"The closer you are to theLight,the larger yourShadow becomes..."
Name: Era
Nickname: Nightmare Bringer
Organization XIII or Dark XII Nickname: Age: 17
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Position: Good
(Chaotic Evil when taken by Nightmare)Organization XIII or Dark XII Position: Fascinated with her ability to manipulate the element of Shadow and not succumb to the Darkness within her Heart, Ansem kidnapped her to do his bidding once before. Deep inside, he still haunts her, despite her toughened outlook. It would come as no surprise if someone from the Dark, or the In-between decided to steal her away again. But a word of warning to kidnappers: this little can of butt-whoopin' will fight to maintain her freedom in addition to the freedom of those close to her.
Journal: Chronicles of a wandering Soul Her theme: ExpressionFragments:Erax: Formed when Era's being was torn asunder, Erax retains her own identity, but can merge with Era when Era gives into the residual Darkness within her heart. When the two combine, they form Nightmare.
Additionally, Erax is still tied to Era. She senses matters of Era's heart, and some things which negatively affect one aslo adverseley effect the other.
The embodiment of the phrase “problem child”. Erax is most of Era’s Heartless, and she seems to define the word very well. Taking on the shape of a small shoulder-perched Dragon, Erax likes to merge with Era’s mind and body whenever she can take control.
Xrae: (Pronounced: Zra-yay.) She is a fragment of Era's soul, lost and wandering. (Would be her Nobody if Era had completely died).
Who was that? It may not be impossible to see the fragment wandering somewhere… But you may want to look again.
Maybe it was just a figment of the imagination. Powers:•
Nightmare: In stark contrast to her kind personality, Era’s other entity, Nightmare, appears to be a banshee-like creature of Darkness. The epitome of evil and all things dark, it was formed when Rayth employed Era for his own wicked bidding and awakened the Sleeping Darkness within Era’s heart. This made Era a more rigorous and dangerous fighter, and opened up a gateway to the Depth of Dark Dreams -
that is, where the Nightmare Bringer drags people into a living depiction of their worst fears, thus earning the banshee titles such as “The Nightmare Bringer” and “Bringer of Bad Dreams”. Nightmare is not summoned, rather she tries to avoid it, but when her Heartless temporarily gains control of her mind, Era is nothing more than a fleshy puppet, compelled to do the bidding of her own foul Heartless; to the detriment of whomever happens to be in the way.
•
Lesser Shadowmancy: When Era had awakened on an abandoned Island in Spira a few years ago, she fully expected to be left there to die. Her attempts to escape a fruitless venture, she had given up hope of living, and even a swift and merciful end. She had been left to die, and none too quickly. Or so she thought. And yet, even in despair, fate would have a chance for her to redeem her freedom.
But not without a cost.When her former boss awakened the sleeping darkness within her, Era gained the ability to manipulate the element of Shadow without being a Heartless herself. Era can manipulate various forms of Shadow and the cold within. However, she is not very versed in it, and hardly uses the element to attack, outside of the formation of her Soul Harvesters, and a few lesser-abilities.
While she cannot control a person’s heart, she does have the sporadic ability to feel the amount of darkness within a person’s heart. To do this, she has to make contact with the person. IE. a handshake. This ability is closely tied to her manipulation of the element of shadow.
•
Black Ice: Having recently learned the art behind the most basic of hydromancy technique, Era will be employing her newfound skill to tie her meager shadowmancy and poor hydromancy skills together.
Forged from both the moisture of water and the cold of the shadow, Era will soon begin combining the knowledge of her skills in creating lesser Black Ice abilities.
Albeit she is barely adequate at the moment, she has the general principle down.(Reasoning behind adding Hydromancy to Era's ability list: I was awarded a prize for one of World Destiny's writing contests, with the entry What Lies Beyond the reward for which was a weapon fixture crystal I could augment, and have.
