Fantasmical 2023

Fantasmical Character - Ash

Name

Ash, whose true name is Ashul Ayazan, is the only begotten son of He Who Walks Among the Clouds, the Great Sun God Azan.

When he was a Pruhanian Shadow Stalker—one-half of a pair of assassins employed by the Pruhanian Empire—he was known as Fennec, little fox of the desert.

Age

No one is entirely certain exactly how old Ash is given the difference in time between the World Above on the Ziggurat of the Sun versus the World Below. But the best approximation is 2,200 years. However, Ash only looks to be about sixteen to eighteen years old due to magical modifications made to his body and blood when he became a Pruhanian Shadow Stalker.

Ancestry

Ash is a Suna Lamassu, a humanoid species with the mane and tail of a lion, the large ears of a serval cat, and the great wings of a desert hawk.

Physical Attributes

Ash is slender and lithe and on the more petite side like his mother was. His pair of large serval cat-like ears rise up from his glossy obsidian mane that comes down to just below his shoulders.

But it's only black in the darkness of night. Because when light falls upon it, his mane begins to come alive with a volcanic orange glow. And under the noonday sun Ash's mane is a tempest of molten gold dancing in the light. And if you listen very carefully you can almost hear it whispering in the Language of Fire.

Ash's lion-like tail reaches all the way down to the ground and has a hand-length tuft at the end. And just like his mane, it dances like a flame.

His eyes look like two black gems trapped in amber except when he watches you from the shadows, for then they seem to glow like volcanic lava. He has skin the warm rich color of sepia ink. And a face as beautiful as a palace portrait.

Ash has two Blood Marks inscribed on his body. Tattoos using the blood of a family member or close companion. One is an 8-pointed sun on the palm and the back of his left hand that features an empty circle at its center.

The second is a simplified silhouette of a cat with an S-shaped tail on his left wrist marking him as a Pruhanian Shadow Stalker.

Lastly, he has two vertical scars running down his back that almost make you think...Could he have had wings?

Special Abilities

Not only is Ash completely immune from the effects of fire whether produced by man, beast, or magic, but he also has complete mastery over it. He is, however, not immune to Fey Fire.

He can call upon his blood to form a Blood Blade—a hand-length stiletto that is copper in color from the base of his left wrist. When he recalls it or he's disarmed the blade turns to coppery ash.

To Bargain with a Fallen Star

Ash was born out of desperation and cunning deception. Because though he had a great many children and a great many wives in his Pride, the Sun God Azan had no sons to succeed him.

So when Aya was selected as Azan's next mate, Ash's young mother went to the captured star at the heart of the Ziggurat of the Sun. There, Aya offered the Eternal Flame something no other had dared to offer it before—a vessel of flesh for which to experience the world. And so a bargain was struck and a son was finally born to Azan, God of Sun and Flame. 

And Ashul Ayazan came into the world possessing all the powers of the Eternal Flame made flesh.

Skyfall

But not all was right in the Ziggurat of the Sun in the Realm Above, because the boy Ashul was kind and merciful when he should have been heartless. And he took a power that was never his to possess.

And so when he was barely past crying over the loss of his mother whom they had banished to the World Below, they marched Ashul Ayazan through the halls of the ziggurat. They bound him in cords woven of flint fiber and heavily coated with Fey Fire. The same treacherous liquid they had slathered on his wings until they hung heavy and useless.

They gave Ashul no reason for his punishment, just lead him up to the highest point of the Ziggurat of the Sun and gave him the choice that all others before had been given. To accept Azan's judgment and choose an honorable death by letting himself fall to the World Below. Or to choose a coward's death and attempt to free himself. A choice that would result in burning to death by his own hand once he ignited his flames.

They only gave Ashul but a moment to consider before they pushed him off into the clouds. A child who had never hurt anyone...yet.

Ashul let himself fall before he could no longer see all he had ever known, and then he chose the coward's death. Falling to the World Below on burning wings, he did the unthinkable and severed them from his body with his own Blood Blade.

And in a final act of desperation to save himself, Ashul cast a spell that would unintentionally reshape the World Below in the blink of an eye. For without his knowledge, the boy possessed the great power of the Eternal Flame. A power he was never meant to possess. Or was he?

Dominion of Voidance. And in a heartbeat, a dark star was born. In the next, another boy was granted power too vast for him to understand. And in the collision of these two lost boys, the metropolis that was the capital city of the Kingdom of Zinnia was no more.