Post by Heron on Aug 1, 2018 6:36:28 GMT
Some Clever Title And Fade Goes Here
Most everyone has heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Rarely does anyone think of that Biblically infamous quartet as being, realistically, an obligate octet. They would be very sorry Horsemen indeed without horses to ride, and in this, Vesper is one of the most vital unwritten parts of history that will never be recognized for what she is or what she represents.
She will, however, always be feared.
It takes a stupid man (or woman) to face down a giant flaming horse with the teeth of a carnivore and the temperament of a serial killer without fear, after all. Vesper is no mere steed. She is the battle-steed of the Horseman of War, dark rider of the Apocalypse, and she has ended worlds with War on her back, Pestilence, Famine, and Death following close behind.
One would think she would blend in as a Firemane, with a resume like that. Her arrival to Teragaia may have lumped her in with the Firemane species. She may share their physical characteristics, the unearthly grace, the flames in place of mane, tail, and fetlocks, the eerily silent metallic hooves that make far less noise than they ought as they rip up the ground beneath them. She does not, however, share their end goals.
Firemanes are a very selfish species. Narcissistic, sociopathic, sadistic. Especially sadistic. Firemanes unabashedly take pleasure in the suffering of others and usually are the root cause of it. Pointless torture is a favored pass-time because it is entertaining. To Vesper, on the other hand, pointless torture is exactly that. Pointless. She is not the kind of empathetic or compassionate creature that gives much of a damn about anyone's suffering, but she also doesn't much care enough to go out of her way to cause it either. Suffering bores her. Angst bores her. Petty sadism, as a personality trait, makes her angry because it is an unforgivable waste of time that could better be spent doing something useful.
As such her relationships with fellow Firemanes are strained at best, but one by one, the native Infernos of Teragaia are learning that the weird-looking foreign Djinn with the spiked armor is best left alone, even by them. Especially by them. She's had to mangle more than a few Infernos to get this recognition, however, and wild Firemanes are likely plotting a way to seriously harm her, somehow, any way they think they can get away with. They just haven't figured out how yet.
Her relationship with Arieh Harel is almost as strained. Largely in part due to the Illogical Field. Vesper shouldn't exist corporeally while Arieh does unless Arieh is in direly desperate need. Vesper is War's horse. As such, she and Arieh rarely see eye to eye, so to speak, and her War-standard all-business attitude clashes then with Arieh's determination to be a peacemaker and all things not-War that he possibly can be. She'll carry him, however, because her true rider is in there somewhere, however buried beneath that obnoxiously moralizing chunk of artificial personality.
And War will return eventually. Vesper is patient. She has always been patient. Four Horsemen, four horses, and Vesper is the most patient of them all, almost, capable of cunning calculation and feats of intellect that stun most who do not expect superior tactical and strategic intelligence from something that looks like a horse on fire. And while Firemanes illustrate the extremes of her temper more fully and more immediately than most things, Vesper is usually a slower-burning thing. She fights smarter as well as harder, a warriors spirit with a tacticians mind. She is a large-boned mare, shades of cooling lava blackening in her pelt and orange-kissed crimson flames for her mane, tail, and fetlocks, sporting spiked armor across her rump and chest. Her eyes are fiery bloody crimson, and more intelligent than any base animals, leaving no visible doubt that this horse is fully sapient and oh so very smarter than the average person. Meaner, when provoked, but unlike the Firemanes that her appearance calls to mind, she never strikes the first blow unless the Ride has been called, and by that point, it is business, not malice, that drives her attack.
Horse of a Different Color: Vesper comes to this world from another, and was not a Firemane to begin with. As such, her coloration is not exact to the Database. (Okay, fine, there was prismatic crystal involvement, but work with me.)
Her base coat is more red than black, and her flames are slightly more orange than red. Her flames also sink into her coat as if there were cracks of lava along the edges of her, as if her flames have to break through her pelt instead of grow from it. Her transition to becoming a Djinn has merely darkened her red coloring to simply a closer-to-black red than a normal Djinn's matte onyx and only the core of her flames, the parts that burn closest to her body, have the rank's trademark crimson coloration.
Vesper was no mere horse when she began, and while coming to Teragaia took a bite out of her powers, she retains some. (See also, arcane script to add the War Suite.)
◘ The Master Calls -- Wherever War, or wherever War's current soul shard, is, wherever he calls for Vesper, Vesper can hear and respond immediately, appearing by his side in an instant, pulled across space, time, and sometimes dimensions by the power of their bond.
◘ Horizon Walker -- Wherever War has touched -- any world with conflict, any world where the Horseman has influence at all -- Vesper can go. Her method is not as efficient or as comfortable as the ability of dragons to go between, but she is one of the few non-dragons who can planeswalk to some extent.
◘ Aura of Strife -- War is Vesper's rider, but Vesper is as much War as her rider, and beings caught in her vicinity when things get violent are bound to feel influenced by Vesper's radiating aura of violence. All emotion around her boils down to two things, anger and fear, and those two things in sufficient quantity can make any fight spin out of control.
◘ No Mortal's Horse -- Vesper is the steed of War. As long as War exists, Vesper exists, rendering her immortal and, to a degree, invincible. Not completely invincible, however, because while she shares a Firemane's resistance to physical harm...she really only lacks the ability to die, not the ability to be debilitated by severe injury if severe injury should happen to actually catch up with her.
