Fade Rift Application - Rifter

[spaceswan]

RIFTER APPLICATION

PLAYER

Name: Rin
Age: 18
Contact: Plurk: Act3Soliloquy
Other Characters: N/A
Interests: I'm really just excited to get Mac involved in cultural exchanges, side-quest sort of things like "Please go out and find this book for me!" and person-to-person interaction. In the long haul, Mac is a soldier and not really leader material, so for him to rally behind a flag, follow a cause and find a leader he can believe in will be great.

CHARACTER

Name: Macklemore “Mac” Journey
Canon/OC: Fandom OC - Destiny
Canon Point: Post Taken King arc
Journal: spaceswan
Age: Unknown, but over 18

Canon World

Mac comes from Earth, many centuries in the future after humanity has been visited by other life and concluded a new Golden Age. A vast, benevolent intellect simply called The Traveler came to Earth in its time of need and was largely responsible for the ascension and evolution of humanity, gifting Earth new technology, galactic knowledge and access to new resources. The Traveler came, gifted humanity, and departed. Humans terraformed many of the planets in the system, successfully created independent artificial humanoids and eventually some even physically and mentally evolved in the further reaches of space, calling themselves the Awoken.

Unfortunately, where there is great good in the universe there is also great evil, and a force only known as The Darkness followed The Traveler to Earth with its army (The Hive) and began systematically exterminating all forms of humanity. The Traveler returned and pushed back The Darkness at the cost of its own life. With its dying breath it created the lifeforms known as Ghosts, each one carrying a fraction of The Traveler's Light, or magic, with which Ghosts were able to resurrect fallen warriors of old and forge them into Guardians, the new protectors of Earth, humanity and the galaxy beyond.

For centuries wars raged with remaining agents of The Darkness and other contenders for control of the galaxy, such as the insectoid-reptilian Eliksni, the war-obsessed Cabal or the time-travelling constructs called Vex. The Guardians are all that keep The Darkness at bay, tireless, immortal warriors with unique magical abilities, risen for one purpose: save the galaxy.


History

Resurrected from the dead and attached to a Ghost.

Escaped Russian warzone "Cosmodrome".

Acquired derelict starship and flew to Last City.

Met with Speaker. Debriefed on state of the galaxy, the purpose of Guardians and where to go next in service to humanity.

Quickly rose in the ranks performing great acts of heroism alongside many other Guardians, encountering the Fallen, Hive, Vex and Cabal.

Pursued and halted Vex plot to turn all Sol planets into machines as part of their galactic supercomputer and pushed the Vex back into their portal, presumably to be lost in time and space.

Granted a brief reprieve from war, began competing in the arena Crucible and Sparrow Racing, winning many accolades.

Called to duty again when a guardian named Eris Morn, previously assumed dead, returned from the Hive stronghold on the moon.

Guided by intel from Eris, Mac and other Guardians descended into the Hellmouth, systematically exterminating the Hive presence, assassinating Hive leadership and ultimately stopping the Hive from resurrecting one of their God-Knights, Crota.

With a massive Hive presence routed, Mac once more returned to pursuing notoriety in the arena and racing tracks.

In the distant Reef, the Sol asteroid belt where the Awoken make their homes, the royal family was betrayed by the Eliksni Fallen to which they had granted asylum. The Queen, Mara Sov, called upon the Guardians to eradicate the betrayers as payment for help she had offered in the past.

Under the battlefield guidance of the Queen's Emissary, Petra Venj, and a loyal Fallen named Variks, Mac and other Guardians followed the movements of a Fallen Captain called Skolas as he attempted to unite all the houses against the Awoken and other races of Sol.

After defeating Skolas, the Fallen betrayers rebuilt and rallied behind Orbiks Prime, a Servitor Prime leader. Orbiks Prime was also defeated and destroyed and the House of Wolves Fallen were left scattered and in disarray.

Eris Morn, Queen Mara Sov and the Guardian Vanguard leaders worked to find permanent answers to the Hive threat and ultimately, the Darkness itself. Because of this they were prepared, at least in part, when Crota's father, Oryx, arrived in the system to seek revenge for the death of his son.

The Hive, under Oryx's command, quickly overran the system, and Oryx's ability to consume the will of others and control them completely meant an unlimited supply of soldiers.

Oryx took Mars and nearly eradicated the Cabal presence.

