RE: Masks 2
08-26-2018, 08:21 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-09-2018, 08:49 AM by Galloglasses.)
SPOILER FOR THE SPOILER GOD YOU FRESH FACED MOTHERFUCKERS YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
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Spoiler
Name: Desmond Micheal John McDonagel
Aliases: The Raven, Innumerable false aliases
Date of Birth: Sometime in the 1990s
Place of Birth: Podunk, North Dakota
Place of Residence: New York Megacity, Solomon City District.
Solomon City was once a city of old world styles, high architecture and European charm, the New Orleans of the North. Once the busiest fishing industry in the North East coast, Solomon city was built primarily on reclaimed marshland with the 'old' city eventually sinking beneath its own weight with new buildings built atop the graves of the old until the zoning reforms of the 20th century made more permenant dwelling possible. As such, Solomon city was once famed for its 'undercity', a vast network of disconnected caverns, caves, cellars and tunnels full of the ruins of the old city and lived in by vagrants, homesless and even independent communes, criminal or otherwise.
After the one day war, much of the city was devastated and rebuilt to suit modern fashions, though much of its old world charm had remained, the undercity was finally dug out, refurbished and properly constructed as new entire districts to the city. As such, Solomon city proved a testing ground, and a prototype for the undercities that typify so many of the megacities of modern America, and 'Undersolomon' is renowned as an especially gentrified district of the North East underMegalopolis today. Today sky scrapers choke the sky and skyways cast long shadows over the city beneath, and much of its old world charm is lost beneath the darkness of the all encompassing megatowers that dooms the middle and working class, however few they are in number, to a life in the shadow of the corporate elites to say nothing of the poor multitudes dependent on welfare to survive in the vast undercity.
Districts:
Undersolomon - A vast hive of scum and villainy... is what it says on the tourism boards. Undersolomon plays up its shady beginnings for tourism revenue for the few tourists who care to see the 'first' proper American undercity and the district is known for its service industries and rather 'pleasant' living conditions (by the standards of undercities) but still has out of control crime and as such is more patrolled by corporate police than other areas of the city as a whole.
Old Town - Also known as Little Ireland, Old Town was renowned for its heavy Irish diaspora, although little of this remains today, the names stuck. Once poor residential district it is now a poor residential district overshadowed by several megatowers that make up the city's parking bays for flying vehicles with its streets perpetually shadowed by the skyways for pedestrian and public transport. The once famous L Line of Solomon city now repurposed as a cross city grav-tram service. As such Old Town is known for its colourful street lighting to make up for the near perpetual darkness. Desmond has an apartment here.
Chinatown - Heavily changed from the days of yore, while still consisting of intolerably narrow streets, Chinatown has developed a distinct cultural difference from the rest of the city and serves as the technological hub of the city with many Tech services located there.
The Mall - Once known as uptown and the economic heart of the city, it has since been refurbished in a corporate attempt at making a megamall - a mall the size of an entire city district. It is a somewhat partial success with different areas consisting of outstanding wealth and opulence as well as new and flagrant technologies and showpieces to draw crowds. Large sections of the Great Mall are run down where sketchier merchants ply their trade. The corporate police mostly overlook these activities in return for bribes by the criminal Underlords.
The Arch - The Arch of Solomon city is less a district and more a poorly thought out display of engineering arrogance. Founded on either side of the artifical piers into the Harbour of the city, the great Arch is supported by two megatower superstructures supporting the aforementioned archway, upon which are piled glittering towers and streets were the casinos, tourist resorts and houses of many well to do families call their home.
Appearance: Desmond is tall and of medium build, with an atheletic body structure from decades of rigorous exercise and training to maintain high degree of endurance and stamina for intensive spellcasting. His facial features are sharp and striking with piercing, bright, blue eyes with a well groomed, close shaved beard with permanent salt and pepper stubble on his cheeks. His black hair has maintained most of his colour into his fifties but has started to grey around the sides.
Ordinarily, when in his outfit, Desmond wears a practical suit of light, enchanted armour with various tactical webbing and catches to hang weapons and tools from. Covered with an enchanted cloak designed to help deflect light attacks away with angular protection rather than block them head on. He possesses various Plague Doctor masks fashioned from everything from simple leather and plastics to full on tactical helmets with specialised runic enchantments, all black to match his namesake. Occasionally he will often be seen wearing a wide brimmed crushed velvet hat when he feels like putting on a show, but will more often than not where a cowl over his head and shoulders consisting of tiny metallic 'blades' fashioned like raven feathers that can be detached when telekinetic-ally pulled and magnetically fold back into place when reconnected. This coupled with many small, but long tungstun nails and flat handled knives attached about his person make up for a tiny armoury of sharp but lethal stealth killing weaponry. Desmond is not so proud a wizard he does not consent to practicality though and will often load out with mundane weaponry for whatever enterprise he is embarking unless it necessitates the foregoing the use of mundane technology.
