Tenebrae is the bleak of a winter’s morning. He is the rolling sky in deepest night, the haze of snow covered ground lit by glowing moonlight, turning mid-night into silvery daytime.

As a Disciple of the Night Order, the most noticeable thing about Tenebrae are the Order’s sigil moons that glow upon each shoulder and upon his forehead. They glow brighter or dimmer with the ebb and swell of his magic. Each of the sigil moons were burnt upon him by Caligo in the ritual that every Disciple of the Night Order go through. They are sworn to Caligo and in turn she bestows upon them her unique power of shadow-forging. They are her weapons, men borne of shadow and might. As such, Tenebrae is toned for war. Tri-toned skin ripples over thick muscle that shape a lean and agile frame.

His eyes glow white, almost blue. It is a strange anomaly since Caligo Initiated him into the Order.

In answer to his parvus magic shadows breathe around him, they swathe him, covering his paler skin until he is one with the darkness. Sometimes all that is to be seen of Tenebrae is the glow of his eyes and of his moons. When the shadows lift, his body once again is revealed as a snow-swept land on a winter's night - all hazy snow-light and midnight black.

But despite the soft of his skin, there is nothing soft in the curve of his warm lips, nor the fighter's lines of his face. Tenebrae may be a monk, but worship is not all he was made for. His body is a formidable weapon, but at times he forges from the shadows weapons and armour and terrible things that only war can summon.

Loyal | Devout | Dark | Impulsive | Graceful | Rebellious | Strict | Kind | Faithful | Lethal | Fierce | Dedicated | Ruthless | Artistic | Withdrawn | Dark | Poetic | Tenacious | Angsty | Fighter | Loving | A nightmare | A dream |



| A Martyr | A Sinner | A Disciple |

It took the order months to break the boy from his penchant for fights and possession over food. He was impulsive and scrappy. He argued with his superiors and fought without refinement. Yet training smoothed the rough edges of him. Devoting himself to Calligo has meant he has become devout. The pledges each young stallion makes to Calligo reflects their dedication and loyalty not just to Calligo but each other also. Each warrior of the Order is focused in their worship, they give themselves unto death for their goddess.

Tenebrae took his vow of abstinence (from all non-platonic relationships) upon his knees before Calligo’s ebony altar. He was honest with every confession, yet he carries with him a deep sense of unease over his past. Yet the Order gave him a new life, the scars upon his back are not mere marks, but ghosts that haunt him. He carries his mother’s death heavily upon his shoulders. Still grieving a mother he never knew.

Tenebrae’s skill with a blade and utter commitment to the Order make him one of their finest warriors. His devotion is unparalleled, his focus upon his goddess unwavering. Yet, it has long been a source of concern how rebellious and impulsive he can be…

Tenebrae now lives his life in moments. Death is a scar upon him. it is there in the darkness that he was born within. Tenebrae can be wicked and dangerously wild. He can be ruthless and one of the most forbidding creatures in Novus. He is the shiver up your spine, he is impulse chained - desire and want and every kind of lust are dutifully bound and locked away - for the most part... There is a glint within his eye, a dangerous streak the presses a blade to the binds of his Night Order pledge.

There was silence when he was born. The air was still, the leaves were silent and each bird of the air was grounded, huddled, their songs and voices held for another day.

Shadow fell across the land when Tenebrae was born and that is why his name was the last word upon his mother’s lips. His name means ‘darkness’ and because of the thick, lightless dark about her she was never able to see the boy she bore. They boy whose birth took her life with nothing but a sigh. His body moved in the shadows, but even he did not make a cry – not in this heavy black of death and birth.

Tenebrae was birthed in the middle of the day. Birds watched with closed beaks as the boy was silently brought into the world. What madness was this - that a child be born in the middle of such darkness? What did that mean for what this child was?

