Age: 24
Race: Nu Mou
Gender: Male
Appearance: Eckert is a very young Nu Mou, still straying far from the realm of 30s. In comparison to many other Nu Mou whom have spent numerous years studying their crafts Eckert sports very fair skin. Very few blemishes cover his well-groomed, gray furry hide. For one well studied in his particular field of magical arts, a few might suspect that Eckert would have wear and tear under his eyes from numerous hours of studying, but he has managed to avoid such a fate thanks to a few lotions he keeps on his person to maintain his looks. Like most Nu Mou, Eckert has a more hefty appearance and tends to walk around at a relaxed pace as a result.
As for attire, Eckert is very partial to robes, particularly those of a gray variety since they blend excellently with his body color. He typically has a carrying bag slung over a shoulder where he will store his books, writing utensils, as well as any smaller trinkets he happens upon. Resting in one hand is his trusty wooden staff, the instrument from which he directs his powers as well as a walking instrument to help him trudge along to his destination. Underneath his robes he also wears a comfortable pair of sandals to keep his feet cushioned.
Personality: Due to the numerous years of neglect by his parents and siblings Eckert holds onto two things tightly, his sarcasm and his need for attention. For Eckert, each of these important gifts leads to the other constantly. Eckert will usually throw out dry remarks toward those who are in charge, eagerly desiring the negative reaction that would cause them to pay further attention to the smug little Nu Mou. He doesn?t care if they hate him, nor if they love him. He just enjoys their enraged faces. At least? that what he tells others.
Eckert always strives to make a good first impression with looks, and so takes his appearance very seriously. He uses skin cream to maintain youth while also tending to his own clothing to ensure that they don?t gain any long standing stains. With his organized mindset he also ensures a strict discipline with the few items on his person. He keep his books dust free and ensures that his bag strap isn?t worn out too much. Due to his particular upbrings Eckert often refuses to lend out any items to even close friends. At most he?ll lend out a few gold, all while keep tracking of his finances and ensuring that the lender will pay him back? one way or another.
While he has free time Eckert takes time to enjoy reading. While his first and primary objective is his tome of undeath, he has grown fascinated with another book, The Many Flavors of Spring. Eckert claims that it helps calm his mind at times, and helps to remind him of the place he met Jasper.
Eckert's Tale
~Ties that Supposedly Bind~
Born to Hyton Dravius and Mara Dravius, Eckert was the seventh in a line of siblings, consisting mainly of males. From an early age Eckert was conditioned into believing that he was special, that his destiny would be filled with greatness which would excel the Dravius? family into that of legends. Such words were not based on written prophecy though. Hyton Dravius had been born as a powerful mage and for many years had been active at the forefront of one of the most respected magical clans within Ivalice. Many within the magical community grew to believe that Hyton and Mara?s union would yield very powerful mages who would quickly be snapped up by the most powerful of the orders.
At first, that grew to be the case. At the age of five Eckert?s elder brother, Clamont, left home to join the Order of Gavajin. One by one, within the next two years, Eckert lost each and every brother as they left to serve the military for the good of Ivalice. The house was left rather quiet at that point. With only the company of his parents and his two elder sisters, Eckert had little to do. His sisters would depart from the house and were abhorred by the mere idea of entertaining their littlest brother. His father was busy writing his memoirs and couldn?t be bothered. His mother was as old as his father, but lacked the energy his father had and so often instructed Eckert to play by himself.
~The Start of Temptation~
One day, Eckert decided to play outside in the fields their house was surrounded by. It just so happened on this day that a nasty storm passed through the area. Eckert had felt rain before, but the sheer volume of it, combined with the thick darkness of the clouds ahead, resulted in him losing his way back to the house. He had to make a detour into a cave where he waited out the rest of the storm. It just so happened that another lived within this cave, an elderly Hume by the name of Jasper. While at first fearful of the stranger, Jasper?s calm tone and friendly nature eased Eckert over, and soon the two were chatting while they waited for the storm to pass. Jasper was intrigued that a member of the Dravius family would come down this far along the plains. Eckert was more than eager to finally let out his overboiling thoughts and let loose all of his ideas about his family?s busy schedule.
