Octavius Draganarakta

Octavius stands with a calm demeanor, despite their status as a warrior and knight, they never seem too imposing but neither do they appear too timid. If anything, their presence seems rather silenced especially when among a crowd, but this does not completely erase them from everyone's attention. They're rather tall, standing at about 5'11" ft with a lithe frame; and what is most of their muscle mass usually hidden under loose-fitting clothes. Octavius possesses a surreal beauty but let this not deter anyone from how vicious they could get.

Much like the main family, Octavius possesses snowy white hair, grown all the way down to their lower back, gradually turning red as it reaches the tips as if they had been dipped into the color. They keep most of it tied up behind their neck on a casual day with part of the fringe falling over the sides of their face. The color of their blood red eyes contrast with their pale skin while accented with feathery lashes to match their reptilian pupils, and a beauty mark that appear under their right eye. Their fangs are long enough that they peek out from under their lips even with just a slight twitch at the corner of their lips.

Octavius has this sort of playful air around them but there's always that little hint of his high-class upbringing that gives away his status. On occasions they would dress sharply, always made sure not to have a wrinkle in their clothing, but at other more casual times, they would appear like they just decided to wear whatever they first pulled out from their closet and somehow managed to make it work in the end. They're very fond of wearing mostly aquatic colors.

Their dragon form is rather peculiar in comparison with other blood dragons. With a standing height of about 25 feet, and a length reaching 40 feet from head to tail, Octavius appears levels more intimidating than of their human form. Their body seems to lean towards the leaner build, their sleek red scales appearing rather smooth in their arrangement and possessing an odd sheen on them as if they had been painted on with blood. Some parts of their scales appear pale in comparison to the greater majority of their body, such as the area on their underbelly, and the membrane of their wings.

There is a notable lack of spike formations, with only a few appearing occasionally on the joints of their elbows, and their wings. The spiking around their crown gives them has the jagged appearance of most dragons, along with a pair of horns growing from their head, although their snout appears more elongated. Their wings span up to about 32 feet, which while, not very impressive to some, they make up for their sharp claws and fangs. Their mouth is filled with razor sharp teeth, with their fangs notably longer than the rest.​

The impression Octavius gives people is usually that of an extrovert; charismatic, confident, and in a way rather bold. The air they give off speaks levels of their family's ranking and it's usually hard to make it go away unless they've gotten to know the dragon themselves.

The thing is, Octavius is surprisingly rather child-like especially on a casual day. Their speech is sing-songy and never too forceful — although they wouldn't miss an opportunity to tease someone for some good fun. They know their bounds though and they often reserve their more personal "attacks" to those who they consider a close friend. Otherwise, they're pretty easy-going when found with a crowd. They're surprisingly guarded with their personal details despite their lively disposition.

For someone who's apparently a knight, Octavius deviates from all stereotypes of "knightly" personalities. It's true that they're usually polite, but Octavius is mainly a fun-loving dragon, and sometimes a bit too chatty and excitable. They can perform the role of a dignified knight when under the eyes of a more stately crowd, but otherwise, they really don't want to care that much.

While Octavius seems like the person who has it easy — they don't. Growing up under watchful eyes and expectations from family, Octavius is more than a little insecure of how they act. They usually come off pretty self-assured in front of a crowd but that is a well-practised facade of theirs. Each and every micro-motion they have are simply years of refined movement aiming to ease the critiques. They may have grown out of their shell as they got older but old habits die hard, especially when they've been heavily ingrained into one's psyche.

Octavius seems like they always have a pretty good grasp of people in situations but this isn't to say they know all the things going on around them. For half the time, they usually go about based on hunches and while they're very much aware that they can't rely entirely on intuition, it's something they can't help themselves with. At times they come off rather presumptuous, or even conceited but this is all without ill intention. They're rather open-minded and that's one of the things people would give them credit for.

They've been considered a genius where they're from, and they're a bit of a curious one too, sometimes unable to help themselves when curiosity strikes. They would either continue to ponder on things enough to distract them, or give in to the temptation and dig around for themselves. While it hasn't gotten them into trouble as of yet being their careful self, they've had some close calls.

