application (s72).

[unsea]

PLAYER INFO

Name: pax
Contact: forzare @ plork
Are you over 18?: ya!!

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: The Darkling (Aleksander Morozova)
Canon: The Grisha Trilogy
Canon Point: Ruin and Rising, end of Chapter 11. At this point, he has failed to save his mother and former mentor, Baghra, as she purposefully plummets to her death at the Monastery of Sankt Demyan, a mountain fortress where Alina Starkov and the remains of her ragged resistance have entrenched themselves. Baghra's actions serve as an effective distraction so that Alina and company might escape the Darkling's reach.

Appearance: it's a pb yo

The Darkling is described as a youthful-appearing man with black hair and "quartz-colored" (grey) eyes. He wears a black kefta, which traditionally consists of an overcoat, a long tunic, breeches, gloves and boots. As of Siege and Storm, he has the tracery of scars on his face, with the closest being to his right eye.

Age: Far older than his stated age of 120+, but he looks to be in his mid-twenties.

Setting:

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

The world of the Grisha Trilogy is primarily set in the country of Ravka. Ravka is a monarchy, perpetually exhausted by a three-front war that has been fought for centuries against the northern territory of Fjerda, the southern empire of Shu Han and against a dark schism, called the Unsea, that divides its western trading ports from its eastern capital. While the armies of Ravka have marshaled against the territories threatening their borders, their defense of the capital of Os Alta has left the rest of the country vulnerable and without access to trading routes, essential goods and general security. As a result, the Ravkan world is fiercely divided - east from west, and the Grisha from the otkazat'sya.

The official website cites that "Ravka is surrounded by enemies and basically operates as a garrison state." A garrison state is a military-social construct, and highlights the possibility of a political-military elite composed of "specialists in violence". In essence, the world of Ravka is a world resting on the shoulders of violent people.

Among these people are the Grisha, who are a collection of uniquely-talented humans, who practice a form of magic referred to as "the Small Science" - where they manipulate matter at its most fundamental levels. They consider this a natural science, as understandable and rule-oriented as molecular biology is to us. The basic tenants of the Small Science state that matter cannot be created from nothing, which resembles our world's law of the conservation of mass. However, there have been instances where select Grisha have created and formed something from nothing - a reviled concept referred to as merzost, the Ravkan word for abomination.

Those who do not possess the ability to practice the small science are called otkazat'sya (by the Grisha; meaning "the abandoned"), and are "normal" people, in roles such as shopkeepers, laborers and soldiers. The armies of Ravka consist of both the First Army, composed of otkazat'sya soldiers and the Second Army, composed of Grisha. The Grisha, despite their usefulness and unique social status among the Ravkan elite, are viewed by the general public with deep suspicion and mistrust, as their powers allow them manipulate the world around them, depending on the order that they belong to. Although vital to the Second Army, the Grisha's use is slowly being displaced by the use of gunpowder and new methods of warfare.

The orders of the Grisha are as follows: the Corporalki, who manipulate the human body to harm or heal, are the highest-ranking Grisha and the most valuable soldiers. The Etherealki, Grisha who operate on the tenants of physics to manipulate the matter of the world (it is to this order that The Darkling belongs, due to his unique status as the sole Etherealki capable of manipulating darkness and shadow), and the lowest ranking Grisha of the Materialki - who are basically the the science nerds of the Grisha order ranks. Due to the overarching role of war and defense, the Materialki are plenty valued for their contributions to the war, despite their third-tier rank.

While the Grisha are taken from their families at a young age, and brought to the Little Palace at the Ravkan capital of Os Alta to be tutored and trained, their military prowess and unique social status is not the only thing that lends to the widespread mistrust and violence against the Grisha. The Unsea, also known as the Shadow Fold, is a swath of darkness that suddenly appeared one day in their world. It divides the eastern lands of Ravka from the ports in the west. The Unsea is a section of nearly impenetrable darkness that grows in size each year, threatening the small towns and villages bordering the length of it. Members of the Ravkan army, Grisha and otkazat'sya soldiers alike, brave the Unsea periodically to keep trade alive.

