♣ LEANDER VERREAUX

Name: Leander Verreaux

Gender: Male

Age: 419

Year in school: College Freshmen

Dorm: Vermilion

Height: 5'11"

Appearance:



Personality:
Leander is a bubbly individual on the outside, carrying an amiable and carefree air about him. He enjoys engaging in trouble and bringing about new ways to entertain himself. At least, on the outside. This phoenix enjoys the company of others, goofing off, and taking fun and entertaining courses in the academy. He is known to be charming and fairly flirtatious around others when he can get away with it, while quietly harboring no intentions for commitment.

Underneath the surface, Leander harbors a heavier outlook on life. He hides a core of grief and anger under carefree and funloving layers. This phoenix is ambitious and vengeful, ready to lash out violently if pushed to his limit. Due to his past experiences with the unfair “death” of his parents, as well as many harsh rebirths of his own, Leander has no qualms against firebird suicide and has developed an enjoyment of gaming the rebirth trials. He has worked to get it down to something of an art, and evolve to what one may consider a ‘bad’ phoenix of the moon.


History:
Leander lived a content and happy childhood, born to his mother, Eponine Verreaux, and his father, a noble among the inner circle of the phoenix council. His mother was a beautiful phoenix with light ash-gray feathers, gaining her the nickname, “Smoke Plume”. His councilman father taught Leander an assortment of things, from politics, to strategy, diplomacy, and some battle. His father was known to deviate from what was typically agreed upon in the council. Eventually, his outspokenness was deemed to be something of heresy, blasphemous to their beliefs, the sun god, and Vissarion himself. In response to the outrageous councilman, Leander’s father was forced through a reset rebirth, making him lose all of his memories and the personality he once knew. The fate was as good as death.

The councilman’s wife, Eponine, took it the hardest. With her husband gone, she failed to properly cope, sinking into a pit of grief and depression. She tried her best to take care of their son, but could not forgive the council who had stolen her husband and mate away from her. Eventually, the depression led to a suicide on her part, where she manipulated the rebirth trials to the best of her ability in order to gain power and the resolve needed for one thing: revenge. Eponine brutally attacked the council in the name of the husband she lost. As any firebird would expect, it ended in failure. The council refused to even force her through a reset rebirth like her fallen mate, but instead permanently killed her off, sealing her tainted moon phoenix soul away. Having witnessed the scene, Leander fled in anguish, doing his best to avoid the council, who likely would have tried to harshly interrogate and maybe brainwash at best.

Leander ended up in Skiagis, away from the phoenix world. He lived alone and continued to raise himself, only, not as a blessed phoenix of the sun. As time went on and the phoenix sunk deeper into the heaviness of his grief and loss, Leander followed his mother’s flight paths. He resorted to suicide, a taboo too all phoenixes, and his first rebirth. Strategically planning when to enter the trials, Leander began to take note of the series of tests offered and the best ways to manipulate a more ideal outcome. He rid himself of most petty fears, strengthened his resolve, and melted away any annoying moral walls that would keep him from completing his future task. That task? To avenge his parents, the Verreaux family.



Name of Species: Phoenix

Baseline Dimension: Any height or weight is possible. It is possible to be aged anywhere between thousands of years before the Ancient War, to freshly born. It's also possible to lose some, most, or all memories in the rebirth process. It is possible for personality to also change in the rebirth process.

Baseline Appearance: Due to the wide spread of this species, nearly any physical trait is possible. The only thing that sets them apart physically are their eyes, which are unusually vivid colors, and crazy feathers that stick out of their hair at molting season, which is usually once every month or so. Feathers can be any color, they can look like any flying bird.

Culture/Origin of Species: While the species has its roots in mediterranean climates and ancient mythology, the Phoenixes as a whole spread throughout the world and assimilated into nearly every society once able to shape shift into human form. Most cultures have a form of the original pre-war mythos, and thus this species is shaped where the individual grew up. No matter what, though, they are nearly fearless in dangerous situations, making them a fiery, altruistic, and impulsive people. This derives from their disregard for death, since they can be reborn in flames and rise from the ashes once again.

One constant strictly to Phoenix culture is their mecca, hidden away in a secret land simply called Aubade. It's the place where the very first phoenix, Vissarion, still resides with a group of the earliest ancestors. They form the Bask Council and hand down the sun religion and rules for all other phoenixes. While mostly silent, they primarily provide political guidance and orders when needed, as well as the guidelines and rules for rebirth.

The soul of a phoenix after death travels a spiritual world that is different for each individual, but the challenges and choices made there shape the new phoenix they will become. It tests the strength of character and will, and can have impact on anything from personality to retaining memories of the previous life. Vissarion is said to have one eye in the spiritual realm, making sure phoenixes remain a lawfully aligned species.

Rebirth is not to be taken lightly, since being immortal comes with responsibilities to everyone. Those reborn that chose selfishly or failed some aspects during their spirit trial can become chaotically aligned. Suicide is the heaviest taboo, since it is usually used selfishly to get back to the spiritual world and make changes, good or bad. Vissarion will see such things and dispatch enforcers to either force another rebirth as a reset of sorts, or to ensure the offender dies permanently should they be set on becoming a blight on the Phoenix race.

Traits:
• Immortality: Phoenixes can die, yes, but they are reborn either in a fiery blaze or rise up from the ashes within hours. They have 3 points in vitality.
• Pyromancy: Naturally attuned to flame, phoenixes are more adept with using the element to both harm and protect, and sometimes as a source of spooky divination.
• Fire Eagle Eyes: Birds have some pretty impressive sight when it comes to range and distance. Don't expect to get much past them.
• Partial Shape Shifting: Due to being immortal and having a high vitality phoenixes have control over their natural shapeshifting allowing them to partially shift.

Flaws:
• Molting: Molting happens about once a month, and renders a phoenix exhausted and lazy. It's almost like an illness such as a cold, where they will appear less than healthy and cough ash. This lasts anywhere from 1 to 4 days, but robs them of their flames until the fire is rekindled and burns the molting away.
• Praise the Sun: Become weaker at night or in conditions where the sunlight is blocked.