They don't really seem like the type to lose their temper too quickly, but there's always a cap to these things. When angered, Octavius is a silent storm. They drop their lighthearted manners once they reach the end of their patience and would not hold back in their words.

Their personality takes a complete 180 once they've reached a point of breaking. From a being a charming stranger, Octavius can easily go into being a sadistic madman when they reach that point. They've done their part in preventing their little Hyde and Jekyll act from happening too often, at least.

Octavius has a rather wide set of skills and interests. They've never exactly been too interested in combat, but their combat and sword skills have been honed over the years that you can bet they could never have an accident when playing with swords. Their interests have varied over the years, usually changing up things and turning to a new avenue whenever they begin to get bored of one thing. They've recently got back to music and dance for some reason and they're rather skilled with it. They know more than just a few dance styles though they would say they have the tango as a particular favorite.​

Even with an apparent Blood Dragon heritage, Octavius possesses no ability over blood. If anything, they are actually under its control.

First and foremost, their blood has healing properties: a single drop can heal an incision up to 2 inches deep in seconds by letting it drip over the injury and allowing the blood to seep through. More serious injuries would require more blood and time proportional to the damage to be repaired. Their blood cannot recover lost limbs for others but it can speed up blood to clotting to stop excessive bleeding.

While it does not usually affect illnesses or anything else that isn't considered an injury or wound, the blood provides an invigorating feeling for anyone who feeds on it. The blood's magic may not apply to those who have weakness to healing such as a few types of undead beings but it may otherwise be potentially addictive when ingested.

Using their blood's magic for anything would cause them to feel lightheaded as with common side effects, but as the amount used comes closer to (2) pints, they will begin to feel starved — and not in the literal food way. The moment they reach this point is where they start exhibiting vampiric cravings of drinking the blood of others. It's believed to be a mutation of their bloodlust trait or possibly a vampire ancestry that had never been recorded.

Octavius tries to keep themselves from actively using the ability, although any effort of this doesn't completely remove blood in their diet on a periodic basis. Their intake of blood consists of at least about (1) pint of blood from any source (other than themselves, of course) every two weeks without the use of their magic. It has never been revealed publicly, but Octavius also has to drink a pint of dragon blood specifically at least once a month to help them be in control of the cravings. Otherwise, they'll more likely need to be drinking more often than they currently are.

If they don't respond to the blood cravings at any of these occasions, the starvation following after would be enough to drive them into a frenzy — the risk only growing worse the longer they resist it. They can potentially reach a point where they would blindly attack anyone until their hunger is sated at the worst. Drinking blood allows them to remain in control, but it does not provide them with added strengths or capabilities.

Unfortunately, this healing blood doesn't even work on them well enough to actually help. The increasing injuries that use their blood magic only make them hunger for blood of others, following the same side-effect of its use. All this without the added increase in physical power received from injuries that is normally common among blood dragons.

While Octavius's blood is magic, it doesn't escape susceptibility to illness. Their blood can keep their body from acquiring any illnesses, but it cannot heal itself magically, making it one of Octavius' weak points. They are required to keep watch of their blood's conditions from basic ones such as blood pressure and sugar levels, to more serious disorders. Any irregularities may lower the effectiveness of the magic and raising the side-effect risks.​

Octavius is born as a dragon and possess common draconian capabilities such as an inhuman strength, agility, durability, and enhanced senses. Their strength allows them to be able to lift objects nearly twice as heavy as they are with only a fair amount of effort (with respect to which form they are in), while their agility grants them quick movements comparable to those who are trained in the martial arts. Their durability keeps them on their feet, despite receiving injuries that would normally cripple.

Their enhanced senses is less on the basic sense but rather, a form of hyper-intuition. It's far from clairvoyance, but they can guess movements and events with a higher accuracy than normal. When it comes to combat, their hyper-intuition helps them respond appropriately to attacks, pairing up well their agility. While they are able to see past feint attacks, Octavius' hyper-intuition does not work well in crowds since they would have a hard time predicting who would be launching attacks in proper order to completely fend them off. On cases of events, Octavius can make solid guesses even with only a limited amount of information, provided that they follow a certain level of logic.

