Raphael Ruben (Magic)

About

Description: As a phoenix, Raphael is a large bird approximately the size and shape of an eagle. His feathers were once red, orange, and gold but darkened to be more red as he aged. To enhance the effect, he typically settles on being a dark, almost-black, bird with red iridescent feathers and white speckles that almost seem to glow.

Wife: Talica "Tali" Ruben

Children: Antony, Sophia Ruben

Pets and Bonds

Fire-Lizards: Raphael has 5 fire-lizards, one male and four females. The females are greens Star, Grass, Spring, and Tree. The male is blue Pollen. He Impressed Pollen when he was 3, by sneaking the hatchling food while Elizabeth was distracted. All are the descendants of his sister's original pair, Rosa and Ernest, and as such are smarter than their Pernese brethren and are capable of communicating through telepathic speech in addition to emotions and images.

Dragon: Raphael is bonded to Gareth, a brown Pernese dragon. Due to Raphael's magical interference, Gareth shares his immortality and resurrection abilities and is capable of betweening to other universes. Gareth is also larger than average for a brown, although this could be due to the influence of the Ramoth line of dragons.

Powers

Natural

As the product of careful selective breeding, Raphael has multiple primary and secondary powers. A side-effect is that, due to the depth of his magic, he is able to learn and use magical systems from other universes. While some of his magic can remain in effect while he is asleep, he is unable to control it and must therefore be careful to avoid accidents like setting fire to something or passing out while invisible. As a phoenix, he is immortal, capable of "freezing" his age, and can resurrect from any manner of death. The easiest way of describing this trio of "powers" is: he is unable of aging or truly dying unless he wants to. This allows him to live for millions, if not billions, of years in good health.

Raphael's primary powers are:

• Controlling six elements: fire, water, earth, air, light, and electricity. He is naturally strongest with water, but is very skilled with manipulating metal (earth) and electricity for construction and technology purposes. He is weakest with light because he does not focus on it as much, and usually uses it only in its capacity to provide an efficient light source.
• True shapeshifting, which lets him transform into any carbon-based species and to change anything he wants about her current form.
• Conjuration and disappearing, which he uses to bring various items from across the multiverse and to store things in his personal hammerspace which he jokingly calls "the bank of safety". In the bank, things are perfectly preserved which lets him use it to store meals and clothes, among other things. While he could theoretically put living beings into the bank, Elizabeth made him swear never to do it so they never find out what long-term sensory deprivation could do to a mind.
• Bringing to life inanimate objects for a period of time no greater than one year without active renewal of the magic. While he can give them a basic personality based on the orders he gives, the objects will eventually develop personalities and minds of their own the more times he renews the magic. Objects which have been brought to life an "excessive" number of times will eventually form a permanent link that renews the magic automatically unless Raphael actively breaks the link, returning the object to its inanimate state.
• True teleportation which lets him go anywhere and anywhen in the multiverse so long as he has a destination in mind. However, he can be blocked by most anti-teleportation spells and even shifting into a Pernese dragon/fire-lizard won't let him escape. He is also capable of teleporting others remotely, so long as they are in his line of sight and are meant to travel with him.

Learned/Other

• Telepathy, telekinesis, Projection, Allomancy, Feruchemy

Elizabeth's secondary powers are:

• Invisibility which, once activated, requires conscious thought to deactivate. He does not see himself while invisible, although perceives a vague ripple from where his body is supposed to be at any given moment.
• Creating forceshields around himself and others. His standard shield is a perfect bubble no larger or wider than two inches from his head and tips of his fingers although, through practice over the course of centuries, he learned to make the shield larger and to expand it to other people/things.
• Healing both himself and others. He can heal all wounds but requires a knowledge of the body in order to perfectly heal certain things (he could heal a broken bone wrong if it is set improperly or he might leave some cancerous cells if he doesn't know where it originates). He cannot "heal" people from death; necromancy is not one of his inborn powers and is a field he deliberately leaves untouched at Elizabeth's advice. When healing, he leaves no scar behind unless he heals the area wrong; healing himself is always done perfectly and on instinct.

Like others of "his kind", Raphael is capable of telepathy, mind-reading, and mind control. He is especially skilled at protecting his mind from mental attacks and is decent at mind-reading. His skills in mind control can be considered both good and terrible--while he has a hard time making the initial connection, he is skilled at controlling others in a way that does not harm them or strain his mind.

Cosmere magics

Raphael hardly uses Cosmere magics as he finds many of their conditions to be too troublesome. However, he has enough Breaths to get past the Third Heightening and often wears copperminds and zincminds to enhance his memories and mental speed. He also has vials of metal flakes to use for Allomantic purposes as many of the powers can be useful in a pinch.

Wizard spells

Raphael can channel his raw magic into spells through a focus, specifically a wand that he carved himself using acacia wood and one of his own feathers from his phoenix form. This gives him a lot of flexibility as he can cast spells that are more complex and longer-lasting than his natural magic.

Usage

A young version of this Raphael is being used in Crystalline Island.