Oryx flew his Dreadnaught into combat against the Awoken. Queen Mara attempted to stop him and her fleet was decimated. She is presumed dead.

The Guardians launched a full offensive, fighting through Oryx's "Taken" hordes.

Mac and other Guardians followed Oryx into a parallel universe and destroyed him, using all of the Light he had stolen in his campaign across the universe.

At current, Mac is helping rebuild and taking any missions given to him as a means of reaching out to the people.


Personality

Mac is an excitable, energetic man with a passion for old Earth things and a love of all things fanciful. He listens to old earth music (where he got his name from, since Guardians have no memory of their pasts) and collects as many old Earth antiques as he can while out in the field. He greatly enjoys anything fantasy, preferring to escape the harsh reality of his life when possible by reading ancient fiction and watching films where he has the time to do so.

Mac is a Guardian quick to anger in defense of that which he feels is just and right, and is unafraid of standing up to those greater in power or influence than himself. He rises to every challenge set before him, though whether out of a need to pursue success or feelings of inferiority even he is unsure; he would, of course, insist he never feels inferior, but his emotional nature often lends itself to seeing dismissive comments as intended offense. Fortunately he is just as quick to forgive as he is to be hurt by perceived slights.

Mac is a tireless warrior for the Light, fiercely protective of people whose names he may never know. To him, there is no greater purpose than championing life, and he would gratefully lay down his own for the sake of others. As such, Mac is extremely reckless in pursuit of success at any cost to himself; he will not endanger others, as that is counter to his goal, but he has no qualms stepping between someone else and guaranteed death. His single-mindedness is perhaps both his greatest asset and greatest failing.

Above all, Mac is a big-hearted, often childish prankster who wants nothing greater than to protect those too weak to protect themselves, and avoid his great fear of perishing alone and unloved, one more faceless Guardian in the tide of battle.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Mac is an extraordinarily skilled combatant, both martially and magically, taking great pride in having fashioned himself after the knights and mages in his fantasy novels. Hailing from the Warlock Vanguard anyways, his natural aptitude for the magic granted to Guardians by the Light of the Traveler allows him to play up his heroics immensely. While mostly trained in the use of guns as the weapon of his era, as a Warlock Mac relies more heavily on manipulating the forces around him, bending nature to his will in ways other Guardians can only marvel at. He has trained exhaustively in the use of swords since being gifted one by Eris Morn. Despite being immature in his social interactions, when it comes to combat Mac is wily and surprisingly good at surviving for one so reckless.

While many schools of power are available to Warlocks, Mac's greatest strengths lay in directly manipulating the Light itself. In a more defensive approach, Mac hordes his magical power, flinging fistfuls of fire where appropriate but largely conserving his energy in the case of imminent death. If struck down by an opponent, the Light gathered can be expended all at once on his dying breath, self-resurrecting as would a Phoenix. Wreathed in flame and carried on burning wings, Mac can unleash countless explosions of flame for a limited time before exhausting the pool of Light and returning to his normal state, fully healed, all of his wounds burned away.

On the offensive, Mac prefers to harness the power of the Storm. Having gone on a very specific journey to commune with the violent spirits of natural disasters and even allowing himself to be destroyed and reborn within them, Mac is particularly skilled in manipulating the force of lightning, surrounding and filling himself with it to the point his eyes crackle with electricity and his fingers are constantly alight with leaping sparks. At his strongest and most dangerous, Mac summons lightning from the sky and allows it to consume him and act through him for a time, lifting hims from the ground and propelling him through the air as he sends electricity coursing through anything in his path. With enough focus behind his attack he has been known to completely disintegrate a target.

Aside from that, Mac can grant strength to those around him, filling them with his own Light, or shield those nearest him from the worst oncoming attacks. He also has the ability to manipulate the Void to unleash devastating blows, but avoids doing so as he wishes to detach as completely as possible from any potential aspect of the Darkness. Despite that, desperate times call for desperate measures. Manipulating the Void allows Mac to sap enemies of their strength and grant it to himself, as well as granting him the ability to cast enemies into darkness, creating a controlled implosion, attempting to crush the opposition.