His father had struck fear into the hearts of all who beheld him. Through Tenebrae’s life the boy never heard his father’s name. Those who had seen him could only whisper that he was, ‘the stallion that swallowed the sun’. They trembled remembering him and they watched somberly on as his son was born in an ominous midday darkness. All that morning they had watched the shadow coming across the sky and seen it blot from their eyes their brilliant, bright sun. Until the boy stood strong and steady upon his spindle limbs, the darkness remained total. Only when he took his staggering steps did the darkness begin to abate and the birds grew brave enough to sing, warily, once again.

From that day forth Tenebrae was the Boy who Swallowed the Sun. Upon each of his shoulders hung a crescent moon, with another mirrored upon his forehead. He was born in darkness, but beneath the wary eyes of his mother’s tribe. Not one in his tribe could easily look upon the boy that stole their leader’s daughter. To look upon him was to remember that fateful day as the sun reached its highest, its strongest and yet was blotted out with inky black and a stallion arrived, just as his future son would too. But this stallion was forged of shadow and his eyes glowed with the brilliance of daylight. All the shadows came to him and formed the most fearsome of weapons. The night came faster when he was there and it was deeper and more complete than they had ever known.

They all began to fear him, but for the daughter of their chief, a girl with daylight in her smile. She gave each piece of her light to him and he swallowed every ray she offered him. She shed her tribe and ran with darkness, until she no longer knew where her light ended and his darkness began. But then one day he was gone, leaving not a trace of him behind, it was as if he simply vanished - like her Goddess, Caligo.

And so, the Stallion’s son was feared, but also revered by the brave and the curious - but they were few passing travellers, Tenebrae was shunned by his tribe. He followed their caravan as the lowest of the low. He fought for food and water, he slept alone, cold and shivering. He was the bad memory his caravan wished to forget and soon, even his name was dirt upon the caravans lips.

The boy was lanky and thin, but fighting made him strong, he stole and he prized from the grip of children, food enough to eat and water enough to drink. At night he slept in the cold, beneath the stars, a cold sweat upon his silver/white skin and in his dreams a girl whispered that he should come home. Each night she came, resplendent in black and told him to return to them, to her..

Each day he awoke to sun and forgot about the creature that haunted his dreams. It was not until a merchant caught him stealing bread from off his table that anything changed at all. The merchant dragged the yearling before the guards and spat his accusation into the dirt.

Thief!

And they were quick to condemn him: twenty lashes, ten for each year of his life. So they began, when the sun was at its highest and the sun so hot few could bear its brilliant gaze. They tied him down beneath its glow and laid a whip again and again upon his flesh. It cracked like bones across his back, it sang with his agony and with his tears. His skin split beneath the bite of stinging cord. Blood pooled, but it was black and wrong. The boy’s audience staggered back, though the guard bravely continued with the punishment.

But soon the guard also stopped when suddenly the sigil moons upon Tenebrae’s skin turned black as night. His punisher dropped the whip, thick with the boy’s ink black blood, and fled. The boy hung tight in his bonds until he gathered enough energy back to fight his chains. By the time he worked free the caravan was gone and his sigil moons were no longer dark and eerie.

He stepped over the black pools of his blood and began his lonely, homeless wandering. At night he listened to the girl, the creature of endless black and followed her directions home.

The girl drew him to a mountain and he climbed it for days. Up through wind and up through rain and up through driving snow. He reached the peak of the mountain tall and a solitary altar stood consumed in shadow and before it a line of boys with half moon sigils. A stallion stood. He was blacker than pitch, blacker than night. His eyes glowed bright with light and half moon sigils glowed like suns at his shoulders and his forehead.

He was the Stallion that Swallowed the sun, forged by Calligo’s hand, company for her when all her siblings had left her and darkness ruled true. Tenebrae, along with the other boys were the progeny of Calligo’s divine Order. The Stallion trained each boy, taught them formidable skill with a weapon and then, upon their third birthday, drew them back before Calligo’s altar. There Tenebrae vowed to the girl of his dreams - his creator goddess,, there he would pledge his life to her and be blessed with her magic, forging shadows out of light.

