Draven
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Description
Standing just under six feet tall, Draven has long black hair tied back at the shoulder and a piercing glance. His armor, black with red trim, is light and flexible. His gloves and boots are dark brown. His cape, dark red on the inside and black on the outside, sports a solid red four-winged dragon against a diagonal sword insignia on the back-- the insignia of his Crimson Empire.
Bio
The overly pompous Draven lead the menacing army that destroyed Romme. He knows basic spells in other elements and some black magic, but his true passion, his obsession rather, is fire magic. He commands the fire element with devastating ease. He does not use a physical weapon, but sometimes likes to form a blade of fire to use as a sword.
In chapter 1
"You wonder because you do not understand... You've obtained too much power and, alas, it has gone to your head... You think you can change the system. You think you can stop us. Too bad, perhaps you could have been a gerneral... But your choice... you've chosen a corpse!"
As a high general of the Dark Empire, Draven displays his absolute will to command at several points. He had several battles with the traitor Scorch, who quickly became his rival. In addition to his crimson blade attack, we see a massively destructive gargantuan fireball he conjures when angry, he trademark aura of flame that surrounds him as he gathers more energy, and the ability to levitate himself.
In chapter 2
"... Don't you imbeciles know when to quit? And stop that, you're screwing up the ecosystem!"
Draven receives a message from his emperor and time is running out to find the sword he seeks, but he manages to keep his cool (well, not really…). He has an encounter with a general from the rival nation of Aritan and later meets a new obstacle in his quest for the sword, namely the demi-human Zeros'. After a battle, Draven obtains a fake sword from Zeros' and returns to his ships to await the arrival of the Dark Emperor, totally oblivious to the fact that the real one is still out of his reach.
In chapter 3
"If you refuse, then we'll simply disembowel you..."
Draven feels the pressure as he competes with the two other newly arrived high generals, Jayce and Neptra to obtain the real sword. His determination is his downfall, however, as he endlessly fights against all who stand in his way, eventually completely wearing himself out. His final match is with Scorch, which ends in a sort of draw, with Draven's lifeless body sinking into the depths of the ocean...
Chapter 3-4 interlude
Draven does not know what happened during the days, weeks perhaps, he spent drifting in the sea. He had odd visions: a fiery cave, frozen tundra, memories of his parents... He awoke on a beach near Tjed. Somehow he felt more alive than ever... or was he...? Draven has found that this near death experience has only made him stronger...
Somehow the emperor and the other generals had been defeated during the past weeks... the Dark Empire was in chaos. But Draven was the highest ranking survivor, making him the rightful heir to the throne, though he had no relation to Retan... But still, best to gather information first. Draven donned dark robes and went around calling himself 'Lars', attempting to assess the situation.
In chapter 4
"So you may think... You shouldn't be so quick to equate darkness with evil and light with good."
Under the guise of Lars, Draven tried to disrupt the trust among those who fought against the Dark Empire a month ago. After this seemingly failed, he began to recruit warriors for his cause, forming an alliance with two Ice Warriors and the dark priest Armic.
With his new recruits, the shrouded Lars broke into a former Dark Empire facility (Redvik) and made off with a state of the art black magic powered airship. Soon the group caught the attention of Haraldur, to whom Draven revealed his true identity. When the others caught wind of what was happening, a massive battle in the sky ensued in which the two Ice Warriors were killed. Outnumbered, Draven escaped in his airship along with the newly transformed Armic.
In chapter 5
"Is it just me, or do you get more freaky every time we meet? I mean 8 of them now... you're going to have trouble entering doors before long."
Draven assumes command of the Dark Empire, but immediately faces his adversaries again. A huge melee at the capital of the Dark Empire leaves the fortress and city in ruins. Haraldur eventually recovers all of the weapons and Draven calls a temporary truce with Zeros' and the others as this new threat is dealt with. An epic battle ensues as a evil entity is released from the weapons that eventually fuses with Haraldur.
Haraldur then releases the ancient evil Alpha Retan (not to be confused with Retan of the Dark Empire), which spawns another mammoth planet-threatening battle. Draven nearly destroys the world with a long conjured but extremely explosive spell in an attack against the ancient draken, but the side effects are diminished beyond the initial target with the aid of Zeros', and later his calling of the planet's guardian deity.
After Haraldur disappears when fighting his father, Melkoth, Draven parts ways with his old adversary, Zeros', proclaiming they will resume their rivalry the next time they meet...
Five year interlude between chapters 5-6
Draven has restructured the Dark Empire, christening it the Crimson Empire and declaring himself as emperor. He has spent years rebuilding the land ravaged by war and the recent events that damaged much of the Dark Continent. Unlike Retan, he has spent little time gaining new territory, but the new nation's military force is complete and polished none-the-less...