The Unsea is said to have been created by the Black Heretic, a Darkling Grisha (as "Darkling" is a type of Grisha, and a title borne by them) - and as a result, Ravka was divided, leading to its current war-starved status and desperation. Ravka needs to be whole for it to survive its enemies, and many factions and individuals within the world have their own designs on how to accomplish that. The Second Army, led by the Darkling, intends to use Alina Starkov, the main character and a light-summoning Grisha, to destroy the Unsea once and for all, allowing the armies patrolling its length to return to the battles against Fjerda and Shu Han.

History:

[ Spoilers for the series below!! ]

He was born Aleksander Morozova, of the Morozova line, to Baghra and an unnamed father (source material differs on exactly what his father was - he was either an otkazat'sya man or a powerful Heartrender), and he was considered blessed by a wealth of power. A power that he would be burdened by as well, supposedly doomed to great sorrow due to this. His grandfather was a Grisha - the infamous Illya Morozova, a man canonized by Ravkan faith as a saint after he used his power to revive a child from death. Though he brought the child back from death, the way that he utilized his power was considered merzost - abomination, as it created life from unlife (something from nothing) and various tales indicate that he was martyred as a result. Illya's oldest daughter, Baghra, was a Darkling and a living amplifier - an an object that empowers a Grisha's abilities to new heights. She would pass both of these abilities on to her son, Aleksander. Alive, they were able to amplify Grisha power to new heights. Dead, their bones would imbue a Grisha with exponential reserves.

Aleksander spent the vast majority of his childhood wandering the world, with his mother, as refugees, taking on numerous identities through the years. They were alive long before the events of the first book of the Grisha trilogy, during long years of turmoil and strife, before the palace and the monarchy at Os Alta was anything more than a military fort. During this time, their status as Darklings meant that they were well-prized by any who would receive them. However, their status as amplifiers meant that they could not allow other Grisha to touch them or allow themselves to grow close to any of the hungry, power-starved souls that surrounded them - their greatest fear being that they would be murdered and their bones used as amplifiers as a result.

This fear was well-supported in his childhood, when his attempt at befriending another Grisha girl resulted in her attempting to kill him for his bones, because she and her otkazat'sya sister had too long lived in fear of those who abused, tortured and killed Grisha - including their own mother.

There is a blurry area, between this point in time and the creation of the Unsea, a vast, dark area that now bisects Ravka and is inhabited by monsters called volcra. While initially he describes the creation of the Unsea as something that his great, great, great, great grandfather - a Grisha known as the Black Heretic - had done, the truth is that the Darkling himself was the Black Heretic, and had created the Unsea during an attempt to use his power against his enemies. He would later fake his demise, and return a few years later as a "new" Darkling, rising to the rank of adviser to the Ravkan throne and then to the creator and leader of the Second Army within a few iterations of "dying" and "being born" - biding his time until such a power that rivaled his would be found, and he could utilize it to bind the Unsea to his will and create a world where the Grisha could be free from fear and oppression.

The events of the first book, Shadow and Bone, revolve around locating the newly awoken "Sun Summoner" - Alina Starkov - and inducting her into the ranks of the Grisha. She is coerced into an alliance with the Darkling, on the grounds that he wishes to unite their powers and destroy the Unsea once and for all. The eventual truth - that he wishes to bind her abilities to us, using the antlers of a semi-mythical stag called Morozova's stag as an amplifier - comes to light, and Alina flees the Second Army in search of the stag. Though captured and seemingly bound to his will by the end of the book, she finds that the mercy that stayed her hand when meeting the stag is what frees her from the Darkling's will. She flees again, though her power has already been utilized to expand the Unsea.

Siege and Storm picks up with Alina on the run, the Second Army of Grisha divided in two - between those loyal to Ravka and those loyal to the Darkling. The Darkling has begun a campaign to continue his expansion of the Unsea, locate Alina and a second amplifier (the Sea Whip, another semi-mythical beast) and bind her back to him. His campaign focuses on painting Ravka as a world divided and unable to heal from it, not without costing the Grisha their safety, status and livelihood. By the end, the Darkling has taken advantage of the ruling monarchy's folly and taken over the capital of Os Alta, leaving Alina and her little army to flee once more.

