The Shade {Josiah Cole} (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deaths_head) wrote2020-05-12 11:58 am
deaths_head) wrote2020-05-12 11:58 am
APPLICATION: Boomtown - The Shade {OC}
Player's Name: Liz/EC
Characters Played Here: Charles Xavier (X MEN MOVIES)
Character: The Shade {born Josiah Cole}
Series/Canon: Original Character
From When? His previous stint in Boomtown
Previous Game(s): Previous stint in Boomtown
World Description: The world of the Shade is not all that different from the world that we know now, save for the secret existence of the supernatural...and a very small cult of worship that tends to be shuffled off into the corners of neopaganism. The cult worships a death god known as the Shade, and depictions of him carry a very heavy American West or frontier theme. There is some evidence of his existence among religious scholars and students of alternative science as well, as research has uncovered that some individuals have been visited by a man matching the Shade's description prior to their demise. Nearly all of these individuals died within a week of the sighting, but a rare few can say they have spoken to this specter of death and lived to tell the tale.
Those in the supernatural community, however, do not speculate: they know the Shade is real, and they fear him greatly. The main source of fear is ignorance, for unlike many gods, precious little is truly known about him. A long and grisly history exists of those who have tried to uncover his origins, and a means of channeling his power or currying his favor. For this reason, few speak of him, and those that do whisper his name for fear of drawing his attention.
For those who know of the Shade know that to catch his eye is a certain path to a sudden and very painful death.
History: In nearly every mythology, he is there: the Grim Reaper, the ferryman Charon, or has a woman's face and goes by the name valkyrie or banshee. In some circles and lesser known cultures, however, he is a myth unto himself, and among his many names, the one he answers to most readily is that simply of The Shade. A minor death god, he collects his own souls and is known best for comforting the ones he claims. His appearance is a sign of impending death, unstoppable and unavoidable: he is seen, he speaks, and one week later those to whom he has spoken will die.
Those who call him Lord of the Vale and Reaper of the Wayward say he glories in the destruction of his calling, others who know him best as Gentle Death or the Angel of the Grave say he is just that: a fallen angel that has never shaken his benevolent nature. Real accounts exist from those left behind, and those before their end of the steadfast ally with sad eyes and a deep voice that brings not just warning, but solace in their final days. To the lonely, he is a friend. To the frightened and confused, he is a guide, leading the condemned through the terrible task of settling their affairs, and to those who question what comes next, he speaks of a place where life continues with simple tranquility in a world of eternal twilight.
This world, whose name is never spoken, is a source of wild speculation for those who study the mythology of the Shade, and for the supernaturally gifted with an affinity for death...for while he lays visible claim on those about to die, it has been said that no soul he collects ever reaches the Other Side.
This is the myth of the Shade, the one he prefers to share...but the truth is far stranger than fiction.
Though he has been connected to various existing myths associated with death deities and harbingers of death, the origins of The Shade can be traced back as recently as 137 years ago to the birth of a human named Josiah Cole in Silverstone, a small town just outside of Santa Fe in 1880. The son of Elton and Katherine Cole, Josiah's upbringing was an unconventional one. Katherine, a woman of impossible beauty and pure heart, was from a well to do family that didn't look kindly on a marriage below her station to Elton, the town undertaker. Still, it was a happy one that gave her two beautiful children, both sons. Ezekiel Cole was slim and fair haired like his father while Josiah, a brawny youth, took after his mother with his cold grey eyes and blood red hair that didn't quite match his mother's ginger coloring.
There was little question about Josiah's origins at first: the Coles were a happy family and the brothers were close as brothers ought to be. There was still no question when Josiah was orphaned at the age of seven, a sweeping fire destroying the Cole mortuary and leaving only the eldest boy alive. No, the questions came later when Josiah was grown and quietly took up the family profession. The questions came when he would be heard by his assistant speaking quietly to the corpses he managed, or calling on people he rarely spoke to shortly before they passed away. The questions turned to suspicion when a red-haired stranger as big as Josiah and just as strange entered town to spend several weeks as the undertaker's guest...and then several years as Josiah's mentor, rarely ever leaving his side.