In chapter 6
"He has a perplexing personality. Of course, he is made up of several people, some insane, some just jerks, at least one demonic entity, and several metallic weapons... don't ask..."
Draven retaliates against the newly resurrected Haraldur and reassembles his former enemies that have allied with him five years ago. Draven leads a large force in pursuit of the prisoners Haraldur has freed, but all of his army is destroyed through the spells that protect the newly formed nation of Aspyes while Draven and Haraldur begin yet another battle, with no clear victor. Draven mistakes Zeros' comment about the prisoner's being "taken care of", thinking Zeros' meant the prisoners had been slaughtered, and returned home declaring the campaign a victory. Before his return he has a brief encounter and battle with the mysterious Mavas who tried to copy Draven's form and attacks.
A second attack on the Crimson Capital by Haraldur leads Draven to display the city's technological and magical advancements-- the capital city now rests on a floating island high above the mainland, unscaved by Haraldur's explosive assault. Draven has removed those in power that have been under Haraldur's influence, as well as those that might as well be, declaring his military, to be the sole authority in the state. In the meantime, Haraldur had captured the port town of Laus on the southern peninsula of the Dark Continent.
In chapter 7
"You need more credibility than just being old and calling yourself 'a prophet'."
Draven sends General Valos to deal with Laus as he attends to other matters in the floating Crimson Capital, including forming an alliance with the dragon Hyperion and Salazar of Alterña. He would leave the palace later to peruse the aura of Melkoth, who he confused for Haraldur's, only to be attacked by Hyperion after the dragon was forced to do the bidding of the prophet Quintus (after Draven made an enemy of the prophet by insulting him). Draven convinces the dragon he has the cure for his poison and Hyperion rejoins. Draven meets up with the usual group of allies and faces Melkoth, who lies to Draven that he is a follower of Haraladur. After Melkoth's escape, Draven coordinates his rapidly arriving troops to attack and reclaim the captured cities of Alphagrad and Retangrad in the western Crimson Empire.
In chapter 8
"Your jest is very amusing, but clearly you wouldn't want to take this little joke of yours too far, for it would be very damaging for me to mistake your jest for truth and, say, disembowel your innards and mount your head among the other... examples..."
Draven attacks Alphagrad almost entirely by himself, and the city is vastly damaged. It is here that he faces Valos and Abodahon. Valos seems to be loyal to Draven after all, but in the face of treatury to the Talonscar, his body is completely possessed by the same demon that controlled Nex. Draven is enraged by this, and attacks Abodahon.
Draven then begins his plan to summon a vast army of demons from the netherworld using specialized black crystals that can open gates between dimensions. The spell is begun by the Shinryuu at the Crimson Capital, and Draven must return in time to see it properly completed. However, the capital is heavily assulted by the Aspyes and a minor disturbance in the spell causes it to go haywire and work in reverse. Draven, the Elites, and the entire Crimson Capital are sucked into Hell.
In chapter 9
"I'm sorry, the correct response is groveling..."
Draven returns mid chapter once again lying low under the guise of Lars and having mastered the ability to hide his detectable magical aura by suppressing it. Sporting an injury received from fighting countless hordes of demons before making it back to Gaian, he forces Ven to take him to King Henri of Tjed, who's seeing powers can help bring him up to speed on the chaos engulfing the Dark Continent. Some past is hinted between the two opposite leaders, but Henri reluctantly helps Draven in exchange for Draven leaving the island nation alone.
Draven speeds off home, leaving Allen in Tjed. Upon arriving at the Dark Continent, Draven announces his return by totally annihilating a village turned Aspye. A brief skirmish with Durruti and Makhno follows, which Draven ends with a hail of meteors before disappearing into the night...
In chapter 10
"Out of time. Out of energy. You’re. Too. Weak."
After hanging low for a while, Draven is attracted to the site of a huge explosion near Bandervil caused by the war machine Horus. He finds Kerig restoring the machine to life, and joins in by offering his own energy after he realizes the machine's potential. Horus wordlessly agrees to serve Draven if the Crimson Emperor is able to help the machine obtain certain parts, to which Draven agrees. Their quest is immediately interrupted by Jayce, who snuck behind the Dark Emperor's back specifically to erase Draven from existence before the Emperor found out he was even still alive. The battle is brief but fierce, though Jayce appears to have the upper hand, especially after taking a direct hit from a partially formed Crimson-Death Annihilation Attack and shrugging it off. Jayce leaves as quickly as he came after he realizes Retan has arrived in North Point. Draven finds the sudden departure amusing.
Draven and Horus descend into the ruins of a laboratory, fighting several more mechanical war machines in the process. After Horus obtains his new conversion engine and a dramatic explosive escape sequence, Draven receives a message from the Dark Emperor instructing him to return to North Point, his first order from Retan in five years. He complies, taking Horus with him so that the machine might obtain some Dark Glass.
