MelonHead — Roleplayer Guild

“Oof.” Metz shoulders sagged and his knees shook as the intense gravitational force of his new surroundings almost floored him. His eyes widened in alarm, unintentionally taking in the terrain and finding it odd beyond belief, yet somehow eerily familiar. His body was still in a strange state of limbo, tired, yet somehow finding itself perfectly restored, and the oddness of that feeling gave him the required strength to hold himself up as he stood there, his pale angular face drawn back and worried. The vest and under layer over and under his green jumper were weighing him down, but he was unwilling to remove either item, relying instead on his athleticism and naturally strong bones to sustain his weight until he had to do anything particularly strenuous. He seemed at first glance to be alone as he stood there, once again fully equipped with pistol, knife and vials, his feet sinking into the sand of the lake’s edge. Spreading out before him almost as far as his eye could see was a strange coloured mass of water, and with that thought he slowly grew aware of what was causing his unease, everything around him was of an unnatural hue. 

“This place…” He muttered “Is beautiful.” 

He was breathing, if with a little more difficulty than usual, so wherever he was the necessities were the same. Still, gravity was stronger in the place he had found himself, and that could be evidence of further oddities that could inconvenience him and his fragile biology. For a moment he considered drinking mana, hanging the consequences, and clearing the air around him to ensure his safety. However, the forces of fairplay he had seen at work thus far suggested to him that while he may be disadvantaged, it would be unlikely that his surroundings would outright end his life, which was not part of what seemed to be Skallagrim’s plan. What Metz had not been able to take advantage of however, was the opportunity to see his enemy’s skills and abilities, as he had been taken up with repairing the damage done to his arm. It was a disadvantage he was unaware of. 

Though Metz was not yet in the water, he was essentially on the edge, and the fumes were entering his lungs with each breath. He looked around, and with no evidence of any opponent as of yet, he began to walk with the lake on his right hand side, essentially circling the water-mass clockwise. It was only a matter of time, or so he assumed. More violence, but the ends justified the means, oh yes indeed.

All this potential, every spell memorized after years of painstaking practice and mental exercise, worthless. Without mana, we are nothing.

Metz the Mana-Less Mage

Identity

Name: Metzalaatla Akalikalat

Nicknamed: Metz, Mad Metz, The Manaless Mage, The Pillar Elementalist

Race: Torm (Alternate Human)

Homeworld: Felenr 

Age: 47

Personality: Metz has a strange, almost erratic personality. At one time incredibly stern or sombre he can rapidly change to making odd jokes or dark comments. One can only assume Dark Mana has had some degenerative effect on his mind, changing whatever personality the original man had forever

Appearance

Appearing Age: 30

Face: Metz has an angular face, bordering on gaunt, and usually sports a short reddish-brown beard, his eyes are green with a noticeable ring of a lilac coloration around both his pupil and iris. He has an angular scar through his left eye-brow, preventing hair growth in a small area. His teeth are lightly stained and he has noticeably sharp canines, but are otherwise unremarkable. 

Hair: Metz has reddish-brown hair which he usually keeps tied back in a short pony-tail with a leather band, it’s long enough to fall over his eyes when loose.

Body Type: Metz has a wiry frame, with lean compact muscle appropriate for a survivor of the apocalypse.

Skin: Metz has very pale skin, despite being exposed to the sun constantly, due to genetics mostly. If one looks very carefully they might notice dark patches, particularly on his fingers and around the skin surrounding his eyes. 

Height: 6ft

Weight: 70kg

Biological Properties

Torm are fairly similar to humans in terms of biology, and Metz is a fairly average example save for his natural affinity to utilize mana, which makes him a mage. There are a couple of differences between Torm and Humans however, namely that Torm don’t have an appendix, which is a fairly useless organ and a misstep in human evolution. Their bones are also somewhat more durable, without weighing any more than human bones. They also have a terrible sense of smell, even worse than a humans to the point where their noses are almost exclusively just for breathing. 

