn was named for the constellation locals called 'Knossos', which looked like a king sitting on a throne, named for the great and wise legendary king who once ruled the region in legend. Though the last of said king’s bloodline had long been assimilated by successors who conquered the area later on, forming the “Kingdom of Ordos” itself that still ruled the land even by the time Knossos was born. With all of this in mind, Knossos still simply seemed poised merely to inherit the family farm and land in life. He had nothing going for him otherwise, and while pushed to learn to till the land and learn how it worked he still seemed to feel a restlessness within him from a young age. Indeed his young mind would wander to things greater than himself and the old stories of kings and legends long gone, and his parents were often sore with him or given myriad headaches simply trying to deal with him at times. In the end they would not need to worry in perhaps the worst of ways, however, as the new ‘village doctor’ assigned to the village by the crown when Knossos was just five would begin to influence the boy in a different direction. Secretly a member of a cult dedicated to an alien being from a far-flung dimension/plane dubbed "iL'Thris the Deep Lord". Said cult would influence and draw in the young Knossos (among others) until he was ten, after which he in particular had his death faked in the nearby woods before being spirited off to the cult’s epicenter in the now-former capital of the Kingdom of Ordos proper (Cretia). Here the cult prepared him more rigorously for adulthood and joining their higher ranks, until eventually by the age of twenty one Knossos had grown to become somewhat of a rather adept learner. He had learned all the magic of the cult that he could absorb (acquired from iL'Thris), and reached the upper ranks of the cult as its youngest member. As was fitting for one of his new higher-up station within the cult’s ranks, if not unique to it, he would then be infused with part of the very flesh of iL'Thris as other upper-ranks had received as a ‘gift’ as well before him. All likewise seemed to be going according to plan, though, at least until the time when the long-foretold "Day of Summoning" came along. The ritual kicked off, and disaster came, but a brave band of heroes formed in those days before the ritual (due to being affected by the cult in one way or another) and began to rise up to combat the cult most heartily as soon as things hit the fan. Not seen as a big threat before, these heroes received the blessings of the local gods and gathered resistance forces together under one banner to inspire and act as their spearhead before destroying the cult in a climactic final battle within the ruins of Cretia. Neighbors of the Kingdom of Ordos had even been about to send in reinforcements to take local lands under the justification of containing the threat, though with the passing of the threat it would lead to other issues in the following decades. In the end, the leading hero of the group of heroes married the kingdom's princess, who was about his age, after having saved her from being trapped in a magic crystal deep within the ruins of the former royal castle. Such was the reward the old king, whose sons had been lost to the cult’s ritual and ensuing chaos, gave to the younger man in order to establish a successor of sorts. A heroic and popular one at that. Among the scant few people of the cult who managed to escape the bloody final battle somehow, all of such being able to be counted on one hand at the very most, Knossos sought to flee the land rather than stay around for the following years likewise bloody purges of cult sympathizers and members from within the kingdom’s lands the general population was rallied around. Somehow, despite the odds, the man would escape the kingdom’s borders.…and did so questioning everything he had ever known. He had lived and survived another day, but everyone else he’d known and grown up around since being taken to Cretia hadn’t. But what of the enlightenment the cult had promised? What of the power, the truth, everything? Something like the cult, yes, it had to be true. But if this route to truth did not manifest for them, perhaps the next would? Yes! Another had to work! It had to. There was no other way, it was all he'd ever known. So he would have to find another route! Yes! Truth itself lied beyond the veil of any of this, it had to, and he would find it for the benefit of all this time! He couldn’t give up yet! Thus Knossos would desperately claw his way to a land far away from his own, that being of the desert Kingdom of Khamsin in the vast and expensive Khamsin Desert. Here a new cult was found by Knossos several years later, being a group dedicating themselves to an Ancient Great Demon Lord named Ashtara who sought to take the region and transform it into a microcosm of where she had come from: A ravaged, dark, horrid demonic plane of sorts that she promised to her followers would be a paradise. A paradise free of struggle, war, and turmoil. Nothing but the best pleasures of life and beyond, and for all eternity. Despite his former affiliation, he did join the cult and manage to rise the ranks to an extent once more as he pursued things with a new zeal for years to come. From Ashtara, he as well as other mid-rank members would be granted to drink some of her blood to receive part of her power and gain new magics. Meanwhile the higher-ups were turned into mostly demons themselves by also being merged with her flesh. Conjuring/summoning demons, making use of curses, casting red energy attacks of tainted demonic magical energy, and conducting blood rituals would become the things Knossos found he could do using this new 'gift'. Things again seemed to be going on the right track, and if lucky the man felt he could finally manage to see the sort of ‘paradise’ he had been promised for so long. Finally, maybe, the dreams of the sleeping dead could finally be achieved somewhere in the world. Yet it would be when this cult tried to rise up and cast their big 'summoning ritual' to bring forth their patron that things would eventually turn. Having been stirring up more and more active and open trouble in the desert kingdom leading up to the ritual itself, the local lords and ruler had brought in their own forces to deal with a conflict on the southern border to avoid an attempted annexation of part of its territory…..in that vein, not many were left to help keep order. Thus some adventurers, and even mercenaries, would be hired on to try to help quell the trouble and help with local monster issues as the area dealt with its other major problem simultaneously. Indeed, among these hired swords a plucky band of mixed-bag-mercenaries-turned-good-guy-heroes would eventually stand out among them in rising up to help lead the charge against the cult as it tried to summon its ‘goddess’ into the mortal plane. Barely manifesting an arm of their patron at most to try to crush the heroes, and unable to complete it despite sowing chaos around the ancient ruins the cult had set up in out in the desert, it became clear this cult too was going to lose. Ashtara could see the writing on the wall, and merely withdrew after it was clear the cult could not keep it up, dragging the higher-ups who had been bonded to her flesh and most of the surviving mid-level hierarchy away into her home plane as ‘reparations’ for her failed summoning and leaving the rest of them (Knossos among them) to die or the like without a care in the world for them afterward. Those living members left behind by Ashtara’s cult, Knossos included, were pursued and killed and slain and put to the sword as they scattered to the four winds. Knossos was only thirty five years old at the time, and barely scraped through the desert with his life before collapsing at an oasis. From here, he would subsist for several months before fleeing the desert altogether by hitching a ride with an outbound but small merchant caravan after hiding or storing away his old cultish clothing and gear. Yet it was also here he began to waver once more, leaning more into desperation to find ‘something that mattered’ and see it through. Two cults were all he had known, and there had to be something….anything to prove that everything he had learned and come to know wasn’t a lie. That such a method to bring peace and paradise to the world was worth it, that it was true, that it meant something! He just had to look again. Such a thing seemed so incredibly rare to run into, so hard to find, and yet he had to just look for the signs. The threads. The traces of something that he could use to find another home, one that perhaps this time he could help ensure would succeed this time. His journeys would bring him to a land far in the northern hemisphere, farther north than he'd ever been in his life before, to a place filled with verdant pine forests and icy pale wastes that could easily kill one who didn’t come prepared. It was here Knossos came across a group seeking the power of an ancient civilization called the Vilkyn, a grand civilization that had once owned the whole of this particular continent’s far northern reaches and taken tribute from places even far away due to their might. A series of disasters, internal and external and manmade and natural alike, had brought the Vilkyn down into ruin eventually. Yet within those taboo ruins of their, as those peoples who had moved into the area in the passing centuries to live there had deemed them to be, a new operation had been set up by a noble from a nearby kingdom to the east. Having gotten ahold of some old Vilkyn old records, said noble (whose territory was on the border with this area) discovered there was something of great value that lied where the civilization’s old capitol had once been. He had funded an expedition, began skimming money to help fund it in part, and brought in materials and ‘experts’ to help him seek it out. Knossos, as it were, had a sort of expertise that the noble desired before hiring him on. Even so the operation itself became more and more cult-like over the years despite how it had been set up at first, this being mostly due to the promises of power and eternal life that the ancient Vilkyn ruins and texts promised to grant and showed great promise for. This in and of itself was learned more about as the operation dug up Vilkyn ruins and texts on the occult arts they’d clung to and made use of in their heyday. The use of necromancy had a fine art for them, putting the risen undead to use, alongside their creation and implementation of peculiar magic constructs making use of ‘crystallized mana gems’. Said ‘gems’ were a unique creation of the Vilkyn, solidifying mana itself and shaping it into abnormally ‘mana-dense’ gems that could be used to power a wide array of devices depending on their form. In fact, these occult power sources seemed to almost be ‘alive’ as they doubled likewise as ‘programmable cores’ to imbue with controls and commands etched into them in some form long-lost magical scrawl and arcane occult scripting. Such magic was far from a standard magical practice, or had yet to be developed anywhere else or adopted by them….and why? None could tell, but those delving into the Vilkyn’s secrets did not pay such heed to the signs in any case. Having joined on at first as a simple 'expert in obscure magical arts', Knossos would rise in the ranks of the expedition-turning-cult as he eventually became the operation’s resident expert in Vilkyn texts and magic over time. Then as the group became more obsessed and cultic, driven by a desire for power and made promises by the noble of becoming immortal ‘living gods’ now, Knossos would hold back and retain his powerful but key position as he watched on this time from within. He would gain the magical knowledge the group sought in full, at least, before things this time went awry as the operation tried to boot up a ‘eternal life machine’ powered by a vast amount of the race’s trademark ‘gems’ in the ruins of the former Vilkyn capital. No interruptions. No discovery. And yet it all still went horribly, horribly wrong in the end. What was a machine meant to make the living Vilkyn nobility immortal and maintain that, the machine had been shut down by rebels through damaging it enough during the last civil war that saw the Vilkyn Empire of ancient times finally be destroyed. The noble-led operation-cult would work to restore the device, hoping to bind themselves to it, but upon doing this and activating the machine something different happened than they had expected. Originally the souls of those to be made ‘immortal’ had been imbued into the original ‘gems’ used to power the machine, and the ‘gems’ had been modified to encase their souls as ‘phylacteries’ to root them into the mortal plane. What the group had done was miss that step, and instead repaired it and put in standard-type ‘gems’ they had produced into the machine before activating it once more. As Knossos discovered this facet of things in his latest research, he ran toward the site of the device below the ground in a hurry-....but was too late to stop the repaired machine’s activation. Having been left to monitor research and operations above-ground while the machine was activated, but having been intimately involved in the repair and restoration of the machine itself, Knossos still hadn’t volunteered to be among the first ‘immortals’ to be created by using it. He wanted to see how things went at first in this case, maybe provide help in case things went awry, etc. Meanwhile those who had assembled to ‘test the machine first’ had decided, right before activating it, to be greedy and not let anyone else become immortal by using it. Rather, they thought to kill all above the ground and