Believing there was witchery or demons about, the townsfolk ran Josiah out of town along with his strange friend, never knowing that Josiah's visitor was Death itself...or that Josiah was a wild death mage, the first in an entirely human bloodline born with a spark of magic, one so powerful it could destroy him without proper instruction...or, with improper instruction, change his family's fate.
Josiah did just that with Death's instruction, attempting to raise his parents and his brother from the dead. He didn't realize, however, that he'd been set up: his brother had not been destined to die, but his parents had. His brother returned, but his parents were forever lost, torn from Paradise and forced to wander the earth aimlessly until the end of time. Enraged, Ezekiel Cole, now a grown man's soul trapped in a boy's body, and a fire mage in his own right, turned on his brother and killed him. Josiah's actions damned his soul to Hell, where Death claimed him as his own. Rather than serve Death as his Grim Reaper, Josiah found power enough to break Death's hold upon him and claimed an uncharted part of the Underworld as his own.
Scarred by his actions, spurred by blind grief, Josiah gave up his quest for power. Meanwhile, rage festered in his brother as he grew to physical manhood, discovering his own mystical gifts in time. Over the years, their power and their reach has grown, their story infecting mythologies that never knew them. Josiah as The Shade still wanders, as his parents do, comforting the lost and lonely dead in their final days, then giving their souls solace in a world of his own creation, all while his brother, known only as the Scourge, hunts every soul his brother seeks to claim and forces him to relive that night all over again: driving innocent souls mad, the Scourge claims each one and sends them to kill his brother, all while searching for an object known only as the Vessel of the Shade, the one mystical tool that has the power to enslave the Shade.
So the battle rages on: the Shade, struggling to put his past behind him and lay claim to the Vessel to ensure his freedom, and the Scourge, hellbent on destroying all his brother loves and hoping to lay claim to the Vessel in order to ensure the eternal suffering and enslavement of his last living relation.
Does your character have any close ties to existing canon characters? N/A
Why do you think your character would work in this setting? The Shade is a former resident of New Dodge, and flourished in this setting. In the game, he began to reconnect with his humanity, enjoying fatherhood and even the love of a woman, things no dead man should be capable of in his world. Upon his return, he will reclaim his former life as best he can, and mourn his losses in the years since his departure.
How do you plan to expand their CR? The Shade will seek out his previous friends and family as he finds them, but to go beyond that, it will be much the same as when he first applied: the Shade will have to expand his CR to gain any real power in New Dodge. His primary source of power is the souls he's claimed and the realm he's created in Limbo, but being here he won't have that. He'll have a limited source of power, a single lifeline that transcends dimensions which will serve to one, keep him alive and two, give him access to his power as a death mage and minimal access to his powers as a god. To gain greater access, he needs to claim souls—a harmless process that gives him power and them his protection, but this is basically how he makes friends. He's very selective about the souls he claims, and develops a relationship with them because it's a voluntary thing: he doesn't steal souls, they come to him of their own accord. One of the advantages, though it's not one he advertises, is that should a soul in his care die, he TECHNICALLY can bring them back to life, at great cost to himself.
What will your character do for work? He's an undertaker by trade, but if he can't do that, he'll use his assorted journeyman skills to find work. In addition to the art of embalming, he also works well with wood, has some minor skill as a tailor (he took great pride in dressing his corpses in full rather than taking shortcuts), and he's an immense physical specimen. Be it building structures on new tracts of settlers' land, or just using his brute strength, he'll find a means to make his way. As he was previously the stablemaster when he was in game, he will also try to reclaim that job if possible.
Inventory: He will flux in wearing his divine face, with only a wooden chest containing a simple brass funeral urn.
