RE: The Grand OC! [CONTEST TWO: LIGHT AND DARKNESS! SUBMISSIONS WELCOME!]
01-15-2014, 09:10 AM
Username: Schazer
Name: Uuuuuuuh
Species: Nyxic Mass
Gender: Pfft, nah
Color: black on black for dialogue, probably just black for the actual post
Description: The Nyxic Mass entered into the battle was stored in a purpose-built dungeon in a converted mineshaft on what is allegedly Sparkcroft Academy grounds. "Allegedly" because nobody wants to mess with wizards. Nobody's ever actually looked at this particular one, but it probably looks like other, better-documented examples of its kind - a core like a blobby sort of bear, about the size of a large dog, exuding an aura on a scale larger than the Mass itself, by like, a factor of three or something. The aura absorbs light, ignores physical matter, and has weird eddies and kinks in it which make things inside it/behind it look distorted. Anything deep within the aura is impossible to discern with the naked eye, appearing for most intents and purposes like a source of "darkness" (even though that's totally not a thing). They're about as intelligent as your typical magical construct, that is to say, not really - unless the light they eat is encoding information.
Weapons/Abilities: Nyxic Masses eat light, and appear to require little else. Whatever paltry amount filters through the mineshaft into our contestant's cell seems to be enough to have kept it alive, although Nyxic Masses grow rapidly when given a more consistent source. Their auras distort and warp light to the Mass proper, which does the actual eating. Small, portable sources of light like a match or a glow-worm are grasped in the Mass' forelimbs, where it exerts its latent magical energy to speed up the combustion/biochemical processes which produced the light. If it lived in a world with electricity, andin such a world given a lamp hooked to the national grid, it would happily gorge itself until the filament in the lamp burnt out, probably growing big enough in the process to fill whatever room you tossed it in.
The Nyxic Mass in this battle is small enough that sunlight still hurts it - any sufficiently powerful light source is too much for a small Mass' aura to absorb at once, in contrast burning the aura clean off. A Mass unable to escape direct sunlight will starve itself to death trying to regenerate its aura; their usual response is to seek shade. A Mass larger than a house will produce an aura of easily one kilometre radius and be more or less unfazed by sunlight; the inner third of its field is comletely lightless. Fires burn out unnaturally fast; batteries in torches are spent, anything unfortunate enough to have a biological glow experiences a metabolic crash.
The Mass' magical ambience messes with other magical constructs, and (if wizards bothered to test for this kind of thing) causes dips in Vitamin D levels. It is always in the centre of its aura, where even low-light vision will be useless. They are not intelligent enough to be hostile, but have been demonstrated to gain intelligence when absorbing torch-based morse code. Stick one in front of a computer screen and it would absorb (and comprehend) whatever text you'd left up on it. Masses can utter a near-subsonic rumble when they attempt to communicate.
Biography: Nyxic Masses were one of the Twelve Savage Beasts said to be created in the beginning by Solbruin, mother-goddess of Monsters. Wildlife mismanagement Praeterwater eventually led to the first fall of civilisation, the seakin (isolating themselves in the Deep) being the only surviving race. Once things stopped running out of each other to eat, the worship-starved lesser gods plonked a few more mortals down on the shores of Middle Ocean and picked out a bunch of Chosen to lead the clean-up. Fortifications were carved, nests were raided, Masses with auras which cloaked continents were somehow slain, and New Civilisation eventually sorted its shit out and made the Praeterwater safe again. The damn wizards, of course, felt keeping the best possible records of their ancient foes was prudent, hence keeping a mythical beast locked away in a lightless cell deep underground and depriving the "extinct species" list of one dangerous monster.
Name: Uuuuuuuh
Species: Nyxic Mass
Gender: Pfft, nah
Color: black on black for dialogue, probably just black for the actual post
Description: The Nyxic Mass entered into the battle was stored in a purpose-built dungeon in a converted mineshaft on what is allegedly Sparkcroft Academy grounds. "Allegedly" because nobody wants to mess with wizards. Nobody's ever actually looked at this particular one, but it probably looks like other, better-documented examples of its kind - a core like a blobby sort of bear, about the size of a large dog, exuding an aura on a scale larger than the Mass itself, by like, a factor of three or something. The aura absorbs light, ignores physical matter, and has weird eddies and kinks in it which make things inside it/behind it look distorted. Anything deep within the aura is impossible to discern with the naked eye, appearing for most intents and purposes like a source of "darkness" (even though that's totally not a thing). They're about as intelligent as your typical magical construct, that is to say, not really - unless the light they eat is encoding information.
Weapons/Abilities: Nyxic Masses eat light, and appear to require little else. Whatever paltry amount filters through the mineshaft into our contestant's cell seems to be enough to have kept it alive, although Nyxic Masses grow rapidly when given a more consistent source. Their auras distort and warp light to the Mass proper, which does the actual eating. Small, portable sources of light like a match or a glow-worm are grasped in the Mass' forelimbs, where it exerts its latent magical energy to speed up the combustion/biochemical processes which produced the light. If it lived in a world with electricity, andin such a world given a lamp hooked to the national grid, it would happily gorge itself until the filament in the lamp burnt out, probably growing big enough in the process to fill whatever room you tossed it in.
The Nyxic Mass in this battle is small enough that sunlight still hurts it - any sufficiently powerful light source is too much for a small Mass' aura to absorb at once, in contrast burning the aura clean off. A Mass unable to escape direct sunlight will starve itself to death trying to regenerate its aura; their usual response is to seek shade. A Mass larger than a house will produce an aura of easily one kilometre radius and be more or less unfazed by sunlight; the inner third of its field is comletely lightless. Fires burn out unnaturally fast; batteries in torches are spent, anything unfortunate enough to have a biological glow experiences a metabolic crash.
The Mass' magical ambience messes with other magical constructs, and (if wizards bothered to test for this kind of thing) causes dips in Vitamin D levels. It is always in the centre of its aura, where even low-light vision will be useless. They are not intelligent enough to be hostile, but have been demonstrated to gain intelligence when absorbing torch-based morse code. Stick one in front of a computer screen and it would absorb (and comprehend) whatever text you'd left up on it. Masses can utter a near-subsonic rumble when they attempt to communicate.
Biography: Nyxic Masses were one of the Twelve Savage Beasts said to be created in the beginning by Solbruin, mother-goddess of Monsters. Wildlife mismanagement Praeterwater eventually led to the first fall of civilisation, the seakin (isolating themselves in the Deep) being the only surviving race. Once things stopped running out of each other to eat, the worship-starved lesser gods plonked a few more mortals down on the shores of Middle Ocean and picked out a bunch of Chosen to lead the clean-up. Fortifications were carved, nests were raided, Masses with auras which cloaked continents were somehow slain, and New Civilisation eventually sorted its shit out and made the Praeterwater safe again. The damn wizards, of course, felt keeping the best possible records of their ancient foes was prudent, hence keeping a mythical beast locked away in a lightless cell deep underground and depriving the "extinct species" list of one dangerous monster.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow