“After encountering several witch’s familiars, Midnight believed that from a wizard, you receive foresight, strategy and even magic, but with a witch, you become more of a beast.” [B1.C13]
While witches obtain, bind and command their familiars through rites and spells, wizards are chosen by their familiars. According to ancient wizarding lore, every wizard is granted a familiar at birth. If a wizard is born, a familiar will seek out the newborn shortly after. Most make their way into the baby’s room undetected, others, more politely, appear in front of the parents’ house, patiently waiting at the door to be introduced to the child. It is, in some way, comforting to know that even if a wizard child is born in the most desolate place, even if his mother does not live to hold him but leaves the earth as he enters it, he will be sought out, protected and cared for by his familiar.
The familiar is considered a reflection of the wizard’s innermost being and a guide through his journey for power and purpose. Their first encounter marks the forging of a profound bond whispered to endure a lifetime — a pact not of servitude, but of shared destiny.
While some familiars are mystical, fabled beings that only ever appear to humanoid peoples when taking the role of a wizard’s companion, the majority of familiars can hardly be distinguished from common animals.
Magical abilities
A familiar's magical abilities might birth at random, be triggered in moments of great peril, or emerge through their wizard's actions. His growth and prowess affected them. It is understood that wizards excelling in their craft shared bonds with more potent familiars, whose abilities are unravelled earlier than the average of their race.
Not all familiars develop magical abilities during their lifetime, though midnight stalkers are generally expected to.
Beyond individual abilities related to their wizard, familiars with strong Rothar may learn to expand this Rothar beyond the boundaries of their physical bodies. They may push it to such an extent that it disrupts the energy intake and flow of others, or serves as a protective shield against magic.
Wizards and witches may also learn to realise pulses.
Relation to Wizards
The relationship between a familiar and a wizard features unique traits.
DEATH OF A WIZARD
Yves and Midnight had seen novices die at Emery Thurm, observing their respective familiars' reactions:
"Midnight had seen familiars consume parts of their dead wizards before. At Emery Thurm, some familiars had simply departed, leaving the wizard's remains to the Ritual of the Dead. Others had consumed a piece — a sliver of flesh, insufficient to satiate any real HUNGER, serving more as a mere echo of what had once been and belonged. Some had taken a heart. Always one, never both. Midnight had never understood why. She did not know what she would do with her own wizard, what she would feel compelled to do." [B1.C13]
WIZARDS' FAMILIARS
Ahrasik [voltera]
Male. Voltera.
Wizard: Unknown.
First appearance: [B1.C13]
"The source of their terror became clear seconds after. Just ahead, Midnight encountered the scene of their downfall — a voltera, a massive predator not unlike a pathera but much grander in size, was gruesomely tearing through the remnants of another ork party; his rampage the realisation of raw carnage. His muscles rippled beneath a scarred hide of thick brown fur; his rampage the realisation of raw carnage." [B1.C13]
Ahrasik belongs to the party encountered by Midnight in [B1.C13]. Together with a scorchborn, avian beast Sahir and his wizard, Ahrasik escaped imprisonment by the Shaira situated within the Albweiss. In contrast to the others, he had just been captured a few days prior [B1.C14].
The Jabarrah — merged with Yves
Male. Midnight Stalker jabarrah
Wizard: Yves. Lightshifter.
Former wizard: Raidenbarl. Transcender.
First appearance: [B1.C6]
The Jabarrah is a grand avian beast that is renowned for its magical potential, and it only ever approaches wizards when establishing itself as a familiar. Its feathers appear in rich shades of blue and green, complemented by deep blue eyes and a long, sand-colored beak with a distinctive hook-like curve.
As a midnight stalker, the particular Jabarrah that merged with Yves had possessed silver eyes, while his beak, feathers and talons had been naturally black. As this familiar was the companion of a powerful Transcender master, the silver on his body had well progressed, covering his entire bill and the majority of his feathers that allowed for the storage of substantial magical energy.
As stated in [B1.C6], the beak is the only visible remnant of the Jabarrah after it had merged with Yves during a battle with an elf. The two halves of the beak extend from elbow to hand, covering Yves' left arm like armour.