Samples:
Third-Person Sample: http://boomtownmeme.dreamwidth.org/55283.html?thread=10829299#cmt10829299 (First Thread)
First-Person Sample: The Shade prepares a soul for burial--is is prepared by a soul for the same: https://deaths-head.dreamwidth.org/1395.html
Characters Played Here: Charles Xavier (X MEN MOVIES)
Character: The Shade {born Josiah Cole}
Series/Canon: Original Character
From When? His previous stint in Boomtown
Previous Game(s): Previous stint in Boomtown
World Description: The world of the Shade is not all that different from the world that we know now, save for the secret existence of the supernatural...and a very small cult of worship that tends to be shuffled off into the corners of neopaganism. The cult worships a death god known as the Shade, and depictions of him carry a very heavy American West or frontier theme. There is some evidence of his existence among religious scholars and students of alternative science as well, as research has uncovered that some individuals have been visited by a man matching the Shade's description prior to their demise. Nearly all of these individuals died within a week of the sighting, but a rare few can say they have spoken to this specter of death and lived to tell the tale.
Those in the supernatural community, however, do not speculate: they know the Shade is real, and they fear him greatly. The main source of fear is ignorance, for unlike many gods, precious little is truly known about him. A long and grisly history exists of those who have tried to uncover his origins, and a means of channeling his power or currying his favor. For this reason, few speak of him, and those that do whisper his name for fear of drawing his attention.
For those who know of the Shade know that to catch his eye is a certain path to a sudden and very painful death.
The Shade was a death mage in life (namely a wild power, the first of a magical bloodline born with enormous amounts of raw, uncontrolled power meant to be siphoned into his lineage with the birth of every new generation), and is a death god now. His abilities are a mix of those bequeathed to him as a death mage, and those he gained when he claimed his godhood.
As a death mage, his gifts are as follows:
-Spellcasting
- Life Force Manipulation (as a death mage, he's capable not just of draining a person's life force, but manipulating it to cause death in any manner he sees fit; in a lesser degree, he can also reverse death in small or larger measures, allowing him some minor ability to heal or even resurrect the dead)
- Spirit Medium (can see, communicate with, and touch ghosts)
- Thanatonic Clairvoyance (can see specters of death like grim reapers, and often hears auditory hallucinations--all pertaining to the death of a living soul at least a week in advance of their doom)
As a death god, his gifts are as follows:
As a death mage, his gifts are as follows:
-Spellcasting
- Life Force Manipulation (as a death mage, he's capable not just of draining a person's life force, but manipulating it to cause death in any manner he sees fit; in a lesser degree, he can also reverse death in small or larger measures, allowing him some minor ability to heal or even resurrect the dead)
- Spirit Medium (can see, communicate with, and touch ghosts)
- Thanatonic Clairvoyance (can see specters of death like grim reapers, and often hears auditory hallucinations--all pertaining to the death of a living soul at least a week in advance of their doom)
As a death god, his gifts are as follows:
- Mark of Death (a supernatural condition the Shade can perceive in any living thing set to die--it also on occasion attracts him, compels him to seek out those who carry it. The mark is transitory in nature [example: a man with cancer is marked for death, if he is not fated to die the mark will fade when he seeks treatment], and will not draw him to a soul unless their death is fated.
- Divine Sight (essentially a higher form of aura reading--it allows him to see into a soul to discern the true nature of a being: good or evil, dark or light. This is the power that allows him to judge a person, and assess their worthiness to join his flock on the Other Side.)
- Immortality
- Invulnerability
- Invulnerability
- Minor Shapeshifting (The Shade can mimic his appearance as a living man, which causes subtle changes to his height and coloring, as well as obscures his divinity from mortal sight)
- Translocation (the Shade can transport himself between realms and locations through the use of magic, often appearing as a cloud of inky fog. (NERFED: for in game purposes, that power is limited to the universe of New Dodge, with exceptions as needed for plotting and game funsies as allowed by mods. :D)
- Superhuman strength, speed, reflexes
- Divine Claim (the Shade can claim the souls of the living by branding them with a mystically imbued symbol. This lets him draw power from the soul to make his magic stronger, sense the welfare of that soul, and allows the claimed soul to summon him at will. In turn, it lets him share strength and magic with those he has claimed, and works on both the living and the dead.)