Tenebrae would become a member of Calligo’s Order and for the first time, he began to belong.

Shadow-forging

The Night Order

This is a god-given power. The Night Order exists to serve, worship and honour Caligo. They are her warriors, her fighting order. Most often, initiation happens as a child and they continue to live as a devout community of men dedicated to the worship and glory of Caligo. These are warrior monks, loyal above all, to the will of their goddess. If Caligo deems a Night Sovereign worthy, they shall serve that sovereign to the death in honour of Caligo. The monks spend their life building and refining their magic: Shadow-forging. Their power is linked to their lifestyle and they live a life of worship, mindfulness and battle. They dedicate themselves to improving their battle skill.They focus their devotion upon Caligo to the point that the Disciples abstain from all non-platonic relationships and live a secluded, monastic life.

A Disciple of the Night Order is identified by their Parvus magic. When Caligo blesses them with her power upon Initiation, the initial influx of light into their body burns a triad of moons upon their skin. One upon the forehead and one upon each shoulder. These moons glow brighter with the ebb and swell of their magic. Darkness seems to shroud him and cling to him, adorning Tenebrae like cloth. Shadows around him act as though he is a magnet, his latent magic always drawing, pulling them in.

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Tiers of the Night Order Magic

Tier I
The first step toward shadow forging is to take light to make shadow. Before light was darkness and so, in order to make shadow one must take away some light. The monks learn how to absorb light in order to summon shadow in its place. As the disciple becomes skilled in absorbing light, so shadows begin to form. These shadows are formless, but the deepest dark. As they become more skilled, the shadows begin to make small shapes such as a knife, a shield or a small creature, but can last for only a minute or two.

As they absorb light, Caligo’s sigil moons glow brighter. These sigils upon their shoulder and forehead are a sign of their Order and that they are a Disciple of Caligo.

Tier II
The second stage is when the disciple has refined the art of absorbing light. They can now forge shadows into larger, more solid objects and animals if they keep their conjouring to small items. They could forge a small sword, as sharp as any true blade. Or a breastplate of shadows stronger than chainmail. Yet these forged items last for only a short while 30 mins or so before becoming permeable once more. It is also during this level of their devotional training that they can summon larger shadows. These shadow may be thicker and more vague, but the larger they are the more formless and less dense they become.

Tier III
The third stage, by this level, the Disciples are able to forge from darkness great weapons, like swords and whips for use in battle. They can form larger animals such as horses from the dark to aid in battle and they will be unwaveringly solid and black. They could ever forge a suit of armour, strong enough to guard against even the strongest of weapons. Yet theis magic requires great effort from the Disciple and can last only for around a few hours or so. The Disciples can conjure darkness in a greater cloud, enough to darken the sky. The more light they draw, the brighter their sigils glow and the darker the area around them becomes.

Tier IV
At the heights of their power, the Disciples are able to forge anything from the darkness they conjure. They can create a number of beasts to fight beside them or one great large one. If they combine their power as the Night Order, they can create a creature as large as a dragon, and steal the light from a court – but only if they work together. Alone, a disciple would be able to conjure darkness to cover a single land.

**When these his uses his magic with other Stallions of the Night Order, together they can conjure a level above their own. Their gathered strength is stronger than they individual might.**

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Thia
m. 'gift of god'

Thia did not exist before Tenebrae's blinding ceremony. Neither did they really exist immediately after.

Tenebrae's magic was to generate shadows. He could forge them into any shape or animal he wished. But that did not mean the creatures he made were real, or sentient, until, one day, they simply were.

At first Tenebrae felt his magic, its trembling, its grief at his loss of sight, so like his own and yet... different. His magic felt different, it began to act strangely, reacting to him. Until it began to forge creatures, objects, of its own volition. And then, his magic spoke back, communicating through the shadow shapes, shadow beings it made. Tenebrae now communicates with his bonded through mind and voice.

Tenebrae calls his shadows' sentient mind Thia. But there is no perceptible gender for his bonded. Thia just simply, is.

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