Wizards

Glass wizard with a disposition for illusion and light magic. Poor second sight and close to no seer ability.
Familiar: Midnight. Midnight stalker pathera.
Familiar (merged): The Jabarrah [Name undisclosed]. Midnight stalker jabarrah.
First appearance: [B1.C1]
Wizard Age: One-Eights, as of [B1.C9]
 

Yves studied magic at Emery Thurm but left shortly before graduation. In the pursuit of curing his deteriorating eyesight, he travels the world as an artefact hunter.

Conventional teachings and methods had failed him, so he ventured into the realms of the lost, the forbidden and the unknown. He sought travellers who had witnessed the obscure and mythical, wizards whose arcane wisdom stemmed from unconventional sources, and other peoples who honed unique skills. He was granted audiences with esteemed healers like The Wizard With Six Arms, oracles, shamans, and, in his most desperate and darkest moments, even witches.

Amongst his most valuable possessions are his two ethereal mirrors which he created from forbidden knowledge obtained at the academy. With these, he is able to cross into the Dimensional Plane of Shards.

YVES’ DETERIORATING EYESIGHT

Ever since Yves had glanced upon the Rothar of an elf, the world had dimmed around him, casting an ever-growing shadow over his once-potent second sight [B1.C9]. It took a relentless barrage of skilled hands, numerous attempts, intricate strategies, and unwavering vigilance from the academy’s healers before Yves regained his sight. Nonetheless, the deterioration progressed gradually ever since. Over the months and years, it had unfolded as a slow and measurable process.

He had first lost the ability to see true light fragments — the radiant structures visible to Lightshifters in the dark, which is, not in the Material Dimension but in the Alladharian Dimension. In other words, he had lost the ability to discern light fragments through second sight.

What had started with light fragments continued ever since. With the deterioration of his second sight, Yves was losing his grasp on the Alladharian dimension as a whole. His tether to world energies, to magic itself, frayed with each passing moment.

After emerging from the Mirror Dimension in [B1.C7], his first sight deteriorated significantly as well, leaving him unable to see celestial lights and anything beyond a distance of approximately 2 kilometres. As of [B1.C9], he believes that he has only weeks before turning completely blind.

Once blind, Adhar and Rothar will be lost to him. Yves might still cobble together meagre glass shards and rudimentary illusions, borne out of sheer routine, guesswork, and luck — creations as crippled as he would be, despairing and humiliating. 

LIGHTSHIFTING WITHOUT SEEING LIGHT

During his initial two years at Emery Thurm, Yves found himself among the academy’s least accomplished students. To rise above the torment of his commilita and overcome his own weakness, Yves was forced to expand his abilities beyond the confines of glass magic. He had clung to the vestiges of light, delving into the exploration of phantom presences.

Through artefacts similar to the Lightgiver Wand and by tapping into natural light sources such as fire, he had learned to access light even after losing the ability to conjure it independently. Two mentors, unconventional in their methods yet champions of his progress, played pivotal roles in expanding such unconventional attempts at light magic.

Once he had gained knowledge on the duality of reality, Yves had understood that a Lightshifter conjures light that was visible in the Material Dimension by rearranging and compiling light fragments in the Alladharian Dimension. Conversely, powerful phantom presences like fire or lightning in the Material Dimension correspond to densely compressed light fragments in the Alladharian Dimension. Each individual phantom presence comprises distinct shards arranged in an equally unique structure.

Yves could no longer perceive or sense these clusters of light fragments. To access them, he needed to discern their structure from their phantom presence alone. Reaching blindly, Yves had to rely on guesswork and accumulated experience to harness light fragments from the Alladharian Dimension. If you broke it all down, he learned to guess the structures, sizes and shapes of light fragments from their phantom presences. [B1.c9] outlines in detail how he learned to adapt.

As he studied and trained fiercely to compensate for his affliction, he eventually caught up to his commilita. From there, he began to experiment. He invented creations that combined shards and light. Shards infused with light became his most versatile resources ever since. From them, he crafted potent weapons and vast constructions such as the Vicha dome.

HIS PERSONAL DARKNESS

“Yves hated darkness. He hated darkness even more when he knew that it was not even there, it was not even real. There were radiant stars, and the moon with her child, and, quite possibly, distorted yet beautiful fragments of light embedded everywhere throughout the expanse — they existed, tangible energies beyond his perception.”

“Yves had spent days entrenched underground, endured weeks in oppressive dungeons and caves, even delved into the recesses of the Albweiss Mountains. Yet, those experiences differed, for the darkness in these confines belonged to the places themselves. When Yves departed, the darkness remained there. This darkness, now, existed solely for him, a night that felt as if Teharun refused to set.“

“The expansive sight and energies from the sky realms, once teeming with winged beasts and dragons, were now beyond his reach, transformed into an obsidian ceiling overnight. Its pillars manifested as the ominous sensation of his world contracting, the last vestiges of light fading. It felt as though he again stood at the centre of his dome, as though he never escaped, besieged by encroaching darkness — a horrendous nothing closing in with every blink of the frantic-fearful eye, this Vicha born from an elf curse. It was a nothing that took nothing yet left nothing, consuming without taking from the world, devouring from within, impossible to outrun.”