In close quick and dirty combat, Mac can unleash the forces he commands in a variety of ways. He can fashion a vortex, damaging enemies caught inside, toss wild Void energy that scatters and explodes in all directions or fire a concentrated bolt of Void Light that scatters and seeks nearby targets. He can create a Solar flare that consumes and incinerates anything in range, throw an unstable fireball that explodes in all directions or cast a small orb of flame at a target, to which it adheres, rapidly swells with Light and inevitably explodes in an incinerating blast. He can create a blast of lightning that pulses and blasts bolts at targets in its radius, summon a controlled storm that rains lightning down on enemies or chain lightning between enemies.

Mac can unleash lightning into the ground to devastate enemies surrounding him with a massive shock wave. He can also let the lightning consume and carry him forward, blinking in and out of existence to quickly cover a short distance. He can drain the life of enemies to heal himself, cause enemies to explode, gain healing from the deaths of those caught in his vortexes, unleash lightning from himself when critically wounded to save those around him by increasing their strength and speed, be healed by the lightning when it consumes him, unleash a wave of heat and flame that knocks enemies back, fill allies with light to reinvigorate those who are exhausted and unable to fight, ride the heat source from the Light filling him in order to remain suspended in the air longer during combat, step through shadows to teleport short distances and glide during falls, riding the gathered forces of magic around him.

Magically, Mac is very flexible and eager to learn more. While diverse in ability, his vast repertoire is not well-matched with his quicker-to-act-rather-than-think manner, meaning he has a habit of rapidly exhausting his magical strength on the most explosive (and thereby theatrical) attacks instead of conserving strength for a more tactically sound approach. Fortunately his trigger-finger is quick and his skill with a sword is laudable, so he is at the least never left defenseless in his weakened state.


Arrival Inventory

Mac usually carries a collection of baubles and artifacts on his person, both magical and mundane. He carries a lute, three books (a leatherbound one with a hole burned clear through it, one with gilt edges and pages full of apparent poetry and his personal grimoire), a gold bangle with a red leather lining, a gold signet ring, a stone signet ring, a small glass vial amulet with a swirling sparkling purple/blue dust inside, a piece of amber carved into the shape of a bird skull and a hunk of broken chitin carved hollow into a sort of lantern in which small, glowing green moths flutter and illuminate the space around them.

The armor Mac wears is a set of chain maille and tunic in the fashion of archaic knights ( pictured here ) in black fabric, steel rings and thick gold embroidery. He often wears a helm of black oxidized steel fashioned in the shape of a ram skull with gold-plated horns ( pictured here ). The sword he carries is a straight blade decorated with a shard of opaque stone that flickers with internal light from a contained flame ( pictured here ).

Note: Mac is also always accompanied by a living, intelligent construct called Ghost. It is the physical form of Light, created by the Traveler, responsible for resurrecting a Guardian and guiding them in their fight against the Darkness. As an autonomous companion I’m not sure that Ghost would be adaptable to the setting or allowed based on the rules, but Ghosts are what animate Guardian bodies. If Mac is allowed to have Ghost, any adaptation mods choose would be fine. If he cannot have Ghost and another explanation for Mac being animate without his soul, essentially, was used, that would be fine as well. My only offered suggestions are Ghost as a spirit (like Justice with Anders), or an Ocularum that Mac carries with him, which he can consult in a manner similar to Harry Dresden with Bob the Skull. I’m open to any suggestion including removing him for the purposes of the game!

'Human'ization

Mac is a pale (almost white) blue-skinned humanoid called Awoken, with thick purple hair and glowing lime-green eyes. His skin shimmers sometimes, the surface appearing almost fluid with how a faint magical energy flows across it. His people are generally seen as ethereal and mysterious, living on the fringes of colonized space and practicing strange magic not fully understood by those living on core worlds.

I would like to see Mac as either an elf or a Qunari, keeping him alien from the average human.

Fit

In the world Mac hails from he was brought to life for the sole purpose of championing the Light. He lives for heroics and immerses himself in living out a fantasy life where he can see himself as more noble than existing for the purpose of fighting. He wants to believe that he has a choice in what he does, and pursues his vigilance against Darkness with more enthusiasm than many of his peers, simply because he fashions himself after the heroes in his novels. For him to end up in a world where all the things he only imagined truly exist would be the ultimate dream for him; a place where he could genuinely be the honorable knight instead of just acting the part.