With Ruin and Rising, Alina and her army intend to strike back against the Darkling and his forces. Though they are able to meet with the remains of the First Army, a force of sun-loyal fanatics and whoever else is opposed to the Darkling's intended rule, their forces are shattered and scattered when he makes his appearance at their fortress. It is from this point in canon that he will be derived from, as his mother, Baghra, plummetts to her death before his eyes - in order to buy Alina and her companions time to escape him and located the third and final piece to amplify her power - the Firebird - and put an end to the battle once and for all.

Personality:

“In this moment he was just a boy - brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity.”

The Darkling was once, as many ambitious men once were, a boy. Centuries prior to the first novel, he was a refugee, traveling from territory to territory alongside his mother, Baghra - the only other living soul that he knew was like him in any way, shape or form. He was a lonely and practical child, willing to stifle his core personality and mask himself behind multiple names and guises - Eryk, Iosef, Anton, Stasik, Kirill - if only in the hopes that he would survive childhood. He grew up, knowing that he was a Darkling - unique and rare among Grisha - and that he was a living amplifier, an individual who could increase the power of other Grisha. Because of this, he also harbored the knowledge that - if his status as a living amplifier was found out, Grisha who were power-hungry, or desperate, or simply cruel, would kill him for his teeth, for his bones.

Living with that knowledge, and the mentorship of his powerful, but often distant, mother, he would grow up in an environment where he experienced Grisha and otkazat'sya at their worst. To protect himself, he could not allow any other living being to touch him, leading to a childhood spent in solitude, emotionally confined and cold. His mother, in turn, fostered within him the pride she had never felt as a child - pride in his uniqueness and the wealth of power he had been born into. She taught him that he had no equal, and that he was destined to bow to no one. Most importantly, she taught him to rely on no one - lessons he learned too well.

This is the background against which his hunger for power and control would grow. He learned that the way that Grisha had been forced to live - with the threat of violence looming over their head - was what made them desperate for security and individual power. He in turn, recognized in his youth that there would be no safe place, no haven for them, unless he created one. In pursuit of this goal, at some point in his adulthood, he wound up creating the Unsea - found that he could not control his creation, and resolved himself to bide his time until someone who rivaled his power came along, so that he could finish his work. Where some men might come to regret their actions, especially when their actions quite literally cleaved their world in two, the Darkling was patient enough and resolute enough to accept that despite the obvious failure, his efforts could and would be redoubled in the future. Reaching that future, he understood, would be easy - as Grisha naturally lived long lives, fueled by the use of their power.

As the Darkling's power, unique among Grisha, was as much what kept him in solitude, it also led to him to value other unique Grisha for their prowess or their differences (such as Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner and Genya Safin, a Grisha somewhere between Corporalki and Materialki). To this end, the Darkling proves himself to be masterfully manipulative, capable of paying precise attention to people's vulnerabilities and needs (Alina's loneliness and desire to be accepted; Genya's inferiority and her abuse at the hands of Ravka's king), by providing them with the self-made image of himself as someone who understood them best and was best suited to protect and lead them.

While his ultimate goal is (in his eyes) just, his methods are decidedly monstrous. He was willing to fit Alina Starkov with fetters, in order to quite literally bind and subjugate her will to his - thus allowing him to use her power as though it were his own, leaving her no choice in the matter. After her escape, he has hounded her throughout the world, in both her waking hours and her dreams, citing that without her presence, they would both truly be alone.

His creation of the nichevo'ya, a retinue of shadow creatures utilized to bolster his fighting forces, was reliant on his use of merzost, magic that perverted the natural world, revealing his utter willingness to go to dark lengths to accomplish his tasks. He has ordered men to be publicly, physically torn apart by the nichevo'ya, to serve as an example; presumably, he has even put children to death, for no other reason than to lure Alina out of hiding. He believes that his methods are completely rational, as no other living soul could ever accomplish what he has over the centuries and that his willingness to commit awful deeds is entirely in order to create a safe world for the Grisha.

