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Description
Real Name: Darren Zweiseitig

Aliases: Dunkles Geheimnis, The Keeper

Age: 24

DOB: October 5th

Species: Human (Magically Affected/Enhanced)

Height: 5’10" --> 6'01"

Weight: 210 pounds

Occupation: Mage (Has foci for fire, air, and black magic)

Basically, he is a magic user who practices and researches black magic particularly forms which affect the body through transformation, forms which affect the soul, those which exercise forms of mind-control, and sealing so he may perform his self-appointed job efficiently. What is his self-appointed job?

He fights monsters who in his world are humans who had their souls stolen or corrupted through black magic and attempts to cure them through black magic, either drawing out negative energies within an individual or simply returning their soul. In the worst of cases, he will try to seal them in a book he carries, only killing that which is too dangerous to seal, particularly entities who purposefully corrupted themselves for power.

Eye Color: Mix – Upper half of irises brown while the lower half is a mix of brown and hazel.If he uses magic however, his eyes turn more hazel in color with especially powerful magic turning his eyes an emerald green.

Hair Color: Brown

Favorite Muscle/Area: Pectorals

Likes: Magic (particularly air magic exercised through his techno air staff), Taking flight, Games (Any game is fun for him except TCGs, which he dislikes mostly because he can’t make a decent deck to save his life), Magical Foci and items in general, Fried chicken, Soda (preferably those which have a lot of caffeine in it), Learning new things (particularly magical knowledge), Being cool/cold, His eye glasses

Dislikes: Black Magic Hunters, Extremists, TCGs, People who believe magic is the end all be all, Bitter-tasting foods, Alcohol (Strong ones in particular as he dislikes the sharp taste of alcohol), Fish, Insects in general, Being too hot, “Hannibals” (people who play mind games to get what they want from others)

Alignment: Neutral Good / Chaotic Good

Personality: A seemingly aloof individual, at least initially, Darren usually hardly speaks to others without having some sort of business with them first or so that he can simply dismiss someone as he goes about said business. In business affairs, he tends to be very professional in his behavior and mannerisms, distancing his emotions and feelings from the situation and wearing a generally emotionally neutral expression. In his personal work/career, he devotes himself to his work and to, at times, extreme lengths to where he will isolate himself from the world as he researches magic, particularly black magic. He acts almost with a sense of obsession at times and while expressive, is mostly easily agitated and generally becomes a grumpy/sullen individual until he’s finished.

However, if comfortable and around those whom he considers friends or at least trustworthy, even if they are new and a stranger to him, he becomes far more expressive and pleasant then what he refers as his “business self,” acting rather chummy and generous unless snarked at or insulted at which point, he becomes quick to return fire although to friends, he will hold himself back as he doesn't want to lose those who he can feel safe to act freely around without worrying about the consequences for the most part. He still won't necessarily become affectionate though and will still rarely touch others to express it such as a hug or a special handshake. To those he does allow close contact, particularly by another individual, he holds them in his own private circle of trust, above all others really to where he might actually consider playing with the more 'negative' forms of black magic to help them in situations of dire need.

Among those he trusts, he will mention, if asked, how he hates taking on his business persona as he finds it frustrating, tiring, and generally emotionally draining but he sees it as a necessity as well considering his work generally requires being serious in all he does. However, even among good company or alone, it is still very rare for him to indulge in most anything other than magi, avoiding alcohol, pleasures of the flesh, and otherwise.

To those he is truly friends with or feels especially comfortable around, he will occasionally play pranks on them through his magic although they tend to be simple and harmless pranks and always in good fun. However, if you annoy him to no end, blatantly insult him, or worse, steal his foci or eye glasses, expect to meet the brunt of his black magic. On another note though, he tends to keep his staffs on his person at all times and becomes miffed to downright violent should anyone else touch them or worse take them off his body. His glasses are also important to him, even though he no longer needs them thanks to the effect of long term magic, and he can become twitchy to downright violent as well if he can’t find them or worse, someone takes them even more so then when someone steals one of his staffs. However, he never will try to kill, period. Even with the insects he detests and the monsters he confronts, he will always attempt to seal them as opposed to kill them as he has a deep respect for life and the natural order of things. It makes sense for the need for animals to hunt each other and to harvest the earth of its grain. However, to kill when it is not required, to him, is truly vile and repulsive to him. Only to a few individuals does he reserve the option of death for and to him, the act of killing them is an act of mercy to the world. In regards to altering life though, he sees it as fine only if the other party consents to it, is responsible with their new form, and maintains their personality and mental cognition despite the shift, keeping him firmly only tolerant of transformation and not its base aspects derived from the creation and corruption aspects of black magic.

If he dislikes an individual, even in a business setting, he will try to snark at them in some way, only shutting up when he has been bested although he seldom takes things lying down quietly. In fights, he is also one to throw taunts and insults as well although he does know when to shut up and focus as well.

Sexuality: Homosexual (Not expressed or discussed by him by reason of repression in order to use black magic safely due to it's corruptible nature as if one is feeling hints of lust as opposed to actual love, a difficult concept at times given it's nature, residual forms of black magic can take hold and start to attempt to corrupt him)

Family: He does have an older sister, a fraternal twin brother, along with his father and mother. However, he does not communicate with them as they believe he’s dead after he failed to return home during an expedition while he was apprenticed. Besides, Darren doesn't want to place them in danger or trouble due to his rather illegal career choice as a black mage.

