Abalon Shallows
With ossified skin, lilac eyes and a gaze that rarely blinks, Abalon Shallows is a specialist mage in the field of death magic. He has earned his place as a Pursuant of the Knights of Anathaeum through his benevolent intent and astute and potent application of necrotic energies to protect and serve the people, as well as his refusal to allow the path of ambition to rule his research. Softly spoken and often wearing neutrality as a shield to his philosophical integrity in his field, Abalon has a firm loyalty to the unfettered pursuit of magic domain of Death so that he might understand it and benefit his fellow man. This is sometimes to a fault, lacking humanity over an issue for ideas on the temporary nature of life which alternates between cheerful nilhism to an outwardly bleak, yet dutiful attendance, to the matters of the living. Abalon cares for his fellow mortal, yet has can have a chill demeanour towards those who he know are fleeting in comparison to the spirits he communicates and guides, depending on his mood and attendance of his duties. He has had numerous encounters with ne'er-do-wells concerning necromancy, and wishes to go beyond the typical ambition that comes from his co-conspirators in necrotic energy in the realm. Abalon provides accurate council in the field of magic, and would rather stay out of politics or sides in disputes for fear of clouding his own judgement. He acts as counselor to his comrades in inner peace and acceptance of those who have passed, remedy to the unfettered powers of death magic, guardian to those who would tread in unholy ground, and friend to anyone who would seek to learn a more noble path in death magic. He often seeks to encourage those who would use necromancy for foul ends to reconsider, but often has to pursue the path of oblivion and soul dissolution to put an end to their intent. Warding and deflective is Abalon's defense, and entropy, diffusion, and withering arcane spells are his offense.
He is cursed with an affliction that renders positive healing energy to be a malady, and necrotic energy to be a boon to his vitality. It is an affliction he manages as best he can, both in warding positive energy away from himself and stepping into necromantically diffused areas to salve the land.
In his spare time Abalon tends gardens without the aid of magic, enjoys a vegetarian diet, partakes in warming drinks like port and brandy to relax, indulges in shisha circles with those who would indulge in the relaxing practice, writes poetry, and carves gravestones out of exotic minerals.
Appearance
Half elven but appearing more like a deathly fae or perhaps a spirit from beyond the grave or a manifestation of the wilds, Abalon's white apparel mark him differently from the typical black robes of his necromancer colleagues. He wears wreathes of bark which foster lichen, which are held as a form of indicator as to the toxicity of his environment. A pendant of amber is around his neck and chest, one that can absorb necrotic energy, a creation of Abalon's that he can produce for other people should the need arise. He carries a quarterstaff with numerous amber stones within it that can be used to absorb necrotic energy, and is similarly marked by moss.
Skills and Abilities
Death magic is a powerful tool which has further and far more reaching applications that simply resurrecting the dead to serve one's function.
Guiding souls from becoming monsters
Removing souls that are in the wrong body → transference
Removing positive energy that will make people explode
Reverence for those who are about to die → animals, death door, soldiers on the verge of battle
Religious duties, to honour and deliver sermons on people's behalfs and domains.
Used to communicating to the dead, and having them speak to him when he's not quite willing to listen.
In charge of detecting death in people, curses and the like. Runs a clinic → decontamination, curse removal/transference when possible
To make the cursed accept the true death.
Investigating who put death spells on people, curses and the like.
Guiding souls from becoming monsters
Removing souls that are in the wrong body → transference
Removing positive energy that will make people explode
Reverence for those who are about to die → animals, death door, soldiers on the verge of battle
Religious duties, to honour and deliver sermons on people's behalfs and domains.
Used to communicating to the dead, and having them speak to him when he's not quite willing to listen.
In charge of detecting death in people, curses and the like. Runs a clinic → decontamination, curse removal/transference when possible
To make the cursed accept the true death.
Investigating who put death spells on people, curses and the like.
Personality
<What is your character's personality like?>
Biography & Lore
Once worked as an apprentice for a group of necromancers who were interested in animating corpses and skeletons to tend the fields. Worked out well for a time, but then the necrotic energy leaked out of the skeletons and ruined the fields. Shallows devised a method to capture the leaking necrotic energy so that it might be recycled, but was deemed too expensive. The necromancers continued for 6 more months before utter crop failure and famine ruled. The skeletons were then used as raiders, and Shallows quit. A fight broke out between him and some of the masters, and he managed to deflect their necromancy magic and escape. Shallow's warding magic was effective, and only managed to perform one offensive spell, a withering death in a moment of frustration for being called a traitor. One half of the enemy's face became as bone, and Shallow's viewed it grimly. Ever since then he prefers to disable targets instead of outright blasting them.
That was in his mid twenties. Then applied himself to being someone who might assist in war like situations against necromancers, but found that his studied only made him good for warding away terrible magics. An undead blight was plaguing a town, and the garrison regularly had to deal with creatures sent against it. Against other elements and domains he had little power or understanding, aside from basic physical defenses. There, he met a surgeon who he worked well with, an elven cleric of life. Together they worked in triage, Shallows providing protection for those who would venture into the unholy ground and try to remove curses and plagues that befell the people and their crops. He used his invention of warding and gathering stones, and found better ways of creating the pendants that could ward death that could be given as good luck charms.
