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[cynomorpha]

Character Name: Creeping Dust
Age: Functionally 40 (~He spent some time in, essentially, a Hyperbolic Time Chamber while training)
From When?: Post-civil war. His side wins, with genuinely no small contribution on the part of himself and his younger brother.

Warden Justification:

Creeping Dust is a troubled asshole, but he is a very principled one. If the Admiral is looking for someone who will encourage agency and independent thought, Creeping Dust is your man. He can be very demanding, but he has also very much shown that he understands the power of human connection. He already feels great responsibility when he trains members of his assassin troupe, and while he might not be training assassins on the Barge he will see it through in all due seriousness.

Creeping Dust's ideals are in knowledge and agency. He is a disciple of the Ghost Dog:

"The Ghost Dog is the patron of the afterlife and of the retention of intellect after death. Those born beneath its stars are said to be noble but difficult to pin down. Eccentric loners who cow to no man, they are the ones who will bring strange new ideas to this world and to hone them well."

As it happens, Creeping Dust fits this model to a tee.

Ghost Dog monks devote themselves with intense will to learning and retaining themselves past the barrier to the Spectral Realm. This is so they can help fight some of the many of the ghosts before they can pass back into the Mortal Realm. They dedicate themselves to an eternal fight to protect their home. Cannot overstate the dedication and responsibility.

Ghost Dog monks are politically neutral, but will choose sides when gross abuses of power are on display. Especially if it involves the misuse of their own hidden arts. They are stewards to knowledge in this life, but they will pull out the knives if you step over the line.

Item: A necklace charm that was given to him by his brother.

Abilities/Powers:

ASSASSIN
He's an assassin trained at the Ghost Dog temples. Their primary specialties are an incorporeal ghost form that can be used for stealth, minor shadow manipulation, and an ability to overreach the bounds of their physical form. This allows for inhuman speed and strength, but it causes exhaustion later and can cause severe injury to themselves if not used carefully.

NECROMANCER
The culmination of all of his years of study into ghosts. Creeping Dust is the preeminent expert on the spectral energies of his world. He can raise the dead, he can call ghosts from across the veil and even force them into corporeal forms. He has also been known to configure various golems and constructs out of body parts for specific purposes. All of these raising activities take time, focus, and the right ritual components. It's not something he does on the fly.

He also knows various wards against spectral entities, as well as various curses that take advantage of their energy. I use the Necromancer curses from Diablo 2 as a loose guideline for that spell type: Curses.

His spells need a vocal activation, so Mute stops him up in PVP. Although not his fists.

Wardening Strategies and Philosophies:

BARGE Quite honestly, this is not exactly different from when he was trapped underground in the academy. He's already done this 'sitting in limbo between life and death' thing, and he did his best to empower everyone to survive the situation. Mostly people didn't listen to him because he's an asshole. However, he has conquered some demons since his last stint at this. With fresh faces, who didn't have to deal with him at the height of his assholery, he will probably succeed better. He is willing to teach those willing to learn, and more than anything, he is always someone who encourages freedom of thought. He doesn't believe in "inmates", only students.

WARDEN He's played this role before. He was a professor at the academy, he lead the survivors through the ghost-ridden caverns, he trained assassins for the upcoming war. If he is asked to lead, he will lead.

Creeping Dust's primary strategy is in self-discipline. He has very high expectations. He flunks a lot of his students at the academy. He doesn't encourage mediocrity. However, this is a tact he can take a the best of times. When things are at their rock-bottom worst... He is very capable of showing compassion. He can be very uninterested in surface-level expressions of emotion, but when he sees someone truly distressed, he can respond appropriately and help them to recenter. What he's teaching in those moments is that they do have it within themselves to survive when emotions become overwhelming. He does consider this a perfectly reasonable place to start to reach other goals. He might just be... kind of a dick before he realizes that's the level someone is starting from.

