Characters

Like all of the military Sirenidae, 229 was born and bred as a useful tool. Sirenidae are not sapient creatures in and of themselves. But they are implanted with chips that merge with and augment their brain functions and make them biological artificial intelligences. 229 was born on Aukate along with dozens of other Sirenidae created to help maintain the Darnathi ship and to scout for supplies. Because of this his programming 229 had full knowledge of repair, fabrication, design, programming, and stealth tactics. Eventually he was chosen for a stealth mission in an attempt to get to Darius Steele at the lair.

Thankfully his attempt failed and the general lived, but 229 was captured and after confessing his mission he was turned over to Bane for study. Oddly, the two started a clumsy friendship, bonding over the fact that both of them were often considered animals and not taken seriously even when they had something useful to say. 229 also observed that the horrors he had been told the Overlord brought down on the Darnathi and their creations were untrue, in fact his treatment at the Lair was better than his treatment on his home ship.

Being a creature of logic, 229 believed that he could explain that the enemy was not so bad to his brethren. So when he found Pyrite, an agent of Beryl’s, attempting to finish the job he had originally started he thought he could reason with her. Instead he took a poison spine to the back and almost bled to death.

Pyrite ended up being useful in saving 229’s life after having her neck snapped by Artemis. Bane realized that she might be used as a blood donor to save the dying sirenidae and quickly attempted a transfusion. 229 regretted her lost life but decided that the disregard for him and his words was the final nail in the coffin. He cast aside his assigned number and asked Fox to give him a real name. As the Overlord possessed a sense of irony, she chose to call him ‘Spike’ after almost losing his life to one.

Spike now works alongside Bane as a personal assistant, acting as hands and dexterous fingers when she needs them. Currently the two are working on a method of continuing to supply power to the AI chips in the sirenidaes’ heads so their technological brains can live as long as their organic bodies can.

Terry has almost always been seen with Harvey. When one is a rogue fire demon there are often many members of the clan trying to pull you back in or seek revenge for straying. The ones who have gone after Harvey often leave with broken bones, burns, and (if they’re part of the Torn clan) their antlers snapped off. Terry has been with Harvey for so long that they are often easily overlooked, but if you cause trouble, Terry loves reminding you.

Wherever Harvey goes, so goes Terry. Like a loyal butler who relights his ‘cigarettes' when he spontaneously explodes them in his moments of anger, to a bodyguard when someone starts to cause trouble. It is even rumored that Terry lives with Harvey and prepares his meals, cleans his home, and privately advises him on certain matters regarding the club.

Perhaps Terry is the real power of the Red Velvet. One never knows.

The creator’s original plan for the islands was to leave a dragon in charge of every island as a caretaker and overseer. Uru was going to be the dragon of Aukate but had greater plans. At first he tried to be quietly manipulative, trying to curry the favor of the creator and learning as much magic as he could.

When Uru made his move he was unprepared for the fact that the Creator had protocols engaged in case one of his creations turned on him. Uru had cast a spell to lock the creator in crystal, and with his last breath before he was fully encased he cursed Uru to be trapped forever in his cavern with a shield that would strangle and kill the dragon if he tried to escape.

Despite being trapped, Uru still has power and slowly works to reestablish his power on Aukate. He befriended governor Rex with the hopes of using her to whittle his prison down from the outside, but Overlord Fox’s appearance and rebuke of him shattered much of what he built up. Still, he has one of the greatest underground networks on the islands and much of his power. His failure stings and after having his freedom ripped away he has begun taking more risks, but only time will tell if those risks pay off.

A dire is the embodiment of the id of their host. They contain the feral urges and instincts and many of the natural impulses that their creator held. The id’s host is not without emotion after the creation of a dire, but many of the more base and pure emotions run a great deal stronger through the body of a dire.

Bane is very much like a twin sister to Fox in many ways. Both of them have a strong desire to see Aukate and its people thrive. They both seek knowledge and have inquisitive natures, and they are both fiercely loyal and protective of the people they hold dear. But Bane is the one who is more feral in nature and is quick to remind others that she is as much a beast as she is a sentient being.