Powers/Abilities
 Magic – Darren is a skilled magic user, utilizing three foci, in this case, staffs, to work his magic with Darren having foci for air magic, fire magic, and black magic. In order to use his magic, he needs to have the foci somewhere on his person and be able to visualize what he wants to occur. At that point, he can conduct magic although for elemental magic, wielding the foci actively can help the process of casting magic while in the case of white and black magic, the individual must wield the foci to conduct their magic. The amount of internal mana he needs to perform the magical feat is proportional to what he wants to occur with simple tasks requiring hardly any mana at all while more difficult tasks use higher amounts of mana to fuel them. He currently he can utilize fire, air, and black magic and is able to combine air and fire magic to form the magic of flight and lightning magic although he is still somewhat new to the latter form with the magical effects he produces in that form being far more volatile and unstable than they should be.

In general though, it’s better for him to have a clear mind than one that is burdened or in pain as the ability to imagine the effect one’s magic should take and the act of mentally asserting one’s will on the universe/plane of reality is vital. If something interfered with his mental state, magic would become incredibly difficult and taxing for him to perform and should his mental state become thoroughly obstructed and mucked with, magic becomes near impossible or completely impossible for him to perform.

Magical Item (Foci) Creation and Refinement – Darren can craft foci although his abilities are rather novice with mistakes happening frequently if he tries to create something, not only because of the difficulty of crafting magical items but mostly because he simply has only done it a few times and thus lacks experience. It is to where the effects of the foci he produces are uncertain and likely more dangerous to the user than anyone else. In terms of refinement though, he is far more skilled, a prime example of his skill being his air staff foci which he created as a child as per the normal tradition of children wanting to pursue the art of magic. It was a weak foci as one would imagine but throughout the years, he has refined it to where it is a top quality foci. Of course, as is suggested it would take a significant amount of time to refine a foci into a top quality item with the process sometimes taking months to years to complete, usually years. General short-term improvements however are certainly be faster to perform although they rarely do anything significant per se and if they do, they only do so for a short amount of time.

Magical Augmentation – Darren’s body, due to his interaction with magic over a long period of time particularly as a catalyst through his foci between the weak link of magic within his body and soul and the magic of the world, has been physically enhanced to optimal levels of physical fitness, appearance, and health. The metabolism of is increased by this process, necessitating more consumption of food and water but also heals any minor non-magically induced and small/weak magically induced scars and/or wounds but the wounds must be small such as a minor cut or bruise. Larger wounds take longer to heal with the time nearly being equivalent to the healing time of a normal wound. Larger scars and marks inflicted through non-magical or minor magical means are unable to be healed without the use of high level water/minor level white magic while scars, wounds, and disfigurements caused by magical withdrawal and particularly nasty magical means can only be healed through high level white magic if they can even be healed at all. Individuals who are magically augmented also tend to be more resistant to disease with the exception of magical diseases. This augmentation can also be seen however in his eyes with the top half of his iris being brown in color while the lower half of his irises are hazel/green in color. This effect occurs as an individual strengthens their link with magic to where one’s eyes will completely turn into some shade of green. For Darren, when he uses magic, his eyes, particularly the hazel section, will glow although when using magic that utilizes a lot of mana, his eyes will glow emerald green, this frequently occurring when he is using black magic. It also occurs however when he scans for magic as well although when doing so, he must be cautious as scanning for magic sends out a signal of sorts, one which can be traced back to him.

However, his magical augmentation can work against Darren through what is known as magical withdrawal, a process I which a mage’s body, if separated from the individual’s foci or a suitable foci replacement for a particular amount of time, begins to cannibalize itself in a way to obtain the magical energy which it is now quite used to receiving so that it’s form is maintained. As such, individuals going through magical withdrawal will experience paralyzing pain, going into a seizure of sorts for a certain amount of time during which the body attacks itself, usually resulting in cuts and bruises appearing all over the body along with the possibility of a gaining some form of permanent disfigurement. Once a person starts to go through magical withdrawal, nothing can be done for the person except wait out the withdrawal and get the victim their foci back which does lower the amount of time the withdrawal lasts and can lower the chances of permanent disfigurement from then on. The amount of magical energy a subject has is proportional to the duration of the pain and withdrawal process and is also inversely proportional to the amount of time a mage can be separated from their foci before magical withdrawal sets in. Should Darren be separated from his foci for longer than an hour, he will encounter a period of withdrawal ranging from a few hours to about a day. If attacked with an anti-magic device/spell however, he will immediately undergo withdrawal. In addition the period of withdrawal, a follow up period will occur in which Derrick’s emotions and thinking process are both stunted for about a day due to the lingering effect of his body’s attack on his internal link with magic. This effect is characterized as being one in which Derrick will lack the energy and the will to do anything except stew in his currently stunted thoughts, becoming mentally isolated from the world as his behavior suggests as though he was in a dazed haze of sorts. This makes his ability to use magic a difficult one to evoke although once the day is over, he’ll return to normal albeit with some painful memories and possibly scars and wounds which require advanced healing to remove.

Purge / Dark!Darren - This ability is one Darren developed to fight the lingering forms of black mana within him and avoid corruption. The basis of the technique involves a form of meditation in which he can, after a while, perceive himself in a way he really can't describe. He likens it to something astral or transcendental but even then he isn't certain. Regardless, in this view, he can mentally perceive black mana buildups within his body, a side effect of using black magic over a long period of time. In this form, he can expel them although once started, he needs to have caution and a great deal of willpower to prevent the buildups from becoming agitated or worse, spreading.