Yves and the Jabarrah have no conscious bond like the deep connection Yves shares with Midnight. There were only a few instances where Yves had ever sensed the Jabarrah within him. Yet, he knows he was there, an integral part of all that Yves became after surviving the elf attack [B1.C9]. Since then, the familiar is an essence bonded with him, but also a foreign mind and energy existing alongside him.
ABILITIES
In [B1.C4], Midnight called the Jabarrah the other one who "meddled with his energies ever so slightly whenever he lost control of his senses".
The Jabarrah can autonomously share his energy with Yves [B1.C6]. Yves’ body can harbour only a limited amount of energy; a capacity defined by birth and expanded through training. The silver beak, however, holds more energy than Yves can safely amass in his entire body — an inaccessible reserve, unless the Jabarrah permitted him to draw from it.
The aftermath of the Vicha confrontation showed the Jabarrah beak changing shape, extending into Yves' body, melting into his wounds and thus stemming the bleeding [B1.C7].
Midnight
Midnight has her own character page here.
Female. Midnight Stalker pathera
Wizard: Yves. Lightshifter.
First name: Sina
First appearance: [B1.C1]
Midnight is a massive panther-like beast that weighs over 90 kilograms. As with every midnight stalker, her fur is black as coal during the day, with streaks of silver that shimmer in the moonlight. When Yves was born, her few silver streaks were concentrated just around her eyes. As she got older, the silver fur gradually became more pronounced and extended from under and above her eyes to her throat, shoulders and the back of her head.
As a pathera, her lithe form ia an embodiment of speed, agility, and endurance, granting her the ability to run and climb swiftly. Midnight’s padded paws, featuring thick, velvet-like cushions, facilitate her silent movement.
MIDNIGHT AS MIDNIGHT STALKER
As a midnight stalker, Midnight can hide her presence and energy within the shadows. Aligned with her role as the familiar of a Lightshifter, her fur can absorb light, rendering her but an indistinguishable, blurry shadow even when spotted in dim environments.
Beyond her camouflage, Midnight wields an array of other abilities. Midnight stalkers move with an uncanny silence. Midnight’s padded paws, featuring thick, velvet-like cushions, facilitate such silent movement.
Her eyesight, adapted for nocturnal settings, allows her to distinguish a variety of colours and ethereal energies that are imperceptible to the humanoid eye. This renders her not just a companion but a formidable scout in the service of her wizard, whose visual senses are sub-par.
FIGHTING SKILLS
In battle, Midnight faces her adversaries with pride. Her attacks are a daunting display of speed, power and agility. Her aggressive manoeuvres are borne from calculated ferocity, a symbiosis of raw instinct and deadly precision. When overtaken by panic, she falls back onto her instincts, with her body reacting before she can consciously grasp what was happening.
FIGHTING AS DARKNESS
Through the darkness sense she acquires with her venom transformation, Midnight can discern her surroundings. After receiving a fragment of darkness essence from the DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ in [B1.C10], she learns to weave the darkness around her into extensions of her claws.
After achieving true affinity as a being of darkness, Midnight gains the ability to fight in her darkness form, unhindered by matter and gravity. From Yves’ experiences with dimensions and magic, she learns to shape and wield darkneness in the form of spears and discs [B1.C10].
ADDITIONAL ABILITIES
- Midnight can read some witch runes [B1.C10]
MIDNIGHT AND THE DARKNESS
“Midnight belonged to the shadows of the night, to the dense foliage of formidable forests. A natural hunter, she craved open expanses to roam and run. Yet, faced with the decision between exposing herself to the capricious skies or delving into the constricting depths of the subterranean, the latter always held sway.” [B1.C8].
Midnight embodies the duality of primal instincts and arcane mastery of darkness, existing beyond the ordinary boundaries of familiars.
At Emery Thurm, Midnight delved into the depths of her own capabilities, becoming increasingly aware of her potential for growth alongside her wizard. Rigorous training with master wizards, autonomous exploration with other midnight stalkers, and manyfold explorations beyond the academy’s walls further unveiled her innate abilities tethered to the shadows.
When venturing through the Albweiss Mountains in [B1.C8], Midnight faced existential dread and the insidious sickness delivered by arachnid venom. A newfound sensory awareness emerged as paralysis tightened her grip, prompting her to integrate the venom into her being. She fractured, split, and assimilated the venom with her energy. She cleaved the fragments that so much heightened her awareness from the parts that sought to destroy her body. The former transmuted into an eldritch energy that surged through her being — a conscious decision to shed the essence of a pure beast and become a creature of darkness.