He carries a valuable enchanted staff of rare woods and precious metals and crystals, gathered and created with care from both mundane and mystical sources over a lifetime of adventuring which magnifies the power and precision of his spell casting but is sometimes unwieldy and impractical if stealth is the order of the day.
Personality: Cynical and rude in his person as the Raven, but having spent much of his youth bluffing his way through college and working as a shyster, Desmond is an accomplished actor and as is capable of putting on new airs and demeanours as and when the situation suits, which is very useful when a situation calls for illusions and disguises.
In his own right, however, Desmond is introverted and reclusive, preferring his studies and experiments to social interaction. However, his obsession with immortality, and the strenuous lifestyle of a Wizard have served to warp his personality into a form of Egotistical overconfidence and ruthlessness. He still claims to be motivated by good intentions but due to his sketchy background and career, even people who know him well would sincerely doubt that.
Has taken to alcoholism and gambling to relieve stress. It goes about as well as you would think.
Powers, Skills, and/or Resources: Even with physical evidence of his existence the Raven is still an elusive figure, reported many times to have died and many times has been seen to have risen again.
Far removed from the idealistic, bumbling mage of his youth, Desmond McDonegal is a grizzled and experienced wizard, a master of the arcane, who has honed his body to perfection in his youth and has done everything alchemically and magically possible to maintain and augment as much of his fighting vigor as possible into his old age, augmenting his abilities with skillfully enchanted plates in his clothing to make him faster, stronger, to make his gear weigh less and his armour tougher.
He has mastered the art of the rune and the ward, and can make arcane circles to make magical traps, invisible walls, ward areas from specific evils and make quick and dirty improvisations. With time he can infuse runes he makes in objects, circles or places to cast specific but temporary enhancements, traps, alarms (not unlike Liz's quick and dirty temporary runes she scratched onto Desmond's masks to give it nightvision, I imagine runes work like that, temporary enchantments)
Having adopted various spells of illusion, he can create vast and complicated illusions and false sounds through his study of light magic and specific illussary schools of magic. His combat magic extendeed greatly, to manipulating his fire magic to create explosions at a distance, his lightning to create localized storms, his telekinesis to choke entire squads of soldiers and use his light manipulation to create refraction fields to make him more or less invisible.
Having become more adept at portal finding and experimentation he has become more accustomed to potion crafting and alchemical crafting of both magical concoctions, arcane constructions and metallurgy while searching alien realms for reagents and materials, and as such has grown accustomed to smithing and creating his own gear beyond useful mundane weapons such as, say, shotguns.
One of the tricks he likes to use is carrying hundreds of tiny razor edged, handleless knives and tungsten nails about his person distributed for weight, which he then uses his telekinesis to lift and throw them at an enemy, slicing them to pieces in a ball of levitating knives and silently pierce the necks of his enemies with pinpoint blows from a distance. If his missions require a lot of stealth kills or instilling the fear of God into a vampire he usually loads out with it.
He is also a fair hand at permenant enchantment. Two of his best achievments was a 1960 Black Cadillic which he gutted of its engine and all of its interior mechanics. Making it a floating frame with a reinforced skeleton and armoured plates with plenty of storage. He changed the undercarriage to look like the regular underside of a regular mundane flying car, keeping the wheels for ornamentation, with a fake muscle car engine poking from its hood, with an enchantment to make it roar with American Muscle Power. He uses it as his primary means of transportation, both in the mundane world and pocket universes. His other means of transportation is just a Harley Davidson, which is functionally just a magical hoverbike he uses when navigating tighter streets, canyons and airways.
Biography: Desmond is a piece of work.
Having been enthralled by the idea of magic and the arcane from a young age, he began his long journey into wizardhood with a penchant for old languages, particularly latin, based on a strange tome he had found when he was a young boy. However, life being what it was, nothing he tried paid off, and his success at life reflected his commitment to it, or lack thereof. Having flunked out of college he took up being a shyster pretending to be a real wizard detective in Solomon City to make his way in life, using showy tricks, impressions and convincing circle magic to ease peoples' fears and find lost things.
This all changed the day he snapped his fingers and a dancing green flame lit up on the end of his thumb.