Up until recently, mana had interacted with every infant born on Felenr and made them physically fitter by speeding the regrowth of torn muscle and reducing recovery time from fatigue. It was essentially a super-drug. Though that mana is now gone, when re-introduced into a Torm’s body who was born when Mana was prevalent twenty years ago, they gain a short burst of super-human capabilities as their bodies greedily use up the mana they absorb. For ordinary Torm this is a welcome but fairly unimportant boost, where-as to mages it is both a blessing and a curse, for they sacrifice precious spell casting energy on running fast and jumping high for a short period of time. 

Without mana, Metz physical capabilities are:

Strength: Bench 100kg, lift own body weight fairly capably.

Speed: Run consistently for about five minutes at fifteen miles per hour, speedy acceleration.

Agility: Peak human

Endurance: Capable of maintaining vigorous activity with little decline for about ten minutes non-stop, fairly quick recovery time.

Durability: Naturally more durable than a human of his size, due to stronger bones, still suffers from flesh wounds and the like pretty badly.

Skills

Metz can fight moderately competently with his hands, favouring quick darting strikes rather than directly contesting someone with his strength. 

Metz can use firearms, firearms on Felenr bare some similarities to more common Earth weaponry, so his ability is somewhat translatable.

Metz has insanely good precision and accuracy for someone with human characteristics, this is only increased when his body goes into overdrive on mana.

Metz can climb with some significant skill.

Metz has a number of survival-esque skills one would expect from a lone survivor of the apocalypse.

Abilities

PURE MANA: Mana in its most primal and effective form, this can be moulded into any spell developed by the Torm mages so far. It also feeds Metz’ body, allowing him to nearly triple his ordinary physical characteristics for a very short period. (perhaps a minute at most if no spells are used.) This revitalisation of his body also reduces the effects of aging and has a number of other restorative effects, such as combatting poisons and disease. Pure mana can be fairly quickly manipulated into a wide range of spells by the process of casting, which requires specific phrases to be used in conjunction with a specific frame of mind to construct the spell. It is no quicker or slower at becoming any type of spell, unlike Black Mana which is somewhat faster at becoming a destructive spell.

BLACK (Corrupt) MANA: Corrupt mana created from the blood of an organism, though usually the users own. It has a darker influence than the neutrality of pure mana, damaging the users psyche as much as his body. When under its effects the users body undergoes a rapid change, growing slightly more muscled while the skin darkens around the eyes and hands, it increases Metz’ physical capabilities by up to six times. Black mana is limited in that it cannot be used for spells that require a healthy state of mind, such as healing and shielding, but it is useful in that it jumps at the opportunity to become something hurtful or destructive. (Half the casting time for destruction and pain spells, healing and shielding spells are unusable.)

Mana must be used wholly before a different type may be applied, or the differing mana types have a tendency to react unpredictably and can cause the mage significant harm. There is a maximum amount of each type of mana that a Torm can process at one time, consuming any more would just be wasteful. On average, Metz can cast two to three spells using one vial of Mana, or six of his elemental circles. The ultimate spells, Splitting River, Death Hand, and The Chamber and Purge are all one time use per vial of mana. 

List of spells: Casting Time

Shielding Spells

Spellbreaker: Three seconds
The mage is covered by a transparent shield which blocks an opponent’s supernatural abilities for about fifteen seconds, it can be overcome by the force of an opponent’s spells.

Aegis: Three seconds
The mage is covered in a golden glow which repels physical assaults against their person, transferring only a tenth of physical force across their whole body and repelling physical damage and wounding. It can be overcome by immense physical force, and lasts about fifteen seconds.

Splitting River: Five seconds
Probably the most powerful defensive spell known to Torm, Splitting River is mostly used to reduce the effect of an opponent’s most powerful ranged attack or spells, it works by meeting the destructive power of an ability or attack and splitting it evenly down the middle, diverting each stream of the attack to either side of the mage, who stands behind the point of the split. This isn’t 100% effective, but it takes the sting off otherwise devastating abilities.

Destructive Spells

Bolt: 2 Seconds
Unleashes a bolt of lightning from the user’s hand, may be used with both hands to fire a three-pronged lightning bolt, but the user is thrown backwards upon launching the attack. It dissipates at any range over one hundred feet, or when it hits something. 