If that happens, it can corrupt him entirely and temporarily make him go insane with a lust for domination and control, a form he refers to as his 'dark' form or Dark!Darren. Mind you, he can also enter this form just by using too much black magic at once which can cause himself to be filled with black mana beyond his limits. In this state, he is far more less formal and very much dominating and controlling with a cruel bent towards others. Commonly, this form works to corrupt others and transform individual into slaves or servants via hypnosis/mind control or through corruption magic, turning others into mindless monsters that serve him and him alone. Of course, in this state, Dark!Darren is more open to indulging himself in various fashions although all forms of pleasure are meant to serve as a way to humiliate others or to show his status as above others. Oddly enough, lust is one pleasure his dark form indulges in only very rarely, the only instance being once as it would seem that this form is more directed towards his denial of all pleasures as well as a twisted version of his desire to maintain control over himself by exerting that same control over others as well. Luckily, this form has only appeared a few times and has generally been prevented from any permanent damage to others although each instance gravely disturbs him.

However, if he can manage a purge, an action which he tends to succeed at, he enters a rather unpleasant state in which he will actively vomit out puddles of black goo, the goo being a concentrated form of black mana which evaporates into nothingness on it's own. As one might imagine, this is a physically and mentally draining task which as such can really only be attempted when he's in peak condition and with a clear mind least he risk failure. So far, his darker self has only been allowed to appear eight times with only three incidents.

Skills: To perform his work, Darren also acts as a researcher of sorts with magic, particularly black magic, and if the given time and resources he can identify forms of magic, traces of magic, and understand how certain magical items work along with their effects. He also has compiled a large compendium of monsters, particularly those created through the effects of black magic on the soul and human body as well as those created by the thief and subsequent absence of one’ soul. As such, given time and evidence, he can identify possible monsters or entities from the evidence they leave behind or identify a creature based on how they look and act.
Biography: For the most part, Darren was like every other individual in his seemingly mundane world, born to a middle class yet content family, enjoying a simple early childhood alongside his younger fraternal twin brother and his older sister. Mind you, this world had discovered the reality of magic since the early 1900s although due to the height and presence of technology, magic had not displaced it as one might imagine, more just integrating itself along with technology, making the world seem as it would for us except magic and technology are integrated to a degree and those who learn the magical arts find themselves capable of various new abilities mankind has longed for and yet also has managed to resolve through quick and easy to use technology as opposed to simply runes and waves of a stick. At least with magic though, one’s internet connection can never fail even in bad weather or bad conditions.

Darren mostly found himself inspired by simple folklore and myths of old which spoke of the feats of magic and its complex elegance, taking to magic like a fish to water, studying it in his free time by reading books too complex for him to understand at the library on the subject of magic and watching various videos of magic at work. His parents acknowledged his interest and allowed him to enter magical studies at the age of 10, Darren eventually creating his first foci, a staff channeling air magic. While not uncommon to make foci at such a young age among those who study magic, his air foci was unusual as he had foolishly tried to make a lightning magic and not an air foci, not knowing that lightning magic was not a form of magic as much as a combination of the fire and air forms of magic. As such, his staff looked abnormal compared to other air foci, the foci appearing more technological as opposed to the more standard themes of air, flight, and the sort. Still, he grew attached to it and it quickly became one of his most treasured possessions as he continued his studies on magic until the age of 13 when he was officially apprenticed to a Herman Gallagher.

Gallagher didn’t necessarily care much about his job of teaching Darren as much as having an assistant he could boss around at his leisure but it wasn’t bad for Darren, just very busy and tiring. Of course, Gallagher would teach him about the more practical side of magic, particularly that involving air and fire magic but Gallagher frequently would keep his lessons short so he could get back to his research, leaving Darren to his pre-assigned work and materials for Darren to teach himself with in his spare time, not that he really had any. If anything though, Darren learned to never interrupt Gallagher when he was at work, never questioning why his master would never allow him in his private workroom/study especially when Gallagher himself was in there. In time though, when Darren was 17, about 4 years into his 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days, Gallagher proposed to Darren a sort of trip for Gallagher to research some possible artifacts he had been studying in a recent tomb that was discovered in Eastern Europe. Glad to have some time outside his busy settings, Darren accepted although he barely had time to send word to his family and pack before Gallagher pushed him into a plane for the trip, the two flying to Eastern Germany.

Despite the tomb having been discovered according to Gallagher, Gallagher seemed to not be aware of the tomb’s location, referring to maps and journals frequently. It took three days of traveling and doubling back a few times to find the entrance of the tomb, a hole carved into a rock that Darren noticed was seemingly devoid of others despite being recently discovered and in the process of being investigated. Not only that, the tomb looked structurally unsound as though it had been quickly constructed and from its mouth, Darren felt something wrong emanating within it, simply wrong. Just as he began to show concern over his situation, Gallagher called Darren over with an unusual spherical object in hand and the next thing Darren knew, he found himself in a stone room with a stone casket in the center. It was illuminated only by a fire coming from one of his master’s foci, the foci clutched in what he assumed was the hand of his master and only the hand. After relieving himself and the contents of his stomach, he began to remember what happened to him, His master had a foci and told Darren to lead the way and open the casket for him. He walked into the tomb and after several chamber, he found himself in the same room he was in now, moving towards the casket despite hissing sounds coming from within. Something leapt from inside of it, it knocked him over. He hit his head, his master let out a gout of fire, a scream was heard, and then…then…

Darren didn’t understand what happened to him, not realizing he had been hypnotized, not realizing his master was a black mage with rather selfish intentions, and that he had just been used as bait to distract whatever was in the casket. Nervous and terrified, he took his master’s foci and began to leave when he caught a glimpse of something shining from the casket. Normally, he would have fled but something about almost brought him closer to that casket, brought him to what was an ebony and silver staff with something resembling a bag of black silk tied to its hilt. He could have not have taken the staff and bag and simply left but something compelled him to take them before he fled, this action changing his life forever.