live as immortal kings and queens over a vast realm of undead. At the same time, the machine had no proper vessel for the souls of those who had newly bound themselves to it….and it was still bound to many of those former Vilkyn nobility who were long dead by now as well. Knossos arrived to witness those using the machine, the noble included, have their souls sucked out and sent to the afterlife after having nowhere to go. Meanwhile the bodies of these people were left as walking, lifelike-looking immortal undead without minds of their own. Likewise, all across the northern wastes and former Vilkyn ruins, former Vilkyn nobility would ‘rise’ in a way not intended by the machine when it had been originally created. Their bodies were recreated as rotted, angry, and wandering undead whose souls were trapped hopelessly still in the remaining original ‘gems’ of the machine and who bodies were magically-infused and even stronger ancient undead who clung to the ruins or even wandered the open frozen wastes (where ruins did not remain anymore, but where they’d died anyway) to kill any unsuspecting fools who sought to travel off of the beaten path. It was as much as Knossos could do to try to evacuate the remaining cultists above, and then grab and bag all the information on the Vilkyn the cult/operation had before things went wrong. Soon after, royal forces from the nearby kingdom arrived hoping to arrest the cult members and take them en-masse and by surprise. Because the kingdom the noble had come from did manage to figure out something was going on…..and the noble’s own son and heir had helped them to boot behind the scenes. Instead they captured or killed fleeing cultists, though, the force (including the noble’s son and the kingdom’s crown prince at their helm) would be forced to retreat from the area as the undead appeared before them and around them seemingly out of the blue. From these people Knossos would manage to flee in the opposite direction, albeit not intentionally as much as having done so by sheer chance, managing to escape into the icy freezing cold with what little he had and the clothes on his back once more. Again. For the seemingly impossible third time in his life. Even so, the thrice-over cultist would only get so far. Through weather and struggle, constantly-returning undead and lack of resources, he would push through until he collapsed on the ground a bit after he entered the first bit of greenery his by-then frostbitten and starving and very weakened body managed to come across. Being near a forest path to the far southwest, away from where the group had finally set up at the old Vilkyn capital's ruins at least, as infused occult flesh and magical power sought to keep him alive somehow. Yet where he was wasn’t really the most used route either. It was well-trod, but as of recent years had seen little traffic at all. Someone collapsed off in a bush just a bit off the side of the road had little to no chances at being found, much less find help. It was thus here that his vision blurred, his wounds continued to worsen, and he would pass out expecting to finally die. His resolve to find 'truth' in the only way he'd known how, so indoctrinated into it he had become blind, would too finally break as his body seemingly did. Truth? He sought truth, but this path was not it. This way was not the one. None of them had been, in the end, anything but misery and death and woe. And what had he done? Run about seeking all of this like a fool for decades of life? He, a fifty-four year old idiot and murderer and thrice-former cultist, was going to die and be damned for it. He would not see the power of the Deep Lord transform a kingdom into an oceanic utopia of peace. He would not see a glorious paradise of another plane form around him as Ashtara had promised. He would not see the common man gain immortality and power and riches and glory either, as promised by the third and final cult (actually operation-turned-cult) he'd joined. Nothing. And so as he felt himself drift, the aging man would scoff at himself and allow himself to drift away. ….But this was not to be his fate, it seemed. Waking up, the man found himself in peasant’s clothes and lying in a warm bed. A warm bed located in a northern town farther to the south than where he’d been, and in particular within a shrine to the local god Drothur (God of Travelers, Merchants, Wanderers, Transients, Homeless, and Foreigners). It was here Knossos’ first reaction was to panic, then manage to relax, and then simply and finally laugh aloud like a madman without a care in the world. Alive. He was alive, still, by some impossibility even he couldn’t help but laugh aloud about in this case. As it were, a passing cleric of Drothur had found him, the clothes on his back, and his magical satchel containing all his things, and brought him to the shrine for care before giving the unconscious and nearly-dead man a change of clothes and getting him in a warm bed. Walking in with a raised eyebrow and small smile on his face, the cleric who had saved Knossos would come into the room and lean against the doorframe until the other man had calmed back down again. As Knossos soon after seemed to drop into a depressed state, though, the cleric began to speak up in turn to explain things. This cleric had been guided by a dream to take that road, in particular even seeing the location they had found Knossos in, and had felt the hand of their patron deity upon him. But why? Knossos would wonder this and ask as he was forced to heal up for some time at the shrine, talking about everything to the cleric as he tended to him personally after that point. The same cleric who had helped him would leave, returning to travel as was their calling to do again, but would leave him with a parting message when he asked one last time the question that burned so brightly in his mind: "Why?" "Why save me? Why would even a deity care for me despite all the things I've done?". The cleric merely responded, with a smile, that- [center][i]"My lord Drothur saw fit to save you, and frankly so did I even after looking into your things. Drothur is a god of travel, and you sir are not yet done with your travels it seems. Most do not survive the sort of life you seem to have led, and yet you are still here and thus it is a sign of my lord’s will I take it. I could never leave a traveler by the wayside, left to wither and die, for such is my calling to travel and provide such aid to those in need and clear the roads of evil. You have come to see your own folly, and the veil of ignorance has come up from your eyes. This is a most precious gift indeed….a second chance. A rebirth. A time to take on another path, to pave a new road, and perhaps use those gifts of yours for a better reason and purpose. So go forth, oh Knossos! Oh thrice-walker of dreams broken! Go now with my lord's blessing upon you, and see your new path to its very end without regrets! I shall see you there at the very end, my friend, or perhaps we shall meet again before then. Either way, farewell!"