Death Hand: Two seconds
Allows the user to imbue their palm with the essence of death for two seconds, which is essentially parasitic mana, when applied directly to an opponent it quickly numbs the area and begins draining the life from them, after twenty seconds the essence of death explodes with green energy in a tight area, tending to destroy whatever flesh it was applied to. The weakness of the ability is that when casting it the opponent has a deep feeling of foreboding, knowing instantly that they must avoid the essence of death at all costs.

Pillar Elementalist: Metz’ nickname comes from his unique form of utilizing the elements, in something similar to pillars. It works by imbuing a circular area of varied size depending on desired effect, at a distance of up to 100 meters from the man which he can either see or vaguely observe (So although he couldn’t see the top of a building for example, he can observe where the top –would be- and activate his ability). The outline of this circle corresponds to the basic element he is planning to manifest, red for fire, blue for water, white for air, brown/orange for earth. 

Fire Pillar: Time Varies
Metz imbues the Earth with a red circle, two feet in diameter for every second spent casting, this in turn increases the height of the ability when it’s unleashed by four feet per second. Once the circle is placed it can be activated instantly at any point, causing a gushing torrent of fire that burns at around 1500 degrees Celsius to be unleashed in an upwards pillar corresponding to the cast time. Regardless of the casting time the fire pillar lasts three seconds, and reaches its full height in a second.

Water Pillar: In essence the same as the Fire Pillar, save that the effect causes a torrent of water to blast upwards and then fold in on itself, potentially trapping a foe. This pillar moves at 100 feet per second. The water can be directed to move in different directions, essentially making this ability more of a flexible pillar. Lasts three seconds.

Earth Pillars: Works similarly to the fire pillar, except that the shape of the pillar can be manipulated, into spikes for example. This pillar moves at two hundred feet per second. Remains after activation until the earth is moved back down by the mage or destroyed/moved in some other fashion.

Air Pillar: Unique in that the air actually blasts down from a height of roughly double whatever is caught inside the pillar, moving at two hundred feet per second. It can batter a man to his knees with ease, though it is relatively un-lethal. Lasts three seconds.

The Chamber: Ten Seconds
Metz’ unique spell which utilizes all of his Pillars, allowing him to create a structure for capturing and eliminating powerful foes. It combines other spells he knows and can take different shapes. 

Healing Spells
Veil of Health: Six seconds
Allows the user to create a doorway of rejuvenating energy, when passed through it heals minor wounds and gives them a quick burst of energy that wears off after about thirty seconds. It’s essentially the magical form of a second wind.

Stabilize: Two seconds
An emergency healing spell, it allows the user to stabilize their own, or someone they’re in contact with, vitals. The immediate effect of this is to cease bleeding from all open wounds, to briefly numb all pain from wounds, to isolate disease or poison, and to essentially give the target a brief period of respite. Its effects last about ten seconds, giving the user time to concentrate on a more extensive healing ability.

Purge: Five seconds
A magical ability which negates all foreign entities acting on the user, removing curses, debuffs, poisons, and diseases. It works over the course of a minute, sometimes taking longer to remove more extensive issues. The user is immune to further similar effects while the magic is working, but it drains mana quickly.

Misc Spells

Seeing Eye: Three Seconds
Metz manifests a second eye, which allows him to scour through a battlefield with a magical sight which is incredibly difficult to hide from. The only limitation is that it can only see with this increased perception directly in front of him, so sneaking up behind him is still an option. However the sight can see straight through brick walls and the like up to 100 meters. 

Disperse: Two Seconds
Metz can remove obscuring clouds and smoke and other dangerous elements in the air from his immediate vicinity for up to thirty seconds using this spell. 

Levitate: Two Seconds
Metz can briefly remove the effects of gravity on his person for ten seconds, also granting him the ability to hover up to ten feet off the ground and over pitfalls etc.

Lift: Two Seconds
One of the few utility spells Metz still remembers from when his life wasn’t just about survival and conflict, Lift allows him to essentially raise an intimate object of up to two tonnes off the ground by up to ten feet for ten seconds. It doesn’t lift particularly quickly however. 

Mana Condensing: Two Seconds
Used to convert Pure Mana from a Felenr well-spring into a liquid form which can be consumed.