“What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.”
Arguably, he is an exceptionally charismatic man -- known to have sat among his soldiers in the dirt and mud, and take no more than his share of rations while out in the field. To this end, he has a retinue of Grisha and soldiers loyal to his command, who believe in what he says he intends to do. He was beloved and trusted by the Ravkan royal court, given the role of leader of the Second Army - and presumably the role of royal advisor, throughout the years.

While his methods are brutal, and he shows a cool, level head and absolutely no remorse when confronted with his actions, it is only in the most recent novel that his heavy-handed actions have taken on a sadistic edge (turning Nikolai Lantsov, crown prince of Ravka, into a nichevo'ya and ruining Genya's face for her betrayal were entirely unnecessary holy shit, but he did it on the grounds that he needed to "punish" them for what they did, stood for, or for Alina's perceived lack of faith). Furthermore, the Darkling's intended haven for all Grisha is a dream that is not functional, unless he - personally - leads that world, as he is far too hungry for the power to allow anyone else to sit upon that throne. As his mother taught him, he is to bow to no other.

Canon Abilities/Skills:

PRIMARY //

✦ DARKNESS SUMMONING ; magic is as much science as superstition, and is largely connected to the natural world. a Grisha does not create, they manipulate what already exists. the Darkling's ability as a Summoner is a rare one, and revolves around his ability to pull on pre-existing shadow and manipulate it the way one might manipulate fabric or the flow of water. it does not seem to be an ability used offensively, but one that he utilizes to obstruct the reach of the light and eclipse line of sight. where Alina's ability to summon light is limited by her access to the light itself, it is also presumed that the Darkling faces this limitation as well - though the folds of his very clothing may harbor shadow at all times.

✦ MERZOST ; a perversion of the natural world, which is said to create "something" from "nothingness", and no better an example exists than the Darkling's ability to create and control entities known as nichevo'ya - or "nothingness". the nichevo'ya are creatures of shadow, faceless and suggestive of nightmarish proportion, that do not fear the light. they are born and unleashed from within the darkness he manipulates, although commentary within the series suggests that the darkness he summons and this "corrupted darkness" are two seperate forms. furthermore, he's shown to be able to forcibly transform people into nichevo'ya, by force-feeding them this corrupted darkness - such as in the case of Nikolai Lantsov.

✦ THE CUT ; a talent that any Grisha may possess, but few have the raw power to. the Cut is exactly what it seems - the ability to slice through matter with brutal precision. provided that the user can connect the concept that all their surroundings are made of matter, they are able to use the Cut to great lengths -- including slicing off the tops of entire mountains from miles away. Alina Starkov is capable of wielding the Cut in such a way, but it is unknown if the Darkling knows such precision.

SECONDARY //

✦ LIGHT SUMMONING ; minor in scale. resulting from Alina Starkov's own merzost at the end of Siege and Storm, the two of them are able to pull on each other's respective form of summoning. while he cannot shine as brightly as her, he is able to pull on minor patches of light (ie. candlelight or firelight), the way that she is able to make shadows grow and shiver and flex. ultimately, it is a faux lightshow, and his ability to tease and toy with light cannot hold against hers.

✦ AMPLIFIER ; a passive ability, and one that has defined his entire existence. an amplifier is an object that is attuned to a single Grisha, and it does as it sounds it should - it amplifiers their power to new heights. rarely, there are living amplifiers: individuals who, through touch or by being within certain proximity, increase the ability of a Grisha. if these individuals are killed, and their bones or teeth fashioned into necklaces or other macabre jewelry, they provide even higher levels of power.

✦ COMBAT PROWESS ; as a result of forming, fine-tuning and leading the Second Army, he has gathered a number of combat and tactical skills over the years. During their educational experience, Grisha are taught hand-to-hand combat alongside the Small Science. While the form of combat is never explicitly named or detailed by the author - it might arguably resemble any number of Russian military systems or martial arts.

