An odd, deer-like being with a brief but imposing presence. He is quiet and subdued, but sharp fangs can be glimpsed when he speaks, and plantlife seems to sprout and bloom wherever he goes.

Personality

Overall, Thorne is reticent and soft-spoken. He speaks rarely about himself, instead preferring to discuss others, or his particular interests-- living things, strange magical phenomena, and interesting mythology. He avoids conflict wherever possible, and will often decline to defend himself if questioned. He's quite affectionate with those he becomes close with, but getting close to him can be difficult. An air of sadness seems to hang around him, which has given him his "title".

History

Thorne's appearance is deceptive; he is properly an ancient being from a plane above that on which reality forms. Beings that form on this higher plane have their powers and strength dictated by the constellations in the sky, and Ophanki was born under the strongest of the formations. This marked him as essentially the next ruler of the realm, a calling he violently rejected. He spent most of his early life hidden away from the others, relying on his mother and his two close friends, Ignari and Demisia for protection. When Demisia was forced to accept an arranged marriage proposal she found abhorrent, Ophanki and Ignari rescued them from their predicament, and the three fled to the lower planes to hide.

This didn't end well for either of them, but Demisia was at least safely hidden from their pursuers. Ophanki was separated from his body, and began wandering the lower planes in a more insubstantial form.

He wandered for a long, long time. When the first Vaskharr clawed their way out of the void, he offered their leaders protection, and forged a bond with their people that has endured for the peoples' existence. He befriended many mortals over the ages, aiding them when asked, and attempted to shape the evolution of life on the world he and his friends had landed on into something beneficial for its survival. Being unanchored from physicality, he drifted between frames often...

...and about 20 years ago, from the point of view of mortals in the world referred to as Amalgam from without, he encountered a teenager who, at the time, went by Ochre.

Ochre had an unusual knack for strengthening the presence of the incorporeal; not uncommon for riftclaws, who often need to believe strongly in their own ability to defend themselves from the wraith-like voidbeasts that inhabited their natural environment, but unsually pronounced. Ochre invited the stranger to share his meal as they sat by a fire in an alien desert, and Ophanki realised suddenly that this was someone he knew, or would know in the future. Fascinated by the metephysical connection, Ophanki began to follow him from time to time, trying to work out who the young riftclaw would become.

He continued to drift between anchor points after this, dropping in to "bother" Ochre, later V, quite frequently. During one of his visits, V gave him Thorne as a nickname, which he quite happily accepted and began to respond to. As he began to interact more with the inhabitants of Amalgam after its creation, he began to introduce himself as Thorne rather than Ophanki.

Current Day

Thorne continues to drift in and out of the worlds his charges are tied to, but has taken a particular interest in Amalgam. The planet has little in the way of metaphysical reality, making it a good place to settle for a while (unlike Terra, which is quite crowded). Recently, he's begun gathering lost souls and guiding them to safer places to rest, causing his presence to become more and more known by the people who still live on the merged planet.

He still bothers V quite frequently. That lizard is always getting up to something ridiculous.