Thanatos

Thanatos

Starmaker

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Galaxy Bright

appearance

Favored Form

Thanatos' most favored form, that in which he is found most often, is that of a Vystrian wolf crossed with features of a veldryn. Though not a true hybrid, and unwilling to his his aura markings, he enjoys leading others to believe he is indeed a (very unusual) cross. His basic anatomy reflects a veldryn's slim frame most directly, with the forequarters of a thin-furred wolf save for decorative fluff around his chest and in his long, tapered ears.

His neck, back, tail, forelegs, eyes, and inner flesh all glow brilliantly with his aura: this aura shimmers in purples, blues, and pinks flecked in white like minuscule stars. Elsewhere, he is colored in greys, silvers, and blacks. Around him glow small, floating motes of purple light that spin away from him at all times, often disappearing a mere moment after forming. Most can be found coming from his glowing markings, but they may form anywhere near his body.

When weakened considerably, his aura markings may fade to blue-purple; when nearly completely drained, they may disappear entirely. If something physically strikes him, the wound will glow with his aura, and his blood - though red - will have an iridescent, shimmering quality to it until his power fades from it completely.

Alternate Forms

These are listed in the order of how often they're used. His eyes always remain the same, as he cannot change their color or appearance.

Human Form: One of his favorites, and most widely used other than his favored form. In his humanoid form, he stands around 5'11, with pale skin and hair the same shade of black as his fluff and ears albeit in reverse - darker at the tips, and lighter at the roots. He is slender and well muscled, and his hair is long and somewhat fluffy; he wears very little jewelry, as he crafted such a form to blend in as much as possible. No markings show on his skin, unless he is actively using his magic - then the markings have no set form, though they usually spread from his face. Always, his eyes are the same as his canine form: bright purple, swirling, and always glowing. He tends to wear blacks, greys, and silvers in his clothing.

Lion Form: When in need of physical strength, Thanatos takes the form of a male lion with grey fur and a thick black mane. His eyes remain the same, and aura markings cover his forelegs, back and tail; the tip of his tail is constantly burning, much like his preferred form. In this form, he wears no jewelry or accessories whatsoever. The style of his mane tends to change from shifting to shifting.

Bat Form: In this form, Thanatos usually appears as a massive fruit bat with an unusually long, almost leonine tail tipped in fire. His main body is grey, and the insides of his ears are black, but he sports no jewelry nor any other accessory of any kind. However, his wings, tail, and the entirety of his back is covered in brightly-glowing aura markings - which he often uses to show off in various aerial maneuvers.

Groundrake Form: His least favorite form, but one he nevertheless takes when speed is of the essence. This is the smallest of his favored shapes, and is a slim groundrake that stands roughly four feet off the ground at the shoulder. He has sleek grey scales and black fur in long, deerlike ears, while his aura markings course from the top of his neck, down his back and to his fire-tipped tail. The same markings show on his forelegs, as with his preferred and lion forms.

True Form

In his true form, he appears to be a floating, burning orb of coalesced aura; it is bright purple with blue and pink undertones, and may flare and dim periodically. He may float several inches off the ground in this form, but may not otherwise move.

Gleaming Starlight

personality

Thanatos is a kind, inquisitive soul who loves nothing else more than learning new things and exploring new places. He enjoys delving into ancient ruins that have not been touched in centuries, despite the danger found there - and is thrilled to find old artifacts and evidence of forgotten things. Beyond all, he relishes in new knowledge and uncovering secrets lost in the sands of time.

He loves to make others happy in subtle ways. While not one for jokes or grand designs of any kind, he is always there to listen and offer comfort, and may tell quiet stories of others' exploits (though rarely his own).

However, Thanatos is also an individual plagued by grief that follows him like a dark cloud everywhere he goes. While he never outwardly shows this, all that has happened to him weighs heavily on his soul, and often drives him to make rash decisions where he otherwise might not.

Flame of Aura

abilities

As an aura elemental, Thanatos is quite powerful; he is very adept at manipulating his own reiatsu, which manifests as a purple flame tinted with blues and magentas, and studded with motes of white that dance and shimmer like stars. With this, he can attack others' souls and aura directly, and create things out of pure energy such as barriers, semi-solid weapons, and small, glowing items. When used in this way, such manifestations are short lived - a large item crafted of solid reiatsu generally lasts no longer than a matter of hours, less if used, without constantly drawing upon his own energy reserves or an outside energy source.