Magic, being what it was, manifested in a wizard whenever it damn well wanted to, whether it be at five years or at fifty. Desmond went through 'magical puberty' at the ripe old age of Twenty five and his life has been downhill ever since.
Starting off his career fighting the Irish mob and stealing from criminals to make his way in life, he was slowly, painfully, introduced to the wider supernatural world he was doomed to inhabit, because once a wizard manifests, the supernatural comes to them wether they want it to or not. In quick succession the Raven gained a reputation for coming back from the dead more than once, not that this was ever seen or confirmed, but he has been presumed dead numerous times and just as often returned, often out of nowhere, to aid when the call came, such as when Crises emerged like the One Day War and Ragnorok.
Having adventured across many dimensions and places of the world, coming across wealth is no longer a problem for him, although money is not nearly as important to wizards as magical reagents and items, everything else can be sold for spare credits. That said however, Corporate policing makes fencing things on the black market marginally more difficult these days. Primarily he is more concerned with finding more wizards to trade with these days, there seems to be less and less of them around that aren't the young whippersnappers the corporations recruit for Dimension hopping.
When not saving the world and working besides demigods, mutants, murderers and heroes, he is often researching the ways of magic, studying new spells, strengthening others and adventuring around the world in the search for immortality and more powers. Making many enemies along the way from gangsters to vampires to magelords. He has lost his famous magic sword and has sworn to retrieve it, he has seen the country of his birth slide into a dystopic nightmare and swears to rectify it... Just once he has finished everything else he needs to do. He will get around to it, he's not obsessed. Really.
Now in his fifties, Desmond is not the sprightly young man he once was, but he is no slouch, having trained over the decades and weathered the many storms of experience to maintain an atheltic build and enchanting specialised armour placed about his body to augment his abilities, The Raven is more than terrifying in any one on one encounter with most foes.
That is, if you manage to see him coming at all.
IMMORTALITY QUESTLOG:
Desmond's Immortality Quest log
-Possible ancient druid in North East Scotland, alive for 2500 years, claims to be first druid and started the entire celtic priesthood for all celtic tribes./Failure. Ancient Druid over time somehow turned into underground tree monster, an entire cave system in the Scottish Highlands is now perpetually lit afire in attempts to escape
-Fountain of Youth, Yucatan Peninsula/False lead. Ancient Mayan death trap gaurding a trinket that makes wrinkles disappear but nothing else, Traded to Julia for [Artefact].
-Sleeping Beauty legend actually dates back to bronze age and has parallels in many cultures across the millenia, prospective real Sleeping Beauty location in the border region of Iraq, Iran, very dangerous, kiss said to awaken the princess and grant immortality/Ancient buried succubus incarnate in a mortal's body, heavily dessicated and disfigured, slain but left a curse wherein Desmond could not write in anything but ancient Cuniform which he then could not read for a period of six weeks.
-Fountain of Youth, Poland. Ancient spring water site at Poland's highest peak next to its lowest plain. Given Poland is mostly flat this wasn't easy/False lead, battled three Winged Hussar revenants guarding King Sobieskie's treasure. No fountain of youth but plenty of gold and silver. Mostly cursed.
-Native American Hopi spirit trance said to reveal the path to immortality/Failure. Got possessed by a native American malevolent spirit, fought wendigos near the Canadian border. Woke up back in chieftain's home with no time having passed. Note never to smoke that pipe again.
-City of Atlantis located off the coast of Brittany, France, filled with immortals with access to Ambrosia./False lead, city is actually the sunken city of Ys, populated by tribal fish people who HATE the mention of the word Atlantis. Got a neat marble statuette of some female figure, kept for aesthetic purposes.
-Philosopher's stone supposedly located in remote Uralic village, owned by a mystical blacksmith said to have forged the swords of the Cossacks that sacked the Ottoman empire/Stone is actually the Philanderer's stone, village populated by inbred descendants of the legendary blacksmith who attracted numerous women away from their families and founded a cult of personality around himself, fought cultist descendants, stone acquired and escaped, but resulted in forcing every married man Desmond met to violently attack him for unknown reasons. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]
-Fountain of Youth, North Korea, rumours from South Korean legends and through the grapevine at wizard bars/Complete fraud used by the North Korean regime to lure in Wizards, incredibly violent fight to escape, waste of time and resources.
