Name: Hedi van Essche
Age: 232
Birthday: November 7[sup]th[/sup]
Gender: male
Species: demon
Category: student
Class: college student
College Major: experimental magic, Hedi is essentially the magical equivalent of a graduate student, largely able to pursue his own research and has been repeatedly published on the topic, and is in the process of applying for some form of employment with the academy
Appearance Description: One look at Hedi tells you there’s something up with him. Gleaming red eyes that seem to change in structure every now and then are mostly hidden by a messy yet somehow dignified mop of black hair. His porcelain skin is perfectly unmarked, to a strange extent. His hands appear to have a strangely predatory quality, and his nails vary in color, on some days black, on others red, but on most, perfectly normal. These features give a ghoulish air to his tall and lanky build, he measures about six feet tall, but weighs a mysteriously light eighty pounds, though he looks more or less healthy. Of course, hidden under this layer of slightly out of the ordinary teenage boy is a strange demonic entity. Jet black, shadowy and inconsistent, and generally taking the form of a birdlike creature, Hedi’s demonic self is locked up inside his soft exterior. Two glowing red eyes poke out of the shadowy mass, atop a spindly winged frame that stands at about seven feet. The form it takes is inconsistent but can generally be trusted to be spindly, birdlike, and disturbingly constructed.
Personality Description: Hedi’s personality is largely the result of a great deal of shame with himself. He’s a narcissist in the most craven sense of the word, everything he does is based around acquiring either approval or some form of social capital. Sometimes a little too eager for the approval of others, Hedi has carefully crafted a self-image of cool and collected gentleman of culture, but this is more or less entirely fraudulent and he’s something of a try hard who loses his temper easily. Being a demon, he chemically has no actual capacity for things like empathy or love, (and is in fact usually giving out a fairly creepy “I’d really enjoy murdering you” vibe) but sometimes approximates similar attitudes out of self-interest or for strange occult reasons. He is obsessive about his image not only in social terms, but in the literal sense, always keen on wearing ridiculously expensive clothing and keeping his grooming up to date. Beyond being a painfully moderately awful person, he’s a genuinely keen study and his dedication to his various hobbies is mildly impressive.
Species Abilities: Hedi is from a particularly deep pit of the underworld, one inhabited by vaguely abstract demons, and so his physical traits tend to be strange. Being constructed largely out of nefarious energies and strange substances, he’s noticeably stronger than the average human, despite his slight weight. He’s also capable of floating around at any time, nothing really impressive, mostly he uses it to appear more otherworldly than he is, but when he lets himself lapse back into his more crude self, he is capable of full flight and is physically strong enough to do things like tearing bodies to shreds and ripping sections of walls out. This is only accessible to him while he's in hell, or if he's invoked a section of hell into reality, as he does not otherwise have the necessary strength to assume this form.
Besides this physical prowess, Hedi is cursed with a variety of unbecoming weaknesses. For one, he can’t stand religious iconography, set foot on holy ground without a painful and overly complicated level of preparation, or even really hear the word god without getting annoyed. As far as his demonic powers go, they’re totally useless in daylight, he can still float around and whatnot, but is incapable of really using any sort of heightened strenght. He’s extremely sensitive to things like silver and holy water, and is generally prone to becoming violently ill when exposed to any of these things.
As a demon, Hedi can be invoked by any enterprising magician of the dark variety. Whether or not this is a huge disadvantage depends on the magician, but he often disappears for weeks at a time, coming back only after having served the whims of some usually far too big for his britches magician who thinks he’s awfully clever.
Hedi’s dietary habits are rather demanding, he eats fresh hearts to keep himself in functioning order. This is generally satisfied with goats and whatnot, because it’s tricky to randomly murder humans, but this limits his general health and strength, he hasn’t been himself since moving to an island where attempting to rip someone’s heart out would probably result in having some sort of spell or paranormal power thrown at him.
Powers: Complex Spellcasting. Hedi’s spellcasting is strange, partially based in science and partially based in occultism, but relies mostly on exploiting his access to a variety of dimensions. As far as practical spells go, it’s an extremely complex field so despite his advanced age, he’s only really mastered a few. He casts these spells using a combination of strange words and a ring, which has no real special properties, but has been made into a “focus” of sorts, allowing him to more effectively channel his magic.