Being a wild power, the Shade has also acquired abilities either derived from his status as such, or as an amalgamation of his nature as a wild power, a death mage, and a minor god:
- Divine Claim (the Shade can claim the souls of the living by branding them with a mystically imbued symbol. This lets him draw power from the soul to make his magic stronger, sense the welfare of that soul, and allows the claimed soul to summon him at will. In turn, it lets him share strength and magic with those he has claimed, and works on both the living and the dead.)
Being a wild power, the Shade has also acquired abilities either derived from his status as such, or as an amalgamation of his nature as a wild power, a death mage, and a minor god:
- Storm Lord (wild powers, especially mages, are often tied to an element or elemental aspect of nature. The Shade is a storm lord, meaning he can intentionally manipulate the weather for the creation of lightning storms and summoning of fog. He can also, on occasion, accidentally summon a storm in fits of rage or distress. (NOTE: his power is not capable of interfering with the weather technology in New Dodge, but when he's pissed or upset, the distant roll of thunder may still be heard. He can also alter the weather outside the domes, but that will only come into play as permitted by mods for plots and funsies. :P)
- Mystical Tattooing (the Shade is capable of creating tattoos out of pure magic, imbuing them with spells, and branding them on skin with bare hands and no ink. Every tattoo he wears is one he laid upon his own flesh, save for the skeleton on the nape of his neck, posed for combat.)
- Mystical Tattooing (the Shade is capable of creating tattoos out of pure magic, imbuing them with spells, and branding them on skin with bare hands and no ink. Every tattoo he wears is one he laid upon his own flesh, save for the skeleton on the nape of his neck, posed for combat.)
History: In nearly every mythology, he is there: the Grim Reaper, the ferryman Charon, or has a woman's face and goes by the name valkyrie or banshee. In some circles and lesser known cultures, however, he is a myth unto himself, and among his many names, the one he answers to most readily is that simply of The Shade. A minor death god, he collects his own souls and is known best for comforting the ones he claims. His appearance is a sign of impending death, unstoppable and unavoidable: he is seen, he speaks, and one week later those to whom he has spoken will die.
Those who call him Lord of the Vale and Reaper of the Wayward say he glories in the destruction of his calling, others who know him best as Gentle Death or the Angel of the Grave say he is just that: a fallen angel that has never shaken his benevolent nature. Real accounts exist from those left behind, and those before their end of the steadfast ally with sad eyes and a deep voice that brings not just warning, but solace in their final days. To the lonely, he is a friend. To the frightened and confused, he is a guide, leading the condemned through the terrible task of settling their affairs, and to those who question what comes next, he speaks of a place where life continues with simple tranquility in a world of eternal twilight.
This world, whose name is never spoken, is a source of wild speculation for those who study the mythology of the Shade, and for the supernaturally gifted with an affinity for death...for while he lays visible claim on those about to die, it has been said that no soul he collects ever reaches the Other Side.
This is the myth of the Shade, the one he prefers to share...but the truth is far stranger than fiction.
Though he has been connected to various existing myths associated with death deities and harbingers of death, the origins of The Shade can be traced back as recently as 137 years ago to the birth of a human named Josiah Cole in Silverstone, a small town just outside of Santa Fe in 1880. The son of Elton and Katherine Cole, Josiah's upbringing was an unconventional one. Katherine, a woman of impossible beauty and pure heart, was from a well to do family that didn't look kindly on a marriage below her station to Elton, the town undertaker. Still, it was a happy one that gave her two beautiful children, both sons. Ezekiel Cole was slim and fair haired like his father while Josiah, a brawny youth, took after his mother with his cold grey eyes and blood red hair that didn't quite match his mother's ginger coloring.
There was little question about Josiah's origins at first: the Coles were a happy family and the brothers were close as brothers ought to be. There was still no question when Josiah was orphaned at the age of seven, a sweeping fire destroying the Cole mortuary and leaving only the eldest boy alive. No, the questions came later when Josiah was grown and quietly took up the family profession. The questions came when he would be heard by his assistant speaking quietly to the corpses he managed, or calling on people he rarely spoke to shortly before they passed away. The questions turned to suspicion when a red-haired stranger as big as Josiah and just as strange entered town to spend several weeks as the undertaker's guest...and then several years as Josiah's mentor, rarely ever leaving his side.
