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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
By the time they’d gotten to the Sea of Dreams, it had been too dark to continue – the area had been too frigid in the desert for their hot-blooded natures. And as such, they’d slowed to stay the night on the outskirts of it – hunting and savoring as much heat as they could between fire and shifts. Danta, as his lava wyrm had been a perfect necessity for the butcher, who most of his shifts would be too large to try and keep warm.
All except for the lial or the fyrhund in his soul. The fyrhund seems like the logical choice, given it’s always been his soul shift, just as the gore crow had been Danta’s, but with the prospect of the slight sheen of water coating the sea of dreams from recent scream rain, he’s content to spend the night in his lial shift, soaking up as much heat as he can.
It’s only when the sun starts to rise that the butcher stirs, tail sweeping along the rough edge of the sands. His flat nose nudges Danta’s lava wyrm form as if to wake him or see if he’s already awake, before he’s glancing back out toward the rest of the desert they have to conquer.
03-25-2026, 12:08 PM (This post was last modified: 03-25-2026, 12:51 PM by Dantalion.)
if this is to end in fire, then we should all burn together
Danta had fallen asleep as a small wyrm the size of a housecat, but by the time Asta awakens, he's reverted to his natural state - that being a puddle of softly glowing ooze. As the lial's muzzle nudges at him he lets out a keening, raspy little shriek that sounds a lot like a yawn, the wyrm rising up amorphously out of the lava until he can properly take form.
Frog-blinking at the enormous reptile, evidently Danta wants nothing to do with being awake until the sun has risen a little more, and he slorps his way over to Asta's tough hide and ridged spine, hoping to ooze out atop him until the world makes a little more sense. Across the Sea of Dreams the salt flats are already shimmering with ripples of heat, but who knows how long the weather will stay that way.
The Maverick
watch the flames climb high into the night
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
It’s precisely what he’s expected, to be honest. The puddle of lava that scoots its way toward him, slipping up his sides to his back where the flat ridges of volcanic armor sit, split up only by the fiery ripples of lava in between each one. Danta will find it an easy space to completely flatten out back into his puddle to watch the sky slip past as Asta turns their attention toward the Sea of Dreams.
The salt flats beckon them but simultaneously feels threatening – and given Asta’s current state, the lial starts to head into the flat expanse as if it were a dare. Try me he seems to say to the environment, large long maw clacking together with his too sharp teeth, snorting a little sound briefly before he’s tilting his head to glance back toward Danta the best he can with a glimmer of a look that seems to suggest he should hang on (though he imagines with how much Danta has melted into his skin, it’d be easy to keep him settled).
And only once he’s sure Danta’s comfortable with it, does he burst forward with the surprising bolt of speed the lials often had – short bursts, of course, but enough that it starts to get them toward the sandy clouds that take over the sky and blot out any sense of direction. Luckily for him, channeling some of his Whitebrim experience, he’s used to being turned around with snow storm after snow storm. So he trudges on, guiding them through the thick of it.
if this is to end in fire, then we should all burn together
It's unsurprising that a lava wyrm can find most anything exceedingly comfortable, given their propensity for turning to liquid at a moment's notice, and this morning is no different. Danta melts against the ridges of Asta's lial form like it's a decadent mattress, and as he starts to make his loping way forward into the Sea of Dreams, the swaying movement is more than enough to have him snoozing. If Asta hears something close to a purr over his shoulder, rest assured it's just a wyrm snoring.
At least until he suddenly shoots forward - that definitely gets Danta's attention, and he shrieks a note that the butcher will recognise as being much more similar to the sound back in their rooms that one afternoon. Forced to slorp back into a serpentine shape but with the world already blurring by with speed enough to try and melt the wyrm back down, Danta is holding on for dear life as they travel - and yes, screaming the whole way.
The Maverick
watch the flames climb high into the night
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Well, he’d thought he’d gotten Danta’s attention ahead of time to let him know what his plan was – but by the time they slow from the most recent bolt of speed, he’s been acutely aware of the shrieking happening along his spine with each burst of movement. A low, clicking sound akin to a laugh leaves the butcher’s throat as he slows them to an easier sway of a walk, the sand hanging heavy in the air around them from the most recent gusts of wind that had accumulated precisely at this spot.
Being the gentleman he is, he does slow down enough for Danta to regain some amount of composure (and perhaps so Asta can attain some more hearing from the high pitched shrieking that’s left the wyrm), but it’s a respite that doesn’t last long as they traverse the salt flats, not wanting to linger much longer than necessary – he already feels thirsty.
So, with a moment of pause and some breath caught, the butcher’s grateful he’s so focused ahead so that Danta might not see the shit eating grin (or as close to one a lial can manage) before he bolts forward again to get them through the sandy equivalent of a dust devil.
if this is to end in fire, then we should all burn together
As Asta finally wobbles back down to a walk, Danta quietly thanks Dygra that lava wyrms apparently can't get motion sickness, and he's oozing back into a semi-puddle state while the butcher directs them further across the salt flats. At least there doesn't seem to be any screaming rain about today - that would truly be the cherry on the top of things, and Danta feels as though he's doing enough screaming for them besides - allowing the lial to swish its way through the heat without interruption.
Or so the Maverick thinks, because he hasn't accounted for fucking dust devils. He's at least awake for it this time as Asta starts to surge forward, and although his protest still cuts loud and high-pitched through the cloud of dust and debris, it cuts off in time for them to commit to making their way through the predicament. Hunkering down close to the lial's heated scales, Danta nevertheless finds himself growling his displeasure at this part of Hak Etme. The sooner they're out of it, the better, in his opinion.
The Maverick
watch the flames climb high into the night
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
He’s also glad that lava wyrms can’t get motion sick – unsure what, precisely, might come from one if it were to be sick nor does he particularly want to find out. So, with Danta easing a little on his spine and providing quite the perfect specific speck of heat against his plates, the butcher’s content to continue trying to get them through the thick of this until they can leave this awful place behind.
Mirages poke at his peripherals likely due to the sand storms, but Asta pays them little mind as he works with the little navigator in his head to get them going straight through and across, not turning or leaning one way or another lest they end up somehow going in a big circle. Danta’s squeals and growls of displeasure are mirrored with the clicking throaty rumble from the lial’s throat, bracing against the sands as they pass through it rather sluggishly.
It takes some time, but eventually they manage it – breaking through the dust devil cloud to the bank of the Sea of Dreams, the salt flats giving way to desert dunes once more and a delicious, intense heat that pours down at them with the blissful lack of screaming rain this time. And after a quick rest as their shifts, he goes much slower and easier toward the Sunshine Pools until he decides to replace the lial with his fyrhund shift. At least he’ll give Danta plenty of warning in advance.