The sight of the small, angrily flailing, Nu Mou caused Jasper to chuckle and as the storm passed he helped lead Eckert back to his family?s estate, but he told the Nu Mou to not alert his family to the Hume?s presence. In due time, they could meet again. When Eckert arrived back home he wasn?t greeted, hugged, or doted over. In fact, his mother was sound asleep, his sisters were busy in their own rooms, and his father hadn?t so much as remembered his earlier shout of how he was heading out to the fields. It was then that Eckert realized that in this house, he truly was alone.
~The Pupil Years~
Ever since that stormy day Eckert grew further and further detached from his family. Whenever his brothers would visit during holidays they would hardly acknowledge him. His sisters had grown and had been married off. For ten years he was passed over? until finally he was of the ripe age of eighteen. The age when he could properly begin practicing magic. All of a sudden his family grew interested in him again. His brothers would take personal vacations to come back home and strive to sway their brother to their particular brand of magic, and so recruit him to the order they had pledged allegiance toward. His father became more strict and handed him book after book detailing magical theory and application.
What none of them knew was that Eckert already had been practicing magic.
During the ten long years of entrapment at the estate Eckert had found time every now and then to slip out of the doors and to rush down to the fields, specifically to the cozy cave that Jasper termed ?home?. At first Jasper simply bonded with Eckert. The two would talk at first about his family, but Jasper would quickly shift toward knowing more about Eckert. He wanted to know about the Nu Mou?s hobbies, his thoughts, his dreams. With no one else to talk to, Eckert was more than eager to let out his bottled up thoughts and told Jasper all about himself. Two months between meetings soon shrunk to only one month? then to two weeks, then eventually to Eckert meeting with Jasper every day.
Eckert would always make sure none followed him as he would meet with his best friend. Finally, during his twelfth year of life Jasper presented to Eckert a book. The tome was labeled ?The Affinity of Undeath?, and listed out instructions on how to cast magical energies that would resurrect that of dead tissue. At first, Eckert was unnerved by the tome, but with Jasper?s encouragement he took it and smuggled it into his home. Every night he would pull it out from under his bed and engage himself in learning about the art of necromancy. Whenever Eckert would visit Jasper the Hume would present him with an animal corpse and have him work to bring the creature back to life. By the age of fifteen Eckert could easily snap his fingers and raise up to five corpses at a time.
And all the while his parents never noticed a thing. Deep down Eckert hoped that one of them would notice him coming in home late, or barge into his room late at night demanding to know why he was still awake. By the his eighteenth year, however, that desire had long since faded away. He saw that his family considered him nothing but an asset. A tool that would only bring his father greater status if he could successfully convince Eckert to join a high ranking order, similar to his brothers. The mere thought generated anger within Eckert?s heart, more so when his family poured attention on him when it suited their agenda most. At that point, Eckert?s heart snapped.
~Fires that Burn~
During his eighteenth year Eckert had to take cover behind a mask to hide his true feelings from his family. His brothers and parents would not stop badgering him about magic and which order to join. It was so bad that a few of his brothers recruited his sisters to join in as well. Every day Eckert would grit his teeth and withstand the numerous points presented to him with little chance to argue back. One day, his willpower faded and he ran out, hoping to seek refuge in Jasper?s cave. Of course, this time in his need to flee he was easily followed by one of his sisters. Jasper, realizing that she would leave to inform Eckert?s parents, struck out and killed her.
Many years ago Eckert would have been horrified by the attack. With the numerous years of conditioning that Jasper has subjugated him to, he instead eagerly inquired if his sister could be the first intellectual mind he could resurrect. And so, on the eve of 6th day of Coppersun, began Eckert?s true descent into madness.
