MOTIF: STORMFORGER
Introduction
Given his Jastai ascendancy, Riven’s talent for Elementalism comes as natural to him as breathing or flying. His soul shares a deep bond with his blue flame, likely predating his birth. Ignited by that flame, Riven’s soul becomes a dynamic entity, a storm fueled by the weight his own past and emotions. As a reaction, the elements that surround River mirror his own nature, enabling him to create storms on his own.
Stormsoul - Apprentice
Bearing the full force of his flame and his emotion, Riven’s soul has grown into a dynamic entity, an inner storm that becomes the source of his power. While progress has made it powerful, it’s also hard to control. If Riven abuses Elementalism and starts to overstep, the storm becomes weaker and less controlled: he starts to feel the need for air and his body starts to shut down, his muscles shocked and stunned by electric shocks; if he pushes too hard, his body shuts down and he loses consciousness. His emotions also alter the Stormsoul; while it doesn’t have much of an effect, strong displays of emotion resonate with Riven’s surroundings, sometimes making wind flow around him, small flames appear on his wings or hair, or water rippling; the more powerful he grows, the more impressive these unwanted manifestations can become.
Jetstream - Journeyman
The Jetstream is the response of the Stormsoul to Riven’s love for his freedom and the wings that allowed it; it’s the release of his inner pressure and power in the form of wind. This Quirk has a permanent effect on Riven’s black wings: after all of them are shedded, new feathers grow differently, larger and with a unique structure. These new black feathers have a wider, hollow rachis that looks like a glass pipe: each glows faintly blue in the base, illuminating the whole rachis and ending in a small opening. When the Jetstream is active, each of these feathers blasts wind off like a jet, combining into a single powerful stream. Consuming fractional amounts of aether still results in strong winds that agitate the surrounding area and hinders free movement; in flight, it roughly duplicates Riven’s speed. Moderate amounts of aether release create violent gale winds, blasts that can knock people off their feet and uproot trees; Riven’s speed in flight rises exponentially.
Stygian Haze - Expert
Where the Jetstream releases power and pressure, the Stygian Haze becomes the not so desirable release for the emotional turmoil in Riven’s soul. Manifesting as a series of markings connecting his whole back and wings to the base of his skull, they usually glow a faint blue; this means he’s serene, in control and unafraid. When using his magic, if Riven feels fear or rage, the lowest point of his markings starts to bleed out a tar-like substance, becoming open wounds. If those negative feelings keep growing, the black sludge sticks to the lines and crawls up, extinguishing the light of the pattern on his back as it climbs up. Under it blood starts to drip, making Riven feel the pain of the open wounds as they get bigger. If the sludge reaches the base of Riven’s skull due to panic or blind rage, Riven’s mind shuts down and he goes berserk, acting just on animalistic instinct mixed with extreme aggression. He can’t stop by himself: he’ll attack friends and foes alike and unleash extremely destructive forces with no control until the Stormsoul shuts him down or someone knocks him out. He might not hurt someone he shares a deep bond with... but that doesn't mean he'll stop or pay them any attention. After waking up, he feels extreme exhaustion, needing at least a whole day of recovery. While Riven focuses on staying calm in battle, his past still haunts him, and hard physical blows and being knocked to the ground are some of his hardest triggers.
Rising Storm - Master
Oddly enough, the Rising Storm is named after a consequence of the quirk, and not after the changes it produces itself. The Rising Storm is a result of the Stormsoul completely coalescing with Riven’s flame, igniting it and becoming an explosive source of power. All that power finds an outlet in the same place as the Jetstream: Riven’s evolved wings. The blue glow becomes even more intense, and Riven gains the ability to discharge intense amounts of fire and heat from his feathers using low amounts of aether. When using more significant amounts of aether, he’s able to unleash a large conflagration, setting the area around him ablaze. However, more powerful blasts can’t be sustained in time for more than a few seconds, as they risk overheating and damaging Riven’s wings. Only direct hits produce serious burns; excess heat tends to distributed evenly into the environment. The Rising Storm also boosts Riven’s flight, slightly increasing his speed compared to the Jetstream.
In fact, given their extremely similar nature and area of effect, the Jetstream and the Rising storm are partially melded as traits in Riven’s soul, which gives him the ability to combine both. By blending both elemental discharges (and thus at an added cost), Riven’s wings become a powerful lightning generator, a continuous source of electricity that he’s able to shape however he wishes to or simply unleash voltaic arcs in a short area around him.
However it’s used, the Rising Storm produces and spreads large amounts of heat towards its surroundings; the temperature increases by a few degrees. This makes pressure drop and quickly generates a storm around Riven as a consequence, with him usually at the center. The longer it’s used, the stronger wind will become, the higher the chance of rain, and the more likely thunder will be. Of course, this storm is what names the Quirk itself.
The Forger's Awakening - Master
The Forger’s Awakening is the twin Quirk to the Rising Storm; born to the same flame, the Awakening is the implosion to the Storm’s explosive release. The heat, instead of being released, it’s stored within Riven and concentrated. The extreme rise of temperature forms a superheated coat around him, an otherworldly looking second skin made of white-hot plasma and bright blue flame details. The heat contained by this aura is so substantial that anything Riven touches will probably melt or burst into flames, and the brightness of the plasma makes looking at him rather uncomfortable. Riven can manipulate this superheated fire, though extracting power directly from the Forger’s Awakening causes cracks on his cover, weakening the heat around him for a few seconds.
His plasma coat is so overheated that it heats the air around Riven as well. Riven’s surroundings immediately become dry and scorched; any ground he stands on dries cracks, water in his area of effect immediately boils and evaporates, grass quickly turns into ash. 6 feet around him, the heat is unbearable and quickly starts to produce burns and dehydration to anyone stepping in that area. This forces Riven’s opponents to use hit and run tactics, staying in the circle for very short times, or to focus on ranged combat. Out of his area of influence the heat does rise, but it’s uncomfortable at most.