Believing there was witchery or demons about, the townsfolk ran Josiah out of town along with his strange friend, never knowing that Josiah's visitor was Death itself...or that Josiah was a wild death mage, the first in an entirely human bloodline born with a spark of magic, one so powerful it could destroy him without proper instruction...or, with improper instruction, change his family's fate.
Josiah did just that with Death's instruction, attempting to raise his parents and his brother from the dead. He didn't realize, however, that he'd been set up: his brother had not been destined to die, but his parents had. His brother returned, but his parents were forever lost, torn from Paradise and forced to wander the earth aimlessly until the end of time. Enraged, Ezekiel Cole, now a grown man's soul trapped in a boy's body, and a fire mage in his own right, turned on his brother and killed him. Josiah's actions damned his soul to Hell, where Death claimed him as his own. Rather than serve Death as his Grim Reaper, Josiah found power enough to break Death's hold upon him and claimed an uncharted part of the Underworld as his own.
Scarred by his actions, spurred by blind grief, Josiah gave up his quest for power. Meanwhile, rage festered in his brother as he grew to physical manhood, discovering his own mystical gifts in time. Over the years, their power and their reach has grown, their story infecting mythologies that never knew them. Josiah as The Shade still wanders, as his parents do, comforting the lost and lonely dead in their final days, then giving their souls solace in a world of his own creation, all while his brother, known only as the Scourge, hunts every soul his brother seeks to claim and forces him to relive that night all over again: driving innocent souls mad, the Scourge claims each one and sends them to kill his brother, all while searching for an object known only as the Vessel of the Shade, the one mystical tool that has the power to enslave the Shade.
So the battle rages on: the Shade, struggling to put his past behind him and lay claim to the Vessel to ensure his freedom, and the Scourge, hellbent on destroying all his brother loves and hoping to lay claim to the Vessel in order to ensure the eternal suffering and enslavement of his last living relation.
Does your character have any close ties to existing canon characters? N/A
Why do you think your character would work in this setting? The Shade is a former resident of New Dodge, and flourished in this setting. In the game, he began to reconnect with his humanity, enjoying fatherhood and even the love of a woman, things no dead man should be capable of in his world. Upon his return, he will reclaim his former life as best he can, and mourn his losses in the years since his departure.
How do you plan to expand their CR? The Shade will seek out his previous friends and family as he finds them, but to go beyond that, it will be much the same as when he first applied: the Shade will have to expand his CR to gain any real power in New Dodge. His primary source of power is the souls he's claimed and the realm he's created in Limbo, but being here he won't have that. He'll have a limited source of power, a single lifeline that transcends dimensions which will serve to one, keep him alive and two, give him access to his power as a death mage and minimal access to his powers as a god. To gain greater access, he needs to claim souls—a harmless process that gives him power and them his protection, but this is basically how he makes friends. He's very selective about the souls he claims, and develops a relationship with them because it's a voluntary thing: he doesn't steal souls, they come to him of their own accord. One of the advantages, though it's not one he advertises, is that should a soul in his care die, he TECHNICALLY can bring them back to life, at great cost to himself.
What will your character do for work? He's an undertaker by trade, but if he can't do that, he'll use his assorted journeyman skills to find work. In addition to the art of embalming, he also works well with wood, has some minor skill as a tailor (he took great pride in dressing his corpses in full rather than taking shortcuts), and he's an immense physical specimen. Be it building structures on new tracts of settlers' land, or just using his brute strength, he'll find a means to make his way. As he was previously the stablemaster when he was in game, he will also try to reclaim that job if possible.
Inventory: He will flux in wearing his divine face, with only a wooden chest containing a simple brass funeral urn.
Samples:
Third-Person Sample: http://boomtownmeme.dreamwidth.org/55283.html?thread=10829299#cmt10829299 (First Thread)
First-Person Sample: The Shade prepares a soul for burial--is is prepared by a soul for the same: https://deaths-head.dreamwidth.org/1395.html