~The Journey~
With Eckert?s disappearance and their sister having gone missing, the sons of the Dravius dynasty gathered together and began to lead search parties for their blood relatives. The only problem was that they were looking in the wrong places. Jasper and Eckert set out to the nearby Zaland. With numerous undead creatures under Eckert?s control they started attacking a few passing migrants, namely those who looked strong enough to become powerful undead. Bit by bit their forces grew as Eckert led the growing army to Bethla. The soldiers that encountered them fought against the creatures, but with Eckert?s practiced focus more and more soldiers fell, causing the strength of his undead forces to rise. However, Eckert didn?t finish off the remaining soldiers. Instead, he moved on as the still living survivors naturally took to sending messengers to inform the crown of what was happening to the south. All the while, Eckert happily proclaimed his birth name to the few he spared, as well as his new title of ?
The Bringer of Undeath?.
With the war against Ordallia still being waged the queen could not turn her attention toward Eckert?s chaos. Instead, she assigned the Order of the White Flame the task of handling the undead menace. Given that one of Eckert?s brothers, Richard Dravius, had joined the order, it was decided that they could use the idea of familial relations to quell Eckert?s destruction. The plan didn?t work. Richard was seriously injured as the few members that had traveled with him quickly retreated. Eckert took the time to move his army further into Ivalice, attacking any soldiers they found to add their strength to his ranks. All the while Jasper kept up regular meetings with Eckert, encouraging the Nu Mou to claim more and more in his name. The city of Dorter was spared, more so due to the fact that the concerned ruling class had paid out a hefty fee to Eckert in exchange for peace.
Just when Eckert thought his rule was beginning the Order appeared again, this time with far larger numbers and no longer playing around. They struck hard and fast at the undead horde, using their holy spells to rip the army that Eckert had spent a year building into nothing but meaty pieces. At the end, Jasper had been slain and Eckert was at the mercy of a sword tip by none other than Richard. Instead of killing him, Richard ordered the destruction of his undead horde and took his brother into custody. A bit of news had been spread about Eckert as the young Nu Mou eagerly basked in the public?s outrage, considering it a ?win? for him. He had figured that he would have been stopped after a month or so, so simply outlasting for a year and even getting a trade city to pay him a bribe for not attacking was a plus in his book!
The various orders gathered and inquired the brothers and Hyton himself about Eckert?s life, soon finding out for themselves just how little he had been paid attention to. The orders gathered for his sentence and offered Eckert one of two choices. Death? or life in subjugation.
Eckert begrudgingly chose life.
It was here that he was presented to the Order of Moonshroud as their prisoner and underwent a ritual. The order placed a Geas upon him, a set of magical compulsions that works as follows :
- He could not harm any living beings unless they sought him harm first hand
- He could not disobey any order given to him by the crown, nor by any order member, nor by any of his commanding officers
- He must always seek to protect Ivalice, its lands, and the citizens residing in said lands
It was soon revealed to Eckert why he had been purposefully kept alive. A project had been started some time back. He was to join it, and gain fabulous powers from it. He was to be an asset used for the crown?s purpose in protecting the whole of Ivalice. Unable to back out now, the Nu Mou underwent the experimentation, watching as those around him died from what he described as pure torture. Yet, he survived.
As Eckert was released into Kingmarch he learned that the lesser soldiers termed the other ?graduates? of the project as demon knights. For Eckert, however, he gained a different, albeit spiteful, nickname, ?
The Lich?.
Class(es): Necromancer
His Possessions
Staff of Whispers :
Unique Staff A staff gifted to Eckert by Jasper. This staff increases the range of Eckert?s Necromancy spells, ensuring he doesn?t have to get too close to the action to be effective.
Gray Robes :
Common Clothing A pair of gray robes that Eckert wears. Apart from keeping him warm in colder temperatures it also ensures he is kept civilized by not showing every inch of his hide.
The Affinity of Undeath :
Unique Tome A book detailing the ways one can control the undead, this book also lists numerous basic and advanced spells for turning a battlefield of corpses in your favor.
