Xanthos

Xanthos is an angel and demon hybrid. He has golden eyes, small curved black horns, and long pointy ears. He has a long slightly wavy mane that falls over the right side of his face and extends down to his shoulders. His mane is soft and flowy but often unkept and messy. He has light cream fur on the upper half of his body and light brown fur on his lower half. It makes him look as if he were made of two different creatures. His tail is long and thin with four golden stripes and a large lengthy tuft of off-white fur that fades into grey. He has two damaged wings on his back and a long fan of feathers on his rump, similar to a bird's tail, that also fade from off-white into grey.

Because his wings are heavily damaged, he isn't capable of sustaining full flight, but he can still slow down his descent from higher ground by flapping them. His wing feathers often fall out due to being weak and scatter everywhere.

He always has a silver nose ring that he never seems to take out. The nose ring is engraved with various tiny runes, which are currently inactive.

In anthro, Xanthos wears a white toga. The upper half of the toga is burgundy with thin white stripes. Sometimes he will wear comfy loose-fitting modern clothing, like t-shirts and jogging pants, or even straight up pajamas. He also has a Xalkrian outfit, but he doesn't feel it's appropriate to flaunt it unless on missions, seeing as he doesn't worship the god.

Xanthos has moderate healing powers and shapeshifting abilities.

He can shapeshift into a dove or a griffin-like creature. His griffin-like form is used for fighting instead of flight. Despite having these other forms, he's still unable to fly for very long. It is possible that he can shapeshift into other forms as well, but he has been weakened from previous injuries and lost most of his former abilities.

With his healing powers, he can heal wounds and speed up the recovery process. Small wounds can be closed in seconds. Medium wounds can be fixed up in minutes. Larger wounds, however, will require several sessions before they can fully heal. Healing drains a lot of his energy, so he does it sparingly and requires proper rest. If he overworks himself, he can collapse from exhaustion and even suffer headaches the next day.

• More info about the skill goes here!

Anxious and overly cautious; never knows what to do & panics easily.
Prefers to stick to the rules; scared of disobeying.
Really nice and giving to others; refuses to accept help or gifts from strangers, though.
The poor guy could use a hug...if he'd even let people hug him.
Usually Elri's voice of reason for when the half-hell hound loses his temper.

Xanthos currently resides at the Temple of Xalkrios and works as a healer when he isn't working with Elri.

Back during a time of peace, the Angelic and Demonic Kingdoms wanted a personal messenger between their rulers. They were unable to agree on whether the messenger should have been an angel or a demon, so they settled upon making the messenger a mix of the two to satisfy both sides. Xanthos was created as an angel and a demon, a very special messenger indeed. Normally, on this world, angel-demon hybrids would have been considered blasphemy to both sides and their gods. However, both rulers declared that Xanthos was a special case and that it would be illegal to discriminate against him. He had the power of two kingdoms protecting him from the outside world. Xanthos was granted the ability to shapeshift into flying creatures to make his work easier, and he committed his entire life since creation to his job as a messenger. It was all he'd know for years.

Several years later, the angelic-demonic war broke out between the two kingdoms. Xanthos found himself lost among the chaos and, eventually, lost his position of messenger. With both kingdoms at war, neither of them had a use for communications. The leaders stopped calling for him. He was forced to escape the fighting and seek shelter elsewhere, and he remained hidden for the years the wars went on. During the war, he was constantly chased by the angels and demons - the people that he had considered himself a part of. He believed that the war was only confusing people and planned to return after everything calmed down.

Unfortunately, even after the war, the Angelic and Demonic Kingdoms remained at arms with eachother, even severing their previous ties. The relations between the angels and demons continued to worsen overtime. Xanthos wandered back to the Demonic Kingdom first, hoping to see someone who would greet him with open arms. Instead, he was met with raised eyebrows and turned away at the gates. A few angels he met on the road failed to recognize him as well. Nobody remembered who he was after the war. They didn't remember their messenger. Knowing this, Xanthos felt hurt and abandoned. He didn't have any home to return to. He was...lost.

When Xanthos visited the Angelic Kingdom, he was instantly captured by the angels at the front gates and hauled in as a prisoner due to being half-demon. They were enraged at the demons and didn't take too lightly to his sudden presence. The angelic guards also failed to recognize him. It was as if he were a stranger in his own former home. For a moment, Xanthos had lost hope that he would ever be remembered, until he met the archangels. The archangels were quick to realize that Xanthos was the messenger who vanished years ago during the war. He was almost overjoyed to hear that someone knew who he was, but his joy was quickly crushed as he heard one archangel mutter: "We no longer have a use for a messenger - especially not a half-demon. Throw him in the dungeon with the other prisoners." Reality broke for him. That was it. They didn't even want him anymore. He lost his only purpose.

Xanthos spent a few years in the dungeons with other demons. They were used as slaves. One by one, he saw their wills to live slip straight from them. They became empty shells that eventually died out due to the torture they were put through each day. Xanthos ended up surviving the longest due to being half-angel. His angelic blood prevented the runes and weapons from damaging him too much. The Demonic Kingdom didn't bother to rescue any of the captives despite the Angelic Kingdom's taunts. They were left there to die. Xanthos knew it well. He was going to die in a cold dark cell. At first, he made a few attempts to escape the kingdom, but he was always caught and dragged back to be punished. To prevent him from doing it again, they pierced his nose with a silver ring engraved with glowing red runes and tore up his wings. The angels used the small piece of jewelry as a way to control and keep him in line after that. They would yank on it or even charge it with magic to hurt Xanthos. He resigned to his fate after that. There was nothing he could do.

Eventually, the archangels made an order to get rid of the remaining few prisoners, as their plan to use the prisoners as a bartering chip failed. They allowed the guards to do whatever they wanted with the prisoners. Xanthos was hauled out to the outskirts of the city, and they tied him down to a pole with several chains. They left him there. Bloody and beaten, he was sure to attract any hungry monsters. He knew the potentially excruciating and painful death that awaited him, but, as much as he tried, he couldn't break the chains. Once nightfall had arrived, he was exhausted and in tears. He heard creatures shuffling around in the dark and looked up to see that he was surrounded by terrifying tall black figures. They were nothing he could describe. Twisted, horrifying, and bloody creatures. Black skin and warped bones. He began to panic as the hollow eyes closed in around him and cried out for help.

The next thing he knew, a large wave of light surrounded the entire area, bathing everything in warmth. The beasts screamed in agony and were almost instantly banished. Small glowing wisps ascended from their shells and into the sky. Xanthos, for a moment, could see nothing but white. The entire area was lit up from the spell. A tall figure appeared in front of him, with large wings that overshadowed the hybrid. When he gazed up to his savior, he saw a creature that was nothing like he'd ever seen before - an alicorn, reaching out to him. The alicorn took a hold of the chains and melted them away, before kneeling down next to Xanthos. The alicorn introduced himself as Orion and offered to take Xanthos to his home. Xanthos didn't hesistate for a moment and tearfully agreed.

Xanthos was brought far away from the Angelic Kingdom and to the Temple of Xalkrios, where Orion tended to his wounds and ended up becoming a mentor of sorts to him. The followers of Xalkrios welcomed him with open arms despite his status as an angel-demon hybrid, and he joined them. He had finally found a new place to call home. Since then, he has been serving in the temple under Orion and loyally follows the alicorn's every command. He was given the task of looking after the temple while the others are gone.