This transformation, marked by a lingering schism, represents the first time Midnight feels herself as two entities — the primal body and an awareness existing outside of her physical form. Consciously shedding her previous nature and instincts, she embraced the arcane path that defined her emerging magical abilities.
“Midnight knew that these two parts would now forever differ, but they would also, both, be darkness.” [B1.C8]
In the desolate tunnels of the Albweiss Mountains, overtaken by venom, Midnight lerned to feed her energy to the essence of darkness within, and transforms into a Shadowbound. When encountering the dawnings in [B1.C10], she undergoes another transformation that left her with heightened senses, enhanced control over the darkness and an insatiable hunger for essence. During the battle against the shadebeast [B1.C10], she then discards her Rothar and her natural essence. Keeping only her darkness essence, she gains true affinity and becomes a being of darkness.
“Midnight sensed the darkness essence shift, reaching and embedding its strands into this essence, connecting, claiming, and consuming it. And as only the darkness essence remained, the surges of darkness within expanded from under her skin to envelop every part of her being, from her teeth to her claws, from her fur to her silver eyes — unfettered by the sprites, Midnight transformed into a true being of darkness, not by concealing herself within, not by delving into it and merging, but from within, from her God-given core.” [B1.C10]
DAWNINGS – THE GODS AMONGST DARKNESS
In [B1.C10], DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ take parts of Midnight’s essence and in turn bestow her with some of theirs. Reflecting on this encounter and the concept of Gods, Midnight concludes that they must be Gods amongst the Darkness who acknowledged her.
“With this new piece of essence she had received, with the newfound, pulsating hunger coursing through her veins, Midnight now believed that the defining characteristic of Gods was a different nature. They were not predators, or trappers, or prey. No, they had a unique nature — it was inherent in them to impact other beings. Gods did not act to be acknowledged by lesser beings: they were the ones who sought and acknowledged lesser beings, as the dawnings had done with Midnight. Gods existed to make lesser beings more.” [B1.C10]
As she develops the ability to shape and control darkness outside of her form, Midnight reasons that “the Gods chose her not to be a mere being of darkness, but a wielder of darkness.” [B1.C10]
HER RELATIONSHIP WITH YVES
In their profound connection as familiar and wizard, Midnight and Yves recognize each other’s emotions on a fundamental level. Through their symbiotic bond, they share sensual perceptions and even pass the potential for developing new magical abilities onto each other.
Yves trusts Midnight’s senses, while she relies on his wizardly ability to envision future events. In the same way Yves’ humanoid senses recognise only a fraction of what the present unfolded for Midnight, she acknowledges her wizard’s knowledge of the world and his ability to strategise. In this constant exchange, they teach each other, and both grow and learn from the shared experiences.
In [B1.C10], Midnight criticises Yves’ lack of independence as an infant, as it stands in sharp contrast to the innate independence and instinctive knowledge she possessed as a patherren. It had thrilled Midnight to witness the evolution of his instincts over the years, forged in shared conflicts. In the crucible of battle, there are instances when he mirrors the primal tempest raging within her. These are the most intense moments between them. Moments where Midnight does not need to transfer her feral intuition, where what emanats from Yves reflects and amplifies the unrestrained storm within her. These are ecstatic, exalting experiences, where Yves feels less like a wizard and more like a beast.
Their first intense encounter at Emery Thurm saw Midnight overwhelmed, losing herself in a tempest of shared emotions. Unable to endure these feelings, she attacked her wizard, biting into his throat and experiencing an intoxicating taste that became her darkest shame.
“Where he felt nothing, she would be all.” [B1.C8]
In embracing the path of darkness in [B1.C8], Midnight rejects being a compensatory light for Yves’s emerging blindness. In the shroud of his blindness, she becomes a creature of darkness and silence, offering an omnipresent and unintrusive presence. Midnight’s transformation into a shadowbound signifies a conscious decision to become a catalyst for her wizard’s potential, choosing a path in darkness over compensating for his blindness.