At North Point, Draven attends a banquet, much to Jayce's dismay, and catches a glimpse of the newly allied Kandarinians as well as a couple of new High Generals Draven has never seen before. Here he learns of the dark plan to seal away the heroes forever. Draven hastily leaves so that he may contact his former allies. If he can get them to swear their allegiance to him, he may be able to spare them. The offer is refused, however. And Draven attacks alongside Retan's minions. Duilin steps in his way, however, and the half demon fights with a much increased level of experience and ferocity, and Draven is forced to take him seriously. The two duel for a short while, but the heroes' time is up, and they are sealed away by the huge vortex of Retan's spell. Draven gloats in the victory, but soon finds himself sucked in as well, the Dark Emperor betraying him due to his failure to keep the Dark Empire intact while Retan was away.
In chapter 11
"Tch, Retan's getting weirder and weirder in the help he seeks..."
Draven suddenly finds himself in the middle of a barren wasteland after Ven and Henri break the spell binding him and the others away. The two Tjedians are disdained to find out that Draven is the only one released, in their vicinity at least. Along with Allen Draven leads the three in an attack on a Dark Empire airship, picking off the lone Velken Renard with a single fireball. The other Velkens become enraged when they learn of this and they separate from the ship with Draven to do battle in the desert below. Draven revels in the chance for revenge on Retan through his underlings and fights the squad of nine Velkens then Virmir himself. Virmir decides the battle is a stalemate and orders his men to abandon the battle. Draven is enraged by this insult, but cannot catch the much swifter fox-like creatures as they leave.
Abilities
Draven is so attuned to the fire element that he is often called inhuman, and rightly so, for it is unheard of for humans to have magical strength at the levels he displays. He has developed a variety of special techniques, some which he uses more frequently than others.
Aura of Flame
Draven's aura of flame isn't really a purposeful technique, but more of a first step in launching many of his attacks. Draven draws his energy outward, where he can better access it. The result is a visible plume of fire surrounding his entire body. The more intense the flame, the more magical reserves available to him, though also the more strain imparted to him.
At 10-20% of his full strength, Draven's aura is invisible to the naked eye, perhaps a rush of heated air at the upper percentages. At this point Draven resembles a normal mage and must take a great amount of time to cast all but the quickest spells, though he rarely bothers to. This is his "resting state", and the aura is of no strain to him. Draven always casts away his aura when he does not need it.
In battle, the majority of the time Draven fights at 40-60% of his full strength. At this point the aura is very visible and quite volatile, burning at opponents who stray too close, though it is only a minor nuisance to experienced mages. Sometimes he summons his aura slowly, and it wraps around him in a few seconds, visibly taking shape with a violent gust of superheated wind. Draven can alternatively summon 50% of his strength in less than a second. The result is a violent explosion as the aura bursts forth from his body. This is about the only time Draven actually uses his aura as an attack. Around this range Draven can hold his aura for extended periods of time without becoming too drained, though it will tire him after awhile. At 60% his aura is fairly large, extending around him some five feet in all directions. At this point Draven is taking his opponent seriously, as this is about the highest he can go without straining himself.
Occasionally Draven will lose his temper. His aura fluctuates with his anger, increasing in size dramatically when he is enraged. He occasionally looses it completely, and enters into a sort of mad berserker state. Here his aura of flame is massive, sometimes ranging from 15 to 20 feet in radius, himself just a small dark spot amidst the burning ball of flames. The aura is so intense that it will usually disintegrate any ground he stands on, so he usually remains in the air. Any battlefield Draven goes berserk in is certainly going to be utterly destroyed. Draven maxes out at 80% strength when he is enraged, and can go no higher due to lack of focus.
In order to achieve his full potential Draven must be calm. When Draven is focused, his aura actually shrinks, however there is more power poured into it, making it more of a superheated condensed shell than a spread out flame. At 100% of his potential, Draven's aura only extends some four feet in radius from his body, the bulk of it condensed within two feet. It is blindingly intense, and the man inside is but a dark sinister silhouette of a figure, with burning crimson eyes. If there was ever an argument that Draven was not a human, this form would be the base of it.
Fireball
Draven's fireballs are generally one to two feet in diameter. He can form them extremely quickly, and often does not bother to summon his Aura of Flame to do so. The result is an orb fired from his open palm like a cannonball, which explodes on impact. A larger one is usually enough to completely wipe out a modest sized dwelling.
Variations include seeking fireballs, and orbs the rotate around him until his volleys them at his opponents with his mind. He will occasionally pour vast amounts of energy into a single fireball as well. The result is either an extremely large orb or deceptive normal sized fireball that is actually super concentrated, resulting in a massive explosion.