Not knowing what else to do, Darren simply resided in the surrounding wilderness, wondering what had happened to him and yet too terrified to possibly leave his master behind. He stayed in the wilderness, living off the supplies he had brought with him, shaken as hell although as night fell, Darren found himself drawn to the silken bag along with ebony and silver staff he picked up. He found the bag was actually a cloak, the cloak holding two worn and weathered books, both handwritten in black ink. He went through the contents of both as the night went on, discovering that this was not the tomb of a simple magical person and the items he looted where by no means simple either. The first book he read was a journal made by a man who referred to himself only as The Keeper, a black mage who did horrible things to innocent people through black magic, particularly corrupting the souls of people and therefore turning them into monsters. While Darren knew about the origins of monsters, what proved interesting was how the mage reformed himself after one entity he created which he titled The Redeemer, failed to show the aggressive nature of regular monsters and instead showed the mage through a vision of the error of his ways by bombarding him with the pain they had felt when changed. From that point on, his work was devoted to restoring monsters back to humanity while sealing away those who were beyond his current powers, hoping that someone else could one day. The last bits of his journal detail his capture by former comrades of his who corrupted his soul, turning him into a monster who they intended to make a servant out of. However, they didn’t realize they had failed to corrupt him completely, his mind still remaining to a degree. With that, the entity killed his comrades before sealing himself, along with his work and foci, away in the casket Darren had disturbed, not wanting to hurt others when his mind finished deteriorating.

To say Darren was shocked would be an understatement as he took in the story from the page before him but he continued on with the second book. Inside was a compendium of the creatures The Keeper had created, detailing information about them as well as how to create them and reverse their conditions. However, the compendium was not simply just a list though as some images, almost photographic in appearance, shifted and moved as Darren realized this book was also where he had sealed away those entities which he could not yet restore to humanity, Darren promptly shutting the book and doing nothing except stew in his own thoughts.

Time passed. Darren was assumed dead by him family and the years rolled on. However, as time marched on, a figure began to pop up around the world in rumors and within the reports of various magical law enforcement agencies. It was a black mage who didn’t match his fellow companions in terms of their goals and instead defied them, capturing monsters and restoring those he could back to humanity. The mage was known to wear a black cloak of sorts along with three foci; one for magic fire, an unusual one for air magic, and one for black magic. He had no real name apparent from an alias he typically would introduce himself by, the person calling himself The Keeper…

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Magical Proficiency
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0-10 Scale with 1 being the ability of a new, inexperienced user, 5 being the abilities of an experienced and average user, and 10 being complete mastery over the skill. To receive a 0, the individual must have no basic knowledge about magic in general except in regards to white and black magic which requires advanced and specialized forms of knowledge on the subject. Just because a form/sub-form of magic may have a 1 in it however does not mean that the individual can just pick up an appropriate foci and start casting weak spells. It merely refers to the experience of the individual and knowledge of that form of magic.

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Elemental Forms/Domains of Magic
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Fire Magic – 5
Water Magic – 1
Air Magic – 7
Earth Magic – 1

Lightning Magic (Fire x Air) – 2
Power of Flight (Fire x Air) - 5

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Meta Forms/Domains of Magic
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White Magic – 0
”Blessed” Healing – 0
Creation / Corruption* – 0
Scrying** – 0
Sealing – 0
Soul Theft / Soul Restoration – 0
Summoning – 0
Teleportation - 0

Black Magic – 5
Creation / Corruption* – 5
Hypnosis / Illusion Conjuration – 5
Scrying** – 1
Sealing – 5
Soul Theft / Soul Restoration– 5
Summoning – 1
Teleportation – 1
Transformation*** - 5

*Creation / Corruption – This is a form of magic which corrupts an individual’s soul by influencing it through black and white magic. This process takes time to prepare for although the process itself is quite fast, faster than transformation as one doesn’t need to concern themselves with the mental state of the entity necessarily. Once done, if a subject was corrupted through white magic, it will typically disappear after a few moments as it returns to the “divine plane” but those created and corrupted through black magic remain and do become quite violent. Usually, hypnosis is require to reign in the entity and make it subservient.

**Scrying – Scrying cannot be used to see into the future or past and can only be used to look into the present. Higher levels of proficiency increase the range one can scry although it should be noted that while scrying, the individual must be fully devoted to the task and thus cannot divide their attention while scrying otherwise the spell fails.

***Transformation – Transformation is a particular form of Creation/Corruption magic in which a subject (whether it’s oneself or another doesn’t matter although it’s more difficult to perform on oneself) is turned into a creature or entity of some sort yet still maintains control of their body and of their mental facilities. This form of magic does take a significant amount of time to prepare for although the process itself is relatively fast. Some exceptions to this process exist though such a genies, demons, and angels as demons and angels are created through creation and corruption for the most part with individuals maintaining a twisted version of their personality in that it is altered and genies can’t be created through magic although some theorize that it may be possible if done on oneself although once they turn into a genie, they would stay stuck as one forever.