At first Bane and Fox were inseparable and you rarely saw one without the other. But as time passed Bane became more independent, perhaps reflecting the independent nature of her host, and eventually even had her own quarters built in the lair so she could have some measure of privacy. She became a great deal more reclusive and distant when Fox began to seriously pursue a relationship with Darius Steele, but did what she could to hide her growing dislike and resentment of the man. Deep down she could not begrudge Fox’s desire to have a companion and to be happy. Thankfully Darius saw the growing distance in Bane and created a dire of his own to help.

These days Bane loses herself in work with R&D, enjoying the influx of new technology to study thanks to the Darnathi. And she appreciates that out of all of the places in the lair, she is never treated like a talking dog in the one department where she signs all the paychecks.

Not much is known about this mysterious servant to Fenriria at this time. Please check back later...

The various creatures that the darnathi use for work usually have a partner in some manner. This is to give the animal something to draw on for support, and something to keep the animal in line. In Slate’s case it was his ‘brother’, Shale. Slate doesn't know if he was biologically related to Shale, but the two considered one another siblings as the two were raised together and trained together and were as close as siblings could be.

Shale was the more aggressive of the two and also the most obedient. Slate was keenly intelligent but Shale often acted as the leader of the pair and took charge when it came to assignments. Because of this, Slate’s intelligence went unnoticed and Shale often took the credit for his plans or clever ideas. Slate was smart enough to recognize that the thurvines that were smarter than average were sometimes culled, so he continued to keep his mouth shut.

While on orders for what they thought were from Titan, but later turned out to be from Sagitar, Shale was killed by Cobalt. Slate retreated and waited for Cobalt to leave, and then buried his brother. He wandered the forest alone and unsure of what to do.

If Slate went back to the ship he would probably end up being culled for getting his partner killed, so eventually he opted to take things via the darnathi route and ask for an apology. He went to catch a fish in the ocean and badly damaged his gills. Cobalt found him, brought him back to his house, and nursed the thurvine back to health. Slate was surprised that Cobalt didn’t hold a grudge, and they both forgave one another.

Slate spends his time recovering from the damage the saltwater caused his gills, and raising a family with a maternal thurvine that had come to live with Cobalt after the animals fled the ship when Beryl was killed.

Mammals aren’t common on the island of June which made Gaspar grow up never feeling like he fit in anywhere. He wasn’t a dinosaur like most of the inhabitants of June, but his appearance was exotic enough that he felt out of place amongst the mammals of the other islands. So to cope Gaspar tried to fit in everywhere and became surprisingly good at it.

He started a career in hospitality at first but his skills were noticed by a friend of his employer, who just happened to be the mayor. Before he really knew what was happening, Gaspar was an ambassador for June, often playing the role of mediator and host to important business and trade meetings with other islands and lobbyist to the governments on other islands. With the dragons of July a constant threat to the people of June, Gaspar learned how to tell who to trust and who might be a risk to the islands.

Gaspar settled into his role and even met the woman of his dreams, a triceratops named Susan. The two are an odd couple but love one another dearly. Currently they work on Aukate under the Overlord, but Gaspar gives regular reports to his employers on June of the status of things at the lair and if there’s anything June needs to prepare for. Darius tolerates this because he sees June as a potential powerful ally if they rejoin the island union.

Devon Ferral (His name rhymes with ‘Seven’) is the younger brother of Cabayo. While his brother is ambitious and sees himself as a heartbreaker, Devon is more subtle and Just likes joining in on his brother’s plans and reaping the benefits. He’s not as crafty and clever as his brother but is just as ambitious and hedonistic. Because he knows he’s not so good at ideas he’s happy to take the role of following Cabayo’s lead most of the time.

Devon does have a mean streak and enjoys gloating and lording his accomplishments over people and often he is used by Cabayo to play bodyguard or attack dog depending on the situation. He’s perfectly happy to play the brawn to Cabayo’s brain.

