Details

HISTORY

cw: death, suicidal ideation, violence, manipulation

• Lugh was born many lifetimes ago in the countryside of Tyrnanov, a kingdom that has long since ceased to exist. His lot was that of a poor peasant boy, trapped to a life by the sea. He was nothing out of the ordinary, but he did have his health, his fervent nature. By a stroke of luck he became a squire for a knight at the age of 12, and left his home and family behind. The knight was a crude but fair man, and it was he who instilled this deep admiration for chivalry in Lugh, opening his eyes for the fact that there could be more to life than his little village.
• While serving as a squire, he sought to educate himself, grasping at any and all opportunities to sate his bottomless hunger for knowledge. Over time he learned to write and read, seeing it not only as appropriate but necessary for his future as a knight. Seasons came and went and the boy grew into a man, and after years of hard work he eventually attained knighthood. He was welcomed in the service of the King himself as a castle guard and Lugh couldn’t have felt more happy at the time.
• In court he was met with a new glass ceiling; he was a knight, but not a highborn one - never would be. Lugh kept his frustrations to himself though - that is, until he came across a stranger whose wild charm was matched only by their ambitions. Mordreaux was his name and it wasn’t long before Lugh found himself falling for the man, initial suspicion having turned into sincere trust and affection. Around the same time Lugh miraculously won a grand tournament, and was appraised as the newest candidate for the King’s Guard for his victory. Life was smiling to him, seemingly at least.
• The knight heard many wonderful things from his companion, but also worrisome ones. Slowly but surely Lugh became convinced that the court they both served was rotten; that king Magnorin had held onto his crown for far too long. That just perhaps, the ruler he had sworn to protect with his life was in fact a vile man, and a danger to many. Lugh wasn't the only one who learned of these tales, though, nor was he alone with the knowledge that it was his lover who spread these dangerous rumors. Wanting to protect the man he had grown to care for so dearly from the evil that was growing in the dark corners of the castle, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
• A ceremony was held for Lugh and a few other knights - now ready to join the ranks of the King’s personal guard. His memories from that day have grown fuzzy, but he knows it was him who slit Magnorin’s throat to the horror of the onlookers. The tyrant was dead, but in a moment of distraction Lugh was fatally stabbed by a fellow knight. With his chest ripped open and his consciousness fleeting he fell to the stained marble floor, recalling only his beloved’s horrified yell. It was in that moment, that his latent magic awakened. Absorbing the dead king’s hidden magic, his split chest sewed itself shut and Lugh was jolted back to life; he was in pain, but alive.
• When he came to, it wasn’t just Mordreaux’s distraught voice that greeted him, but an onslaught of emotions and thoughts that he had been deaf to before. Horrified by all the things he saw in his beloved’s head, Lugh withdrew in anger and shock, now seeing the strings that had guided him towards committing a regicide. Purposefully, precisely. He felt justified in the act itself still - the king had indeed been a monster, although not the traditional kind - but it was the dishonesty that broke his already wounded heart. Neither knew it at the time yet, but that night Lugh stopped aging.

• During that fleeting moment he spent between the living and the dead, Lugh met someone. The encounter felt like a dream at the time, but he knows it to be a genuine memory, as the consequence of that wicked meeting would come to haunt him later in ways he never could have imagined. There, standing in a pool of blood, was Morgan le Fay - Mordreaux’s mother - offering Lugh the dead king’s immortality. It was but a piece of her own - stolen from her years before, right after she had made a great sacrifice to Fortune - and by slaying the king Lugh had done her a service. In return for the unexpected gift, all she asked for was one favor. Lugh wouldn’t need to know the details, for he would heed her request when the time was right, or she’d strike him dead then and there. Not wanting to leave his grief-stricken love behind and thinking of little else, Lugh gave her his word.

• In the wake of the chaos that followed Magnorin’s death, Lugh left the kingdom behind with Mordreaux. They would stick by one another, despite everything, and would start anew somewhere else. Eventually they found themselves in a foreign land with its foreign court, and Lugh felt like he belonged somewhere again. Many months passed, and his cold, bitter hurt began to melt away.
• Lugh learned of Llyr, a peasant made prince, through his beloved’s thoughts and saw nothing but another tragedy waiting to happen. But he also saw how the young prince was consuming Mordreaux’s mind, and a terrible, sick jealousy began to sprout from Lugh’s untended hurt. Feeling betrayed once more by the man he had turned his whole life upside down for, it didn’t take much coaxing for that hurt to turn into something far more dangerous when Morgan returned to demand that Lugh fulfills his promise.
• Noticing how the king pined after Llyr, Lugh began to slowly poison the man’s thoughts against his one-sided obsession - feeding him baseless rumors about the young man and lords of his court - eventually leading to Llyr’s unjust beheading. Morgan had wanted Llyr dead for some reason, and Lugh thought he had too but all he could feel was grief. He had been played again, but this time the consequences were far more personal.
• What followed the incident is Lugh’s greatest regret in his long life, and the reason behind the two’s fractured trust. Everyone in court, except for Lugh, was sacrificed to Fortune by enraged, grieving Mordreaux, and it was only then that his own betrayal came to light - or a part of it, as Lugh soon learned much to his horror that he could neither speak, think, or write about the horrible deal with Morgan he had so foolishly agreed to. The anger and hurt they shared knew no bounds as they fell into the ashes of the now ruined kingdom, all but wanting to beat the life out of each other amidst their anguish. But even then, while lamenting what he had done, as well as all the lives that had been lost to avenge one man’s death at Mord's hands, Lugh couldn’t bring himself to abandon his love. They were both equally terrible, thoroughly rotten people.