[/i][/center] And so the cleric left….and Knossos would as well some days later as well. The occult-learned man would in the end find himself joining the Pilgrim's Caravan as it was passing through the same region. Claiming to be a hands-on magical scholar of sorts, he would take his occult expertise and magic and skills and set about to make the world a better place in any way he could. He would also seek to gather knowledge along the way to this end, to keep it safe, and to keep it hidden from unsafe hands. Not that he could do all of this for free, but the funds went into keeping his trade and business alive from stop to stop if nothing else. Allowed him to help others one way or another, even if it meant taking payment in coin or in gems or frankly in crops if it came down to it for his clients. Etc. Ultimately on the road, and for the next seventeen years, Knossos would peddle his knowledge to assist others as an 'occult expert'. He would care for those dealing with haunted places or cursed items. He would be hired by nobles to investigate ruins, examine eclectic and rather niche 'magic items' for them, or try to assist with afflictions and issues caused by non-standard magical sources or origins. Such was his purpose. He would even buy up cursed items or such to 'contain' them safely, and for that he gained some reputation of a good but also wary sort. He even assisted areas with more 'zealous' beliefs to investigate certain matters relating to his expertise and skills, if only to work with the law and try to form an amicable relationship with such groups to avoid trouble on his part. At the same time, however, it isn't as if he is without potential to get into trouble due to what he is skilled in dealing with. His skills have been of use to the Pilgrim's Caravan itself at times as well, making him a staple of the last decade and a half in regards to certain matters if nothing else, and yet to date he knows the danger never goes away. The next plot, the next oddity, the next obscure magical issue, the next place that could potentially be where he runs into his past again, whatever it may be... ...but he will see his new chosen path to the end, no matter what! [/hider] [color=B0C4DE]Personality[/color]: An older man usually of a calm, jovial, or relaxed type of mentality and way he holds himself. Even so, he inherently possesses a sober patience and calm in or outside of his work as well. He is generally well-spoken, and is well-read to a sometimes troubling extent when it comes to his area of expertise, but one won't find him being usually unfriendly to others unless they seriously manage to tap into his anger r get him to really not like them to a notable enough extent. Knossos is very meticulous about his work and frankly passionate and serious about it to boot when it comes down to it. Attempting to snatch anything of his is something he will more than sternly lecture someone else on, at the very least, though he truly loathes those who fumble about with the occult or such things with no regards for their lives or others’. Outside of his work, one can find him willing to share a hot meal or drink with others and even have a laugh and talk and such...or a shoulder to rest on if they need to unload something painful or so forth onto someone else. At his heart children do have a soft spot with him as well, due to what happened to him in his own childhood (or lack thereof to an extent due to what happened in his own childhood), and at his heart he truly is a kind man who seeks to do the best he can in regards to himself and others with nothing but sincerity. Yet it is also that same sincerity that sees his anger and other negative emotions being that much more hot, poignant, and fierce whenever they manage to peek out from behind the veil of his usual demeanor. Whilst he is not of the mind that he knows everything, he’ll amidst that as bluntly as possible with a laugh if asked, he is still a very much knowledgeable man whose talents go as deep as the years of his life have gone on long. [center][i]"What is better? To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"[/i] -Paarthunax, Skyim (2011) ((And this is a quote that IC would be something Knossos would actually think to say to be honest)[/center] [color=B0C4DE]Motivation[/color]: To assist others regarding matters of the occult.....in a sense, be a ‘guiding light’ to help them understand or deal with or even avoid danger from such things. De-cursing items, storing away dangerous occult objects/relics, advising or counseling people on how to deal with occult matters, keeping tomes of occult knowledge and scrolls of otherworldly wisdom away from others by taking them himself, etc. Admittedly he does charge for his services, mostly so he can afford to get supplies and materials for his work along the way, though based on the client he has been known to adjust his running prices at certain times based on what the client can actually afford to pay him in the first place. Likewise in this main goal he gets to travel and see the world, something he’s come to enjoy raiding along with the Caravan over the last decade and a half. Perhaps his goal is also evidence of seeking redemption of some kind for the years of woes and miseries he created or participated in prior, to atone for his once-evil life by seeking to do good with what he knows and can do, though he’d deny such a thing if asked about it or it was implied toward him or such. [color=B0C4DE]Skills/Strengths[/color]: -Occult Expertise (Occult Magic/Occult Knowledge): To be more specific about this area, his whole thing here and in general runs on the premise that even in a world of fantasy and magic and monsters and so forth existing there are ‘outliers’ even within the realm of magic itself. Obscure or unique magical arts/practices, forbidden or frankly taboo spells that were spells developed or discovered, magics tied to beings from abnormal otherworlds mages don't usually or haven't made contact with as a standard practice, socially/culturally unacceptable magical practices/arts, etc, along those lines. This realm of things is where Knossos’ expertise falls into the lines of, though even he admits he doesn’t know everything. How could he? He is just one man. What he does know has come from decades of experience and personal study, both during his cult-joining days and since then afterward, and his travels with the Pilgrim’s Caravan has assisted him in this by exposing him to new places and things to study and acquire and so forth along the way. In terms of applications, his capabilities are more varied than they are specific. He can summon and command tentacled or oceanic-like beings from the space iL'Thris comes from, as well as summon and command demons