One of Thanatos' favorite things to do is create false stars; to utilize his energy to craft fake, shimmering orbs in the Realm sphere that are reminiscent of short-lived stars. These gleam in purples, pinks, and blues, but glow very brightly for a matter of hours to days depending on how much energy was used in their creation. He may also move existing stars, to some limited degre, but this is difficult and they may move back on their own later on. He's used this particular ability in the past to drive individuals to certain ends, though has attracted some unwanted attention from gods displeased by his forged constellations.

As an aura elemental, Thanatos may also change into any form he wishes; all will display the constantly-swirling eyes that reflect his reiatsu, and he is partial to keeping his aura-markings and grey/black coloration in most. He enjoys a handful of preferred forms (described above), but may realistically change into anything he knows about or has seen before, even mixes of multiple things. When overtaxed, he may revert to his true form - a floating ball of coelesced aura.

Despite how powerful Thanatos may be, once his energy reserves have been run dry, he is very prone to overtaxing and - should he exhaust all of his aura - death. It is currently unclear if he should reach that point whether or not he is able to access his life's energy, but in the past, he has come close without being able to touch it. Thus, he's quite careful with how much energy he expends, lest he lose his life.

Haunted Past

history

Centuries ago, Thanatos was born from latent energies in Evylon, within the Empire of Halgia in a violent magestorm. He was dormant for three years before fixed with a soul, and woke very slowly, never straying more than a few feet from the place of his birth. Eventually, he coalesced and formed into a shimmering, loosely canine-like shape made of his purple-blue energy, and ends up wandering in the general same area for around ten to fifteen years.

Over time, as Thanatos began to learn how to control his aura, his form began to solidify into a wolfish shape with long fur and defined features; however, he was still ethereal, and not entirely solid to the touch. In this time, he explored much of Halgia, sticking to the outskirts of the Halgian cities.

Under the stars one night near his sixtieth birthday, he met an albino dragon named Pelahyio coming from one such city. Startled, Thanatos would have fled but for the dragon's sorrowful nature, which brought out natural curiosity in the young elemental. He watched Pelahyio for some time before they began to talk, and decided to travel together, for company if nothing else. Thanatos considered Pelahyio his first friend.

Alongside the albino, he is able to enter the Halgian cities, and learns much about the Old Gods and Evylon's storied history. He and Pelahyio visit each of the ancient, divine places - and by his sixty-fifth birthday, he and the dragon have become fast friends. However, Pelahyio disappears one night while Thanatos is away, and he spent many long days after searching for his companion. He accidentally found himself in Anquil after a particularly nasty magestorm, and is persued by terrifying beasts he couldn't quite outrun.

Wounded and panicky, he opened a portal instinctively and ended up in Shi'vrann'aeli, escaping his foes at last. Tainted by the corruption of the Anquil beasts, his wounds refused to heal until he is found by a storm elemental named Kazalinn; a kind individual who appeared as a loose otter shape, swirling with the carefully-contained elements of lightning, water, and air. Thanatos recovered slowly in the storm elemental's care, and told him of Pelahyio's disappearance.

After a few years of fruitless searching, both eventually give up hope and stop trying to find the lost dragon. Thanatos realizes he has feelings for Kazalinn, but hid it well behind other things for some time. Both decide to explore new places, and make a rather brief trip to Driakkion, where they celebrate the aura elemental's seventy-sixth birthday.

Having left Driakkion, they decide to travel to Felnova - where Kazalinn is from - and decide to explore and begin documenting lost Felnovian history. They spend years traveling to abandoned tombs, ruins, and abandoned places - Thanatos begins to learn how to condense his aura into a human form so he can write down their findings, but the wolf is still his favored form. After Thanatos reached his hundred and fiftieth birthday, the two elementals eventually pairbonded, and Than is overjoyed to know his long-held feelings are shared. They continue to travel, but end up spending some time in Khankirae, where they have a daughter - Lifa, a bright storm elemental; a bundle of joy and happiness, coalesced in a shimmering form of lightning, rain, and wind.

Thanatos lived in Vystriana with Kaza and Lifa until their daughter was old enough to travel with them. Then, they began to explore Alubria, and incidentally met a strigine named Ri'vehda who took an interest in their collection of documented findings, artifacts, and adventures. Leaving, the strigine told them both that his place is among the stars in Evylon - and, assured that both adult elementals are able to reach it, left on his way.