INSTINCT VS STRATEGY – THE BOND WITH A WIZARD
“This marked the essence of the bond between familiar and wizard; through repeated trust, they transferred and cultivated each other’s abilities.” [B1.C8]
Midnight and Yves influence their perception of the world. Yves relies on Midnight’s senses where his own falter to perceive the present in its fullness, and in return she trusts his ability to envision the future. Their exchange is reciprocal: as she shares, he learns, and vice versa.
Midnight’s senses surpass those of Yves. She navigates utter darkness and possesses acute olfactory senses, honed by a life in the wild. Yves has adapted to seeing the world through her, leveraging her instincts and intuition to recognise disturbances and concealed presences in their surroundings. Her instincts offer a primal understanding, a fusion of all senses that transcends mere sensory enhancement. Yves has his intuition, marked by vague yet distinct feelings, refined through his bond with Midnight. However, he often reasons these feelings, analysing present impressions alongside his knowledge, experiences, and expectations. In contrast, Midnight’s intuition operates swiftly and naturally, providing results without the need for conscious reasoning. Yves has learned to trust this intuition as a natural extension of his own senses, instead of demanding or trying to dissect individual sensations.
Midnight’s caution, capacity to resist primal instincts, and her ability to discern traps are skills honed through her wizard. By nature and disposition, he is a strategist, cultivating acute awareness of traps as an artefact hunter and weaving deceptive realities as an illusionist. Their symbiotic exchange expands Midnight’s thinking beyond instincts. As shown in [B1.C10], the fusion of innate abilities and learned insights empowered her to re-evaluate actions based on potential futures yet to unfold. She learned to reflect and to envision and, from both, to strategise.
The bond between familiar and wizard extends beyond sharing emotions and sensory input. Yves’ transformations in the Mirror Dimension as well as his ability to handle what are to him invisible light fragments lay the foundation for Midnight’s transformation into a shadowbound.
“This was the essence of sharing a bond with a wizard. He had learned to alter his essence, to split poison energy, and through their bond, he had passed the potential for this arcane transformation onto her.” [B1.C8]
NATURE VS NURTURE AND CULTURE
Throughout the narration, Midnight’s mental capacities increase. She begins to reflect on her development as something more than a beast. With that, she learns to critically discern the differences between beasts and humanoid peoples.
“Midnight, too, killed and ate other beings. She killed to survive, defend and to sustain herself, but she was never cruel with prey. She hunted fairly and killed swiftly. However, Midnight had many times experienced that what was natural and sensible for her and most beasts demanded great restraint from humanoid peoples. They needed many words to kill. They played with their prey and tortured their enemies, and relied on established rules to be less cruel.” [B1.C10]
Sahir [avian beast]
Male. Avian beast.
Wizard: Salgier.
First appearance: [B1.C13]
"The darkness spotted another creature. Behind the voltera, perched on a jagged mass of stone jutting straight out of the middle of the snowtrail, sat a feathered beast. It was avian in form, yet something about it was wrong. Thick feathers covered its body, but where wings should have been, there were only stumps — mutilated remnants of what had once been a creature capable of flight. Midnight traced the contours of its powerful form and recognised the signs of its severed wings, the scars still visible, cutting deep into its flesh. Though flightless, the beast exuded a strange, bitter pride, its head held high despite the humiliation of its mutilation. But his pride and presence was hollow, a vestige of what he once was. It was a creature without power, yet unwilling to hide, its eyes watching the slaughter below with a cold, detached malice." [B1.C13]
Sahir belongs to the party encountered by Midnight in [B1.C13]. Together with his wizard, a scorchborn and voltera Ahrasik , Sahir escaped imprisonment by the Shaira situated within the Albweiss.
WITCHES' FAMILIARS
Jabarrah — female with Samasira
Female, young.
Witch: Samasira.
First appearance: [B1.C17]
"The white bird, perched on her arm, mirrored her movements, its golden eyes tracking the guards with the same eerie synchrony" [B1.C17]
A female shown to sit on Samasira's arm when she approaches the Albweiss Mountain Guild in [B1.C17]. She has golden eyes. Due to her young age, her beak does not yet show the long and pronounced curve that makes the jabarrah so recogniseable.
ABILITIES
According to Imbiad, the jabarrah emitted a deflection pulse to shield Samasira and herself from Imbiad's ice magic in [B1.C17]. 