from wherever Lady Ashtara came from. He can conjure unique magical/twisted alien waters from an alternate dimension to use to attack others, doing so in things like water jets and barriers and so forth, and unleash/conjure unusual black demonic fire that it would take magical means (or a lot more buckets of water than should be required normally for a fire) to put out. He is further steeped in curses and the mechanics of them and things such as cursed objects/items, and has knowledge of some tribal or obtuse/obscure/fringe magics from across the area’s he’s traveled through or learned from in the last one and a half decades. This does include the magic of the Vilkyn (their brand of necromancy and their 'mana gems' at least). In terms of outright skill and experience and self-discipline he's akin to a veteran old wizard working up in a tower or at some prestigious magical school somewhere in the world, but this is also his one greatest strengths to boot. -Magic-Infused Body: His body has aged outwardly to the point he looks to be an old man in his 60s before stopping, but internally the quality of his body is still easily at the level of a prime 20-to-30-something year old due to what it has been infused with. He, in other words, isn't as old inside as he is outside. His mind is still rather sharp, his body can handle the exertion, and so forth that a human in their 20-to-30-something prime could without a doubt. That and some minor regeneration capabilities that allow him to heal from a wider range of things than normally is possible and slightly increases his passive natural healing rate to boot. His durability isn't beyond that of a normal human being, he isn't Wolverine in terms of healing speed or anything ridiculous like that (heck no), and so forth. But whilst his lifespan will be inevitably extended by an unknown amount of time, an extent even he has no idea of the length of, he will eventually in the longer term die of old age with everything just giving out due to the raw amount of time that has passed. Even then it isn't 'eternal youth' that he has either...really just slowed aging in regards to the quality of his body (but not his aesthetic appearance). -General Survival Skills: Cooking, cleaning, foraging, handling weather, making a fire, creating basic or functioning shelter, fishing, and similar things are array of generalist survival skills he’s refined from necessity over the decades and years before and even during his caravan years. He’s a very well-seasoned hand in this regard without a doubt. [color=B0C4DE]Weaknesses[/color]: -He has no armor to speak of, and his physical capabilities are still very much human. He is just as mortal as anyone else to boot when it comes to being able to be killed. -No weapons skills to speak of. Best he could use is maybe his knife, but eve then that is just for survival and travel and such general-use purposes. -Whilst some of his magical capabilities and occult knowledge do overlap with actual standard magical practices or categorizations, don't expect him to know standard magic stuff and standard-type spells and so forth. His knowledge is nuanced and eclectic and frankly niche in nature, so whilst some overlap in how things are categorized and work can occur he is no scholastic wizard who got a proper magical education from some magic university or so forth. He can probably identify some things from being on the road for so long, and doing his own research, but he's no wizard. He's just your friendly caravan-traveling occult expert and magic user. -Removing his Magic Ring. Knossos' body was fused with part of an alien being and outright demonic power it now produces and can tap into. To any sort of zealous paladin, trained mage trying to detect magical sources, and the like, he stands out like a gigantic bonfire being lit up in the middle of total darkness. It is impossible not to notice him, as in being among the sorest of sore thumbs in terms of standing out in this way. [u]To this end[/u], he commissioned and purchased said Magical Ring (see "Tools") that hides his magical presence/energy from detection by others. Second to the magical bag he carries his things in, it is the second most expensive item he openly wears or carries on himself. Despite obsessively wearing it all the time on his right hand, no matter what he is doing or in the middle of, it also isn't a perfect thing. High-tier, high-level, and top-tier types of magical detections spells or magics can see past his protection and pick up on him. Likewise, again, if one manages to get the ring off of him that is not good news either for him. Of course in some areas, this ring might not be needed if no one can detect magic there. But especially in major cities or capitals or areas with magical schooling he [b]has[/b] to keep this ring on. -Due to the above weakness, he also has an inherent weakness to specifically holy magic(s). Healing magic of a holy sort still works on him, he isn't some full demonic being or so forth, but it leaves him feeling odd and lightheaded as an end result. Meanwhile offensive holy magic does hurt him extra to a distinctly noticeable extent. Barriers of holy magic that protect from monsters or demons or such, etc, do not keep him out since he's not fully anything of the sort. On the other hand such things, depending on potency, do make him anywhere from uncomfortable to feeling a sense of passively-throbbing pain or potentially worse depending. [color=B0C4DE]Tools[/color]: -Traveling/Professional Work Clothes (see the appearance picture at the top of his app) -Water Skin (not seen in picture but he wears it around normally) -Knife (for cutting rations and food and such, or whittling, or whatever general use thing it could be used for) -Magical Ring (Hides the magical energies and such within him from being noticed by magical detection methods. This works all the way up to even a moderately strong sort of magical detection capability at most.) -A Bag of Holding expy type object, one he has had enchanted and reinforced and put more money into than anything else he wears or the like. It stands out like a sore thumb with him, made to last beyond a lifetime and then some, but does look about as well-traveled with all the work done to it. He can withdraw whatever he wishes out of the bag, but if damaged badly enough he has to get it repaired to access his things again. At the same time, between enchantments and runes and materials used to reinforce and augment it, this magical bag can be returned to his person or even into his hands with a thought and is harder to break than most things in the world. This is because he has put a lot of money into it over the years from his mercantile pursuits, as well as some back when he was in cults due to having had this bag as far back as then when he bought it for himself after fleeing the destruction of the first cult he was in. It took all