-Rumours of a great wolf, supposedly the father of the entire Wolf species, roaming Siberia, gained immortality from eating all the unicorns native to Earth, can be lured by making a ritual circle with unicorn horn dust, a single drop of its blood grants immortality/Ritual circle instead collapsed the ground around it leading to an archway of solid iron at the end of a natural cave under the surface. Tunnel led to to a city network spread out across various ice caves, filled with an unknown human society ruled by witches, extremely hostile and violent, escaped and collapsed the cave behind him. Undiscovered human society discovered and promptly sealed away. Its now Russia's problem.
-Chinese sage apparently discovered the alchemical formulae for immortality and resides at a lost Buddhist Temple in the very heart of China/Temple found but unihabited, sage nowhere to be found, however various relics and scrolls of ancient philosophies and lost lore were recovered, dating back to before the Qin dynasty, some immaculately preserved. Sold to Chinese Authorities through black market means for profit after recording the information for later decoding and possible use. None of it was magic related but interesting nonetheless.
-Myth of ancient Mayan prophecy regarding the finding of the Wooden Temple holding the mystery of the gods/Temple found on the tip of the Yucatan, found several Mayan gods playing an ancient moveable tile board game. Spent evening getting drunk and playing ancient game. Left significently power than when arrived.
-Recent rumours of a drug lord in Northern Mexico who had an amulet granting him immortality/Fought a golem summoned by a former Jewish Rabbi in the middle of a Stripclub. Drug lord escaped, but acquired amulet. Turns out all it does is magnetically repel any and all metal away from you, allowing the drug lord to 'dodg'e bullets. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]
-Searched Solomon city's undercity for a rumoured Ghost who can grant wishes/Found a Shadowcat, same adult one he had encountered years previously in an alleyway. Attempted to adopt, got three cat claw marks for his trouble.
-Traveled to Egypt to find the Secret of the Nile/Found a baby Sphinx trapped in a net by the side of the great river, freed it, asked it for Wisdom, it meowed, attempted to adopt it, got three additional claw marks and an insight into the nature of life and death. Bought a cheap souvenir pyramid in Giza.
-Desmond follows a trail in an alternate dimension that has alternating gravity and a nonsensicle planetary geogrpahy that climbs upwards to the sky and around again. Natives spoke of a coin that granted agelessness at its end/Hopelessly lost and endlessly crossing over the same crossroads at different directions, met a catwoman who meowed in the manner of a person mimicing a cat, asked for directions, got clawed in the face. Gave up and went home.
-Rumours of the Holy Grail located in Ethiopia/False lead, weird Heretical Islamic cult with Zoroastrain and Egyptian influences in their faith guarded an artifact of unknown power, barely escaped with life.
-Rumours of West Coast Mystic who discovered a herb that can restore your youth, traveled with the Demon/Portland Wizard had been experimenting with extra dimensional drugs, entire apartment block turned into a den full of crazed drugged out magical mutants. Set the block on fire, went home empty handed.
Friends, Family, Acquiantances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:
Name: Marcella McDonagel
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: North Daokta
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 5'7''
Build: Light
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Brown
Description: Ageing, but has otherwised aged well in her golden years.
Personality: kind, friendly, oppurtunistic (will not hesitate to teleport into a bank if she's running low on funds)
Biography: Marcella comes from a strong magical bloodline from which Desmond himself appears to have gained his wizardly inheritance. While her own powers manifested late in her life, Marcella had an innate talent for an especially rare and powerful spell: Teleportation, a kind of magic even archwizards rarely achieve journeyman status in.
Having lost her husband in the one day war she has grown increasingly close to her living son and often worries about him.
Name: The Demon of Angel City
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: ???
Place of Residence: ???
Height: Varies
Build: Medium
Hair Color: ???
Eye Color: ???
Description: The Demon's connection to the Raven is unknown and much speculated upon, occasionally seen alongside his supposed appearances around the world and known to have associated with him in several of the world ending crises around 2016.
Name: Nick Urias
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: Australia (Presumed)
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 6'
Build: Medium
Hair Color: Dirty Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Description: Nick Urias seems to have known everyone of some import during the cataclysmic years following 2016. That he has a connection to the Raven is unknown and speculated upon but absolutely nobody is surprised by it.
Frenemy list:
Civilizations -
The CIty of Ys, Brittany, fishpeople civ
Uralic Cultist village
North Korea
Siberian underground steampunk Ice cave dwelling human civilization
Magic Muslim Cult in Ethiopia
Wizards -
Lucius Sabo
Elizabeth/Demon of LA
Nick Urias
Julia
Séamus
That one guy in Morrocco
Supernatural Personages -
Ancient Treemonster druid in Scotland perpetually on fire
Solomon City wild Shadowcat
Baby Sphinx
Transdimensional Catgirl
Mortals -
Stripclub Rabbi
Unnamed Mexican Druglord (probably dead because Mexico)
Name: Desmond Micheal John McDonagel
Aliases: The Raven, Innumerable false aliases
Date of Birth: Sometime in the 1990s
Place of Birth: Podunk, North Dakota
Place of Residence: New York Megacity, Solomon City District.