Having received the Water Crystal augmentation, I decided to RP out Era learning the most basic Hydromancy with our excellent Vapor, in the thread "Learning to Dance with the Rain".)•
The storm: Not really a power, but a strange fact regardless. For some reason, a rain storm tpyically seems to occur where ever Era happens to be… This is something she cannot control.
Weapons: Soul HarvestersFormed when Era taps into the shadows of her Heart, these blades are carved of Darkness. Strong enough to cut glass, but light enough to swing with ease. Curving similar to the blade of a Scythe, they appear as the blackest of shadows, and have shadowy wisps constantly evaporating in an upward sweep.
The hilts cross in an X-like pattern, with lights illuminating in the center. As the lights spin in perpetual clockwise motion, they give off a quiet hum. At the center of the fancy hilts are colored leather hand-grips. The lights within the unique hand guard represent the light also at play inside of her. The gentle hum of the almost-constant lights are a sign that the Darkness in her heart is in check.
Unfortunately, as light and fast as these weapons are, due to their element of origin, they have a lessened effect against creatures of the Darkness.
Appearance change worthy of note: When Nightmare controls these blades, the light fades away, and a chain develops off of the back of each hilt, winding up the arms and disappearing beneath the 'tunic lap' of its tattered black Reaper’s cape.Picture: Personality: Around her friends she tends to hold an obnoxious and playful air, but otherwise Era is the quiet, observatory, adorer of life sort. If depressed or extremely upset, she tends to draw away and keep to herself, but otherwise is pretty curious. Even though she’s had her taste of the cruel side of life, she tends to retain a childlike innocence and optimism that even the wisest of souls would have a hard time dismissing.
Her present understanding is that we decide to be happy, or we decide to be angry. She tries hard to remain in the former, partially out of starry-eyed choice, and partially because she's afraid to give into her darkness.
Appearance: At first glance, Era's nothing special amongst females. She's relatively flat-chested and doesn't have a whole lot in the way of beautiful hourglass curvature; not that she minds.
Standing at an even five feet, she's considered short. Her skin is on the paler end of the spectrum, a compliment to her Fiery Orange, forward-swept hairdo. Frost blue eyes are filled with life, and sharp. Both smart and chipper, her expression is typically set pleasantly content. It's common to see her smile, but the fire of her anger is just as vibrant as her peacable nature. Her orange hair is swept forward in a uniquely-Era hairstyle. Short, sassy and a signature of her cute, butt-kicker inner character.
To accompany her vivacious personality, Era wears a pale yellow corset, off-set in a soft orange color. Some frill accompanies its top edges and the straps of the chestpiece are a paler off-white to cream yellow in coloration. The corset is fastened in a criss-cross shoestring style up the front.
Under the corset is a smoky black tube-top, which meets a box-pleated miniskirt of equal coloration. Also of like color, she wears a pair of tight-fitting fingerless gloves that terminate on the upper arm approximately five inches below the shoulder. The cloth just above her knuckles garnishes a lacey a-frame design; simple, but still pretty.
The miniskirt, while simple in design, is livened up with three belts, final-fantasy style in their overlap. The largest of these is a punk-style belt with two rows of silver studs engulfing its entire length and breadth. It hangs over her left hip, and swoops down loosely just below the right hip. The next belt hangs in an opposing x-pattern, being high up on the right hip, and swooping loosely below the left. This belt is smaller and thinner. Black in color, it is adorned with clear eyelets of white, spaced out evening along the belt's circumference. The final and most simple of these belts is white. It is on the bottom layer of her trinity of belts, and it wraps perfectly horizontally about mid-hip.
Beneath her miniskirt are darker black leggings, tucked into a pair of punk-style thigh-high boots. The main color of these boots is also blackish. Just above the ankle of these boots, five purple bands alternate with black. As the method for fastening these boots, each purple band is adorned with a buckle. Tags of purple poke out from the fastened silver buckles, and to add just a little character to the footwear, the soles of these boots are the same purple color.