he had to get the back itself back then, in its original condition no less, but since then it has been a literal staple he even keeps on his person at all times even when [b]bathing[/b] and sleeping and otherwise...maybe he's a tad too careful about the thing actually. He is touchy about this thing, and the investment he's made into it alone is, ah, not exactly normal for a person to do. With this it contains: Food rations, regular clothing, a backup water skin, myriad occult-related magical tomes/scolls, various mundane books related to both the occult and other subjects, clothing from when he was in those three cults in the past, magically-contained cursed items or other such dangerous objects, and all of his money. [color=B0C4DE]Other[/color]: -His surname, "Dreamwalker", was self-appointed and has stuck since. Inspired by the clerics parting words to him and his own reflection back on his own life. A poetic touch, as it were, which also makes him sound rther fancy and well-versed in what he knows (which he is well-versed in regardless of name anywho). -[b]NOTE:[/b] As far as the caravan knows at most, he's a roaming magical scholar who got experience on the road over many decades and is specialized in the occult. Was interested in such magic, and left his hometown to pursue his interest on the road. Wants to help people. Never said where he comes from, told his life story, etc. -Yes, Knossos' homeland is based in some 'rough' part on Italy/Greece/the Mediterranean in terms of naming and such. No, I have not worked this all out. No, as of submitting Knossos' app I cannot say more than that at the moment. -His height is 5'10". [s]Height for the height chart, stats for the stat throne. Or something. Idk I am ripping a 40k meme quote here. XD[/s] -[hider=Etc Lore Dump Section] Lore section 1 - "Naming Practices Within the Kingdom of Ordos/Knossos' Family History/Ancestor Stones and a Legend" Knossos' original surname was "Faermer", but was not without an origin of its own to boot. Farmers would add differentiating spellings or emphasis in their surname to separate themselves, or even use different words related to their occupation that by tradition made their heritage and familial ties clear, meaning the 'simplest' surnames usually are the oldest ones due to being claimed first. Likewise, this has made record keeping in the kingdom easier and more accessible as it has developed over the centuries, though it also brought about legal cases of 'who claimed what surname idea first' at times as well (inevitably) that usually more wealthy families are able to win when brought before one's local nobles (or the local council of ruling elders in ancient times) or such. In the case of Knossos' family of birth, Faermer (a corruption of "farmer") was their particular surname. It is also among one of the oldest family surnames in the Kingdom, and the oldest among farming families who live in their area near the center of the rocky and verdant-valley-filled part of the inland territory of the Kingdom of Ordos. They are a family that, indeed, has stuck about stubbornly as mules and long tilled the land and lived in the same spot in the central region of the kingdom since long before the kingdom itself had even been born into existence. So long have they been around they are among those in the kingdom's population who still possess what is called an "Ancestor Stone". An Ancestor stone is a practice and relic from distantly pre-kingdom times, even before the 'legendary king' Knossos was named after, that saw family members were buried around or underneath a great stone or boulder rolled down from the mountains to one's home. Such a stone marked one's place of settlement and the center of their property as well, and the effort of getting one was seen as a labor that showed respect to one's ancestors and the land itself. It also acted as a place where the souls of dead family could watch over their descndants during a certain holiday held around the time of harvesting crops, which is still celebrated today even, called "The ____". The larger an Ancestor Stone was, though, the more awe-inspiring and respectable it was seen to be in the eyes of locals. In that vein the Faermer Family was known more notably in their local area by having the largest one in their region of the kingdom, rumored to have been brought down by an ancestor granted strength by some wild spirit or animistic deity living within the boulder to help him on his way after observing his plight to get such a stone. From this, it is said the Faermer were ever bound to this spirit that in turn still helped their dead watch over the bodies of their dead and the lives/land of their descendants. Upon Ancestor stones the names of the dead ancestors would be etched and carved, and burials would continue to radiate out from the stone at the 'center' of this impromptu graveyard but would always remain pointed back at it...to point the dead back to those who came before so their spirits may join them in the afterlife and be able to help or watch over their descendants in turn. However, it is also of note that to bring an Ancestor Stone down was once a way of someone 'cutting off' from their parents and starting their own family. Starting anew. Starting fresh. Children of criminals in those rather ancient times would usually be expected to do this before the local community would see them as someone else who wasn't tied to a criminal as well, though one local tale tells of a child who refused to do this and cared for his family's ancestor stone after burying his criminal mother and father underneath it. The locals plagued this person with bad looks, ill-treatment, hiked-up prices for goods, refusing to trade with them, and the like, though when the village where this legend took place in was invaded it would be the ancestors of this child of a criminal who helped them fight back the party of raiding bandits who attacked and tried to destroy the village for loot and plunder. Said child then died after the battle was won, and the locals of this still small and mostly isolated village have continued to revere this 'child of a criminal' and said person's Ancestor Stone (cared foor by the child's descendants and relatives) as some form of locally-revered protectors ever since. Lore section 2 - "How The Legendary King Knossos Earned His Kingship" A great warlord of the Minotaur species, an army in tow, arrived from across the sea and balked at the strength of the inhabitants of the region that would eventually become the Kingdom of Ordos. The future king of the region, then but a young common man, approached him boldly despite others holding back in fear as the enemy had already been raiding the coast. The young man said that, "what we have not in strength of arms, we have yet in wisdom". Amused at this claim, the monster challenged this young man to a game. Three divine riddles, handed