Also like his brother, Devon claims to have elemental blood running through his veins. But while Cabayo boasts his skill with fire, Devon claims to have control over the earth and stone.

Darnathi animals bred and used for work are often kept in pairs. In this case when a dolphoria mother only laid and hatched a single egg, her chirr became her partner. The pair are a wonderful couple with Citrine’s maternal patience and Tourmaline’s friendly demeanor they can usually help an upset patient settle and calm down within a few hours.

They were employed full time by an asylum on Alvarni but were transferred to Aukate when it was decided that with the influx of darnathi to the islands, it could do with an asylum to help them in case of empathic breaks or the wear and tear some darnathi feel when they feel overstimulated and need time to center.

Not every darnathi that came to earth did so via official channels. Some snuck aboard ships or braved crafts not intended for long distance travel. Many of them, like Miorite, were sompaths who suffered from damaged empathy and knew that even if they weren’t highbloods, they still had very little chances of survival on Alvarni.

Miorite got his hands on some of the sterilization gel darnathi use to repress their empathy but as he administered it to himself he didn’t know that you needed to lie down and not move much while the gel settled. As a result he is permanently sterilized and finds his mind still doesn't work quite right.

He’s still a natural leader and has helped other sompaths prototype into aukate races. He and his band of outcast sompaths currently live on one of the smaller islands and are doing what they can to settle and adapt to their new home.

Ferric came from a time when the wars on Alvarni were brutal and bloody. At first glance he was a relatively average highblood, but on the battlefield he seemed nigh invincible. Even highbloods that were larger than him cowed and often fled if they saw Ferric charging towards them.

He was one of Alvarni’s greatest conquerors and is still hailed as one of the most powerful generals who ever existed on Alvarni. He is mostly known for wading into battle and using his weapons with such force that they would eventually shatter and disintegrate under the strength of his blows. When that happened he simply picked another weapon off of a fallen soldier nearby and would continue carving through enemy forces.

Near the end of his life his body was more scar tissue than skin, but unlike many soldiers who shared his legacy, Ferric did not die in battle. He succumbed to a slow illness that many elderly darnathi tend to fall to. Before he passed he gave away all the shattered pieces of his weapons and shared the lesson that he wished he had learned much earlier in life… That there is often a better and less lethal way of handling disputes.

Timothy was always a strange one. He was born during a time when magic was already beginning to wane and the magical races were dying off little by little. They still had the bacchanals and did the rituals well enough, but he could see the colors begin to fade and knew that the world he was born into would tear away into shreds soon enough.

So he did something that he saw as practical, even of others saw it was insane and nigh impossible. He made a deal with the force of magic. If it kept him alive, he would do what he could to keep it in circulation as well as he could. Nothing is known of how he managed this or even what it involved. But ever since Tim has run a shop, traded goods, and fed his collected magic back into the leylines. The cost of this is that Tim can never leave his shoppe, and despite having access to almost unlimited magical power, he can only use it when it serves the good of the shoppe.

Which is why he eventually hired an assistant who knew the ins and outs of magic, how to sneak and travel quietly… But did not use it herself. Artemis, or Three as she was known then, worked for Tim for almost two decades when she was suddenly pulled to Aukate. And in exchange for allowing his assistant to remain, a certain minotaur came and offered him fresh magic to feed to the leylines.

Mnemosyne and her sister Lethe are the demigoddesses with the power of memory. Lethe can make a person forget, and Mnemosyne has the ability to make people remember that which has been forgotten. Many people come to her pool and plead to have scraps of memory returned, and sometimes she does, in exchange for their tears.

While Lethe is aggressive and sometimes angry, Mnemosyne is timid and sometimes withdrawn. She knows that what she offers is not always a gift and with memories come pain. More often than not when she has restored that which was lost she is met with rage and anger instead of thanks.

Mnemosyne lives at her pool and sleeps when the sun sets. The other sirens mind after her and her sister while they sleep and when they are awake in exchange for their advice and protection. She has grown more withdrawn as of late, perhaps due to the rumors that her lover vanished without a trace.