✦ LONGEVITY ; another passive ability, mostly because per the Grisha lore, when a Grisha uses their power, it feeds their health and vitality, rather than consumes it. the Darkling cites that he is around 120 years old, but the likelihood is that he is far older, as the Unsea - his creation is older than 120.

[ NERFING SUGGESTIONS IF REQUIRED: Limit the radius of his shadow-skillz and Cut skillz?; negate his ability to perform merzost entirely or make the nichevo'ya the size of house cats? I'll throw up a permissions post if necessary as well. ]

ON STATION 72
Symbiote Specialization: Rho
Symbiote Ability: Darkness Solidification [ IE. ]

Further expanding on his pre-existing ability to manipulate darkness, being able to solidify that two-dimensional darkness to interact with the three-dimensional world. The shadows would take on a singular shape (hands, actually) and he wouldn't be able to use them as an additional offensive skill - more as an assistive skill. I feel that this builds on his canonical abilities, and while the Small Science functions somewhere between 'physical manifestation of inner power' and 'inner power expressed by physical means', ultimately settling with a Rho specialization fits in with his personality.

Negative effects of this power, of course, include the level of stress it causes him to extend his reach, typically caused by the relative mass of the object he is attempting to manipulate and the focus it requires him to have, in making his shadows solid enough to support such an item. Inanimate objects that don't move would be easier than lifting an animate person, as lifting silverware would be preferable to heavy armchairs. If he were to overtax his ability (through duration or because he attempted to do more than he was able to), he would be subject to migraine, exhaustion - to the point of unconsciousness, and potential hemorrhage, as the strain placed on his mind would be greater than he could handle.

( rank i. ) - he can only lift small, stationary objects with tiny, spindly-fingered shadows. objects such as toothbrushes plates and silverware, paperback books, alphabet blocks, small tools like swiss army knives... he has no fine motor skills, and can only shift things around via push or shove. he can only solidify them for second, before they must return to a two-dimensional status. he must also be within two feet of the object.

( rank ii. ) - larger objects, such as armchairs and bookshelves could be lifted, and his fine motor control has improved to the point where he could turn the pages of a book with ease, manipulate cutlery, fold clothes, etc. the shadows would now be able to solidify to the point where they could remain suspended from two-dimensional surfaces for upwards of a minute, but would still be returned to that state if a light source is brought close to them. he would have to be within four to five feet of whatever it is he wants to manipulate.

( rank iii. ) - inanimate objects of great size could be manipulated with ease, and possess the strength to rip items from fasteners (ie. a sink from the wall), and his fine motor skills would be nigh-impeccable. capable of penning an autobiography with pristine handwriting, or performing vital surgery. the shadows would act as additional limbs, would be resistant to light - but not immune, and would return to two-dimensional status if exposed for more than twenty seconds. he would have to be within six to eight feet of whatever it is he wants to manipulate.

Inventory:

✦ One (1) corecloth kefta & underclothes, in black.
✦ One (1) Grisha-steel dagger.
✦ One (1) walking cane, though he does not need it.
✦ One (1) dead body, to be collected from the freezer.

SAMPLES
Samples:

✦ S72 TDM ( TOPLEVEL )
- with Kylo Ren
- with Chloe Frazer

EXTRA THREADS THAT DO NOT MEET MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
✦ S72 TDM // with frakkincylon ( HERE )
✦ RUN TO THE HILLS BEFORE THEY BURN // with saints ( HERE )

Rescue Write-up:

Know that I loved you. Know that it was not enough.

( She steps into the sky, trailing dark clouds in her wake. She plummets, and his heart plummets with her. )

Baghra dashes her body across the mountainside, and Alina Starkov escapes his trap. There are people, soldiers and Grisha alike, screaming and dying within the mountain fortress far above him. Rifles discharge, flashes of fire and storm ripping through the skies as people fight and people die. Below, he sits besides the broken body of the woman called Baghra -- the woman he called 'mother', once. He holds her hand, while the nightmarish forms of his creatures wheel and spin around them, and he takes stock of what remains: her hands, gnarled with age and capable of grasping his ear or wrist with such strength, rest limp in his own; her face, beautiful and skeletal at once, is red with her blood. The ground is wet with her blood. The mountain is bleeding.

