Harbeest

When Nevermore was laid to rest, his loved ones were assured the boon was long gone and this his soul could finally rest in peace. But Divine magic is stubborn and unpredictable. A week passed, and the boon bounced back in full force, reviving his decaying body from the dead. It distorted and mangled as the powerful boon juggled reviving dead cells and retrieving an inaccessible soul, leaving an unrecognisable soulless beast in the place of the harpy’s likeness. Living Material forms can't exist without a soul, and it is the lack of a soul that caused the body to deform, with the Boon somewhat mitigating just how distended and horrific the body became. It still settled, however, in a monstrous and elongated form.

Soulless, The Beast as it was known would wander aimlessly, the body mostly staying alive only barely through magic and the odd urge to eat carrion or foragable foods, although still frequently dying. The boon was somewhat overworked during the initial revival, and it had taken quite some time for it to just about fix up things like the effects of decay and physical traits that now hinder survivability, although it always looked very rough and sickly. It could feel no pain or fear - at most being a mild threat to livestock every now and again, entirely ignoring people, even if they threatened it. It would only have some kind of threat if Nevermore was on the Material plane - typically visiting in a disguised form like Deities would. Almost the second his soul was present, the Beast would begin honing in on his location. Sometimes, Nevermore would come and go with no issue - the Beast would quite slowly saunter in the general direction, not correcting for terrain or obstacles. Other times, however, Nevermore would happen to be just close enough. Confrontations would start peaceful, with the Beast simply trying to get as close as possible, before the boon's desperation to get the soul back would kick in, and the Beast would tear apart the semi-divine Harpy in it's attempts. Nevermore would always reset in the Divine plane, however - the draw of return being vastly more powerful, and the Beast would go back to it's mindless, empty nature, as if nothing had happened. During soullessness, the Beast was hunted a fair few times by both disgruntled farmers and wannabe-Beasttames alike, however it always revived stronger, and would end up left well alone.

Early Formation

After wandering soulless for hundreds of years, with a body-age of just over 400, the Beast is slain, or perhaps it dies of exposure, or injury. After all that time, the boon becoming more and more powerful as it has to over-compensate for a high maintenence form, on revival, something special happens. The forms of Divines and the Fae alike are of pure magic, in a high enough concentration to Feel. And just as a new Divine, Angel, or Fae are born, the Boon becomes a Soul. The revival is rough, and the Beast is all of the sudden aware of all it has done - both as Nevermore's boon, and as a soulless Beast. All at once, consciousness hits like a freight train, with emotion and the physical agony of a full revival in full-force, alongisde the conflicting and confused memories of both itself and it's charge.

Although having many memories and much knowledge, the Beast is a Divine soul, and is still unsure how to care for it's material form. He keeps to himself, processing everything over and over trying to make sense of coming to be, before occasionally succumbing to the body's need to live, and being forced to find a way to feed itself or to sleep. When he became starving, he would react far too strongly, and the typical victims would be unprotected livestock or an unwatched steed. Although attempts to communicate are made, the Beast is repeatedly showing itself to be unpredictable and almost feral in nature to people, and starts to get a reputation as a threat.

Although some fanatics would recognise the resemblance to the myth and appearance of the Saint Nevermore, the vast majority would claim the Beast was the shattered, amnesiac form of a rejected Divine or Angel - it's Divine nature being easily recognisable. Word spread quickly, and of course, there were people who sought to slay the Beast, for noble or selfish reason. The Beast became more and more distrusting of people, and all the more worse at caring for its form. A name for the creature started floating around - Harbeest, combining Harpy and Beast. And, of course, the beast heard of the title, and would refer to itself as such for convenience. Eventually, word spread enough to find the ears of a desperate, washed-up Lich, intrigued by word of a powerful Divine being wandering the continent.

Harbeest is discovered after having lain waste to an unfortunate flock of sheep. The Lich, Pietre, attempted to make conversation, before having to defend Harbeest to a distraught farmer, claiming responsibility and offering compensation. This is enough to win the beast over, as the first genuine act of kindness shown. Although greatly unnerved by Pietre's deathly appearance, his mask is enough to put Harbeest at ease, and they stick close together from this point onward. Although having been dead for hundreds of years himself, Pietre helps Harbeest understand how to care for his material form, and knocks together some clothing for him. After a period of time, Pietre goes on to help Harbeest start reintegrating with people again, being quite the bullshit deterrent if anybody wanted to try and start anything with the beast. You have that kind of effect on people when you're a Lich. In turn, Pietre asks of Harbeest one thing - to try and harness his power as a 'Divine' to figure out how to dispell his Lichhood.

Over many, many years, Harbeest settles as he learns how to be a part of society, and about himself. He gets better at magic - he doesn't feel magical fatigue due to his semi-Divine nature, and promises to try and find a way to introduce Pietre's killswitch. Although, to himself, he's been thinking more and more about this whole "immortal" thing, and really isn't finding it to be all that bad.

Relative Modernity

"Relative Modernity" is a way of referring to the "current" version of the character, which is different for a lot of my characters. For Harbeest, this is when he's roughly 3500 years old.

As Harbeest becomes more and more acclimated to being with people, and indeed with himself, he mellows out greatly, and begins finding more and more time for himself. He grows slightly distant from Pietre, no longer focussing on the whole get-rid-of-his-lichhood thing, admittedly for selfish reasons, although they still keep in touch. What Harbeest gets up to when he settles is still open for writing, although he typically goes long periods of living in the wilderness, to reintegrating into a community for decades, before leaving again to be with himself.

With regards to the Lich, Harbeest begins to try and show him the importance of the simple pleasures of 'life'. He makes headway, eventually. This whole time, for years, Harbeest has actually known how to cast a killswitch not only for the Lich, but for himself as well, so Harbeest would hypothetically have a normal existance as your average Divine soul. However, he came to learn that Undead like Liches don't get to go on to the afterlife, and instead simply cease to be. Unsure if Pietre knows this or not, regardless, this is not something Harbeest wants for him. Although somewhat selfish, he doesn't let Pietre in on the fact that he's figured it out for hundreds of years, instead opting to try and turn him away from his desire to end his Lichhood by showing him that even now, 'life' is worth it. It's over a drink one day that Pietre finally tells Harbeest about his involvement in the Awakening of the Urtarasque and about how he became a Lich. And of course, Harbeest is sympathetic, and forgives him.

It's around this time, as well, that Harbeest is able to get in contact with Nevermore. They talk, now and again. He even manages to get Pietre to talk to him as some way to seek closure in the whole Urtarasque thing, and the experience helps them lot.

Harbeest gets several partners in his life, but meets his first husband at around 3300. A harpy man named Fhan, a part of a community Harbeest had been a part of for a few decades at this point. The two have kids together and everything, keeping Harbeest in a town for the longest time yet as he watches his kids, then grandkids, and so on and so forth grow up and live their lives, before eventually leaving for the wilderness again after several generations.