Description
Real Name: Darren Zweiseitig

Aliases: Dunkles Geheimnis, The Keeper

Age: 24

DOB: October 5th

Species: Human (Magically Affected/Enhanced)

Height: 5’10" --> 6'01"

Weight: 210 pounds

Occupation: Mage (Has foci for fire, air, and black magic)

Basically, he is a magic user who practices and researches black magic particularly forms which affect the body through transformation, forms which affect the soul, those which exercise forms of mind-control, and sealing so he may perform his self-appointed job efficiently. What is his self-appointed job?

He fights monsters who in his world are humans who had their souls stolen or corrupted through black magic and attempts to cure them through black magic, either drawing out negative energies within an individual or simply returning their soul. In the worst of cases, he will try to seal them in a book he carries, only killing that which is too dangerous to seal, particularly entities who purposefully corrupted themselves for power.

Eye Color: Mix – Upper half of irises brown while the lower half is a mix of brown and hazel.If he uses magic however, his eyes turn more hazel in color with especially powerful magic turning his eyes an emerald green.

Hair Color: Brown

Favorite Muscle/Area: Pectorals

Likes: Magic (particularly air magic exercised through his techno air staff), Taking flight, Games (Any game is fun for him except TCGs, which he dislikes mostly because he can’t make a decent deck to save his life), Magical Foci and items in general, Fried chicken, Soda (preferably those which have a lot of caffeine in it), Learning new things (particularly magical knowledge), Being cool/cold, His eye glasses

Dislikes: Black Magic Hunters, Extremists, TCGs, People who believe magic is the end all be all, Bitter-tasting foods, Alcohol (Strong ones in particular as he dislikes the sharp taste of alcohol), Fish, Insects in general, Being too hot, “Hannibals” (people who play mind games to get what they want from others)

Alignment: Neutral Good / Chaotic Good

Personality: A seemingly aloof individual, at least initially, Darren usually hardly speaks to others without having some sort of business with them first or so that he can simply dismiss someone as he goes about said business. In business affairs, he tends to be very professional in his behavior and mannerisms, distancing his emotions and feelings from the situation and wearing a generally emotionally neutral expression. In his personal work/career, he devotes himself to his work and to, at times, extreme lengths to where he will isolate himself from the world as he researches magic, particularly black magic. He acts almost with a sense of obsession at times and while expressive, is mostly easily agitated and generally becomes a grumpy/sullen individual until he’s finished.

However, if comfortable and around those whom he considers friends or at least trustworthy, even if they are new and a stranger to him, he becomes far more expressive and pleasant then what he refers as his “business self,” acting rather chummy and generous unless snarked at or insulted at which point, he becomes quick to return fire although to friends, he will hold himself back as he doesn't want to lose those who he can feel safe to act freely around without worrying about the consequences for the most part. He still won't necessarily become affectionate though and will still rarely touch others to express it such as a hug or a special handshake. To those he does allow close contact, particularly by another individual, he holds them in his own private circle of trust, above all others really to where he might actually consider playing with the more 'negative' forms of black magic to help them in situations of dire need.

Among those he trusts, he will mention, if asked, how he hates taking on his business persona as he finds it frustrating, tiring, and generally emotionally draining but he sees it as a necessity as well considering his work generally requires being serious in all he does. However, even among good company or alone, it is still very rare for him to indulge in most anything other than magi, avoiding alcohol, pleasures of the flesh, and otherwise.

To those he is truly friends with or feels especially comfortable around, he will occasionally play pranks on them through his magic although they tend to be simple and harmless pranks and always in good fun. However, if you annoy him to no end, blatantly insult him, or worse, steal his foci or eye glasses, expect to meet the brunt of his black magic. On another note though, he tends to keep his staffs on his person at all times and becomes miffed to downright violent should anyone else touch them or worse take them off his body. His glasses are also important to him, even though he no longer needs them thanks to the effect of long term magic, and he can become twitchy to downright violent as well if he can’t find them or worse, someone takes them even more so then when someone steals one of his staffs. However, he never will try to kill, period. Even with the insects he detests and the monsters he confronts, he will always attempt to seal them as opposed to kill them as he has a deep respect for life and the natural order of things. It makes sense for the need for animals to hunt each other and to harvest the earth of its grain. However, to kill when it is not required, to him, is truly vile and repulsive to him. Only to a few individuals does he reserve the option of death for and to him, the act of killing them is an act of mercy to the world. In regards to altering life though, he sees it as fine only if the other party consents to it, is responsible with their new form, and maintains their personality and mental cognition despite the shift, keeping him firmly only tolerant of transformation and not its base aspects derived from the creation and corruption aspects of black magic.

If he dislikes an individual, even in a business setting, he will try to snark at them in some way, only shutting up when he has been bested although he seldom takes things lying down quietly. In fights, he is also one to throw taunts and insults as well although he does know when to shut up and focus as well.

Sexuality: Homosexual (Not expressed or discussed by him by reason of repression in order to use black magic safely due to it's corruptible nature as if one is feeling hints of lust as opposed to actual love, a difficult concept at times given it's nature, residual forms of black magic can take hold and start to attempt to corrupt him)

Family: He does have an older sister, a fraternal twin brother, along with his father and mother. However, he does not communicate with them as they believe he’s dead after he failed to return home during an expedition while he was apprenticed. Besides, Darren doesn't want to place them in danger or trouble due to his rather illegal career choice as a black mage.

