Lord of the Wind and Sky
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I am One with the Wind and Sky! |
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— Himself |
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Elso was once a prince of Lyne, but his faerie nature expressed itself and caused problems. Centuries later, the young fae has claimed the title Lord of the Wind and Sky. Despite being the inspiration for stories of the Snow King in time long ago, and holding faerie power over cold and ice, Elso is a warm-hearted youth.
Personality
One might expect someone like Elso to be cold and heartless. And there was a time when he did seem to be. But that exterior was shed a while ago and he revealed the fun-loving free spirit within. Elso has a big heart, likes to laugh, enjoys beautiful art of all kinds, and is quite the warm soul. He still typically and arrogantly believes himself to be right most of the time though.
Background
The Before Times
Once there was a young prince of Lyne, traveling with his father on a mission to eradicate the faeries and their elemental kith from a forest glade they had up until then been hiding within as a sanctuary against the Lynean wrath against their kind. With the faeries, though, were also a race of humans who had developed a strong bond with the fae. It was a woman of this tribe that saved the young prince from death during the battle between the Lynean forces and the forces of the fae. The young prince would save her from his father's forces and claim her as wife.
When this prince was king, which happened sooner than later due to his father's ill-fated war against the fae, his own legacy began with a son, Elso. Elso was a warm and caring boy, like his father before him, but also stern and regal, like his grandfather. When he and his brother were still young, playing a game, Elso accidentally summoned a great cold and nearly froze his brother to death. If it wasn't for their mother's bond to the fae, and their father's willingness to risk everything to save his son's life, Elso may to day have had a much more tragic story. But his brother was saved, the incident kept VERY quiet, and Elso and his brother grew up as princes, proper in the ways of Lynean royalty.
The Times After
But such a secret can't last forever. On his twenty-first birthday, Elso was to have a ceremonial appearance before his people. It was at this ceremony that again he lost control of his power, in front of the entire nation. Well, those who mattered anyway. He fled then, his connection to the Ice and Cold was focused through his pain and he left Lyne in eternal winter. Lyne got to the heart of the matter and soon Elso's father and his family fled Lyne, leaving the throne to one of his more traditional brothers. Elso was hunted and never tried to find his family, not wanting to hurt them further. This 'Eternal Winter' as it as dubbed lasted for almost a year before Elso was tracked down, confronted at his ice castle where it was destroyed, and ultimately chased out of the area. Lyne's forces chased him across the land until they found him on the west coast where they tried to capture him for public execution, but he demolished the ship, rose it back up using ice to hold the shipwreck together, and fled into the sky.
As history is wont to do, this little indiscretion slid into legend, and from there it was largely forgotten.
Elso, on the other hand, marched on, came to accept his role, let his past go to embrace the now and the future, and the fledging faerie struck out as the self-appointed Lord of the Wind and Sky. Centuries have passed since then. Elso still claims the mantle of Lord of the Wind and Sky.
SIGNATURE ABILITY
One With the Wind and Sky
The weather in Elso's locale tends to respond to his deep emotional pain. If he is driven to the depths of anguish, such as when he was exposed as a faerie while a prince of Lyne, the Wind will arrive and the Sky will open up, ushering in a cold spell of frigid proportions upon the land. Scope is largely limited to roughly the size of the city of Lyne and its immediate environs, but the cold weather of the area will have effects on the surrounding area, too. To resolve this winter, Elso needs to confront his pain and let it go, either by a diplomatic mutual understanding, somehow managing to get over it himself (which is unlikely but theoretically possible), or by being driven away from the cursed land and breaking the link by distance. When he releases the land of its winter by either means, the temperature slowly returns to normal for that area and the snow and ice thaw out as expected. The emotional depths required to trigger this is extreme, making the curse an incredibly rare event.
SKILLS
Leadership - Competent Level
As prince, Elso learned the art of command and leadership.
Melee - Competent Level
As prince, Elso was expected to know how to fight with sword and shield, axe, spear, and other such weapons.
Sailing - Expert Level
Elso was taught the fine art of sailing, from small sailing boats to crewing larger ships. After taking to the skies with the Kaldaggr, Elso has become very skilled at commanding a flying war galleon with mindless automatons doing the menial tasks.
Sculpture - Expert Level
Elso has a natural talent and practised skill for bringing forms out of wood, stone, ice, and such.
Singing - Competent Level
While not as refined as his sculpting, Elso has a beautifully masculine voice and has honed it into an instrument of exquisite song.
ABILITIES
Faerie Nature: Cold Nature - Supreme Level
Elso is utterly immune to the cold. He can't be frozen, he won't suffer frostbite, and doesn't succumb to hypothermia. He also doesn't need to breathe and can withstand the crushing depths of the ocean unaided.