- He has been able to understand and manipulate the relationality between the demonic realm and the “real world”, which manifests itself in the ability to manifest bits of them in each other. This is severely limited, at most able to alter the space of say, a regular high school classroom, but is extremely useful when done properly. This is achieved with a combination of occultist invocation and magical messing around with the relation between different planes of existence, and results in a sort of “swap” between a section of the human world and a part of the demonic world. Hellfire, swirling dark energies, and a perfectly suitable environment for his demonic form are brought into existence for a limited time, usually only around five minutes, and in this case he generally has free reign. This generally requires quite a bit of power, and he’s only capable of doing it once a week or so, as it requires a tremendous amount of exertion, and tends to draw the ire of other demons.
- As a less radical form of the spell discussed above, provided something is within sight, Hedi can “cut” a small opening into the demonic world into it, resulting in the eruption of hell fire into it. This isn’t a skill he’s practiced often, and is something of a hastily concocted self-defense measure that came out of a variety of dodgy situations. The size of this opening usually can’t exceed that of a manhole cover, and he generally can’t muster the energy to use it more than a few times in a row. Think of it is a fireball that rather than being thrown, is evoked.
- Hedi has a fairly advanced degree of control over his fluctuating dimensional position. He’s capable of sending himself more or less freely to the demonic realm, although he rarely makes use of this power unless it’s absolutely necessary in some search for knowledge or an artifact.
Common Magic. Hedi is not one to neglect the mundane things, and is fairly capable with mundane physical magic, the sort which involves the movement and manipulation of objects. These spells are largely simple and not powerful, and so require not much more than a wave of his hand to cast.
- Hedi is able to manipulate small objects with this physical magic, capable of picking a lock or deftly removing a small object from some place.
- When pressed, Hedi is capable of exerting some degree of force using this, able to blow open a door or throw someone across a room, although it isn’t anything that he wouldn’t be able to do physically himself, given his demonic physiology.
Biography: The genesis of Hedi Van Essche is a strange tale. Although most demons are either naturally born or have existed since time immemorial, his “birth” was the result of magical interference. A fairly inexperienced spell caster living in Amsterdam near the end of the 1700s was attempting to summon a demon, but failed to properly name what he was invoking. This resulted in the summoning of a random collection of tumultuous demonic energy, which proceeded to overpower the magician, mangle his body, reconstruct it, and be bound to it by a strange clause in the spell which had brought it forth. This resulted in quite a few years of a very confused seemingly spontaneously generated demon going around eating peasants in the countryside.
“Hedi” would probably have remained a minor demon to be eventually slain by some brave adventurer were it not for the intervention of a coven of witches into his life. At this point not really capable of much reasoning beyond an instinctive hunger, Hedi’s brutal rampage throughout the lowlands was halted by his being summoned by a coven, once again in Amsterdam. Upon realizing the origins of the creature they had evoked, the witches took it upon themselves, whether out of kindness or a desire for a unique servant, an effort to stabilize him. One witch in particular, who only ever referred to herself as Anne (rather wisely, as an improperly bound demon can do quite a lot of damage with a real name) seemed to take a shine to him. She gave him his name, Hedi van Essche, for largely unknown reasons, but it stuck. His time with this coven would prove to be formative, teaching him quite a lot about human society, how to think and reason as well as magical techniques. He was still fairly undeveloped though, and Anne’s rather lewd interest in him would prove to be the coven’s undoing. Hedi accidentally snapped her neck, and had to proceed to kill the rest of the coven, out of some strange instinct. As their spell was broken, he felt himself being pulled back to the demonic world, one of which he had little memory.
The next hundred or so years of his existence were spent learning the ins and outs of demon society, studying dark magic, and frankly having little to no fun. Demons were a strange sort, either obsessed with murder or ridiculously intense and serious about some cosmic duty to be evil. He was an anomaly, and although he did find friends and teachers in the demonic realm, he had little real connection to it. As a collection of dark energies, he was really fairly free to bounce around a variety of “hells”, ones which he theorized were really all connected somehow, but who knows, all that stuff was a mess to figure out anyway. His main motivation for returning to the human world was an interest in this strange island of Manta Carlos. A vast collection of magical knowledge, as well as a fairly modern set of institutions? It seemed perfect, he could live decadently, pretend to live all high society, and maybe find some sort of grander purpose in his existence.
He appeared rather suddenly and is still largely without friends, but has made a happy little niche for himself on the island. He studies at the Academy at a very advanced level, attempting to work out complex magical issues relating to the connections and fault lines between various worlds.