Powers/Abilities
 Magic – Darren is a skilled magic user, utilizing three foci, in this case, staffs, to work his magic with Darren having foci for air magic, fire magic, and black magic. In order to use his magic, he needs to have the foci somewhere on his person and be able to visualize what he wants to occur. At that point, he can conduct magic although for elemental magic, wielding the foci actively can help the process of casting magic while in the case of white and black magic, the individual must wield the foci to conduct their magic. The amount of internal mana he needs to perform the magical feat is proportional to what he wants to occur with simple tasks requiring hardly any mana at all while more difficult tasks use higher amounts of mana to fuel them. He currently he can utilize fire, air, and black magic and is able to combine air and fire magic to form the magic of flight and lightning magic although he is still somewhat new to the latter form with the magical effects he produces in that form being far more volatile and unstable than they should be.

In general though, it’s better for him to have a clear mind than one that is burdened or in pain as the ability to imagine the effect one’s magic should take and the act of mentally asserting one’s will on the universe/plane of reality is vital. If something interfered with his mental state, magic would become incredibly difficult and taxing for him to perform and should his mental state become thoroughly obstructed and mucked with, magic becomes near impossible or completely impossible for him to perform.

Magical Item (Foci) Creation and Refinement – Darren can craft foci although his abilities are rather novice with mistakes happening frequently if he tries to create something, not only because of the difficulty of crafting magical items but mostly because he simply has only done it a few times and thus lacks experience. It is to where the effects of the foci he produces are uncertain and likely more dangerous to the user than anyone else. In terms of refinement though, he is far more skilled, a prime example of his skill being his air staff foci which he created as a child as per the normal tradition of children wanting to pursue the art of magic. It was a weak foci as one would imagine but throughout the years, he has refined it to where it is a top quality foci. Of course, as is suggested it would take a significant amount of time to refine a foci into a top quality item with the process sometimes taking months to years to complete, usually years. General short-term improvements however are certainly be faster to perform although they rarely do anything significant per se and if they do, they only do so for a short amount of time.

Magical Augmentation – Darren’s body, due to his interaction with magic over a long period of time particularly as a catalyst through his foci between the weak link of magic within his body and soul and the magic of the world, has been physically enhanced to optimal levels of physical fitness, appearance, and health. The metabolism of is increased by this process, necessitating more consumption of food and water but also heals any minor non-magically induced and small/weak magically induced scars and/or wounds but the wounds must be small such as a minor cut or bruise. Larger wounds take longer to heal with the time nearly being equivalent to the healing time of a normal wound. Larger scars and marks inflicted through non-magical or minor magical means are unable to be healed without the use of high level water/minor level white magic while scars, wounds, and disfigurements caused by magical withdrawal and particularly nasty magical means can only be healed through high level white magic if they can even be healed at all. Individuals who are magically augmented also tend to be more resistant to disease with the exception of magical diseases. This augmentation can also be seen however in his eyes with the top half of his iris being brown in color while the lower half of his irises are hazel/green in color. This effect occurs as an individual strengthens their link with magic to where one’s eyes will completely turn into some shade of green. For Darren, when he uses magic, his eyes, particularly the hazel section, will glow although when using magic that utilizes a lot of mana, his eyes will glow emerald green, this frequently occurring when he is using black magic. It also occurs however when he scans for magic as well although when doing so, he must be cautious as scanning for magic sends out a signal of sorts, one which can be traced back to him.

However, his magical augmentation can work against Darren through what is known as magical withdrawal, a process I which a mage’s body, if separated from the individual’s foci or a suitable foci replacement for a particular amount of time, begins to cannibalize itself in a way to obtain the magical energy which it is now quite used to receiving so that it’s form is maintained. As such, individuals going through magical withdrawal will experience paralyzing pain, going into a seizure of sorts for a certain amount of time during which the body attacks itself, usually resulting in cuts and bruises appearing all over the body along with the possibility of a gaining some form of permanent disfigurement. Once a person starts to go through magical withdrawal, nothing can be done for the person except wait out the withdrawal and get the victim their foci back which does lower the amount of time the withdrawal lasts and can lower the chances of permanent disfigurement from then on. The amount of magical energy a subject has is proportional to the duration of the pain and withdrawal process and is also inversely proportional to the amount of time a mage can be separated from their foci before magical withdrawal sets in. Should Darren be separated from his foci for longer than an hour, he will encounter a period of withdrawal ranging from a few hours to about a day. If attacked with an anti-magic device/spell however, he will immediately undergo withdrawal. In addition the period of withdrawal, a follow up period will occur in which Derrick’s emotions and thinking process are both stunted for about a day due to the lingering effect of his body’s attack on his internal link with magic. This effect is characterized as being one in which Derrick will lack the energy and the will to do anything except stew in his currently stunted thoughts, becoming mentally isolated from the world as his behavior suggests as though he was in a dazed haze of sorts. This makes his ability to use magic a difficult one to evoke although once the day is over, he’ll return to normal albeit with some painful memories and possibly scars and wounds which require advanced healing to remove.

Purge / Dark!Darren - This ability is one Darren developed to fight the lingering forms of black mana within him and avoid corruption. The basis of the technique involves a form of meditation in which he can, after a while, perceive himself in a way he really can't describe. He likens it to something astral or transcendental but even then he isn't certain. Regardless, in this view, he can mentally perceive black mana buildups within his body, a side effect of using black magic over a long period of time. In this form, he can expel them although once started, he needs to have caution and a great deal of willpower to prevent the buildups from becoming agitated or worse, spreading.