Death Pebble
A variation on the normal fireball, Draven points his index finger forward like a gun, summoning a pea sized point of crimson energy at the very tip. However, he pours vast amounts of energy into the tiny spec without allowing it to expand, causing it to become extremely volatile despite its small size. This is a terror technique rather than an attack he would use on a legitimate opponent. He will often fire the tiny spec of super concentrated flame at an enemy but intentionally miss, instead shooting it through a window or similar, the resulting explosion completely leveling the targeted building. Draven uses this attack to intimidate Grey Soldiers in Alphagrad in Chapter 8.
Red Laser
Draven extends two fingers, this time blasting forth a narrow stream of armor piercing crimson light. This is a favorite to instantly kill weaker adversaries for the intimidation factor alone as the laser penetrates directly through the target, though he rarely uses it in a legitimate battle because it is easy to see coming.
Fire Waves
Draven often directs unfocused waves and jets of flame at his opponents. This is basic fire magery, even more so than the fireball because it is unfocused magic. Waves of flame do not travel far unless they are properly shaped.
Fire Pillar
A pillar of flame is a variation on a wave, in that it is directed to spiral and thus can travel much farther, generally indefinitely until striking something. Draven occasionally uses a one handed fire beam or a much stronger two handed version. The length of the fire pillar continues until Draven stops pouring energy into the attack. Despite their destructive nature, Draven usually only casts fire pillars in retort to similar beam attacks, pushing them back against their caster.
Crimson Blade
Draven's signature move. Pressing his hands together and slowly drawing them apart, Draven creates a long thin rod of burning energy, usually three or four feet long. One end becomes a sharp point, a blade coursing down the sides and a handle on the end. It is basically a sword made of fire, though it is quite solid. The crimson blade is usually created when Draven faces a foe with a weapon, although he uses it in many other situations as well. On very rare occasions he will create two. Once in Chapter 3 he created a dual blade, two flaming swords joined at the handle.
Strength Enhancement
Draven is not naturally strong. However, Draven gives the illusion of superhuman strength by drawing crimson energy into his muscles themselves, sometimes so much that they physically expand. With the magic coursing though his veins, he can punch with the explosive force of a fireball and lift heavy objects the same way he lifts himself into the air through flight. This is not an ability most fire mages can perform, aside from the Rage spell (DA2).
Flight
Draven does not know proper levitation. However, he can fly quite effectively by pushing heated air downwards, propelling himself upward or suspending himself in air. He does not need his Aura of Flame to fly, but he does need it to fly fast, the aura flaring brighter the faster he goes. Due to the vast amounts of energy he puts off in flight, Draven is very easy to detect from far away by those who are magically inclined. Flight is not particularly draining on Draven unless he is trying to keep up with faster characters like Zeros'.
Aura Detection
Draven could not sense the magical auras of others until Chapter 4, and not very well until even later. Even at the current point in the RP he is still not very good at it, only able to pick out the general direction of extremely powerful forces.
Aura Suppression
In Chapter 9 Draven learned the ability to mask his own aura, making himself undetectable to even the most sensitive of aura detectors. However he cannot operate at more than 10% of his potential while his aura is masked, otherwise his aura of flame would break into detectible levels. Draven cannot fly while his aura is masked for the same reason.
Meteo
Rising high into the sky, Draven spreads his arms to his sides, taking some time to mentally weave the spell. It takes a short while for the destruction to start, but when it does, burning rocks begin to rain from the heavens, generally 10 to 20 feet in diameter. The longer he takes to weave the spell, the longer the rain of destruction lasts. The spell is usually enough to take out a decent sized city. Meteo is a Fire/Non-Elemental attack.
Crimson-Death Annihilation Attack
Draven's ultimate attack, often abbreviated CDAA (in jest). The outlandishly named spell is a variation on The Dark Emperor Retan's Mega-Death Annihilation Attack, which Draven halfway learned by reading a cryptic tome. He modified the spell, filling in the gaps with fire incantations. The result is a catastrophically destructive globe of super heated energy, some 100 feet in diameter when ready to be thrown. The spell takes an extremely long time to prepare, but there is no stopping it once it is complete. Even Draven must flee for his life to escape the blast.
On impact, the sphere instantly explodes, obliterating everything for miles as a column of flame punches through the atmosphere and expands outwards faster than the speed of sound. The CDAA was only used successfully once, vaporizing Alpha Retan near the end of Chapter 5. Because the blast was at Gaian's north pole, in the Arctic Region, the explosion would likely have destroyed all life on the planet due to massive climatic shifts if it weren't for the immediate intervention of Zeros' partially holding the blast back and Gaia healing the planet.
Draven attempted to use the CDAA a second time in Chapter 10, this time on Jayce. However this time he was unable to complete the spell and had to throw it early, resulting in a much smaller (but still impressive) explosion that only served to anger the Draken.
The CDAA is a Fire/Shadow Elemental attack.