Octavius also possesses an increased healing rate much like the rest of their line, and works in combination with their type of blood magic. Because of this, healing is rather complex for Octavius, with some types of injuries having different recovery rate than others. The base would be comparable to twice the human healing rate. Open wounds like lacerations received from blades or avulsions (tearing damage to skin tissue) heal fairly quicker, only needing several hours to heal a considerably deep cut or repair the missing tissues. Injuries that do not bleed very much such as abrasions, certain sizes of puncture wounds, as well as closed wounds, take longer in comparison, needing a day or even more to recover from.

Losing limbs on the other hand can be recovered in a few days or more, depending on how violent they were removed from their body e.g., a cleanly severed limb by sword would have a faster rate that one that had been violently hacked off with a blunt object. They can recover almost any lost limbs and minor internal organs, but losing their head kills them permanently, as well as a stake through their heart. It's actually possible for them to bleed to death if there is too much injury to be healed at the given moment or if a relevant enchantment was placed on the weapon to stagger the healing (e.g. anti-dragon, magic nullifying, etc.). At the very least, their blood generation is rather impressive in comparison, being four times that of the average rate in humans.

Similar to that of the main family, Octavius has also inherited a sense of bloodlust in their system which comes to them rather differently from others. For one, it is split into two: the first of which being the vampiric hunger manifesting as a side-effect of their magic; and the second one being a toned down version of the typical lusting for violence and gore, which is more of a thrill-seeking tendency, like a craving for an adrenaline rush. While it comes off to most as simply a personality trait, extended periods of time without the high brought on by the rush actually worsens the craving, turning the need for harmless fun into something more perverse and sadistic. They can last up to a week before things get ugly.

Much like other dragons, Octavius has one human form they can shift into and remain in for an indefinite period of time. When in this human form, their strength will be reduced with respect to their size, but every other ability of theirs will remain constant such as their hyper-intuition, durability, and agility. Their fangs are particularly sharp in either forms, enough to pierce through skin with a single powerful bite.​

Octavius was the only child of the previous general of the Draganarakta's royal army and since their childhood, they had been raised to follow in their footsteps. For the most of their youth, most of what occupied Octavius' time was training and studying to become a fitting member of the army, much like their father. It would have been alright, but the pressures of being the only child of renowned general wasn't something they particularly liked.

They joined the army at the age of only 18, and fought alongside the Bloodied Prince in countless battles. Octavius was never able to step out of their father's shadow, and all the more did it weigh on their shoulders as the expectation followed them. As the decades passed, they became known for the brutality they showed when in battle, eventually gaining a reputation from it; whispers speak of them as an Angel of Carnage, heading to join in battle for the slaughtering.

They... also weren't too fond of it. Octavius learned how the bloodlust had control over them when they where in the midst of battle, among many other instances, and it became their identity to others who would bear witness to their battles. As their reputation grew in influence, so did their dislike for it. They tried to hide in the shadows, not wanting to be seen as a senseless murderer. Octavius withdrew from many others but one person.

Ildefons was the only person who would have known their struggles. They met often in the training grounds late into the night, their blades crossing in mock battles. It was the only time they would speak to each other, ignoring everything be it the time, or their status. Ildefons told them of his secrets, and to him of their own. They became each other's confidants, trusting no one else.

Octavius became an accomplice to the prince, and not unknowingly. They helped Ildefons when he snuck out into the cities nearby, covered his tracks and forged his alibis, and many others. The only one time they had done something for him that had not reached Ildefons' knowledge was when they had proposed for him to go with the crowned prince, Alaric to Manta Carlos in his search of the exiled sister, Aricia.

That had been two years ago. Now, Octavius was sent to Manta Carlos himself to watch over Ildefons, after the return of the two elder Draganaraktas to their kingdom. They're quite sure the prince wouldn't really be needing them to look after him though.​