Chant

Touched by the Planes of Hell but not bound to it

I never wanted to be like this. Never went looking for power just...companionship. Isorok was my best friend and he gave his life and his power so I could live. I'll never forget that...and I won't let anyone take what's now mine.

— Chant

Although he was born Tobias Phillips, his current existence as something more than a mere Mageborn caused him to pick a different name. Drawing inspiration from his love of music and the words of the ritual that had brought him his former bonded Isorok, Tobias chose the name Chant to replace the name of his birth. Since then, he has existed somewhat in the shadows, working with those who know about the otherworldly things that lurk in the world due to now being something that those who are 'normal' fear.

Recognizing Chant

Eyes

Yellow, with a right blind eye

Hair

White streaked with black

Height

1.73 meters

Weight

187 pounds

Identifiers

Bright blue tattoos, Scars

Of average height for a human, Chant has a sturdy, muscular figure born of long years working a forge. Although he looks mostly human, his features are now obviously accented with very non-human features. From his former bonded, Isorok, he inherited the pointed ears, swept back horns, and wickedly sharp fangs. His hair, once entirely black, went almost entirely white instead, leaving only streaks of black behind in an echo of Isorok's short mane of hair.
Chant's other identifying features include a tail and wings, however he is capable of hiding the wings with the proper amount of concentration and Power. Unlike his former bonded, however, he is not capable of flight as he is still bound by the mortal laws of physics.
Besides the scars he gained in his youth from bullies and tormentors, Chant also bears the same bright blue tattoos that his bonded once wore. While he does not like where they came from, he accepts their presence as they are still a last part of his bonded.

Chant's Past

Born on Arfa Obene in the Glyni Ka'Roma System, Chant was born as Tobias Phillips. Once a large family that held rank and status in the system, they were nearly wiped up during the Collapse by Baen Arleth's forces after several members stood up to the Horde. In retaliation and to quell the resistance of the population, the popular Phillips family was hunted down and publicly executed, until the only survivor was the Taran Phillips, youngest son of Lord Valen Phillips - one of the first to stand against the Horde. Because of this history, all subsequent Phillips' lived and died with an intense, almost overwhelming hatred of all things related to Baen Arleth.
Due to his parents dying when he was young, Tobias grew up in a public orphanage and was mercilessly bullied and tortured because he was small, quiet, and strange.

^{Character portrait created in Canva using character created in HeroForge}

This strangeness eventually bloomed into his Magic, Power practically exploding out of the boy the day he turned thirteen and was blinded by a savage tormentor. The explosion of Power injured the boy who was tormenting him, breaking nearly all of the bones in his body and leaving him hospitalized for months. This incident also led to him running away and surviving on the streets of one of Arfa Obene's domed cities, sleeping in alleys and dark places until he managed to scrape by enough money to actually afford a cheap apartment.
While music was a hobby, Tobias fell into a lucky gift of a job when he came across a generous forgesmith. Having slept curled up outside in the cold by the man's forge, he woke to the man putting a blanket over his shoulders and simply saying, "Fire's warmer inside, son." That meeting sparked a connection and eventually the apprenticeship that would earn him the money that got his apartment and the job that he would continue in for years to come.
It also allowed him to buy a copy of the ritual manuscript off of the Link Network that led to him summoning his bonded. Tobias was only seventeen cycles when he chanted the words to the spell and accidentally bound himself to the life and Power of the Hellspawn Isorok.

Isorok's Sacrifice

^{The giving of power generated using Artbreeder}

In 3540 AFT, Isorok and Tobias were forced to part ways. Although Tobias had proven himself useful to his community over the years, there were those in his past who sought to torment and torture the young man. Several of his boyhood tormentors managed to find him and hit him over the back of the head while he was working at his master's forge, tying him up and beating him to within an inch of his life. Despite the violence, both Tobias and Isorok held onto the hope that they would not be forced to use Magic to survive to avoid exposing themselves.
When his captors tossed his battered and broken body out into the toxic atmosphere of Arfa Obene, leaving him to suffocate in the noxious fumes and die, Isorok made a choice. He could allow Tobias to die and break the bond...or he could save his friend.

The ability to share Power is a common trait of the bond and eventually leads to Hellspawn and Mageborn conjoining unwillingly into one being. Isorok chose to force that conjunction, sacrificing his Power and lifeforce entirely of his free will to save his bonded. The Power of a Hellspawn freely given would not only have the capability to heal Tobias of all of his wounds, but it would allow him to survive almost anything else that the Mortal Plane might throw at him. During the bonding, the tormentors returned but they were not faced with the battered, near broken body they had left behind. Instead, they found the form of Tobias Phillips engulfed in otherworldly blue flames, his skin blue and body transforming before their eyes. In the middle of it he looked up at them, features shifting between human and reptile, his good eye entirely a reptilian gold and the bad eye that one of them had blinded long ago shining gold from the broken pupil.
They tried to run but Isorok had one final gift for his Master. Before his being was entirely absorbed, he lashed out and cursed the tormentors with blindness and nightmares for the rest of their lives - a mere fraction of what Tobias had suffered. With that final act, his consciousness disappeared as the manacles of their bond snapped shut around Tobias Phillips' wrists and neck.
Once the act of sacrifice was done, Tobias begged and pleaded for Isorok to take it back, tugging and clawing at the manacles around his wrists and throat as if removing them would revert the spell. Even though he knew in his heart that his friend was gone, he didn't want it to be true.

Chant's Present

Now three hundred and thirty-five cycles old - a full twenty years older than his friend ever reached - Chant is a master forgesmith and one of the oldest Mageborn living on the Mortal Plane. Thanks to Isorok's sacrifice, he has the semi-immortality of a Hellspawn but without being forced to be tied to the Planes of Hell as others like him. The bonds on the manacles still link to him, making him bound to himself.
Every day he attempts to continue as Isorok asked at the end - to live. In honor of the sacrifice of his best friend, Chant does that to the best of his ability. And, if three hundred years of life have taught him anything, it is that there must be some level of savagery in defending the things he loves as well as sacrifice.

Relationships

Isorok

Bound Summoning (Vital)

Towards Chant

5

5

Frank

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Chant

Bond Holder (Vital)

Towards Isorok

5

5

Frank

---

^{Character portrait created in Canva using character created in HeroForge}

Species

Helltouched Mageborn

Date of Birth

3515 AFT

Birthplace

Arfa Obene, Glyni Ka'Roma System

Sex

Male

Gender

Male

Spouses

Siblings