Side notes: She used to have a black choker necklace with a simple diamond-shaped gold pendant. The necklace was given to Rook in the trilogy Deeper Still. Rook is presently still in possession of her necklace.Original World: Kilika of Spira (presently unknown to her)
Current Residing World: Era has taken up a life wandering from place to place as she sees fit, and rather enjoys this method of existing, despite its rough edges.
As of late she's taken up a temporary residence in Destiny Islands, working at a small Café to gather funds and continue her ongoing search for the friend that got pulled away from her in Castle Oblivion - none other than the redheaded legend, Rook Sheer.
For some reason (personally unknown to her), Destiny Islands "feels like home".
History / Background:Some things don't exist which should. Other things shouldn't exist, but do.It was her sister who convinced her that they should go to Bevelle; her little sister. What family she had left in the world… the incredibly irking, crazy, lovable sister she had become accustomed to providing for.
"You mean, we're finally going?" exuberant blue eyes examined her sister to double-check the truth of the words she'd just heard.
Era nodded.
"I'll find a job," or so she'd hoped.
Somewhere.And with time, she did. Albeit not her first choice. Instead of something normal, like a guard position or a street sweeper, Era found herself at the bottom rung of a research group. She would be in charge of handling menial tasks, and not asking too many questions.
She complied, for awhile. But every bird outgrows its nest, and the honest girl felt a need to do better. Her understanding was that, if she gained enough knowledge and executed her job well enough, she would get promoted. I mean, everyone wants an employee who knows everything about their job and can always handle a little more… Right?
Wrong.During her climb up the professional ladder, she found something. You see, the floors had been swept. The place tidied up. The required shred-pile shredded and burnt. She considered herself pretty on top of things. And amongst her professional tour of daily duty, she passed a meeting room with its door wide open. It was a baited opportunity to learn more about her work.
The chairs had all been vacant, so she decided to fill one and examine the papers on the table. What she found rattled her.
Plans of a giant machine. A weaponized colossal capable of absorbing unreal amounts of power within the farplane, and if realized, destroy so much of Spira. The blueprints scattered along the tabletop were not all that old. And frighteningly-well thought out.
But some information comes at a price, and fate would catch Era red-handed.
She would undergo a series of brainwashing efforts to rid her of the information she had learned, and then be dumped upon an uninabited island, somewhere far away. To that particular group of individuals, she was left as good as dead. The treatments had left her in very bad condition, and she was almost deemed a fatality during the rigorous brainwashing... things weren't looking good for the young and battered upstart. In fact, she practically died.
Era came so close to death at the hands of this shady group she had trusted, that her being was torn. A fragment of her soul slipped away, creating Xrae, the lone wanderer. And a large part of her heart sundered itself from her body, creating the entity who would become known as her Heartless: Erax.
Amidst the ruins of old buildings that had long been forgotten, and a desolate landscape around her, Era would find herself coming back to consciousness, and being stuck for days. Try as she might to find anything edible, the land had been vacant of life; both animals and plants. And as much as she would've liked to build a raft and escape, the beaches were just too rough, and the materials too scarce.
It was on this particular spit of uninabitable land that Era, despite her best intentions, had expected she would die: no food, no drinkable water. A little shelter, but that was it. She didn't stop looking for ways to live, but reality was reality, and she would not deny that her situation had a very bad outlook. And yet, the God that was had another plan, for when all hope seemed lost, she was found.
A peculiar individual had happened upon her, and had made her a deal. He would rescue her from this forsaken wasteland on one condition: she would have work under his employ. Additionally, should she agree, he informed her that he would slowly return the memories that had recently been put to sleep deep within her.
Left short on options that would keep her alive, and looking just as hard for answers about how she'd wound up where she was, Era complied. It was a decision that would alter her life forever.
The angry undead void of what once was a strong heart, Rayth, now a Heartless, had intentions to see the world torn asunder. He wanted little more than to bear witness to the heart of their beloved planet Spira falling into Darkness, and he was hellbent on bringing as many of its inhabitants to Darkness as he could.