• Centuries came and went in an endless game of push and pull. The two were never the same after Llyr’s cruel fate, but there was genuine comfort and the kind of understanding to be found in an immortal companion that couldn’t be replicated by anyone else. They knew each other through and through, and still found something there to love. Times changed, the borders shifted, kingdoms rose and fell, but in the midst of it all there was always a knight and his nemesis. A hero and his villain, ever drawn to each other despite their wandering paths; ever keen to thwart each other's plans.
• But the regret weighed heavy on Lugh, the secret he could never share - no matter how desperately he wanted to. Over the years a sense of silent, unwavering melancholy began to fester in his mind, building itself a nest upon his split heart without anyone noticing. He grew more weary, disheartened by his own immortality in the face of everyone else’s fleeting existence. He was tired of people passing away, tired of the growing pile of mistakes, but most of all he was tired of hurting the one he loved the most - again and again. He wanted out.
• Around 26 years ago while traveling along a coastline together with Mordreaux, they were blindsided by the monster they had been tracking. Climbing into view from behind the chalk cliff’s steep edge, the turned mage lunged at them, knocking them off their horses. In the midst of the chaotic battle, the beast got Lugh into its jaws - he struck it, but it wasn’t enough to kill, and the wounded monster lost its footing. He fell into the raging sea below and in a moment of morbid relief, Lugh failed to break free. Weighed down by the beast and his own armor both, Lugh drowned.
• A few days later he woke up on a lonely shore, alone but alive much to his surprise. Just like last time, he had come back to life thanks to his magic, and at first all the man could do was cry - filled with both regret and disappointment as the memory of Mord’s horrified last look crept into his mind. After the initial shock had passed, Lugh began to travel, too hurt and afraid to return to the spot where he had been separated from his companion. For the first time in centuries, he was truly alone and there was a tantalizing sense of… something in it that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It would be years still before Lugh would realize that something had gone wrong with his second death; not only had he taken the felled monster's magic into his body, but their corruption as well.
• For the first 10 years, Lugh settled down in a small fishing village, as it had reminded him of his long gone childhood home. He helped the community around, and grew fond of the people there, but it soon became clear that no matter how much he wanted to, he wasn’t cut for ordinary life anymore. People around him continued to age, while his misery and loneliness only grew with each new loss. He had felt lost and alone before, but this was something different without Mordreaux by his side. In the end, he had no choice but to leave the village behind, and Lugh returned to the place of his second death - only to find a humble grave that had been built for him there, now abandoned and weatherbeaten. He would’ve recognized the handwriting anywhere, and the sorrow he had felt over his disappearance slowly turned into a new spark for life as he began to search for his oldest companion, following stories of a dark-haired knight across the country lines. Fixing some of the ruin left in Mord’s wake while at it, as he always had in the past.

• Eventually he learned of the Third Order, but by the time he reached Cennet - the kingdom now in turmoil - Mord and the other knights had already been sent into exile - to Ivras. Having only barely missed his companion, Lugh boarded a ship bound for the selfsame nation without a second thought. In the fall of 1233 he arrived on the foreign soil. During the unrest that had followed Archmage Hagia’s tragic death, he took to working as a Witchfinder for the Order, hoping to pick up the trail of his companion while roaming the countryside in search of fugitives and other poor, unfortunate souls.

WC: 1948

Updates

Aesthetic

Safeguard

At its core, Lugh’s magic is a protective veil, tainted by his bloody deal with ever jolly Fortune. Safeguard is a defensive type of magic that allows him to either absorb or reflect magic directed at him - in other words, he can manipulate magical energies within his close proximity to varying degrees. Whether an aggressive spell or not, Lugh can redirect magic with relative ease, or thwart the effects of most passive forms of magic completely (eg. attempts at mind reading him will come up with nothing).

Given the dual nature of his magic though, he has limited control over it even after centuries worth of practice. For example, while he can consciously reflect a fireball back at its original caster, he can’t “turn off” the passive side of his magic. Even if he wanted to, there’s no mind reading or magically healing him without nullifying his own magic first. In addition to that, Lugh can’t mimic the other mages’ possible, additional skills, such as immunity to their own flames.

The magic absorption on other hand is a wholly passive skill beyond his direct control, but he is well aware of its existence. Upon moments of death - be it Lugh’s own or someone else’s - he will absorb the released magical essence into his own body, thus replenishing his vitality. This skill applies to any being that holds magic within them - including other mages - and it has always been a natural part of his skillset. Manipulating this nebulous essence into a sort of fuel is what has brought Lugh back to life now twice, but it's only thanks to Fortune's influence that he hasn't aged in hundreds of years. He could possibly live forever - for a price.