Black Mana Ritual: Five seconds
Used to turn a vial of blood into a vial of Black Mana.

Equipment

Armour: Metz wears a green woollen jumper with numerous holes in it, with a scrapped together vest over the top made of a material called Dural, which is for all intents and purposes similar to a stab-proof vest. Beneath his jumper is a form fitting underlay called Underpad, it has proven effective at resisting small-arms fire from as close as fifteen feet away, so in conjunction with the Dural vest Metz has significant upper body resistance to fire-arms.

His trousers resemble tough brown cargo pants, and he wears black boots.

Weapons: Metz carries a sharp slightly curved knife called a Shint, it’s made of steel and is roughly fifteen inches from handle to point. He carries it across his chest in a sheath.

He also carries a Fire-Type 2, which is the second model of the original Fire-Type, a pistol variant designed almost eighty years prior. The most recent weaponry on Felenr became useless as it relied on mana, so the Fire-Type is archaic in design. It roughly resembles a match-lock pistol, but with a stubby block on the top of the weapon which almost resembles a magazine. It can be loaded with up to four roughly 9mm equivalent rounds by feeding them into this compartment, but it must be fired with a single-shot action and the hammer has to be pulled back with each shot. Luckily Metz is an exceptional marksman, and the weapon is not as inaccurate as human matchlocks, it’s about as powerful as a matchlock and is accurate up to 100 feet. He carries it in a holster on his right hip.

Metz also has a small backpack with food and drink for a couple of days and a few other survival supplies. He also wears a belt with space for four iron vials, one is always filled with black mana and one with Pure Mana, and the other two are randomly rolled for before a battle begins by a judge. Roll 1, empty, 2, Black Mana, 3 Pure Mana. On this belt is also seven more rounds for his pistol which have to be hand-fed into the weapon.  

The Short History of Felenr, his Homeworld

Felenr is a world like our own save for that mana exists as another element in the atmosphere and could be utilized as energy similar to how humanity intends to use hydrogen. It was a supremely efficient fuel, and although the few unique individuals known as mages were able to feel that mana shouldn’t be used for industry the majority of the race were ignorant of the entity. Sometime in the last twenty years however a process which had been happening at a trickle suddenly increased tenfold, mana began to disappear.

Three years after mana’s departure civilisation crumbled and anarchy reigned, governments fell and people died enmasse to war and disease. The magi fought over the remaining reservoirs, areas where such significant mana poured from underground that even with the bleeding effect the substance could still be gained. To the proud Magi mana almost became a drug.

Three years after that, Black Mana was discovered. None of the Magi were prepared for the devestation it caused in the hands of a Dark Mage who quickly grew addicted and mad from its allure. Terrible rituals and sacrifices saw the mana become taboo, but none-the-less Mages were forced to utilize it or go completely unprotected. 

In a post-apocalyptic world the remaining Torm struggle for survival, one of them is Metz, the Pillar Elementalist, one of many Mages that still cling to the old ways and resist the maddening effects of Black Mana.

On Magic in Felenr

Magic in Felenr requires a great deal of time and effort to master even at a basic level. Each spell must be learned with painstaking practice and memorized so that it can be utilized in stressful situations. It is rare for any mage to manage to muster more than fifty spells even with their extended life spans.

Metz life before and after the decline
Metz’ was always an above average mage, noteworthy but not quite council worthy. He took some work as a field operative in the Magi-rebellion some years prior to the fall of mana, and so had experienced his fair share of war. His unique weaponized Elemental Pillars were a devastating force on the battlefield, and earned him a number of nicknames.

After the fall with mana growing increasingly scarce Metz turned to Black Mana, finding it more powerful than he could ever imagine. As he wandered the fallen ruins of his civilisation he began to wonder, how had mana disappeared almost overnight?

With something of a purpose Metz spent the next fifteen years going from well-spring to well-spring and tracking the bleeding effect of the mana there. Avoiding Black Mana as much as possible, he instead learned to condense mana in the air and place it into vials to be consumed directly when required. After all that time researching he finally thought he had found the source of his people’s woes. Closing in on a nondescript mountain-range somewhere in the far south… he believed he had found a portal to another world, and they had stolen all his damn mana.

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