Faerie Magic: Cryokinesis - Supreme Level
Cryogenesis: Elso is able to create objects from ice and snow. At its most basic, he can create snowflakes and ice chunks. He can create the likes of furniture or even buildings. But his ability also allows him to craft more intricate creations such as weapons, clothing and armor, and even creatures from ice and snow. His creations are imbued with their own coldness and don't melt on their own in normal temperate environments. Creatures he creates in this manner have basic autonomy, but no real will or intelligence.
Cryomancy: Elso has a very strong raw power to manipulate, create, and even negate cold. He has a special affinity with water, able to freeze it into ice or melt ice back into water at will. By creating imbalances in air temperature, he is able to create and direct wind.
Faerie Nature: Faerie Senses - Enhanced Level
Visual: Elso can see just as well in low light conditions as he can in any other light. Furthermore, he is also not vulnerable to bright light.
Auditory: His hearing is above average for mortals, able to hear higher and lower level frequencies. He is able to hear sounds better through even dense materials.
Thermosensory: Elso is particularly sensitive to heat, letting him sense heat levels in an area, including the condensed heat signatures of creatures.
Faerie Magic: Flight - Enhanced Level
Utilizing his levitation ability, enhanced by his ability to control air currents with his cryomancy, Elso is able to achieve flight of moderate speeds.
Faerie Nature: Immortal - Enhanced Level
Elso is unaging and immune to life draining attacks. His body is unaffected by mundane diseases and almost all magical diseases. Even if he is destroyed, as a faerie his body will reform in the faerie realms.
Faerie Magic: Levitation - Enhanced Level
Elso is able to levitate objects and move them through the air. He can imbue objects with their own levitation field independent of his continuing will, though those not made permanent by other means will eventually lose their levitation, slowly losing height until they set upon something solid.
Faerie Magic: Refraction - Enhanced Level
Elso is able to command illusory effects, including glamors and the warping of light.
ADVANTAGES
Kaldaggr
Formed from the wreckage of a ship that was pursuing him along the western coast, Elso used his ice powers to enhance and reinforce the ship for his own purpose. This ship eventually came to be the Kaldaggr (meaning Cold Dawn in the tongue of his mother's people), an enchanted war galleon that typically floats around the skies of the western seas. Since his ice palace was destroyed by Lyneans, the Kaldaggr has become home for the Lord of the Wind and Sky.
Equipped with magical cannons with infinite ice balls for ammunition, bearing sails that catch wind even when the air is still, and imbued with flight, the ship serves as an adequate base of operations for the faerie lord.
Titles
Snow King: This is a name given to him by the human folk of Lyne and stories spread from there. You might find the bare bones of historical fact in some of them, if you take the pieces out and rearrange them, but they are largely false legend. As some form of circular fate, Elso has been named Snow King after the legends he inspired, due to his command of cold and propensity to create snowflakes. Among the elves and less adversarial people, the Snow King's reputation is one of honor. As such, Elso has accepted the moniker as an honor, even if he would MUCH prefer to be referred to by his chosen title.
Lord of the Wind and Sky: Elso has felt a pull toward the sky and a kinship with the wind ever since he can remember. When he fled Lyne, the pull became stronger, his elemental faerie nature leading him toward fulfilling this attraction until eventually, as captain of the Kaldaggr, he claimed himself to be the Lord of the Wind and Sky. Much of faeriekind may still see Elso as a child at play, but mortalkind may still find the title to be reinforced by his nature.
WEAKNESSES
Cold Nature
As a being of the cold, Elso is particularly vulnerable to heat, especially heat of a magical or primordial nature, such as the heat from elemental fire or a volcano's core.
Construct Melting
If he's not concentrating on keeping them frozen, Elso's ice and snow constructs are vulnerable to heat such as that emanating from fire or conjured from heat magic. Some very hot summer or desert days may also qualify.
Insecure
Elso may put up a front of confidence, and when leading as commander that confidence may be genuine. However, he is very prone to self-doubt and is often self-conscious when dealing with people on a personal level.
Lyne
Elso may have been born of Lyne, but he was also created of faerie. Lyne hates his kind, and Elso hates Lyne right back. He can't forgive the kingdom for what it has done to him in the past. Anyone who claims to have anything to do with Lyne will probably have a very hard time forming any sort of positive rapport with Elso, even if they don't hold Lyne's anti-faerie viewpoints.
Neo-faerie
Elso's faerie nature was a gift to his mother for her assistance to the spirits of the land. It fulfilled an enchantment placed upon her by an ancient faerie, as gratitude for her help in assisting the fae in escaping Lynean threat. It is somewhat ironic she would later marry a Lynean prince and become queen of that land, for a time. Elso was raised by his human parents in a human kingdom with an animosity toward the fae and not raised among the fae. He's still young by faerie standards, especially for one claiming lordship of the wind and sky. Many fae still look upon him as a child at play.
Orichalcum
Elso is vulnerable to the mystical metal orichalcum. The purer the metal, the more effective it it, and it doesn't matter if it's created from alchemy or mined from a natural source. Bindings of orichalcum can suppress his power and weapons of orichalcum can easily slice through his constructs.