If that happens, it can corrupt him entirely and temporarily make him go insane with a lust for domination and control, a form he refers to as his 'dark' form or Dark!Darren. Mind you, he can also enter this form just by using too much black magic at once which can cause himself to be filled with black mana beyond his limits. In this state, he is far more less formal and very much dominating and controlling with a cruel bent towards others. Commonly, this form works to corrupt others and transform individual into slaves or servants via hypnosis/mind control or through corruption magic, turning others into mindless monsters that serve him and him alone. Of course, in this state, Dark!Darren is more open to indulging himself in various fashions although all forms of pleasure are meant to serve as a way to humiliate others or to show his status as above others. Oddly enough, lust is one pleasure his dark form indulges in only very rarely, the only instance being once as it would seem that this form is more directed towards his denial of all pleasures as well as a twisted version of his desire to maintain control over himself by exerting that same control over others as well. Luckily, this form has only appeared a few times and has generally been prevented from any permanent damage to others although each instance gravely disturbs him.

However, if he can manage a purge, an action which he tends to succeed at, he enters a rather unpleasant state in which he will actively vomit out puddles of black goo, the goo being a concentrated form of black mana which evaporates into nothingness on it's own. As one might imagine, this is a physically and mentally draining task which as such can really only be attempted when he's in peak condition and with a clear mind least he risk failure. So far, his darker self has only been allowed to appear eight times with only three incidents.

Skills: To perform his work, Darren also acts as a researcher of sorts with magic, particularly black magic, and if the given time and resources he can identify forms of magic, traces of magic, and understand how certain magical items work along with their effects. He also has compiled a large compendium of monsters, particularly those created through the effects of black magic on the soul and human body as well as those created by the thief and subsequent absence of one’ soul. As such, given time and evidence, he can identify possible monsters or entities from the evidence they leave behind or identify a creature based on how they look and act.
Biography: For the most part, Darren was like every other individual in his seemingly mundane world, born to a middle class yet content family, enjoying a simple early childhood alongside his younger fraternal twin brother and his older sister. Mind you, this world had discovered the reality of magic since the early 1900s although due to the height and presence of technology, magic had not displaced it as one might imagine, more just integrating itself along with technology, making the world seem as it would for us except magic and technology are integrated to a degree and those who learn the magical arts find themselves capable of various new abilities mankind has longed for and yet also has managed to resolve through quick and easy to use technology as opposed to simply runes and waves of a stick. At least with magic though, one’s internet connection can never fail even in bad weather or bad conditions.

Darren mostly found himself inspired by simple folklore and myths of old which spoke of the feats of magic and its complex elegance, taking to magic like a fish to water, studying it in his free time by reading books too complex for him to understand at the library on the subject of magic and watching various videos of magic at work. His parents acknowledged his interest and allowed him to enter magical studies at the age of 10, Darren eventually creating his first foci, a staff channeling air magic. While not uncommon to make foci at such a young age among those who study magic, his air foci was unusual as he had foolishly tried to make a lightning magic and not an air foci, not knowing that lightning magic was not a form of magic as much as a combination of the fire and air forms of magic. As such, his staff looked abnormal compared to other air foci, the foci appearing more technological as opposed to the more standard themes of air, flight, and the sort. Still, he grew attached to it and it quickly became one of his most treasured possessions as he continued his studies on magic until the age of 13 when he was officially apprenticed to a Herman Gallagher.

Gallagher didn’t necessarily care much about his job of teaching Darren as much as having an assistant he could boss around at his leisure but it wasn’t bad for Darren, just very busy and tiring. Of course, Gallagher would teach him about the more practical side of magic, particularly that involving air and fire magic but Gallagher frequently would keep his lessons short so he could get back to his research, leaving Darren to his pre-assigned work and materials for Darren to teach himself with in his spare time, not that he really had any. If anything though, Darren learned to never interrupt Gallagher when he was at work, never questioning why his master would never allow him in his private workroom/study especially when Gallagher himself was in there. In time though, when Darren was 17, about 4 years into his 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days, Gallagher proposed to Darren a sort of trip for Gallagher to research some possible artifacts he had been studying in a recent tomb that was discovered in Eastern Europe. Glad to have some time outside his busy settings, Darren accepted although he barely had time to send word to his family and pack before Gallagher pushed him into a plane for the trip, the two flying to Eastern Germany.

Despite the tomb having been discovered according to Gallagher, Gallagher seemed to not be aware of the tomb’s location, referring to maps and journals frequently. It took three days of traveling and doubling back a few times to find the entrance of the tomb, a hole carved into a rock that Darren noticed was seemingly devoid of others despite being recently discovered and in the process of being investigated. Not only that, the tomb looked structurally unsound as though it had been quickly constructed and from its mouth, Darren felt something wrong emanating within it, simply wrong. Just as he began to show concern over his situation, Gallagher called Darren over with an unusual spherical object in hand and the next thing Darren knew, he found himself in a stone room with a stone casket in the center. It was illuminated only by a fire coming from one of his master’s foci, the foci clutched in what he assumed was the hand of his master and only the hand. After relieving himself and the contents of his stomach, he began to remember what happened to him, His master had a foci and told Darren to lead the way and open the casket for him. He walked into the tomb and after several chamber, he found himself in the same room he was in now, moving towards the casket despite hissing sounds coming from within. Something leapt from inside of it, it knocked him over. He hit his head, his master let out a gout of fire, a scream was heard, and then…then…

Darren didn’t understand what happened to him, not realizing he had been hypnotized, not realizing his master was a black mage with rather selfish intentions, and that he had just been used as bait to distract whatever was in the casket. Nervous and terrified, he took his master’s foci and began to leave when he caught a glimpse of something shining from the casket. Normally, he would have fled but something about almost brought him closer to that casket, brought him to what was an ebony and silver staff with something resembling a bag of black silk tied to its hilt. He could have not have taken the staff and bag and simply left but something compelled him to take them before he fled, this action changing his life forever.