Most everyone has heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Rarely does anyone think of that Biblically infamous quartet as being, realistically, an obligate octet. They would be very sorry Horsemen indeed without horses to ride, and in this, Vesper is one of the most vital unwritten parts of history that will never be recognized for what she is or what she represents.
She will, however, always be feared.
It takes a stupid man (or woman) to face down a giant flaming horse with the teeth of a carnivore and the temperament of a serial killer without fear, after all. Vesper is no mere steed. She is the battle-steed of the Horseman of War, dark rider of the Apocalypse, and she has ended worlds with War on her back, Pestilence, Famine, and Death following close behind.
One would think she would blend in as a Firemane, with a resume like that. Her arrival to Teragaia may have lumped her in with the Firemane species. She may share their physical characteristics, the unearthly grace, the flames in place of mane, tail, and fetlocks, the eerily silent metallic hooves that make far less noise than they ought as they rip up the ground beneath them. She does not, however, share their end goals.
Firemanes are a very selfish species. Narcissistic, sociopathic, sadistic. Especially sadistic. Firemanes unabashedly take pleasure in the suffering of others and usually are the root cause of it. Pointless torture is a favored pass-time because it is entertaining. To Vesper, on the other hand, pointless torture is exactly that. Pointless. She is not the kind of empathetic or compassionate creature that gives much of a damn about anyone's suffering, but she also doesn't much care enough to go out of her way to cause it either. Suffering bores her. Angst bores her. Petty sadism, as a personality trait, makes her angry because it is an unforgivable waste of time that could better be spent doing something useful.
As such her relationships with fellow Firemanes are strained at best, but one by one, the native Infernos of Teragaia are learning that the weird-looking foreign Djinn with the spiked armor is best left alone, even by them. Especially by them. She's had to mangle more than a few Infernos to get this recognition, however, and wild Firemanes are likely plotting a way to seriously harm her, somehow, any way they think they can get away with. They just haven't figured out how yet.
Her relationship with Arieh Harel is almost as strained. Largely in part due to the Illogical Field. Vesper shouldn't exist corporeally while Arieh does unless Arieh is in direly desperate need. Vesper is War's horse. As such, she and Arieh rarely see eye to eye, so to speak, and her War-standard all-business attitude clashes then with Arieh's determination to be a peacemaker and all things not-War that he possibly can be. She'll carry him, however, because her true rider is in there somewhere, however buried beneath that obnoxiously moralizing chunk of artificial personality.
And War will return eventually. Vesper is patient. She has always been patient. Four Horsemen, four horses, and Vesper is the most patient of them all, almost, capable of cunning calculation and feats of intellect that stun most who do not expect superior tactical and strategic intelligence from something that looks like a horse on fire. And while Firemanes illustrate the extremes of her temper more fully and more immediately than most things, Vesper is usually a slower-burning thing. She fights smarter as well as harder, a warriors spirit with a tacticians mind. She is a large-boned mare, shades of cooling lava blackening in her pelt and orange-kissed crimson flames for her mane, tail, and fetlocks, sporting spiked armor across her rump and chest. Her eyes are fiery bloody crimson, and more intelligent than any base animals, leaving no visible doubt that this horse is fully sapient and oh so very smarter than the average person. Meaner, when provoked, but unlike the Firemanes that her appearance calls to mind, she never strikes the first blow unless the Ride has been called, and by that point, it is business, not malice, that drives her attack.
Horse of a Different Color: Vesper comes to this world from another, and was not a Firemane to begin with. As such, her coloration is not exact to the Database. (Okay, fine, there was prismatic crystal involvement, but work with me.)
Her base coat is more red than black, and her flames are slightly more orange than red. Her flames also sink into her coat as if there were cracks of lava along the edges of her, as if her flames have to break through her pelt instead of grow from it. Her transition to becoming a Djinn has merely darkened her red coloring to simply a closer-to-black red than a normal Djinn's matte onyx and only the core of her flames, the parts that burn closest to her body, have the rank's trademark crimson coloration.
The Horseman's Steed
Vesper was no mere horse when she began, and while coming to Teragaia took a bite out of her powers, she retains some. (See also, arcane script to add the War Suite.)
◘ The Master Calls -- Wherever War, or wherever War's current soul shard, is, wherever he calls for Vesper, Vesper can hear and respond immediately, appearing by his side in an instant, pulled across space, time, and sometimes dimensions by the power of their bond.
◘ Horizon Walker -- Wherever War has touched -- any world with conflict, any world where the Horseman has influence at all -- Vesper can go. Her method is not as efficient or as comfortable as the ability of dragons to go between, but she is one of the few non-dragons who can planeswalk to some extent.
◘ Aura of Strife -- War is Vesper's rider, but Vesper is as much War as her rider, and beings caught in her vicinity when things get violent are bound to feel influenced by Vesper's radiating aura of violence. All emotion around her boils down to two things, anger and fear, and those two things in sufficient quantity can make any fight spin out of control.
◘ No Mortal's Horse -- Vesper is the steed of War. As long as War exists, Vesper exists, rendering her immortal and, to a degree, invincible. Not completely invincible, however, because while she shares a Firemane's resistance to physical harm...she really only lacks the ability to die, not the ability to be debilitated by severe injury if severe injury should happen to actually catch up with her.