 [B1.C9]

MIRROR WORLD TRANSFORMATIONS

“The transformation into the ashen being marked not an endpoint but a crucial juncture, the one chance to survive this horror.”  [B1.C7]
 

When first entering the Mirror World, a dimension that holds minimal traces of matter, Yves had learned to walk and see as a fragmented existence.
Incorporating ever-growing layers of light in [B1.C7] he gradually altered his matter-energy ratio, turning himself into a less and less substantial being. He evolved from the dark ashen being that he had first become when sealing the lighthouse passage in [B1.C3 ]to an entity of almost pure ethereal light. With this new form, he found himself at the threshold of an ethereal existence built from raw energy and compressed light. 

MIDNIGHT

Midnight, a midnight stalker panthera, is Yves’ first familiar. They are bonded since Yves was born.

THE JABARRAH

“Beneath raw pain, fear and seething anger, Yves could discern a novel sensation emerging within him. Amidst everything that was wrong with his body and everything that shifted around in his body, something was new. Something stirred. Something unfamiliar yet discernible had taken root, something that wasn’t Midnight or the healers’ energies, something he could not explain. It felt like a foreign presence that was simultaneously him and not him, like a third heartbeat that persisted unyieldingly through panic-induced convulsions and moments of unconsciousness.”  [B1.C9]

 
The Jabarrah was a powerful beast that, in a strange twist of fate, bestowed upon Yves a second chance at life. Ever since the battle against the elf in [B1.C9], the silver beak of the Jabarrah that had been Master Raidenbarl’s familiar is fused with Yves’ left arm, merged with his elbow like two flat silver bones that grew on the outside. To the unsuspecting eye, it looks like a set of curved and connected armour pieces that run from his elbow to his hand, but it is not an external attachment; it is an intrinsic part of his arm.

This fusion between a wizard and a familiar, especially not bonded from birth, posed an enigma to the academy masters. Even in the throes of death, familiars are not known to merge with their wizards, let alone with a stranger. The prevailing consensus among the masters was that the Jabarrah merged with Yves to evade capture by the elf that killed his former wizard Raidenbarl [B1.C9]. However, the specifics of their fusion remain elusive.

Whatever the Jabarrah had intended, the masters acknowledged that his impact on Yves had been profound and transformative. The healers went so far as to credit the familiar with Yves’ survival, suggesting that he had played an active role in keeping Yves alive until the masters found him.

Despite the absence of a distinct bond like that he shared with Midnight, Yves’ tutors perceived the Rothar of the Jabarrah within him and observed his influence on Yves’ magic. His shards exhibited greater strength and potency compared to his commilita, coupled with an element of unpredictability in their design. As of [B1.C9], the illusions that come most naturally to Yves are not copies of Midnight, but birds, particularly those that took after the Jabarrah, with his curved beak, grand wingspan, and imposing talons. While his second sight continued to decline, Yves demonstrated exceptional resilience against the intrusion of Transcender wanderers from a young age, a defence far surpassing the expected protection offered by a young familiar like Midnight.

Amongst other abilities, the Jabarrah proved the willingness to share his energy with Yves in [B1.C6]. 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].

RELATION TO WITCHES

Yves’ path of life had been crossed, entwined, directed, and twisted by a myriad of witches. These encounters had ranged from fleeting glances and negotiations to outright battles, once even culminating in the binding power of an Unbreakable Oath. He was one of the few wizards on the continent who had acquired a witch tear and, in one unavoidable twist, also a disturbing form of comradery. At Emery Thurm, he had delved into the craft, customs and covens of witches deeper than any other novice, learning to navigate the treacherous landscapes of these perilous engagements. To regain his detereorating eyesight, Yves made a deal with a witch mother, which involved the creation of the ethereal mirrors.

“He had faced a choice — he could opt for a noble sacrifice, confront the witch mother, and risk dying either during the battle or shortly after. Alternatively, he could comply with her demands, see his eyes restored, and live another 175 years of dedicated witch and elf hunting.”  [B1.C9]

RELATION TO ELVES

“The darkness drew closer, the black ceiling and the stone walls converging around him. Darkness and pain on the outside brought forth darkness and pain from the inside, and everything clashed and melded. And into the suffocating vacuum that gave Yves nothing to hold onto, seeped the haunting elf noise. And the noise grew and swelled around him and within him, and it submerged him in a maddening sea of sound.”  [B1.C9]  

After barely surviving the encounter with the elf that killed Master Raidenbarl, it had taken years of meditation for Yves to direct his memory past the sickening echoes of the elf noise and to recollect at least fragments of the incident. For two months, it took constant attention from the academy’s master healers to keep him and Midnight alive and to partially restore his eyesight.

“There were days where he wished to be dead, and others where he swore to become the most gruesome elf hunter the continent had ever seen.”  [B1.C9]

RELATION TO GODS

Like many wizards, Yves does not adhere to conventional beliefs in mythological Gods. He abstains from the prayers and rites exerted by some peoples. Still, sometimes, he liked to imagine the myths surrounding 𝞨𝟁𝞬, the cosmic artisan. [B1.C9] states that her art resonates with his soul. When he witnesses the emergence of night with all her mesmerising phantom presences of light that are the stars, he often imagines how 𝞨𝟁𝞬 paints them just there and then with her effulgent palette of starlight. Things do not have to be true to convey true beauty. For an illusionist, imagining and believing often intertwine quite seamlessly.

In [B1.C7], the Mirror World Stalker claimed that Yves was transgressing the birthplace of the Gods.