Age: 232
Birthday: November 7[sup]th[/sup]
Gender: male
Species: demon
Category: student
Class: college student
College Major: experimental magic, Hedi is essentially the magical equivalent of a graduate student, largely able to pursue his own research and has been repeatedly published on the topic, and is in the process of applying for some form of employment with the academy
Appearance Description: One look at Hedi tells you there’s something up with him. Gleaming red eyes that seem to change in structure every now and then are mostly hidden by a messy yet somehow dignified mop of black hair. His porcelain skin is perfectly unmarked, to a strange extent. His hands appear to have a strangely predatory quality, and his nails vary in color, on some days black, on others red, but on most, perfectly normal. These features give a ghoulish air to his tall and lanky build, he measures about six feet tall, but weighs a mysteriously light eighty pounds, though he looks more or less healthy. Of course, hidden under this layer of slightly out of the ordinary teenage boy is a strange demonic entity. Jet black, shadowy and inconsistent, and generally taking the form of a birdlike creature, Hedi’s demonic self is locked up inside his soft exterior. Two glowing red eyes poke out of the shadowy mass, atop a spindly winged frame that stands at about seven feet. The form it takes is inconsistent but can generally be trusted to be spindly, birdlike, and disturbingly constructed.
Personality Description: Hedi’s personality is largely the result of a great deal of shame with himself. He’s a narcissist in the most craven sense of the word, everything he does is based around acquiring either approval or some form of social capital. Sometimes a little too eager for the approval of others, Hedi has carefully crafted a self-image of cool and collected gentleman of culture, but this is more or less entirely fraudulent and he’s something of a try hard who loses his temper easily. Being a demon, he chemically has no actual capacity for things like empathy or love, (and is in fact usually giving out a fairly creepy “I’d really enjoy murdering you” vibe) but sometimes approximates similar attitudes out of self-interest or for strange occult reasons. He is obsessive about his image not only in social terms, but in the literal sense, always keen on wearing ridiculously expensive clothing and keeping his grooming up to date. Beyond being a painfully moderately awful person, he’s a genuinely keen study and his dedication to his various hobbies is mildly impressive.
Species Abilities: Hedi is from a particularly deep pit of the underworld, one inhabited by vaguely abstract demons, and so his physical traits tend to be strange. Being constructed largely out of nefarious energies and strange substances, he’s noticeably stronger than the average human, despite his slight weight. He’s also capable of floating around at any time, nothing really impressive, mostly he uses it to appear more otherworldly than he is, but when he lets himself lapse back into his more crude self, he is capable of full flight and is physically strong enough to do things like tearing bodies to shreds and ripping sections of walls out. This is only accessible to him while he's in hell, or if he's invoked a section of hell into reality, as he does not otherwise have the necessary strength to assume this form.
Besides this physical prowess, Hedi is cursed with a variety of unbecoming weaknesses. For one, he can’t stand religious iconography, set foot on holy ground without a painful and overly complicated level of preparation, or even really hear the word god without getting annoyed. As far as his demonic powers go, they’re totally useless in daylight, he can still float around and whatnot, but is incapable of really using any sort of heightened strenght. He’s extremely sensitive to things like silver and holy water, and is generally prone to becoming violently ill when exposed to any of these things.
As a demon, Hedi can be invoked by any enterprising magician of the dark variety. Whether or not this is a huge disadvantage depends on the magician, but he often disappears for weeks at a time, coming back only after having served the whims of some usually far too big for his britches magician who thinks he’s awfully clever.
Hedi’s dietary habits are rather demanding, he eats fresh hearts to keep himself in functioning order. This is generally satisfied with goats and whatnot, because it’s tricky to randomly murder humans, but this limits his general health and strength, he hasn’t been himself since moving to an island where attempting to rip someone’s heart out would probably result in having some sort of spell or paranormal power thrown at him.
Powers: Complex Spellcasting. Hedi’s spellcasting is strange, partially based in science and partially based in occultism, but relies mostly on exploiting his access to a variety of dimensions. As far as practical spells go, it’s an extremely complex field so despite his advanced age, he’s only really mastered a few. He casts these spells using a combination of strange words and a ring, which has no real special properties, but has been made into a “focus” of sorts, allowing him to more effectively channel his magic.