Attended many funerals and learned the words from the life cleric. Grew in understanding of necrotic energy due to the theory behind life magic, but couldn't summon the magic. Learned basic first aid, replacing bandages and removing death magic from the wounds as he reapplied and cleaned them. Death magic is good at disinfecting.
Soon paladins came in to cleanse the corruption and were successful in a few short weeks. The cleric of life was elated, and joined them. Shallows continued his work to defend the towns people, and found that the paladins refused his aid despite his life cleric's assurance that Shallows was a benefactor. He decided to attend a mission where the life cleric was directly involved, to protect her.
Soon they cut into the heart of the corruption, finding a necromancer who would become a lich. It was one of the ones he had learned and trained from. In a fit of spite, the necromancer unleashed their experiments upon the group as they could not succeed in becoming a lich due to the paladin's interferance. The necrotic energy was warding successfully away from most of the group, but Shallows suffered a smothering of his life's essence in the process, a calming and chilling effect that had physical rammifications. His skin became cold and ossified in small effect, his personal warding pendant doing much to prevent the damage. A curse was bestowed upon Shallows in this moment as the paladin order killed him, that Shallows would he would find no comfort in the domain of life, and haunted him for some time.
The life cleric and he parted ways. There was no life magic that could affect him, but Shallows was fine with that. He wanted to study the curse on his own, and found the cost of saving his comrades to be a just one.
He found that while he could still weave death magic to his own ends, and that he found no actual job satisfaction from it anymore, it was the only thing he was good at. He was now at the age of 30. Furthermore, he could not be healed by life magic, but instead found that the curse had an unintended consequence. Necrotic energy could heal him, and life magic would undo him, as if the fundamentals of magic were reversed for him. Not wanting to be caught off guard by a healer trying to revive him, the white cloak was created over a period. It would absorb life magic that was cast around him, and turned into necrotic energy through his pendant, which would then heal him. His skin became even paler and more ossified due to this, but it saved his life a few times from not having healing energies undo him, due to the curse.
Beset by the spirit of his fallen necromancer, Shallows studied in a wizard's guild on how to handle such an occurrence. Life magic could not be used to remove the spirit, it would take an overwhelming necrotic energy to undo the haunting.
That was in his mid twenties. Then applied himself to being someone who might assist in war like situations against necromancers, but found that his studied only made him good for warding away terrible magics. An undead blight was plaguing a town, and the garrison regularly had to deal with creatures sent against it. Against other elements and domains he had little power or understanding, aside from basic physical defenses. There, he met a surgeon who he worked well with, an elven cleric of life. Together they worked in triage, Shallows providing protection for those who would venture into the unholy ground and try to remove curses and plagues that befell the people and their crops. He used his invention of warding and gathering stones, and found better ways of creating the pendants that could ward death that could be given as good luck charms.
Attended many funerals and learned the words from the life cleric. Grew in understanding of necrotic energy due to the theory behind life magic, but couldn't summon the magic. Learned basic first aid, replacing bandages and removing death magic from the wounds as he reapplied and cleaned them. Death magic is good at disinfecting.
Soon paladins came in to cleanse the corruption and were successful in a few short weeks. The cleric of life was elated, and joined them. Shallows continued his work to defend the towns people, and found that the paladins refused his aid despite his life cleric's assurance that Shallows was a benefactor. He decided to attend a mission where the life cleric was directly involved, to protect her.
Soon they cut into the heart of the corruption, finding a necromancer who would become a lich. It was one of the ones he had learned and trained from. In a fit of spite, the necromancer unleashed their experiments upon the group as they could not succeed in becoming a lich due to the paladin's interferance. The necrotic energy was warding successfully away from most of the group, but Shallows suffered a smothering of his life's essence in the process, a calming and chilling effect that had physical rammifications. His skin became cold and ossified in small effect, his personal warding pendant doing much to prevent the damage. A curse was bestowed upon Shallows in this moment as the paladin order killed him, that Shallows would he would find no comfort in the domain of life, and haunted him for some time.
The life cleric and he parted ways. There was no life magic that could affect him, but Shallows was fine with that. He wanted to study the curse on his own, and found the cost of saving his comrades to be a just one.
He found that while he could still weave death magic to his own ends, and that he found no actual job satisfaction from it anymore, it was the only thing he was good at. He was now at the age of 30. Furthermore, he could not be healed by life magic, but instead found that the curse had an unintended consequence. Necrotic energy could heal him, and life magic would undo him, as if the fundamentals of magic were reversed for him. Not wanting to be caught off guard by a healer trying to revive him, the white cloak was created over a period. It would absorb life magic that was cast around him, and turned into necrotic energy through his pendant, which would then heal him. His skin became even paler and more ossified due to this, but it saved his life a few times from not having healing energies undo him, due to the curse.
Beset by the spirit of his fallen necromancer, Shallows studied in a wizard's guild on how to handle such an occurrence. Life magic could not be used to remove the spirit, it would take an overwhelming necrotic energy to undo the haunting.