down by the gods of the warlord's homeland, would be given to the young man. None had ever solved them, but any who did would be granted great fortune and blessing on their bloodline forever for their wit and wisdom. ...Safe to say, the future king would win this contest and a divine revelation would come down upon the assembled group present at the contest. It was such that the warlord would withdraw from the region to attack another place out of respect for the gods of his own people. This future king would then become a greater leader, possessing almost supernatural wisdom and gifts in whatever he put his mind to. He would thus be named the "many-gifted", or "Knossos" in the local tongue, and eventually gain enough influence and power to found a capital in the same place on the coast he'd won the contest with the warlord. Lore section 3 - "Cretia/Knossos' Throne" It would be in this same place he solved the riddles, right there on the coast, the legendary king Knossos would found a new city of his own. It would also be on that same location the man placed the throne of his future palace, and this throne would come to be the throne of all future kings that would rise after him over the land after this Knossos united this coastal part of the area under his rule in a sort of city-state. Even when other invaders eventually came and took over and captured the rest of the region proper, and the Kingdom of Ordos formed from this, the same throne would remain in place and be used by the new royal line as a means to integrate with and gain more of the loyalty of the locals of the area even as bloodlines changed. Yet despite the fact the current Kingdom of Ordos' line was once invaders who have eventtually blended in with locals, they would outright forcibly marry into them the last of the old king's bloodline and keep the tradition in order to help that transition of power go over more smoothly. Not to mention, Cretia itself was a prominent coastal trade area where much wealth came in and out to boot alongside its advantageous position military-speaking. After the disaster that saw Cretia destroyed, the former and ancient capital of the Kingdom of Ordos remains an accursed set of ruins and death that no one dares enter. Some of the cult magic still lingers there, with some aberrant creatures having made the ruins and nearby coast their home over the last fifty years. It is, however, a place to which access is blocked and monitored by constant watch patrols and a literal wall that blocks the rocky and only viable path down into the ruined city from inland. The Kingdom of Ordos' new capital is the city of Budino, a land-locked city but a surviving one close enough to the coast that it has thrived as a new trade hub. In fact, the Kingdom is now ruled by the hero who led his friends and party to defeat the Cult of iL'Thris' ritual and saved the kingdom from certain destruction, who along with his friends and wife and children watches over the land and seeks to keep it safe to this day. Knossos' Throne, within the Palace of Cretia, sits directly under where the constellation of Knossos, said to be the legandary king's immortalized spirit in the stars, watches over and grants wisdom to rulers of the land from that place and position. This throne, however, was left within the ruins of what is now called the Old Palace of Cretia, sitting deep within the ruins and half-submerged in water and filled with emptiness, scars of the past, crawling creatures, growing algae, erosion due to time, and the like. It is a seemingly legendary relic and artifact by now that is said to still be sitting there....waiting for one to sit upon it and gain supernatural wisdom from that legendary king once more. Such has led a number of overly-reckless adventurers and criminals to their death, to the point it led to the ruins of Cretia being blocked off and kept on constant watch. Not to mention a royal decree from the current king that likewise mandates a punishment of death for any who enter that accursed place for any reason even these days... Lore section 4 - "Home Plane of iL'Thris/Its Cult's Founding/iL'Thris' Motivations/Reasons" A warped and corrupted ocean that spanned seemingly across infinity and whose true form was imperceptible to mortals and caused them to descend into madness. The cult's founder was the one mortal the Deep Lord had shown its true and aberrant form to, being curious about mortals after a one in a billion chance it would ever take notice of another dimension/plane at all, but the chain reaction resulting from this had led the maddened cult leader to form and cult and begin spreading it in secret. Indeed the leader of the cult came about with maddened plans to one day overthrow the kingdom and summon a great monster to ravage the land. This cult's founder was the one mortal the Deep Lord had shown its true and aberrant form to, being curious about mortals after a one in a billion chance it would ever take notice of another dimension/plane at all, but the chain reaction resulting from this had led the maddened cult leader to form and cult and begin spreading it in secret...with maddened plans to one day overthrow the kingdom and summon a great monster to ravage the land. To iL'Thris, it simply saw that the mortals seemed happy and so it was generally pleased as a result. It was an utterly alien being mortal minds could not wholly or safely percieve, but the actions it took and what it gave to the cult was out of a sort of confusion and compassion. Because while it couldn't grasp mortals' minds and most things, it could understand their emotions and responded based off of that alone. A very peculiar situations, as it were. Lore section 5 - "iL'Thris' reason for imbuing higher-ranking cult members with part of its flesh" iL'Thris was taking pity on their 'fragile mortal lives', thinking this was their request for help in that sense and it seeking to be merciful to help the seemingly 'good friends' of the one it had made contact with Lore section 6 - "The History of Realm Between the Rivers, Surrouinded by The Scorching Deserts/Kingdom of Khamsin General Info" An ancient land on the Theseoran Continent that had begun as a cradle of civilization on the far southwestern region of its home continent, placed right on the equator, it had been inhabited at first only by the ancient Iwiw (a jackal-like canine beastman race) who had built up the original Kingdom of Uat there between the fertile Nilei and Ma'at rivers coming in from the northwestern coast to build up a civilization of their own. The Uat civilization lasted over three and a half thousand years before it would be broken and put under the yoke, though some such foreign-conquering rulers would maintain some of the land's practices and such to help maintain power, and the land saw civilization there going from fledgling kingdom in super ancient times to ancient empire to being