Solomon City was once a city of old world styles, high architecture and European charm, the New Orleans of the North. Once the busiest fishing industry in the North East coast, Solomon city was built primarily on reclaimed marshland with the 'old' city eventually sinking beneath its own weight with new buildings built atop the graves of the old until the zoning reforms of the 20th century made more permenant dwelling possible. As such, Solomon city was once famed for its 'undercity', a vast network of disconnected caverns, caves, cellars and tunnels full of the ruins of the old city and lived in by vagrants, homesless and even independent communes, criminal or otherwise.
After the one day war, much of the city was devastated and rebuilt to suit modern fashions, though much of its old world charm had remained, the undercity was finally dug out, refurbished and properly constructed as new entire districts to the city. As such, Solomon city proved a testing ground, and a prototype for the undercities that typify so many of the megacities of modern America, and 'Undersolomon' is renowned as an especially gentrified district of the North East underMegalopolis today. Today sky scrapers choke the sky and skyways cast long shadows over the city beneath, and much of its old world charm is lost beneath the darkness of the all encompassing megatowers that dooms the middle and working class, however few they are in number, to a life in the shadow of the corporate elites to say nothing of the poor multitudes dependent on welfare to survive in the vast undercity.
Districts:
Undersolomon - A vast hive of scum and villainy... is what it says on the tourism boards. Undersolomon plays up its shady beginnings for tourism revenue for the few tourists who care to see the 'first' proper American undercity and the district is known for its service industries and rather 'pleasant' living conditions (by the standards of undercities) but still has out of control crime and as such is more patrolled by corporate police than other areas of the city as a whole.
Old Town - Also known as Little Ireland, Old Town was renowned for its heavy Irish diaspora, although little of this remains today, the names stuck. Once poor residential district it is now a poor residential district overshadowed by several megatowers that make up the city's parking bays for flying vehicles with its streets perpetually shadowed by the skyways for pedestrian and public transport. The once famous L Line of Solomon city now repurposed as a cross city grav-tram service. As such Old Town is known for its colourful street lighting to make up for the near perpetual darkness. Desmond has an apartment here.
Chinatown - Heavily changed from the days of yore, while still consisting of intolerably narrow streets, Chinatown has developed a distinct cultural difference from the rest of the city and serves as the technological hub of the city with many Tech services located there.
The Mall - Once known as uptown and the economic heart of the city, it has since been refurbished in a corporate attempt at making a megamall - a mall the size of an entire city district. It is a somewhat partial success with different areas consisting of outstanding wealth and opulence as well as new and flagrant technologies and showpieces to draw crowds. Large sections of the Great Mall are run down where sketchier merchants ply their trade. The corporate police mostly overlook these activities in return for bribes by the criminal Underlords.
The Arch - The Arch of Solomon city is less a district and more a poorly thought out display of engineering arrogance. Founded on either side of the artifical piers into the Harbour of the city, the great Arch is supported by two megatower superstructures supporting the aforementioned archway, upon which are piled glittering towers and streets were the casinos, tourist resorts and houses of many well to do families call their home.
Appearance: Desmond is tall and of medium build, with an atheletic body structure from decades of rigorous exercise and training to maintain high degree of endurance and stamina for intensive spellcasting. His facial features are sharp and striking with piercing, bright, blue eyes with a well groomed, close shaved beard with permanent salt and pepper stubble on his cheeks. His black hair has maintained most of his colour into his fifties but has started to grey around the sides.
Ordinarily, when in his outfit, Desmond wears a practical suit of light, enchanted armour with various tactical webbing and catches to hang weapons and tools from. Covered with an enchanted cloak designed to help deflect light attacks away with angular protection rather than block them head on. He possesses various Plague Doctor masks fashioned from everything from simple leather and plastics to full on tactical helmets with specialised runic enchantments, all black to match his namesake. Occasionally he will often be seen wearing a wide brimmed crushed velvet hat when he feels like putting on a show, but will more often than not where a cowl over his head and shoulders consisting of tiny metallic 'blades' fashioned like raven feathers that can be detached when telekinetic-ally pulled and magnetically fold back into place when reconnected. This coupled with many small, but long tungstun nails and flat handled knives attached about his person make up for a tiny armoury of sharp but lethal stealth killing weaponry. Desmond is not so proud a wizard he does not consent to practicality though and will often load out with mundane weaponry for whatever enterprise he is embarking unless it necessitates the foregoing the use of mundane technology.
