Personality

Who Achlys is and what those around her see are two different things. The daughter of a Duke, she was raised to be both demure and demanding- easy to spot and difficult to forget. She is a lady who knows her worth, who understands what a well-placed comment here and a secret smile there can do. Young and often judged purely upon her appearance and family name, she learnt long ago how to use those assumptions to her advantage.

Never one to miss a party, she enjoys the display of wealth and beauty, the music and the dancing. She loses herself, despite her façade, in the rise and fall of the orchestra, in the rustle of the ladies’ dresses and the mens tailcoats; a little wilder than would be expected of a Duke’s daughter but not wild enough to cause scandal.

Yet she is, for all her quiet cunning, young. She knows little of the world beyond her cushioned life and the problems that have haunted her since the manifestation of her magic are the only problems she knows. There is a side to her that is naïve and utterly terrified by her future. And who wouldn’t be terrified of slowly corrupting when they use a magic they have no control over? Her life is spinning out of control and though she must pretend it is all ok she is often irritable and demanding of the only other person to know of her predicament.

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History

TW FOR IMPLIED SEXUAL ASSAULT

It was a cold winter night when she was born, the wind howling and the snow storming beyond the safety of the glass windows. Her mother’s labour was trying and Achlys’ birth almost took her life. But in the small hours of the morning, long before light would pierce the ever-dark veil of winter, Achlys was born to two loving parents.

Her life was relatively easy until she left the cocoon of childhood and her powers manifested. Her education was the best money could buy and her parents schooled her in all they knew too, preparing her to take over their title and responsibilities one day.

Achlys had no inkling of her mage abilities for the majority of her life, particularly since neither of her parents or their surviving parents had magic. But on the night of her eighteenth birthday that all changed.

Her parents had thrown a wondrous ball, music and light and laughter filling the entire house and the wide reaching grounds. Taking a breather in her father’s office, she found herself approached by a man. He was charming and kind at first and she played his game. Until his touch roved a little too far and his honour evaporated. She tried to push him away but he was much bigger. Instead a sticky dark cloud escaped her wide eyes and flared nostrils and the man began to cough and splutter and choke. Scared and confused she ran to her bedroom and upon glancing in the mirror spotted the tips of her ears had grown darker.

Donning a head piece to hide her ears she slipped back into the ballroom, heart pounding and eyes wide. She didn’t see the man among the crowds and dared not return to her father’s office to see if the cloud was still there. The rest of the evening was uneventful though Achlys was unable to enjoy it.

- On a couple more occasions Achlys accidentally releases the ‘death mist’ as she took to calling it, once accidentally killing all the plants around her.
- Her parents died, killed by a corrupted mage which only made her non-mage staff and family distrustful of magic so Achlys kept the burden of it to herself.
- With each use of her magic her skin began to turn into diamond glass, an obsidian that began to crack when she expelled her power.
- An air of mystery began to surround her, though she kept up with her duties as Duchess and attended numerous parties. Most assumed her appearance was the work of a skilled artist or mage and to keep up appearances many of her own parties fit the theme of obsidian and glass.
- She began to study corruption and the adverse effect of magic, coming across a man who researched into preventing and slowing corruption and even reversing the effects entirely.
- Achlys approached Oxidecimus and offered to fund his research into the hope that he might be able to save her.
- Desperate not to become corrupt and petrified of her power and what her future holds, she often visits Oxidecimus and finds his company relaxing knowing that he can render her magic useless if she loses control around him. He is the only person in all of Ivras that knows of her magic and slow corruption.

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"Death Mist"