Coal knew his father only tolerated him very early on in life. His maternal parent had killed themselves and his father had been forcibly sterilized to prevent his mate’s death from causing his own. The treatment made his father even more cold and distant, but oddly even more doting on his older brother, Diamond. Even their names were a sign of who was the favorite and who the castoff was.

He was never sure why he took the infiltration training. Perhaps because his brother had done the same and he wished to show his father that he was just as capable. He was even more surprised when his father arranged for both of them to join the same ship. Desmond went to serve in Washington DC, and Cole went to Canada.

The young Darnathi had almost forgotten his old life when the call came in to report back to the ship and that their cover had been blown. It was through the grace of human friends he had made that Cole was able to return to Aukate and rejoin Tungsten and some of his old crewmates instead of ending up in custody. When he heard his brother had been killed he quietly sent word to his father but never heard anything back.

Now Cole is serving under General Tungsten as a lab assistant, but every day he considers retiring to a seaside shack and hunting crabs all day. He even prototyped into a cat to be able to manage it easier.

Taimat is one of many of Pahili’s children. In her case it was to hopefully create a particularly powerful magic inclined dragon to serve one of the older dragon clans on July. Taimat managed to survive the particularly brutal childhood many dragons had because her father had a compassionate streak. He was older and realized how precious life was, and it made him less inclined to snuff it out of others.

She was sent to run missions for her mother as a way of exposing her to the world of dragon politics and she manages her job well enough. She enjoys leadership and, thanks to the shapeshifting abilities taught to her by her mother, Taimat has become a chameleon in her own way, being able to adopt the habits and mannerisms of whichever group she’s placed into with surprising ease. She also did show that magical streak and learned numerous spells enabling her to play the role of the spy easily enough. She is mostly skilled in illusion, but her mother taught her how to use magic to hurt people and bend them to her will as well.

Her only true weakness is that she tend to crush on many of the men she finds herself working alongside a little too often, a habit Pahili often scolds her over.

Pahili is one of the few people who remembers the creator and his plan, and she even tried to help Uru usurp him when the water dragon made his move against the creator. Unfortunately just as Uru was cursed to be trapped, Pahili was cursed to age but never die of old age. She can be physically killed, but her body will only grow more frail and decrepit as time passes.

It was Pahili who helped Uru regain some of his power despite being unable to help him escape, and it was Pahili who studied the curse to learn of how to break it and free her master. They needed to put someone other than one of the Creator’s descendants on the throne, a difficult prospect as the population of the islands seemed oddly inclined to always vote for someone descended from the creator. Their plan had almost met fruition when Overlord Fox, also a distant relative of the creator, came into power.

Pahili now serves to aid Uru in removing Fox and placing their puppet on the throne. To aid her, Uru has blessed her with the ability to change shape, which helps Pahili work despite her body being weak and near-useless. She still needs to change back into her real form or the transformations tax her and her master, so much of her focus is on forging alliances with the various demon clans through bribery or subterfuge to accomplish her goals.

Idra has always been a bookworm and a busybody. The problem is that once the tablets got popular fewer and fewer people were interested in buying her books. So it was like a dream come true when one of her distant nephews and a strange elfy gentleman came to her offering to help fund her failing bookstore. All she needed to do was allow a room in the back for people to come and go if they knew the password.

Her nephew neglected to tell her that the room in the back would be an extensive underground complex serving as the hottest bar on the islands. Every day people pour into Idra’s store, and only a few ever actually buy books. Thankfully the elfy gentleman does buy them very regularly but only vulgar penny dreadfuls and bodice rippers.

When people go to Harvey Torn’s club, they always cringe at the gatekeeper. Idra never spares a smile for anybody not coming to buy books. Really, Harvey couldn't have asked for a better door guard.

All of the gems require a guardian to hold their power in check. It makes the guardian amazingly powerful and nigh immortal, but also chains them to the stone for eternity. Solaire is the guardian of the blood stone and thus holds the power to bring the dead back to a form of unlife, to cure diseased blood or infect it with illness, and can make the humors churn with fear or anger or passion with a mere thought.