He carries a valuable enchanted staff of rare woods and precious metals and crystals, gathered and created with care from both mundane and mystical sources over a lifetime of adventuring which magnifies the power and precision of his spell casting but is sometimes unwieldy and impractical if stealth is the order of the day.
Personality: Cynical and rude in his person as the Raven, but having spent much of his youth bluffing his way through college and working as a shyster, Desmond is an accomplished actor and as is capable of putting on new airs and demeanours as and when the situation suits, which is very useful when a situation calls for illusions and disguises.
In his own right, however, Desmond is introverted and reclusive, preferring his studies and experiments to social interaction. However, his obsession with immortality, and the strenuous lifestyle of a Wizard have served to warp his personality into a form of Egotistical overconfidence and ruthlessness. He still claims to be motivated by good intentions but due to his sketchy background and career, even people who know him well would sincerely doubt that.
Has taken to alcoholism and gambling to relieve stress. It goes about as well as you would think.
Powers, Skills, and/or Resources: Even with physical evidence of his existence the Raven is still an elusive figure, reported many times to have died and many times has been seen to have risen again.
Far removed from the idealistic, bumbling mage of his youth, Desmond McDonegal is a grizzled and experienced wizard, a master of the arcane, who has honed his body to perfection in his youth and has done everything alchemically and magically possible to maintain and augment as much of his fighting vigor as possible into his old age, augmenting his abilities with skillfully enchanted plates in his clothing to make him faster, stronger, to make his gear weigh less and his armour tougher.
He has mastered the art of the rune and the ward, and can make arcane circles to make magical traps, invisible walls, ward areas from specific evils and make quick and dirty improvisations. With time he can infuse runes he makes in objects, circles or places to cast specific but temporary enhancements, traps, alarms (not unlike Liz's quick and dirty temporary runes she scratched onto Desmond's masks to give it nightvision, I imagine runes work like that, temporary enchantments)
Having adopted various spells of illusion, he can create vast and complicated illusions and false sounds through his study of light magic and specific illussary schools of magic. His combat magic extendeed greatly, to manipulating his fire magic to create explosions at a distance, his lightning to create localized storms, his telekinesis to choke entire squads of soldiers and use his light manipulation to create refraction fields to make him more or less invisible.
Having become more adept at portal finding and experimentation he has become more accustomed to potion crafting and alchemical crafting of both magical concoctions, arcane constructions and metallurgy while searching alien realms for reagents and materials, and as such has grown accustomed to smithing and creating his own gear beyond useful mundane weapons such as, say, shotguns.
One of the tricks he likes to use is carrying hundreds of tiny razor edged, handleless knives and tungsten nails about his person distributed for weight, which he then uses his telekinesis to lift and throw them at an enemy, slicing them to pieces in a ball of levitating knives and silently pierce the necks of his enemies with pinpoint blows from a distance. If his missions require a lot of stealth kills or instilling the fear of God into a vampire he usually loads out with it.
He is also a fair hand at permenant enchantment. Two of his best achievments was a 1960 Black Cadillic which he gutted of its engine and all of its interior mechanics. Making it a floating frame with a reinforced skeleton and armoured plates with plenty of storage. He changed the undercarriage to look like the regular underside of a regular mundane flying car, keeping the wheels for ornamentation, with a fake muscle car engine poking from its hood, with an enchantment to make it roar with American Muscle Power. He uses it as his primary means of transportation, both in the mundane world and pocket universes. His other means of transportation is just a Harley Davidson, which is functionally just a magical hoverbike he uses when navigating tighter streets, canyons and airways.
Biography: Desmond is a piece of work.
Having been enthralled by the idea of magic and the arcane from a young age, he began his long journey into wizardhood with a penchant for old languages, particularly latin, based on a strange tome he had found when he was a young boy. However, life being what it was, nothing he tried paid off, and his success at life reflected his commitment to it, or lack thereof. Having flunked out of college he took up being a shyster pretending to be a real wizard detective in Solomon City to make his way in life, using showy tricks, impressions and convincing circle magic to ease peoples' fears and find lost things.
This all changed the day he snapped his fingers and a dancing green flame lit up on the end of his thumb.
Magic, being what it was, manifested in a wizard whenever it damn well wanted to, whether it be at five years or at fifty. Desmond went through 'magical puberty' at the ripe old age of Twenty five and his life has been downhill ever since.