For this purpose, while Era was still recovering from the detrimental effects of the brainwashing ritual that had taken place, Rayth awakened the Sleeping Darkness within Era's heart (what was left of it).
In doing so, a new entity was created. Known as Nightmare, the being would be responsible for carrying out Rayth's goals of seeing Spira destroyed, and its heart given over to the Darkness.
By all rights, Era should've succumbed. Her heart was very close to being completely destroyed, thus terminating the rest of her existence. But Era had always been a fighter, and, laying on the brink of existence, in the Corridors of Darkness... somewhere between the hereafter and her conscious life, Era battled the Darkness that was diligently attempting to overtake her, and eventually, through little more than sheer determination, she won.
But the battle of the heart is only a sliver of the full spectrum. Bound and determined to fill in the holes in her memory, Era continued her duties under Rayth, having very little recollection of the time she'd been possessed by Nightmare, and countless souls dragged into the Depth of Dark Dreams.
Rayth, all the while, would feed her lies about whom it was she used to be just to keep her faithful to his work: the false memories were the carrot on the stick that kept his workhorse in check.
Months passed, and eventually Era's sister learned of Rayth, and tried desperately to get Era to realize that she was being tricked, and to expose Rayth as a lier who knew absolutely nothing about her, or whom it was she used to be.
Once enlightened as to the true face of her superior, Era and her sister engage Rayth in a furious battle: all the while Era had been hoping that by destroying her corruptor, Nightmare too would end.
But life couldn't be so simple, and the end of Rayth came too late. Albeit not by their efforts alone, Spira was destroyed a few months later, and Era would find herself in Traverse Town, alone.
Role Playing Sample: “Aww you poor thing! What are you doing out in the cold?” a withered voice called above the monotonous hum of rain.
The young female turned to set what sight she could to the new stranger.
”I--” CRACK-KAROOOOOM!A thunderous tremor erupted its solo, growling as it fell away, livening up the rain’s voice again.
“Nevermind… why don’t you come inside?” the woman stated, waving from the door she stood in. She didn’t have to turn around to realize that Era would take her up on that offer. With the sudden outburst of weather, what sane person wouldn’t?
She inched over to a small wooden chair, then scuttled as best she could toward a back closet.
”Poor girl! Now you just sit right there. I’ll fetch you up some towels and a hot cup of tea!” The door to the closet creaked open a moment later, and the mystic woman mumbled a quiet sentence to herself. It seemed like, just for a moment, she'd gotten lost in her own little world:
"...it's is a lovely day for a Tea Party..."Judging by her short stature, it was easy to mistake Era for being much younger than she really was.
With a sigh, the young female took her seat, dripping like a wet dog.
Careful ice-colored eyes shifted around the room, affirming her solitude before one hand retrieved the delicate feline from her corset. This kitten had been her only companion since arriving in this little town.
It was apparent now that she had been beckoned into a little shop... And a mystical one, by the looks of it. Inside, the concentrated smell of incense was so strong that it practically burned her nose. Ageless dream catchers were placed strategically around the room, and a couple of candles seemed to liven up the atmosphere from atop the maple table.
Era began to recall the earlier events of the day; the warm sun against her face before this storm had moved in. The distant laughter of the little boy who lived with his father behind that old accessory shop, it was soothingly familiar.
As her mind played on the brink of childlike fantasies, she began to lose physical awareness, far too absorbed in her thoughts to pay attention to the real world.
Perching her chin on her hand, an indolent gaze made its way out the window, staring vacantly at the storm on the other side of the glass. The dark buildings, bright yellow street lights, overshadowed sky, even the homey feeling you got when walking down the streets. It all seemed vaguely familiar. She knew she’d been here before, she just couldn’t put a finger on when; despite her concentrated attempts to pull together even the sketchiest recollection. Could she trace it back a memory -- even a distant one yet?
Another thought struck her.
Did she even want to? Perhaps she was happier living life chasing some scattered dream, instead of a far-off memory.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions? *Sips Coffee like a Dame.*