The Many Flavors of Spring :
Common Book A rather popular book by Samuel Witherhound. The book lists out the numerous facts of the spring season, particularly those regarding growing foliage, protection of crops, and how the wildlife reacts to the passing season. Oddly enough, this particular book looks a tad bit bigger than other versions.
Coin Pouch :
Common Equipment : A coin pouch that carries any denomination of coins.
Carrying bag :
Common Equipment : A bag that carries all of Eckert?s books, as well as smaller trinkets he comes along during his travels.
Rejuvenating Lotions :
Common Potion : Several rather inexpensive skin creams that Eckert uses weekly. These help remove blemishes from under his eyes and help him keep a youthful appearance.
His Skills
CLASS SKILLS
Active/INFECTION : Infection is a spell that inflicts Zombification on the target, an uncurable status ailment that turns the target into a zombie. Zombified units take 200% damage from holy-based spells and are hurt by curative spells such as Cure. The ailment can only be removed by incapacitating the victim and then reviving them.
Passive/NECRONOMICON : Every new Necromancer is given a copy of the Necronomicon, a comprehensive tome on how to manipulate dark energy and the dead, and the Necromancer's ultimate reference to all that has to do with their art. While it mostly gives details on how to perform resurrections and other spells associated with the dead correctly, it also gives directions on how to access parallel planes and utilize the arts of the Doomcaster. As such, it bestows upon the Necromancer the ability to inherently access Low-tier and Mid-tier Doomcast.
Demonfacter/VIRULENT MAN [EX+] : A powerful technique that uses a corpse as a catalyst to summon the Virulent Man, a powerful being of unknown origins (although most Necromancers theorize that he is a manifestation of Phantom, an old pagan god from the same pantheon as the ones summoned by the Elder). The Virulent Man, once summoned, will cast a variety of debuff spells (most commonly Slow, Stop, Poison, and Doom, although on occasion he will cast Break). He is completely impervious to all damage, physical and magical, and thus his spells cannot be stopped, only cured. Furthermore, because few have ever studied necromancy so thoroughly that they have the ability to summon the Virulent Man, his existence is not widely known. This is extremely deadly, because those who make the mistake of trying to attack him will instantly face his retaliation: a Death spell. The Virulent Man will stay on the battlefield for a period of five minutes, continuously spreading status ailments to the opposition until his time is up and his spirit leaves the host cadaver.
PERSONAL SKILLS
Active/COME TO THE LIGHT [B-]: Eckert can impart a death whisper across the battlefield. Any enemies that hear the whisper and are unconscious will lose the will to live and become deceased. The higher the rank, the further the whisper can travel.
Active/BOUND TOGETHER [B+]: Eckert can target two or more dead corpses that have been torn apart and command the dead tissue to fuse together, creating an undead abomination. To create a far more capable servant, Eckert must have at least four limbs, a abdomen, and a head. The higher the rank, the more successful the skill, as well as taking less time for the fusion to complete.
Active/MEMORIES OF THE FLESH [C]: Upon touching a corpse or undead Eckert will be able to see the corpse?s last memories before death. This is useful especially during missions or jobs where he is ordered to not raise any undead. Higher ranks allows him to see back further in time.
Passive/UNDEAD REASONING [A]: Eckert is one to enjoy a bit of banter with his undead minions. Whenever Eckert raises a being from death that undead will be capable of speech and intelligent thought, but will be unable to think disloyal thoughts. Higher ranks will give greater levels of intelligence to the undead.
Passive/SENSE OF DEATH : Eckert can sense when death happens nearby, and the direction from where it takes place. Higher ranks allows him to sense death further and further away.
Demon Factor/RIFT OF DEATH [EX+]: Eckert can channel his entire focus into opening a portal to the land of the dead. A powerful wind will try and suck his foes into the portal. After one minute the portal will seal shut.
