Taelian's Quirks: Reaving
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:46 pm
MOTIF: LIGHTBRINGER
Introduction
Taelian views himself as a warrior of liberation, of freedom, and the expunging of vile influences over not only Sil-Elaine, but the Elven world. His Rune of Reaving sympathizes with this justicar-like view, and conflicts with the grim obscurity of the Shadowbringer motif. The Rune of Reaving wishes to mold Taelian into an exemplar of light, and though it fails to dominate the aethereal impulses of Shadowbringer, it guides him with impulses of its own.
The Nexus - Apprentice
With his aether, Taelian may craft white-gold, glowing crystalline nexuses within the darkness - or the light, with the solid form of a crystal shard. Levitating above-ground, they will dramatically illuminate through even otherworldly, pitch-black darkness (such as the darkness emerging from Taelian's Shadowbringer Quirk) for fifteen feet around them in radius, though this radius appears to extend almost infinitely upwards as if a divine ray of light were extending upon each Nexus formed. These nexuses are both bright and warm, but for now do not provide much other than a source of light. At this stage, they are fairly easy to destroy with magical weaponry or arcane attacks, as little aether goes into their creation. The more they are charged, the more difficult damaging and destroying each Nexus becomes.
The Nexuses act as the basis for the Lightbringer motif - dividing Taelian's style of combat between day, and night. As an immediate physical change arriving with this motif, Taelian's eyes now glow a bright radiant gold while within the light, even further illuminated when standing within the Nexus' reach.
As an obvious weakness to this Quirk - and the motif itself - Taelian must counteract his own Shadowbringer Quirks in order to tap into the abilities of Lightbringer, his Runes effectively acting against one another.
Tuatha Dé Dannan - Journeyman
While within the light, the sea slug-like wings given to Taelian by Umbral Natant rapidly shift and take on an entirely different form. Shifting to a sleek, glimmering gold, the wings appear ornate and almost armor-like in texture and emblazoning. The scapulars of his wings are connected by a somewhat thin spherical bulb on each side, roughly the diameter of Taelian's arms. The scapulars themselves are golden and lead into a robust arm, adorned with plated golden armor. Each arm slumps down lifelessly, though they may become more rigid and unmoving so as to not disturb Taelian's movements.
Spanning out from the scapulars are coverts, or the body of each wing, which are embossed with intricate sculpting. Along the coverts are white marble, statue-like images, of Elven heroes of legends, beasts and horses, and murals behind them depicting the Elven Gods. Deriving from the scapulars of each wing are the 'feathers' - radiantly glowing, bright longswords, four belonging to each wing. The alula of the wings rise upwards like a mantle, thick in size and designed to intimidate with their broadness.
While Umbral Natant allows Taelian the ability to fly in the darkness, his speed increasing the darker the space around him, Tuatha Dé Dannan allows for the opposite and gives Taelian the ability to fly in the light. Like with Umbral Natant, he will appear to almost levitate, rather than flapping his wings; when flying at a high velocity, his wings will expand and seem to drift along the wind, as if gliding. The Quirk only offers an inverse of Umbral Natant for now, in this respect, but with more changes to come.
Taelian can retract these wings, rescinding them into his body. However, if he does so, it is very painful to redraw them from his form.
Gáe Brione - Expert
Taelian may charge the blades upon his wing coverts with his aether, each an ornamented gold weapon with a radiant length, their pommels brimming with brilliant light. He is capable of controlling these blades as if they were normal Reaving weapons, and is capable of Enkindling them. Taelian can control four of these at any given time without conflicting with his cap on controlled Pact Weapons; they are innate to his form. These blades are capable of coordinating attacks, both simultaneous and incremental, wherein they will launch in a straight line and leave a powerful trail of golden, burning aether behind them, as well as three feet in front of their tip. They will be surrounded by an eight foot diameter of this burning aether, which will quickly coalesce back into the head of each blade two seconds after they've met their zenith; each weapon may perform these radiant lunges for a total of thirty meters of distance. Once they've met their limit, they will turn upright (vertically) and point upwards towards the sky.
These blades are capable of phasing through the Nexus, and will acquire more power and distance upon doing so, as well as expanding their outer diameter. The blades passing through each Nexus will charge the Nexus with light, to be utilized in Solas an Latha.
Brataichean - Master
Taelian will only touch, and certainly wield, Enkindled weapons - his Rune has begun to shape his mind to view other weaponry as impure, as if their metals carry physical maladies. This means he will only utilize weapons he has Enkindled, and will need to go through a lengthy process Enkindling each weapon created by Reaving or drawn by other means before wielding them in battle. This will take the form of a literal blessing - he will speak an Elven prayer dedicating each weapon to the Eldhan Weald, and afterwards the weapon will appear blessed by divine eminence. The process costs aether to perform. After the blessing is complete, the weapon will be lit gold, with an intense white aura as they are wielded, with the same molten scars no longer appearing upon them. Taelian's Sigilic Pyromancy, in general, will take on a holy appearance - colored an opaque white, now seemingly otherworldly.
The cracked, Enkindled scars of the past - given to Taelian by Ebon Duelist - change, becoming gilded golden embroidery across his form, similar to that of a Hytori's. The embroidery appears almost armor-like, and feels similarly to that of cool metal, but with a softer and more delicate touch.
Solas an Latha - Master
Solas an Latha, in Eldhan, means "Daybreak"; it is with this Quirk where the Nexus reveals its strength. Taelian is given multiple ways in which he may charge the Nexuses he creates; one way is through using Reaving abilities, with more powerful abilities empowering the Nexuses more in turn. Another is through Gáe Brione, carefully weaving the blades upon his wings through the Nexus as they beam towards foes. Then, there is the most consistent method; very slowly, through them bathing in their own light or - better - drawing their charge from other lighting, especially daylight. Whatever the case, as a Nexus charges it will begin to grow more radiant, as well as becoming much more difficult to destroy. The greater the charge, the larger the radius of Solas an Latha, beginning at something scarcely above the fifteen foot light-cast of the Nexus and ending in the few hundreds of feet in an outward radius.
When a Nexus releases its charge, it washes everything around it in a rapid wave of light. The aether does multiple things: one, it will weaken enemies within the radius, who will feel as if they have been bathed in intense heat. They will begin to grow nauseous and fatigued, as well as feeling burdened by their own weight. Secondly, the light release will charge Pact weapons within the radius with holy light, offering all of them an effect akin to that of Gáe Brione. This is especially useful coinciding with Arsenal, creating a devastating barrage of piercing light-rays alongside their Pact weapons.
Finally, and quite ironically, a Nexus will explode after unleashing their charge - and if any Nexuses still remain, their light will recede into them completely, obscuring them for some time after. They become even more durable as they linger in wait, but have no effect on the battle until they are rekindled. What this effectively does is weakens a foe before allowing Taelian to submerge them into darkness with Shadowbringer, leading into a gruesome hunt.
Solas an Latha comes with a weakness, however: Taelian becomes completely blind in the darkness created by Shadowbringer, though he can see perfectly well in the light. This often forces him to crystallize small Nexuses along his face, though with the effect of making him more viewable in the dark. If he wishes to engage as effectively as a Shadowbringer now, he is required to know how to navigate through pure darkness, just as his prey.