( Abomination, she called to him. And as he loved her, he hated her. Like as to like.

It was you, he thinks, who made me what I am. You taught me these lessons, you showed me this broken world. )

At his left, one of the nichevo'ya chews, insectoid-canind-monstrous jaws working in sideways circles on a walking cane. It had been left to the care of her aide, that small, quiet boy who was perpetually at her side. The way her own son had once been. He'd had it taken back, a token that was rightfully his - by no other virtue than he was her blood. He holds up his hand, in quiet command for the unnatural creature to stop, to give it to him. It does not deny him, dropping his mother's walking cane into the palm of his hand. He sets it down, and leans over his mother's corpse. His mouth tense with grief, his eyes hard with resentment.

The nichevo'ya reel and roil, snapping at the air, snapping at the ground. Something is coming. It frightens creatures made of fear, and so it frightens him. At his right, someone who shouldn't be there stands on the cliffside.

You cannot stay, dead-Ivan urges.

( The Darkling remembers. The ship lost, the Sun Summoner vanished into the horizon with her precious otkazat'sya. And he, who had nearly tripped over Ivan's corpse - his favored Heartrender, dead of a ruined heart. A Grisha and a man, that he had favored, and trusted. There was blood on his face then. )

As there is blood on his face now. It has dried, but it's there. It is coming, we must go, not-Ivan pleads.

"I can't leave her," and who could. His hand tightens around hers, but his words are reserved for the one opposite and equal to him in all things. "I'm so close, I'm almost there."

You will not survive this. Not-Ivan's tactics change, as fluidly as the Darkling could argue the importance of remaining. It will be your unmaking, and the unmaking of the world. As if to illustrate the peril, the mountain itself heaves and trembles, flexing and bucking. Baghra's corpse, untethered, slips further down the incline, and he is forced to grab her by the material of her old kefta and haul her back into his arms, her head cradled on his thigh. Not-Ivan watches, fearful and urgent, as the mountain shudders and the sounds -- the sounds! The call of a hunting animal, wild and relentless, howling down the mountainside, unstoppable as the passage of time and the vastness of space.

He fears it. Because it will kill him. Because it will kill the world.

"What is it," he asks, as not-Ivan draws near, dead hands wrapping around his forearm. As he was in life, so in death - faithful until the last. Not-Ivan holds fast, and rattles: Otrava. It is otrava. Otrava. Bane, poison.

"What about this world?" My world, he does not say. It cannot be safe, if you do not go. It hungers for you, and will consume all else once it has a taste of what you value. Please, moi soverenyi. No wonder his would-be savior took on Ivan's shape and spoke with Ivan's voice. It was the only voice he would listen to now, the only voice that would open his senses to the clear and present danger. Otrava. Enemy. He tightens his hold on Baghra's form, his lap wet with her blood, his hands slick with it. He thinks of his kind.

He thinks of Alina.

One hand reaches across his body, and seizes hold of the cold wrist of his dead loyalist for a brief moment. "Fine," he whispers, as resigned as he is fever-gripped by the knowledge of threat and with all the dignity of a regent: "Let them come for me alone." Not-Ivan, dead-Ivan rises. His hand cupping the Darkling's elbow, bidding him to rise. The Darkling thinks. He considers. His hands arrange Baghra's body; his arms hook under her knees, across the width of her shoulder. Aged as she is, she is still heavy. Still strong. She has always been strong. He lifts her into his arms, and feels the cut of his savior's displeasure.

Pursued by the enemy or not, she is his mother and no one has understood her more than he. He cannot leave her there, bloodied and broken on the mountain, and so he brings her with him -- through the spreading, dark portal that not-Ivan cuts through the sky. A spreading stain that sprawls as the enemy nears. Far too near, far too quickly. There is a rush of motion, the press of cold, dead hands against the small of his back -- around him, the nichevo'ya shriek as the unseen things in the darkness do, and the world closes tight around him. Until he cannot see. Until he cannot breathe. And then, nothing more.

[ NOTE: I was the one who asked about transporting corpses on the FAQ!! ]