Demon Factor/???? [EX+]: Eckert has been observed to survive certainly events that would certainly doom others to a quick grave, such as assassinations. Funnily enough, it often is his attacker that ends up deceased instead. Many are unsure as to how he manages to keep living, with a few pointing out that as a necromancer he knows a bit about how a soul travels to the realm of death. It is entirely possible that Eckert has managed to figure out a means to immortality? or perhaps that?s the fearful public talking?
~Roleplay Sample, AKA A Story of Time Before~
Silence was what he hated. For so long he had lived within the walls, only knowing of silence. Today was different though. Today there was much noise. And all of it was for? him.
?Hey, get your fat ass up! We?re moving ya!?
Eckert?s mouth formed into a coy smirk as he stood, grasping his staff, ?Oh my, moving me? This must be the greatest day of your life, my dear jailor~? He cooed to the Bangaa. ?I bet you?re not prepared in the slightest for the fun everyone?ll be having.?
The reptile snarled, ?Get your legs moving. Now. If I had any right sense I would just shove you out there and let the mob deal with you.?
?But that would so make Ivalice a horrible place, wouldn?t it?? Eckert asked, his voice dripping with sarcastic venom. ?And you would be out of a job.?
The Bangaa shoved on his back, earning a wince of pain from Eckert. ?I said move it!? He snapped out angrily.
Eckert chuckled, enjoying how easy it was to ruffle his jailor up. He made his way to the door where a detachment of guards stood ready. Most glared at the Nu Mou through their iron clad masks while others had learned to not pay any attention to him. Eckert ruffled his robes a bit, ?So, are we going to head out to the adoring public? Or will we cower inside?? He inquired, a teasing quality in his tone.
?Let?s move out! Ring formation!? The leading Hume shouted out, not paying Eckert a lick of attention.
The necromancer truly hoped the Hume would die out there. He was so? boring.
The guards surrounded Eckert and began to march out of the doors. A throng of people had gathered outside, wasting no time at all to start tossing all manner of objects at Eckert. ?Go to hell!?
?Murderer!?
?Yes yes, thank you~? Eckert gracefully replied to the jeering crowd, taking the time to peel an orange off his face to chew upon. Free breakfast, what could be better!? ?Remember! It?s Eckert DRAVIUS! Just like my FATHER, HYTON! Do remember that, and give your thanks to him for raising me!? He shouted out to the crowd, only earning more jeers and screams.
The guards kept a tight formation as they led him toward the city gates where larger crowds had formed. Eckert took the entire scene in heart, taking the time to grab any fruit thrown his way to save for later. From what had been told to him, it would be a long journey to get to their destination? wherever that was. Honestly he hoped it was far more entertaining than this pot shot of a city. Unfortunately the city gates weren?t entertaining enough. Although enough things had been thrown he honestly had been hoping for some blood to fly, or a protester or two to come in with a knife only to be tossed back by the guards. He was left extremely disappointed.
Outside though were several wagons waiting for them, along with his new guards. ?Hehe, well this is an entourage indeed! All for little me? You shouldn?t have~? The Nu Mou playfully swung a hand in the air to emulate his ?embarrassment?.
A bangaa approached, ?Prisoner Eckert, you are to remain within this wagon while we transport you to Fort Besselat. Once we arrive there you will be properly turned over to Kingmarch. Do you understand??
Eckert?s eyes twinkled in the light, ?Oh! I see! Haha, no wonder why I was kept in the dark.? A slick smirk slithered along his lips, ?My oh my, five years. Five years since I almost laid waste to that fort. I wonder if they?ll remember me??
The lizard snorted and shoved him forward, ?In. Now.?
?I?m going, lizzie~ Sheesh.? The Nu Mou made his way into the wagon as the door was slammed shut behind him. It was barren inside, only holding a thin blanket on the floor. He snorted and set his pack down as the wagon began to move. Reaching inside he pulled out one particular book and began to scan over it, ?Now? spring time, show me what I need to see.? He murmured as he flipped it open and drifted off to a more informative world.