Deep on an exploration into Alubria's northernmost mountains, delving into the caverns to discover lost artifacts from the days before the Cataclysm, Thanatos and his family discover something... ancient and terrible. Chaotic energy lay infused within the very stone walls they studied, and the young aura elemental nervously recorded what they had found - but decided to send Kazalinn and Lifa out and to the surface because of the danger. Unfortunately, something sets the energy off before they make it out, and both were killed in the resulting explosion. Partially shielded from the blast, Thanatos is caught in the explosion, but does not die; he is forced into dormancy, and his true form is sealed beneath the rubble for nearly three years. Close to death, his aura fed slowly on the latent energies around him, and he's able to take form once more some time later. However, unable to remember what happened, he stayed until his memory returned - and then left, trying to force away the grief after crafting a memorial in his pairbond's and daughter's honor. He had yet to reach his two-hundredth year at this point.

Hiding his grief and the pain of the pairbond's breaking, he immediately set out to find Ri'vehda. He traveled to Evylon, and learned he could fly no matter his form, though it is somewhat difficult. After some time, he is able to take the form of a bat, and travels to the Realm Sphere to meet his strigine friend. Though he struggled, Thanatos related all that had happened, and gave what few notes he could salvage to the great bird for his collection. While in the strigine's presence, he is awed by the nest, and stayed to rest and recuperate for a while there. After his tale is set in Ri'vehda's records, he left - and was contented to travel amid the stars for the next twenty or so years.

Finally, Thanatos decided to leave Evylon's skies and traveled to Noctis, remembering tales he saw in the strigine's collection about the unusual sea-and-sky Realm with its massive flying islands. He wandered and explored for a while, then met a pack of veldryn there.Iinspired by the veldryn's speed and agility, he incorporated some of those features into his own form, growing closer to what he looks like today in his most preferred form.

In Noctis, he also met a young dragon named Jelle, and is mystified by his unusual blue fire. Deciding to follow the young dragon for a while, Thanatos offered to teach him how to use his magic, and they spend a year together before the elemental is called back to the strigine's nest. Leaving, he arrived at the star tree, and is told of something that the strigine thought may capture his attention: a tome of an ancient place in Felnova filled with lost elementals like himself. Eagerly, he set out to find this place, called Zinlaea, and searched for several years with little success. However, he had a (very brief) meeting with a dragon who tells of a kitsune named Noel who may have more information. Though he never found this kitsune, nor anything that leads to Zinlaea itself, he is convinced deep in his heart that it exists.

In this time, Thanatos really began to explore his own abilities; he learned to craft stars, move stars, and destroy stars by manipulating the reiatsu that formed them. He is able to travel through the inner space of a Realm Sphere with relative ease in multiple forms, and eventually mastered the ability of flight without wings. He is taught by an old lion shifter how to refine his forms, and how to keep objects when changing between them. In this lion's honor, one of his favored forms is a lion.

Around his four-hundredth year, he began to explore outer space while still refining his abilities. The aura elemental found more than he bargained for in several of the Spheres; including new life. However, after being chased and nearly killed by one such place, he has since ascertained that he should not explore such places alone again. He hasn't explored one since.

At last, Thanatos descends back to the Realms below, and participated in surface happenings, once more; he ended up up driving a small-scale war with fake star omens so that a better-led tribe could successfully repel a larger, darker one in Xaeri. He courted a xeriin woman briefly in the same Realm, named Jezalii, before fleeing those faithful to the Xaerin Three who found out what he did; he escaped to Noctis once again and hid with the veldryn for many years. He has, however, never forgotten Jezalii, even though he knows she is, by now, long dead.

He spent the next hundred and fifty years exploring; in this time, it is known he earned his surname, but he refuses to divulge how or by whom. When the War of Three began, he returned to Felnova, and has been both chronicling the happenings of the wars and helping to save children from Orochi

At A Glance

basics

"You never know what's around the next turn. Don't dwell; just take the leap!"

Name || Thanatos.
Surname || Starmaker.
Species || aura elemental.
Age || 603.
Gender || male.
Sexuality || pansexual.

Family ||

Relations ||

Thanatos is a character - in both concept and design - I've wanted for some time. He is originally a galamutt; a close species on deviantART! When Hatonni on dA opened up customs for the galamutt species, I knew exactly what to get. And thus, the galamutt-aura elemental Thanatos was born!

Funny note about my thought process when coming up with his personality and history: I want one of those upbeat characters that never seem to fall no matter how much they go through! ...so, Caele, but without the sad. :D

Of course there will be sadness BUT oh he hides it well~

Echoes of the Past

gallery

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Those We Owe

credits

Art (c) r5i5o, Hatonni, Aeregele (all on dA), and myself!

Galamutt species (c) Hatonni, unrelated to BTACD! If used outside of the BTACD universe, Thanatos will be a galamutt. <3