Perhaps this is why Solaire and Rose were a couple for a time. The two both were deeply passionate people, but Rose soon saw Solaire for who he truly was. He enjoyed manipulating people and being the one in power. Before he was the bloodstone’s guardian he was a powerful blood mage and had started secretly doing experiments on living creatures to further his agenda. Eventually this is what got him imprisoned in the stone. So now he got his wish and is the most powerful blood mage the world has ever known… But that power is chained to the whims of whomever possesses his stone.

A little known fact about Solaire is that he is particularly fascinated with humans and as time has passed he’s taken a liking to the human form. Some even say that it is because of Solaire’s favor that humans live for so long on Aukate. Also the elementals, known on the islands as vampires, are prominently human.

Some of those who live on the islands are nothing but whispered myths and legends. Lethe and her sister Memnosyne are two such people whose mythos borders on that of demigods. Or goddesses, if you prefer.

Lethe is half of a duality as magic loves its dualities. Her sister is gifted with the ability to restore any lost memory, so as her opposite Lethe has the ability to wipe memories away. People come to her begging for favors, to please for a mere sip from her pool so that they can forget some pain in their lives. Lethe grants it when plied enough with favors or interesting trinkets.

She is known as the dark half of the duality, sleeping in her pool during the day and only emerging at night when the sun sets while her sister makes her presence known during the day. Because of that she is known by some as the ‘evil’ sister even though she considers her gift a mercy to most.

Lethe has become more reclusive and secretive as time has passed and some of the local sirens have made it their business to mind after her and keep her from vanishing into the ocean of stolen memories she covets too deeply. They are met with only limited success.

Rei never felt close to her father. She watched as he puffed and primped for public image and demanded she never do anything that might humiliate him or his image. It made her hate him and everything his office stood for. She had a quiet little rebellious streak and that was probably what led to her eventually running and fleeing her home. You see, Rei rebelled in the worst way imaginable to her father… she fell in love with a normally colored lion instead of the man her father had hand picked for her.

Her father was enraged when he heard the news and did what any lion of his station would have done… he had Rei’s lover killed. DK assumed that with him dead Rai would return to the fold like a good little cub. Instead Rei fled the island of February and kept running for the next ten years. You see, Rei was pregnant.

She named her son Ali’l, the Polynesian word for royalty, and traveled from place to place with him as he grew. She explained that they were being hunted and that a bad man had done a bad thing to his father, so they had to hide. Ali’i never quite understood why people were after them when he didn;t do anything wrong, but he never doubted his mother.

Eventually Rei went to the Overlord and begged for sanctuary on Aukate. It was granted and she was even given a job and a secure room at the lair. Best of all, she had been reunited with her brother, Aileeron, who had been led to believe she had run away out of spite.

Unfortunately Rei died when Uru and his mind controlled army attacked anything that moved. She had safely hidden her son away, and then ran to give the attackers a distraction to keep them away from the young lion cub. It worked, but the cost was Rei’s life.

Arget never saw herself as a highblood, but unfortunately her genetic paperwork stated otherwise. As the highblood purges began to hit Alvarni, the young darnathi found herself in the middle of a deadly game of politics and she didn’t understand the rules.

Many of the victims of the highblood purges were people who might be related to political figures that were accused of having highblood in their genes, or highblood lovers. And somehow in this game Arget’s family found themselves on the chopping block. She suspected some of her relatives were in the resistance, but kept her head down and never asked questions, thinking that would keep her safe, unfortunately it didn’t.

Thankfully she was friends with Captain Malachite who was assembling a crew for his ship for a supposed colony mission to earth. He quietly implied that if she came along, the purges would hopefully not follow. As she watched her family members disappear one after another she took him up on his offer.

Arget was one of the first darnathi to prototype into one of the native forms of the island. She had seen images of otters and thought they were close enough to darnathi that she’d feel comfortable in that body. Like many darnathi she added little flairs and differences to the form. Currently she serves as a forager for her ship and is one of the best in her group at catching fish.

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