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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!
Beware the darkness of dragons, Beware the stalker of dreams,
Visions played in the rippling air. An oasis blue with the promise of water, and silhouettes walking away, slow enough that they seemed reachable with a bit of effort. A merciless sun baked the earth until it cracked and crumbled and even the occasional gust of wind offered no relief.
Sprawled out on that sizzling pan, the dragon hadn't moved for some time now. Not dead, because its ink black sides still rose and fell in a steady rhythm; nor was it asleep. Not quite. Through a crack in heavy lidded eyes it watched the horizon, transfixed by the mirages and whatever mental imagery that flicked on repeat across its inner vision. Relaxing into the oppressive heat like one attempting to dissolve, only the nacreous eyes shifted occasionally, responding to even the slightest movement. The widespread wings offered a rare bit of shade; a lizard had curled up beneath the extended membrane on one side, and a bird she didn't know the name of was inching closer on the other. Scurrying, then freezing, then scurrying closer again when the big, hulking, terrifying beast didn't deign to take offense. Once it reached her shadow, not even a slow, heavy sigh was enough to startle it into flight; dust stirred up in a miniature sandstorm, slitted nostrils widened to release a sulphurous exhale crackling with embers, then settled again.
There was nothing here to burn. Only sun-bleached bone and arid soil, and waking dreams dancing on errant winds. The sun would set at some point and the visions would disappear, but for now... yes, they were there. Seemingly more real than she had ever been.
Beware the talons of power and fire, Beware one who is not what she seems.
The desert stretched endless and golden beneath Marcus’ wings, heat shimmering in waves off the dunes. It had never been easier for Marcus to travel.
He rode the air high, an eagle against the pale sky, feathers catching the thermals that rose from the sunbaked earth. His wings carried him high and far and so much faster than his legs could ever take him. The warmth lifted him effortlessly, no need to fight the wind as he so often did in Halo. There, the air was heavy and sharp, laden with frost that clung to his plumage. The gales came at him sideways, biting and unrelenting, every wingbeat a battle against the storm. Here, the silence was wide and unbroken. No crackle of ice shifting on the sea, no howl of snow through the streets. Only the sweep of sand, the faint whisper of wind against stone, and the steady rush of air through his feathers.
It was exhilarating.
Until he was in a place he definitely didn't want to be in, with a dragon looming.
Panic laced through the eagle and he kept himself in the air.
Beware the darkness of dragons, Beware the stalker of dreams,
The eagle may never have registered as a presence in the dragon's mind, had it not been for its shadow. It took only a moment for its wings to blot out the sun, to interrupt its daydreaming, but a second was enough to disrupt the sweet numbness she'd been sheltering in.
Suddenly she was aware again. Felt the sting of drying eyes, and how a pebble was lodging itself between chest plates tightly enough to bruise the skin beneath, and how when she bit down on the grit of sand it made her teeth grate unpleasantly. Heaving a reluctant sigh, she blinked slowly. Raised her head from its carcass imitation and followed the eagle's path across the sky with mixed feelings. Tempted to ignore it, peeved enough to maybe take out some frustration on it - apparently neither dense jungle nor scorching desert were remote enough to be left alone in - and it was only the recent encounter with Lena that made her pause and reconsider. Allowing for the possibility that it wasn't simply a bird like every other, that the sky wasn't actually hers alone to fly in...
In the end, her displeasure was expressed simply with a snort of dark breath that rose like a smoke ring into the sky. A moment later she sent the lizards and birds scattering by daring to move, stretching herself long and luxurious - like an oversized cat - and pushed up to sit, preening and cleaning to get the stubborn pebble out of her scales.
Beware the talons of power and fire, Beware one who is not what she seems.
The eagle circled again, panic rushing through him and making his already-high heart rate skyrocket. The black dragon below him moved. He wasn’t sure what sound left his beak, but had be been a man it might have been a gasp or an expletive. He tilted his wings on the warm air, the sun baking his back as he watched with bright blue eyes if the dragon was going to attack.
But it simply laid back down, stretched in the desert sand.
And curiousity struck him.
Angling again, the eagle tucked his wings slightly and when he was close enough to the sands, he dismissed his shift. Still far from the dragon, he crouched. He simply watched the creature, the easy way it relaxed in the sand giving him a false sense of security.
Beware the darkness of dragons, Beware the stalker of dreams,
Closer to the ground, heat caused the air to ripple and shimmer as though the sun-bleached pane laid under water. Volors danced at the peripheral of ones vision, hints of movement and shape that beckoned and lured attention to stray. The eagle could have been one of them. Certainly the man seemed out of place enough to be naught but a mirage himself, and the dragon paid him no heed as he approached. Pebbles and dust skittered across the ground between her feet as the preening continued, methodical and patient. The lizard shimmied back into the shade cast by her towering stature, and as a vast wing extended to grant access to the fine scales beneath, the shade was flung far enough to engulf the man, too.
That he didn't vanish with the light gave her pause. Stilling for a moment, the dragon's sinewy neck coiled and turned, turning the massive head and one moon-bright, nacreous eye upon the stranger. Watching, and waiting; and for a time, it seemed the entire desert held its breath.
Beware the talons of power and fire, Beware one who is not what she seems.
10-21-2025, 05:51 PM (This post was last modified: 01-13-2026, 08:45 AM by Marcus.)
No, I cannot resist
The young hybrid was being exacrly that -- young.
Stupid, young, reckless.
He shifted slightly, his weight sending the sand falling around him in rippling gold waves with a tide that pulled him deeper as he crouched.
And the dragon looked at him.
Panic laced through him in bright, white-hot waves that had his heart threatening to break ribs and bust straight through the safety of his sternum.
His breath hitched and he swallowed, hard. He met the dragon's eye.
His mother's face flashed in his vision. The warm touch of her hand on his cheek ghosted across his skin, sending a spark of fire that brought a crimson blush across him that the heat of the desert could not rival.
Was he about to be reunited with her?
He wasn't ready. He shifted, and took to the skies, praying the dragon wouldn't follow him.