Mac believes in protecting the weak, the old, the innocent and infirm. He stands for his ideals and cannot abide those who take advantage of others less fortunate. While in his world he has no choice but to follow the linear path of his life, to be in Thedas where he can choose a purpose and serve others as a passion instead of a directive would be an exciting prospect. To be able to lead a life, socialize and pursue other goals would be entirely alien to him and I am eager to play him exploring a sudden freedom of purpose. Moreover, Mac’s obsession with all things fantastical would drive him to really immerse himself in the culture, undoubtedly creating many social faux pas in his ignorance. He would take immediately to the need for keeping peace in the unstable land and happily use his powers to aid those in need.

SAMPLES

Log sample (warning for NSFW further down the line, but not in the initial posts).

Second sample:

"Oh my gosh you're an elf! A REAL ELF!" the Guardian exclaimed, voice shrill with his increasing excitement. The wary elves surrounding the man, bows drawn and arrows primed, stared in blank confusion before looking between one another. None of them were sure what to make of the intruder's enthusiasm, but his childish hopping and squirming did make them wonder about his level of intellect.

Or lack thereof.

"State your business," one of the elves demanded in their best attempt at an authoritarian tone. It only served to make the Guardian tremble with more delight than he could readily contain. Mac had only read about elves in the old classics, but there was no missing the hallmarks of the fantasy race. They were lithe and lovely, long-eared and even had bows! Real bows, not the kind Hunter Guardians fabricated with their magic. Sure, the arrows were pointing his way, but that just made it even better! Maybe they would take him prisoner and cart him off to their sparkling city deep in the magic woods? Or maybe they lived in rustic tree houses? Or underground! His hands were shaking, he was so thrilled!

"What sort of elves are you?" he asked, breathless in his rush to know. Before the elves could reply he was already flooding them with suggestions.

"Dark elves? Wood elves? Do you call yourselves Drow? High elves? You're obviously not Avariel, but you could be Lythari. Or Silvan?"

"Dalish! We're Dalish, you fool," a more impatient elf sighed, shrugging when his peers looked askance upon him.

"Dalish? I've never heard of that kind..." Mac replied, leaning back a bit and crossing his arms in thought. He didn't have any knowledge of such a thing, but it didn't put him off in the least, because where there were elves there was usually magic, and where there was magic there was usually-- "DRAGONS?!"

The sudden outburst could have meant many things, but in the current times, with the world turned on it's head, holes in the sky and dragons running rampant in rumors across the land, many eyes turned in a panic to the sky, arrows pointing up instead of down. Several still leveled on Mac, who clarified a moment later.

"You're elves, right? So there's dragons, too, right? Right? Please tell me there are dragons. Please. Please?"

"ENOUGH!" the apparent leader of the hunting party announced angrily, rising from his crouched position and pulling his arrow back, the bowstring creaking it's final warning as Mac watched with wide-eyed fascination. "Turn back now, and leave these woods at once! Go back to wherever you came from before we fill you full of holes to cease your senseless babbling!"

"Well, I would, only that I have no idea how to go back," the Guardian hedged gently, recognizing at last that his excitement, however innocent, was a source of distress for his unwilling hosts. As all the arrows leveled upon him once more, it slowly sank in that he wasn't dreaming and he still didn't know where Ghost was. If they started firing on him there was no guarantee he would recover. No matter how magical the moment, reality needed to be accounted for.

"To be honest, I don't even know where I am. Last I checked I was on the moon and--" he barely managed to leap backwards out of the way before the arrow loosed from the leader's bow struck the ground at his feet.

"Go." The elf demanded, voice chilly as he knocked another arrow.

"No! Really I was on the moon, waiting for my ship to--!" Again he had to stumble backwards, herded down the path by an arrow at his feet.

"I said leave."

Disappointment rapidly welled in Mac's chest, lips moving behind his helm with the intention of forming protest before he lowered his hand and breathed out. What good would it do to further harass strangers? He had more important things to do than grill elves for details about their lives. Namely finding out where he was, how he got there and whether or not the Darkness was somehow involved. That, and it may have been in his best interest to find Ghost before someone with less patience chose to perforate him.

"As you say," Mac acquiesced, bowing slightly and stepping backwards several paces. He paused a moment later, fingers curling slightly as he drew his arms in and hunched his shoulders, tittering a nervous, almost apologetic laugh before he spoke.

"Just one thing. Which way is out?"