subjugated by others and breaking free each a few times over each. Yet ultimately the Khamsin region itself would go about being shattered quite catastrophically into fragments and five centuries of disasterous chaos by a short-term but vast expanding empire from the far north (as punishment for involvement in a certain foreign war). It saw the region vastly depopulated (but not entirely, mind) of its usual natives, scattered in multiple diasporas due to disaster or slavery or the like, many sub-races go literally extinct, and then eventually a group who had controlled areas of land around the capital rising back up to found the new "Kingdom of Khasmin" after 250 years ago shaking off the yoke of the "Taurian Empire". Since then the Kingdom of Khamsin has persisted until now as a modest but notable kingdom by current times, a growing power with a great strength in its wealth and trade without a doubt. A kingdom known for its mix of ancient ways and modern innovations and so forth, and a melting pot of trade and harsh landscape and so forth, the Kingdom of Khasmin was a pale call of the original Kingdom of Uat in ways to be sure. Even so, it was more stable, advanced, and enduring than it had ever been before as a former 'breadbasket territory' of past nations. The Kingdom of Khamsin itself is a place that currently hosts a number of influences, but unlike its ancient glories it is but a modest kingdom and unlike its days as a mere territory of other nations it is an independent power these days. Its capital city of '____ ____' lies in the fertile land between the Nilei and Ma'at Rivers, being a 'scorched paradise' that sits at the epicenter of land trade in the region as it passes north or south to bypass the rest of the immense deserts surrounding the fertile areas between or otherwise hugging the shores of the rivers. The kingdom's fertile river lands have mostly been agricultural by nature for all of its history, though foreign conquest and attempts to boost this food production one way or another have reduced the useable land of this former 'breadbasket' of ancient times in a general sense. What remains of farmable land has been more than enough to feed its people, build up large food stores for times of occasional famine or war or other such disasters, and even export a fair bit of food to the outside world in order to build up a more than sizeable amount of wealth. Ancient cermanic pipes once also carried water from the rivers to locations farther into the desert, creating ancient 'lost towns' and even a few 'lost cities' buried in the sands after the Kingdom of Uat came crashing down. None have bothered to replicate these feats for mostly practical reasons ever since, as there's always been other matters at hand to deal with. Even after the "Ashtara Disaster", or what is locally called "The Great Isfet" by the remaining descandants of the Iwiw, these areas have mostly gone abandoned or only taken up in by temporary graverobbers or desperate criminals or bandits fleeing into the deserts. There is a reason these areas out in the middle of the hot desert were left abandoned in the first place! Even the particular spot "The Great Isfet" took palce in has frankly been abandoned by now once more, left riddled with ancient tombs (both robbed and untouched), collapsed or buried or sun-baked ruins, and ancient burial protective magics and now occasional wandering demons who still exist there by current times. The Kingdom of Khamsin has very few who even attempt to speak some changed or culture-and-time-warped form of the old Iwiw tongue these days amindst the race's descendants, as it has become a language mostly used in studies by scholars of history who learn to at least read or decipher it to some extent or another or want to sound fancy speaking it. Taurian is the common language of the land, and that is only because it has become so by being the common tongue of the Kingdom's surrounding neighbors after its enforced introduction as a 'common tongue for trade and politics' in particular. Minotaur, who brought in the language with them, are also consequently the large-standing species who form another just over a third of the population of the Kingdom of Khamsin and form either a sizeable part of or a majority of the populations of the kingdom's neighbors as well. The languyage and Minotaur themselves were introducted latest into the region, brought in by the "Taurian Empire", and forced on locals to try to wipe out the local languages that had settled there over the millenia. Tehse efforts were generally sucessful, even if not fully so, though even now the descendants of the Iwiw who remain living in the region form a sizeable third of the population with species-related relatives scattered on the four winds. The only ones who speak a descendant of that original language of the Iwiw are usually very rural places, some of them almost isolated from the outside world, but which have still been well-affected by the changing times over and over again in some capacity. It is also in these most rural of these areas at that where one can potentially find some traditions or ideas that hail back to the time of the Iwiw still, more or less distantly, at that. Mostly Minotaur have places among the nobility and within the local 'governance', which has left a somewhat shrinking bad taste in the mouth of a number of other local species who have begun to forget the old status quo more and more, but it is also something to note that a minority of Iwiw-descendant noble-bloods have remained stubbornly in place as well as part of the politics that led the Kingdom of Khamsin to break free and become indpendent in the first place. The remaining 'third' of the local population of the Kingdom of Khamsin is generally mixed from different species and places, who either migrated there, took over at some point and sent a lot of their people in to settle the area, or the like over time and led to some kind of assimilation there. The Kingdom of Khamsin has a ruler and royal family, who especially culturally are still prominent in the local mindset and generally rules. However, outside of certain matters and edicts most laws are passe by the monarch convening with the "Council of Nobles" where the nobility help manage the kingdom proper and have a say of sorts. The council is a sort of medieval 'legislature' in that sense, not having full powers but certinaly taking part in thins and reducing royal power in return for having supported the orignial rebellion that saw the region freed over two centuries ago from the control of the collapsing Taurian Empire. The politics of the Kingdom of Khamsin certinaly are heated at times, though have generally remained stable enough to keep things running and not go into more than one civil war since its independence by now at least. What the future holds for the area, though, only time can tell. [/hider] [/hider]