Creeping Dust is incredibly prickly, blunt, and arrogant. However, he is capable of very devoted relationships. He's just deep quality over quantity. He can bond with an inmate, it just might take the right one.

INMATES He's not the person you're looking for if you need extensive talk therapy. Creeping Dust is very much about actions over conversations. For someone who will be empowered by learning new skills, pushing themselves, and finding new depths to their capabilities; Creeping Dust is absolutely your man.

Due to his own very specific religious structure... He's probably not going to be helpful to someone with troubles around religion. Not unless they're open to hearing about how his world works. Where it's very well understood that while the Five Beasts created their world and have some bearing upon it, they are not omnipotent gods who completely control fate. They are guiding stars, not dictators. That may be an uplifting idea to some. Or it may seem nonsensical to others who have experienced otherwise.

In general, he thinks that things can always be changed. It just depends on you and what you're willing to put into it. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Something he knows about intimately and has come out the other side of. Changed, but unyielding.

Deal: Knowledge. He is particularly interested in learning how he could mend the barrier between the Mortal and Spectral Realms of his world. He doesn't want it done for him, he wants to learn how he and his temple could do it for themselves.

World Information: Worldbuild | The Kingdom of Five Beasts | Visuals for vibes | Zodiac | Five Celestial Beasts

History: About | You can also read this from Spinner's perspective.

Sample Network Entry:

[ Welcome to the necromancer power hour. Creeping Dust is an average-sized man. Wearing black on black, messy hair and dark, unnerving eyes in a pale face. He smiles faintly at the camera. ]

For those of you who are scholars in the magical arts... What is your school of magic? Your specialization? Or lack thereof, I suppose.

I am many years a scholar on the spectral realm and its activities; a ghost scholar. It is the theory of necromancy, if you will.

[ There is a reason he had spent so long in theory before moving into practice, he is unlikely to divulge it. ]

I similarly studied in the temple in the arts of the Ghost Dog but you are, indeed, too lowly to hear of our sacred rites.

[ He is being a dick, but he does so with a self-aware humor. At least? I guess? He's not owning up that he was training to be an assassin in that temple. ]

If you please, I am most interested to learn about you and how your studies have continued.

[ He says please, but there's still something quite shitty and unlikable in his smile. ]

Sample RP:

[ Perhaps it shouldn't concern him, he is a very long way away from the Kingdom. However, the lack of appropriate wards against spirits makes him anxious. So he sets about to make them. He starts with the ghost lanterns. Some he can make of gourds taken from the garden, scooped out and detailed with skeletons; almost like a Halloween pumpkin. Some he can make out of paper and rattan, inked upon with warding sigils. These are the simplest to craft, the quickest, and his own cabin and its doorway are quickly attended to.

He supposes he should inquire about the other areas of the Barge, but doesn't. He is placing lanterns all along his floor and when there is inquiry into his activity: ]

Better to ward it now than need it later.

[ Hadn't he told the members of the Academy that very same thing when they realized they had been sealed inside to be sacrificed? No one had wanted to listen to him then, and he won't make the same mistake.

The lanterns will satisfy him for the moment, but he will continue his work whenever he is free to. Wood carving is a more effective method he finds, due to the longer period of focus and effort. Also the ability for great intricacy.

The things he carves are called spirit shrines. Escheresque wooden sculptures in the general shape of a large lantern. The wood has intricate little carvings in it that depict various (celestial) creatures, nature iconography, and skeletons. It's extremely delicate and very intricate.

He places them in various corners of the Barge, and when they are noticed... they give one an eerie feeling. How did he get the wood to do that?

Ask him and perhaps he'll consider, ]

I can show you.

Special Notes: I need to know if there is an equivalent to the Parallel on the Barge. It's kind of like the back of the world; like the back of a painting. Can he reach it in the first place? What it would be like? Etc. I'm also game for something like "he can reach it, but it's so deeply unpleasant (or whatever) for him to be there that he shouldn't."