Starting off his career fighting the Irish mob and stealing from criminals to make his way in life, he was slowly, painfully, introduced to the wider supernatural world he was doomed to inhabit, because once a wizard manifests, the supernatural comes to them wether they want it to or not. In quick succession the Raven gained a reputation for coming back from the dead more than once, not that this was ever seen or confirmed, but he has been presumed dead numerous times and just as often returned, often out of nowhere, to aid when the call came, such as when Crises emerged like the One Day War and Ragnorok.
Having adventured across many dimensions and places of the world, coming across wealth is no longer a problem for him, although money is not nearly as important to wizards as magical reagents and items, everything else can be sold for spare credits. That said however, Corporate policing makes fencing things on the black market marginally more difficult these days. Primarily he is more concerned with finding more wizards to trade with these days, there seems to be less and less of them around that aren't the young whippersnappers the corporations recruit for Dimension hopping.
When not saving the world and working besides demigods, mutants, murderers and heroes, he is often researching the ways of magic, studying new spells, strengthening others and adventuring around the world in the search for immortality and more powers. Making many enemies along the way from gangsters to vampires to magelords. He has lost his famous magic sword and has sworn to retrieve it, he has seen the country of his birth slide into a dystopic nightmare and swears to rectify it... Just once he has finished everything else he needs to do. He will get around to it, he's not obsessed. Really.
Now in his fifties, Desmond is not the sprightly young man he once was, but he is no slouch, having trained over the decades and weathered the many storms of experience to maintain an atheltic build and enchanting specialised armour placed about his body to augment his abilities, The Raven is more than terrifying in any one on one encounter with most foes.
That is, if you manage to see him coming at all.
IMMORTALITY QUESTLOG:
Desmond's Immortality Quest log
-Possible ancient druid in North East Scotland, alive for 2500 years, claims to be first druid and started the entire celtic priesthood for all celtic tribes./Failure. Ancient Druid over time somehow turned into underground tree monster, an entire cave system in the Scottish Highlands is now perpetually lit afire in attempts to escape
-Fountain of Youth, Yucatan Peninsula/False lead. Ancient Mayan death trap gaurding a trinket that makes wrinkles disappear but nothing else, Traded to Julia for [Artefact].
-Sleeping Beauty legend actually dates back to bronze age and has parallels in many cultures across the millenia, prospective real Sleeping Beauty location in the border region of Iraq, Iran, very dangerous, kiss said to awaken the princess and grant immortality/Ancient buried succubus incarnate in a mortal's body, heavily dessicated and disfigured, slain but left a curse wherein Desmond could not write in anything but ancient Cuniform which he then could not read for a period of six weeks.
-Fountain of Youth, Poland. Ancient spring water site at Poland's highest peak next to its lowest plain. Given Poland is mostly flat this wasn't easy/False lead, battled three Winged Hussar revenants guarding King Sobieskie's treasure. No fountain of youth but plenty of gold and silver. Mostly cursed.
-Native American Hopi spirit trance said to reveal the path to immortality/Failure. Got possessed by a native American malevolent spirit, fought wendigos near the Canadian border. Woke up back in chieftain's home with no time having passed. Note never to smoke that pipe again.
-City of Atlantis located off the coast of Brittany, France, filled with immortals with access to Ambrosia./False lead, city is actually the sunken city of Ys, populated by tribal fish people who HATE the mention of the word Atlantis. Got a neat marble statuette of some female figure, kept for aesthetic purposes.
-Philosopher's stone supposedly located in remote Uralic village, owned by a mystical blacksmith said to have forged the swords of the Cossacks that sacked the Ottoman empire/Stone is actually the Philanderer's stone, village populated by inbred descendants of the legendary blacksmith who attracted numerous women away from their families and founded a cult of personality around himself, fought cultist descendants, stone acquired and escaped, but resulted in forcing every married man Desmond met to violently attack him for unknown reasons. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]
-Fountain of Youth, North Korea, rumours from South Korean legends and through the grapevine at wizard bars/Complete fraud used by the North Korean regime to lure in Wizards, incredibly violent fight to escape, waste of time and resources.
-Rumours of a great wolf, supposedly the father of the entire Wolf species, roaming Siberia, gained immortality from eating all the unicorns native to Earth, can be lured by making a ritual circle with unicorn horn dust, a single drop of its blood grants immortality/Ritual circle instead collapsed the ground around it leading to an archway of solid iron at the end of a natural cave under the surface. Tunnel led to to a city network spread out across various ice caves, filled with an unknown human society ruled by witches, extremely hostile and violent, escaped and collapsed the cave behind him. Undiscovered human society discovered and promptly sealed away. Its now Russia's problem.