Not knowing what else to do, Darren simply resided in the surrounding wilderness, wondering what had happened to him and yet too terrified to possibly leave his master behind. He stayed in the wilderness, living off the supplies he had brought with him, shaken as hell although as night fell, Darren found himself drawn to the silken bag along with ebony and silver staff he picked up. He found the bag was actually a cloak, the cloak holding two worn and weathered books, both handwritten in black ink. He went through the contents of both as the night went on, discovering that this was not the tomb of a simple magical person and the items he looted where by no means simple either. The first book he read was a journal made by a man who referred to himself only as The Keeper, a black mage who did horrible things to innocent people through black magic, particularly corrupting the souls of people and therefore turning them into monsters. While Darren knew about the origins of monsters, what proved interesting was how the mage reformed himself after one entity he created which he titled The Redeemer, failed to show the aggressive nature of regular monsters and instead showed the mage through a vision of the error of his ways by bombarding him with the pain they had felt when changed. From that point on, his work was devoted to restoring monsters back to humanity while sealing away those who were beyond his current powers, hoping that someone else could one day. The last bits of his journal detail his capture by former comrades of his who corrupted his soul, turning him into a monster who they intended to make a servant out of. However, they didn’t realize they had failed to corrupt him completely, his mind still remaining to a degree. With that, the entity killed his comrades before sealing himself, along with his work and foci, away in the casket Darren had disturbed, not wanting to hurt others when his mind finished deteriorating.

To say Darren was shocked would be an understatement as he took in the story from the page before him but he continued on with the second book. Inside was a compendium of the creatures The Keeper had created, detailing information about them as well as how to create them and reverse their conditions. However, the compendium was not simply just a list though as some images, almost photographic in appearance, shifted and moved as Darren realized this book was also where he had sealed away those entities which he could not yet restore to humanity, Darren promptly shutting the book and doing nothing except stew in his own thoughts.

Time passed. Darren was assumed dead by him family and the years rolled on. However, as time marched on, a figure began to pop up around the world in rumors and within the reports of various magical law enforcement agencies. It was a black mage who didn’t match his fellow companions in terms of their goals and instead defied them, capturing monsters and restoring those he could back to humanity. The mage was known to wear a black cloak of sorts along with three foci; one for magic fire, an unusual one for air magic, and one for black magic. He had no real name apparent from an alias he typically would introduce himself by, the person calling himself The Keeper…

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Magical Proficiency
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0-10 Scale with 1 being the ability of a new, inexperienced user, 5 being the abilities of an experienced and average user, and 10 being complete mastery over the skill. To receive a 0, the individual must have no basic knowledge about magic in general except in regards to white and black magic which requires advanced and specialized forms of knowledge on the subject. Just because a form/sub-form of magic may have a 1 in it however does not mean that the individual can just pick up an appropriate foci and start casting weak spells. It merely refers to the experience of the individual and knowledge of that form of magic.

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Elemental Forms/Domains of Magic
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Fire Magic – 5
Water Magic – 1
Air Magic – 7
Earth Magic – 1

Lightning Magic (Fire x Air) – 2
Power of Flight (Fire x Air) - 5

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Meta Forms/Domains of Magic
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White Magic – 0
”Blessed” Healing – 0
Creation / Corruption* – 0
Scrying** – 0
Sealing – 0
Soul Theft / Soul Restoration – 0
Summoning – 0
Teleportation - 0

Black Magic – 5
Creation / Corruption* – 5
Hypnosis / Illusion Conjuration – 5
Scrying** – 1
Sealing – 5
Soul Theft / Soul Restoration– 5
Summoning – 1
Teleportation – 1
Transformation*** - 5

*Creation / Corruption – This is a form of magic which corrupts an individual’s soul by influencing it through black and white magic. This process takes time to prepare for although the process itself is quite fast, faster than transformation as one doesn’t need to concern themselves with the mental state of the entity necessarily. Once done, if a subject was corrupted through white magic, it will typically disappear after a few moments as it returns to the “divine plane” but those created and corrupted through black magic remain and do become quite violent. Usually, hypnosis is require to reign in the entity and make it subservient.

**Scrying – Scrying cannot be used to see into the future or past and can only be used to look into the present. Higher levels of proficiency increase the range one can scry although it should be noted that while scrying, the individual must be fully devoted to the task and thus cannot divide their attention while scrying otherwise the spell fails.

***Transformation – Transformation is a particular form of Creation/Corruption magic in which a subject (whether it’s oneself or another doesn’t matter although it’s more difficult to perform on oneself) is turned into a creature or entity of some sort yet still maintains control of their body and of their mental facilities. This form of magic does take a significant amount of time to prepare for although the process itself is relatively fast. Some exceptions to this process exist though such a genies, demons, and angels as demons and angels are created through creation and corruption for the most part with individuals maintaining a twisted version of their personality in that it is altered and genies can’t be created through magic although some theorize that it may be possible if done on oneself although once they turn into a genie, they would stay stuck as one forever.