- He has been able to understand and manipulate the relationality between the demonic realm and the “real world”, which manifests itself in the ability to manifest bits of them in each other. This is severely limited, at most able to alter the space of say, a regular high school classroom, but is extremely useful when done properly. This is achieved with a combination of occultist invocation and magical messing around with the relation between different planes of existence, and results in a sort of “swap” between a section of the human world and a part of the demonic world. Hellfire, swirling dark energies, and a perfectly suitable environment for his demonic form are brought into existence for a limited time, usually only around five minutes, and in this case he generally has free reign. This generally requires quite a bit of power, and he’s only capable of doing it once a week or so, as it requires a tremendous amount of exertion, and tends to draw the ire of other demons.
- As a less radical form of the spell discussed above, provided something is within sight, Hedi can “cut” a small opening into the demonic world into it, resulting in the eruption of hell fire into it. This isn’t a skill he’s practiced often, and is something of a hastily concocted self-defense measure that came out of a variety of dodgy situations. The size of this opening usually can’t exceed that of a manhole cover, and he generally can’t muster the energy to use it more than a few times in a row. Think of it is a fireball that rather than being thrown, is evoked.
- Hedi has a fairly advanced degree of control over his fluctuating dimensional position. He’s capable of sending himself more or less freely to the demonic realm, although he rarely makes use of this power unless it’s absolutely necessary in some search for knowledge or an artifact.
Common Magic. Hedi is not one to neglect the mundane things, and is fairly capable with mundane physical magic, the sort which involves the movement and manipulation of objects. These spells are largely simple and not powerful, and so require not much more than a wave of his hand to cast.
- Hedi is able to manipulate small objects with this physical magic, capable of picking a lock or deftly removing a small object from some place.
- When pressed, Hedi is capable of exerting some degree of force using this, able to blow open a door or throw someone across a room, although it isn’t anything that he wouldn’t be able to do physically himself, given his demonic physiology.
Biography: The genesis of Hedi Van Essche is a strange tale. Although most demons are either naturally born or have existed since time immemorial, his “birth” was the result of magical interference. A fairly inexperienced spell caster living in Amsterdam near the end of the 1700s was attempting to summon a demon, but failed to properly name what he was invoking. This resulted in the summoning of a random collection of tumultuous demonic energy, which proceeded to overpower the magician, mangle his body, reconstruct it, and be bound to it by a strange clause in the spell which had brought it forth. This resulted in quite a few years of a very confused seemingly spontaneously generated demon going around eating peasants in the countryside.
“Hedi” would probably have remained a minor demon to be eventually slain by some brave adventurer were it not for the intervention of a coven of witches into his life. At this point not really capable of much reasoning beyond an instinctive hunger, Hedi’s brutal rampage throughout the lowlands was halted by his being summoned by a coven, once again in Amsterdam. Upon realizing the origins of the creature they had evoked, the witches took it upon themselves, whether out of kindness or a desire for a unique servant, an effort to stabilize him. One witch in particular, who only ever referred to herself as Anne (rather wisely, as an improperly bound demon can do quite a lot of damage with a real name) seemed to take a shine to him. She gave him his name, Hedi van Essche, for largely unknown reasons, but it stuck. His time with this coven would prove to be formative, teaching him quite a lot about human society, how to think and reason as well as magical techniques. He was still fairly undeveloped though, and Anne’s rather lewd interest in him would prove to be the coven’s undoing. Hedi accidentally snapped her neck, and had to proceed to kill the rest of the coven, out of some strange instinct. As their spell was broken, he felt himself being pulled back to the demonic world, one of which he had little memory.
The next hundred or so years of his existence were spent learning the ins and outs of demon society, studying dark magic, and frankly having little to no fun. Demons were a strange sort, either obsessed with murder or ridiculously intense and serious about some cosmic duty to be evil. He was an anomaly, and although he did find friends and teachers in the demonic realm, he had little real connection to it. As a collection of dark energies, he was really fairly free to bounce around a variety of “hells”, ones which he theorized were really all connected somehow, but who knows, all that stuff was a mess to figure out anyway. His main motivation for returning to the human world was an interest in this strange island of Manta Carlos. A vast collection of magical knowledge, as well as a fairly modern set of institutions? It seemed perfect, he could live decadently, pretend to live all high society, and maybe find some sort of grander purpose in his existence.
He appeared rather suddenly and is still largely without friends, but has made a happy little niche for himself on the island. He studies at the Academy at a very advanced level, attempting to work out complex magical issues relating to the connections and fault lines between various worlds.
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