-Chinese sage apparently discovered the alchemical formulae for immortality and resides at a lost Buddhist Temple in the very heart of China/Temple found but unihabited, sage nowhere to be found, however various relics and scrolls of ancient philosophies and lost lore were recovered, dating back to before the Qin dynasty, some immaculately preserved. Sold to Chinese Authorities through black market means for profit after recording the information for later decoding and possible use. None of it was magic related but interesting nonetheless.
-Myth of ancient Mayan prophecy regarding the finding of the Wooden Temple holding the mystery of the gods/Temple found on the tip of the Yucatan, found several Mayan gods playing an ancient moveable tile board game. Spent evening getting drunk and playing ancient game. Left significently power than when arrived.
-Recent rumours of a drug lord in Northern Mexico who had an amulet granting him immortality/Fought a golem summoned by a former Jewish Rabbi in the middle of a Stripclub. Drug lord escaped, but acquired amulet. Turns out all it does is magnetically repel any and all metal away from you, allowing the drug lord to 'dodg'e bullets. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]
-Searched Solomon city's undercity for a rumoured Ghost who can grant wishes/Found a Shadowcat, same adult one he had encountered years previously in an alleyway. Attempted to adopt, got three cat claw marks for his trouble.
-Traveled to Egypt to find the Secret of the Nile/Found a baby Sphinx trapped in a net by the side of the great river, freed it, asked it for Wisdom, it meowed, attempted to adopt it, got three additional claw marks and an insight into the nature of life and death. Bought a cheap souvenir pyramid in Giza.
-Desmond follows a trail in an alternate dimension that has alternating gravity and a nonsensicle planetary geogrpahy that climbs upwards to the sky and around again. Natives spoke of a coin that granted agelessness at its end/Hopelessly lost and endlessly crossing over the same crossroads at different directions, met a catwoman who meowed in the manner of a person mimicing a cat, asked for directions, got clawed in the face. Gave up and went home.
-Rumours of the Holy Grail located in Ethiopia/False lead, weird Heretical Islamic cult with Zoroastrain and Egyptian influences in their faith guarded an artifact of unknown power, barely escaped with life.
-Rumours of West Coast Mystic who discovered a herb that can restore your youth, traveled with the Demon/Portland Wizard had been experimenting with extra dimensional drugs, entire apartment block turned into a den full of crazed drugged out magical mutants. Set the block on fire, went home empty handed.
Friends, Family, Acquiantances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:
Name: Marcella McDonagel
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: North Daokta
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 5'7''
Build: Light
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Brown
Description: Ageing, but has otherwised aged well in her golden years.
Personality: kind, friendly, oppurtunistic (will not hesitate to teleport into a bank if she's running low on funds)
Biography: Marcella comes from a strong magical bloodline from which Desmond himself appears to have gained his wizardly inheritance. While her own powers manifested late in her life, Marcella had an innate talent for an especially rare and powerful spell: Teleportation, a kind of magic even archwizards rarely achieve journeyman status in.
Having lost her husband in the one day war she has grown increasingly close to her living son and often worries about him.
Name: The Demon of Angel City
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: ???
Place of Residence: ???
Height: Varies
Build: Medium
Hair Color: ???
Eye Color: ???
Description: The Demon's connection to the Raven is unknown and much speculated upon, occasionally seen alongside his supposed appearances around the world and known to have associated with him in several of the world ending crises around 2016.
Name: Nick Urias
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: Australia (Presumed)
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 6'
Build: Medium
Hair Color: Dirty Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Description: Nick Urias seems to have known everyone of some import during the cataclysmic years following 2016. That he has a connection to the Raven is unknown and speculated upon but absolutely nobody is surprised by it.
Frenemy list:
Civilizations -
The CIty of Ys, Brittany, fishpeople civ
Uralic Cultist village
North Korea
Siberian underground steampunk Ice cave dwelling human civilization
Magic Muslim Cult in Ethiopia
Wizards -
Lucius Sabo
Elizabeth/Demon of LA
Nick Urias
Julia
Séamus
That one guy in Morrocco
Supernatural Personages -
Ancient Treemonster druid in Scotland perpetually on fire
Solomon City wild Shadowcat
Baby Sphinx
Transdimensional Catgirl
Mortals -
Stripclub Rabbi
Unnamed Mexican Druglord (probably dead because Mexico)